The No Names

by Frank Albelo

  “Haven’t spent much time with the others, but Justin is funny. Oh and apparently Dana can cook, I would kill for some decent food other than the cattle food those rations taste like. Bleh” The boy shook his head in disgust as he looked at the crate where we had stashed out rations.

  I laughed, Beta always seemed to be getting in some kind of trouble but he always bounced back with panache. I patted him on the shoulder as he drank some water and headed back to where he said Galileo and Gamma were.

  I lingered for some time in the camp, looking and thinking of the potential for the future. Worries about the uncertainties ever-present.

  Help would be much appreciated, Brother.

  I heard the mental call within seconds of hearing a loud screech. I jumped to my feet, extending out my mind to locate Koma. He felt close by in the general direction Beta had left. I grit my teeth, worries for the others roiling in my stomach and I heard the fabric of my pants rip slightly. Paying no mind to that, I activated my armor, feeling the suit and armor encase my body. The moment my helmet encased my head I took off.

  The trees moved by in a blur as I rushed towards Koma. There were times I had to leap from tree to tree in order to avoid debris and obstructions on the forest floor. I instinctively gripped the base of branches to climb up the larger trees while looking for the others. I spotted an aged sycamore and climbed to the top deftly.

  From my spot nearly eighty feet in the air I crested the majority of the trees in the forest. I was distracted for a brief second as the sheer expanse of wilderness reinstated itself in my mind. I could even see an area devoid of trees far to the northwest.

  Another series of screeches drew my attention to a disturbance in the canopy further northeast of the camp. I spotted a massive black feathered wing through the trees. I dropped down as fast as I dared and headed to where I had seen the wing. Barely a minute later I heard the screeches, but much louder this time. Almost as if unwillingly I dove for the ground. I heard the click of talons and the mad flapping of winds as a vulture looking creature the size of a refrigerator adjusted trajectory in the air.

  I barely had enough time to put up my wrench before another vulture came crashing down on me. I felt the weight on top of me, nearly crushing me. The muscles on my arms swole as I barely managed to fight off the bird, but when it got a grip on my pipe wrench and hoisted me up into the air I was forced to let go.

  I managed to land on my feet, risking a quick look around to spot Delta using his shield to keep another vulture at bay while Koma and Hunter were attacking with claws and spear respectively. I hesitated slightly, noticing the vulture that had attacked me flying up with my wrench, but I turned and bolted to the others. Not a second too soon I leap and landed on the vulture’s back, forcing it to crash to the ground. I didn’t need to prompt my compatriots as they fell on the creature with a vengeance.

  “There are at least two more!” I shouted as more loud screeching echoed off the trees.

  “There are at least four more you mean!” responded Delta, quickly moving to cover behind me as Koma and Hunter stood to either side.

  “Four more! Fuck. What are these things?” I asked, my eyes scanning for rustling or movement, but the only thing of note was the screeching that still surrounded us.

  “Saw them once, never messed with them. These fuckers are big and mean,” said Hunter through raspy breaths.

  I concur with the other gruff one, I heard Koma in my mind. I have never seen these creatures so agitated, but fighting off more than one alone was suicide, so I always avoided them.

  I tried to calm down slightly. It was no use to burn my energy when I wasn’t fighting. It was a monumental task, but when the blood stopped thundering past my ears I managed to hear it. It was only a minute whisper amidst the cacophony the birds were making, but it was enough. I pivoted just in time to grab Hunter’s arms and pull his spear up.

  The spear penetrated the birds front left breast and I managed to catch its talons on my right arm. Once Hunter realized the bird was snagged, he yelled and drove his weapon all the way through. The bird started to cry out in pain, but refused to let go with his talon, knocking me to the ground amongst a heap of thrashing feathers.

  Without hesitation, Hunter pulled out his sharpened metal length and decapitated the creature. I shook off the six inch talons, pulling one from my arm and wincing as the wound began to heal. Delta offered me a hand as Hunter retrieved his spear.

  One of the vulture creatures had landed and attempted to sneak up on us while the others distracted us with their loud screeches. Now that that particular plan had failed, the others came down en mass.

  “Got three incoming!” I heard Delta over my shoulder.

  “Delta, up front with me. We will try to slow them down. Koma, cut them up. Hunter try to spear one and maim whichever isn’t caught up with us.” I gave the orders loud enough to be heard without the comms of the suit. Moments later Koma and Hunter were formed up behind us as we spotted the birds diving towards us through the canopy.

  “This is gonna suck,” complained Delta just before a pair of talons dug into his makeshift shield.

  Two of the diving birds struck the man’s shield and it was all I could do to dig my feet into the forest mulch to prevent us from getting thrown back. I saw a pair of deep cuts on Delta’s arm where the talons had missed his shield and armor. Anger welled inside me again, and I heard a ripping sound beneath me again.

