The Gates of Hell, Chapter 5, WURM, part 1
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The Gates of Hell, Chapter 6
WURM, Part 1
By William W. Kelso
The two weather fronts collided in a fury of storms, tornadoes and a deluge of rain and hail pounded the cowering earth, flash floods roaring down overflowing creeks and washing away banks, bridges, and cars; some with drivers unfortunate enough to get caught in their path. A huge bolt of lightning; followed by several more in the same spot, helped to tear open a rip between realities; the powerful charges of electricity helping to power the rip, and a little bit more of Hell crossed over. It was a large rip this time, and lasted all of five minutes. And one rather large creature found its way through, quite by accident, and when the rip closed it remained behind. As the rip closed it experienced a sudden loss of contact with its master, and since that had never happened before it experienced a feeling closer to confusion then it ever had before.
The large creature at first just froze, waiting for contact to be reestablished, but when that didn't happen it didn't panic, it's mind was much too simple for such an emotion as it reacted more by instinct and 'programming' then anything else. Next it reared up and emitted a squealing cry that bled into the supersonic, "eeeEEEEeeeeEEEEeeee", as it called for other Wurms. It stopped and listened, but received no reply. Feeling hungry, it set out in search of food, its long sensitive feelers testing the air for scents or vibration. It was aware enough to know this wasn't its 'normal' habitat; it was much cooler and wetter. It was also able to tell it was much brighter as well as the light bothered its eyes, they were fairly primitive and more used to a darker world. While its night vision was superb bright light could be painful, much in the same way bright light can overload a night vision scope. It was not used to so much water either, which it found rather bothersome more than anything else as it didn't care much for being wet. It was a creature of barren rocks and wasteland, or dark tunnels and burrows. Not caring for the open area in which it found itself either it headed for the nearest cover, it knew being caught in the open was not desirable under any circumstances. Despite its own deadliness it had more than one enemy capable of killing it. Pausing, it called again, and was disturbed by a lack of response as it was a social creature and preferred the company of its fellows. One emotion it was capable of was lonliness.
As it moved through the tall wet Johnson grass it might have been mistaken for a rather large worm or slug as it did bear more than a passing resemblance, but it was most definitely not an invertebrate or mollusk, it wasn't even a reptile. In fact it wasn't anything that could be identified by the criteria used to label life forms in the reality in which it found itself. Even where it came from it wasn't a natural life form, but one created eons ago to serve its masters. Over millennium it had been bred and altered from its original form, and was something totally different now, unique, and very, very deadly. Its masters; who were also creatures totally alien to mankind, had created the creatures to serve as a kind of combination guard dog, scout, soldier, and also had a very unique way of gathering 'intelligence'. And its masters had controlled it by a kind of psionic; or mind, control similar to telepathy. That control could be anything from simple commands to outright total control. And it also communicated with its fellows the same way, but on a more primitive level. But now that it was cut off the creature reverted to 'offline' behavior patterns; I.E., eating and sleeping, and not much else. Unless give a command to perform a specific function its own needs were very simple.
The best way a human might describe the creature was 'a huge butt ugly worm', and it fact it was called a Wurm in its own reality, which gives some credence to the theory that there has been more communication; and excursions from and to, Hell than had previously been thought. This particular specimen was in its prime being fully grown and a few hundred years old. It was approx. twenty feet long, its thick body roughly the same diameter along its whole length, gradually tapering towards the tip of its blunt tail. It was covered in thick rubbery skin with a rough texture lending to the worm part of its appearance as it didn't appear to have a belly or underside, and its skin was a uniform grayish-purple all over, in effect it had no 'top or bottom', no belly or underside. Roll it over and it looked the same. It's means of locomotion was both worm and snake like as it moved by using its powerful muscles to propel itself along the ground in a graceful slither, and also by inching along in a rippling caterpillar like motion depending on which method was the most appropriate, and for its size it was quite fast as its slick skin offered almost no resistance or friction, again much like a snakes. Like some reptiles and amphibians its skin looked wet & slimy, but was really dry and smooth. But then again it could excrete mucus much like a slug, and use it to climb sheer and/or slick surfaces; however unlike a slug it left no trail. It was an all terrain monster.
That's about where the similarities between any known earth species and the Wurm end. To tell just how alien it is would require an autopsy. Like an earthworm it has no bones or 'hard' internal structure, its body being mainly extremely dense and strong muscle, except for its internal organs. Some of these organs were recognizable, but some weren't as man had nothing to compare them to. Its internal structure was what was so totally alien; that, and it's horror of a 'mouth'.
