ARK: Survival Evolved – The Zero Chronicles
Chapter 1: The Rekindled Fire
When Zero next awoke to a gentle shower of sunlight, he found himself lying on the sandy banks of a beach. Walking all around him were creatures he couldn't recognise at all. Some of them were large with long horns on their heads and horned frills around their necks, while others were fat hook-beaked birds about the size of big chickens, albeit with wings that were too small to allow them to fly. The landscape was truly vast, with rocks and cliffs on the other side of the river.
So that prism was a gateway to another place, Zero thought. This certainly didn't look like Area Zero, but neither could it be anywhere else he was familiar with because everywhere outside of Area Zero was supposed to be a ravaged wasteland, yet the whole place didn't have the hallmarks of an environment that would be considered post-apocalyptic, which Earth in its current state certainly was. In fact, the only signs of technology in the whole place existed in the form of a giant shiny metallic obelisk that hovered above the ground and emanated a warm green light.
Because Zero knew no piece of technology required to build such a major architectural marvel that ever existed in his home world, he could only come to one conclusion. The mad doctor had sent him to this place in the hopes that he would never make it back to Area Zero. Because of this, Zero was now stuck all alone in an alternate realm with unknown dangers, but at the same time, he knew that his sacrifice had been worth it after all. For the first time in ages, Zero allowed himself a small smile, and due to the warm weather, wiped off his perspiration with his left hand.
Wait. How can I possibly wipe off my sweat? Zero thought to himself. I thought this was only for humans and not reploids! Puzzled about the revelation, Zero decided to have a good look at himself in the river water.
Going over to the clear river, Zero saw from his reflection in the water that he had undergone a drastic change. All his clothes and armour, save for a pair of dark grey boxers, were gone, leaving him almost totally naked. His long blond hair was still there, but as it was no longer hidden by his helmet, his bangs now stopped just above his eyebrows. Instead of the distant coldness which Zero had in the past, his blue eyes now possessed a uniquely warm gentleness to them, and his facial features were no longer as hardened compared to before his arrival on the island.
The rest of his body had also undergone similarly radical changes to their structure. His shoulders were still rather broad, albeit not overly so like a weightlifter's but his arms and legs were brimming with warm muscle instead of cold metal. As for the torso area, a smooth six-pack was on full display for all to see, owing to Zero's origins as a warrior.
Zero could literally smell his body odour radiating all over him, and if there was one worthwhile thing he had learnt from living with humans, it was that practising good hygiene was important. Besides, the coarse and itchy sand all over his body was seriously starting to piss him off. Jumping into the shallow water, he was about to take a shower when he heard an unfamiliar squelching sound in his underwear.
A few seconds later, small flying creatures took flight as a yell shook the jungle they were in.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"
After a few seconds of recovering from his shock, Zero ticked off the list of things that had happened to him. Apparently, some very alien changes had occurred to him, many of which were a normal part of being human but which a reploid would find completely strange. The stinky brown piece known only to humans as poop inside the water was genuine testament to that. Having cleaned up his soiled undergarments, Zero thought about his new predicament and decided that he needed to gather some supplies in order to survive.
First off, he knew that a campfire was sorely needed to provide a means of cooking food and a reliable, if rudimentary, light source. Moreover, the campfire could only be used to its fullest potential when sheltered from the rain and wind as well as when it was constantly fuelled with wood. With that in mind, Zero began scouring for a suitable stick for which to make the handle of a pick to be used for chopping down trees for their wood.
After barely fifteen minutes of searching, he finally found a long, straight piece of driftwood. It was far too long to serve as a decent pick handle. He did, however, pick up a small orange stone sharp enough for some use. Looking at the driftwood and the sharp rock, which he surmised was some sort of flint, and back at the driftwood again, Zero realised that he could use both to make a spear. If he could find a way to put the two together...
After realising how he needed to pull it off, Zero set to work sharpening both ends of the long stick with the flint piece. When he was finished with the task, the end result was rather crude, consisting of nothing more than a piece of driftwood with a couple of sharpened points. But until he could cobble more resources together, this would have to suffice for him to survive, and it was considerably better than nothing at all.
