Colonel Arthur Wright was having a bad day, to put it mildly. He wished he could take a drink from the cabinet sitting to the side of his desk, but this room wasn’t his, and he was on the job.

His country needed him at his best.

The thought unfortunately led him to think about recent events. He had lost over twenty men to the green monsters- both the goblins and the terrifying mold zombies. Arthur shifted uncomfortably in his seat at the memory of having to personally put down a new recruit with the mold pouring out of all of his orifices.

*Knock knock*

Arthur put down his pen and called out, “Come in.”

David, his second-in-command, walked into the office and saluted. “Ready to report, sir.” Arthur waved him on, and he continued.

“With authority granted to us by Martial Law, we’ve forcefully evacuated the remaining stubborn citizens in the South-Eastern regions of greater Houston. We’ve requisitioned local inns, houses, and government buildings for military use, though we also have control over the military outpost further north.”

Arthur sighed. The current appropriation of civilian buildings was necessary- they didn’t have a good enough understanding of the alien threat that had invaded Earth a week ago, and staying in the aforementioned outpost would delay response times.

“Have our biologists learned anything from our soldiers’ sacrifices?” he asked. David replied, still holding a proper salute.

“The mold grows weaker when separated from the rest. The scientists believe the mold grows exponentially stronger the more of it is built up. Fire turns the mold to ash, but the substance doesn’t seem flammable.”

“Is it too much to hope that we could kill everything with just a forest fire?” Arthur asked, but inwardly he knew the answer. Like he suspected, David slumped ever so slightly. The Hispanic man was a stickler to proper form and etiquette, and so even a small sign said a lot about his feelings.

“Since it’s not flammable, we can’t just light a portion on fire and have the fire spread. Worse, the scientists believe the mold will grow in resistance to fire as more of it groups together. They advise us to act now to prevent a colony from growing too large.”

“And the goblins?”

“Their biology seems remarkably similar to ours. The scientists said that their only strength is a rapid ability to reproduce, but they should be easy to mow down with our weaponry.”

It was a relief to Arthur, but a nagging feeling in the back of his head told him to not underestimate them. The mold and the ghosts to the west were horrifying in their own ways, and it seemed foolish to believe that the third species would be normal.

Still, he wasn’t the scientist, and military commanders couldn’t act on a mere feeling. Lives were depending on the choices he made. With a sigh, Arthur stood up.

“Gather a one-hundred-man strike squad, and the CDC poison professionals. Also, see if you can acquire any flamethrowers. We’ll see if we can take down this mold colony.”

The Colonel hated sending so little men, but protecting civilians was his priority. He couldn’t afford to over-commit. He had to be prepared in case the alien life forms were stronger than he imagined.

***

*TATAT-TATAT*

The last goblin went down in a fountain of blood. Arthur followed his strike squad into the clearing, with workers covered in hazmat suits following from behind.

His boots squelched against the bloody earth, and he had to kick aside corpses to make his way to the center. There was a misshapen, grotesque protrusion of green mold coming out of the ground. It was two meters wide around the base, and gradually tapered to a point a decent length above Arthur’s head.

“David. Take half the men and go secure the perimeter,” he ordered.

“Roger that,” his second-in-command saluted, and within ten seconds he was gone to carry out his task. The remaining soldiers surrounded the Colonel and the hazmat workers.

“What do you think, Erica?” Arthur asked the worker next to him.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, sir. Mold, fungus, and bacteria never make growths this large. It just wouldn’t be effective as a reproductive structure.” The woman shuddered as she looked at the structure, glad she was wearing protection. She pitied the soldiers who were only equipped with standard military gear.

“Stephen, Adam, Randy, scrape away some samples.” As her subordinates went to work, Erica kept scanning the clearing. Despite knowing that none of the goblin zombies would stand a chance against the soldiers surrounding her, she couldn’t shake off the eerie feeling that she was in danger.

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“Ma’am! You might want to take a look at this!” one of the workers shouted. Erica and Arthur shared a glance before moving closer to the mold pillar.

There was a patch where the worker had scraped off the outer edge of mold. Beneath was a translucent green substance that wiggled like a gel. Deep, in the center of the pillar, a humanoid figure could barely be seen.

*SQUELCH*

Arthur and Erica came to the same conclusion at the same time. Erica reacted by backpedaling until she knocked into one of the soldiers on guard. Arthur reacted by drawing his pistol and yelling.

“SOLDIERS! ON ME!”

Weird noises started to emanate out of the mold pillar. Liquid-like sounds accompanied a massive rip. Most of the hazmat workers froze in confusion. They were the first to die.

One moment, they were still trying to understand what was going on. The next moment, their heads were sliced off.

Arthur shouted orders before he could even comprehend what he was up against.

“Drop to the ground! Angle shots upwards! Avoid friendly fire!”

