Limbs

Over the following three days, Alice carved up and ate as much of the carcass as she could, stopping when she felt too full, and only calling it quits when the meat had started tasting funny; getting poisoned was not an option.

There were two main reasons for her fervent butchering. Firstly, after eating her fill, Alice would fall into a deep meditative state, using her newfound powers to speed up the digestive process and using her improved metabolism to power up her recovery.

Whenever the well in her mind felt full to the brim, she would send its warmth rushing throughout her body, asking her marrow for more red cells, her lungs for more oxygen and her heart for more energy. Any time that happened, she could feel the wounds close a little bit more, her bruises change from black and violet lumps to yellow halos. For every hour passed recovering, a bit more blood flowed through her veins, giving her face a healthier complexion.

The second reason was currently stacked near the entrance to the alcove. All the main bones of the late salamander were piled up, starting from the large, flat cranium of the creature.

She had proceeded to pry one heavy bone after the other from the rapidly dissolving body of the monster, hoping she could find a use for them in her future plans.

Almost everything else of the creature had been eaten or thrown into the pool; the piece of skin she had pulled off had proved itself to be too smooth and slimy to be of any use and she had left it to one side after stripping it of its meaty layer.

While trying to nurse herself back to health, she had also proceeded to search for new ways of using her well of power; finding herself unfortunately unable to put most of the ideas to practice due to her current health condition.

The new additions to her skills were certainly useful, with Hemostasis literally providing her with infinite band-aids, and Lesser Symbiosis giving her full control of her own body once again. She could now order her arm to stop and start glowing, reassuring her that she was more like a firefly and less like a freaking radioactive ghoul.

Her real problems, however, laid in one thing, and one thing only. She was still without an arm. The wound had healed amazingly fast after Alice had started sending the majority of her invisible army to the scabbed over stump. However, the wound was still painful, even with her power numbing the straining and enflamed skin as much as possible. She would need time to get used to it, time she didn’t have.

So, Alice did the second-best thing she could think of.

She got herself a prosthesis.

“MHMMHMM! FHUDGHE!”

A muffled cry resonated throughout the underground system, echoing in its many caves and bouncing around its innumerable tight passages until it lost the way in the complex maze of limestone, where it became just another faint echo in the silence.

In a familiar cavern with a glowing pool, on a seat of broken stone, sat a strange figure with bloodshot eyes, trying to force a large crustaceous claw onto her tightly wrapped right stump; the bone between her teeth quite useless in silencing the pained shouts.

“Fhdghe, Fudge, FUDGE, FUCK!” with a crack, she spit out the shards of broken bone.

“FUCK YOU! FUCK ME AND MY IDIOTIC IDEAS!” she shouted, shaking both her normal arm and the new one, which seemed to be coming from the discounted fish counter of a local supermarket.

After a bit more swearing and a long recovery break she stood up.

Despite the pain and the idiotic look, she still thought that the prosthesis hadn’t been a completely stupid idea. Now she not only had a weapon, but she could also hold things with her freed hand.

She would definitely need to grind down the sharp borders, and maybe open it up a little more, but, for the moment, she was set to get out into the wilds.

Tucked in her now ragged and filthy pajama pants, Alice also carried a new limestone knife which she had sharpened and bound in a strip of the salamander’s hide. In her left hand, a leg of the crawfish she had filled with glowing water worked as a torch, while the six meters of braided rope that remained after her first real catch were securely wrapped around her right shoulder.

With a determined expression, the young woman moved the palisade and awkwardly crawled into the antechamber, keeping the pointy claw far away from her eyes.

I’m already without an arm, let’s not go too much into the pirate look.

The cave was still a mess from the fight, the sharp pieces of stone on the ground menacing her feet with more wounds and pain, defiant of her new foot wraps. She could immediately smell the coppery scent of rotting blood that fouled the air in the small hollow.

In the soft glow of the torch, Alice looked at the dark splatters of ichor that painted the floor and walls. A dried-up puddle of her own fluids sat beside the entrance to the deep waterfilled bore.

As her heart started beating faster, she pushed the memory back down, ignoring her burgeoning fear and nausea to instead rush forward to the next opening.

