Gauntlet (Old)

Part 2: Chapter 10

The sun was disappearing, as was my tolerance and patience. I stomped after her. "No! Just no. You aren't gonna keep telling me the bare minimum I need to survive. I'll ask a previous question in the hope that you'll answer it this time. What the hell happened?"

Corru did nothing more than sigh to deviate from continuing on her way. I wasn't a mule to be ignored. "Answer me, you damn red-"

"Why would I?" she burst out, wiping her eyes. "Why would I do anything for you? Why have I done the things I did for you, huh? Ever thought about it? Of course you haven't."

Corru turned back, unable to stay stoic. Unable to keep a good posture.

Unable to be her.

She had a point. I hated that she had a point. I had nothing to say, thinking only about how ungrateful I'd been.

Then I remembered. This is the woman who kidnapped me. This is the woman I relate with being taken from the reality I thought shockingly little about. It wasn't a good reality. I hoped this one would be better.

Maybe it is. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm right. Either way, I couldn't keep this bottled up anymore.

I took a breath, about to speak. She spoke first, her voice croaking. "We will speak in the treehouse."

"No, we will speak no-"

"We will talk in the treehouse."

Just then, memories of earlier that day, as far back as it felt, surfaced. My fear of her returned. But was it justified? I wouldn't be stupid enough to test it now. She had time to calm down while we got to the treehouse, and so I waited.

Namvo was dead. I figured that much out. But if I were to guess, I'd say it was her. What would have happened to her markings? They would be concentrated into an eye of the same color. A weapon. It had to be her.

But then why would she grieve? It wasn't grief. It was guilt. It was trauma. But I was pulling strings. Why was I alive? I wasn't a Prugan. Something still seemed wrong. I couldn't argue against it, but could even less believe it.

We ascended the ladder. I walked through the door behind her. She sat down on my bed and let out a sigh. She looked up at me, dried tears on the cheeks missing their markings. "Do you believe in god, Hunter?" But before I could think, a spot on her cheek sparked. "I mean, the eye," she said, shaking both in body and voice, trying to pat out the spark, "don't you wanna know about the eye?"

"No, you asked about god, right? I haven't rea-"

"The eye is a parasite," she pleaded, "it got to Namvo."

That sounded believable enough, so I heard her out. I ignored the sparks for no placeable reason. I wanted answers. That cleared my mind of reasonable social reactions.

"Voyd, the evil guy you're supposed to fight when you're ready is-" But just as the spark subsided, this statement brought them back. "Voyd spawns the eyes from his person." The spark kept travelling down, but she seemed to now be at peace with it. "They paralyze their victim before completely taking over said victim's body. It kills the host, using it as nothing but armor."

And, as she finished her sentence, the sparks were gone, having left a curved line down her cheek. A marking returned.

This distracted me from her explanation. "Your marking is back? How does that work?"

She went monotone and replied, "A prugan's shedding cycle is complicated."

A what? Did Corru shed during her expedition? This seemed like a more private thing, so I accepted the explanation, as ludicrous as it sounded. "Fine, okay. What were you saying about the eye?"

"I'll tell you while you write it down." She walked back to the table, which was still showing a hologram of my armor. She pushed a button. The hologram was replaced by a metal cylinder. She grabbed it and shoved it into the Gauntlet, just like she had done with the checklist. "Don your armor."

The argument seemed to have dissipated. She was back to her stoicism and I had vented enough, although I still had questions. I flicked my fingers, donning my bodysuit.

"Your full armor," she said.

And so I flicked my fingers twice. Everything looked mostly the same, other than the chest area. It stuck out more.

"Grab the upper chest plate and close it, as if to close a book."

It was a strange request, not that most of hers were normal. This one took me a moment to understand, though. When I finally got it right, the chest piece separated from the armor. I was holding a book with a metal cover. In my other hand, a pen built itself from the particles in the pouches.

"Open it to the first page," Corru commanded, "Your title is 'Entry 1: Opgitvis-"

"Wait, isn't there an easier name?"

"'Entry 1: Infester.' Now write what I say, 'Infesters are spawn of Voyd. They resemble an eye with its stalk. They are black and vaguely diamond-shaped. It searches for a host to take over. Once found, its catlike pupil expands, revealing a mouth filled with spinning teeth. It drills through the victim's spine, paralyzing them completely. It then chews up to the right eye, which it replaces.

"The victim is dead at this point. All the meat it had eaten lengthens its stalk. It splits the stalk where necessary and wraps it around the victim's bones. Now that it is able to move the victim, it chews one of their limbs off and replaces it with an intertwined system of its split stalk. If it has chosen an arm to replace, it is used offensively. If it instead replaces a leg, it is used for maneuverability. This process is the infester's main goal. Once achieved, it will hunt other sentient creatures, whether humanoid or otherwise, and kill them. That is their instinct.' Have you written all of it down? More importantly, is it readable?"

I had to focus to write that whole thing down at the rate she was speaking, so it wasn't the neatest handwriting, but I could read it.

"Yeah, I wrote it all." I paused to think. "Is this. . . Is this what got to Namvo?"

She nodded silently. This was gruesome. Who is Voyd? Do I really have to go up against such a disgusting force? I was ashamed that I blamed Corru. At this point, a small part of me wished it was her. That small part of me was hated by all other parts of myself.

I wanted to ask if she expected me to memorize this, but it felt inappropriate. This wasn't the time. Then I wanted to ask how close Namvo and Sodj were, but I came to the same conclusion.

This wasn't the time.

This was the time to put my notebook back on the chestplate, take off my armor, and say something to finally conclude this day. "I- It's getting late. I'm going to go inject a syringe. G- Goodnight." She stood up from my bed and left the treehouse.

Was that the wrong thing to say too? I had a lot of time to answer this question because I couldn't sleep, even after injecting the syringe. But even with all that added time, I fell asleep without an answer.