“John, you might wanna come out here.” I called to him, still sitting under the lake filtering the water. I saw him stand up and walk up the small incline to the surface. He breached the water with a small puff and dripped dry on the edge of the lake.
“John?”
“Hello Elizabeth Suzu.” John stared his usual intense gaze at the small Asian reporter in front of him. She was even smaller in person, as the only memories I have of her are from when John was still relatively unchanged. Now he and I towered over the woman as she looked on in confusion at the barely recognizable kid.
“Hiiii, John. And you are?” She looked over to me, the same questioning look she gave John, although for another reason entirely. She knew that John was something and since I was with him in the woods, she guessed I was something as well.
“I am Nikhila Maninder. You can call me Niki, I am a friend of John’s. He has…told me of your situation and Tony’s.” She looked maybe not relieved, but at least less bothered that she didn’t have to worry about what she said in front of me.
“Hello Niki. Look John, I need your help.”
“Did something happen to Tony, did he do something to you?” John got serious, his stare was usually pretty intense but it was like a stoic gaze that stared through you. Now he was focused on Liz, she was the center of his attention, kind of made me jealous.
“No, well sort of.” She took a deep breath, psyching herself up as she took off her shirt. Unbuttoning her long sleeve dress shirt, she pulled it back to reveal her entire stomach was covered in a layer of rocky skin. Small patches of amber filled in some of the gaps, she turned and moved her hair out of the way to show that her entire back was covered in stone as well. It crawled all the way down just below her belly button, then around her back just before her shoulder blades.
“He infected you.” John’s stare turned into one of guilt and sorrow, he blamed himself for leaving Liz with Tony. From John’s memories I knew that Tony was struggling with this new form, losing memories and seemingly turning into a pile of sentient stone and amber. He feared that if Liz came to see him, Tony was worse than before and Liz feared that would soon be her. “Liz I am sorry, I should have told you more. I feared what would happen if I told you what we knew, who you might tell. And now this.”
“John, you can’t blame yourself, you had no idea then. Even now we still aren’t sure of our purpose let alone one of another species.”
“Another species?” Liz pulled the dress shirt back over herself, slowly buttoning up the black covering. “You mean you are not from another one of the capsules? What is going on?” The look on Liz’s face made me question what she was thinking, I hated not knowing how other people felt. She looked hurt and confused, or maybe betrayed, I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t be sure not unless she joined us.
“I am sorry Liz, Niki here is bonded with the same fungus as I am.”
“You mean you infected her.”
“I chose this life, do not get your facts mixed up. Myc is an intelligent being that could bring the human race to another level of evolution. I am sorry that this is happening to you and I am sorry that you are afraid of the possible changes. But John did nothing wrong to me, to any of us.”
“Any of us? Myc? How many people did you infect, John? Why are you spreading this?”
“I am sorry. I will tell you what little we know but I doubt that any answer you will be happy to hear.” So we sat there for a while, telling the story of how John and Myc met, and what happened to Nate and Cat. How me and Rein and Scarlette joined in, and why. Liz was confused, that much I was sure of. Compared to what we knew of Tony and his ‘curse’ it seemed like Myc had nearly no downsides.
“So this is it? I will turn into a lumbering rock monster like Tony? He doesn’t even talk anymore, John.” She started to tear up at the thought. The man that had helped raise her when she was still young and her parents had died. The man that was like a father to her, the man that she had lost once and stayed to make sure it didn’t happen again.
“I am sorry, Liz” It was hard to see John like this. So filled with remorse, the thoughts of what could have been done better, had he just gotten her number it may not have spread this far. She could have been infected by Myc so that this didn’t happen. If he had just figured out what the writing on the capsules meant. They all crossed his mind and yet he had done nothing, so worried about setting up a place here that the outside world had been tuned out.
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I am sorry John, I am at fault as much if not more so than you believe yourself to be. I knew I could infect others, and the thought that Tony could too cross my mind. However I didn’t say anything, I was scared that she may leave Tony alone and afraid if I did. I felt sorry for Tony, I had been through the same experience and I didn’t wish for him to continue alone.
“So what do we do now?” I asked Myc and John, they were feeling sorry for themselves, angry at the choices they made. But right now, Liz needs our help. We had to stay focused, we weren’t sure if this could be fixed. But if there was a way to fix it, then it was a time sensitive problem that had to be dealt with.
“I do not know. We barely know how Myc’s abilities work or how far they go, Tony’s species as a whole is a complete mystery to us.”
“I don’t even think I can help you with that.” Liz looked guilty, she looked down clutching her stomach made of stone. “It was only a month after you left that Tony stopped talking. All he does now is dig tunnels all day, I’m not even sure how his house is still standing. There must be miles of tunnels down there, he goes in one sometimes and I don’t see him for days.”
“I am sorry to tell you this but I don’t think it can be reversed. Whatever was in those capsules are not all the same, they were created for the express purpose of infecting a species. Knowing that Tony can do so, possibly unintentionally, may mean that every species can do the same.”