Following a ten-minute walk along the beach that seemed like an eternity, Zero spotted a trail in the damp sand. Raising his spear with one hand, he cautiously approached it and knelt down next to the set of footprints the moment he got close. One look at the trail and Zero instantly realised that these were human footprints. He had struck the proverbial lottery and discovered evidence of human life barely less than an hour after arriving in this godforsaken place.
The blond-haired castaway traced the footsteps all the way to the edge of a jungle, where an unlit campfire had been set up. The stones surrounding the charred pieces of firewood at the centre were black with soot, a clear sign of repeated use. There were piles of various resources placed neatly at one side of the camp, while a large sheet consisting of multiple animal skins stitched together covered up another pile that was located on the opposite side of the camp. Zero removed the hide covering to reveal some rudimentary stone tools, including a pick and hatchet, an unused torch, some eating utensils and a few stone plates, all of which were in surprisingly good condition owing to the fact that they had been sheltered from the weather for so long. Since the jungle was dark and very likely to be dangerous, he chose to grab the torch and leave it unlit in case he needed to use it to scare something off.
"Hello?" Zero called out, hoping to find the inhabitants of the campsite somewhere nearby. Even though he had grown somewhat distant over the years ever since his awakening by Ciel, the lack of living humans in this alien world still put him at a rather considerable unease. With no one to even talk to, Zero feared that he would soon lose his sanity over time and eventually perish. The very thought of losing his mind due to loneliness spurred him to continue following the trail by trudging into the jungle, but not before he made a mental note to return to the campsite before nightfall.
The jungle terrain proved rather more difficult to traverse than it would have in his previous life, when he had tangled with the infamous Noble Mandrago, one of the Einherjar Eight Warriors, in her forested lair located underground. Still, Zero pushed further into the jungle, hoping to find the person who had set up the campsite that might have just saved his life. Anyone else might have turned back, but not the blond warrior who felt the need to meet his unknown benefactor and show his gratitude for saving his life.
Unfortunately for Zero, his left foot caught something sticking out, which made him lose his balance and caused him to trip over the obstacle. "Argh!" He cried out and fell forwards onto the jungle floor, barely twisting his head upward in time to avoid landing face first.
Once Zero recovered from the impact, he got up and brushed pieces of jungle soil and leaf litter off his body. Looking down towards the ground to see what he had tripped over, he found that to his horror, the object was a bone, and a human thigh bone at that. Under the shade of the jungle leaves, the bone would have looked just like any other piece of jungle debris from afar if not for the distinctive white colour that it possessed. Before Zero checked the bones to find out how the unfortunate person had met his end, he decided to see if the trail of footprints ended at this very spot.
Sure enough, he found that the trail had indeed stopped right where the dead man lay. Embraced in the arms of his skeleton was a thick bound book with a leather cover that had clearly seen better days. The title read, "Survival 101: The Ultimate Guide for New Survivors Basic Edition". The flesh had long since totally decomposed, and the bones were starting to turn yellow with age. The jaw was clenched tightly, as though the man had been gritting his teeth until his last moments when he finally succumbed to whatever misfortune had happened to him. On his neck he was still wearing a necklace made of various types of animal teeth on a string. Sheathed on the skeleton's leather waist belt was a dagger made of the bones of some large creature, and to his right lay an empty leather rucksack. An arrow made entirely of metal was lodged in the skeleton's right shoulder, prompting Zero to believe that the deadly projectile had one way or another contributed to the person's death.
Yanking the arrow out of the skeleton's shoulder, Zero's suspicions were confirmed when he noticed the mark on the bones where the arrow had been lodged inside the skeleton's shoulder. The man had been mortally wounded during his time on the island.
The book in the skeleton's arms easily piqued Zero's interest with its title. Hoping that the ancient manuscript would live up to its name, he gently pried apart the bony appendages from each other, picked up the book and sat on a nearby dead log to start reading.
No sooner had Zero flipped to the first page than a folded hand-written letter came dropping out onto the ground. "Eh?" He instinctively retrieved the letter and began to read it as soon as it had been unfolded.