  I felt like my legs elongated slightly as they dug into the ground and I managed to push back the birds, freeing Delta.

  The third bird that had been diving tried to come in from above us, but with a well placed spear toss from Hunter it struggled to land instead. Once me and Delta had gotten enough distance between the birds, Koma and Hunter tore into them.

  Koma used both sets of arms to pin one of the creatures to the ground. He placed his heels on its sternum and pulled on its wings. The screeching that erupted from the creature was horrifying, almost causing us to falter, but Koma’s face remained impassive. He tore the creature’s wings off with a grunt, discarding them to the ground.

  After recovering from the visceral display, the uninjured bird and Hunter began to tangle. The man used his length of metal to swat aside talons. On several of those movements he left deep cuts on the creature’s shanks and he redoubled his efforts when the creature winced back. I noticed it slowly trying to gain elevation and I prepared to jump.

  When I coiled to jump I felt my legs fold in on themselves awkwardly. I nearly stumbled as I tried to right my body, stretching in one fluid motion. The moment my legs straightened, I shot forward. I air tackled the bird, throwing us both against a nearby tree. I was stunned from the collision, having also fallen down to the ground, but I saw the end of the fight from my spot atop the bird.

  Koma finished tearing his bird to shreds with his arms while Delta used his shield to cover Hunter as they approached the first downed bird. Seconds later the vulture was bleeding heavily from it's long neck. The bird beneath me must have broken something because it just struggled weakly until Hunter arrived and drove his blade into its body.

  “Good workout, that,” I heard Hunter say.

  I stood to respond, but the moment my feet touched the ground I fell face first into the churned earth. I heard muffled shouting behind me, a pair of arms lifting me off the ground. Just as my vision went black I heard Koma’s thoughts pierce my mind gently.

  Thanks. I got it from here.

  Chapter 13: Invested Development

  When I finally woke up, the sun was shining through the ice cover ceiling above us. I had a throbbing headache as I rolled over. I quickly realized that I was on a rough wooden bed composed of logs. All rolling over did was throw me face down on the ground. Pushing back on my elbows and spitting out the mouthful of dirt that lingered in my mouth I looked around me.

  I was at the mouth of the cave, back at the survivor’s camp. The smell of iron and roasting meat immediately pulled on my
body. An itching crawled along my arms as I moved around a trio of vertical logs that hadn’t been there. The logs covered most of the entrance to the cave, but the light from the morning, as well as the central campfire, shone through the spaces.

  When I put my hand on the wood to support myself I felt gashes on the wood. Lifting my hand revealed deep claw marks. I also did a double take because of my arms. My armor was fully retracted and I saw them coated to just beyond the elbow in the black scaling of mutants. The fingertips on my hands had been replaced with claws, similar to Koma’s if not sharper. I wobbled forward to the fire, making note that only one figure sat tending the flame and a roasting stick.

  “Back from the dead? Or the madness I should say?” It was Koma waiting for me. I assumed he knew my brain was in no condition to communicate, so he spoke to me directly. Before I could reply to him though, I leaped the ten or so feet to the stick roasting a portion of our bird kills. The grease of the meat dripped down my chin and I swallowed it whole. There were even a few bones involved, but I simply crushed and ground those to bone dust and marrow before swallowing.

  The hunger felt barely touched, and I was beginning to feel a burning anger at Koma for not having more food. I thought about how delicious he might have been if he was roasted. Koma calmly placed his two upper arms on my shoulders and proceeded to force feed me a full bundle of gathered roots. I attempted to push him off me, but his grip was set and my body did little to resist the food intake.

  “Just finish these off, you’re going to be fine, Alpha!” spat the Calforn. Once he finished stuffing the final section of root into my mouth he clamped his mutant arm over my mouth. I continued to struggle fiercely. Once I had swallowed and chewed the food, I felt the nagging hunger dissipate and I relaxed in Koma’s grip. The man maintained his grip briefly, giving me a questioning look, before letting go and dropping me to the floor. Fatigue was setting in again.

  “Good. You are getting stronger, but you need better control.” Koma was being as cryptic as usual.

  “Sure, glad to help. How long have I been out?” I asked, crawling to the log by the fire.

  “It’s been nearly three days since we fought the birds.”

  I turned to look at Koma. The seriousness of his expression stunned me. I wanted to be outraged, to contest what he was saying, but based on how hungry and worn out I felt it made sense.

  “What happened? Is everyone alright?” I asked.

  “Oh yes. All the Digits are quite well off thanks to our ambitious hunt. Those five birds are good protein for our group; saved the vegetables for later at the very least.”

