This story will be particularly "unpleasant" and definitely not suitable for children or those with delicate sensitivities.
Disclaimer: Me no owny Transformers.
Scelestus
(Criminal)
Chapter One
The small fire had once been part of a much more aggressive one that had reduced the decent sized city to ash. It'd ripped through rather quickly it appeared, and in some ways he was glad not to have witnessed it. Probably would have BBQed his arse. So, he sat there by this fire, watching it burn through what had once been a science text book for maybe a 16 year old student, of course in this day and age what a 16 year old 20 years ago would have been reading would now be common knowledge for an 8 year old, its how it seemed to him at least. Not that he had a lot of experience with children, but how they acted on TV he figured as much. It was something to contemplate upon as he sat by the fire.
Sitting by a fire.
Seemed so normal. So usual. So everyday. Something a free person would do on a cold winter's evening, or maybe on a warm summer's camping trip. Something sometime normal.
Normal.
He wasn't really sure where he was or what this city had once been, not that there was much left to discern. The surrounding suburbs and industrial areas were also reduced to smouldering cinders but those zones were surrounded by a few gentle hills. The larger part of the inferno had burnt out some time a few days ago and now only a few smaller sections still glowed randomly about the razed and charred rubble and debris. It was the same everywhere he'd passed by.
He lent back against a rock and stretched his legs out, wriggling his toes in his prison issue boots – fastened with Velcro. He stretched his arms out above his head and clasped his fists together. He reached down and picked the stick from the fire, wrapped around it were a series of juicy worms he'd taken a good twenty minutes to dig up. He used to eat worms when he was a child – well, according to his mother, how true it was he wasn't' sure, what he was sure of was he was starving and most would not thumb their noses up at a juicy worm if it meant survival. It was a little over done, the charcoal flavouring he wasn't sure whether it was caused by the fuel of the fire or the fire itself. Regardless, once he got over that burnt taste, it was actually rather palatable. Kind of like crackling from a pig. Crispy, greasy, and with a hint of fat. It didn't really have a lot of flavour, but it was warm and rather comforting.
Kinda normal.
He looked down at the small plastic cup he'd found, warped by a good deal of heat, but still holding its general shape, in it wriggle a few more of the worms. He contemplated having them as well, but after watching one of them squirm up the side he decided against. It could have only been a stroke of luck that he found them, he might not get anything like it again. So best to save the last three for his next meal or two, and if he found a couple more later on, well, great.
He lay down against the warm earth near his fire, back pressed to the rock and closed his eyes. The crackling of the flames through the unusual fuel was in his mind. There was no real evidence that those creatures had been active around this area, the fire seemed to have spread through from some other location. Of course, who knew? But there were no pot holes or giant blasted hunks of rocks, no humans crushed under what could have only been a massive foot, no mass graves or "camps" for captured beings of flesh. Yet, fire was merciless and did not forgive much, it could have ripped through anything those creatures left as a monument to their savagery and lack of respect for the dignity of life. All that really mattered to him now were they were not here now.
He wondered if he'd be able to get some sleep. He'd managed so far. He had no way of knowing how many days or weeks had passed since they made themselves known. No way of knowing how long it had been since he'd escaped. No way of knowing any of those things. He stretched one more time before re-curling, squeezing his eyes a little tighter together and hoping for sleep.
Sleep.
It was so normal.
When he woke, and he had no way of knowing when that was, his little fire had burnt itself out, there were of course other fires burning near by. He picked up his little cup of worms, still wriggling, but a little on the dry side, and he decided to continue his journey to wherever. He clambered up over a large section of wooden debris that had probably once been a house, amazingly spared from the flames. He wondered about the science behind it. He recalled a documentary on forest fires that mentioned how sometimes the flames would jump portions of land and fuel. A bush fire that tore through the surrounding flora behind some city in Australia was shown to have had this phenomenon, the aftermath, entire neighbourhoods reduced to cinders, but in amongst the smouldering soggy ash was a house standing untouched, unsigned and amazing safe – the fire having jumped right over it. Perhaps that was what happened here. Some robot knocked the place down and then the fires they started just ignored it. A sudden rush of nausea passed over him, he bent over and vomited. There really wasn't much in his stomach, the worms having passed through, but the fluids and bile weren't exactly pleasant. He vomited a second time, wiping the muck from his mouth he stood up right again, a little unsteady. A cool sensation riddled his body, within moments his body was ruthlessly hot, sweat beaded on his forehead and dribbled down the back of his neck. He dropped to his knees and continued to disgorge on the remains that were once someone's home, their pride and joy. Pain stabbed him in the abdomen; the gurgling that wobbled through his belly gave him a rather uncomfortable sense of foreboding. He stood upright, quickly unzipped his now filthy jumpsuit and squatted, the pain, gurgling and less then appeasing odours intensified into the mother of all loose motions. The lack of decent food, clean water, the exhaustion, pain and purging of numerous body fluids from both ends served to add to a rather distressing and serious decrease in his electrolytes. While never understanding the finer points of medicine or even the slightest whiff of a first aid course Gettys wouldn't have realised what those were or how harsh on the body vomiting and diarrhoea could be, however the feeling in his innards was less then favourable.
He staggered down the rubble, holding up his jump suit at the waist. Once his feet were on someone flat ground he began vomiting again. A sudden gush of concern passed through his mind, what if this was radiation poisoning? What if humanity had fired back with their most powerful weapons? What if radioactive ions floated about this area, tearing through his body? He recalled the class movies of films about "duck and cover". The mention of how gruesome radiation sickness was and the symptoms of such were strongly burned into this childhood mind to live with him throughout his life… on further re-think he remembered that the vomit and diarrhoea caused by radiation positioning was often stained with blood. The intensity of the sudden onset also gave him reason to question – if the radiation was so high as to cause such a rapid commence he surely would have seen the nuclear flash, or at the very least a mushroom cloud… and if he'd wandered through a ground zero or near enough to it there would be no piles of unburned debris. He'd barely eaten anything that it could be food poisoning… perhaps an insect bite? He gasped, perhaps a biological agent unleashed by those beasts? Another aspect to a multi-pronged attack? Regardless of what ever was the aetiology behind it certainly wasn't welcome. He vomited again, the stress of it aching his entire body especially the muscles in his abdomen as they responded to nerve impulses to push upwards and force the stinky acidic fluid content from his stomach. The man groaned, then laid himself down to try and rest, feeling his bowels begin to curdle again, he quickly got back up into his squatting position and away he went again. The movements, sudden, violent and aching taking his energy, but he surely didn't need to be walking around with his "givings" on the only item of clothing he currently possessed. Finally it finished for the moment and pulling his jumpsuit up he lay back down. Groaning, he clenched his teeth, wrapped his arms around his belly and closing his eyes tried to sleep, if only to forget about the pain and the stench that lay nearby in mucky puddles.