From the looks of the blood gushing out of my shoulder, it seems that the arrow has pierced my brachial artery. My strength is ebbing, and my time is almost up. I have scattered and hidden away the many chapters of the dossier given to me by my friend Helena Walker so that the accursed New Legion can never use it for evil, and I will take their whereabouts with me to the grave. To all those new survivors fortunate enough to find this letter and my survival guide, if ever you find the dossier in its entirety, please pass it to Ms Walker as soon as you meet her. Oh, and don't forget to send my regards to her by delivering the tooth necklace that I'm wearing.
Signed with my dying breath on 14 August 5080 FE,
Cimmerius the Conanite
The Last of the Emerald Anacondas
After he finished reading the letter, Zero could not help but feel a pang of pity for the dead man. The warrior's last moments must have been truly excruciating, especially towards the very end while he was writing his letter.
He decided there and then to leave the skeleton where it was, but not before he retrieved the dossier, the rucksack, the necklace of teeth which he wore and the sheathed bone dagger, which went into the rucksack. It would serve as a reminder of the silent promise he had made to its victim to gather all the pieces of the dossier, find this Helena Walker and hand the book and necklace over to her, if she was still around. He also made a mental note to return to the man's grave and give him a proper burial later on when he had gathered more resources for his own survival.
Zero thought of returning back to camp in order to refurbish it into the liveable state that it possessed prior to its former inhabitant's death. However, the dossier in his hands had piqued his curiosity, and he found it hard to tear his eyes away from the book and resist the temptation to flip the pages open to start reading. Should he retreat back to the safety of the campsite and read the book only after gathering sufficient supplies for himself or should he give in to his curiosity and read the dossier there and then while putting himself at possible risk?
In the end, curiosity ended up killing the cat, and Zero sat down on a nearby fallen tree and began to read. Flipping over to the content page, which neatly divided the various chapters into sections based on where the island's animals lived, he decided to read the book in order from the first chapter all the way to the last one. He turned over the page to the first animal mentioned in the book, simply labelled Dodo.
Reading the notes that Helena had presumably written about the dodo, Zero could already tell from the illustrations of the creature as to what the bird looked like; those were none other than the flightless birds he had seen briefly on the beach. The birds were said to be incredibly dumb and slow, making them easy meals for the island's predators. Zero supposed it was a miracle that they could mate constantly and actually reach full maturity within a week after the eggs had hatched, or the entire species would have gone extinct long ago. That said, he frowned at the last part where Helena dismissed the birds as little more than last-ditch food sources as they were too dumb to provide companionship, could not provide much food from their meat alone or even carry goods for their owners. With the eggs being laid at least once a week, even a single mating pair of dodos, if properly fed and kept safe from danger, could provide more than enough eggs to feed a whole family for days without the need to hunt or forage for food.
Flipping over to the next chapter, he found himself looking at a strange bipedal lizard that the dossier called a Dilophosaurus. Zero attempted to pronounce the tongue twisting name several times, but gave up after bungling up his pronunciation every time, deciding to simply call it a Dilo there and then. As Helena had explained, the strange-sounding name meant two-crested lizard, which aptly enough described the scrawny lizard with a pair of wedge-shaped head crests and two foldable side frills lining the top of its neck. The small reptile, which Zero had already deduced was a predator from its sharp-toothed jaws, most often fled from larger attackers rather than bite off more than it could chew, but where it lacked in brute strength, it made up for this major shortcoming by spitting acid at creatures small and weak enough for it to take down. However, if a much larger animal seemed to be on the verge of death from sickness, old age or injury, this little critter would certainly wait for the unlucky creature to perish and fall to the ground before scavenging on the remains. Moreover, the acid that it spat out was rather corrosive to touch, meaning it could impair a prey animal's escape by slowing it down or, if aimed at the eyes, blinding it long enough for the carnivore to finish it off. He decided that until he got his hands on a projectile weapon of sorts, he would avoid them like the plague; his spear was currently his only major defense against the dangers of the island, and he wasn't going to waste it just like that.