  As the Calforn spoke I looked around the camp. I noticed that there were several more claw marks around, well, everything. There was even a chunk of the perimeter logs missing. Before Koma could go off to irrelevant assessments about the value of the food collected I pointed to the closest markings. “What happened here?”

  The man took a look around, appearing confused for a second before noting the claw markings.

  “Ah, well those were you and I, unfortunately. See, after the second day of being unconscious you kind of… slept walked? I believe that is the closest term Basten has for what you experienced.”

  I widened my eyes at the concept. I hoped I wouldn’t go on a destructive rampage every time I overexerted myself. Koma went on to describe that the others were able to hold me off until he returned. While Delta and Epsilon were bruised by the encounter, they held me off. Zeta, the kids and, surprisingly, Hunter helped stop the others from trying to actively kill me.

  Once Koma arrived he was able to hold me down, mutations and all, long enough for Delta to knock me out. Thankfully I didn't have my helmet activated at the time, otherwise that would have probably ruined it.

  While describing the events of the past few days, which included the others sleeping near the exit of the camp, Koma also explained what had incited the response from me. Prior to and during the fight with the birds I had managed a full anatomical shift mutation. I hadn’t only elongated my leg, but also inverted my knee. The mutation had allowed me much faster speed, similar to the ostriches that had once roamed the plains of Earth. He also suspected I had done a separate mutation for jumping, but he had no basis for what it compared to.

  The whole mutation process had shredded the stretching material of my suit over both my legs. While disappointed about the reduced weather protection, the ability to move and jump faster was invaluable against the more deadly creatures of the wilderness and above ground.

  “I think it would be beneficial to take another look.” Just like before, Koma lunged at me and placed his mutant hands on my temples.

  I felt the world darken and my mental self phase in from nothing. There was notably more scaling on my body. There was ridging on my shoulders, knees and feet that had not been there the last time Koma connected us to the Overmind, not to mention the claws I was now sporting.

  Concentrate on the memories of what happened. The fragment of the Overmind will inform you of your progression, said Koma in my mind.

  I focused on my body, thinking of the fight with the vulture creatures, and the maroon swirls populated into words around my body.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Before I had a chance to ask Koma what the hell the whole class nonsense meant he pulled back his hands. The world flashed into color and my mental self became like a sun spot in my vision. I blinked a few times and my eyes cleared enough to see.

  Gamma and Beta were rushing in from outside the camp. The youths knocked me to the ground, shouting over the other to check on me. I laughed wholeheartedly as I stood and thanked them for their concern. Behind them, lingering by the entrance, I saw Galileo. The man nodded in my direction, but I made note of his guarded stance and distance. It was obvious my ‘sleep rampaging’ hadn’t gone over as well with everyone.

  While the group waited for me to regain consciousness, Hunter had already gone ahead and cut the trees I felled. With Koma’s help, considering how close the farming area was to camp to keep an eye on me, they had managed to clear and furrow a decent sized section of land. Gamma had cut and planted most of the potatoes we had, hoping to double if not quadruplet the invested food. The others had also not been idle. While the birds provided a great boon for our initial expansion, Delta and Hunter continued to bring what small creatures they could. Zeta and the other survivors also brought foraged food slow and steady. They were able to craft more water canteens for our group as well as start on plans for improving the camp. Before I turned them into firewood with my new claws.

  While chatting with the kids, and Galileo when he finally ascertained I wasn't going to claw out his heart, the others of our group arrived. They all greeted me in high spirits and I returned the gesture. Once we were all caught up I told them I would take it easy for the next few days while I got accustomed to my enhanced body. They assured me they knew I would be doing my best to help out in the camp. No one had any objections, and without much more dillydallying we started on the day’s tasks.

  Survival waited for no one.

  ● ● ●

  I apologized profusely throughout the rest of that day and for weeks after that. The setback to our infrastructure was minor, but seeing the damage to the camp reminded me of my poor control constantly. Regardless of my feelings towards my outburst, the mutation that had forced it proved invaluable.

  After the first week of working on the camp, we coordinated to travel to the USG base. The disc
ussion turned to Koma and I traveling together to make the trip the fastest. I argued that the group would be safest if one of us partial mutants stayed for protection sake; I didn’t mention that the instant communication over long distances Koma and I could use was invaluable. To this particular argument, Justin presented that they had survived months without ‘big strong scaly men’ as he put it.

  Ultimately, the fact that Epsilon indicated that Marvin could act as a long range beacon and relay forced my hand.

  While the trip was uneventful, I checked in on Marvin nearly every ten minutes. Along the way both Koma and I used the inverted leg mutation to flow through the forest like true predators. While actively using the mutation I felt the Overmind pressing me, waiting to inform me of the progress I had made in my Conditioning and Appendage Mutation Masteries. It had become second nature to suppress the messages. The only times the Overmind spoke in my mind was when I laid to sleep.