Is This My Body?!
“Prepared to go out again?” Sofia stood up from her chair and brought Phesx Caolia an image with documents. Phesx Caolia grabbed it and looked at it before Sofia voiced, “It's all there. It is strange that you seem interested in things like these. If I didn't know you better… as good as I do now, at least. I would've believed you wanted to become a doctor.”
“Mn,” Phesx Caolia gave the image another look before putting it in his bag. It showed the anatomy of the human body, mostly its flesh, and especially the nerves and blood flow. Then, he looked up at Sofia after looking around casually.
“Well… take care, then. Lots of it,” Sofia said before hugging the young boy. She held his head dearly, letting him feel the caution she grabbed him with. Hugging her back, Phesx Caolia moved his mouth to her left shoulder and moved his lips. After he that, Sofia smooched his forehead and maintained her lips there, also moving them a little. None of them made a sound.
“Alright, don’t do stupid things… and get caught” Sofia said, finally separating from him. She cleaned his cheeks with some saliva on her thumbs, probably from when he was at the workshop. Phesx Caolia nodded. Sofia also nodded, “I’ll be waiting for you back here.”
“Goodbye,” Phesx Caolia bid farewell before turning around. Sofia watched him leave until he disappeared from the door’s see-through glass. Then, she returned to her desk, investigating more on the body’s subjects that she herself didn’t understand, let alone Phesx Caolia.
Phesx Caolia moved to the administration facilities, finding Paul and Emilio and a few dozen soldiers congregated around a small wooden building. They had just finished doing something inside as some leading officers checked the others’ bags.
Walking to those two, Phesx Caolia was spotted by Paul, who immediately instructed him. “Everyone’s presence has been confirmed, go in and sign up.”
Phesx Caolia nodded and headed inside, just in time to see a tall, bulky man coming out. He walked past Phesx Caolia, with the latter ignoring him. Yet, even as Phesx Caolia didn’t pay him any heed, the man stopped, turned his head, and called out, “Hey, you usually hang around that kitten supreme, right?”
“…” Phesx Caolia semi-turned his head, hiding his chin with his left shoulder. But even though he said nothing to the man, whom he looked at casually, the latter made a right thumbs up before speaking in a bothersome tone. “Isn’t she good? Anyway, don’t get near her again. This is my nice warning, okie?”
“…” Phesx Caolia said nothing again and walked ahead, letting the man feeling good to himself. Afterwards, he signed up after making a few procedure’s declarations. When he was signing under his name, rank, and even officially recognized alias, the young man working there commented, “Second mission, and it’s a possible encounter, huh? Much luck, kid.”
“…Yeah,” Phesx Caolia looked up for half a second and responded, trying to sound positive out of politeness. Once he was done, he went outside and regrouped with the rest of the platoon.
“Alright,” a minute after Phesx Caolia’s bag was checked again, a man near the middle age loudly voiced. Bringing attention to himself, he went, “We’ll go in 3 trucks, 1 for Em, 1 for Paul, and 1 for me. These are your immediate superiors, you’ll go with them and listen to them until your ass is shitting here, comfortable to know you might not be shot while doing so.”
“It is not clear if there’s preis or scum around there, but some of our encampment’s civs have disappeared for 2 weeks. We’ll just probe around. No matter what, don’t go alone. Minimum of 2 people walking together, but I recommend 3 or 4 at least. Let’s go!”
The man spoke while Em, Paul, and a few higher ranked soldiers delivered a few notes to the others. Phesx Caolia checked his unit, finding it to be under the man who spoke, the leader of this platoon. He exchanged glances and nodded towards Paul and Em before carrying his equipment and bag to the back of a truck.
The trucks were divided 20-20-10, leaving Phesx Caolia with the 1st Lieutenant’s squad of 10. Only 2 people were left at the front of the truck, as Phesx Caolia sat in front of that tall, bulky man from before. They glanced at each other, once. But after then, they didn’t bother with the other.
The rest of the trip was uneventful, with the female soldiers ignoring that tall soldier, and the male ones sharing a few consumables to spend time. Phesx had to change places with someone closer to the front, so the smoke wouldn’t fall on his face.
When they arrived at their location, with their truck slightly up ahead than the other 2, at the lowest center of the western worker districts, the lieutenant stopped them. He grabbed their wrists to bring their attention and started delegating them.
“Hellcat, you’ll go in the same direction as these 3, try not separating. As for the distance, we’ll be here 4 days if there’s nothing. But the moment you find something, or you’re attacked, immediately return!” The LT said. Phesx Caolia nodded, although those weren’t the official orders.