Suddenly, a snarling hiss beside Zero caught his attention, prompting him to whirl around with his spear. Pointing the crude weapon in the direction of the snarl, he found himself facing the exact same beast whose profile had been written inside the ancient book. This particular individual was mostly lime green in colour, save for the two crests which were light orange, and its neck frills were folded back against the neck. Compared to Zero, it only came up to his knees, which meant that most others in his place would not have deemed it a serious threat. However, the exiled warrior knew from the dossier that it was not to be taken lightly, especially given that it could spit acid. Before he could react, his uninvited guest snarled again as its frills opened up all the way, mouth opening wide in preparation for an attack.
The Dilo spat out a glob of green acid at Zero, aiming straight for his eyes. However, as Zero jumped away at the last second, the acid struck the middle of his forehead, but tiny droplets still impacted his eyes. Blinded momentarily, Zero yelled in pain as he fell onto his backside and struggled to move away from the pursuing dino. Having dropped his spear when the acid hit, he was left defenceless, and the small predator was quick to seize the opportunity right before it. Before its quarry could crawl any further, the Dilo jumped onto Zero's chest, causing him to collapse onto the ground. Pinned down by the lizard's weight, Zero could not escape, and closed his eyes as he prepared for his would-be killer to sink its jaws into his neck.
However, before the reptile could finish off its prey, the ground suddenly began to shake with a light tremor. At first, Zero thought that it was an earthquake, but with his sharp hearing he made out the sounds of scurrying insects nearby and below him. The Dilo had noticed this too, and raised its head to scan for any new threats, his intended meal forgotten.
To the horror of both Zero and the predator, a massive swarm of rabbit-sized ants was crawling towards them, angered by the disturbance to their underground nest. The lizard seemed to gape in shock, and Zero used the distraction to punch it from behind. With a loud screech, the crested creature went flying into a tree trunk, while the earth itself seemed to explode with more ants emerging from a nearby anthill.
After the lizard recovered from the impact and got up, Zero, who had recovered both his spear and his eyesight, as well as his nemesis, fled in opposite directions, with the former heading straight for the beach and the latter escaping to the jungle. The ants were still giving chase, but fled from Zero as soon as he whipped out his torch and lit it, waving it at them. The small frilled lizard, on the other hand, was still being pursued and only stopped momentarily to snarl at Zero one final time before disappearing into the jungle, taking the ants with it.
Panting heavily, Zero finally allowed himself a sigh of relief, extinguished his torch by scooping some loose soil over it and slowly followed the trail of footprints back to the old camp. The wound on his forehead stung worse than a swarm of hornets, and infection might set in unless the wound was cleaned quickly. Fortunately, the previous inhabitant had left behind a set of cloth bandages alongside the supply pile, and after cleaning his wound with one of them, Zero wrapped it around his head like a bandanna. It was only after he finished wrapping up his injury that he realised he still needed to do the most important thing needed to survive the night: building a campfire. Without the light or heat that it provided, he would most likely either freeze to death at night or get killed by hostile animals just because he couldn't see beyond a few feet of himself. Looking down at a few pieces of flint and stone in the sand, an idea struck him. If both flint and stone were struck together, then they could produce a spark that would then ignite some wood to form a fire.
Having formed a plan on surviving the night, Zero went back into the jungle and retrieved the dossier, which had miraculously survived untouched by the swarm of ants. He picked up the dossier, headed back to the camp and shoved the book into his rucksack, which he slung onto his back. He then grabbed the stone hatchet, placed the spear to one side and went off to find some small trees to cut down. Driftwood was far easier to obtain, yes, but it tended to be wet and sandy, which made it hard to ignite. Starting with a nearby palm tree sapling, he swung the axe with all his might, but he only managed to chop halfway through the tree trunk. Wait, he realised, if I swing this axe one more time where it struck, I might be able to chop it down. He proceeded to heft the axe and felled the sapling with another strike. Satisfied with his handiwork, Zero decided to leave the severed trunk where it was so he could retrieve it later when he had gathered enough fuel.
His next move was to find other sources of fuel to power the long-dead campfire, so he decided to start with a clump of nearby reeds that had been dried brown by the sun. "Hrrnnggh!" The task was easier said than done, as the dried reeds had long since established a deeply entrenched network of roots into the soil. In the end, Zero simply decided to hold the leaf blades with one hand while his other hand retrieved the bone dagger from his rucksack and used it to carefully sever the leaves from the roots.
