Eeeehh. I'm not really fond of this chapter. >> But I have to keep things moving, because the story I have planned out is really, really, really long. I apologize if i'm going too fast, but I have to get the ball rolling. Enjoy!
Daytime in Coal Pines was only slightly distinguishable from nighttime. The sky was dark and grey, like it was every hour of the day, and the air was cold, but moist. Animals rarely cried out in the forest; there was never the chirp of birds to mark the start of a new day, or the howls of paramites at dusk, right after a hunt. Noise was avoided like the plague, because if you made a sound, the entire forest would hear you; along with every starving predator that came with it.
A rat hopped along the forest floor, soggy leaves and pine needles squishing under its single foot. Now and then it would stop to snap up a bug in its mouth, before hopping on its way in search of more food. At one point its foraging was interrupted by a strong, unusual smell- sort of like upturned soil, not exactly unpleasant, but not something that you’d want to get closer to.
So, naturally, the curious creature followed the smell.
It hopped along the underbrush with ease, kicking up little flecks of mud in the process. When it finally came to the source of the smell, it had to dig its foot into the ground to halt completely.
It appeared to be some sort of gangly creature, sleeping on its side and facing a tree. The rat could see the slow rise and fall of its ribs as it breathed. It appeared to be starving, as its ribs and spinal column were clearly visible jutting from its skin. Despite that it had a surprising amount of muscle around its limbs and back, and looked perfectly capable of fending for itself.
The rat leaned forward, touching the creature with its nose to sniff it.
A handless arm slammed down at its side like a club.
Scared, the rat shrieked and sped off in the opposite direction, to be quickly consumed by the crawling darkness. By the time Nedd tilted his head around to see what the hell had touched him, it was long gone.
“Odd-damn animals,” he half-growled, half thought.
Moving tiredly, Nedd picked himself up off the ground. He glanced around, trying to remember what had happened previously, and spied the practically nonexistent carcass of the mudokon he had mauled the night before. Little was left now but a pile of bones, with grizzle and blood still caking them together. There would be no point in trying to scrounge for food off of it; he’d already eaten everything that he could possibly eat, leaving only the toughest flesh behind.
Too irritated to be amused, Nedd crouched down sleepily. He glared up at the sky. Due to the heavy bank of clouds overhead and the fact that winter was approaching, the sun rarely shone, which was to his benefit. However, thanks to this the weather was always almost too cold to bear. There was virtually nothing Nedd could use as clothing or insulation- he’d lost his speedo weeks ago. If it weren’t for the cylonite in his bloodstream and the fact that the cold depths of the basement had somewhat toughened him up, it was unlikely that he could have survived.
Nedd’s stomach growled, making Nedd himself hiss quietly. The cylonite might have been keeping him alive, but the fact that it ate half of what he did meant that he had to search constantly for food. Standing up, Nedd wandered aimlessly into the forest, careful to avoid making any sound. If he did happen to run into something, he wanted to be the one to catch it by surprise; not the other way around.
Navigating in the Coal Pines forest (not that Nedd knew what it was called, of course) seemed impossible. Everything looked exactly the same; every dead tree, every patch of grey sky, every soot-stained bush. Nedd found that following the river sometimes helped, but he didn’t even know where the river was at the moment. He’d try and find it later, he decided.
He crept around a large boulder that he actually recognized. He figured out that by standing on top of it, he could get a better view of his surroundings, not that there was much to see anyhow. Nedd climbed up the side of the huge stone, where it was sloped slightly downwards. Grooves had been carved into the rock that were used for climbing, which was especially useful for someone with only one hand and two stubbed legs. Nedd had no idea who had originally carved the grooves. He suspected that he might have accidentally eaten him for dinner last night.
Nedd scrabbled to the top of the boulder, stopped briefly to catch his breath, then slowly stood and took in the landscape. Miles of dead forest sprawled out in front of him, obscured by fog in the distance. The coal-stained trees and rocky earth seemed to mirror the sky perfectly. Nedd knew very well why the forest was dying; an airship stop was set up somewhere in the region. He remembered hearing about it before he’d been infected by cylonite. Unfortunately, he had no idea where it was, and was having little success in finding it.
