Hunger: The Complete Trilogy, page 58
She raised her hand, blocking the light just enough to see.
The giant…what was it called…bird...had turned its sharp beak toward Feesa. But it hadn’t opened to eat, it was closed tight, the tip like a spear. Feesa understood the attack, thanks to Kenyon’s and Peter’s training.
She swung the machete, striking the beak hard with the flat side of the blade. Instead of being impaled by the beak, she knocked it to the side just enough to grab hold of it with her free hand. She swung down, colliding with the Apex’s neck and clung on.
The machete blade, slid under the hard feathery armor, would take the creature’s life. She was sure of it. But before she could stab, all the feathers flared out. Each one of them was like a sharpened metal panel, slicing into her arms, legs, and torso.
Pain loosened her grip, and she fell to the ground far below, landing on her back hard enough to take the air from her lungs and consciousness from her mind.
In the darkness that followed, she heard a voice. “Get up, Val. Get up!”
Feesa’s eyes opened to a reflection of herself. For a moment she was confused by the view. She saw a woman looking back at her. Dark skin. A beautiful face. Big hair. A voice that could sing. The same woman from her dreams. It was…her.
It was Val.
She…was Valerie Wood. Before.
Her face twisted with raw emotion and became monstrous again, her tusks digging deeper into her own cheeks. “No!” she screamed. “Me no like! NO!”
She climbed to her feet and faced the Apex’s backside. It was charging past her toward Beastmaster. Peter was climbing out with his loud weapon. Jakob was climbing into the back of the truck. Neither of them would be fast enough.
Fueled by a new kind of rage, Feesa leapt into the air and dropped down toward the giant bird’s back. Its feathers reflected a hundred different images of Feesa’s monstrous face, each one of them mocking her. For who she was. For what she had become.
“Me. No. Like!” Feesa said, stabbing downward, all her weight behind the blade.
There was a moment of resistance. Then a crack. The blade slipped through armor and found the flesh beneath.
The Apex bird let out a pitiful cry of something much smaller. Its wings flapped in a flurry as it tried to dislodge Feesa.
But she held onto the sharp, bladed feathers, indifferent to the wounds they caused her hand. She stabbed over and over as the thing spun around. “Me no like! Me no like!”
The machete struck something hard, bounced, and then punctured deep. It felt different than the other strikes. Not like me. Softer. The Apex spasmed and fell to the side, dislodging Feesa, who rolled to her feet.
Still filled with rage, she walked back to the beast, took hold of the machete, and yanked it out. She sheathed the weapon and looked at her reflection between the rivers of blood pouring from the gaping wound over the Apex’s spine. She took one of the feathers, twisting and pulling until it came free.
“Feesa!” It was Peter, running around the dead Apex, weapon on his shoulder, but aimed at the ground. “Are you okay?”
Jakob was right behind him. “Feesa. Holy shit. You killed a giant chicken!”
The two men stopped beside her waiting for an answer.
“Feesa?” Jakob said.
She looked from her reflection to her nephew. “Me no like,” she said and cracked the feather panel in half with her hands. She dropped the debris to the pavement and started back to the truck. “Me no like at all.”
11
Ella sat in the back of the pickup truck with Feesa and a first aid kit. Jakob was with them, manning the machine gun, but he wasn’t paying attention to them. His eyes were on the crops and buildings around them. They were passing through Dorchester, just south of Boston, following back roads through neighborhoods of apartment buildings, duplexes, and thick ExoGenetic growth. It felt like a giant maze, the gaps filled in by tall stalks of corn, in which anything could be hiding. Jakob didn’t lower his guard.
Despite what he thought about himself, Jakob had become a competent, trustworthy young man with a great deal of survival skills. He might not be as ruthless or violent as others, but those attributes weren’t as important as the some he displayed—patience, loyalty, and determination. Those were the things humanity would need to recover. She was glad Anne had him for a brother.
“Let me see,” Ella said again.