After all the fights, wounds, and days of recovery, it was a strange sensation coming back to the large cave and finding it completely unchanged. The parts she could see at least, without her phone’s torchlight app she could barely discern the edge of the platform; everything else was shrouded in darkness and silence.

She placed the torch near the opening in the wall and, after taking a deep breath to steel herself, she grasped one stone from the little heap she had left so long ago and chucked it close to the edge of the platform, repeating the previous method that seemed to be working so well.

Without a real light, the sudden sight of the pale shapes of the screechlings emerging from the darkness was far scarier to the already shaken girl who flinched every time their hisses broke the quiet as they pounced onto the rock, biting at it savagely and without restraint.

This time, Alice didn’t even wait for the rest of the monsters to arrive, dashing forward and swiping and piercing at the creatures with her claw-sword.

The little fliers tried to swarm and bite at her, but the reach of her weapon made it almost impossible for the clumsy animals, only a few managing to bite her legs before she kicked them against the walls.

After around a minute, she started hearing the clicking and scraping of insectile legs on the slick stone and decided to call it a day.

She grabbed as many of the dead bats as possible and ran towards her way out, only catching a glimpse of the horrific creatures joining the slaughter. She didn’t have the time to get the torch.

Alice had just started blindly retracing her steps toward home when she heard a faint clicking sound coming from behind her.

Her hair stood on end as the sound bounced on the tight walls, warping and sounding even closer, as if it was behind her neck. In a panic, Alice realized that she wouldn’t be able to see her foe if it came to a fight in there.

She sped up slightly, still careful not to fall as she carried her trophies, even if she was very much ready to leave them to the creature if it meant a means of escape.

When she finally reached the antechamber, the clicking still on her heels, she had come to a conclusion.

This is the first time it’s happened. There weren’t monsters here before. Maybe this was the salamander’s territory. I can’t let it get away with the intrusion. This is now my place. I need to fight it.

In a rush, Alice placed one of the dead screechlings in front of the entrance, using the extremely weak light coming from her own arm to see its outline. Gripping the knife and with her claw raised, she waited for the appearance of the creature while steadying her breath, ready to strike as soon as it was distracted.

The plinking grew closer and closer as cold sweat ran down her shoulder blades and spine. Her breath caught in her chest when a long and thin leg emerged from the darkness.

The segmented appendage was soon followed by seven more, each one attached to the squat thorax of a large bulbous spider, its bloated black abdomen as large as the plump leather armchair she used to sit on back at home.

As opposed to all the other creatures she had seen in the expanse, the arachnid had a row of four large black eyes and four smaller ones all around them.

As soon as it appeared, the monster raised its two frontal legs and tried to stab her with the metallic, spear-like tip that capped every single one of its limbs.

She quickly took a step back, the color draining from her face as the creature crawled forward without fear or hesitation.

“Stay away from me, you disgusting thing!” she cried out, swiping back and forth with the claw, her voice shrill with panic.

The spider ignored her shouts, still trying to stab her with its two frontal spears. The only hint of each attack was in the reflective nature of the weapons’ metal tips which allowed her to barely dodge the thrusts thanks to the faint gleam of her light on their surface.

Seeing the lack of fear in the monster, Alice finally decided to go on the offensive by throwing the small knife she was holding; trying to aim for the weak glint of the eyes in the oppressive darkness of the cave.

The small target, combined with the weaker throwing arm, meant the lightweight projectile missed by a quite large margin, only bouncing against the fangs of the spider.

Nevertheless, the attack seemed to have an effect since the spider halted its attacks, apparently stunned by the audacity of the prey in front of it. Hissing loudly, the monster rose on its back legs, its front limbs raised in a threatening display as it retreated back into the darkness.

Alice took the break from fighting to grasp a sizable rock with her hand; another, heavier weapon would be useful.

She was just righting herself when she saw something moving out of the corner of her eye, a shape coming straight towards her head. She just managed to instinctively raise her healthy arm as cover when a glob of a thick and moist substance impacted and enveloped her hand up to the forearm.