“Myc could infect her.” I looked at John’s face of concern, and Liz’s face of caution.
That may work, I don’t know how far it has spread. However, if her human parts are still functioning it may work from the outside in. If that is true I could take off the sections of flesh that are infected, stitch over the amputated sections. She will be bonded to me, and I do not know what will happen if I try to break that connection though.
“You want me to get infected with another alien disease? Oh yeah, like that is going to fix everything.”
“I know it is scary Liz, trust me. However, this may be the only way to stop the rock from spreading. If it spreads too far or too deep it may try to fight Myc for control and spread to vital organs. If that happens then Myc won’t have enough mass to fight off the infection and save you at the same time.”
“You may very well be stuck with Myc, although you may also enjoy the experience. I know I have, wink, wink, no more cramps.” I tried to play off the whole being added to a collective of fungus infected hybrid people as not that big of a deal. It was though, she may be targeted in the future. She will have to deal with all of our thoughts in her head and all of her memories in ours.
“Ha, I don’t know. It seems like I am trading one curse for another. I want to help Tony but I don’t know if anyone can anymore. Hell, I know I am not qualified.” She sat down curling her knees to her chest and putting her head down. Soft sobs emanated from the small mass of human and stone, she was scared. She had no one left that she could call family, and she had let Tony down again.
“I know you feel alone right now. You have lost what little family you had left, but joining this, joining us. It may not seem like it, but we won’t leave you. We can be the someone that you have been searching for. I don’t know if we can help Tony, I won’t make any promises, but I do know that if you are willing to trust us. You will not regret it.” I was determined to help her, she felt alone in the world like so many humans did. There were so many problems that just seemed to pile up and no one was there to lighten her burden.
She looked at me with small tear filled eyes. She seemed like she wanted to hope for one more miracle, but she was scared to trust those hopes again. Then it faded, the little light that held the promise of a brighter future. She stopped raising her hand to me and flopped back down her head resting on her knees.
“Liz, please do not give up. Not again.” She looked hurt at the words, but honesty usually did rack you with pain. She looked up to John, she was reluctant but she took a deep breath and grabbed my hand.
“Alright let's do this.” John led her to the camp, stowing her inside the one extra cabin that was finished. It was covered in simple rugs and a small pile of sheets for a bed. John closed sheets for the door behind him, whatever Myc was going to do he didn’t think Liz would want anyone more than necessary in there. Although I was worried, what would happen, is Myc going to even be able to help. Is the rock portion going to fight off the moss in her system?
I sat down in a small stool in the middle shack, it had been turned into the planning stage and main gathering area for us. I sat there and I waited, I tried to peer into John’s thoughts but his mind hazed over again. It was hard to tell what was even going one, at least until the screaming started.
It drew everyone’s attention, Cat came out of her cabin in a new dress. Nate and Scarlette were walking in from the woods. Scarlette had been hanging out with Nate lately based on Myc’s little speech. She was starting to get more comfortable with the body augmentations, even sporting a forked tongue and pointy ears.
They all came to sit around the tent and wait with me, the screaming didn’t stop until well into the night. Nate made a joke about her trying to give birth in there that was made with sneers from the rest of us. Whatever was happening, Myc was being quiet about it and John’s hand felt like it was being crushed.
It wasn’t until well into the night that the screaming stopped, we were all sitting around the big pit in the center of the camp. Watching the flames flicker and dance in the moonlight, we wouldn’t have been able to sleep even if we wanted to. John walked out of the extra cabin that was apparently going to be Liz’s from now on. He was covered in blood and viscera that slowly dissolved away thanks to Myc.
“It is done and she is recovering, although I don’t think she will be awake for a while.” John recounted what had happened in less gruesome detail than what actually occurred. Myc wasn’t able to truly pick off the sections of skin that had attached to Liz, they went deep into her flesh. That would have been bad but apparently the worst part was that her legs were nearly entirely stone, except for the few outer layers of skin. Myc was forced to amputate most of the lower half, Myc could regrow limbs with relative ease. However, the rocks in her system did try to fight the moss infecting her. So Myc had to quickly amputate her lower half, stop the bleeding, and fight off the leftover pieces of stone slowly expanding and crystallizing her flesh.
John had to be Myc’s extra supply, it was using so much of the moss to fight off that there was never really enough to make a full bond with Liz. Which had its ups and downs, fortunately that meant we didn’t have to feel like we were getting out lower halves amputates as well. The downside being that John was essentially a battery constantly charging Myc over the last few hours, they were both drained.
Myc was limiting the growth of new moss cells in her body, forcing them into hibernation. With so few circulating through her already weak system they should survive. They couldn’t help her recover any faster, but Myc was reluctant to truly bond with her if she didn’t want to. So waiting until she awoke to pop the question we all sat around the fire, thankful that Liz was alright and the quiet forest returned.