However, considering they were only 10, and the scum, even if they’re thousands, only ambush any other force with numbers of 20 to 40, even if the squad was united, they would be in dire danger. After receiving confirmation, the LT walked away towards another direction with 2 others, while another team of 3 went on yet another path.
Phesx Caolia would ‘lead’ a team to the far right, while the LT headed to the center, and the other team to the far left. With this, the LT could move around and support anyone, keeping their numbers as stable as possible. It was rudimentary.
They would venture into the worker districts. The disappearances weren’t too dangerous for the encampment, but that the investigators couldn’t find any clues or corpses was. As such, the platoon would have to search around and see if there’s anything threatening.
It was a bit like cannon fodder, although neither the superiors nor the soldiers believed there was something that dangerous. The preis were still holing in the south, while the scum had numbers and weapons, but not vehicles and organization that an army would.
As Phesx Caolia walked near another 4, taking turns to lead at the front before letting others advance first, over and over, they arrived at a wide plaza. They spent an hour silently searching half the place, before reuniting at the center.
“Dayna and I decided to go to the underground floors. We’re good on that, but you two aren’t. Besides, if something happens, we know where and how to move around, and you two are a bit too tall.” One of the soldiers said, with a female soldier behind him nodding.
“Okay, we’ll check the park. With those two places, we might find something,” Phesx Caolia said in a low voice. The tall soldier didn’t say a word, probably not caring. He carried a shotgun with a strap over his shoulder, while holding a heavy rifle like it was nothing.
“See you at evening, or back at the sleeping dog.” The soldier said after the other tapped on his shoulder from behind. Phesx Caolia nodded before lowering his rifle to jog to the east. The other 2 soldiers went to an underground level, going down some stairs in the distance.
The tall soldier followed Phesx Caolia, who went slower than the soldier thought he would. ‘Is this Hellcat? Maybe they did name him like that for his name, hah.’
Hours went by, with many tall buildings that still remained standing tall explored, even if not completely. Everything was deserted, and when evening came, the districts looked grayer than Phesx Caolia thought they would. He only saw parts of these districts at morning, after all.
He saw a few places that might’ve trapped people when the earthquake happened, with debris moved and now safer to walk around. But some clothing, or clues of old, broken skeletons under the rubble. Those had to be ignored. They weren’t archeologists.
When the sun was setting, and they were nearly done checking the park, with Phesx Caolia leading the scouting, while the tall soldier lazily followed behind. The man finally spoke out, hiding his gasps after moving for hours nonstop, up and down streets, stairs, and jumping from 2 meters or more numerous times.
Meanwhile, Phesx Caolia was fine. Perfect, even. Currently, they walked on a higher altitude in the park, where one can see a long slide of sand, about 17 meters tall. It had railing, of course.
“Oiii. We’ve been moving a lot around here. Let’s just go back. I want to eat something for dinner, at the very least.” The man’s irked voice was quickly cut off by himself, needing to breathe if he wanted to continue. Phesx Caolia slowed down.
‘…5 minutes since the last check-up with the lieutenant…’ Phesx Caolia’s light black eyes narrowed as he crouched a little, touching the ground to feel it with his right palm. To the tall soldier, this looked like ‘Hellcat’ had grown himself tired, too. Feeling glad, he opened his mouth again.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Then, we’ll continue tomorrow, yes? It’s getting dark, we don’t want anyone to come out at that time, don’t you think? Eh, huh?”
Fws, fws!
The man was just speaking, when Phesx Caolia’s fully half-kneeling position turned. His right knee, against the ground, worked as his foundation as he rotated before immediately kicking the ground with his left foot. Then, with his hands going into his pockets, Phesx Caolia brought 2 throwing knives out, flashing them across the air with the evening lights shining lightly upon them. The tall soldier didn’t respond in time, at all.
Pft! Pffu! Immediately, his knees were struck, penetrating just a little, but enough to get stuck from a few to several seconds. Phesx Caolia’s right foot rapidly pedaled the ground after dashing forth. Revealing 2 heavy weights hidden on his abdomen, connected to the knives’ chains coiling around their handles, Phesx Caolia nimbly moved his hands around the weights.
As the man was still stunned at his knees being stabbed, Phesx Caolia rapidly wrapped the weights with the other end of the chains before locking them together and throwing them to the ground. Phesx Caolia continued rushing, not stopping once, and detoured around the tall soldier.
Throwing himself to the ground, Phesx Caolia felt his chest a little hurt, but he still swiped his hands at the soldier’s ankles many times. He could’ve used a knife, but he didn’t know if it also worked that way, since he didn’t want to bring attention to himself during his training regimen.