Feesa kept her hands turned away from Ella, clutched like she’d fall over a cliff if she let go. Ella couldn’t see the wounds, but she could see the blood. Could see the way Feesa flinched when she squeezed her hands. Those Apex chicken feathers were like swords, and Feesa had handled them with the same caution she might give a ball of yarn.
Ella raised her eyebrows. “Feesa.”
“You no tell Feesa what to do. You not mother.”
Ella didn’t know if Feesa remembered ever having a mother, but she didn’t think now was the right time to ask. As long as she’d known the hairy woman, she’d been fairly even keeled. Capable of extreme violence and savage hunger, but never directed at them. She was their stalwart protector and, like with Jakob, Ella was glad Anne had her around. It was a strange family to be sure, but it worked in the world that had resulted from Ella’s mistakes.
“Sister,” Ella said, using the role Feesa had bestowed upon her. “And sisters don’t keep secrets. Plus, if you don’t let me tend to your wounds, they could get infected. You could get sick.”
Feesa huffed and rolled her eyes, something she’d picked up from Anne. “Feesa no get sick. No get infested.”
“Infected,” Ella said. “Infes-s-sted is different. Also bad, though.”
“In-fect-ed. That what I said. Anyway. Me no get that. Me change before can happen.”
“What?” Ella asked, stunned.
“Me change,” Feesa said. “Ahh…you word…Ahhh dapt. Adapt. Change.”
“You understand that you have changed?” Ella asked.
“Everyone changed. All things. Except you. Except family. No eat crops. No change. But I…I ate crops. I still eat crops. I…still change. Am changing.”
Ella did her best to hide her concern. If Feesa was changing, that could be bad for all of them. Through the initial change, Feesa and those like her—the Riders—had managed to retain some of their human intelligence and form a symbiotic relationship with other Exo creatures, allowing them to survive the world as a community, some of which had remained behind to help protect Hellhole Bay.
“How are you changing?” Ella asked.
Feesa shook her head.
“I can’t help you if you don’t show me,” Ella said. “And that includes the cuts on your hands. How about we start there? With the cuts. Then we can talk about the change.”
Feesa stuck out her lower lip while considering the deal. “Cuts, but no change.”
Ella suspected that whatever was happening to Feesa was on her arms. She’d been hiding them along with her clutched hands.
“C’mon, let’s get this over with before something else tries to eat us.” That sunk in. Feesa grunted, unfurled her fingers, and held her palms out. Ella did her best not to gasp. Feesa’s hands weren’t just cut, they looked like they’d been used to deflect a dozen swords. The cuts were deep, down to the bone in some places. There were signs of accelerated healing, though, the wounds sealing, but Ella didn’t think that was the change Feesa spoke about. It was just a natural side-effect of being an Exo.
Ella opened the first aid kit. They had several, and this was the largest. It would have enough to get the job done, but it was going to take some time. She plucked out a bottle of alcohol. “First thing we need to do is disinfect the wounds.”
“Me no understand,” Feesa said. “Just do.”
“It’s going to hurt,” Ella said. “A lot. All of this is going to hurt.”
“Me no mind pain. It okay.”
“You’re sure?”
Feesa leveled a comical ‘You’re kidding’ look at Ella, holding out both hands.
“Have it your way,” Ella said, pouring the alcohol over Feesa’s hand. She expected a yelp. Maybe a growl. But Feesa just maintained her unflinching stare at Ella.
“See,” Feesa said. “Me no mind pain. Me strong. Me tough. Me... I am…” She sighed and deflated.
Ella didn’t know it was possible, but Feesa seemed to have something on her mind.
Maybe that’s the change? Ella wondered. Is she getting smarter?
With the wound disinfected, Ella got to work sewing. She was a biologist and a geneticist. Spent most of her career working on plants, but that included sewing together species in an effort to create novel hybrids. Before genetics took over the field.
She’d also sewn up Kenyon more than a few times back in San Francisco, and she’d helped in the infirmary when needed. Enough time spent with a needle and thread left her confident in her ability, but Feesa’s skin was thick and callused. Pushing the needle through took a lot of effort. Luckily, Feesa really didn’t mind the pain. Maybe didn’t even feel it.
