AN: And we're back! Thanks again for the reviews and whatnot everyone. Anyway, go ahead and read on.
The Exposure Part 3
Ben
I wasn't sure why, but I still hadn't left the forest. It was a little weird to be honest. I guessed that a part of it was my fear. I was afraid that someone actually had noticed me and the logical side of my brain told me that the forest was safe. If I stayed in here for a while, no one's recollection was likely to be triggered and I could go home without fear of my dad watching disappointedly as I was dragged away in handcuffs. But mostly, it was just my feet wondering down some unseen path, my mind only really paying enough attention so that I knew how to get back to town.
My stomach rumbled a few times along the way, but I ignored it. I'd missed lunch, but I doubted it'd be noticed. Mom was out of town for the weekend, hired for wedding photos and my brothers were hanging out and sleeping over at one friend or another's houses until tomorrow night. That only left me and Dad in the house and he was so busy marking test papers, he wouldn't notice if a bear barged in and tore the place apart, so long as it left his study alone.
It wasn't until I found a small clearing with what looked like an almost deliberate path through the trees that I finally stopped walking and sat down with my back pressed against a tree, resting my aching feet. I wasn't a bush walker, or even much of a walker period, and this was tiring me out good. Taking off my shoes and socks, I massaged the balls of my feet and heels and looked around the area, observing it critically. Warren admitted that he came out here a lot, though now I suspected that it was more for unorthodox business than pleasure, and always seemed pretty confident of the lack of danger near the town, but I wasn't so convinced. I checked out the list for native animals to our area recently and was fully aware that poisonous snakes, coyotes, bobcats, wolves and black bears, among other things, were all known to live in this forest. Wolves and coyotes weren't likely to attack a human, but the rest were another story and they could appear at any time.
It wasn't until I'd given the place three looks over that I was satisfied. There was no large bodily waste or water sources nearby. No sign of even a racoon or a deer being here for a while, only a few rodents, birds and lots of bugs. There could be snakes nearby, but if I didn't bother them then they probably wouldn't bother me. Little prey meant few, if any predators. I was safe for now.
'But then again...' I frowned, carefully pulling the strange weapon out of my pocket. Making sure that the latch was staying down and preventing an accidental fire, I ran my fingers over every inch of it for what was probably the fifth time. I just...how did a human get this thing? And while we're on that subject, where did humans get the ability to shapeshift?
There were a lot of theories people like throwing around on the possible ways of gaining super powers, the most popular being nuclear waste and radiation. Most others claim some form of magic. I'd always just brushed them off as nonsense. Magic was superstition and the other two would just kill you. Now though, I'd almost believe the first two if it wasn't for the fact that multiple people had seemingly gained the exact same ability and were attacking people that had weapons about two hundred years beyond modern day technology.
"So where do you come from?" I muttered to myself, passing the weapon from one hand to another. If I could get that answer, if I could learn who made it, maybe I could clear up some of the blank spaces in the picture. Of course, I'd thought that when I picked up this thing and it only made more blank spaces, so I probably shouldn't get my hopes up. Besides, it wasn't like that answer was going to flop into my lap.
"Aaarrrrhhhh!" Resting the thing on my leg, I thrust my hands into my hair and groaned frustratedly. This was a never ending puzzle. The pieces were too obscure to possibly see the whole picture on my own. The only way that I was going to get anywhere was to confront someone already involved about it and I didn't need to know about a deadly laser to know that was risky. I didn't know how Warren or Cassie would react and I doubted I'd get anything nice from David even if I did have the spine and knowledge to track that attitude problem down. The guys with these weapons might fry me on the spot. Level one on the thing blew up half a room! What kind of people carry that kind of power around in their day to day lives?
"This has all just been a waste of time, hasn't it?" I sighed, closing my eyes in defeat. I just kept going around in circles. I'd been at this for well over a month and I wasn't really any closer to the truth than that night when I watched the feathers recede from Warren's arm after hearing him mention going on a raid to save some girl or woman's people. I had a better idea of how he was saving people and what the kind of danger that put him in now, but that was about it. No real answers.
I was brought tight out of my brooding a second later however, as a bustling in the bushes opposite me started right out of the blue, freaking me out. Panicking, I whipped up the weapon with shaky hands. Not that it would do anything, I couldn't get my sweaty, shaking fingers to lift the latch. However, all my fear went away a few seconds later as a squirrel poked its head out cautiously before dashing to and up the closest tree, leaving me sighing in relief and a little embarrassment. I got work up over a lousy squirrel! What was it gonna do, nibble on my toe?
"I thought you were a bobcat or something." I muttered as I watched it scamper around. I felt pretty silly to be honest. Even if it was a bobcat, I'm a bit big of a target, unless there was no small prey to feed on. This wasn't 'When Animals Attack', not every creature was out to get me.