The tall soldier tried running forth, feeling his ankles hit time and again, but his knees’ injury made it difficult to move. When he wanted to lift his feet, he found them trembling and weakened, further burdened by the weights Phesx Caolia threw away several meters in front of him.
Phesx Caolia stared at the chains fiercely. He never expected them to fully work well, but they were granting him time for his mistakes of swiping at the man’s ankles. At last, Phesx Caolia felt a strange sensation around his hands when hitting those ankles.
Phesx Caolia looked up and saw the man’s neck stiffen, like a corn dog heavily slamming on a solid surface vertically. He rapidly stood up with dirt around his chin and neck, and pushed the man’s back forward with his right sole. Then, he took a knife out of his left thigh pocket, half as long as an arm.
“Euuuuh?!” The man wiggled his head a little on the ground before going completely still. He made a sound from his throat and nostrils, but Phesx Caolia had already begun pulling the man’s shirt up. Then, the soldier felt a cold, small tip at his back.
His heart beat really fast, and while Phesx Caolia heavily breathed, never having done this before, not to a living human, he could hear that sonorous thumping. His teeth gritted hard, rising the knife with a regular hold, and feeling saliva form at the sides of his jaw inside his mouth.
Pffeuk! “Uuuwwwgh!” The man roared inside his throat. Phesx Caolia felt his eyes clear up as he stabbed into the man’s back. The left side bled a bit, only penetrating a few centimeters. It had only begun. Phesx Caolia drew the knife upwards, creating a long line, like surgery just starting.
Phesx Caolia could see the sweat forming at the man’s skin, while his heartbeat became more powerful and quicker. Yet, the young boy didn’t stop, forming long cuts with an unusual width towards the middle, trying to mimic a very large claw injury.
After the first, Phesx Caolia targeted the tall soldier’s thighs, arms, and near his neck. He didn’t turn the soldier around, wanting to let it be seen like a huge, dangerous animal attacked the soldier, who could only run away in response. He didn’t know if it would work well and scare the soldiers, or cause suspicion because of some injuries’ size, but he believed he was doing well.
The tall soldier bled profusely, but he was still breathing. Phesx Caolia accidentally let some bones show, but after he was done carving the ‘scene’, and looked at it from another point of view, it seemed fitting.
Then, only one thing remained. Phesx Caolia looked at the man’s nape, narrowing his eyes and emitting a fierce glint within that light black color amidst the darkening sky.
“Meeeeeeevvv…” When the soldier felt the cold dagger, dripping with what could only be his blood, at his neck again, he weakly moaned. Phesx Caolia didn’t know if it was suppressed fear, or if the soldier was a little glad it would all end soon.
Pffcc… Phesx Caolia directed the knife before cutting the neck in vertical cuts, hurrying after seeing tons of blood seeping out of the man’s interiors. He almost cut horizontally, stopping himself in the end. If he did that, it would be too obvious that an animal didn’t ‘do’ it.
‘Now, the last part.’ Phesx Caolia thought as he stood with his legs spread and his feet standing at either side of the soldier’s shoulders, breathing a little hard. Being vicious was tiring. But now, even if the soldier wasn’t paralyzed anymore, the blood he lost and pain tormenting him should have left him immobile. Besides, whether his extra acute hearing sense was ‘calming down’ or the man was dying, Phesx Caolia heard those heartbeats grow weaker and lose speed at last.
He lowered his body and hands, grabbing around the soldier’s jaw, and lifted his head while lowering his. The soldier’s eyes were reddened, with some veins probably rupturing at some point, still coating some of his sclera with red and dirt around a few corners.
“…” Phesx Caolia said absolutely nothing, just staring into the man’s face who was about to die. Terrified, the soldier couldn’t help finally pissing himself. Phesx Caolia ignored it and straightened his back, preparing to pull upwards.
Using the jaw to hold onto the man’s head, and like lifting weight, Phesx Caolia put strength into his arms. His fingers and hands were positioned as best as he could to not break off the jaw and ruin his plans. The act was anything but simple.
After several seconds, even with the cuts Phesx Caolia made, he couldn’t separate the head from the neck, or finish halving the soldier’s neck. Phesx Caolia felt the strain of his ‘weak’ body even as he supported his wrists with his knees, trying to rest while putting more effort and force behind his pull.
