Chapter 2: No Universe Without You

No longer will we have to rely on flukes of mutation like those arrogant Elementals! Powers such as theirs occur too infrequently. Though they comprise a significant military power, their mutation can only occur in 1% of the population. And of that number, even fewer have achieved longevity, but they still age, albeit more slowly depending on the strength of their psions. My research goes far beyond mere natural quirks.

That was pretty badass earlier! Time to live up to it, thought Ryan to himself as he covered himself from head to foot in mud.

When his mud layer was finished, Ryan walked out as quietly as he could toward the source of the noise. Despite the fact that Ryan had faced the Parasites before, his heart started beating so fast that he feared it might burst out of his chest. If his arm hairs weren’t covered in mud, he knew that they would probably be standing on end. The last time they had gone up against these Parasites, it nearly cost Éclair her life, and that might have frightened Ryan even more than the Dark Creature ever could. This time around, Ryan would make sure that they wouldn’t come anywhere near Éclair.

It didn’t take long for Ryan to locate the Parasite’s position. It was rummaging around the woods like a rhino. He could hear it crawling on the ground and smashing through the trees. He could smell its rancid breath on the wind. Thankfully, Ryan’s enhanced senses had returned in full force just when he needed them, allowing him to sense the Parasite from half a mile away. Suddenly, the Parasite stopped moving. It seemed busy at work doing something. It sounded like it was breathing heavily in concentration. Whatever had it occupied, it stayed in the same spot for the most part, which suited Ryan just fine.

Ryan looked down at his hands, realizing that his fingers were already ignited without him even having to consciously summon fire. Knowing that fire would cause too much of a commotion, Ryan had to purposely extinguish his flames. But when he tried to bring out the claws again, he was unable to do so. Even though he tried, again and again, to bring out the claws that he used against the other Parasites, nothing happened as he was left with a mostly normal-looking scale-covered hand.

Come on, claws! Stupid random powers that only seem to pop up every once in a while! For once, I wish I was more of a freak than I already am!

Realizing that his efforts were in vain, Ryan climbed up the nearest tree and broke off the strongest and longest spike-like branch that he could find. He tried to do so quietly, though he felt certain that the snap of the branch would alert the Parasite to his presence even from so far away. However, the Parasite seemed to be too preoccupied in its work to take notice of Ryan as its movements and breathing remained the same.

That was when Ryan realized what the monster must have been doing. The only thing that would hold any animal’s attention for that long would be food. It must have killed one of the woodland creatures and was currently in the process of eating it.

Damn Parasite! It better not have killed that antlered deer-lizard thing I spotted a while back! That thing was like ten points! It was going to be our Thanksgiving dinner if we lasted that long!

With the tip of his makeshift spear pointed towards the direction of the Parasite’s grunting and hissing, Ryan slowly made his way forward. He forcibly brought his heartbeat under control as he came closer and closer to the Parasite. And within moments, Ryan saw the pink-skinned creature with its back to him as it gnawed on something propped against a tree. In resignation, Ryan realized that it was indeed the fabled ten-pointer that he had wanted to catch for weeks now. Stifling his anger, Ryan continued angling himself to the Parasite’s back as its four jaws crunched the bones of the deer lizard, sucking up its guts like noodles.

Ryan knew that he would only get one shot, and if the Parasite managed to call out for help, it would probably all be over. Straining himself to survey the area, Ryan looked everywhere for any signs of other Parasites in the vicinity but found nothing with his enhanced senses.

I can’t find any signs of other Parasites nearby. Looks like this one is a scout. That’s good. If I kill him before he can call for help, we shouldn’t have to deal with any other ones for a while. But we’re still probably going to have to move, just to be safe.

Drawing himself closer in order to make the kill, Ryan was wary of the tentacles that wriggled around the Parasite’s sides and back, almost as if to ward off any surprise attacks from behind. Knowing that getting past the tentacles would probably prove useless, Ryan decided to do the next best thing.

“Hey, worm-squid!” called out Ryan.