I let my eyes trail it for a few minutes, just watching it as it turned its head rapidly before running around like it was overcharged, a bundle of pure energy. It reminded me of little kids in a playroom, wanting to play with every toy at once and running wherever they saw something new. Or someone overloaded with caffeine.
"I wonder how you see this world." I mused as it turned its head yet again to stare fretfully at me. It was something that I was wondering about a lot lately. Every time I saw a dog, I grew curious as to what its vision was truly like, how its mind interpreted the world, what stories their sense of smell told them. Every time I saw a bird, I jealously wondered what it was like to fly on your own wings, to see the world so far away and yet with so much detail. And now, this little squirrel. I wondered how big the world seemed to him. How he handled the mountain load of energy in his tiny body. What it felt like to run and climb so easily up and around the trees.
Ever since I realised that Warren could turn into animals and got over the fear and shock of it all, I'd grown curious. And admittedly, a little jealous. I wanted to experience it too. I wanted to get inside the minds of these animals, see the world from their perspectives and delve into the natures of their minds, instincts and desires better than anyone could ever hope to. I wanted to feel their strength, their unique talents and abilities. Maybe even fly, or gain a feline's grace or a bear's raw power. Imagine all that I could learn about them. And all that I could do.
"Oh squirrel, what I'd give just to be able to turn into you." I grinned sadly as I watched it run out of sight. That was the truth, I would settle for just the squirrel's form and world to explore. But yeah right, like that was gonna-
"Run blondy!" My panic returned full force as the gruff bark hit my ears. Pulling my eyes back down to the ground I found a boy of African descent with makeshift bow in his hand and a frantic look on his face running right toward me. But what really scared me, multiplying what the panicked bark had created, was the creature behind him.
It was over seven feet tall and reptilian. Its bipedal form reminded me a little of that lizard villain in Spiderman, but with a much thinner, faster body. And this one was covered in deadly blades all over its arms, legs and tail, in addition to the horns on its head, a wicked looking beak with teeth in it instead of the reptilian jaw you'd expect and razor sharp claws on its hands and tyrannosaurus type feet.
"AAAAHHHH!" Scrambling to my feet, I turned to run only to fall into my usual routine and trip over a tree root, dropping the weapon and watching it roll away in the process. Breathing erratically as my fear ran like wildfire, I stumbled to get myself up again. I had to get away, I had to...
"ARGH!" My feet freezing at the scream, my head whipped back just in time to see the boy fly right off his feet and hit the ground with a thump, a nice, long gash releasing blood from his upper arm. The monster however, kept going. Right for me.
I couldn't do anything but watch with wide, terrified eyes as it came right at me, a keen, cruel look crossing its face as it...well, I think it was a laugh. It sure didn't sound pleasant either.
It was fast, way faster than I was. Way faster than I could ever hope to be. I could never get away, it would kill me before I got six feet. And I had no way to defend myself. I mean, that thing was a walking weapon...that's it! The weapon! Where'd it go, where'd it go?
It took only a second to find it, having been halted in its tracks by a rock. Not looking back, I dived at it, fumbling with it the second the cool, black metal was in my hands.
"Uuh! Come on!" I freaked, struggling once again to get the hatch up. However, before I could, the monster had reached me. I arched and screamed as a clawed foot came down on my lower back, the walking blade machine laughing over me as his claws ripped into the back of my shirt and pierced me just deep enough to draw blood.
"Gwafgwafgwaf! I got you reb-Argh!" Just at that moment, right as the pressure on my back was starting to intensify, the freak screamed and jerked his foot up. Gasping as it whipped around to face the other boy, I had to force myself into a very quick roll to avoid having my neck sliced open by the tail blade. As I did, I got a split second image of what happened. The boy must have hidden it under his overly large shirt, because planted firmly in this creature's hip was a roughly made arrow.
"You pay human." It snarled viciously, ripping the wood and pointy stone right out. It looked like it hadn't done any more than anger the freak.
Mine however, was another story. The monster was already moving swiftly to the kneeling boy, its arm blades ready to slice his head off. I couldn't let that happen. Finally managing to get the latch up, I didn't even think. I simply followed the instinctual urges of protecting another and self preservation and fired.
Seeing the laser flash, the boy dropped his jaw and quickly forced himself to roll as fast as he could out of the line of fire, ignoring the pain in his arm completely as the laser struck the monster dead centre between his shoulder blades.
"AAUURRGGHH!" The blood curdling scream that left the creature's mouth at that moment would probably haunt me for the rest of my life. The image would for sure. Before I'd even registered what I'd done, I was watching wide eyed and horrified as the creature's entire body was obliterated right in front of my eyes. By the time my finger let go of the button and my shaking hands dropped the weapon, there wasn't even a single trace left of the beast.
"I...I just, I..." I couldn't process it. That thing, whatever it was, was alive and sentient. And I'd just...