The mouth, or head around the mouth, was lined with a fringe of long fairly thin semi-rigid feelers or stalks, each one incredibly sensitive. The feelers could actually 'hear' in that they can detect vibrations in the ground as well as sound waves, and the Wurm can also smell and 'see' with them as each one is tipped with a primitive eye much like a slugs. Between the bases of each stalk are more developed eyes giving the creature excellent eyesight, but having evolved in a much dimmer environment the bright Texas sun caused some discomfort as the blank emotionless insect like eyes have no eyelids, so they cannot blink or close. The numerous fringe of stalks around its mouth could be moved independently allowing it to 'look' in many directions all at once, or could be 'flared' in unison to help focus and broaden its range of peripheral vision, or narrowed to give it longer range tunnel vision, so it was very hard to sneak up on. Though fragile looking the stalks are quite tough, and if damaged; or lost, re-grow quickly. But the stalks, though weird, pale in comparison to the Wurm's mouth. When closed the mouth is only partially visible as a wet slimy looking sphincter like orifice constantly oozing a thick drool which the creature continuously sucks back into its maw so it appears to be slobbering. In effect it is 'tasting' the air for scents, the drool catching scent pheromones and particles and the mouth tasting them in the 'drool'. Surprisingly the Wurm does not have a tongue; its mouth and neck/throat perform that function. The creature's tube like body allows it to extrude its elastic neck/throat and mouth to amazing lengths, and like a frog it can shoot out in a fraction of second to grab prey a considerable distance away. Once seized there is no escape, the double row of inward curving fangs see to that, though the fangs are in fact closer to chitin then enamel. They are not for tearing or biting, just for holding and helping to draw the prey into the Wurm's throat as they can move forward and back. Between the fangs and the powerful throat muscles the prey is helpless as it is swallowed alive and whole.
If the prey is small enough it is sucked into the mouth and swallowed easily, if it is larger it is swallowed over a period of time, in much the same way a snake swallows its prey. The mouth can stretch incredibly wide in order to accommodate a larger meal, and its neck/throat can also stretch as well as the heavy elastic skin which covers the beast. The Wurm initially partially swallows its prey to 'get it started' before drawing its neck/throat & mouth back into its body, and then leisurely finishes its meal. It can take is several hours to swallow a large meal, the gripping fangs slowly feeding the prey into its mouth where the neck/throat muscles take over. But to the Wurm it is important the prey remain alive for as long as possible for more than one reason.
Once swallowed the prey remains alive for quite some time, sometimes days. The Wurm's digestive system is very simple, and the prey's struggles help it to break down the meal faster and speed up digestion and absorption. Quite often several smaller prey animals may 'share' the large stomach at the same time, in varying stages of digestion. Not a very pleasant experience to say the least. Imagine sliding into a stomach containing several other already partially digested; but still alive, animals, and realizing you'll soon be like them, not a nice way to die. But the Wurm's digestive fluids include a numbing agent which keeps the pain from becoming too unbearable, again to keep the animal alive and struggling for as long as possible. It's doubtful the animals appreciate that small mercy though. Once a meal has been processed very little remains as the Wurm's digestive tract; though primitive, is also very efficient and wastes little. Excrement is passed in the fairly universal way, through an anus in the tip of its tail.
Another thing about a Wurm that humans would find amazing; and terrifying, was it was almost impossible to kill one. Like a worm it can regenerate from large pieces. Blow one into four or five large pieces and in a few days you had five Wurm's, though somewhat smaller then the originals, but no less voracious and probably really pissed off as the new ones retain the memories of the 'parent' including the rather unpleasant one of being blown into pieces. Cut one up into enough pieces though and it will die, the problem was cutting it up into enough pieces as the Wurm will usually object strenuously. Its skin is very much like a natural Kevlar, and even the slimy wet looking pink skin of its extruded neck/throat is deceptive; it is just as tough as its skin. It has no vulnerabilities. In short it was pretty much bullet proof, and knives would have little to no effect as it wouldn't stay still long enough to let you saw on it long enough to do any damage. At least to small arms, and grenades, but artillery was a different story, but it was very hard to hit it with anything large enough to do serious damage. Due to its low profile, rapid speed, and writhing slithering motion it was very hard to aim at with anything other than hand held weapons. The most effective weapon was portable rocket launchers such as LAW's, RPG's, and other anti-armor and tank buster weapons. Satchel charges also proved to be effective, as well as land mines as adults were more than large enough to set them off. Rifles and MG's just tended to make a Wurm mad though, but armor-piercing .50 caliber rounds were somewhat effective. Forget flame throwers or napalm, the Wurm's hide is fire proof as they come from a climate where it was not unusual to have to swim through, or over, lava flows. So they could be killed, you just had to really work at it, if the Wurm let you live long enough. Plus they usually come in packs, and they don't like it you're whaling on a friend of theirs. A Wurm under attack, or in distress, will call for back-up. And despite their primitive minds are quite loyal to one another, several will stay with, and defend, a wounded Wurm until it can regenerate.