Because Zero was wearing only a pair of boxers, he could not afford to carry much more than what his rucksack could carry, so he decided to conserve his weight and pack only what he could into the rucksack. With the dried reeds now safely stored inside, he trudged on into the jungle in search of more fuel.
Hammering the blade of his hatchet into a large tree trunk, he made a cut in the thick bark and peeled some of it off using his dagger. After transferring the collected bark into the rucksack, he felt satisfied with what he had collected and was about to leave when he suddenly felt thirsty. Knowing full well that the ocean water was too salty for drinking, he knew that the only way to quench his thirst would be to explore even further into the jungle where unknown dangers might lurk. Zero decided to just get on with it and venture even deeper in search of water.
Barely two minutes later, amidst the myriad of plant species that populated the dense rainforest, Zero found himself listening to the rustle of water flowing through a river. It seemed that the nearer he moved towards the noise, the louder it got, which meant that the water source had to be nearby. He always kept an eye out in the jungle with his dagger in hand, for there was always the constant danger of being ambushed by another hungry predator – or worse.
The blond survivor finally arrived at a shallow stream after what seemed like a long eternity of trudging through the jungle. Drinking up the crystal clear water eagerly by cupping his hands together, he quenched his thirst and was about to return back to camp when something out of the ordinary caught his eye. Turning around to find out what the anomaly was, the discovery truly astounded him. Sitting there right next to a small grove of bamboo and banana plants all by itself was a black egg with bright red splotches on it. Zero estimated that it easily reached up to his lower abdomen and probably weighed more than he could carry by himself. Moreover, whichever creature laid the egg might be a ferocious carnivore, perhaps far more so than the Dilo he had just encountered. The parent would certainly not take kindly to the theft of its egg if it spotted him.
But as of yet, Zero had not discovered any signs of the parent having been around recently; for such a large egg, the parent animal would also have been a very large animal, large enough to have made deep footprints on the ground. In this case, however, there were no visible footprints near the egg apart from his own, let alone belonging to a creature this large. Moreover, the surrounding leaf litter had been left undisturbed for a long time, and showed no signs of flattening or broken twigs and branches whatsoever, which should not have been the case if the parent had recently been around, even if it was a flying creature.
Zero was torn about whether he ought to leave the egg alone or take it under his wing. The huge egg, large though it was, was still just an egg, and was therefore vulnerable to any hungry predators desiring an easy meal with no parent around to look after the egg and defend it. However, he knew that the egg was far too heavy to carry on his own, and also too large to place in his half-full rucksack. Rolling the egg back to his camp would take far too long and he wanted to be back at camp by dusk before he ended up as another creature's supper.
In the end, he finally came up with a compromise. The egg would be left where it was for the night, but starting from the next morning, Zero would start shifting all his necessities from the old beachside camp to the jungle nest. Once his new camp had been set up to encompass the nest, he could easily keep watch on the egg and foil any attempts by carnivores to eat it. Besides, the clearing where the nest was located just so happened to be near a ready supply of fresh water, and the bamboo and banana plants could more or less shelter him from the blazing sun, the howling winds or the falling rain. Until then, the only thing left for him was to return to camp and find something to eat for dinner, but not before he plucked a ripe banana from one of the nearby banana plants.
Peeling open the yellow banana skin to reveal the pale ripe flesh beneath, Zero took a bite out of the fruit and savoured the taste. Mmmm, he thought to himself. This fruit is fabulously sweet and the soft texture is just right. I could certainly get used to life as a human in no time. However, he also realised that delicious though the fruit was, it would be unhealthy for him to eat just one kind of food; his new body needed all sorts of nutrients to grow, after all. This meant he had to find some source of meat to eat so that he could regain his strength over time and survive in this harsh world.
Zero took his leave and returned to the beachside camp the way he came. He was emptying his rucksack and was going to sort out his belongings when he realised that he had yet to find anything to eat before sunset. Back before his arrival on the island, he had relied on energy-laden crystals to sustain himself as a reploid, but now that he was a human, meat and greens were among the options now on the menu.
