Chapter Four

The human let his head drop back onto the sand, his long hair collecting a few specks here and there as he rolled it around back and forth in amazement and complete jubilation. The chuckling started off quiet, but as his arms fell to his side, his entire body started to heave as his laughter grew in volume. I'm fucking free, man!

The urge to throw his arms in the air WAS there, but considering that he had all but bruised everything in his vicious assault on the door, he just chuckled away the pain and left his arms to bounce alongside his chest.

He decided to lift his hands up just enough to rub down his face, waking him up from the threat of sleep. Shiiiiiiiiiiiit... Well, as much I want to, I still gotta move. Groaning, he started to lean on his forearms, shuffling himself to observe his surroundings past staring at sky and ground. "Fuuuuuucking hell, man. Alright, where the hell am I now?"

Immediately, his mouth nearly unhinged itself from how hard it dropped. The first thing he saw was an EXTREMELY flat, giant wall of salt-stained stone looming over him. The way it endlessly expanded in all directions, like it was taking full control of the horizon, nearly made him bow before its majestic nature. Holy Lordy... It's... Well, damn, that's BIG!

Only then did the crashing of nearby waves make sense: only something this well maintained could fend off against such rough waves. "Don't see YOU falling down soon, big man! Ha!" Shit, I wonder what the hell could be on top of it..?

Still, he contained himself as, finally bringing his attention back from swivelling up, left, right, and center, his eyes shot open as he started to weakly push himself back nervously. Crap, the door!

If the mountain was grand, natural, and inspiring, then that door the human jumped out and away from could be declared as the polar opposite: small, completely alien, and downright dismal. The small black rectangle tainted the mountain's grandeur, though the human didn't think too much about that.

The oddest part was the presence of alien writing; odd carvings were etched in the outline that was once the door would've been, but it was designed like the frame was PART of the glorious mountain instead of being its own protruding thing. Fucking A, it's even creepier from here!

That feeling was strengthened when a gust of wind gave the exposed hole a ghastly, menacing groan. Almost like it was alive... and calling the human back in. Jesus! The human's body jolted on its own, suddenly finding a hidden cache of energy to spring him up onto his hands and knees. His legs, though UNBELIEVABLY sore, tensed up enough that if anything dared to jump at him, their audacity would be met with a fleeing human. "That damn thing might be in there. Shit, it WAS right behind me!"

His head spun around, his body nearly following the motion. As far as he could tell, there wasn't much the slithering alien could hide behind: it seemed like in the past, the harsh lake swept up anything that wasn't the rock wall in front of him. No boulders anywhere in sight, just smooth, alien sand as far as the eye could see. Fuck, not a single one. Not even a small rock! He scratched his chin as a weird thought took his mind off the more distressing matter of making himself safe from that alien chasing him. Almost feels... artificial.

This calmed him down, but it didn't change his feelings toward that deep, black hole that seemed to barely take in any light even exposed like this. "No sense in not taking precautions..."

After muttering to himself and backing up a comfortable distance away, he started to notice something about the giant wall the further he slowly stepped back. Is it... curving? Oh shit, it is! His eyebrows arched the more he followed the line. Now, he wasn't stupid: he knew that it was always curving because rock can't just MAGICALLY change like that. But it didn't change the surreal feeling of seeing the optical illusion that was the wall continuing to unfurl itself.

The curve was just so unnoticeable at first that the human didn't even realize it, but as he kept walking back on the semi-beach he was on, he now knew why it seemed like the mountain went on for as long as the horizon. "I'm... I'm in an alcove! And a damn big one too! Well, I'll be damned..." Like a mixture of forgotten memories combined with years of instinct, something made him feel that he had walked through many of these before. But to walk surrounded by such grandiose and almost unbearable giant walls of stone, unlike anything he had ever seen before, really took his breath away.

Whistling, he spun on his heels, feeling oddly comforted by such walls looming over him. It was like he was a small baby protected by the walls of a caring cradle, a much-needed respite from the previous feelings of constant dread and death breathing down his neck. "Damn, but do I feel small, though. God-muthafucking-damn..."

After itching his sensitive body, the nearby saltwater seeming to find a home in his nervous sweating, he looked back at the door and smirked at how small the cause of so much distress looked now. "Hahah! Fuck off, you! Woo!" Triumph over the door erupted in him when he noticed how he walked so far that at this point, the door didn't even exist anymore: like all of the other details like small rocks poking out of the wall, the black rectangle simply... faded away into obscurity.

But in his mind, the foreboding sight of that creepy-yet-welcoming void was still stuck in his skull. And to say that he was troubled that a small part of him wanted to actually go back was an understatement. Shaking his head roughly, he got most of the feeling out... but no matter how he tried, a part of that feeling persisted.