The Wurm's 'brain' was closer to the ganglia of a worm or mollusk, but it is quite large in relation to its size. So while not truly intelligent as we understand intelligence, it's not stupid either. It can, and does, learn, quite rapidly. So it soon adapted to the new food sources and climate in which it found itself, and the hunting was good. It was mainly smaller prey; but there was quite a lot of it, and easy to catch. The local wildlife, perceiving the Wurm as a snake of some kind, was totally unprepared for the deadly accuracy of its long elastic mouth, and it went right to the top of the food chain. The hot West Texas summer climate in which it found itself was almost ideal for the Wurm; with the exception of the bright sun, and it was fairly happy, as least as close as it could feel such an emotion. It was mainly a nocturnal hunter, but did hunt in the daytime as well as sometimes the nights were too cool, even though the light bothered it, hunting mainly in the mornings and evenings before the sun reached its zenith. But it did miss one thing, others of its kind and a master to give it a 'purpose', much like a well trained guard dog it felt somewhat at a loss without someone giving it directions. It was a communal creature as well, so was lonely.
Sexually the Wurm was asexual in that it did not need to mate with another Wurm to produce young; at regular intervals it laid eggs on its own. Since it was a fully mature specimen in could lay up to one hundred eggs at time, the number being determined by its diet and health. And once laid the Wurm would guard the eggs diligently, and in about two weeks they would hatch. The young were immediately able to fend for themselves and the parent didn't pay as much attention to them after they hatched, though they usually kept near the large adults for a few years for the protection they provided. The young's scent kept them from being eaten by larger Wurm's as they were not cannibals, and if a juvenile called for help an adult would respond if it heard. The large number of eggs was necessary as in their harsh environment few lived to reach adulthood. Though worms did not mate sexually their feelers were extremely sensitive, and often two Wurms would face one another and caress and twine their feelers together. This was done to 'greet' one another and exchange information, and was also extremely pleasurable in an almost sexual like way as they could reach increasing levels of stimulation resulting in almost orgasmic plateaus of pleasure. It was not unusual for a Wurm to have a favorite 'lover' or 'lovers'.
However there was one organ in a Wurm that wasn't even remotely like anything else known to man. The Wurm itself in its original 'native' form eons ago had not had anything like it; it was an artificially created and genetically manufactured organ with one specific purpose, as we will find out later in our story.
To date the Wurm had yet to encounter any 'higher' life forms. It basically ignored larger animals such as cows or horses as they were too large for it to swallow, and so far it had not encountered any calves or colts. The larger animals also instinctively knew to stay as far away from the Wurm as possible, it was just too weird. Smaller, more curious, animals didn't fare as well. So far its largest prey had been some wild pigs and a deer or two. That was until it went hunting one day, foraging a little farther from its den than usual, and encountered its first intelligent animal. It was smart enough; and had been trained, to tell the difference between 'dumb' animals and 'intelligent' animals. So went it first encountered humans it instantly recognized them as 'intelligent' animals. Knowing that intelligence meant dangerous the Wurm gave the humans a wide berth, staying out of sight in the thick grass and underbrush. But part of it was 'interested' as it was driven to perform another one of its functions. So it began to stalk humans, waiting for a chance to catch one alone in a place not likely to be disturbed for awhile while it performed that function. As usual it preferred to hunt in the early mornings or evenings and warmer nights.
It found an ideal site for an ambush along a jogging trail surrounded by woods with heavy secondary growth and bushes. It would be relatively easy to disappear once a suitable prey animal had been acquired as it was impossible to see more than a few feet into the thick tangle of weeds and brush, and because of its shape it could move quickly and easily through even the thickest ground cover. Being a very patient hunter the Wurm was in no hurry, and waited for the perfect opportunity, which wasn't very long in coming. Lying perfectly still in the dark shadows it was all but invisible, and one late afternoon a lone jogger approached, and with incredible speed the Wurm attacked, not moving until after the jogger had passed by so it would not be seen. It extruded its neck/throat and mouth, slamming into the jogger from behind, knocking him down and stunning him, and seizing the groggy and confused prey with its powerful fangs quickly dragged him deep into the brush, his initial struggles feeble. It's attack and abduction of the prey was over in a less than a minute. Now it needed to find some privacy for what came next.
Once it had reached a suitably isolated spot it inspected its prey which; now very much aware, was quite energetically; but helplessly, struggling in the Wurm's powerful grip. The Wurm, recognizing clothing as being artificial, used its feelers to strip the prey naked, and with several quick adjustments of its grip positioned the prey properly, and then began to swallow it feet first, its powerful fangs tucking the prey into its now gaping mouth, the inner fangs preventing the prey from wriggling free when the outer row of fangs flexed for another inward shove. The Wurm was very slow and methodical, it was in no hurry as it greatly enjoyed the taste of its meals, so savored them as long as possible. It was relatively painless as the fangs seldom broke the skin as the Wurm did not wish to 'damage' its meals.