Zero grabbed his spear and got ready to hunt some prey of his own. Bringing only his spear, empty rucksack and dagger along with him, he started off towards the ocean in the hopes of finding any fish to spear, because he didn't want to risk an ambush by predators while searching for food on land.
Going just about three feet out into the ocean, he finally found an area where he could be as close to his potential prey as possible and still find a place to get his footing on to throw his spear just in case a fish popped up. He had to carefully choose where to throw; too far out into the ocean would mean the loss of his spear, and though the weapon was nothing compared to the weapons he previously owned as a reploid, most notable of all his old energy-powered Z-saber which would likely cut down many of the island's creatures with but one stroke, it was the best option he had for hunting fish.
Zero knew next to nothing about spearfishing, but he'd moved so far away from where he arrived that going back to search for the dodos would be a waste of time, and he did not want to tangle with the ferocious Dilo or the swarm of ants that had warded it off. There was plant life aplenty and colourful berries growing on ferns, but Zero didn't want to eat bananas anymore and he also feared that the colourful berries might be poisonous. No, the only option was to take to the water.
Holding his spear up in a defensive position, he kept an eye out for any slivers of grey in the blue ocean water that meant a fish was nearby. He had dived into the ocean's depths multiple times in his quest to protect Ciel and the Resistance back before Weil teleported him onto this godforsaken island. During those dives beneath the water's surface, he had noticed mechanical reploid fish and real fish swimming in the waters, and in time had learnt how to differentiate the two. Now he would be able to find fish swimming in the waters in their never-ending search for food. The real question was how to catch them with his spear.
Wait! Zero thought as soon as he noticed a sliver of silver dart into shallower waters out of the corner of his left eye. I think I found something to spear! Whirling around with as little noise as he possibly could, he turned towards what he presumed to be a fish. His instincts were proven correct when he spotted the outline of a strange grey fish that he didn't recognise. But his main concern right now was food, and the fish didn't look poisonous to him. Without hesitation, he hefted the spear to a throwing position and prepared to hurl it.
Before Zero could spear his chosen prey, something ticklish crawled over his right foot. "Yaargh!" Startled by the sudden intrusion, he released his spear and dropped it into the shallow water with a short yell. The blond survivor then reached down into the water and pried the culprit off his right foot. When he grabbed it out of the water, the creature in his hand had him rooted to the ground in disbelief.
It was most definitely not a fish, but Zero couldn't guess what it truly was. The small creature looked like some sort of millipede-shrimp hybrid that had been flattened by a steamroller. Its many legs flailed helplessly in the air while being held up by its tail, and the light-brown hard exoskeleton took up at least half of its body mass, meaning that it was most likely not suitable for consumption. If anything, it would be just about what most would simply dismiss as useless junk.
Annoyed that the creature had interrupted his fishing session, he flung it back into the ocean from whence it came. He then tried to look for the fish that had previously shown up but his efforts were for naught. It had probably been scared off by his sudden shock at the millipede-shrimp hybrid crawling onto his foot. Seething with fury at the rippling waters and at his failed attempt, Zero decided to go back onto shore and wait until the water had turned calm once more.
After approximately fifteen minutes had passed, Zero decided to return to the beach to fish, only this time he would have to spear his prey from land instead of going into the water. He didn't want to be caught off guard by the strange brown creature, or worse some sea-dwelling predator while scouring for food. Besides, if his spear did strike down any target, he was pretty sure that even if the spear wasn't visible from where he stood, the animal's blood would give its position away.
Taking his position just before the water's edge, he once again trained his eyes on the water for any signs of silvery scales or slight movement. Although his spear could be easily found and retrieved if he hit successfully, a missed shot would mean either a highly risky venture into deep water where oceanic carnivores were free to tear him to pieces or recrafting of a new spear which would take too long. Therefore, he had no other choice but to think twice before throwing his spear.
Zero was starting to grow frustrated over the lack of fish to spear when a reflected ray of light gleamed off something and caught his attention. His head turning towards the reflected light, he was pleased to find that another fish had decided to swim into the area, not knowing that it would soon be struck down. This particular individual seemed to be the same species as the previous one, but it was a deep blue as opposed to the lighter cyan-green of the ocean water, and looked larger than the previous fish as well. His eyes narrowing towards their target, Zero held his spear up in a throwing position and prepared for the fish to put itself into a vulnerable position. This truly was a waiting game between the hunter and the hunted. His patience wearing thin, the blond spearfishing amateur waited and waited until...