Immediately, soldiers started taking shots at the creature in the middle. It might’ve used to be human, but now it was a pure monster. Green mold covered every inch of exposed skin like the fur of an animal. It wore fingerless gloves, boots, and clothes matching Arthur’s own soldiers. Its head had no hair, and was similarly covered in the mold. Only its two eyes shown through.

Bullets impacted the creature, but the metal slugs simply disappeared into the green with no apparent impact. It snarled, and flicked its fingers. Instantly, the soldiers who had taken shots were split apart.

“Flamethrower!” Arthur yelled. The Colonel immediately pushed off the ground and rolled to the side, feeling a burst of air pressure scrape against his side, impacting where he was just kneeling.

Erica scanned the clearing and saw the flamethrower on the ground next to one of the workers that were the first to die. Logically, she knew it was up to her to go for it. Inside, however, she was gripped by a paralyzing fear that screamed for her to stay still.

The monster turned to face her. Erica dived for the flamethrower.

*Bang Bang* “Over here, monster!” She heard Arthur yell, but her mind was only focused on the prize. She ignored the tank and straps, wrapping her hands around the nozzle. She twisted to point it at the creature, and pulled.

*Fwoom*

The green fuzz growing on the creature immediately caught on fire, and for the first time it cried out in pain. It was an eldritch scream, reverberating in Arthur’s bones. The monster dropped to its knees and tried to pat itself down with its hands.

Without hesitation, Arthur lunged toward it. He placed his pistol right on its skull and emptied its clip. On the fifth bullet, he heard a crack, and the sixth bullet lodged into its brain.

Erica kept spraying the thing with fire for a good minute after it died, and had to be restrained by the remaining soldiers.

Arthur Wright clenched his fists as he counted the casualties. Ten soldiers and five skilled workers were dead. It was clear that he had underestimated the green mold.

Even worse, after this event, Arthur had no choice but to accept that the old world wasn’t coming back.

***

Sarah eyed the moldy stalagmite in front of her suspiciously. It had started as a patch of mold on the floor, and gradually grew in size until it reached the height of her shoulders. She could see that it was still growing, as it was constantly stretching and expanding, though for the life of her she couldn’t understand how it was growing so rapidly.

Perhaps it’s gathering nutrients through the earth, like a tree? But that doesn’t explain how it’s growing so fast…

Sarah pushed the thought to the back of her mind and went back to circulating her ki. A month had passed since she had woken up, and she was pretty proud of how quickly she was getting the hang of manipulating the energy. Currently, she was focusing on a scrape that had suddenly appeared on her shoulder one day, presumably from one of not-Sarah’s escapades.

The Colony was nice enough to heal major injuries, but wouldn’t heal scratches. Sarah took it as an opportunity to try and mimic The Colony’s healing technique.

She had been having trouble for the past few hours. Sarah didn’t know what she was doing wrong- she had been cycling massive amounts of ki through the skin around the cut, but all that happened was that a scab formed a little quicker. It was better than nothing, but nowhere on the level of healing a torn-off ear.

Up until now, Sarah thought that she was moving her ki the wrong way. She had heard of ki pathways throughout the body from Asian culture, so she tried her hardest to sense for them. When Sarah couldn’t sense anything, she tried moving her ki in different directions and patterns. Nothing changed.

Sarah screamed.

“Sarah? Is something wrong?” Emma asked, stepping into the cave. Immediately, Sarah blushed.

“No, I’m fine. I’m just getting frustrated trying to learn how to heal.”

Emma smiled. “Don’t worry. If you get seriously injured, The Colony will heal you. We’re so lucky to have The Colony.”

Sarah was taken aback by Emma’s language. “Sure, I’m grateful that The Colony is willing to heal us, but aren’t you being a bit extreme?” Emma simply shrugged.

“Perhaps. Everything’s about perspective. Maybe you can solve your troubles with regeneration ki with a different perspective as well.”

Once again, Sarah found Emma’s word choice to be interesting. She called it regeneration ki? Does The Colony use a specific type of ki to heal?

She put away that idea for later. “How about you? How’re you holding up?” she asked out of politeness.

Emma closed her eyes, took a deep breath in, and exhaled. “I’m feeling wonderful. Ever since you taught me how to feel the ki running through my body, I’ve been feeling truly alive.” She opened her eyes again and sat down on the floor.

“I was awake during my first goblin raid today,” Emma said suddenly. Sarah felt a spike of concern. She thought back to the crying, traumatized girl Emma first was- if she felt her body being controlled to kill, it wouldn’t be good for her mental state.

To Sarah’s surprise, Emma grinned. “It felt amazing. The rush of ki into my legs, super speed, and raw power was such a thrill. You should’ve told me killing goblins was so much fun.”

Sarah was feeling even more concerned for Emma’s well-being. Being optimistic rather than depressed is a good trend in general, but Sarah felt like Emma was changing unnaturally quickly.

“Welp. I’m heading out to do some ki-kicks.” Emma got up, dusted herself off, and headed out of the cave. Sarah tried to follow her but all she did was fall onto the floor.

Since when could she control her legs…?