“So what else can you do?” I talked to the empty air in my little cabin. It was dark out and I couldn’t even see my hand in front of my face. Nate snored in the next cabin over and John was somewhere by the pond still.
I can do many things. Altering DNA, restructuring organs, developing muscles, and more. Although I have limits as well, I can not make materials that are artificial, or man-made.
“So all the tools that we have been using?” Remembering the white tools that we used to mix the mulch into the field and shovel the pathways. The saws to cut logs for the cabins and the axes to cut down trees. They were all an off white color that were clearly made from a single piece of material.
All of them are made from cellulose, the structure that makes up the bark of trees, the cotton in most of your clothes. Absorbing the natural material from the woods, I can burn energy to restructure it in cellulose to make the tools.
“Oh, truthfully I kinda thought that they were made of bones.” It was strange talking to the voice in my head, or I guess Myc. I thought I was crazy or dying, but I continued to live each day, and the voice never left.
Well the ax that John carries is. It was our first experiment to create large tools, using an old deer carcass. The excess material was shaved off and reused to make the blade. Unfortunately we believe the DNA in the bone structures combined with my genetic makeup causes problems. The cellulose was our way of working around the issue, it is not as easy to make but it is permanent.
“Okay, so Myc?” I wasn’t really sure about this whole thing. It had been a week since the accident with Matthew’s buddies. I still shied away from thinking about the fact that me and John were now mentally connected. Occasionally the memories came without warning, popping into my head like a song that you couldn’t seem to ever forget. They came and went, I didn’t want to see any of them.
Most of them were strangely simple, moments of John walking through the woods or cutting down a tree. Times when he and Myc just talked about new things to try or plans for the future. Things that could have easily been me doing them, and sometimes I wasn’t even sure if they were his memories or mine.
Yes?
“Does it ever get any easier? Do the memories ever stop feeling like they are stolen?” It was hard to have all these memories. It felt like I was listening to a private conversation, eavesdropping on someone, even though they knew I was there. Except it wasn’t just listening to a conversation, or seeing something you shouldn’t have. It was feeling what they felt, knowing exactly what they were thinking, it was like reliving the memories except I was the one living it.
Hopefully. You are only the second human to have joined our little group. It was hard for John when we first bonded, it wasn’t a choice for him either, nor for me.
“Yeah I know.” I had already remembered some of the things that happened between John and Myc. How they found each other in the woods, how they both nearly died. It was horrifying, being so alone and no idea where you are, or what is happening to you.
I remembered their journey here, meeting Tony the rock creature, the long drives with just the two of them, even saving Nate when he was being chased through the woods. I also remembered what happened near the lake. It was so vivid and clear, it was like I was holding the ax.
______________________________________________________________________
You will need to do something now.
“Fine, although I don’t think she is going to like what I do to these guys.” I grabbed the ax with my hand, unhooking it from the loop on my belt. I took a deep breath in, exhaled, then got up and walked over to the man brandishing a knife against Cat’s throat.
With a few purposeful steps I was standing next to him, the others were pointing their guns and yelling obscenities at me. I couldn’t care to listen, I doubted they were stupid enough to try to shoot me with their de facto boss a couple feet away.
We may have to kill them, if we don’t do it now they will come back. They may bring more humans and they will find our spot, if they haven’t already. If they do that, starting our little society will be nearly impossible.
“I know that, it doesn’t mean that I have to like it.” I brought the ax around in a long arced swing, and before they could throw another slur my way. I had my ax buried deep into the boss's spine, cleaving the connection between his body and brain right below the neck.
“Holy shit.” Cat was sprayed with blood, I tried not to look. I knew she thought I was some psycho, and maybe I was turning into one. I also knew that after this she would leave, even if she had to drag Nate back by his collar. I knew it, but I didn’t want to think about it now. Her hating me was better than death, no matter how much it hurt.
“You fucking asshole, kill him.” The biggest of the remaining five decided to take charge of the situation for now. Brandishing the shotgun and firing off a single shot, a small buck shot round that nailed the dead boss in the back.
I pushed forward using the body as a human meat shield, a few shots peppered it, but most of them were still in a daze. Watching a guy’s spine be severed with an ax was probably even more traumatizing than it sounded.
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When I got close enough I threw the lead filled corpse into the biggest one, knocking him over and buying myself a few seconds. With that break, I brandished my bone ax, in a wide swing I buried it deep into the stomach of the only other one shooting. This got the other three guys attention and they fumbled for their guns. One pulled out his pistol, the other one dry fired his shotgun a couple of times, and the last one held his knife.
I took a swing at the only one actually holding a dangerous weapon and caught him in the chest. He fired off a shot during the swing and a few after it entered his chest, before he died. I was too close for him to miss, so he got two in my stomach and one in my chest.
The pain and force of the shots made me lose my grip on the ax, it immediately started to disintegrate as our connection to it was cut. Losing your only weapon in the middle of combat was bad, I would have to remember that if these guys didn’t blow my brains out.
That is unfortunate, use this.
My right hand melded together into a simple blade. The skin extended over my fingers fusing them into a single appendage. While a small blade of thin bone extended down the right side, forming a curved blade with a dagger tip.
Using the new weapon I approached the one fumbling with the shotgun, attempting to load a shell in the chamber with shaking hands. I sliced his carotid artery with the precision of a trained surgeon, Myc knew all the vulnerable parts of the body.