This is where I come into the story; I was the 'prey'. My name is; was, Robert Browning, but my friends all called me Bill. At first I couldn't believe what was happening to me. What WAS this thing? I'd never seen anything like it and I was biology major, I knew all Texas wildlife intimately as I worked for the Park Service, my job being to monitor population levels of certain wildlife in various State and Federal Parks. It looked like a giant worm of some kind, but also had some characteristics of a slug or leech. I had been out jogging when the thing knocked me down and dragged me into the bushes before I even knew what was happening, it was incredibly fast despite its size. Gripping me in its horrible fangs it soon dragged me quite a distance from the jogging trail and into a densely overgrown area where any cries for help would go unheard.
Once it had me in an isolated location I was able to get a better look at my captor. It looked like some science fiction idea of a monster worm, which was exactly what it was in retrospect. The way it had extended its tongue or neck (?) from inside its body made me wonder if the outer part was a shell of some kind. I was completely helpless; and no matter how hard I struggled I couldn't break that horrible grip. I had my arms free, but couldn't do anything even though I clawed at the things head and soft looking muscular neck; or whatever it was, even its eyes seemed to be covered by a tough clear protective shell. Closer up it was even weirder, I had NO idea what the thing was. It rubbed its whisker like feelers gently along my body like it was esamining me or something, and I grabbed one and tried to pull it off or bend it, but it was like a rubber coated steel cable. I got the impression it was mainly a nocturnal creature, which was probably why it had dragged me deep into a well shaded area. Then to my horror it proceeded to strip me butt naked using its feelers to push; or tear off, all my clothes including my sneakers and socks, slobbering on me whole time until I was covered with a thick slimy mucus that reminded me of clear snot. It was disgusting and smelled horrible. I tried to pry the large hooked fangs loose, but it just tightened its grip in response until they started to break the skin. It had eight large outer fangs evenly spaced around its mouth, and another row of eight smaller ones just inside its maw.
And it was soon horrifyingly obvious what the worm wanted, it was hungry, not the I'd had any doubts about that anyway, I'd figured it wasn't just being friendly or curious. With several quick motions of its mouth it turned me so it was grasping my calves and that horrible mouth opened wide as it begin to swallow me feet first. It made horrible wet slobbering sounds, and I could feel the pressure on my feet, shins, and then thighs as it slowly worked me into its mouth and then into its throat where I could feel its powerful muscles rippling as they sucked me in, and I was totally helpless to prevent it despite my desperate struggles. And I screamed, oh how I screamed, but no one heard. I was a large strong man in my prime, and it handled me like it was a snake and I was a mouse. As I felt the worm's mouth slowly work its way over my legs I thought to myself, this is impossible! Worms don't eat people! This is so wrong! But it was also undeniably; horribly, real. I felt myself sliding deeper into the things mouth and throat as its fangs pulled me in, but they didn't even break my skin. The inside of the things mouth and throat was soft and wet, slick, warm, and almost felt comfortable against my naked body, the feeling almost erotic as it covered me in mucus to make it easier to swallow.
As my waist slid into its mouth I finally accepted that there was no way I could get loose, not that I didn't try. I did, desperately, but all I succeeded in doing was getting one arm trapped in its throat when I pushed and my arm slid in next to my body, one of the inner fangs digging in to it so I was unable to pull it back out. The worm's mouth stretched wider to swallow my hips, and inch by inch I watched helplessly as I slowly slid into its gaping maw as it worked its throat and mouth muscles, its fangs not really needed now. I don't know how many times I'd seen films of frogs or mice being swallowed by a snake, but now I knew how they felt, the sheer terror of being eaten alive was almost sexually arousing, and to my embarrassment I had a rock hard erection, stimulated by the smooth slick insides of the worms throat and mouth and the thick slimy mucus. When it started it had been late afternoon, and now it was dark, the horrible scene lit by a full moon in a clear cloudless night.
I cried and begged as the fangs worked their way up my back and stomach, pulling me in deeper and deeper, and now that my hips had been swallowed it seemed to be speeding up. This, this can't be happening, I thought, I can't die like this! It's obscene! Perhaps it was a combination of the horror and the feel of the thick slime coated throat muscles rubbing against my erection, but I suddenly orgasmed violently, giving a gasping scream from the intense unwanted pleasure, and the worm paused for a second as if surprised, its feelers rubbing over my body again. But then with a wet slurping sound the worm's muscular contractions suddenly pulled my head into its mouth as my shoulders slid into the opening of its throat, and I gagged as the thick mucus drooled over my face. Desperately I kept struggling, grasping at anything my free hand could reach, but handfuls of grass and dirt were of no use. Suddenly the worm reared up a little and opened its mouth wider, and I felt its body convulse, and gave one last wail of utter terror as my head slid into its throat and my arm was pulled into the worm's slobbering mouth.
