One particular passageway underground was coated in distant groans and the sting of rotten flesh. ‘Lab’, a sign wrote.
Rusted walls glow under the lightbulb. The only maintained component of the room was the bars halfway in, containing the source of the stench. Maya, after breathing deeply, puffed out to show off to her assistant.
Out of the two, Marley was more shrunken in her coat. This action gave the illusion of her being shorter than Maya, who stared down at her. An effective mask, Maya believed, to the lump in her throat begging to leave her words buried. No matter. All others experienced the same struggle to make the first word, Maya told herself.
“First day here, aren’t you excited?” Maya asked.
“I suppose.”
Yet Marley, supposedly brimming with joy, flinched at a single thump from within the cell. Darkness often tricked the mind into going against what it already knew.
“Another question. Do you know the first principle of being a village scientist?”
Marley lifted her glasses up, as if to evaluate her situation as more real than not.
“You said to always clean my coat.”
Maya sighed. “If you want to be so literal, then I will reciprocate. Do not be afraid here. Back out now if you are.”
Marley stayed hidden in herself, silent. Perhaps she was choosing whether to lie or disappoint Maya. But she was in the room. Maya knew that she would drag Marley back in if needed, but the newcomer wouldn’t ever try. She just needed to think staying was an achievement, for her confidence.
“Look at me, I’m not infected. Speaking of, I have to show you my theory.”
“Of a cure, ma’am?”
“Not quite, but my proposition will be helpful.” Maya said, chest high. “That’s the second principle. Always evaluate the exact potential you have, even if it’s not so grand.”
Maya clicked on a switch. Steam emitted from a few angles, and gears roared as they pressed together.
A lightbulb sprung on. The cell was as rusted as barren as any box could be, excluding the empty food bowl and scratch marks. If full metal plating weren’t reinforced below the floor, one could be tricked into thinking the containment was dented beyond repair.
The northmost edge of the room cowered from the light. Dark shadows were casted. One toe poked out, rotted, yet squirming.
“It catches a new scent.”
Marley shook over and over, only looking at Maya with the yearning eyes of a toddler. “What does that mean?” She asked.
“It’s attention is split between us, for now. But that won’t matter.”
Maya activated the second switch. A smaller cage, neglected until then, opened its hatch. Maya grabbed onto the escaped mouse immediately. As expected, there was no resistance by now.
Maya squatted in front of the cell bars, and let her little pet walk in through. It sniffed as it walked, not evaluating its sights at all.
“This rat is mentally defective, as you could likely tell.” Maya spoke, intending to strike Marley despite not turning to make eye contact. “You may assume that will affect this test. It won’t. Just a physical.”
“Just a physical?” Marley repeated.
“You’ll see.”
As the two silenced themselves, a faint exchange was created. First, the rat squeaked occasionally when its nose hit a dusted bump. Almost in response, hums and groans poured from the dark spot. That’s all it did, make noises. At least the rat didn’t hold the self awareness for fear, Maya thought.
“Is something meant to happen, ma’am? Not to doubt you, but,”
At that question, Maya realized it had been half a minute. She sighed.
“Not again. Look, give me a second.”
The last and final switch released a thickened gas in the enclosure. Shadows convulsed at a simple sniff. Fingers and limbs sprang from their corner to latch onto the rat. Rotten purple in a second, it was soon consumed by a larger beast, which posed as a man. Maya clicked the stop button on her watch.
Marley nearly turned, but Maya grabbed onto her face and forced her to take in the infected.
Past the tattered clothes was a layer of green skin, set to fall and regrow at all contact. Maya still wondered how such brittle bones supported the thing’s head. There, its eyes were shot open from the gas exposure.
Maya made sure to direct Marley’s head away from the crunching, as satisfying as it was, to focus on the creature’s left wrist. A human jaw dug deep in there, once. That is the only scar that never healed.
There was no use waiting for the thing’s moans, groans, and generally low-intellect ejections to stop. Maya held her breath to strengthen her voice.
“We found it in this state.” she said. “And notice our honored guest.”
Marley must have taken the moment to think. “He got eaten.”
Maya’s tempo was ticked off by an obnoxious gulp.
“Yes, but notice what happened moments before. If my precision was correct, it took one point two seconds for the fur to turn purple.”
“This is meant to show how fast the infection spreads, you mean?”
“Precisely.” Maya said. “I have calculated how fast the germs would move through us. Say, a human arm. We would have around a second to dispose of it.”
Marley had darted away from eye contact into scanning the caged creature some more. There was nothing skeptical about that. Anything new, even if disgusting, always caught the eye of scientists Maya saw. Though after the thousandth time of witnessing the drool, parted eyes, randomized hand movement, and biting motions, Maya could only bear sickness. Yet it also brought a lack of surprise when it lunged at the bars. Decaying palms clawed at the metal.
“So it’s all true.” Marley mumbled.
“Before this poor thing became this,” Maya said. “I’m sure it was just as scared as you. But, pull your chin up.”
“Hm?”
“You won’t have to pull that posture again.”
Maya smacked Marley’s backside to straighten up, which she did following a laugh.