My knees chose to grow weak and drop me at that very moment. Not that it mattered all that much, within seconds, all of my fear and anxieties, along with what I'd just done, overwhelmed me and the adrenaline ran out. My vision darkened and I fell all the way down. I didn't even stay conscious enough to remember hitting the ground face first.
...
The pain in my head was the first thing to come back to me as consciousness returned. Raising my hand to my forehead, I tentatively rubbed a small bump just above my right eyebrow, flinching as my fingers made contact. Great, that was going to hurt for quite a while. It was probably just the position of it, but it hurt even more than the clawed foot that had dug into my...
I shot right up as everything came back, only to whimper as the pain intensified in my head and forced me back down and flinch again as my back wounds came down a little too hard. Breathing hard, I forced my eyes open and looked around, not relaxing even slightly until I knew that the creature wasn't around. It didn't matter that I saw it blow up into nothing. I don't think my mind was willing to accept that I'd done such a thing anyway. All I cared about was ensuring that I wasn't about to lose my head to a blade melded into reptilian flesh.
"Take it easy blondy. We're the only ones here." I tensed for a second before the boy from before came into my field of vision, taking a seat beside me. Now that I was calming and we weren't running for our lives, I could actually get a good look at him. He looked like he'd been out in the forest for a good while. His clothes were covered in dirt and grass stains and ripped in more than a few places. They seemed a little loose on his form too, like they were meant for someone with a little more meat on him. He was pretty fit. The muscles his clothes didn't hide were small, but defined, like a track runner's. His black hair was tangled and longer than the average guy's, reaching the bottom of his neck and as dirty as his clothes. Combined all that with the hardened look in his dark brown eyes, I'd say it was safe to say that he'd been in the forest for quite a while.
"Who are you?" I asked, pulling myself up again at much slower pace. It wasn't until then, when my arm brushed against my side, that I noticed my shirt was missing, though I found that I'd been resting head on it. Checking myself over for any other differences, I made myself relax as I found the only other thing done was a few leaves carefully placed and stuck to the wounds in my back.
"My name's Hunter." He said calmly, watching stoically as I checked myself over. "The leaves are all well cleaned and being used as bandages. They're being held in place by the cream I used to help sooth your wounds. They aren't deep and shouldn't get infected as long as you take care of them. I can't do anything for the bump though. You hit a rock on your way down."
"Yeah, that sounds like me." I muttered, grimacing a little. Even passing out, I still managed to find a way to klutz my way into an injury. "Thanks for helping me. I'm Ben." I added, turning to him appreciatively before grabbing my shirt and carefully putting it back on, careful not irritate my head or knock off the leaves.
"It's fine. So, is anyone out here with you?" He asked, finally letting the emotionless look drop to reveal a little curiosity. "Do you have a group?"
"No. Why would I?" I asked slowly, growing confused. What would I need a group for out in the forest? Was I really that far in?
"Well, it's suicide to run away from the Yeerks without help." Hunter responded, raising an eyebrow. "In case you didn't notice before, their Hork-Bajir would catch and kill you in no time."
"Hork-Bajir? Is that what that thing was called?" I asked, a bubble of excitement growing in my gut as his raised eyebrow turned disbelieving. If he knew what that creature was, maybe he could tell me more about what I wanted to know. I mean, they'd be connected, right? All these weird, out of this world things in one place, they had to be connected. It was too big of a coincidence if they weren't. "And what are Yeerks?" I added hastily. That word struck a chord. I think Warren had said the word once when I was eavesdropping. It sounded like they could be the key to this mystery.
"You...you have a Dracon Beam and you don't know about Yeerks? Or Hork-Bajir or any of it?" Hunter cried, staring at me with sheer disbelief. So, the weapon's called a Dracon Beam huh? Interesting. "Did that blow to your head knock some screws loose?"
"No. My memory's fine." I shook my head, only getting a sceptical raised eyebrow in return. "See, I kinda...scavenged the Dracon Beam while I was...snooping." I admitted sheepishly.
"Say what?" Hunter asked, his other eyebrow joining the first as his looked turned to one of disbelief.
"Yeah, I saw something unusual, like far from normal or explainable by normal human life. One of my friends was somehow involved and I was worried about him, so I've been snooping, trying to learn more. But so far, all I know about is shapeshifters, raids and kidnappings meant to result in freedom somehow, this weapon and now that there are reptilian, heavily bladed creatures called Hork-Bajir running around looking to slice people's heads off." I finished with a shudder at the last bit. That settled it, Warren was in a hell of a lot of trouble. If the enemy's willing to slaughter innocent kids then Warren's on the right side at least, not that I doubted him, but it was nice to have evidence to back my beliefs. Still, with the amount of dangerous stuff these guys had to use against him, how was he still alive? And why would he take this on himself?
