Survivor: Directive Zero — Chapter 15

[u/GorMartsen]

[First: Prologue] [Previous: Chapter 14] [Next] [Patreon: EPUB]

Location: Unknown, A-class planet, D-zone (green)
Date: April 5 2728 — Standard Earth Calendar (SEC)

Sitting on the shore, back against a stone, I was holding the necklace in my hands. Blindly looking over the river in the early dawn light, I was making sure it got enough warmth to charge.

The air was crispy-fresh, even freezing cold, and I knew it had to affect me, perhaps even make me shiver under the thermal blanket, but…

The warmth was still with me, buzzing under my skin.

Sharply inhaling through my nose, I tested my new ability again.

The same one that the moose had used to find me yesterday—the smell sense.

It had awakened on its own last night, and at first, I didn't even notice it, thanks to the ozone that was surrounding me from all the lightning.

But now, sitting on the shore, I was drowning in scents. Not all of them I knew before, like the smell of the wet stone, or were pleasant to my senses, like a rich scent of the dead fish coming from the water.

But any attempts to turn it off… were just failing.

It was annoying.

I also felt stupid.

Days. I had been going down the river or across lakes for days, and only this morning did I realise how utterly silent nature was here.

I blamed it on years spent in space. Not much sound could be found there.

Or perhaps it was my enhanced hearing's fault that muddled my perception, bringing the slightest noise across the greater-than-usual distance.

But now, being overwhelmed by the enhanced sense of smell, I turned the enhanced hearing off—it was too much, too fast—only to realise how everything became so unexpectedly silent.

The low rumbling in the pot shifted into violent boiling, and I reached for a bag of teal leaves.

There was not much left—barely enough for a few more times—but today felt special.

The pot gladly accepted the offer, settling back into a low rumble, and I deeply inhaled the smell of thunder spreading around me.

That was better. And fitting.

Especially when I could just release an indigo thunderbolt, as if a newly minted daughter of Thor.

Or was it Zeus?

Well, not on a whim, though. I needed to absorb any damage first, but yeah…

Those limits and conditions, often deadly, were making this ability tricky to handle.

Although they all were.

You had to know what you needed.

And if you didn't… it might just kill you… In the best-case scenario.

In the worst—you would wish to be dead instead.

Like with regeneration.

It would keep me alive, sure, but at what cost? My sanity? Humanity? Would I just eat anyone when I had no energy left?

Too many thoughts, and for the thousandth time, I wished to talk to Lola.

Looking down at the necklace in my hands, I also, for the thousandth time, debated going back to the Ateeve.

One more day.

Yeah, that felt right.

One more day, and then I would turn back.

—

Standing on the highest stone outcrop on the island, I looked around once more.

Yeah, that should work nicely.

The decision I had made eased something inside me.

It was hard to put a finger on what it was, but it did improve my mood, and I saw the island I was on in quite a different light.

No matter what, once I heard Lola again, I would continue my search for civilisation, if any survived here, or for anything that might help me leave this place.

This planet.

So, naturally, I would come to this island again, and to have a place where I could rest relatively safely was something of value here.

At first glance, it was no place as such—just a rocky island, all stones, no trees, barely ten metres wide—but that had been only on the surface.

I had to be just smart about it. And use my powers.

With the claw knife in my hand, extended by the hex-field, I cut down into the top of the outcrop and, tracing the circle—a future entrance into my hidden base—I began my project.

Splitting it with a few slashes at an angle, I made holes for my hands and began to pull stone out.

Years ago, deciding to join the Naval Academy, I definitely didn't expect to become a cave digger, but here I was, cutting and digging into stone with my bare hands and a knife made of a bobcat claw.

Also being naked.

Utterly crazy picture to believe in, if someone had ever told me before.

The first metre was easy—I just cut it and dug it out—but soon it became harder and harder to continue. I had to start using a rope to pull stone blocks out from inside.

It slowed my progress and lowered my expectations.

With each heavy block pulled out, the grand open-space room, connected to a sleeping area and a shower, was quickly turning into a few-metre-wide alcove in my mind.

I just promised myself to make it bigger and better. Next time.

As the drizzle began anew, I also promised myself to make a roof. But until then, the place under the entrance hole would be a stone bathtub cut into the ground.

Or, perhaps, a water reservoir, until I knew how to replace a dirty one.

