I woke up, covered in dust. Sand on my eyes, muddy crusts running down my cheeks like dried river beds.
I sat up straight and touched the sun-warmed spot at the back of my head. My skull was uneven, and my fingers explored the ridge on my scalp with a feeler-like eagerness.
The ridge peaked into a large mound with a hard scab on its tip.
I instinctively picked at the scab with my broken finger nail. A sharp hairline pain ran through the ridge, my skin, my skull, down my neck and into my left shoulder.
As I turned my head to investigate, the muscles at the base of my neck knotted up, tightening into one short, excruciating twinge of sudden nerve impulses, heightened with a sense of disorientation and confusion.
My left arm was different.
I had no phalanges left.
My wrist was scattered on the ground next to me.
The bones of my forearm were splintered and hugging my shorn muscles.
A twisted shard of steel, charred and searing, had been savagely introduced into my shoulder, up my neck and through my cranium while I was out of my senses.
I touched the alien ridge on my head and an electric pain ran through my body again. With an unexplained determination, my right hand felt around my deformed skull, registering the shape as my brain, or what was left of it, tried to valiantly interpret the shape.
The rough scab kept drawing my fingers to it. With every touch, a pulse of horror was transmitted through my body, making the surviving scraps of muscle tissue flick and tense uselessly. A masochistic sixty two seconds later, I touched the ground.
I slowly spread my fingers wide, enjoying the coarse texture of the hot sand on my deadened skin.
"Sir! Here's another one"
Click.
"Yessir."
Click.
"Registry Kappa, Omega, two, four, score, Ipsilon, Gamma, one."
Click.
"Permission to O.N.W., sir."
Click.
"North Watch executed, sir. Out."
Click.
"Boom Biddy Bye Bye."
Click.
I sat up straight and touched the sun-warmed spot at the back of my head. My skull was uneven, and my fingers explored the ridge on my scalp with a feeler-like eagerness.
The ridge peaked into a large mound with a hard scab on its tip.
I instinctively picked at the scab with my broken finger nail. A sharp hairline pain ran through the ridge, my skin, my skull, down my neck and into my left shoulder.
As I turned my head to investigate, the muscles at the base of my neck knotted up, tightening into one short, excruciating twinge of sudden nerve impulses, heightened with a sense of disorientation and confusion.
My left arm was different.
I had no phalanges left.
My wrist was scattered on the ground next to me.
The bones of my forearm were splintered and hugging my shorn muscles.
A twisted shard of steel, charred and searing, had been savagely introduced into my shoulder, up my neck and through my cranium while I was out of my senses.
I touched the alien ridge on my head and an electric pain ran through my body again. With an unexplained determination, my right hand felt around my deformed skull, registering the shape as my brain, or what was left of it, tried to valiantly interpret the shape.
The rough scab kept drawing my fingers to it. With every touch, a pulse of horror was transmitted through my body, making the surviving scraps of muscle tissue flick and tense uselessly. A masochistic sixty two seconds later, I touched the ground.
I slowly spread my fingers wide, enjoying the coarse texture of the hot sand on my deadened skin.
"Sir! Here's another one"
Click.
"Yessir."
Click.
"Registry Kappa, Omega, two, four, score, Ipsilon, Gamma, one."
Click.
"Permission to O.N.W., sir."
Click.
"North Watch executed, sir. Out."
Click.
"Boom Biddy Bye Bye."
Click.