Now!
Sensing that the fish had finally grown suspicious of his presence and was preparing to dart away, Zero flung his spear into the ocean, aiming slightly below the reflection of the fish on the water's surface to compensate for the refraction caused by the light bending upon entry into the water. At the same time, the fish darted away from the shoreline as soon as the spear was thrown. Zero was unable to see his spear due to the ripples created on the sea surface, but a series of red swirls in the water told him the truth. His aim had been swift and true.
He immediately dove into the water and felt around for his spear in the hopes of finding it. Barely a few moments later, his hands touched the wooden handle of his weapon and he fished it out of the water with a victorious shout, the targeted fish being stuck onto the blood-soaked tip of his spear. Feeling joyful at having secured his prize, he took the dead fish off his spear and returned to camp with his catch.
Once Zero had returned to the old camp, he decided to inspect his catch for a while before cooking it. The dead fish was truly queer; in fact, it was like nothing he had ever seen before. From the strange creatures that existed on the island and from his encounter with the Dilo, he could only come to one conclusion: most, if not all, of those creatures once came from an era of long ago while the dinosaurs were still alive, and already he had seen some real-life dinosaurs. This fish was by far no exception.
However, a rumbling stomach once again drew Zero's attention back to the matter at hand, which was to find and cook a meal for himself to eat. Raw fish was sure as heck out of the menu. Having been a mechanical being previously, he never knew what it was like to consume food that humans ate until his experience with the banana, only listening to secondhand accounts from Ciel and the members of Neige's caravan, but he knew full well that eating meat raw was almost always a bad idea, because one could get stomach aches and vomiting just by doing so. The easy part of the affair consisted mainly of finding fuel for the cooking fire, which he had already done, and skinning the dead fish. From what he knew about eating fish, they possessed a scaly skin that made preparation rather complicated, for the scales were inedible most of the time. Because he knew next to nothing about descaling fish, his only solution would be to get rid of the skin entirely by flaying the dead creature.
He retrieved his dagger and stabbed underneath the fatty layer that rested under the fish's scaly hide, separating flesh and skin in several careful motions akin to the use of a carpenter's saw. After the fish had been stripped of all its hide, Zero set the skin aside for disposal later on. Clearing out the organs was the next step, and he made sure to gut the fish as cleanly as possible. The cleared out innards went into the same pile as the skin, blood flowing from them and soaking into the soil. Zero then used his dagger to strip the fish of its flesh and set aside the flesh for cooking later on, while the bones went straight into the pile of skin and innards. Once any remaining blood had been drained from the flesh, he decided to dispose of the unwanted organs in the water; he did not want to end up drawing unwanted attention from land predators like the Dilo he had seen earlier. A shoal of fish quickly gobbled up the organs and the skin, leaving behind a fleshless skeleton.
The next task on his agenda was to find a surface on which he could cook his meal without accidentally burning it. That turned out to be easy; hidden underneath the pile of tools, a stone disc which was slightly concave towards the centre had been stacked alongside a slightly rusty steel tripod with a hole in the ring-like middle. Judging by the disc's charred underside and how it easily fit over the hole in the tripod's center, Zero deduced that both of these had been used for cooking in the past. To his relief, the tripod fit perfectly over the burnt out campfire, which only served to confirm his suspicions even more.
With most of the preparations done, after removing the tripod and makeshift cooking pot, Zero replaced the burnt out logs and charcoal at the campfire with some of the wood he had stashed beside the pile of resources. Laying the slabs of fish over the stone disc, he realised that he needed tools to light the fire that would cook his food. He knew from occasionally reading prehistory books belonging to the Resistance that early humans struck flint against stone in order to produce the spark required to light the fires needed for light and warmth, thus there was at least some idea that he needed some flint to get the campfire roaring once again.