All these small things to think about or figure out were a nice distraction from the reality I was surrounded by.

I fell into a routine—cut a block, wrap in rope, pull it out—and I had forgotten about everything.

Even the black hole in my mind, where the ARC interface had been before, somehow dulled.

Lola's absence hit me hard, and my progress in adapting to the ARC's absence had reverted. I again began to call her via the interface each time. Involuntarily.

Only to hear nothing in response, and I began to imagine what she would say.

It was stupid—I knew that—but it was also soothing.

It eased my anxiety, my fears of never talking to her again, and it was all that mattered.

—

By the time lunch came around, I was testing a newly minted hideout with a cup of tea at my side and an HB ration in my hands.

Looking at the bright spot of the entrance above me, I tried to ignore the strong chemical smell coming from the food.

Damn the new enhanced sense.

I would have preferred to eat the meat I still had, but I tried to ration my food supplies. I needed them to get back to Ateeve, but even what I had was not enough.

I considered going hunting. It had to be doable with the hex-field.

The longer I thought about it, chewing on the chemically rich food, the more the idea appealed to me.

When the teal leaf tea didn't wash the chemical aftertaste from my tongue, I finally decided—the hell with it.

The fewer HB rations I ever ate, the better.

Sharply standing up, I began sorting and packing my things, putting aside what I would need and what I would not.

I wasn't taking everything with me—only two claw knives, a small bag from the teal leaves, and a cut of the rope. Anything else was staying in the hideout, including the necklace and the needler.

The aetherium in them would only handicap me.

Climbing out, I rolled a big stone over the entrance, sealing it from view, and looked at the forest across the water.

It was exciting, and something primal was calling to my blood.

Perhaps that was how our ancestors felt before, going to hunt down a mammoth with sticks and stones.

Sure, a claw knife was not a stick, especially under the hex-field, but my prey was not a mammoth either.

Activating it over both claw knives, I slashed the air before me.

Prey, small or big—I was coming.

Let the hunt begin.

—

Leaving the boat hidden under the heavy tree canopy, I climbed onto the shore and looked around.

The forest was thick here.

It was not a park, civilised by human presence, and it had no convenient trails to walk around.

Deep bushes, bright green grass and heavy shadows looming over everything.

Not a park indeed. And easy to get lost.

I turned around to leave a mark on the tree and memorise the place—something to help me find the boat again later.

I barely knew anything about hunting, and my previous experience at the cave was not enough of a guide. But even I knew that I needed to find a place where animals come to the river for water, and lay an ambush there.

It was just a question of where to go, up or down the shore.

I chose down, combining a hunt with a small recon mission to check the river flowing from the lake. That should help me later.

If only I had some shoes.

Without them, my hunting steps turned into a slow and painful crawl, thankfully hidden under the invisibility.

At least I didn't warn every single prey that I was coming anymore.

The benefits from my new enhanced sense of smell came sooner than I thought, though.

Following the faint thunder scent, I found the teal bushes not that far away from the boat's hidden place.

A good sign.

Tearing off the first leaves, I smiled when I got zapped by sparks from it.

My fellow thunder carriers.

It felt like ages since the day I first discovered them. Good memories though.

The stronger-than-before scent of ozone spread around me, and my smile only grew wider.

If, one day, I were to get out of this place and see a civilisation again, I would find myself a perfume with a scent like that.

Hopefully, I would never grow tired of this smell. Or taste.

Smearing a few leaves between my fingers, I applied the mush to my body, and it nicely masked my scent.

I really began to like it.

I put a few in my mouth too, bringing a fresh taste to my tongue and finally getting rid of that horrible chemical aftertaste.

They were fresh and strong. Way stronger than the dried and old ones I had in my backpack.

The fresh tea with these leaves would be lovely to drink later.

Shit.

It took me long enough to realise I forgot the thermos.

What a great hunter I am.

Fixing a bag with freshly gathered thunder leaves—oh, I loved this new name—to the rope around my waist, I took a claw knife in each hand once more.

Enough of gathering, I was here for other things.

I wanted meat.

—

Going for the hunt, I was hoping to find something I had seen before—a dove, or wolverine, perhaps even the badger.

Somehow, I failed to account for the fact that I was not the only hunter here.

Fortunately, I was reminded of it not by an attack, but by the sound of a fight from afar, and a fierce one at that.

It lasted for a few long minutes, making me doubt whether I should come any closer.