The Parasite reacted just as Ryan wanted it to, wrenching its massive head around and growling at him in warning, but with its mouth still full, it could not let out a full-blown roar. The monster displayed a natural territorial threat response, and it was exactly what Ryan needed. Leaping forward, Ryan brought up the stick-spear and stabbed the Parasite right in its open mouth. The action was two-fold, not just delivering a killing blow to the Parasite, but silencing it as the spear went down the Parasite’s throat and through the back of its head.

The Parasite didn’t die immediately, struggling against the piece of wood shoved down its throat. A stifled wheezing noise came from the Parasite as it flailed against the branch. Ryan struggled to maintain his grip on the spear as the monster’s tentacles whipped him across his back. The creature even brought its freakishly long arms to bear against Ryan as it clawed at him savagely at the shoulders. Ryan managed to grab a single arm and hold it back with one hand while he jumped up and held the other arm in place with his foot. He held its limbs at bay while still holding a firm grasp on the spear as he waited for the Parasite to finally die. The two of them remained quietly deadlocked like that for a few moments. Ryan used all his willpower to struggle against the Parasite’s strength and size in silence so as not to attract any others. With an extra deep breath of effort, Ryan pushed forward with all his strength, pinning the Parasite to the ground.

Suddenly, Ryan heard a crunching noise. The Parasite had bitten straight through the wooden spear as it shook out one end of the stick from its mouth. The loss in tension caused Ryan to lose his balance, which allowed the Parasite to get the upper hand on him and sweep his legs from under him with a swipe of its long arm that was once under his foot.

As Ryan fell to the forest floor, he immediately rolled out of the way of the Parasite’s counterattack. Fortunately, the Parasite did not press its attack as it was too busy trying to claw the stick out of its throat and dislodge it from the back of its head.

Were these things always this hard to kill?!

Still gripping the other end of the stick, which was pointed itself, Ryan jumped at the Parasite and climbed up its chest to position himself at the back of its head. Its tentacles battered Ryan relentlessly, and the small spikes on each tentacle dug deeply into his flesh, but he ignored the pain as all his focus zeroed in on finishing the worm off. With a grunt of effort, Ryan plunged the other end of the stick deep into the top of the Parasite’s head. Once again, Ryan found himself in a stalemate as the Parasite clawed around its back and tried to push him off with its tentacles. But within seconds, its force became lax as Ryan felt the Parasite get weaker and weaker as it struggled with less vigor within each passing moment.

At last, the large creature began to fall. Ryan quickly positioned himself under the beast and held it up so that its massive bulk wouldn’t make a sound when it hit the ground. Lowering the dead monster down as gently as possible, Ryan immediately went about wiping the slime from his hands. The mucus and sweat covering him had become so dense that most of his mud-coating had been wiped away. Ryan was tired and breathing heavily, but overall satisfied with the result.

Glad there was only one this time. I better get back to Éclair so that we can start moving.

Just as Ryan was about to head back to Éclair’s cave, he heard another noise that gave him pause. But this was not the sound of a Parasite.

“Help me!” Ryan heard a voice call out in the distance. A human voice.

Still being cautious, Ryan carefully made his way towards the voice.

“Please, someone help me!” called out the voice again. It was a woman’s voice. Not Éclair, but definitely a woman, and definitely human.

Maybe it’s a survivor from the ship, wondered Ryan to himself. Could they have lasted this long?

Jumping up a tree to get a better angle on things, Ryan peered down and saw a woman in the clearing. She seemed to be crawling through some bushes, so she was partly concealed from Ryan’s vision even in the bright afternoon sun. However, Ryan could make out almost immediately the bright red armor of the Ministry of Fire.

Just seeing the emblem of the Ministry caused Ryan to abandon all reason as he jumped down and immediately ran towards the injured Elemental.

“It’s okay,” said Ryan in a quiet and calm voice. “I’m from the Ministry, too. We have a campsite not too far from here, and my partner is pretty knowledgeable in medicine. Whatever you need, she should be able to help.”

The lady continued to crawl as if she didn’t hear Ryan, and said once again, “Please help me!”