Peter drove slowly, avoiding potholes and pile-ups, carefully making his way north past hundreds of buildings that had once been homes. They bore the scars of the horrors that followed. Blood stains. Shattered windows. The skeletal charred remains of burned-down homes now drowning in ExoGenetic growth.
All things considered, Feesa was the best patient Ella had ever treated. She was calm, unflinching, and didn’t talk about her personal problems the entire time. Though Ella suspected their simple family member was thinking hard on something. Feesa’s gaze remained distant, and her brow furrowed through each prick of the needle and tug of the string.
After finishing with the needle and thread, Ella gently applied antibiotic ointment to Feesa’s hands and wrapped them in gauze. As she taped everything in place, she let her attention drift to the rest of Feesa’s body. Nothing stood out as different or unusual. She was big and hairy. Her face was the same, too, tusks digging into her cheeks. There were no new horns. No vestigial tail growing. No scales or anything their genetic ancestors might have donated to their junk DNA stores before humanity emerged.
Ella was about to give up and chalk up Feesa’s mood to fluctuating hormones, which must have been chaotic for all ExoGenetic creatures. Then something caught her eye. On the underside of Feesa’s forearm. The hair was thinner.
That’s right, Ella remembered, Feesa was shedding. Losing hair. But the patches on her arm looked almost devoid of follicles.
Ella slowly slid her hands from Feesa’s along her arm, rubbing gently as she had while applying the bandages. The big female didn’t notice the change. The matted hair didn’t part easily, but Ella kept at it, teasing strands away until a patch of hairless black skin was revealed. It looked…human.
With a careful hand, Ella stretched out her fingers and touched the clear skin. It was soft.
Feesa grunted. Her eyes snapped to Ella. She’d noticed.
“It’s okay,” Ella said, as calm as she could manage under Feesa’s disapproving gaze. “This…” She gave the hairless patch a gentle pat. “This is okay.”
Feesa huffed, taking in a deep breath, and letting it out all at once. It was a strange burst of emotion. And were those tears in her eyes? Feesa was changing…but not in a way Ella could have predicted.
Ella put her hand beside Feesa’s wet eye. “This is okay, too.”
“Feesa is not okay.” She turned her big head fully toward Ella, but glanced up at Jakob for a moment, making sure the boy wasn’t paying attention to them. Then she tugged at the hair of her arms. “This is not okay. Feesa is hairy. Feesa is ugly.”
Ella wasn’t sure what to say. Feesa…wasn’t wrong. To a human being, she was a monster. Even now, after all this time, her face evoked a lot of feelings, none of them positive—most commonly dread. Ella had still come to appreciate her, call her family, and even feel love for her. However, Feesa was…scary.
But Feesa had never known that. Had never considered it.
She was undergoing a slow physical change, but also a harder to notice mental change.
She was…evolving. Forward. Ella didn’t think it was possible, but a thinking, talking Exo never should have been.
This was uncharted territory, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. The truck was slowing down.
“Feesa is good,” Ella said. “Feesa is wonderful. But we’ll need to talk about this another time, okay?”
“Ella,” Feesa said, taking the smaller woman’s hands in her giant bandaged oven mitts. “Feesa is not Feesa.”
“What do you mean?” Ella asked, her heart pounding. Exos were unpredictable. Who was to say Feesa’s hunger hadn’t taken over again? Not possible, Ella told herself. If it had, she would already be dead. This was something else. Something that was wounding the beastly woman. “Tell me.”
“Feesa isn’t Feesa,” she said. “Feesa…is Val. Is Valerie Wood.”
12
“Here,” Peter said, wading through knee deep water inside what once was a sporting goods mega-store. They’d visited several during their journey, replenishing their survival gear, but never in search of this particular item.
“Kayaks?” Ella said, sounding dubious. “Why not a canoe at least? They’re bigger. Look at that one, we could probably all fit.”
“Show of hands,” Peter said. “Who here has paddled a canoe?”
Only Peter lifted his hand.