Some shred of information about flint buried in his mind's deepest recesses until that moment told him everything he needed to know. The mineral he sought was muddy orange in colour and tended to fracture into pointed pieces when broken. With that in mind, he combed the surroundings for the sharp rocks on the beach, taking care not to step on one by accident, lest he injure himself.
Not longer after Zero began his search, he spotted a nearby grey pebble lying in the sand just shy of the shoreline. Delighted that his campfire conundrum was now out of the way, he simply picked up the pebble and went back to camp. Once he stopped by the unlit campfire, he proceeded to squat down and strike the two pieces of rock against each other, only to find to his dismay that there was no spark coming forth. Attempt after attempt failed to produce even a small spark and Zero was about to throw in the towel when a spark flew from the rocks at long last and landed on the wood he had placed at the campfire.
Bright tongues of flame immediately grew outward from where the spark had landed, soaring up into the air until a small blaze three-quarters the size of Zero's rucksack had formed, remaining at a relatively constant size while the fire crackled, emanating warm light and radiant heat in all directions. At first, Zero feared that his fire would be extinguished when a relatively strong ocean breeze blew right into it, but to his relief, the flames only shifted in the wind for a moment and then resumed burning as resolutely as the moment the campfire had been lit.
Seeing that he had finally lit a successful campfire for the first time since his arrival on the island, Zero was tempted to celebrate until he realised that even if he survived the night, he would not be out of the woods anytime soon. Instead, he placed the tripod with the stone ring over the fire and the stone disc with raw fish over the gap in the stone ring, taking care not to burn his hands while doing so. Once that was done, he retrieved a metal spatula with a wooden handle from the set of tools and made sure to flip over the slices of raw fish every few minutes to prevent his meal from being burnt.
After an arduous twenty-five minutes of cooking his meal and intermittently keeping an eye out for any danger, Zero was delighted to find that the fish slices had finally become cooked, the pink flesh having turned a crispy brown. His mouth watering both from the aroma and from his own hunger, he scooped up all the slices of fish onto one of the stone plates using the spatula and lightly blew away some of the hot air to cool down his meal.
Retrieving an old fork which he had cleaned in the seawater earlier, he poked the utensil into a slice of fish and took a small bite. Needless to say, it tasted quite good even without additional ingredients of any kind, his new taste buds savouring every sensation of fried fish and small traces of a foreign flavour that most humans would describe as salty. So this is what it feels like to taste food as a human, Zero mused to himself as the fish went straight down his gullet. Much as Reploids had proven to be superior to humans in some ways, like having the ability to modify themselves for combat, he had to admit that if there was one aspect that humans still prevailed in, it was the ability to experience all the five known senses of sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell.
By the time the blond survivor polished off the entire meal and cleaned up his dishes, he found that the sun was already starting to come down, signalling that it was dusk and almost certainly time to sleep soon. Wow, I arrived here only today and yet I can do so much by now thanks to Cimmerius, the camp's last owner, he mused. If not for him, I might be dead by now. The only thing I can do now to repay him is to deliver that necklace to his friend Helena and avenge his death. For now though, I think it is time for me to rest.
Zero stood up and faced the evening sun, beaming with pride at having achieved so much in just one day. As the setting sun cast a beautiful red-orange hue over the skies and the pristine ocean sparkled with dazzling light, he allowed himself to revel in what he had accomplished.
I ought to be thankful that I've made it this far today, Zero thought. Dr Weil might have banished me into this place seemingly beyond return to my home world, but fate has given me a third chance. To perish now would be throwing it all away, so I have decided that I will not die out here, not only for my own sake, but also for Ciel, X, Neige, and everyone else I have ever believed in. That's what they would want.
I will survive this island.
This chapter details Zero's arrival and first day on the ARK known as the Island. This is my first time writing on the site, so please forgive my writing and give constructive criticism or ask any questions or concerns that you might have (although I have a busy schedule so I may not be able to answer them all).
Disclaimer: I do not own Mega Man or ARK: Survival Evolved. Mega Man Zero (alongside all associated content in official media and the entire Mega Man series) is owned by Capcom. ARK: Survival Evolved (alongside all associated content in official media) is owned by Studio Wildcard. The rest of the story is mainly my imagination.
Enjoy! Signing off, SF UberMan.