Walkabout
#1 of B-Snakes
When you look with your eyes
Everything seems nice
-Lily Allen, "LDN...
When you look with your eyes
Everything seems nice
-Lily Allen, "LDN"
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Mama had recommended she go for a walk.
"It is the ancient way of our people," she had said, "to go into the bush and discover ourselves."
Celeste had decided that Mama had just wanted her out of the house.
And why was it called "bush" anyway? The only thing out here was dust and cactuses and that military base. The one no unauthorzed person could go near-on pain of death-because of "UNF general order one-three-four-blah-blah-blah" or some crap. The one base they were allowed on the planet, and they put it smack dab in the middle of nowhere.
Celeste shifted her backpack.
She didn't need to find herself, either. She knew exactly where she was; in the fricking desert.
Well, not exactly "nowhere", there was the picturesque, boring township of Etrom, about ten miles from the base. Celeste figured she was about seven miles from town; she couldn't make sure, because people on walkabout weren't supposed to bring any technology more sophisticated with them than a sharp stick.
She figured this was so they couldn't call for help.
With her left hand, she fumbled her water bottle out of her pack. Coyotes were bred for the desert, but that didn't mean she wouldn't have to drink. She fumbled, and the bottle slipped out of her hands and fell to the desert floor. she bent over to pick it up, and came back up holding a large black slug.
It was eyeless, and appeared slick, like polished latex. It wriggled so one end was pointed at her face, and she had the distinct impression it was looking at her.
Celeste's stomach growled, and she reached down to pick up her water, holding the slug level in the palm of her hand.
It tickled as she drank, and she raised it to eye level after she swallowed.
The slug had rolled over her finger. It left behind a trail of some slick, black liquid, which hardened as Celeste watched. Curious, she sniffed at it. Liquid latex? That was weird.
The coyote scraped the thing off her finger into a yogurt carton and hoped the faint taste of strawberry-kiwi wouldn't hurt it. The black stuff wouldn't come off her finger, and she shrugged and decided to leave it. She looked around and froze.
While she had been occupied, there had been some new arrivals; more of the black slugs. All around her, forming a loose circle.
Somewhere in the back of the coyote's mind, a gruff male voice said "it's a trap!"
"Um...hi!" Celeste smiled nervously. "Nice slugs. Nice-"
They attacked.
They spat at her face first, blinding her. Strangely, the black liquid didn't sting, but when she reached up to rip it off, they spat more of that black stuff at her, binding her hand to her face. She panicked and started to hyperventilate, batting frantically at the slugs that twined up her legs.
No.
She had heard about c-snakes, of course, everyone had. Little pink things that got inside your naughty bits and then turned you into a drooling zombie. Albeit a really horny zombie. These slugs weren't pink, and what she was feeling was more throes of terror than throes of pleasure, but the galaxy was a big place and these could be their cousins or something.
With that in mind, Celeste stepped back-right onto a rock, of course-and fell down. More snakes swarmed her arms and torso. She couldn't see them properly through her tears, but the slugs seemed to be linking in order to draw her other hand into the same position as the first. With both hands covering her face, she couldn't see at all, but she could *feel* slickness coating her legs, warm trails crisscrossing each other.
For a parasite, they were very thorough.
Two finally reached her thighs, and squirmed under the border of her hiking pants, tracing the curve of her rear. Strangely, they left her tail alone, preferring to trace matching trails up her back. She squirmed, trying to squash them between her back and the desert floor, but was none too effective, since other slugs had already bound her legs together. She could only wriggle in terror as they covered her body in black goo.
Shortly, they were done, leaving Celeste unable to move more than a few inches in any direction, barely able to breathe or feel. Bound.
She briefly wondered if she would be able to roll back into town before several of the slugs positioned themselves over her-
No.
She screamed as the pushed in and instantly began converting the coyote's body into more of them. Her nipples leaked black goo as her breasts writhed under her skin, burning like crazy. The same thing was happening down below, and in her throat, leaving her spasming with agony.
After what seemed like a long time, it stopped, leaving a faint impression of heat. The slugs-or whatever-binding her dissolved-or something-into her new black carapace , and she slowly got to her feet.
Aside from the part where she was covered in latex, there was no sign of any struggle.
"What the-"
"Such waste," said a cool voice inside her mind, an echoing voice. "Now, this is what we're going to do. You are going to walk back into town, say you found yourself, and make any excuse to get yourself alone with your mother, or doctor, or anyone."
Celeste decided it would be a good idea to seek medical attention. She got all of two steps toward town before her limbs locked up and she crashed to the ground.
"Once you do, we will infest them. Given enough time, we may be able to liberate our brethren." said the voice, as if nothing had happened. "If you cooperate, we will not kill you. You may even earn the use of your body back. Do you understand?"
It seemed to be waiting.
"I-" Celeste swallowed. "I-"
"Don't bother lying; we can hear what you're thinking."
"How-?"
"We really are sorry-"
And the burning started again.
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Meanwhile, at the nearby UNF base, a young scientist sat down.
"What's this about, son?" grunted the man behind the desk.
"We may have a crisis, sir." The dog shifted uneasily in his seat. "One of the specimens might have escaped."
To his credit, the general barely reacted. He walked to the door and shut it. He didn't return to his desk, however, he simply stood behind the two chairs. "How?"
"I checked zee logs." That was the other dog in the room, a poodle who bought a chart up on the room's screen. "The specimens were accessed at this point." She was fully deserving of the title 'bitch', and did her best to project confidence into her voice, but the dog in the next seat could smell her fear. After all, scientists had been disappeared for less, or worse, given to Dash.
"When zee person who accessed them left, the weight of zee specimen jar was almost one kilogram lighter."
Her attitude wasn't helped by being employed solely due to the treaty requiring one native or naturalized Galatean to work at any UNF base. In fact, the dog thought, she was quite likely a spy. If so, she was a good one; giving every impression of being a power-hungry slut who would take any opportunity to rip the words out of her coworkers mouths.
"Why didn't the alarm go off?" The general's face was unreadable in the dark, and the dog wondered why the lights were off anyway.
"Apparently, it was shut down, *sir*," said the cur. The poodle flinched; she had completely forgotten the honorific. Score one for the away team. "The only reason we noticed the hole in the access logs was that we saw a discrepancy in the O2 usage, sir. Whoever squelched the alarm forgot to check the other logs."
"I recommend we lock down zee base, and scan all perzonell. Sir," said the poodle, desperately trying to regain some ground.
"I don't think that's necessary," said the general, and laid a heavy hand on each of their shoulders. "I'll just have to be more careful next time."
Ironically, the soundproofing in the general's office had been completed only the week before, so no one heard the screams.
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2008 Nequ. Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0.