A loud rustle on the ground caught Nedd’s attention. Nedd ducked down instinctively and slid down the sloped side of the rock, landing on the floor with a faint crunch. His horns swiveled like an animal’s ears, as though somehow seeking out the source of the commotion. He crept with his back against the boulder before dashing over to the tree line, keeping low to avoid detection. His mouth opened slightly, inhaling the dusty smell of the forest. Just then a familiar smell hit him like a shockwave, leaving him dazed.
He knew that smell- Odd, how could he forget it? It was salty like sea water but thick like fried fish, and it made his mouth water involuntarily. He held himself back.
No, it’s a trap. But what if it wasn’t? What if it had gotten lost? What if he never got the opportunity every again?
What if, what if, what if?
Nedd wove swiftly between a pair of trees, stopped abruptly, and stared at what he found.
An armored slig was standing in a very small clearing. It had a snuzi instead of its typical weapon, which would’ve seemed unusual if Nedd hadn’t been off guard. The slig moved carefully, its pants
clunk-clunk-clunking quietly against the soggy earth. It glanced around, not noticing Nedd pressed up against a tree, before moving onwards towards the safety of the forest.
Nedd ducked down and stalked towards it, sticking to the short, scrubby bushes of the forest floor for cover. In the darkness of the dead foliage, he was unnoticeable. He made a quick bound to the trees, stopped clumsily, and resumed hiding.
The slig glanced back over its shoulder at the noise, tentacles twitching, but dismissed it as nothing and moved on.
Nedd struck.
He rushed across the small clearing, his feet thumping the ground before making a grand leap and throwing the slig into mid-air. The slig let out a cry of alarm, kicking as it landed on its back. With years of training it rolled over on its stomach, searching desperately for its attacker but not finding him.
Nedd stepped on its neck with a satisfying snap.
Suddenly the forest was alive with gunfire, making Nedd drop to the ground in alarm. He hissed and tried to pinpoint the location of the attack, but it seemed to be coming from everywhere. Nedd had only one option- to run.
He quickly got to his feet and darted across the clearing as fast as he could, but not fast enough. Nedd felt multiple shots pierce his back, painful, but definitely not deadly. Nedd tripped and fell. Dazed and confused, Nedd glanced back over his shoulder to see multiple tranquilizers embedded in his skin, sticking in out in all directions. Nedd tried to stand, his head suddenly clouding up. He found it more difficult to stay alert than anything- he could barely hear what was going around him, nor could he smell the mouthwatering scent of his prey a dozen steps behind him. Nedd groaned in pain and fell to his knees, swaying disjointedly. He stared at the ground, the eyelid to his single eye becoming heavy, much too heavy…
He heaved a breath like a dying sigh and collapsed, falling into a forced slumber.
{ COAL.PINES }
Consciousness slowly returned. Nedd was lying on his stomach against a cold metal floor, face-down. He groaned and curled up, his limbs still numb from the sedative of the tranquilizers. He shivered. Cracking open his eye, Nedd glanced around, only to clamp it shut again. His vision was swimming, his head pounding. Hissing a curse under his breath, Nedd lay in a heap, waiting for feeling to return to his body.
Nedd heard a brief shriek of metal-on-metal as a door suddenly opened. The short, abrupt sounds of footsteps soon followed, coming closer. Nedd tensed, baring his clenched teeth and growling a warning. He opened his eye once again, looked around in a daze, and let it fall shut.
“The great outdoors has been unkind, I see.” A familiar voice growled. “I can see your ribs.” Nedd forced his eye to open this time, fixing his line of vision on the silhouette of a vykker close by. He snarled bitterly, trying to stand. He fell heavily on his knees.
Vhern leaned closer, his claws hooked around the wire mesh of the cage. Four layers of overlapping wire was fixed on just one side, while the other three sides were nothing but concrete. It was essentially half a room; one half for the subject, and another half for the viewer. A small, locked door marked the only way out of the stone-and-metal confinement.
Nedd’s breathing came in short, quick hisses. He fixed his clearing vision on Vhern. “What… do you… want…” He managed to rasp.
“I think you know exactly what I want.” Vhern smiled peacefully.
Nedd scoffed in irritation, falling over on his stomach when he tried to stand. He propped himself up on his knees, balancing unsteadily. He flexed his fingers as the numbness faded away.