“Ah, haff, huff…” Phesx Caolia felt he would soon hyperventilate if he continued failing. At one point, he closed his eyes and rapidly tried to think of something. The images in the back of his head went back to that baby boar whose heart he unknowingly smashed. The sensation from his nails never left him, albeit it diminished a little these past few days.
That sensation… his hands holding onto the actually ‘mighty’ little body, and his fingertips, their yolk, his hails… puncturing, stabbing, pushing the flesh away… No, that wasn’t the sensation of pushing it away, it was… cutting through!
Pfs! Pfs! …Pfs, pfs, pfs, pfs, pfs…!
Phesx Caolia’s eyes suddenly opened and fully widened. He became shocked as he lowered his gaze from facing upwards, frowning as he felt the soldier’s neck breaking apart like melted plastic being separated. Suddenly, his hands didn’t hold a head, but a corpse’s skull with skin, hair, and organs still inside it.
The man’s body went limp, while his eyes became bloodied like never before, and stared into different angles, slightly bulging from their sockets. That was the sensation of cutting through flesh, and that was Phesx Caolia holding a corpseless head with his fingers hooking around its jaw.
‘I did it!’ Phesx Caolia’s eyes widened in surprise. Gladdened, he threw the head away, falling down that long fall, sliding a little before making a tiny thud in the distance. Feeling ecstatic, Phesx Caolia brought the corpse to the sliding wall of sand. It might be easier if he cut the legs and more, but he couldn’t do that. After struggling for a few minutes, he watched the corpse roll downwards…
“You know? I didn’t even think I would succeed like this. But it’s good. I didn’t have to use my pistol, or a grenade. Sorry for leaving you so ugly, I didn’t want me and the others to be imprisoned.” Phesx Caolia spoke while looking down before turning around. It was time to leave.
‘Sigh. What a day.’ Phesx Caolia said as he slapped his hands off the dirt and blood. Some flesh pieces were under his nails, which he cleaned carefully. He seemed to see some sharpening around their edges, but he also felt many shadows moving around his nape and trying to grab his ankles, so he ignored it. Besides, it was getting dark. He kept his head low as he returned to whence he came.
A couple of hours later, with a full moon up above, with the night stars illuminating everything below, Phesx Caolia walked out of the worker districts into near an outskirts residential zone. He spotted a pool of water before heading towards it to clean the blood from his hands and some spots on his clothes.
‘Another springs? Why are they more habitual now? Strange.’ Phesx Caolia thought as he looked at the wholly black, semi-deep pool of water. It had a natural wall around it, seemingly protecting it from getting filth that the wind carried around, which belonged to human necessities like junk and glass.
Splashy splash! Phesx Caolia scrubbed and sharply cleaned his hands and clothes with his nails and palms, trying to keep even the slightest bits of blood off his military uniform. The dogs would definitely trail him, but he was hoping the encampment would take too long to act, so it wouldn’t be known he went to this pool himself…
Afterwards, with his pants and jacket over his shoulders, a little wet, Phesx Caolia thought for a moment before taking his canteen out. He crouched and filled it with water. Licking his lips as he waited for the canteen’s verification, he felt his dried lips and slightly trembling body. It took a toll on him to do something like that, and to a corporal nonetheless.
Bing~.
The canteen made a sound before flashing a tiny green dot. Seeing it was drinkable, Phesx Caolia brought it to his lips and drank to his heart’s content. But once wasn’t enough. He filled it with water again and saw the green dot light up before standing up while drinking.
However, since he wasn’t thirsty anymore, Phesx Caolia could distinguish a peculiar taste in the water. He checked again, but the canteen showed it was drinkable with another green light. Yet, when Phesx Caolia tasted it again, he realized it did have a weird taste, one that made it feel gooey but was all liquid, and somewhat metallic, but wasn’t blood.
‘?’ Phesx Caolia watched the water spill out of his canteen, and it was just normal. Cupping it in his right palm, it smelled just like water would. And when he tried it on his wrist, he felt nothing but water sliding to the side.
He looked at the falling water from his canteen again, and that’s when he saw a large bubble forming a meter before him on the pool. But then, he realized it wasn’t a bubble, but a body. It wasn’t on the water, but coming out of it!
SPLAASH!
“!!!” Phesx Caolia’s light black eyes’ contents constricted. His hands pushed forwards instinctively, while his jaw opened slightly. He jerked his head backwards and saw rows of even teeth and long fangs snap close to his face!
His body was pushed downwards as multiple small claws palmed around his torso and thighs. And then, at the same instant, his radio sounded.
“To all units, enemies sighted in e3, move to that position!! They’re scum! Some are heading to your position, Hellcat, Dayna, engage them!”
…