"Noooo, please, oh GOD NOOOOO!" I sobbed, my cries wet and muffled as the worm kept swallowing, my body now almost completely within its throat. By tilting my head I could still see a little moonlight beckoning cruelly from my view inside the darkening tunnel I was sliding into. I grabbed one last handful of grass as the worm worked its muscles one last time and then its mouth shut behind me forever as my arm slid down its throat following the rest of my body. Then all I could do was scream and squirm as I was slowly pulled down its long throat to its stomach. It was wet and slimy, but there was enough air to breathe. It was also loud, gurgles and wet slurps filling my ears. Oddly there was another feeling of being swallowed as the worm withdrew its neck/throat and mouth completely into its main body, the thick elastic hide stretching over the large bulge slowly moving down the length of its neck/throat.
With a final satisfied slurp the worm shut its mouth, and then pulled its head and neck into its body. The large bulge moved slowly down the worm's body as powerful muscular contractions forced the prey down its throat towards its specialized organ instead of directly to its stomach. Oh, the prey would be digested, just not right away as the organ had its special function to perform before the prey would be passed into the stomach to provide nourishment for the worm. The worm was quite happy; the pretty had been delicious, its salty meaty taste lingering in the Wurm's mouth. The prey reached a branch in the worm's throat, and instead of passing into the stomach it made a detour first.
I clawed at the thick warm slimy interior of the worm's throat as I struggled desperately and tried to hold onto something, anything, to drag myself back up its throat and away from what I knew waited for me, fighting until the end against such a horrible oblivion. But the thick slick mucus and powerful muscles made that end inevitable, and all too soon I felt my feet push through a tight sphincter like opening as I was pushed into a larger wetter space, what I assumed was the worm's stomach. It closed around me tightly and began to fill with a thick salty tasting fluid, and just as I thought I was going to suffocate a tentacle or tube of some kind was forced into my mouth and formed a seal over my nose, and I found I could breathe again. I felt more tentacles, or tendrils; or something, begin to crawl all over my helplessly squirming body until they found my head. I felt more and more of them slithering over my head and shoulders, probing my ears and even under my eyelids. I can't describe the utter horror of that feeling, of being helpless and confined inside the thing that had eaten me alive, and having NO idea what the HELL it was doing to me. Why keep me alive? Then I started feeling a tingling in my body and realized the fluid was having an effect much like Novocain on my body, and I slowly lost all feeling in my body as the tingling moved from my extremities into my torso. But I did feel it when the tendrils or tentacles caressing and slithering over my head began to grow tighter, but I passed out when I felt my skull crack open like an egg, my scream muffled by the tube providing me with air. Fortunately; and mercifully, I remained unconscious during what came next.
The Wurm rested quietly as the prey reached its first stop, and dozed as the organ performed its function. The tendrils lining the interior of the organ quickly found the prey's brain; and despite the tough coverings quickly peeled back the outer covering and removed the inner shell. As soon as the brain was exposed the nutrient fluid filling the organ began to bath the brain preventing trauma and death, at least for awhile. The breathing aperture was left intact and the prey's own system continued to provide the brain with blood and oxygen, if it wanted the organ could keep the exposed brain alive indefinitely, but it only needed to do for a short while. Thousands of even smaller tendrils began to carefully and gently slide into brain, so fine they didn't so much penetrate the brains cells as merely move through them without causing any damage. They located the source of the brains 'awareness' and memory, and began to 'upload' it into the Wurm's own ganglia. In a little over an hour the contents of the prey's brain had been completely transferred into the Wurm's, the process emptying the prey's brain in the process and leaving it blank. Their job completed the tendrils withdrew, and the prey's body was pushed further down the Wurm's body to its stomach to be digested. The prey's body, now a mindless shell, did not live long once its exposed brain was removed from the nutrient bath. But the prey's 'awareness' was alive and well in the Wurm's own brain, safely 'stored' in a node for later retrieval.
The Wurm performed this function with obviously intelligent prey so that the masters who controlled it would have access to the thoughts and memories of the prey for the purpose of gathering knowledge and any intelligence that might be of use. As an interrogation technique it was flawless as the master would merely access the Wurm's brain and go through those memories at its leisure, the 'captive' mind being helpless to resist the intrusion. When it was done the captives mind remained, trapped in the Wurm's brain until the Wurm died, but completely helpless as the Wurms' more primitive mind remained in control. The Wurm knew the other minds were there, it just ignored them. Sometimes the master would blank out the captive mind once it was no longer useful, erasing it entirely. But the Wurm had never 'uploaded' a human mind before, and it was essentially alien to those from the Wurm's home reality. The consequences would be shocking, horrible, and irreversible.
After awhile the Wurm felt the prey enter its stomach, and fat and happy it started home to its den in an abandoned cistern. About the time it reached it and entered it was starting to feel strange, and was also feeling the beginning of something it had never experienced before, panic.