Incredulously, Alice gaped at the rapidly hardening fluid stuck to her limb. She saw it harden before her eyes, getting glossier and smoother as time went on.

She was trying to move backwards once again when she felt an experimental tug on her newly disabled arm. Only in that moment did she finally notice the thin thread of silk that gently vibrated in the air before disappearing into the now silent blackness of the antechamber.

With a gasp, she swung her prosthesis at it, trying to cut off the connection; only for the claw to slide against it, unable to find a weakness in the glossy wire.

In the darkness, the spider started to pull.

The spider was stronger than she expected, probably able to find purchase on the ground with its sharp limbs while she slipped on the slick limestone of the cave. Centimeter by centimeter, she was being dragged closer to the spiked legs of the arachnid.

Realizing it was a futile effort, Alice finally stopped trying to cut the wire, instead focusing on other ways to escape or defeat the monster, all while using all of her weight to slow her unwelcome advance.

This is bad. I can’t cut the wire and thus I can’t get away, unless I manage to make it drop it, and that means I need to get in close to fight it. I need to improve my chances. Damn it! I can’t even see it.

She tried to concentrate, to ignore her situation and dig into her mind, to reach her power and have it do something. Anything.

As she delved deeper and deeper into her brain, her thoughts were going back to her fight with the salamander. She tried to move away her focus, but everything kept coming back; her arm getting cut off, her escape into the chamber and the final stand against the predator, a young and injured woman defiantly rushing a creature ready to end her.

I need that, I want that!

She was feeling a similar sensation now, just weaker, less defined. She needed more.

In a rush, she searched for its source, she followed the trail of energy throughout her body, finally tracing it to some kind of gland in her kidneys.

As soon as she felt it, the barrier of the well was broken, its warmth absorbed into the small organ which immediately augmented its production tenfold, molecules of the substance flowing through her veins.

A surge of pure unbridled energy flowed into her blood, making her heart pump faster and her muscles contract. Her breathing increased and suddenly she could see far better in the dark, instantly catching the shape of the spider, intent in its reeling task.

She shot forward, almost instantaneously closing the distance, the prosthesis ready to pierce the head of the enemy.

The startled spider immediately dropped the silk line and stabbed forward with its front legs, aiming them at her belly.

The movement seemed slower, however, avoidable. The girl had enough time to move to the right, dodging the first of the legs and using her enveloped hand as a shield, the tip of the second one getting snagged by the strands of silk.

The strong impact made her stumble a bit but she quickly regained her footing, using the relatively safe position to stab deeply into the side of the spider, its other limbs not suited for sideways attacks.

The monster screeched a disgusting clicking cry; trying to shake her off while she used its frantic movements against it, doing everything in her power to deepen the wound as a disgusting ichor coated the weapon and the ground beneath.

A sonorous crack echoed in the hall and she felt the stuck limb become loose, soaking her with a spray of highly-pressurized blood; this time, Alice didn’t have time to react as the frenzied spider turned and jumped on her, trying to push its dripping fangs into her neck.

In a panic, she stuck the pincer sideways between its mandibles, hearing the weapon crack as the monster bit on it, soon feeling a wet liquid start to fill the inside of the prosthesis.

She was feeling herself get weaker and number as the fight went on, her energy easily sapped by the huge strain so few days after her crippling injury.

She had to finish it now.

Sensing the detached leg still stuck between her hand and the silk around it, Alice grappled it as best as she could and, with a grunt, she thrust the tip deep into one of the arachnid’s black eyes.

The spider shivered, its movements ceasing and its legs crumpling up.

With a groan, Alice pushed it away, ripping off her pincer and the wrappings around her arm.

She immediately stood up and, without a word, rushed back to the pool. Or tried to at least.

As she neared the opening to her base, she felt the silk thread still attached to her hand tighten once more, causing her to painfully drop to the rubble-covered floor, the sharp rocks digging into her back.

Breathing raggedly with her back on the ground, Alice stared with wide eyes at the black ceiling. Her hair was matted in sweat, her body scraped and bruised once again. And she was connected to a damn dead spider.

“Why is it always me?” she tiredly asked as she stood up, slowly starting to drag the carcass towards the opening.

*****

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