“I am fucking sick of them already.”
“I am sorry but there will be a lot of new recruits from now on, our expansion can not be limited just because you don’t feel like answering questions all day. Or because some of the girls are hitting on Rein.”
“Whatever. I am just so tired of all the whining and the complaining and the questions. Uhh, so many questions.”
“They are getting annoying, you guys were nowhere near as bad as them.” Niki turned to talk to Malina, Chas, and Destiny. We all sat around a little table, it was after dark when the new recruits just headed off to bed. John pushed the curtains of Oliver’s new cabin out of the way and stepped out, as he got used to the bond. He came over and sat down next to Niki, joining in on our conversation.
“It will be tough for a while, but as more recruits become full members it will spread the burden out. Allowing all of us more time, eventually we will have enough members and a working guide that many of us won’t need to watch any new recruits.”
“Can’t wait for that, they haven’t even been here for a full day and every other sentence out of their mouths is a question.”
The new recruits had formed their own little cliques, so they all stuck together. Fortunately it was easy to find out where everyone was, unfortunately it also meant there were enough around that someone always had a question. What are you doing, are you single, is Rein single, why are the cabins so weird looking, how did that tree get so big. There was even one that seemed to be watching us like animals, I don’t know what her problem was but it was getting freaky. I suppose after months of never having to really ask or get asked a question it was becoming tedious. Plus most of them seemed like assholes.
There were two couples that were married, fairly older and seemed to just want to travel and explore in their golden years. Funny because if they decided to join then they would have a lot longer lives, but who knew. There was a small group of environmentalists that wanted to know if we were actually protecting the environment. Apparently our occupation of this area was throwing woodland creatures out of whack a little.
The last main group was the group of assholes, a bunch of guys and a couple girls who seemed to be using the camp as a vacation. Which wouldn’t normally be an issue if they planned on staying the week to relax. But no, they came to be a bunch of pricks. Trampling flowers and making noise, acting like they owned the place. Unfortunately John said I wasn’t allowed to kill them and use their bodies as fertilizer.
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“No, you cannot. It will only draw attention to us, the last thing we need while the XT-489’s still have their sights on us. We do not need military attention from humans.”
“Fine. But what if they do something bad. Then I can bury them six feet under?”
“They are being cruel and annoying, but they have not done anything truly wrong. This place was only ever meant to stay off the grid for us to grow enough. Once the world finds out about the capsules, we will expand at a pace far faster than this. You will just have to get used to being around people again, fortunately they will all be connected to Myc.”
“Fine, but I am not gonna be happy about it.”
We sat around for a while longer, eventually Oliver came out of his cabin and joined us. We sat and talked trash about some of the new guys, betting on who would leave and who would stay. It was a relaxing end to a stressful day, although like always humans had to come and ruin it.
John turned with a quick movement and left, the rest of our brains couldn’t process the high level of information so our senses were dulled compared to his. But we did have access to his thoughts and they were that of a massive beast protecting its home. We didn’t need to follow John to know what happened, he didn’t like it when we saw him getting mad.
Sometimes it was a necessity though and we let him deal with it in peace, although the time would come when the rest of us may need to take up arms as well. It was why we were having the practice bouts, it was possible that we would never need to fight. But we all knew that for our pacifist society to form, it could take a lot of bloodshed.
The idea made Myc angry, the fact that it could have been so easy for him to spread if the humans accepted the bond. I mean what is the real downside, diseases are essentially wiped out, aging is essentially stopped, you are more connected to each other than ever. The fact was that if people were willing to let Myc create a perfect utopia without any violence then the humans probably wouldn’t really need Myc in the first place.
“AAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”
“If I ever see you back here again, I won’t stop with just your arm!” The guy that John spoke to back on the trail ran off clutching his arm, he cursed and grabbed the bag John had tossed at him.
“What was that about?” Oliver was looking at John, his connection was new and John’s mind took some getting used too. So it was obvious why he didn’t know what was going on, but it was hard for us to say it. John was a big guy, even if he wasn’t always one, but he did it for a reason. More mass means more nutrients means being able to fighter harder for longer, it was like always carrying a gun on you. Granted while most people who carried a gun were stupid, John was metaphorically carrying one because last time he wasn’t he got shot in the face.
“It was just a cruel member being booted from the camp. No need to go into more detail.”
“Right, sorry.” Oliver’s face showed regret, our minds were a little easier to read. It would take some time to get used to, but we all did eventually.
John came back to sit down, a pained expression on his face. He was the most connected to Myc so when Myc was angry about human stupidity, John felt it the most. I suppose that was a downside of being bonded to Myc, when someone felt bad everyone did. Granted that connection is what makes us strive for a society where everyone is happy, healthy, and prosperous. We continued our conversation, deliberately avoiding the elephant in the room. The peace settled back into our conversation, we talked and joked while watching the fire flicker in and out.