“They’re not as easy as you think, and they’re loud. Kayaks are easy to use, fast, and quiet. Ella, you can double up with Anne. I’ll take Feesa. Jake, you can take Lyn.”
“I…can?” He was nervous, and rightfully so. In all their time out in the wilds of this remade, horrible world, they’d never ventured out on the water.
“You’ll be a natural,” Peter said. “Give it a try now. Get used to it. If Lyn sits still, it will feel the same.” He glanced up at Feesa, who was perched atop a nearby shelf, keeping watch, swaying back and forth like she was having a conversation with herself. “Here.”
Peter pulled down a two-seat ocean kayak and rested it in the water between him and Jakob. “You just sit and—” He pulled a kayak paddle from a bin and mimicked how to use it, back and forth. “That’s it.”
“Ten bucks says he flops right out,” Anne said. She was seated on a display case, legs crossed, holding the lantern that was illuminating their shopping trip.
“You’ve never even seen money,” Jakob said.
“Have so. They used it at ExoGen. For playing poker. There was blue money. Orange money. Yellow—”
Jakob laughed. “That’s Monopoly money.”
“What’s Monopoly?” Anne asked. “Aside from having exclusive control over an industry.”
“A board game,” Jakob said, hefting himself up onto the kayak. He swiveled himself around into the seat and took the paddle from his father. “I’ll show you next time we’re in a store with a game section. We can take all the money we want, and I’ll teach you to play poker.”
Anne squinted at him. “What makes you think I don’t know how to play already?”
“Well,” Peter said. “Your mother was horrible at it…”
“Dad,” Anne said. “C’mon, man, I was trying to bluff.”
“Can’t bluff a Crane,” Peter said and gave his son a wink before giving him a little push.
Jakob began paddling and quickly got the hang of it. He slid through the water, turning around and coming back with a smile on his face. “You were right. It’s easy.”
Peter turned to Ella, a questioning glance. She gave a nod and said, “Okay.”
Ten minutes later, they glided out of the store’s front entrance atop three kayaks. They worked their way around the small mall and back to the portion of parking lot that hadn’t been submerged.
They headed toward the lot where they had left Beastmaster behind, a smiling Lyn waving from the back seat. She tired easily, and often sat out foraging tasks. After their last fiasco leaving Lyn alone in the truck, Peter had vowed to not repeat the mistake. But Lyn had been insistent, and the tired look in her eyes suggested she had good reason. Not only was she older than the rest of them, she’d also been imprisoned, starved, and forced to watch her husband die slowly beside her. He suspected there was more. Some kind of health issue she had yet to tell them about. Something that could sap her strength. Without Beastmaster, the journey north would have been too much.
She stepped out of the truck to greet them. “Kayaks. Fantastic idea. Bob and I used to take them out on the lake. I was always afraid of them, but he insisted, and when Bob insisted, he didn’t stop until you gave in. But…he was almost always right. Been a while, but I think it’ll come back to me.” She looked over the three kayaks and landed on Jakob. “Looks like it’s you and me, Jake. Good. It’ll give you a chance to put those young muscles to work. Not sure how much help I’ll be.”
Peter watched Lyn as he headed for the truck. They couldn’t take much with them in the kayaks, but they’d need rations for a few days, and enough weapons to wage a small war. The only kayak carrying its max weight already was his and Feesa’s, so they’d be traveling light, but the other two vessels could hold a few hundred pounds more.
Peter and Jakob set to work loading their gear while the others kept watch, binding everything to the kayaks in preparation for stage one of their journey.
“I don’t get it,” Jakob said. “Why can’t we just paddle over to the island and get it over with?”
“First, it’s a long journey. Binoculars have a funny way of making things look closer than they are, you know?”
“Ha. Ha.” Jakob shook his head. “But we could make it in a few hours.”
“You saw that footprint in the water.”
“Yeah, but there’s nothing we can really do about it, right? Whatever made that footprint is too big for us to kill. And if it’s just waiting out there, that creature’s going to eat us, now or later. Might as well get it over with.”