I remembered trying to wake up, my conscious drifting in and out. Feelings and awareness returning in small amounts, fading again, then coming back slowly and remaining for awhile, only to have the process repeat again and again. It was like coming out a drug induced coma or stupor, and I could feel a presence, and fought against it as it tried to push me back down into the dark nightmare I was slowly waking from. And as my awareness returned I felt strange, so very strange, completely disorientated and confused.
The Wurm writhed and coiled in on itself, giving high pitched slobbering squeals of distress as it felt its mind being slowly...replaced, subdued by an alien mind it couldn't control. It didn't really know what was happening, but it was intelligent enough to fight back against the increasingly powerful presence slowly becoming dominant, strange thoughts flowing into the Wurm's own awareness and remaining. The presence was not all that unlike the presence it felt when it was under the control of a master, but this new presence was a part of its own mind, not an outside influence, or at least not anymore. Slowly the Wurm's mind was subdued and merged with the new growing awareness inside, the human mind being more powerful than its own was slowly; but surely, taking over as it took full control. The mental battle raged off and on for two days as occasionally both combatants had to rest for awhile before renewing the struggle. Finally the Wurm became still, totally exhausted and spent, while its new 'owner' tried to understand what had happened, and come to terms with its new body, and existence.
I still remember how it felt when I finally became totally awake and aware. At first I didn't understand, and reared up trying to stand on my legs as my mind was still mostly human, but trapped in the body of a twenty foot worm. I could see, but it was strange and hard to 'process' the information at first as my mind was bombarded with images from all angles causing me to feel disoriented and nauseous. I would look at something and 'zoom' in to focus on it and it would be incredibly sharp and clear, but as soon as I looked somewhere else things tended to 'fade out' until I concentrated on something new. It was something like looking through a wide angle lense with zoom magnification. But my sense of smell was incredible, and I was quick to react to any movement, no matter how small, my sight zeroing in on it instantly. When I couldn't stand, or even feel my legs or arms, I turned my head and looked at my body. And looked, and looked, not understanding, not really believing, not WANTING to believe. And opening my mouth tried to scream, but the only sound was a loud gurgling high pitched squeal. I remembered now, recognized what I was now, somehow I had become the very thing that had EATEN me! In fact I had no doubt the large bulge in my long tubular body was myself, or what had once been me. I know I went completely insane for awhile, coiling tightly; or thrashing and writhing, trying to deny I even existed, that this was impossible, a horrible nightmare. Surely I would wake up any minute, covered in cold sweat, and laugh in relief. Surely. Please.
Though the Wurm's own much more primitive mind was now entirely subservient to the new dominant mind in charge, it still existed. And its needs and much of its knowledge slowly merged into the human mind that now controlled it, much like automatic sub-routines in a computer program that kept the computer from crashing. Slowly the human mind gained control of its new body, learning how to use it, and the alieness slowly faded as familiarity grew and the new body became his body in every sense of the word. And with that control sanity slowly returned, as well as growing despair and the horror it felt to find itself trapped in a totally alien body never meant for it. But the human mind is amazingly adaptable.
When I finally came to know, and accept, what I was now, no matter how or why, the first thing was total anguish as I wondered how I could live like this, as a giant mutant worm monster? I couldn't talk, of course I couldn't write, and there was no way I could think of that I could contact somebody, try to find out what had happened, try to get help. But even if I could find some way to communicate, let someone know what had happened, how could they help? My human body was gone, was even now being slowly digested by my new body, my stomach gurgling and churning. And the thing was I HAD to contact somebody, had to tell them what was coming. Because you see, the Wurm's memories were now my own, as were those of other beings it had eaten over the centuries it had existed. And some of those were fairly intelligent, but the Wurm had been designed to contain and imprison their memories so they had no control, so now I could 'read' them just like the Wurm could. Only the different 'wiring' of my own mind had allowed me to merge with the Wurm's mind and take over. But I still thought of myself as human, I felt NO loyalty to the beings the Wurm part of my memories thought of as its masters. And I had to warn mankind, had to find some way to tell them what I now knew.
I 'remembered' the dark and terrible volcanic world on which the Wurm had evolved and lived its previous life, 'remembered' the never ending conflict between the life forms there for the dwindling resources of that dying world. Earth would be a virtual paradise for them, and their forms were many and terrible. If they broke through in any number mankind would have to fight as hard as it could for its very existence. And there were much more horrible fates then being exterminated, becoming the slaves of those great and terrible beings would be far worse as they would warp our bodies and souls into new forms to serve them, merge us with others, breed us with animals into new forms, make us like them. If Hell took over earth it would soon become Hell as well. So once I had learned to control my hideous new body I set out to somehow make contact with humanity, only now I was the alien.