Sensing that something was amiss and knowing that he wouldn’t know what until he got a better look, Ryan walked through the bushes towards the injured Elemental woman. He gently placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder to bring her up to face him. Then he immediately felt something stab him in the side. Looking down at the source of the pain, he saw that the woman’s hand was not a hand, but resembled a smaller version of a Parasite’s claw as it stuck through his side. Ryan also saw that there were small tentacles oozing out of the woman’s arms like exposed veins. And then Ryan saw the woman’s face. Half of it was fine, but the other half was swelling, red, slimy, and deformed.

The woman’s eyes were dead, but her mouth still somehow worked despite the fact that half of it hung limply, exposing her tongue and her teeth. “Please, help me!” repeated the woman like a broken record with her hand still in Ryan’s side.

Recovering from the momentary shock of seeing a malformed Parasite Infected human abomination, Ryan went into action. He pulled the woman’s hand out of him and tried to back away as she opened her horrible half-human, half-Parasite mouth. Out of her mouth, she sprayed Ryan with some kind of green gunk that gave him the severe urge to throw up himself. As Ryan reeled from the foul-smelling liquid that soon covered his body, he lost his footing and fell on his back.

The woman pounced on him almost instantly, clawing and biting like a feral animal. Probably the most terrible part of the whole experience was the fact that she kept repeating ever more persistently, “Please help me! Please help me! Please help me!”

Amidst struggling against the diseased Elemental, Ryan thought he could see tears running down her scarred face as she continued to press her attack just as relentlessly as any Parasite.

Is there a part of her that’s still alive in there ... aware of what she’s become!

Unable to stay on the defensive any longer, Ryan reached out with one hand, grabbed a fistful of the lady’s black hair, and pulled with all his might. The woman’s neck immediately snapped as her head did a complete one-eighty-degree turn. However, even though the woman’s head was now facing the wrong direction, she never relented her attack as her clawed arms kept reaching for Ryan’s throat.

Holding her clawed hands at bay with his own, Ryan finally growled in anger, and said, “Oh, screw this!”

Allowing his aggression to drive his actions, Ryan ripped the woman’s disease-ridden arm out of its socket with one giant pull. And then, bringing fire to his hand and shaping his fingers into a sword-like pattern, Ryan held the other arm in place with one hand as he chopped down with the other, slicing the arm clean off the woman’s body.

With the woman literally disarmed, Ryan easily kicked her body off of him. Coming to his feet and panting in exhaustion, he finally let loose the urge to vomit that he had managed to keep at bay during the fight. Ryan retched long and hard before he finally got himself under control. The stench of his puke almost overshadowed the foul smell of the walking corpse which he had only noticed at that moment. He didn’t realize how bad she smelled because of the corpse of the deer and the Parasite he just killed not too far away. The poor woman that had fallen to the Parasitic infection continued to wiggle and writhe despite being armless and having her head wrenched backwards. Ryan was filled with equal parts of pity and revulsion.

Could this be Éclair’s fate if her infection comes back, thought Ryan in horror. He refused to go down that line of thinking. Just the thought of Éclair turning into ... that. It was too horrible to contemplate.

Wishing desperately to liven up the rather grim situation, Ryan thought up a joke. “Well, that was disarming.”

The woman continued hissing while repeating, “Please help me!”

“I know,” acknowledged Ryan in a depressed voice. “Poor timing and poor taste.”

Ryan then heard another shriek that wasn’t quite a Parasite, but still held a note of danger, nonetheless. “Oh, now what?”

As Ryan turned around, he saw none other than the ten-point deer-lizard back from the dead, in a manner of speaking. Though the deer-lizard still had a gaping hole in its side where the Parasite had bitten into it, it was somehow up and about and walking on its own. But more than that was the fact that Ryan noticed tentacles were sprouting all over the deer-lizard’s body. And as it opened its mouth, Ryan knew that its jaws had changed to resemble a Parasite’s. The deer-lizard hissed at Ryan in a way that seemed unnatural for its herbivorous species.

Quickly assessing the situation and realizing how tired he felt, Ryan simply shook his head, and said, “Nuh-uh.”