Vhern started to talk, assuming that Nedd would listen. “It took three months to track you down. Isn’t it amazing, what you’ve done? You destroyed one of my ships. My boss wasn’t too keen on that.” Vhern’s glasses glinted dangerously in the dim light. “But I told him about you. I told him that you killed a few of the ship’s occupants with your bare hands and managed to evade them for weeks, even in the ship’s controlled space. I told him how you managed to survive a disease that causes insanity in less than 42 hours. And instead of wanting to kill you.” Vhern smiled, “he wanted to keep you alive. You’re a revolution, Nedd. You’ve completely reversed everything our studies stood for. We had no reason to believe that Cylonite could ever be tamed… but here you are.”
Nedd pulled back his vertical lips, exposing his needle-thin teeth. “So what are you going to do?” He demanded in full-fledged hostility. He’d denied Vhern’s previous offer before; he could only imagine what the vykker would do to him now that he had him both trapped and drugged.
Vhern sighed, reaching down to pick up a briefcase at his foot. “Its not about what
I do,” Vhern said simply. “Its about what
you do.”
Vhern opened the briefcase and carefully removed an object from inside. It was a large needle, filled with about half a quart of black liquid. Unlike cylonite, which was pitch black, this liquid seemed to shimmer and glint against its glass container. Vhern held it up and turned it in his claws. The liquid refracted light like an oil spill, twisted but weirdly beautiful.
“This.” He whispered, “is a prototype of a compound we believe will benefit you greatly. It hasn’t been fully successful yet, but I have great hope for it. Its been tested on cylonite-infected fuzzles. They reacted violently at first, but managed to live much longer than any cylonite fuzzle previously. It also has some other side effects, but we are certain of one thing; it has potential to greatly improve the lifespan -and sanity- of cylonite victims.”
Nedd stared at the needle and the shining black liquid. Was Vhern telling the truth? Or was he just trying to kill him?
Vhern unlocked a small slot at the bottom of the door and rolled the needle inside. He closed the slot abruptly, looking satisfied with himself.
Carefully, Nedd reached out and picked up the needle. He examined it with caution, horns tilted back unsurely. The needle itself was about the size of a toothpick, while the liquid inside was as thick as syrup. He was overall reluctant to inject himself with it.
“Just try it, please,” Vhern coaxed him on, his claws around the wire mesh. His eyes were glistening with fascination. “You have nothing to lose.”
Nedd realized he was right. If he didn’t take the liquid, he would probably have only months to live. Not only that, but he was also clinging to his last thread of sanity; he was constantly wracked by the fear of waking up one morning not with the mind of a homicidal genius, but with the mind of an animal, driven only by unquestionable instinct.
With no full understanding as to what he was doing, Nedd placed the needle against his amputated wrist and forced it through his skin. He saw it slide briefly through a thin film of flesh before embedding deep into a vein. He pushed the back of the needle, felt the thick, syrupy liquid instantly chill underneath his skin… and felt weirdly content. He pulled the needle out.
And then the pain set in. It began as a tingle around his stitches, itchy and slightly irritating. Then, slowly, he felt the feeling begin to spread upwards, building in emphasis as it went, growing stronger and stronger until it no longer itched, but burned.
Burned like liquid fire.
Nedd half-gasped-half-yelped, digging his nails into his opposite shoulder as if to somehow stop the injection from spreading. It kept moving, however, inching towards his chest and creeping down his other arm. The liquid built in his ribcage until it was suddenly
in his heart, licking at the walls of his insides and consuming everything in its path as though it were acid, and it wouldn’t stop…
“WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO ME?!” Nedd roared, falling back with his claws embedded in his own chest, struggling to prevent the onslaught of agony from spreading…
He heard Vhern call out, but couldn’t open his eyes to look at him. “Stay calm!” Vhern urged, leaning closer. “This is perfectly normal; its just a side-effect of the dr--”
In blind fury Nedd rammed himself against the wire mesh of his cage. His vision wavering from pain, Nedd could just barely make out the outline of Vhern as he jumped back in alarm.
Nedd’s pupil swelled, turning his eye solid black. His night vision tripled, his heart thumping in rapid procession, making his head ring. He snarled, tasting blood.
And everything melted into one unidentifiable lapse of pain.