Apocalypse Fighter

Chapter 47: The Girl With The Painted Toenails

In a short time, Richard learned a lot of new things about his newly transformed body. He could run as fast as a cheetah. He was stronger than any normal man ever could be. He was so strong that he could carry a ten kilos backpack, a submachine gun, and a police pistol. Not only could he carry all of that, but the load felt light. With his new body, he speculated that he could easily kill the two big mutant police dogs, even if he had no weapons, and they both attacked him at the same time.

It wasn’t long, though, before Richard discovered that his body wasn’t the perfect killing machine that he’d thought that it was. It had its limitations. When he was moving super-fast, he was uncoordinated. Furthermore, once he reached a certain speed, navigation became difficult. He had a hard time with quick turns and dodging branches and other unexpected barriers. He felt like a rookie speed racer, and if anybody had seen him practicing, he would have been embarrassed. He knew, though, that the situation was consistent with the natural laws of biological evolution. The Eternal Bug had reconstructed his muscles and bones first, and now it was taking its time to reconstruct his nervous system.

       To be completely immune to mutant creatures, Richard would need time to grow stronger, and he would also need a lot of bio-energy cores. That was why he was so eager to find them; and not just for himself. With these bio-energy cores, Anthony, Zoe, and Janet could strengthen themselves too.

       Richard ran quickly through a narrow walkway, and from time to time, he heard noises. He knew the sounds were coming from community residents that, like them, were searching for food and other resources.

It had been three days since the meteor had appeared above the Earth, and the mutant bacteria and microbes had begun to reveal their power on rotting unsealed foods. If they didn't think of some way to preserve the food, they would all starve to death.

       Suddenly, Richard smelled blood, and he stopped. He frowned, raised his rifle, and looked warily at a pile of rocks. He could hear some strange noises, and he stepped forward, and it wasn’t long before he found the source of the smell. There was a  feminine foot behind the rocks. It was still warm, and it was emitting a faint halo. The foot is fresh – Richard noted – and there is still some residual bio-energy. “What an unlucky girl,” he muttered. “She never had a chance…”

       Richard observed a moment of silence for the owner of this foot. From the quality of its skin, he could tell that it had belonged to a young woman. The toes were cute, and the toenails had been carefully painted and polished. “What a shame,” he continued. “She had no way of knowing that she would become food for some kind of vicious mutant beast.” He touched his gun absently and walked gingerly forward.

       He hadn’t gone far when a small brown mutant dog appeared in front of him. It was growling and it was foaming at the mouth, but it didn’t appear to be a threat.

       Richard was startled when he heard a woman’s voice from the bushes. He went to investigate, and what he found left him speechless. It was the owner of the foot. She was lying on the ground. Her abdomen had been ripped open, and her organs had spilled out onto the ground in front of her. “You should be dead…” he gasped.

      The dog was still growling at him, but when he turned on it with his gun, the little creep shook its head, turned, and ran away with its tail between legs. Richard thought about killing it, but he decided to save the bullet. He doubted the creature had grown a bio-energy core yet, anyway.

       Once the dog was gone Richard turned back to the woman and sighed. She was in her early 20s, and the clothes she wore suggested that she came from money. She was beautiful and rich, but in the end her privilege hadn’t saved her. Life is so fragile – he thought. He could see that she was suffering, and he put her out of her misery. He waited to make sure she was dead, and then he turned to leave.

       As Richard walked away, he thought about how the animals would come and eat her breasts. Her sexy hips would be nothing but bones by the time they were done with her. The ants and other insects would take their share. Some would lay eggs, and her beautiful face would become a breeding ground for maggots. The thought made him want to be sick.

       For a while Richard walked without purpose, allowing his legs to take him where they would. He past through numerous buildings and eventually he came to the tunnels that connected to the villas. It was there that he encountered his first pack of mutant animals. Most of them were dogs and cats, but he also saw a couple of ferrets, a giant hedgehog, and a miniature pony. Some had severe mutations, while others could still pass as normal. The ferrets, for example, looked normal, but one of the cats had grown foot long tusks.

Richard brought his gun to his shoulder and took them all out in a matter of minutes. Once they were dead, he began the messy task of cutting their heads open and digging through their brains. In the end, he only found a few nail-sized bio-energy cores.

As he was harvesting them, a dozen men snuck up on him. They were carrying kitchen knives, rolling pins, and iron bars. When Richard didn’t notice them, the biggest man stepped forward. He stood akimbo and shouted, “Hey, there! Stop it! What are you doing? Where are you from, and why did you come here?”

Richard frowned. He counted to ten in his mind, and then he slowly looked up. Tread with caution – he told himself – these are not your people…