As Ryan turned to leave, he found that he was no longer alone, but surrounded by writhing, tentacle-infected humans, all of them wearing the symbols of the Ministry of Fire. Some of them were even farther gone than the woman from earlier, hardly possessing any human features at all, not even the ability to speak. Some of them kept repeating, “Please, help us,” like the woman had. But there were a few who said repeatedly, “Kill us, please.” There were even some other woodland creatures in the mix like the deer-lizard. Even the Glow Rats, who weren’t so cute and cuddly anymore. Dozens of infected Elementals rose out of the ground, shaking the dirt from their bodies like dogs. It was then that Ryan realized the reason that he wasn’t able to sense their presence until now. Somehow, they had the intelligence to stay still and hidden beneath the earth’s surface. Perhaps that meant that the Parasites were smarter than he had first thought.

Ryan’s near-paradise and once safe haven had become some twisted nightmare of astronomical proportions. Backing away slowly from the army of undead creatures, Ryan tried to determine the best course of action as more and more Zombies poured out of the trees.

If I can summon a big enough blast, I can use the aftermath to get away. But I need to wait for them to get closer before I make my move.

But the Infected army that had surrounded him made no move against him. They just maintained their lines around Ryan, preventing his escape. Becoming impatient, Ryan charged his psions as he prepared to make the first move, but not before he suddenly felt something rising from beneath the ground. A large Parasite hand sprang up from the earth, grabbing Ryan around his chest and pinning him to his back. The act knocked the wind out of Ryan. He was only able to stare up weakly as a fully-grown Parasite raised its head and roared at him with lethal intent. Its rotating teeth chattered incessantly as it brought its head down for the killing blow.

Before the monster could bite Ryan’s head off like it intended, it was struck by a wooden arrow in the head. Amazingly enough, ice sprouted out of the point of impact to engulf the Parasite’s whole head. But if it had been one of Éclair’s special Psionic Arrows, Ryan knew that the ice would have covered the Parasite’s whole body.

Tracing the trajectory of the arrow, Ryan saw none other than Éclair herself sitting on a tree branch and using the wooden bow that she had instructed him in making. She was panting and clearly exhausted as sweat beaded her brow, but there she was, nonetheless, in all her elegant glory. Éclair had the fiercest look on her face that Ryan had ever seen as her violet eyes shined with equal parts fear and determination while she held the wooden bow with clenched fingers. Even covered in mud from head to foot, she was still magnificent to behold. Ryan had to admit to himself that seeing Éclair perched up there holding her bow after just firing a dead-on shot knowing the condition she was in ... it was just about the hottest thing he had ever witnessed in his life. Too bad his joy for her appearance was overshadowed by anger at her for leaving the safety of the cave behind.

The Parasite raised one hand and shattered the ice covering its head almost instantly. Ryan didn’t waste the opportunity that Éclair had given him as he came to his feet and scuttled away from the leading Parasite. The Infected Elementals surrounding Ryan soon took notice of Éclair and wasted no time in attacking the tree she was perched on. Within an instant, the attacks from their clawed hands shattered the tree at its trunk, causing it to fall. As Éclair went into free motion for the briefest of moments, Ryan felt his muscles go into overdrive as he jumped from his standing position to Éclair in the blink of an eye from at least thirty feet away.

After Ryan caught the still-injured Éclair in midair, his indignation took hold as he screamed, “What the hell are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in the cave! Do you have a death wish?!”

Ryan somehow managed to lecture Éclair while landing to the ground and taking off in a sprint, all while cradling Éclair’s body in his arms.

“Oh, that’s rich!” retorted Éclair, perhaps even angrier than Ryan as she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck to steady herself. “This coming from the man literally bent on suicide! I practically begged you to stay in the cave with me, but NOOOO! You had to go off all macho and nearly get yourself killed!”

As Ryan continued to run through the forest with Éclair in his arms, he took notice that the Parasite and its undead army were still hot on their trail, with more and more undead creatures popping out of the woodworks.

“This is hardly the time and place for playful banter, Éclair!” yelled Ryan as he gritted his teeth and tried to lose the Parasites using sharp turns.

“WHO’S BEING PLAYFUL?!” screamed Éclair, growing more furious by the second. He was sure that if they weren’t running for their lives, she would’ve pummeled him. “This is me being genuinely pissed off at you right now!”

While he ran, Ryan looked behind him to see how many enemies were on their tail while still managing to dodge the trees and thorns in his path. There was a lot.