Snarling for a mere moment, he composed himself when he sent his troubled mind the death blow of reassurance in the form of two middle fingers. Once I'm off this stupid planet, you'll be nothing more but a bad start to something great... err, I hope. "Fuck off either way!"

Brushing his shoulder off like they had dust, he turned around with a dramatic flair, REVELING in the joy that came with victory. But it was not to last. His stomach did begin to rumble, and as that happened, his body started cramping up from the puking he had done before. "Jesus! Fucking... Damn, I am hungry as shit, Lordy."

Smacking his gut a few times, he let out a sigh as he looked around for any source of food. Shit, I ain't so desperate to eat SAND... yet. Maybe that water is just around... A-HAH! There it is!

His prayers to find the source of the rough waves were revealed when a loud crash echoed around the beach and, with it, a small splash of water seemingly coming from nowhere. It was actually just past the edge of the curved wall to his left, something that surprised him quite pleasantly.

Sticking out his chest, he smiled in satisfaction. It's about damn time things start to turn around. And with a planet this fucking big and old, there ain't no god damn way that there isn't at least SOME alien fish to munch on. No way!

The human rubbed his hands excitedly and chuckled, stomping across the semi-moist alien sand. "Looks like things are finally looking... up..."

The back of his head started to itch, something awful on his skin that distracted him enough to trail away from his laughter. What in the hell..?

Scraping and scarping, it got to the point where he had to fully stop his movement, even though he was just about to make the last few metres necessary to finally got away from that door. But just when he started to get agitated, about to start huffing in effort when his nails starting to turn his scalp raw in the salty air, the feeling went away. Huh...

The human DID find it odd how without warning it appeared, but simply chalked it up to the mysterious nature of how itches worked. He continued his approach, practically forgetting that even happened until... That was... Huh?

Suddenly stopping by planting his foot down again, his eyebrows arched in irritation when he felt the exact same feeling appear again, this time on various spots located on the bulk of his arms. Grunting in exasperation, he switched between arms, only just beginning to think something was up. Now what? I mean, damn, I know I ain't got a shirt on, but... Fuck, now my God damn nipples itch!

...

Why the God damn nipples?!

The itching, which began to randomly appear on his other limbs, got to the point where its area of effect started to affect other spots. They started to tingle like somebody was poking and rubbing him with the hard base of a soft feather.

Though while such a sensation would've made him made laugh from just how ticklish he... apparently was, it was this rising... insidious feeling that kept him from doing so. What in the fuck is up all of a sudden? This... This shit ain't right, man. Crap, is this air even breathable?

Such questions concerning his survival on an alien planet started to appear in his head at a rapid rate: can I breathe the air; is the ground poisonous?

But as his feet sunk in the moist sand below him, he felt no stinging needles from subterranean fauna that might've been lurking below him this whole time. And as his breath quickened, only the sharp sensation of salt and cold watery air made itself known in his lungs; not a trace of any sort of airborne miasma was making itself known.

In all honesty, that recognition of safety just made the spreading feeling worse. The human's legs were just invaded, which worried him as not only were they on the verge of buckling as is, but now they had to deal with his nails digging into his skin. Fucking HELL! What is... happening to me!? He dropped onto his rear, which did help... if only for a moment.

His legs were now closer to his chest, so his frantic clawing was considerably easier. He started to wince as his tender skin started to show signs of his abuse in the form of red lines but only for a moment did it hinder his crusade against his own disturbing flesh. God damn it, not again, not again! Can I not get a break from this sort of shit?!

Finally letting out a growling, he nearly gasped when, for just a second, his body ceased all itching. Almost like... it heard and understood his anger. But right after, it continued without mercy which took away any hope he might've got. Biting his lip hard, the itching surged enough for him to claw deep into himself like his own body as an enemy to be beaten.

He looked down at his own nail with wide eyes, deciding enough was enough when he realized that he had a few layers of his surprisingly tough skin curled under each of his fingers. "Fuck... I gotta move. Man, what is UP with this planet?!"

Feeling frustration beginning to boil within, the human grunted in exhausted pain as he got back up. "Stupid, god damn..." Still striving towards the goal that constantly escaped him, getting the itching to stop, his brain started to do something bizarre.

It actually began to think of things that pissed him off. He had no idea WHY it would intentionally do that, but regardless, it did. It was like TRYING to give him energy from the growing rage he felt. But it was just making him even more unbelievably tired, in all honesty.

Stomping down, his lips started curling at each thought and memory that came back. Did those fucking RATS poison me or something? Oh, FUCK, when I find them again... HOHOO, my buddy, let me be the first to tell you something: they are fucked!

A low chuckle thundered in his chest the more he thought about his pursuers. And you know what else? That Big Boss guy? What was his deal?! I mean, what were any of their deals AT ALL? I can't remember ANYTHING I did to them. Couldn't they see that? Damn, son, I don't... I don't...

