Chapter 14

Yawn.

Anya stretched out her arms as she sat up on her cushion. A bulb of soft flesh formed a semicircle protruding from the ground, serving as the mattress that she slept on. At first, she was highly repulsed by the notion of resting on such a thing. After experiencing the unnatural comforts that the flesh ‘bed’ provided, this reluctance quickly vanished. The liquid filling allowed the surface to mold to her body as she sank into its tender embrace. The periodic bursts of cold no longer bothered her as the warmth radiating from the flesh mattress removed all signs of the frigid air. Despite all the comforts it provided, she found the experience to still be unnerving at best.

“More-nin.”

“…” Anya waited, but there was no response. She had grown accustomed to being greeted upon her waking, so much so that it had become a routine. As if by habit, she spoke the words taught to her and waited for the deep coarse voice to reply. Anya waited, but there was no response.

“Boone…” She mumbled quietly, tightening her fist to hold back the built up sorrow. “I’m sorry…”

“My Queen. You have awoken.” The abomination entered her chamber. “The new creation. Have you grown accustomed?”

Anya noted the creature’s slightly improved speech patterns. Although still difficult to understand at times, she had gotten used to it and could at least hold some sort of conversation.

“Somewhat…” She wiped away at her face. “It still makes me a little bit uneasy.”

“Uneasy. Effect of ambiguity. Can be adjusted. This one will modify.”

Anya lifted herself from the flesh mattress, its softness made traversal difficult. Now standing on her feet, she glared at the living bed.

“That thing... is alive, right? Does it… eat anything?”

“Extension of hive structure. Necessary nutrition automatically delivered. External provisions unnecessary.”

“Hive structure?”

“Larger organism. Embedded in the surrounding construct. Conversion of harvested biomass into general purpose biomass. Functions as biomass storage. Specialized mutations chambers. Easily adaptable to serve needs. Blister result of adaptation.” The abomination pointed to the ‘bed’.

Anya was unsure what the abomination’s intentions were, but being told that she slept on some creature’s blister perturbed her. With her index finger, she gently poked at the blister.

“It wouldn’t burst, would it?” She questioned nervously. The girl did not have open access to baths and thus had to resort to using another specialized chamber created by the abomination. The cleaning chamber was filled with a thick liquid of sorts that supposedly ate away the impurities accumulating on her body. Its slimy substance made Anya feel dirtier than before, therefore the last thing she wanted was to be soaked in the puss of a popped blister before bathing in the slimes of the cleaning chamber.

“Thickened membranes resistant to breakage. Only sharp objects risk compromise.”

The girl stared at her tail and exposed a halfhearted smile.

“I’ll have to be careful then...”

***

Anya stood within a chamber one level below where she slept. In front of her, positioned a large pool of viscous fluids. If she were to compose a list of the daily activities she hated most while living in this place, bathing would be at the top. Regardless of Anya’s aversions, personal hygiene was extremely important for her as she hated being unclean. The girl dipped her toes into the fluid, strings of slime latched on to her as she retracted her foot. She frowned as this was not something she could get used to. Gritting her teeth, she jumped into the strange substance after removing her clothing. The abomination had once interrupted Anya to inform her that this action was unnecessary since the fluid would clean her articles as well. She responded to the creature’s previous intrusion by screaming for the creature’s immediate departure with a flustered face. Even though the creature agreed when she demanded it to never barge in again, she still felt the need to survey her surroundings.

At least it’s warm. She thought.

The girl sank in her body until only her head was above the surface. At the very least, the substance did not contain a putrid scent, a fact which she appreciated.

With her hands, she lifted a scoop of the fluid and rinsed her mouth with it. Extra effort was required to swirl the thick liquid in her mouth, resulting in sore cheeks. She spat the contents of her mouth onto the nearby floor and wiped away the ruminants with her hand. It took several attempts before she completely expelled the solution from her orifice. Some of the fluid made its way into her throat, causing her to cough.

I want to go home…

Although life in Black-Rock was not luxurious, it had many charms when contrasted with her experiences here. Anya quickly shook her head and slapped her cheeks, for she knew that she could not return.

After exiting the pool of liquid, she wiped herself dry with the clothing she had previously worn. Ensuring that no sticky residue remained, Anya dressed in fresh linen: a plain white tunic with patchy navy shorts.

As the girl ran her fingers through her silky hair, she found that some slime still remained. If it was just water then she would have left it to air dry, however, that was not the case. If the substance was allowed to dry, then there was a high likelihood that it would clump pieces of her hair. Anya spent roughly ten minutes tediously cloth drying her hair.

Her stomach rumbled, it had been a while since the girl’s last meal despite the abundance of food, for it was not the quantity that bothered Anya but the quality. The abomination had explained their distaste for flames as fire destroys the structures of cells, making them unusable for anything besides consumption. Essentially all of the creatures that resided here, excluding Anya, lacked a proper digestive system, thus cooked meals were deemed completely unnecessary. When hungry, the crawlers and their variants ingested a strange red liquid ejected from the many nozzles within the feeding rooms. The abomination had offered Anya a taste to which she promptly refused.