Leaving the cistern by crawling up the steep sides of the well by extruding a sticky slime I managed to make my way to the outside world. It was night and felt unpleasantly cool feeling to me even though in the mid-summer it was probably still in the 80's, but where 'I' had come from the average temperature was around 130 degrees. I moved through the tall grass and underbrush, easily pushing aside even small saplings. I had no trouble in pushing through even cactus without the slightest problem as my tough hide was impervious to the spines. At one point I suddenly froze when I sensed movement, and before I even realized I was doing it I instinctively lashed out with my mouth and neck/throat and soon swallowed a very much alive and still struggling jackrabbit with ease. As I swallowed and shut my mouth in satisfaction I suddenly realized what I had done as I felt the wriggling animal slide down my throat towards my stomach, and raising my head I gave a brief squeal of horror. I didn't want to feed like that, eat living things! I'd experienced that utter terror first hand, and the thought of inflicting it on others, even lesser animals, filled the thing I had become with horror. But I knew I would have no choice until I found help, as my hunger grew the instincts of my new body would take over and I would hunt and feed no matter what my mind thought. And I prayed I'd make contact before I ran across some lone person as I had no doubt I would eat them if I was hungry enough, I wouldn't be able to stop myself.
I quickly found my sense of hearing was a little strange, but understandable to me now. As well as my feelers I seemed to have sensitive patches on my body that could 'hear' from changes in air pressure as well as sound waves. It was limited, and I was more aware of nearer louder sounds or those directed directly at me, higher pitched sounds being clearer while lower ones tended to be a kind of background mumbling that didn't make much sense.
It took me two days to reach an inhabited area, a local technical college as it turned out. I made 'contact' by simply slithering out into the middle of the front lawn of one of the dorms where I was soon noticed, which was evident by the screams and loud voices. Of course I didn't try to answer; I couldn't talk as I had no vocal cords. I'd wait until I was in; hopefully, the kind of care where some kind of contact might be possible, though I wracked my mind trying to think of how it might be possible. No voice, no hands, so my options were very limited. But for now I just pulled my mouth in tightly, and played 'dead'.
I ignored the screaming students; idiots, and also ignored the sticks I was poked with from time to time. If I'd wanted I could have easily captured, and eaten, any number of people. As I knew from 'experience' I was more than capable of eating an animal as large as a human and had room in my stomach for more than one, and my 'memory' told me they were quite delicious as well. So I just endured the pestering until finally some genius called animal control, who took one look and called somebody else, and so on until a team of 'specialist' from a State University with a large zoology department came to collect the 'giant ugly worm thing'. If I could have cried I would have, for I was fully aware I WAS an ugly hideous thing that had no right even existing in this reality, and it's a horrible thing to hate what you are. But I was nowhere near as bad as some of the other 'things' I had 'memories' of. And part of me also hoped that I might somehow be sent 'home' to the place I belonged now, felt lonely for the company of other things like me. I could 'remember' other worms touching me gently and affectionately, and part of me craved that contact.
When the university scientists examined me they were obviously perplexed as they had NO idea what I was, or where I came from. The one thing was obvious from the blood and other samples that had been so hard to obtain; even though I had cooperated, was that I was not from earth, my physiology was totally alien. One scientist speculated that I had been left behind by an alien space ship, which I thought was quite a reasonable theory given the circumstances. One doofus said I'd thawed from a buried glacier from millions of years in the past. Moron. NOTHING like me had ever evolved on this planet; even the DNA was totally different. Another thought I might be the result of a 'radioactive or toxic spill', another good guess. But NO one thought I might be from another reality, one they would recognize as being called Hell. They were quite nice to me all things considered, they kept me in a nice large desert climate controlled terrarium where they kept it nice and toasty, and when I refused living food they tried dead rabbits and piglets, which I scarfed down in delight, much to their own delight though my method of eating obviously horrified them. Hey, I thought, at least I don't make a mess! I was easy on the upkeep. But the problem of communication remained, or whether, how to go about it. It was obvious to me they considered me to be just an animal, a weird one, but an animal nonetheless. And I had no way of letting them know I wasn't. The frustration was really getting to me, and I was starting to get downright irritable and ornery, and the solution came in a totally unexpected way, as much a surprise to me as it was to the humans.
There was one assistant who 'mucked out' the cages and terrariums every afternoon after her classes were over. I had noticed that whenever she was around I could feel a kind of, well, itchy feeling in my mind. At first I just assumed I was getting a headache or something, but it only happened when she was around. It was some my 'Wurm' memories that finally made me realize what it was, I was hearing her mind! But it was kind of like random radio waves in a way, I would need to 'tune' her in, find the right mental 'frequency' in order to make contact. Finally realizing this might be possible excited me, and I eagerly waited for her afternoon 'visits'. She; like many other faculty and students, would come and just stare at me for hours in revolted fascination as I was the 'jewel' in their collection of weird critters. I just 'stared' back, this worm didn't do any tricks, sorry. And in a staring contest I won, every time. Some liked to watch me eat too; there was always a small crowd every time I was fed, which I found kind of disturbing. At least the animals, though whole, were dead. As I ate I would shudder, remembering when I was the animal being eaten, still alive and aware of what was happening. I still have horrible nightmares about that.
