The Odyssey of Scylla

Chapter 5

Sitting in the dark for hours helps you realize your fears more than you could think possible. So I sat in that place and waited to die. Snake had said I was going to die, didn't she? While I waited to die, I felt my temporary body with my mind. I surveyed its petite stature and let my tentacles move around me. With each movement, I began to understand what I was.

Hokuto once told me that Kukunda genetically manipulated female hatchlings to make soldiers for Supreme's army. I was this genetically modified hatchling, but I had been made to die. So they must make the little ones for traitors or enemies and then split them as punishment.

I closed my eyes and tried to think about something other than dying. Something different than my fate.

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I followed closely behind Hokuto; I didn't want to get lost on this ship. It was massive, and I knew one wrong turn, I'd fall down a pipe or chute and be ejected into space.

"Death likes to start each day with a meeting. He wants to inform his squad of changes issued by the Supreme for the armada. Today he wants to finally introduce you to them." He stopped and turned to me. "Do not embarrass him. He has never taken a newly conquered species into his squad. He waits until they're assimilated at least a year."

He turned and headed down another hall.

"I'll try my best." I hurried behind him.

He stopped again and rounded on me. "Is this difficult for you to understand? You will not try to do your best; you will do your best. Death will cast you aside, and you'll end up in the sublevels with the rest of the trash. You don't want that."

He was right. I didn't.

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I opened my eyes. The trash, I was in the sublevels, and I knew how to get out of the sub levels. I had to find a wall, and I had to climb up. I could climb, I would use the tentacle, and I would climb. Maybe, just maybe, I could get to Traverse before I died.

I dropped down so my hands could touch the ground. The limbs were disproportionate, and I couldn't crawl. I took a deep breath and did my best to use my new appendages to my advantage. Using them, I pushed myself forward. I crawled and crawled. I don't know how far I crawled, but I finally bumped into a wall. I moved along the edge until I felt a seam. Where there was a seam, there was a door. I felt around for the switch to open it.

Click! That was it! The door whooshed open softly, and the room behind me filled with light. I moved forward and tumbled down a large pile of trash. I stayed where I landed and waited, waiting to see if that had pushed this little body too much. I didn't know how much it could take since it was designed to die. I closed my eyes and took steady, calming breaths.

My eyes went wide. Footsteps, then voices, and they made my heart sink.

"I can't believe you grabbed the wrong type of little one!"

"They all look the same E-scale. So how was I supposed to know the greenish ones were soldier bodies and not death bodies?"

"I told you to grab a purple one. Purple is dead. Green is alive! You are the stupidest creature I've ever met, Snake."

I wasn't going to die. That meant I had to get up, had to hide. E-scale and Snake were looking for me, looking to fix their mistake, and I couldn't let them find me.