“How’d you even get up in that tree?” he asked breathlessly while continuing his pace. “Aren’t you supposed to be crippled or something?”

“I used my arms!” cried out Éclair as she raised a hand, and only then did Ryan notice the small cuts on her palms and elbows, no doubt from the bark. “Since my legs are practically useless and all! Thank you so much for reminding me!”

“I’ll take sensitivity lessons after we get out of this!” shouted back Ryan, seeing the Parasite in the lead of the undead pack as it slithered after them with cheetah-like speed.

“Ryan, look out!” called out Éclair as she looked ahead, bringing Ryan’s attention back to the front.

Two more Parasite leaders burst out of the ground a few feet ahead. He jumped past one and immediately ducked out of the reach of the other without breaking stride. Ryan ran faster than he could remember running. It was probably at a speed faster than a speeding hovercraft. The only reason that he could find for being able to maintain that speed for so long was the fact that Éclair was in his arms and that her very life depended on him to keep running. He even heard the air pop occasionally as he broke the sound barrier for sporadic bursts. He would’ve maintained those Mach speeds, but those short sprints tired him out too quickly. Plus, he always had to slow to avoid more Parasites that would appear in front of him. Unfortunately, when moving in a straight line, the Parasite’s speed matched his own.

The underground assaults from Parasites and their undead minions seemed to increase in intensity as Ryan found himself constantly having to dodge, duck, or jump out of the way of incoming attacks. He had to change directions a few times as more groups of Infected Elementals came at Ryan from different directions in the woods.

Feeling his reserves of stamina falling low as his velocity lessened with each step, Ryan looked down to Éclair’s face, and said, “This isn’t working! We need to change tactics!”

“I agree!” acknowledged Éclair. “They seem to have this entire area covered! I suggest you try to lose them from the treetops! The Parasites have not displayed much aptitude for climbing or jumping, and I doubt their Infected Elementals can either!”

Ryan nodded in agreement while maintaining his pace as best he could. “Alright! I think I can manage that, but I’ll need you to do piggyback for a while!”

“Piggy what?” asked Éclair just before Ryan tossed her nearly twenty feet in the air.

While Éclair was suspended in midair, Ryan dug in deep to bring out his second wind as he jumped up to catch her in freefall yet again. Only instead of catching her in his arms, he turned his back to her, hoping that she’d realize what he needed her to do. Thankfully, Éclair immediately responded by wrapping her arms and legs around his torso from his back, doing piggyback just like he had intended.

With Éclair safely secured behind his back, Ryan kicked off from a tree behind them. As he did so, an infected human jumped for them with its mutated jaws snapping at his feet. Luckily, Ryan kicked off from the tree in the nick of time as the teeth snapped shut, crushing the trunk in half. As Ryan soared through the air with Éclair on his back, several Infected and Parasites jumped for them just a second too late as he grabbed hold of the first branch before dashing through the trees like a monkey.

It was difficult at first for Ryan to maintain his footing as he hopped from branch to branch. However, as he got used to it, he found it wasn’t much different than running as he sailed through the treetops like a squirrel. At first, the Parasites tried to climb after him, but soon found their frames too large as the trees snapped under their weight. Then, screeching in unison almost like they were giving orders, the Parasites stopped their pursuit as the lighter Infected humans began climbing the treetops after Ryan. But the Infected Elementals possessed neither Ryan’s finesse nor his dexterity in the trees, so they soon fell like flies. When climbing no longer seemed to be an option, the Parasites simply tried knocking down the trees that Ryan would jump on, but thanks to his excellent agility, he was easily able to outpace the Parasites before they got even remotely close. Soon, Ryan was starting to outdistance the Parasites as they fell behind, though they still kept up the pursuit on the forest floor.

“It worked, Éclair!” called out Ryan triumphantly. “They can’t keep up while we’re up here!”

“Ryan, are you injured?!” asked Éclair, causing Ryan to look down at his side where the infected woman stabbed him. Blood trickled from the wound, staining his white shirt red, and he was just now beginning to notice how painful it felt with Éclair’s weight on his back.

“Yeah!” acknowledged Ryan, having to yell over the wind as they sailed through the air at unimaginable speeds. “But it’s not as bad as it looks! Trust me!”