The girl’s stomach continued to growl as she stood in the feeding chamber. Both of her arms were wrapped around her stomach while she stared at the feasting crawlers. Countless fleshy nozzles pultruded from the many large pulsating sacs. The crawlers would bite on the extension which solicited the red liquid to be spewed into their mouths. Once they were done with their feasts, the crawlers released their grip and exited the room.

Grumble-Grumble

Anya’s stomach was restless in its demand for food. At first, it was negligible, however, now it was not so easily ignored. The girl learned from the abomination that they experienced two different types of hunger. The more ‘pleasant’ type of hunger signaled the need for sustenance in the form of caloric intake; this would feel like any normal hunger. The other form of hunger was much more spiteful as it indicated their need for living human cells. The abomination informed Anya that the cells within their bodies could not perform mitosis and thus could not reproduce. Instead, their cells simply lived much longer lives. When necessary, their bodies replaced the damaged or destroyed cells with the stored reserves. If reserves were unavailable, then the damaged areas would be in a state of disrepair, extensively stimulating the pain receptors, resulting in the tremendous agony she had experienced previously.

Currently, Anya only felt the effects of normal hunger. She knew that if she continued to starve herself, her body would begin to break itself down in an attempt to supply the necessary energy to function properly. That would result in the ‘unpleasant’ hunger she wished to avoid.

Summoning her bravery, she approached the feeding vessels. The girl swallowed her saliva as she stared at the cylindrical piece of flesh that extended from the sac, small drops of the red liquid could be seen leaking through. For every second her gaze remained on the organism, her resolution was tested.

With her eyes closed, Anya clenched her teeth on the object. Its textures were akin to the raw meat of a skinned rat. The slimy fluid that coated the tube did not make the experience any more bearable. Still, she held on. The strength of the upcoming red liquid was stronger than anticipated, bypassing her throat and shooting straight down her esophagus. Anya gagged and choked as she spilled the liquid all over herself and onto the floor.

The liquid held a viscosity that was slightly higher than that of regular water, however, the heavy iron scent and taste triggered a gag reflex.

“My Queen. Is it not to your liking?” The abomination spoke as it moved towards the heaving Anya.

“W-What do you think?!” Anya became frustrated. She could tolerate the strange bath, but this was beyond her endurance.

“Contemplating. Would a solid form be more preferable?”

The girl rose to her feet and wiped away at her chin and cheeks.

“Do what you want! I don’t care!” She yelled before storming off.

***

Anya returned to her chamber and leaped onto her ‘bed’, landing face first on the surface.

“I want to go home…” She mumbled with her face embedded into the mattress. Anya recalled the joys of bathing in a tub of normal water and cleaning herself with soap. She reminisced the taste of roasted roaches and Boone’s delicious stew.

“Boone…” Anya muttered as she turned her face to its side. “Why did this have to happen…?”

The girl started sniveling, Boone was her only friend in this vast and empty wasteland. The times they had shared together was something special to her. Through him, she learned and experienced many new things that she couldn’t have if she had remained in Black-Rock. Anya was delighted when Boone offered her a position in his restaurant, she was excited to help out and start a new life as well. However, that was no longer an option.

Curled up and on her side, Anya wept quietly to avoid alerting the abomination.

Gahhhhh... A soft noise emanated from behind her, creating a chill that ran up her spine.

Slowly she turned to face the source of the noise.

AHHHHHHHH

Anya shrieked as she jumped back, falling onto the floor. Near instantly, the abomination entered her chamber.

“My Queen. What causes you distress?”

With her shaking arm, the girl pointed at the thing next to where she slept.

The abomination loomed over the thing and inspected it.

“This one does not understand.”

“W-W-Why is there a f-face on my mattress?!” Anya sputtered. “A-And why can it talk?!” By pure reflex, her tail had sliced a large gash across the face engraved into her bed, causing pus to leak.

“My Queen. Ambiguous nature of the blister caused uneasiness. Added the ability for expression. No longer ambiguous.”

“G-Get rid of it.”

“This one detects discontent. Is it not to your liking?”

“GET RID OF IT!”

...

Anya sat on the floor of the mutation chamber with her arms around her legs. She had made the choice to not be present while the abomination made further adjustments to her bed.

The girl blankly stared as some of the modified crawler variants erupted from their pods. As the membranes busted, the fluids splashed everywhere. The crawlers would arrive at the location to clean up the resulting mess, culminating in a fairly disgusting sight. Despite the revulsion, not having to experience the process first-hand had already made it much more pleasant than anything else she had encountered so far.

Forcing out a smile, Anya released a series of weak chuckles and laughs.

“This place… I’m going to lose my mind…” Anya whispered as she rested the side of her face on her knees. “I want to go home…”

eeeeiiiiiiiiii?

A few of the crawler variants approached Anya. Once in front of her, the creatures lowered their heads as if to gesture hierarchy. Not knowing how to respond, Anya patted the creatures similarly to how one would with their pets. The whole affair felt bizarre to her, but the creatures seemed to enjoy it. She felt this to be a bit creepy.

“Crawler variant. Designated Infester.” The voice approached from behind her. “Specialized function based on infester spike design. Purposed for brood expansion. Ready for field testing.”

Anya paused her strokes and glared at the abomination.

“Field testing?”