That was one person made to laugh that day. Maya held around a thousand other unchecked names in her head.
The village hall consisted of stone stacks, rugged overtime. Maya’s path was still clear. Usually active children were pulled out of the way by their parents, then pressed against their wooden houses and wells.
Maya, who vowed to be the only one at risk, took up the task of pulling the cart alone. Topped on it was a small cage which had the abomination shoved into it. Maya turned around every so often to ignore the strain on her forearms, or how the gloves she used dug into her skin. Though, she didn’t appreciate the horrified faces of her fellow village people.
Maya stopped for a moment to snap her fingers. “Hey.”
The creature had kept its focus on one child, waving its hands around in some sort of message. The child only nodded until his mom covered his eyes. Garbage nonsense, the creature had been relaying, and anyone below a certain age was subject to believe it all meant something.
“Stop scaring everyone.”
The creature paid no attention. It kept waving and weaving its rotten flesh.
Center of the village was a stone podium in front of the waterfall. Huffing, Maya was so close then. Whispers from all directions tugged at her to turn back again. Adults, mostly, were fearful. Billboards next to them promised a cure, so no wonder most of the populus went out, but Maya wondered if anyone regretted coming just out of the burden of seeing her subject.
Top of the podium was the brightly cloaked village head. Even shadows couldn’t hide his contempt and suspicions. As Maya approached, he leaned back only slightly. Maya knew that such a man needed to present himself as strong and unfettered. At the very least, he couldn’t be seen with less willpower than a scientist who dabbled in the grotesque.
She stood beside him, her creature next up. In the middle of them all was a chair, augmented with a grip for one resting arm. Maya blocked the audience’s view of it for the time being.
Hundreds of recited attempts repeated all of a sudden. When faced with a mirror, stumbled fowls or forgotten subjects were excused. Her people were no mirror, they were people so smooth in their voices that they made it seem easy.
Ahem, she croaked.
“I am honored as your local innovator to meet you all today. We have major updates on the ‘mindless bite’ situation. How does this all work? The solution? I’ve got it all for you.”
Eyes of children, uncovered by their parents for the sake of clapping, blazed on. All attention was broken from the hellish being. Less reserved now, the dozens of people gathered jumped and cheered. They weren’t afraid to do so, Maya noted. A familiar jump of butterflies filled her. She couldn’t join the rest of her people just yet, though she agreed on how soothing a solution was.
The village head followed up with the following: “I believe you wanted a demonstration?”
“Yes.”
Maya sat herself down. Mid speech, the village head began locking down her arm.
“So yes, I too am concerned with potentially finding a similar creature to this,” she said. “There is no direct cure so far aside from avoiding bites altogether. However, I present a fringe solution that may save lives.”
Maya was fully locked on. For a moment, she paid attention to the mayor revealing her invention: a steaming hot blade that caught the crowd in anticipation. She closed her eyes.
“My blade, the Maya Blade, is able to cut human flesh and bone without effort.” People cheered past any chance to continue, for reasons Maya anticipated to be more malicious than planned. “With this, infected wounds will be easily severed. Perhaps if this thing detached itself from the infection, it would still be a man.”
All of a sudden, claps ceased, leaving the creature itself to bellow quietly.
“Let me show you.” Maya finished quickly. She hoped to rush her audience’s mind so it wouldn’t wander for alternative uses of her invention.
She eyed the mayor once last time. One last condition repeated in thought: only once, while human.
The creature yelped in its cage. Careful adjusting from the mayor, at his distance, ensured that the thing’s head poked out without having the chance to bite. Its rotting teeth never came close to the mayor, as it never tried. All effort exerted was a set of obnoxious croaks.
Rotted breath passed Maya’s locked arm, while the weight of the Maya Blade caressed the other. It had to be her to perform the deed, out of realism, yet that meant overseeing exactly how slow the creature was being. It squirmed, clearly conscious that day, yet unchained by any sort of desire. Braindead, Maya knew, compared to a potential patient zero.
The audience waited.
“This will only take a second.”
Maya smacked her lips twice, and the mayor ran back with a jar of gas. A coded command, meaning release.
The aroma enraptured the beast. Maya raised her weapons in advance.
Eyes stuck out, reddened and crayzed; possibly begging for the host to stop convulsing. All senses twisted its attention to Maya’s arm. Just as she swung her sword, the thing bit down.
Teeth cleaved through flesh and carved a purple hue. Maya’s muscles rotted away, the spread only stopping at the blade; a wall separating severed meat. Both sides were leaking, only one roared out anguish through Maya’s nerves. Shoulder down, she was missing an arm.
Maya pulled away, yet she couldn’t escape the pain. Her eyes were closed but she at least knew. At the very, very least, she was herself. She was bleeding human blood. Her villagers gasped so suddenly because of the odor and general sickness of her severed arm, because that was unusual. Maya was there to comprehend this reality. She was sound, all while conscious for at least a moment.
She was so easily dragged and held by the mayor, not bound to the chair anymore. The screams of the infected thing and the audience pounded at Maya’s ears. Perhaps her body never wanted to persist, forced to sting against the patches made to her arm. Maya held on. She breathed, in and out, and focused on it.