The human stopped for a second, his heart ceasing any movement as it began to pull in two different directions. My God, I almost said that. I... almost didn't care what happened to him. Feeling slightly disgusted with himself, he paced on the spot, only occasionally zoning back into scratch at a particularly bothersome spot, that being near his ear. That dude WAS alive and even fairly intelligent: he was SPEAKING, for God's sake! He was just like me... in a way...

Mental images that he pieced together during his odd moment of touching the body, the human couldn't even begin to imagine what pain Big Boss felt. Shaking his head, he clicked his teeth together. "He didn't deserve something like that. No one does!"

The human found it unusual just how empty and insincere those low words sounded. He found it even more troublesome how they didn't convince that uncaring part of him ONE BIT. Running his hands down his face, he promptly kept marching forward. Damn. I need to keep moving and find some food. And especially something to get rid of this incessant ITCHING! So stop thinking and KEEP MOVING!

He pressed on, and for a few minutes as he approached that sharp corner blocking him from seeing the rest of the beach, he held onto that promise. But he was only human, and soon, his mind began to wander again. Wander onto more... troubling thoughts. What were those... memories? I mean, I can barely call them that; being so disjointed and... fogged up makes it feel like I'm just watching someone else memories.

Sucking in his breath and squinting in inconvenience, the human wished for nothing more than for the itching to disappear as quickly as it had appeared, all so he could concentrate. But they still felt so damn REAL! Fractured pictures of that ghastly, downright ugly abomination popped in his mind. But he did not feel disgusted.

Indeed, he felt quite the opposite. Something in him felt calm as he 'remembered' its face, and it only grew the longer he 'remembered' those damn bright, hopeful eyes staring at him in awe. That mere fragment of memory was enough to brighten his bothered face with a small smile, like looking back a fond childhood memory. But what came next reminded him that all good things didn't last. Fuck! No, no, don't go!

The sudden transition and just how abrupt the peace and quiet of that 'memory' made him wish he didn't remember it at all. The feeling of the sudden fear of that alien's face, combined with the pain he felt, made him wince—his concentration on the one-out-of-two pleasant things that he could remember being shattered into a million pieces. No, no, don't go!

He kept moving forward, but because of just how damn jarring it felt going from that memory to the other, he couldn't resist stumbling like he was just shot. The memories of seeing those blurry aliens pointing and laughing that horrendous, appalling and ear-piercing laugh of theirs nearly took him out: even just the flashback of it was almost enough to finish the job the rats started. That jeering! The humiliation! Oh, and that pain! And... AND...

His breath caught in his throat as, all of a sudden, he felt his heart begin to pound, and his neck began to throb. The rushing RAGE he felt beginning to flow in his veins was too much for his eyes to handle. The pressure he felt as they went bloodshot made it feel like they were about to burst. All he saw was red.

He didn't know why, but as he progressed through the memory to the point where he was lifted up by that gargantuan cyclops... that same side of him, the side of him that didn't feel like HIM, which cared not for the well-being of his pursuer erupted from its dormancy. For just a moment, a mere fleeting sensation of pure, unadulterated rage and savagery dropped the human to his knees as his mouth began to foam with spittle. "HIM."

His breathing was heavy, and in his heart and on his neck, an immense pressure he couldn't describe was felt. That singular feeling and moment seemed to go on for eternity: a wrathful existence that was based solely around despising that one, tortuous figure locked away in the fog that was his mind.

He never thought it and the repeating thought of kill, kill, kill would ever end...

Until... it just did. Back in reality, the human gasped in shock as he caught both himself and his breath, his eyes wide with horror and confusion. Not only had the itching just simply VANISH like before, but it also didn't come back. Like it was scared of him and his outburst. Woah! God da..mn... UUUUUUUUUUUUUMMM... What the in fuck just happened?

He didn't realize it until he looked back up, but it was as if he had teleported forward. Or perhaps he simply had no memory of moving forward. Whatever the case was, he was sure about one thing: right before he was slammed into that most unpleasant memory, he was still quite a distance away from reaching that elusive corner.

Now, he was simply a lunge forward and pull and there he would be, the destination he so desired. If it weren't for his long dirty and bloody hair blowing in his eyes, they would've been the size of his head. If he had gotten there ANY other way, he would've been fine. But... But not like this! What in God's name just happened to me!?

He fell on his back as he scrambled a few feet away, finding a second during his frantic crawl backwards to wipe away the spit, his grunts and heavy pants of confusion letting his drool finally fall of his face. WHAT-IN-THE-FACK! Wha-WHEY--HUUUUH?! He looked around like a rabbit does to keep an eye out for any hawks. But in his search for something that was the cause of his relocation, he found nothing.

