Fate Weaver's convergence

V2 C100

What am I supposed to do?

I sat on the ground, pit in my stomach, while Lapsha brushed against me in an attempt to garner my attention. As Lapsha was my pet, it was deemed my responsibility to watch over him. Giant serpent form aside, Lapsha's attachment to me allowed some form of lowered guard.

"That's the presence you felt, isn't it?"

Avery grimaced, looking at Lapsha as if he were little more than a mark to kill.

Are they going to have me do it? Or are they going to have us wait?

"Avery, look at her..."

Jude brought attention to me.

They must be furious to some degree; this could have been worse.

I looked down at Lapsha, almost staring through the amorphous creature.

You were going to eat Myles... We'd have to put you down... It's the safest course, right?

I thought, reaching out and pressing my hands into Lapsha's form. The slime gave way with little resistance, Lapsha lowering his head, chirring softly as I took his core in hand.

You'd let me do this so easily? Why?

The rest of the group, including Avery, were standing on the far side of the clearing. Avery, Jude, and Kostyantyn discussed the events and what was to be done with the slime. Marcus, Lykos, and Phillipe, however, were focused on comforting Myles as they administered what healing magic they could.

"Avery! Come here and take a look!"

Marcus yelled to Avery over his shoulder, the arachne jolting as she came at his behest.

"What's up?"

Their conversations became muffled as I mentally prepared myself for the inevitable. I'd been hunting for three or so years now, the thought of what came next coming naturally. It was a far cry from Earth. From the ever-present reality that anyone could become the enemy overnight. Hunting each other.

You're a slime, though...

I gently rubbed the core, squishing slightly as I shifted it in my hands. Lapsha was content with himself, and the noise he made when relaxed consistently emitted.

"Aidan."

Words echoed in the air with nothing to cushion themselves upon save a few haphazard piles of garbage and debris, eventually colliding against inhuman growls and grunts. Lake City, Utah, Big Mountain Pass, first traversed by the Donner party in 1864. A pathway to join America's coasts is now being cleared a second time, thanks to changing geography and fauna.

"Aiden, it-"

I could hear the words, but I couldn't bring myself to move. It felt like I'd been paralyzed, a half-formed monstrosity weakly reaching to me a few feet away.

"Aiden... "

Someone grabbed my shoulder, the carabiner I'd used to tie my sling to my plate carrier clicking against a wedding band the person wore.

"Hm?"

I asked, looking over my shoulder to see Walker, another war veteran. He'd joined the caravan with us, just as we received our rotation orders. We were to stay stateside and await separation, but in the meantime were authorized to seek self-employment alongside our current pay to hunt remnants of the rifts.

"I can't... please."

He looked at me with a forlorn expression, his gruff appearance emphasized by sleepless eyes and ragged hair revealing itself beneath the rim of his helmet. He grimaced, looking back to the monster below us. Half mutated, it still bore part of the equipment it wore before coming to this sorry conclusion. The helmet bearing NVGs and comms equipment was tossed aside, shattered by stray gunfire. It still wore its plate carrier, though shattered as well. Torn cloth and blood seeped along the wooden floor surrounding it. Fur, as well as bone, protruded haphazardly, and I half debated whether it even belonged to the person it grew from. The only grounding factor was the half-malformed face of a woman staring back at me, its opposite side resembling more of a skinned bear than anything. We'd shot out its legs and one of its arms at first, but neither Walker nor I could reason why.