“All the same, let me try to do what I can with Medical Elemency!” said Éclair as she put a hand to the injury. “This may hurt a little! Do you think you can maintain this pace while I close the wound?!”

“Are you kidding me?!” responded Ryan arrogantly. “This is a walk in the park! Heal away!”

Ryan did feel some slight discomfort at his side as Éclair’s psions sealed the wound shut, but it was nothing that he couldn’t ignore, certainly not enough to slow him down in the slightest. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the faint blue glow of Éclair’s Medical Elemency at work. Truthfully, he had always found Éclair’s healing ability somewhat mesmerizing and enviable at times.

Just as Ryan began to think that they were home free, a shadow passed over his head. When he realized what the shadow was, his heart skipped a beat.

“Um... Éclair!” called back Ryan in a slightly perturbed voice. “I might have spoken too soon!”

“How so?” asked Éclair, still concentrating on healing.

“Two words! Flying Parasites!”

Éclair looked up as well. Just above them were Parasites with four mosquito-like wings attached to their backs. Each Parasite hovered above the trees, their wings buzzing like helicopter propellers, as they stretched out the tentacles from their chests in an attempt to entwine Ryan and Éclair.

Ryan did zigzag maneuvers to dodge the incoming onslaught of tentacles that were reaching down at them through the treetops. Some Parasites even broke through the tree line to try and get at them from the branches. Ryan was almost thrown off his balance at least a dozen times within a minute.

“This is nuts! They just keep coming!” called out Ryan, nearly on the verge of panic.

“Ryan!” said Éclair in a firm voice. “You focus on your footing, and I’ll direct you!”

“You can do that?”

“I’m a sensory type as well! It’s one of the psionic abilities of Medical Type Elementals, which I am! Just go where I tell you and we might get through this!”

“Alright, I trust you!” agreed Ryan, seeing little alternatives at this point.

“Bank right!” ordered Éclair.

Ryan complied just as a wall of tentacles dropped down right where he would have been.

“Now left!” instructed Éclair.

Ryan obeyed yet again as a Parasite from the ground jumped at them with snapping jaws.

“Left again!”

Ryan obeyed.

“Now right!”

Ryan obeyed again.

“Now double back!” commanded Éclair.

Bringing both feet in front of him, Ryan landed vertically on the side of a tree that was ahead of them and kicked off with all his strength, careening back the opposite way he had come and destroying the trunk with the force of his legs. The Parasites were momentarily thrown by Ryan’s change in direction as the flying ones crashed into each other and fell through the trees while trying to keep up.

For a little while, the tempo that Ryan and Éclair had created was working as they found themselves outpacing their aerial opponents. However, their success was not to last as Ryan soon found himself with fewer and fewer trees to jump from. As Ryan looked down, he realized that the forest floor was crawling with Parasites and Infected that were all fast at work knocking down the trees.

Seeing their predicament, Éclair called out pleadingly, “Ryan! We’re running out of room! You can’t keep this up much longer!”

“Watch me!” retorted Ryan angrily as he jumped down from the tree to land on the ground and run for a few minutes.

When the Parasites caught sight of him on the ground, he immediately jumped back into a nearby tree, attempting to lose his pursuers by jumping up and down from the forest floor to the treetops. Ryan felt his heartbeat soar and his muscles tense as every tendon burned from the physical exertion that the chase put on him. Every nerve, every limb, every pore cried out for relief as he felt himself slowing with each minute movement. But greater than the physical anguish was the feeling of dread that overtook him. The Parasites were literally breathing down the back of his neck. If he allowed himself to let up even for a second, Éclair would pay the price for his weakness.

After hours of running and jumping at inhuman speeds with no end in sight, all hope of escaping seemed to disappear. The sun had vanished as night bathed them in blackness. Éclair’s abilities helped to sense where the enemies were, and the moon and stars gave enough illumination to navigate by, but that gave Ryan little comfort. The oncoming of night only reminded him of how long this chase had already lasted, and how time was steadily running out for them.

“Ryan, this is crazy!” cried out Éclair as panic racked her voice. “I can’t navigate our way out of this! Not even you can keep this up forever!”