Humanoid-Nuclear (Humanoid Trilogy #1) [ON HOLD]

10

Something nudged my shoulder, trying to wake me up. Instinctively, I flinched and punched whatever was touching me. It snorted, nudging me again.

"Go away..." I mumbled, pulling the blanket to my chin and turning on my side. "I'm sleeping..."

It huffed, paced around a bit with heavy footsteps, then returned to shoving me with its face.

"I said: Go away!" I sat up and glared at Jay Feather, throwing the blanket aside and nearly touching the mutant's nose with mine from how close he was to me. His eyes startled me for a moment; they weren't anything like they were last night. They were completely black, the light from the rising sun reflecting off the pitch colored surface. He sniffed my face, breath rancid, then pulled away and made the sound of old metal screeching against another piece of metal. Blinking, I just sat there, not bothering to ask anything. Our breath clouded up in the cold morning air. Shivering, I stood and pulled the blanket over my shoulders, yawning a bit as I stretched my legs with a quiet pop.

Jay stood straight too, revealing how tall he actually was compared to me. He had to keep his head down low so he could see me by his feet. I stepped away a bit, looking at him in the light, then said, "You need new clothes. I can see your stomach."

He snorted, looked down at himself and did a tiny circle as he investigated his clothing, then looked back at me when he was done.

"Yeah, see?" I poked his scratched abdomen. "That's not good."

He backed away from my hand, shaking his head like a horse and snorting.

I looked at his bare feet. "You also need shoes." I went over to my backpack and knelt next to it, searching for something that might fit him. Jay loomed over me and watched for a few minutes, before losing interest and sauntering up a tree, picking the fruits that hung on it and eating them. Weirdo, I growled in my head. I wasn't so sure how I felt about any of this. For one, I just met the dude. Two, he's a mutant who can turn on me in an instent. Three, he'd been following me everywhere. You know, like a flipping stalker. Four, he spits acid! And five, I have absolutely no idea if he's radioactive or not. Seriously, orange? I took out a pair of boots I had found, trying to see if Jay could fit in them. Nope. I stretched out a big shirt the best I could, but that did nothing either. I'll find something at a store. "Jay, come o--"

I bumped into the mutant when I turned around, yelping and pulling out my knife in surprise. The creature held a fist full of glowing fruits, staring down at me with his dark eyes.

"Damn it! Don't scare me like that!" I scolded.

Jay held the fruit out in my face.

"What?"

He huffed a vomit scented breath and put it closer to my face.

"What are you--oh, wait! Are you trying to make me eat this?"

He blinked.

"Well, sorry, but I can't. It's radioactive. If I do, I'll die. I eat other stuff." I shoved the fruit away.

Jay blinked, looked another direction, and walked that way. I watched him leave, unsure if he'd come back. Guess that takes care of that problem. I shrugged. I started packing, shoving my first-aid kit and camera into my pack along with the blanket I had folded up. Hefting the pack over my shoulders, I turned, bumping into Jay again. He held a bird in his hands, staring blankly at me. The bird was one of the smaller species in the passeridae family.

"It's too small. There's not meat on it."

Jay let go of the sparrow, which flew high as it chirped with glee, then he went off again. This time, he came back with a meleagris gallopavo in his arms.

"Well... you have the right idea, but I'm not really in the mood for bird."

He dropped the turkey, the creature gobbling and running back into the woods. After we watched it go, Jay headed a different direction, going on his little search again. This continued for awhile, leaving me even more weirded out each time. He came back with a mutated frog, a radioactive rabbit, a nuclear rat, and he even somehow dragged an entire full grown buck to me, his nails digging into its haunches.

"You know what? I'll pass on beginning-of-the-day meal." I said once he brought back a sixth creature.

Jay dropped the animal, watching me for some reason.

"O... kay? I'm... gonna go this way, so..." I began walking south-west, Jay Feather tagging along. I really hated the silence that clung to us like sap. It was so awkward! I was literally walking with a stranger. Jay was like a pure animal too, unlike last night. He would chase after things that caught his eye, make weird noises, eat anything that glowed, and didn't listen when I called him back.

"Jay, you dumb mutant! Come here!" I snapped, trying to get his attention after my nerves had been messed with for the past few hours. He was too busy staring at his reflection in the thin ice that covered a puddle. I think he was admiring himself, actually. Loser. He ruffled his wings and looked at me, making that annoying metal sound again that was graining on me. You know what, I'm just gonna call it a shriek, because that's what it sounds like. So, he shrieked, and I rolled my eyes in annoyance.

"Yes, you! Who else would I be talking to?"

A zyrite leapt out of a purple bush, carrying a viola and a bow into battle.

"Except for him, I guess." I sighed, pulling out a useless gun. Could this day get any better?

Jay was already on the case, leaping onto the zyrite and bitting down on its arm with... dull teeth?! Are you kidding me?! How come you don't have fangs, loser? The zyrite's arm groaned, dents in the shape of the mutant's teeth being left in the limb. The zyrite tried to stab Jay in the back, but he knocked the bow out of its grasp with his little wing. Knowing I'd be useless in this fight, I sat down and watched, content where I was. Jay opened his mouth, the inside glowing the same blue as his horns, and spewed acid at the hunk of metal. I gaped as the zyrite's face turned into goo, along with his neck, then shoulders, then stomach and arms, and so on until it was just a melted mess on the cold, forest floor.

Jay licked his lips, acid dripping off his tongue and teeth. He looked over at me, probably expecting me to do something.

"Uh... good job. Seriously, that was pretty cool." I stood and continued on my way, Jay trotting to my side like an obedient dog. "Maybe later, you can spit some acid into a few of my empty canisters for my laser gun. That way, I may be able to help you out more when you're fighting."

He purred, his cloudy breath going out of his nose, then he got distracted by a sparkling spider web.

I sighed and shook my head. We've got a lot of work to do.

So I've been sending my cousin JP (the person who inspired the character Jonathan/JP in the book) this book through Skype, and when I sent the ninth chapter to him, he responded with this:

That's literally all I wanted to say 😂😂😂 See ya next Tuesday, guys!