The last one with the knife held it in a steady grip, and narrowed his eyes to look at me. He approached slowly, moving forward and getting a quick couple of stabs into my sides. Before I realized this wasn’t going to be as easy as the others. I tried parrying his strikes but all it did was leave large gashes on my strange new hand. He was fast and his blade was sharp, while mine was made from simple bone and flesh.
Wait till he goes for it again, we will move into the strike.
Without needing to confirm, the man cut forward with the blade to nick my side again. I moved quickly and the blade bit deep into my side. When he tried to pull it out the flesh around the dagger held tight, his grip slipped. Using the opportunity, my new blade stabbed forward quickly, slicing in between his second and third ribs. Piercing deep into his heart, and quickly ceasing all necessary bodily functions.
The biggest of the group finally got the dead body off himself and had just enough time to get a few shells loaded. He was nervous before, but now he was sure of himself. He pointed the shotgun at my head and gave me a small smirk as he envisioned my death. Putting his finger on the trigger, he squeezed it with the slightest of gestures.
This will hurt.
The bullets fired from the gun and towards my head, Myc may have been a fungus monster from another world. But even he had his limits, the best he could do was limit the damage. Moving my brain towards the back of my skull and building a small layer of dense moss towards the front. It cushioned the impact, but modern firearms were made to kill.
I was thrown back, my brain was rocking around in my head. My skull fractured in several places, a portion of my right eye was severed, and holes filled most of my face. Bits of lead and crushed gray matter sloshed in my skull. Myc did help but once the damage was done, all it could do was attempt to fix it as fast as possible. Fortunately he could control my body, unfortunately he needed my brain to do so. He could think and move himself even keeping me alive by forcing my body to continue its necessary functions. However, without a frontal lobe it was difficult to use finer motor control. So instead of getting back up to end it, Myc and I sat there dazed and barely alive.
The goon with the shotgun took a few confident steps to finish me off once and for all. He pushed the barrel against my temple and gave me another quick smirk, the gun went off.
But it missed me entirely, firing into the grass above my unconscious head. Cat had moved in behind the man and brandished the knife from the old dead boss that had dropped at her feet.
She snuck up behind the man ready to finish me off once and for all and stabbed him right in the back. Digging the knife deep, but missing anything immediately vital he turned to face her.
He was pissed, but she was determined, before he could fully bring the gun up to threaten her. She leapt forward in an attempt to strangle the guy. But before she was able to get her hands around his fat neck, he fired the last shell he had time to load.
She was blown off her feet and slid along the grass before stopping, clutching at her stomach in agony. She turned to look at the man that was now walking over to her, gun in one hand and shells in the other.
Before he could even get a single casing into the gun, Myc jumped up using the still knife shaped hand to slice his throat. The cut was much deeper than necessary, nearly cutting into his spine.
My body flopped back onto the ground, my frontal lobe was healing but still not 100%. Luckily Myc knew the body enough to move the muscles directly, flexing my legs to allow me to get up. Contracting my biceps and bending my elbow to slice his throat before he attempted any more harm.
My eyes closed and some time later, I opened my eyes to see the still bleeding Cat lying barely a foot away. Myc had healed enough of my brain to get me awake at least.
Hurry, we need to bring her back to the camp.
Quickly getting up I grabbed Cat, threw her around my shoulders and ran due South. Scraping my face against every branch and twig hanging low enough, kicking through leaves and water. Finally seeing the cleared area in the distance. Watching as Nate noticed us shouting something before getting in the way.
“Move.” I rushed into Cat’s cabin and laid her down on the small sheet she was using as a bed. Nate barged into the little cabin, screaming and freaking out. But I could barely hear his words, my ears were ringing and my head was foggy. It was like every thought was a garbled sentence trying to push its way from the back of my head out my ears.
We need to infect her. We don’t have the supplies to fix this and she will die from blood loss. Even if we are able to stop the bleeding, she probably already has an infection.
“Shit, Shit, Shit.”
We need to infect her, it is soon I know but we don’t have another choice.
“Damn it shut up! We can’t do that.”
We have too. You would let her die out of principle, even though we can save her life.
“Shut up.” I couldn’t get a single thought through my head. The only thing that came with any clarity was sitting in the sinkhole, blood soaking my back. “We can’t do that to her.”
Why won’t you let us help her?
“Because we can’t force it on her.”
Why not, why would you let her die rather than be infected?
“Because I’ve been through it and I won’t put her through that without giving her a choice.”
She won’t get a choice because she will be dead.
“I don’t care.” Nothing came to my mind, it was like I was having a panic attack in the middle of the ocean. I didn’t know which way to swim and every time I chose a direction I ended up swimming the wrong way. I was just going in circles, I wasn’t getting anywhere.
Do you even know what is going on? This boy is going to lose his sister because you can’t decide.
“I know what is going on.” No I didn’t, where were we? What am I doing here?
It is his sister, would you want to watch your sister die in front of you.
“I know it is his sister that doesn’t mean we can just force this on her.” Why can’t I just do something, why can’t I just make a decision, just do something.
What do you want to do then, we can’t just stand here.
“I don’t know.” My head was pounding and my ears hadn't stopped ringing. The fog in my head just grew denser and I could barely see in front of me.
If you can’t decide then I am taking over, we have to do something!
“THEN JUST DO IT!”