So many questions still needed answering. However, I might have been in luck. Hunter knew stuff. He could answer my questions.
"This is amazing." He drawled sarcastically, bringing me back from my thoughts as he rubbed his face. "I'd assumed you broke out and fled like me. I hoped that you had a group of your own that could help mine. And you're telling me that you're just a kid that was in the wrong place at the wrong time?"
"Yeah, pretty much." I nodded apologetically as he pulled himself up and slung a bag made of leaves filled with self-made arrows onto his back. He must have retrieved it from wherever he left if while I was out cold. "What do you need help for?"
"You shouldn't worry about it." He responded gruffly, slowly walking back the way he came. "You'll only put your life in danger blondy. You passed out at nuking one alien. How do you expect to handle ten or twenty?"
That stopped me for a moment. How would I handle something like that? I was a klutz, I was easily scared and intimidated. I wasn't help, if anything, I'd probably pass out and be a hindrance, useless weight to drag around.
But this kid couldn't do it either, if that's what he needed help with. His arrow only annoyed the Hork-Bajir before. I could give him the Dracon Beam though. That might help. Besides, I never wanted to get involved in a battle, I wanted answers.
"You can't stop it on your own, so I'm going to make you a deal." I stated, climbing to my feet. Stopping in place, he turned back to me with an annoyed frown.
"I've already spent too much time taking care of you, keeping you safe." He grunted, his hand tightening around his bow. "I was separated from my group of runaway hosts when the Hork-Bajir attacked. I have to find them and help them before they're killed or reinfested."
"Then I'll come with you." I declared, moving on quickly as his mouth opened for an irritated argument. "I'll come with you and you explain to me what's going on, what you know about all of this. In return, I'll give you the Dracon Beam."
"You'll hand that thing over?" Hunter asked, his face and voice regaining their previously stoic form. "You'd hand over a powerful weapon, knowing that you may not even get out of this forest alive and free, in exchange for an explanation as to who will try to kill or infest you?"
"Yes." I answered simply. Honestly I hadn't thought too much into it. How much danger the trees suddenly held for me. If these Hork-Bajir found me, they probably wouldn't care if I was part of this runaway group or not. They'd kill me. But that didn't mean that I'd be able to fire on another one anyway. Hitting the first one was just a fluke, I knew that, and besides, even if they were cold killers, that didn't mean I wanted to be one. If I was paying attention to the voice that is my morality in the back of my head right now, giving it even the slightest bit of attention, I'd probably snap just like Warren did just before the time I discovered his secret. Wow, was there a similarity there? Is this what he did?
Shaking my head, I shoved it all down for later. No getting distracted right now. I had a deal to make. There wasn't anything I could do with that right now, I could only get the answers I so desperately wanted. The Dracon Beam was better in Hunter's hands anyway. I'd help save lives just by giving it to him and he clearly had the aim and steady hands to use it. He fired an arrow right on target with an injured arm!
"The longer you're with me, the more danger you'll be in." Hunter warned me. But I just grinned at that. He was warning me of what I was getting into, not saying no.
"I know." I nodded. "But my friend is in the middle of whatever's going on. I'm willing to take the risk."
"Ok then." He shrugged, motioning me forward as he started on his way again, walking with quick strides. "Probably best for you if you do know. Everyone's a target at some level after all. But if your friend is involved, you won't like what you hear."
"Well, it's too late to be ignorant." Was my response as I jogged to catch up before falling into stride alongside him. "Besides, I can't help him if I don't know what's going on and that's all I want to do."
"You still think like that even after you found out your life will be on the line?" Hunter asked emotionlessly, looking at me through the corner of his eye. However, his face spoke of a more positive reaction as I nodded. He wasn't facing me, but I could still make out a genuine look of approval. "You're loyal, I'll give you that."
He talked the whole way as we walked. He held true to our deal and didn't ask for the Dracon Beam yet. Instead, he told me to have it at the ready and notched an arrow in his bow. He told me that Hork-Bajir were masters of the forest environment and that it was much safer for us if we were both prepared to defend ourselves.
The whole time we walked, I didn't trip or fall even once, despite the speed we were moving at. But I didn't notice that until long after our stride had stopped. I was too wrapped up in what he was telling me. Too stunned and horrified at just what the Yeerks were and what they did to their victims. Death was a mercy most of them would beg for.
Now I also knew I understood exactly why Warren had cracked before, creating the chain of events that would lead me to this spot. Because like me, he had fought a host and won. Like me, he had killed something innocent to stop something monstrous. It connected with everything that he told me, filled in the gaps that the flag warnings I pitched as he told me his story in his room so long ago. I had the whole picture now. I experienced a piece of it myself now too.
I just hoped that I could handle it. If I was going to help Warren, I couldn't let myself sink into that mental trap. Regardless of how easy it was to do just that.
