Molly - Part 5

Chapter 21

A bump. A swarming. He wanted to reach out and touch it, blind as he was. He didn't think he was breathing so he wondered how he had consciousness. Groping, his fingers hit the side of a hard surface, forcing him back.

He had a name once but he had forgotten it. He knew something had changed but he was too scared to search further. So he waited. What more could he do?

A warped voice. Strange, seething. He opened his eyes but that same mirky nothing. Then: a light. He nearly wept with joy--he could see.

His fingers hit the walls again. He could tell now that this wasn't his body, or if it was it had changed. He couldn't move much and his neck was stiff.

He opened his mouth to breathe, then the panic set in. For when he did so he discovered not only that no air came into his lungs, but that his mouth was already open, and that there was pressure on his lips.

He tried to scream. Pointless.

"Gaaaah, cut him out!"

He tried to scream again but again pointless as he was rushed against the ground. In a way he was relieved to feel ground, muddied with a green goo that reminded him of jelly.

He looked down at his hand.

There was nothing he could say, do. He was enthralled by it. That appendage that wasn't his, claw-like but covered in so much matted flesh congealed and twisting around him. And yes when he moved his arm the claw moved, fat, engorged by whatever they were pumping into him.

"Get up!"

Forced on feet that were not his. Nothing of this was. Soon his vision came-to and he witnessed monsters. One with clicking mandibles, the other wielding what looked like a shotgun grafted with the strange material they all wore, that carapace.

The one with the mandibles snarled then bent down, wielding a knife with a serrated edge. He tried to get away but this new body was unwieldy and the monster quickly caught him then began to hack at something below his jaw.

He tried to look down. Too much carapace, then the monster rose up and in his hand was what looked like a long, thick carapace-strewn tentacle. The monster raised one end of the tentacle and there at the tip he could see where the monster had cut.

"You must feed," the monster said. His voice as jagged and wrong as his body. "Tomorrow is a new day."

He still couldn't speak. The monster snorted then using one claw reached for his face and soon he felt pressure, at the mouth as the monster slid the other end of the tentacle out. Flopping onto the floor.

He gasped for air.

"You do not need what others need. You can survive with us. We go now--quick."

"What did you do to me," he managed to say, his voice catching in his throat.

"We go now--quick!"

The monster beat him--he made a feeble attempt to raise his arms but the monster was too strong, toying with him.

"You'll spoil him."

"He's already spoiled."

"Wait!"

Only one way out.

"What do I do?"

"You do what I say." Mandibles clicking. "You do what she says. You are nothing--you are one of us. The All-Mother guides you now."

The other one snarled.

"We need to take them to the city. She wants us to move quickly."

"Then that is what we'll do."