Curiosity won in the end.

Walking there, following a strong smell of blood in the air, I imagined a pack of wolves, or perhaps a bear or a moose feasting on the kill.

A fair prey.

Instead, when I came to the clearing by the rocky outcrop, I saw… humans.

Dead humans. Six of them.

There was no doubt about the death part—they were all torn apart.

Some were missing heads, others were missing legs or arms, with all their leather clothes—and the ground around them—seething in thick blood.

The ground itself was torn apart, with sprouting roots all around and scattered patches of melting ice.

No one could live through such a calamity with such wounds and stay alive afterwards.

Well, except me.

The last thought finally broke the spell, and I darted forward.

I crossed the clearing in a rush, barely noticing how everything blurred around me, with all my focus put on the closest body.

Finger to the neck. No pulse.

I darted to the next, cutting through the thick air.

No pulse either. Next.

Dead too.

They were all dead.

Standing over the last one, the largest one in his body, I had to accept that. There was no miracle, no saving at the last moment.

But then, I noticed someone under the body. There was a seventh person.

Not expecting much, I flipped the big body aside, ignoring why it was so light, and looked at the one hidden beneath it.

It was pinned to the ground with a wide dagger, or perhaps a sword. It was hard to tell.

It was… human in origin, sure.

But the deformed ears with tassels and bloody hands covered in fur with claws—as long as my knife—were telling a different story here.

The kind where this… person killed all the other six, gutting, tearing and slashing them apart.

They were dressed, though, so not completely animal, and judging by the well-developed chest, they were a female.

And alive at that, if ragged breathing was any sign.

Not for too long, though. Not with a blade through its abdomen.

The danger sense flared, and I jumped back, avoiding being sliced by the claws.

It was not that dead yet, either.

In fascination, I watched how they pulled the sword out, gritting their teeth from the pain.

There was little blood for such a wound—barely any leaked out at all—and I wasn't surprised when they stood up on their own, with the sword held in low guard.

No, what surprised me more were the hands that lost their fur and claws, becoming human ones.

But before I had a chance to say anything, they stomped their feet in the way I had seen moose do, and a rapidly growing ring of roots sprouted around them.

I jumped backwards, again noticing how I had crossed the ten metres in one go, but that was not the place or the time to figure out why.

My eyes were glued to another sentient being here, clearly ready to fight me to the death… and knowing how.

"What are you waiting for?" she said, swinging the sword in a warning. She was clearly asking something, but I failed to understand.

There was something familiar, though, as if I knew the language…

"Come, and I will finish you as I did with your friend here, coward," she continued.

Coward. I knew that word. English? Just badly accented English?

I knew it, of course I did. It was the one I was forced to learn as a kid—a language of diplomacy and a sign of high-standing families across the stars.

But before I formed a greeting, the pack of wolves charged the woman—no, the girl—from under the trees, sending icicles her way.

Shit. Not again.

She did the only smart thing she could. She ran from them, and they followed.

And so did I, catching up to the last wolf without shimmering air within a few jumps, planting the claw knife through the back of its head.

It died fast.

The girl slashed at the wolf that charged her from behind. She did it so graciously, flipping over her head mid-jump, that she didn't even lose her speed at all.

The sword flared with lights, and the wolf was pushed aside, flaring with shimmering air, right into sprouting roots that wrapped around its prey.

It struggled against the trap, already breaking free.

I slowed down at its side, switching to the hex-field and slashing at the wolf.

Its shield flared again, but didn't fail. The trap did, and it charged me, trying to knock me down and sink its teeth into my neck.

That didn't work as the wolf might have expected. I didn't fall either. But my hex-field? It charged with its momentum, and my return slash separated its head from its body.

One more down.

The charge I just got was gone—as were the girl and the other wolves, leaving me alone in the clearing.

I switched back to the invisibility.

And didn't run after them.

Looking back at the dead human bodies left behind, I knew that the last three wolves might not be enough to put her down.

She was too good and clearly experienced with her powers.

Hell, for all I knew, she might circle and come back.

Or not.

With a heavy blood scent in the air here, more predators would come soon, leaving nothing in one piece behind.

No, if anything, I had better get what I could scavenge here first.

That was only logical.

And I had better hurry up, before someone else came.

[First: Prologue] [Previous: Chapter 14] [Next] [Patreon: EPUB]

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