Traveling has lost its enjoyment over the last few weeks. It was getting tedious, I read, slept, and ate nearly every meal in my car since leaving my hometown. Even with Myc occasionally letting me know what new things it discovered or read while I slept was a nice break. Usually Myc was resting while I drove, it limited the amount of nutrients we needed and Myc couldn’t read while I drove anyway. “Huh, man this sucks.”
My vision flashed for a split second, gripping the wheel to not swerve into the trucks on the five lane freeway. “What the hell was that? Did I just have a stroke?”
I apologize I forgot to mention my experiments. I have been testing my ability to improve your senses, your vision, hearing, and smell are extremely limited compared to other species.
“You are fucking with my eyes while I AM DRIVING. Stop.”
I already apologized, I was focused on the task at hand. I have improved your vision in several different aspects. Increasing the density of nerves in your eye has allowed me to increase the detail your brain is capable of processing. I have limited the amount of info your brain processes, I will slowly transition to your eyes full capability over the course of the week.
You were right about researching animals as well, apparently your evolution has limited several aspects of your body. The photoreceptors in your eyes are facing backwards, your study of cephalopods showed they can function perfectly fine facing forward. This gets rid of the blind spot that your species has.
Finally, creating the new photoreceptors made me think of your visual limits. Expanding the photoreceptors ability to process visual lightwaves, your eyes can now process infrared waves as well. Meaning that you are now capable of having thermal vision, allowing you to see heat.
“I suppose that could be useful, in the right situation. Is my brain going to be able to process that much information at one time?” Just thinking of having to look at a whole new light spectrum gave me a headache.
Well we will use it sparingly for now, until I am capable of safely increasing your neuron density. I will block any signals at a lower frequency than visible light before they reach your brain. As this trip will take a few days I will continue to use the time to increase your other senses.
Your hearing could use improvement in general, while increasing its sensitivity and frequency range should hopefully allow you to use echolocation. Although it will take time and experiments to make any more necessary changes to properly use. While your sense of smell could also use a general increase in quality.
“Whelp have fun, I will just be sitting here, driving.” It sucks that I couldn’t be examining the human body and augmenting myself into a more evolved species.
***
We arrived at a little real estate place, it was mainly to sell small plots of land to hunters. We however wanted to buy as much secluded land for nearly 30 grand, I had to save a little for equipment and food. The plan was to focus on self sufficiency, as off the grid as we could get. Myc was pretty set on creating our own little society, we didn’t want too much outside intervention.
The plan was to test out our own society on a much smaller scale for future reference. It was easy to tell that Myc had big aspirations, the idea of world domination was just the first step.
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Let’s get the larger section, it has better irrigation potential and is located next to several other pieces that we can purchase at a later date.
“Yes but that one also needs seemingly the most work done, trees need to be cut, land cleared, and the ground needs leveling. The smaller one we can dig wells for irrigation and I’m sure once we have the money we can buy the surrounding lands from the owners.” Looking at the general layout of several of the properties was difficult to get an exact picture. However, we knew more than a little work was going to be needed to get any property into a livable plot of land.
“I’m sorry, have you decided on which property you want?” The younger women looked at us in confusion. To be fair I was seemingly talking to myself, trying to decide on which secluded spot of wooded land I wanted to buy.
Buy the bigger one.
“Fine. Yeah we are going to take the bigger of the two. The one out by ‘Bear Creek’ is 10 acres right?” It was still a lot of land, we would need maybe one for the main center. Another couple for farming, and depending on how fast our little group grew, more for houses and food.
“Yes, it is 10.2 acres. You are going to love it, it is secluded on all sides. The river ends in a nice little lake, perfect spot for you and your wife to sit and relax.” She stared at me with that fake smile of having to deal with crazy customers.
It was fair, I still wasn’t sure that Myc was real. If I was schizophrenic it wouldn’t be that far fetched that this whole journey wasn’t just some long drawn out delusion. Myc was just a voice in my head, and Tony Woodrow the rock monster was just some old man that I met at his old farmhouse.
“Yes, my wife. Anyway we’ll take it.”
“Alright that will be $27,000 plus taxes and fees will end up being $31,245. How would you like to pay?” The strange offer to pay over 30 grand in some other way than a bank loan made me think that maybe other things were going on in those woods.
“Cash.” Taking out a full envelope, it contained a solid 32 thousand, most of the money from Martin. She took it to the back and we proceeded to do the necessary paperwork so I could be the legal owner of the land. Myc and I still weren’t sure how we would make the money needed for all the costs. Although selling an organ was starting to sound like the easiest choice, we would need several hundred thousand dollars to build anything more than a few log cabins in the woods.
What about infecting a local person, someone who is independently wealthy. We could then use their money to build our little society, no need to engage in illegal activities.
“That could work. Although I am still a little worried about this whole adding another member to our clique. You know what they say, three is a crowd and all that.”
That is just your social anxiety talked, it will be fine. We won’t just choose anyone, it has to be someone that we trust and understands our goals.
“How we are going to find them is still a problem, until the cult is up and running it is not likely we can put out an ad on craigslist.” I turned on the car and headed to the nearest local used car salesman. We needed the money more than transportation, as this was going to be our new home for a while. Another 3 grand in our pocket, a backpack with the remainder of our supplies, and a little cooler holding the two freezing capsules we headed out.
Walking the trails till we couldn’t go any further, we trekked through the woods. It was a good five or six hour walk by the time we got to the little pond that marked the center of our new land. “Wow. This looks like shit.”
It needs love and care, the forests could be a place of natural wonders. However, without Gardeners to take care of them, they fall into simple competition.
“I guess.” The pond that was the end of the small ‘Bear Creek’ that started elsewhere, while the water was muddy and filled with algae. The trees were tall but thin, lots of overturned logs and branches littered the leaf covered forest floor. It was your typical woodland area, the one that you walked into as a shortcut from the main road. Not the one that you imagine when looking at a picture of a beautiful scenic resort.
Your expectations are based on false advertising of the location. It will look like that one day, once we have allowed this place to truly thrive. First we need to find a spot to make camp, and I wish to see if I am able to bond to a tree.
“Alright, let's get a better vantage point.” Myc believed that like the ash tree that it originally bonded to, Myc may be able to truly bond to a tree here in the forest. It would take time and a lot of energy but sacrificing a large chunk of mass. It may be possible to dig in enough and bond with the tree, extending into its roots and slowly expanding through the forest like mycelium. Connecting the forest into a single living entity, moving nutrients and water, while being on the lookout for pests and parasites.
That tree looks comfortable.
Myc used my hand to point to a sapling in the center of a small clearing, the land was flat and the only other trees in the area had already fallen. It would have space to expand and through Myc’s help grow to a considerable size. It was also close enough to the little pond that Myc could spread in all directions to expand through our land.
“Alright, let's get started.” I looked over the small hill we sat on top of, looking at the little pond resting in the distance. The trees that blew in the soon-to-be Autumn breeze, imagining what would become of this place once Myc and I were done with it.