Nothing slowed down her agony or regretful thoughts, soundfully clear.
It worked.
That truth laid her to rest.
Maya’s last memory was severing herself. It repeated, over and over. One perk of the human mind, she thought, was that the pain recalled in hindsight was always faint enough. No extra suffering crushed her, yet there was enough to imprint the event. A sort of ache replaced where her arm should have been. Numbing, yet persistent. Maya recalled a sort of ‘phantom’ pain a child once spoke of. Fascinating, how things changed by day.
Maya only then noticed the texture on her back. Dots of roughness, almost, carried her. She dared not open her eyes at first. Afterall, she needed rest. And yet, the hospital would never build itself as stiff as this. Maya opened her eyes.
Every side was built on dirt. The room was small at first glance, consisting of a few things: a door, Maya herself, and a persistent ringing. Maya needn’t look around yet, as she was busy stretching and looking down at herself.
One arm, gone, yet the other smelled just as bloodied.
Green, shriveled past any muscle she had left to the point where she saw the bone. Maya sniffed. A familiar rot ripped any illusions of a normal scent. After ripping her sleeves back with her mouth, Maya was able to witness her full set of skin. Mouth to leg, chest to stomach, and all else was subject to decay.
“What the hell?” Maya wanted to ask, but she merely croaked. Green blood spat itself out. Her throat was itchy, her skin was itchy, and if only she could rip it all off! But with only one arm, that would be difficult. If only she could just rid herself of it, all the filth. Such familiar filth. Her own stink was only passive now, because Maya knew that she had smelled it before.
But, how? She saw herself sever the infected bits. Rats escaped the experiment scott free, on some occasions. How low of her, a human, to wake up in a dimly lit block of soil? What woman was a rat? She punched herself. No pain, despite her effort. Her arm may have bounced off her stomach from weakness, or her nerves may have melted. She punched herself again and again. These experiments amounted to nothing, yet she rapidly mauled herself some more.
A stomp. It propelled Maya to turn around.
That thing that bit her was staring. It was at a reasonable distance, when considering normal people, yet Maya still flinched and crawled backward.
Its arms flopped and gestured.
“It seems that you were one of us, all along.”
This voice was sharp and clear as day. No matter how much Maya turned, she couldn’t find the origin. The calming words must have come from her own mind. Yet, what she heard was external; not intended by Maya herself.
The thing created more signs in the air.
“I would have bitten you less severely if I could.” The voice continues. “I’m sorry.”
So, the voice was fake? Maya pounded on her own skull. Get out, she’d plead. The rotting being jumped ahead and pulled Maya’s arms away.
In the effort to push the thing away. Maya tumbled and weighed both of them down. Where was the pain? Before she even realized it, the creature lifted her up. Not a nerve in either of them. Yet, the other must have had it worse, surely.
More gestures. “Can you hear me, Maya?”
She nodded only a second, before lifting her chin in an act of supremacy. She used to do this to all new recruits. Surely, then, nothing has changed.
“Then, you must be wondering what we-”
Maya clenched her opposer’s throat, resulting in no struggle at all. It only continued to whisper in her head.
“We are people who speak.” It said, “Only, in a tongue no one wishes to learn. If you let yourself grow, you will grow into these techniques.”
Techniques? Impossible. The thing’s hands only displayed gibberish, along with whatever magic, drug, or whichever infected Maya at the moment. She turned away. Useless to pry anything else.
The only door was blocked off by several layers of rocks. Nothing Maya had would work, so she only stood.
Only, she delved into her own body. No longer did she itch everywhere. When laying, sure, but the pure neutrality in her stance was a new sensation. What drug could be responsible? That had to be it. She was typically free of substances, regardless of their supposed ’benefits’. Those of typical living stance, like her assistants, had to merely endure the itches in their mind when met with texture. So typical, in fact, that no soul needed to talk about it.
Bliss may have flowed through Maya, but staying in such a state was weak. Weak, weak, she thought over again.
She punched the wall with her one arm. Not a sensation beat out the ache in her other.
Perhaps hours passed until the door slid open. A dark pit was all that faced Maya.
No, she told herself, she wouldn’t walk down a dark path without any knowledge. Whoever opened the door didn’t reveal themselves.
Floating with no sound at all, a red gas loomed ahead. The room filled. While the other creature merely stood unchanged, Maya couldn’t help but grip at herself.
Bumps from above and within her skin pushed. Everything squirmed and seared, fogging her position. Stumble after stumble, Maya walked up to the darkness without ever wanting to.
She coughed and shed tears. No plea was answered. Her legs were forced ahead. Maya turned her neck around, only serving to show her how far she went. The previous room was a thin line, and then nothing at all.
Darkness was all there was.
Suddenly, movement ceased. Maya tried moving on her own. Nothing changed. Not even a smudge of light left shifted. She wasn’t able to see much, nor did her nerves spark any pain.
She sniffed.
Iron sprayed her in a concentrated dosage. Maya wheezed. No amount of blood spilled produced such an odor in her life, until then.