Finally I made contact!! I was 'staring' at the girl intently, as I did every time she came to clean up, my feelers zeroing in on her. I really didn't 'know' what I doing, I just concentrated and tried to get her to 'hear' me. It took over a month, but finally one day she suddenly gasped and dropped her mop, and held her fingers to her head.
"What...who...??" I 'heard'.
'Please, oh please hear me! I 'said', please, I'm the worm! I'm not an animal, I'm human too, or I was! Please, oh please help me!'
She squealed, and looked at me with her eyes bugging out. "What???"
'Please!' I 'said', and reared up and threw myself against the heavy plate glass of the terrarium in excitement 'Please, please help me!'
She squealed again, then; screaming, backed up, and ran out of the corridor next to the cages. As her mind faded I could still sense it now that I had found her 'frequency', but I didn't think she could 'hear' me anymore. Frustrated again, I settled back down and crawled up on my favorite rock. Please, I thought, please. I don't want to live like this, AS this, anymore, not like an animal.
"Professor Stauffer, Lily stammered, the worm thing, it, it TALKED to me!"
Professor Stauffer looked up in annoyance as the girl barged into his office and yelled at him. With a weary sigh he marked his place in the book he'd been reading, and said.
"Lily, you need to make an appointment like anyone else."
"But, but it TALKED to me, Lily repeated, I can understand it! It said it used to be human!"
"Lily, Stauffer said in irritation, what the HELL are you gabbling about?"
Lily, out of patience, grabbed the professor by the arm, and said "Come ON! I'll SHOW you!"
Professor Stauffer, now somewhat intrigued as Lily was usually a quiet and mouse like girl, let himself be pulled out of his chair, and followed the babbling girl. What IS she on about, he thought in amusement.
I slithered off my rock and reared up in the window as the girl led a man into the corridor containing the wildlife displays.
'Please, I 'said', can hear me, can you understand me?'
"See! Lily said, he can talk!"
Stuffer looked at Lily, looked at the hideous creature in the tank, and said in a serious voice,
"Lily, this is NOT funny! My time is valuable; I have no time for immature pranks!"
"But, but, Lily said, it CAN TALK!"
'Um, I'm talking in your mind, I said, I can't talk out loud, no vocal cords!'
"Oh, Lily said, he says he can't talk out loud because he had no vocal cords!"
"Lily, Stauffer said, that is quite enough young girl!"
'Tell him to ask me to do something!' I said as the man started to leave.
"Professor, please believe me, he can talk in my head! Lily pleaded; he said to ask him to do something!"
"Oh, very well! Stauffer said, but in the morning I want to have a talk with you about reassigning you somewhere else, you've been spending too much time with this thing. Now, tell it to pick up that rock in the corner and drop it in another corner."
"He said to..." Lily started to say.
'I heard!' I broke in.
I turned and looked at the rock; it was pretty big but not too big. I slithered over to it, picked it up using my fangs, and taking it to the only other clear corner I dropped it, then slithered back to the front of the cage and looked at the man smugly. Or I thought I looked smug, at least I felt that way. I have no idea what I looked like to them.
"See! It's smart!" Lily said, smug too.
"I, er", Stuffer stammered. This HAD to be a joke, but how had she trained it to do that?? He'd been sure the thing was about as smart as, well, a worm. He narrowed his eyes and took a closer look, and the huge creature seemed to be staring at him; somewhat unnervingly, with its many eyes and all its sensory stalks pointing at him as well.
"OK, I admit this is interesting, Stauffer. Have it tap the glass ten times with a stalk, wait a second, then do it seven times."
Oh, puh-lease! I thought. So I tapped ten times, waited, and then tapped seven more times. There, satisfied!
Lily had a big beaming smile on her face, the man just said "Good Lord!"
Well, things kind of took off from there. The man asked me to do some more 'tricks', which I did. But getting bored I finally 'told' Lily to just have him ask me questions through her. I also told her things to tell him. It was pretty obvious he didn't believe the part about my being human, or having once been human. After several hours of 'talking' we; or they, realized it was very late. Time is relative to something like me, but they were tired and needed some time to think this development over. And no doubt verify a lot of what I'd told them. As they turned to leave, I 'said',
'Lily, wait a minute.'
She walked over to the thick glass, and put her hand on it as she stared at me.
I put pressed some feelers against the glass on my side, and 'said'. 'Thank you.'
"For what?" she asked.
'For hearing, and believing me, I replied. For changing me from a dumb animal back into an intelligent being. For making me feel human again.'
She blushed, and replied, "I'm just glad I could. I'll come back first thing in the morning."
After she left I slithered back up on my rock, and settled down. I can't close my eyes, but I can sleep. But sleep was impossible right now.
What next? I thought, staring out at the world through my numerous eyes.
The End
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