Which, needless to say, did not help his growing concern.

And just when he thought it couldn't get worse... It did. For during the commotion that was the combined sounds of sand getting crushed by the frenzied retreat, his chaotic breathing, and the crashing of the oh-so-close waves... he heard IT again. That god-awful, positively petrifying slithering sound and sensation right in his ear.

His teeth threatened to crush each other from how hard he tensed up. That awful feeling brought along with it, something he THOUGHT he finally rid himself, being added on to his already unbalanced state of mind dismayed him to no end. N-no... NO! I-impossible!

At first, as he spun his head around with wild eyes, he thought it was just his brain doing what it seemed to be doing best and just intentionally pissing him off with yet another unpleasant memory. And it even seemed to be the case, that awful slow, dragging sound of flesh or... in the flesh vanishing as quickly as it reared its ugly... face. Maybe. "F-fucking hell. It's... it's go-HRN!"

The slimy, slick sound of SOMETHING long and wet gliding on flesh disgraced his ears again. With it, a curse and a blessing: no longer did he even THINK about his sudden teleportation, for it seemed like just another weird thing to be laughing about later on a more PEACEFUL planet.

Because it meant something, a possibility he didn't even want to imagine. The human got up onto his two feet faster than ever before, his entire body rocking back and forth with how hard he was breathing and sweating. The itch was, thankfully, gone, so at least the human had that on his side. But quite literally nothing else but the patchy clothing barely covering his lower half.

"Wh-where the fuck ARE YOU?! Come out RIGHT NOW!" He rushed away from the corner, practically hissing in fearful defence when a singular droplet hit him. Thinking it whatever it is that was haunting him, he leaned back with a quick punch, hitting nothing but air. He stumbled back, his eyes going around in circles, trying their hardest to find even just a single small rock that it could possibly hide behind. "What the fuck are you? WHERE ARE YOU?! You can't be in the walls, can you? Fuck, maybe! Getaway, man!"

His screaming was echoing all throughout the beach, but he could not care. His loud mutterings could be heard by the whole universe, and he could not care less. What the hell is even going on anymore?! Fuuck!

Sprinting with surprising speed, the human basically brought himself back to base one. The distance he made was all for naught as he quickly assumed a new, and hopefully, safer position away from the last place he REALLY hoped was where IT was hiding.

But in that alcove, there was only him, the now-haunting walls and the sand below him. This meant that when he felt... and heard... one particularly slow drag of whatever it was moving around again, there could be only one place that was close enough to him for him to hear it. O-oh God...

He looked at his chest, turning his hands to see his shaking palms, with a terrified expression and an even worse apprehension. Paralyzed by an unimaginable feeling, the seconds turned into eternities, and for what felt like a while, it seemed like nothing would happen. But even eternity has an end; he learned this quite soon as his trembling breaths came to a close.

During this slowed time, right in sync with his heartbeat, the cause of so much distress and horror revealed itself.

Oh... Oh.

Uh, fuck.

Right inside him and wrapped around his heart... was that thing. It seemed like it was practically swimming in clear water with how easily it moved around him. His body was like soup and whatever it was moved around his veins and organs like a bored child played with the vegetables in the bowl. The unknown alien in him made its self known as it kept going around like a dog trying to make a bed in the grass.

He fainted.

Almost like the human just had a mental heart attack, his brain practically flatlined as it simply could not even comprehend what was happening. His lungs ceased their expansion as the terror he felt took away both his breath and control over his legs; his stomach yearned to puke but could only heave in disgust. His heart felt like it stopped when the unknown alien tightened its grip, finally establishing itself within his ribs when it sent off repulsive tendrils throughout every single limb of his.

It wasn't necessarily painful; in fact, it had just been like before when he was laid out next to Big Boss as the cold returned. To the human's toes and fingers, those horrid tentacles seemed to go, pushing aside the obstacles that were his strong muscles and flesh with the utmost ease. How it knew his own body so well, he did not and could never know.

But he knew one thing was for certain: his nerves were now also its. ALL organs beat for two now. He couldn't confirm it as nothing FELT like it was changed, but he knew it happened regardless. His eyes saw for two. Every orifice and pore meant for his use alone somehow connected to it; he was sure of it.

Once a vessel to a deeply disturbed soul and brain, his body now carried along with it a second passenger. His eyes rolled back in his head when the invasive tendrils he had not hoped to defend against became too much for him to bear. When a slow, almost tentative one approached the back of his skull, and his already dead thoughts went quiet as he fainted, something occurred to the deadened human.

What sort of fucked-up galaxy is this?

And then, without warning, slow and careful became fast and harsh. A quick, piercing stab at the back of the human's brain and immediately...

Everything went black.