I'm somewhat disappointed that a lot of readers' comments have gone. Some were particularly good, and it was interesting to see who was reading. Especially when a lot of people who hadn't commented before started to after Chapter 8 or 9. Anway, this isn't asking for those people to comment again, it's just showing how annoying these forum 'crashes' are. On with the show.
C h a p t e r E l e v e n
One Dead Mudokon
My eyes flicker open. Where was I again? I try to see, but there’s only a blinding bright light.
Slowly, the light recedes, and I realise it is the small white moving lights – they’re moving away from me. What the hell just happened? It felt like a memory, like I was reliving the experience purely in my mind, with certain areas less clear than others, but I had no form, and no control. I was just watching it happen from some disembodied point that moved of its own accord. What was
Kumbolzee? Who were those mudokons? How very odd.
I watch the lights with new-found interest and awe. They wouldn’t hurt me. They probably
couldn’t hurt me.
What were they? They couldn’t be simple lights; light can’t move like that… they must be something else. Possibly alive…
Now they’re dancing in the air, in sharp flicking movements around each other. I begin to move closer. I want to know what they are, I want to touch them. I want to know where that swamp is, who those mudokons are, and what Kumbolzee is… well, I guess it was a mudokon town – only I’ve never seen one before.
‘Guuuuy,’ I hear Tom urge behind me.
I go to turn around, and notice all the small lights flit away in random directions into the shadow. It felt much darker, colder…
Tom looks strange. I guess he saw the vision… the memory… just as I did.
‘What’s up?’
‘I can hear something… something’s moving… shuffling. Over there. Can you hear it? What is it?’
I struggle to hear what Tom is talking about, but my mind is still living the music of my recent experience… It was very nice music.
I try a bit harder, and begin to hear it: a faint shuffling, a scraping against the floor. Certainly not a rat – it sounded more like a person who couldn’t walk very well.
Curse this darkness! I move forwards a little way, pushing against Tom as I do. It gets even colder – we’re both soon covered in goosebumps and shivering against our wills.
Ah! There it is. I can faintly see it. Or can I? I squint even more. Yes. There it is. Very faint. Getting closer.
Not for the first time this night, I recoil backwards in disgust and shock. It was impossible.
One of those small lights shoots past in front of
it and I’m certain. How can this be?
Dragging one foot behind across the room comes the skeletal and rotted dead mudokon we came across before the ‘memory’ experience. It’s mainly made up of just bones, but there is white, disgusting skin hanging off all over the place. Many of the half-devoured internal organs are visible as the shuffling jogged the loose skin around. It was actually standing. Actually moving.
One leg appears to be broken, even for its dead self, and is dragged behind. There is no skin or flesh on that leg.
I want to cry – crying always made any situation better, but I can’t. I’m in shock. More shock. The loose jaw of the dead, moving mudokon hangs open, and it makes a strange low pitched moan. It only has one intact eyeball, but I don’t believe for a second it can see – the eyeball is nearly completely rotted itself, and covered in brown crust. It can’t be alive. It can’t be… so how is it moving?
As the mudokon slowly moves closer, a revolting stench meets my nostrils. So terrible is it, that I am almost violently sick there and then. But I won’t be sick. I will hold myself together.
Tom seems to be coping with a dead mudokon moving much better than I am. He moves and stands more in front of me, between me and the thing. Perhaps he thinks he was too cowardly before when confronted with harmless lights. I only hoped this situation was just as harmless.
From nowhere, one of the small lights appear behind the dead mudokon. It shoots forwards, jumps over its shoulder and heads towards us. As it does so, the mudokon makes a feeble attempt to swat it, but it can barely lift its own arms.
The light disappears as quickly as it appeared, flying behind me and becoming enveloped in darkness.
Neither me nor Tom do or say anything. We just continue to watch the strange phenomenon moving ever closer to us. Would it hurt us?
‘Tom?’ I say.
‘It doesn’t look dangerous. It’s slow – look at it. We could just go this way,’ he points to what is now our behind. ‘It’s the way we were heading anyway. Plus, our walk speed is considerably faster that this freaks. What do you think?’
How practical, is my first thought. He was right, though. We could just continue onwards. That is what we should really do. I didn’t want to look at the thing anymore, never mind attempt communication or combat. Yes, we should definitely get away from it.
Maybe it’s only up and moving because we annoyed it? Perhaps it wants to get us out of its room. I look up at the large machine next to me, shake my head, and then turn around.
Tom is looking at me curiously.
‘Okay, let’s just go. As quick as we can.’
We try to walk calmly, but we’re almost jogging down the dark aisle. Relief sets in as the shuffling sound becomes softer and the smell disappears.
I take a bit breath of relief as we come to two doors.
I spot two of the small lights flit around behind Tom as I turn to speak to him.
He gets there before me – ‘Through the one that says “Security Only”, then?’
He chuckles.