Colony

by SpunSilk

Part Fourteen: Bloom

I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens.

–Woody Allen

It's happening! They are emerging from dormancy...

All around me, all through me. Everywhere. Inside me and outside me, in my past, present, and future. Yeah, that's the way I'll need to describe it. It was more than just 3-dimensional. I was penetrated by, and consumed inside of, a vibrant haze of turquoise. Any illusion I had ever held of humans being able to survive Colony, or being able to live with chronic Colony infection fizzled in a plume of turquoise presence that blossomed at the direct expense of my own life-force. I staggered.

The force of it was shocking, even though I'd had weeks to prepare my head for it. My muscles felt like they were made of lead. Like I was trying to pull my arms through fresh mud. It was not actually painful, in the strictest sense – I didn't hurt anywhere. But somehow my energy was being syphoned off by the colony, and it was exhausting supporting them.

This was the division phase of the life cycle of the Colony. The multiplication phase. Lady Vet had explained to me that after the damn 'quasi-intelligent' infection had gestated long enough in the energy pool of my aura, they would bloom and move on to the next part where they increased their number, and would eventually form multiple new Colony-hives to spread their kind to new victims.

In addition to the incredible weight of the colony's appetite, there was more I had to deal with. Suddenly, with the appearance of the turquoise presence, came a touch of view into the Ether. In a blink, I could 'see' things that had been invisible in normal life, to my human senses. These parasites –whatever they were, viruses or bees or something in-between – were coming to life and looking around, and part of me seemed to be sucked along with them for the ride, like a tiny boat caught in the suction-wake of an ocean vessel. It was a bizarre blending of the two realities. I could see the cabin next to me with my eyes –– and glimpse an area of Ether a half a mile in diameter in my mind as well. My aura became visible, dark green as always (together with its other sensations) but not large as I had seen it other times. It had always been unusually large. Now, it seemed to have shrunk in size to the size of a 'normal' human aura. No great surprise there. My aura energy had been keeping the colony enriched for the entire time they were in the latent phase. It was depleted. I could not see the infection in the green aura, Lady Vet had said Colony was not macroscopic. But given the speed I felt my energy syphoned off, I watched the shrunken aura and calculated that it would not be lasting the full few days she had told me was common for non-human entities after Colony bloom.

Sadly, the magnetic force lines were as vibrant and strong as ever – I can not seem to get a break; destined to attract crap out of the Ether until the very moment I die!

I could see the cabin and water-well with my eyes, at the same time, I could suddenly perceive much more. Not only around me; under me as well. I was struck right away with the black network – now 'visible' – that I could now see under the ground, the gnarly black connections that supported each of the crushing thorn-vines in the entire area; each one originating, through a branched network, at the old coal mine. I marveled at the extent of it. This miscreation-thing was huge, much larger, more powerful, than I had figured. It reminded me of a king spider sitting at the center of an expansive net of power and destruction. This wasn't just a nasty spirit I had holed up in his pit, I had a big fish by the tail here.

The new sensations threatened to overwhelm my whole thought process. However, some part of me way down low in my brain zeroed in on one thought, pre-set there for activation in emergency situations: 'In case of Bloom, proceed to mine'. Even as my mind swam in the onslaught of new sensations, my old body started taking my sorry self in a bee-line to the coal mine.

I had an enemy to infect.

I made my way the short distance towards the mine, relieved now that I was so close. Horace's advice had been good – I wouldn't have wanted to walk all the way from his Papi's house in town. As I approached the handsaw chest, my new-found Ether insight cleared up at least one of the mysteries of the place: I could 'see' the handsaw even from the outside of the chest… and it had magnetic force lines in the Ether, as clear as clear. Smaller than my set, but just as vibrant. No wonder the tool seemed to 'jump' into my hand when I reached for it. No wonder the tool felt so incredibly right when I sawed. We had attracted each other. I passed by without opening the hardwood chest and continued on; today I was not fighting the thorn-vines. Today I was not maintaining his jail cell. Today, I was going in for the kill.

As I stumbled into the small clearing near the mine entrance, I found myself awash in the (normally invisible) bright fuchsia aura-glow that the cairns themselves radiated. Yeah, the stacks had their own aura, as strong as any I'd ever seen coming off a human. Overtones of citrus and the feel of mineral oil, in addition to the color. Above all of this, a single musical note sounded, clear and high. I'd never seen an aura that made an 'audible' sound before, but here it was. No gap was to be seen between the radiation of each of the columns of stones, it seemed the aura from one bled into the aura of the next, which formed a solid wall of strong fuchsia that isolated the old mine from everything else. I figured this invisible aura was connected to the method by which the Troglodyte was being contained. I was breathing hard with effort as I approached them.

Relief flooded through me as I slipped through the cairns to the small area in front of the old mine's entrance, I passed inside the barrier Horace had so carefully maintained, and his father before him, and his grandfather before that. I made it! I was there. I slumped against the timber of the entrance. Colony was feeding, I felt them. Draining off my energy…

I did not actually enter the mine. I never had liked caves. There was a small area close to the entrance where the semi-circle of cairn-aura did not reach. This had to be where Horace and his kin had seen the Miscreation standing, the few times he had been seen. I stood in the spot myself now, gazing into the black pit. How deep did this hole go? Even my new-found Ether-vision did not penetrate the dark depth of the hole. No sign of him, but I had my hopes pinned on all that changing.

Now to set the trap.

I slowly lifted the protective medallion on its chain over my head and after starring at it for a few beats, I threw it as far as I could, far beyond the cairns. It landed uselessly on the ground with a metallic clink. Then the Mojo Bag. It landed beyond the cairns as well. Done. They were both gone. No going back now, I thought. Deep breaths kept oxygen arriving to my brain as I stood looking into the darkness of the mine, standing there figuratively naked, vulnerable, and very open to attack. In-spite of my weakened condition, my eyes narrowed craftily. This time, I'm the predator…

I stood leaning my forearms over my head on the low ceiling beam at the entrance for support, not entering but watching. Listening. Come on, Sucker, I thought languidly, come to Daddy… From the inside, my viewpoint was full turquoise. It made things look odd colors to my eyes. But others, on the outside, could not see anything amiss, even if they had Ether-view. I was counting on that. He would never see it coming...

All was quiet.

This thing could go two ways. He could come, kill me, and have the Colony attach to him once he did, once my aura was snuffed out; or if he took too much time answering his doorbell, Colony would kill me itself, and would then go searching him out as the next closest Ether-entity victim available. Two ways it could go. Both the same by me.

I rolled my weight heavily on the upright timber at the side of the entrance and my eyes fell on the cat, who had patiently followed me to the mine. "So. This is how it ends, Edward R." I said sluggishly. "Instead of a few hours of gestation, ten long weeks – but instead of a few days of feeding, just an hour until death... Life-cycle in humans... " Even the energy I was willing to sacrifice to my voice was fading. "Tell Lady Vet for me..." I stopped talking all together, it tired me too much. Breathing was what I could manage. The cat sat dignified on the ground, with his tail wrapped carefully around his legs, watching me with those unchanging eyes.

Death by Colony was irksome. Not a foe in sight, no-one, nothing visible to fight against! Sad, really, that a human is so fragile in the face of this infection... But, I'm far away from any other human. It has no one to swarm to. No one but him. And he's confined. He dies here. This Colony starves out, way out here, after that... I felt some satisfaction in that. I forced my lungs to keep breathing, although they complained of the effort needed. It was soon too much effort to hold myself upright. And still there was no sign of him.

At length, gravity won; I blacked out – crashed through three of the delicate cairns – and ungracefully joined Edward R. Murrow on the ground.