BOOK 1 - CHAPTER 12

Chapter 12

Johnny burst out of the Voyager; his hand slapped against his mouth as his stomach lurched. Stumbling down onto the sand on all fours Johnny’s projectile vomited what little was left in his stomach. Sweat dripped down his forehead, soaking his fine new printed clothes and drowning him in heat as his throat burned from stomach acids.

“Oh god…what did I do to deserve this?” He panted, wiping his mouth clean and spitting the bitter taste out. He fetched his water bottle and emptied its contents over his head, allowing some to wet his lips and clean out the taste of vomiting from his mouth.

“Johnny is there anything I can do to help you?” Albert chimed from his VoyWatch.

Johnny’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, a pounding headache beat around where the nanites had been injected but he wasn’t blaming the nanites for this, this was food poisoning. It had to be. Nothing so familiar yet so awful as your own body expelling every bit of water in a desperate attempt to be clean of poisoned nutrients. He’d experienced it enough as a child, as a rookie soldier and even just as a big brother to Claire.

I need medicine. He thought in vain. In the dust ridden red world of the Magmasphere there wasn’t so much as a MedMart, not even a small, struggling one. To begin with, there was hardly any civilization to be seen but that wasn’t a problem until now, until his reactions got worse.

Regardless, he kept to the plan he’d made and pushed himself to stand again, even as his quite empty stomach gurgled. The more water I drink, the more I puke and shit. He groaned and answered Albert as he hauled into the Voyager, “Get me Cole, where is he even?”

“Cole Mcdaris is not available at the moment, however, the assistants assigned to you are ready to help. Would you like me to patch you through to Theresa or Leo?”

“Anyone that can tell me why I feel like ass.” Johnny shot the door, set the Wrangler’s air conditioning on max and hit the gas. His destination this bright hot afternoon was the medium sized mess he’d used for hunting earlier. With its height, the mass of land told him much of what lay around the vicinity and that included a settlement and the strange energy he’d seen above it.

He drove fast, intent on getting directions from the top of the mesa and then hopefully heading right into a settlement with friendly, understanding and most importantly, non-violent natives willing to help him.

“Hello, DRIFTERS here, my name is Theresa, how may I help you?” a voice chimed through Albert’s DRIFTERS connection.

Johnny did a double take, “What? Do you know who you’re talking to?”

“Johnny Victoris?”

“Yes! So why…I’m not some random customer. Ugh! Just, the medical nanites Cole reprogrammed aren’t helping me! I’m still sick, I thought they’d make me feel better, not worse!” Johnny yelled, transferring the aggression his stomach and buttocks have put him through onto Theresa.

There was a brief silence before she spoke again, “Uh, I see, I’m sorry to hear that sir. The issue is those nanites are general purpose, they’re medical in the sense that they can be used and programmed for medical up—”

“I got that! So why isn’t it working?”

“Oh. That’s because they don’t have any medication to give you sir, they’ll need to be exposed to a variety of medicines, so the chemical formulas are memorized in their chips and—”

“So, you’re saying the nanites in my body aren’t doing anything? That they’re useless!” He yelled, the Wrangler soaring through the savannah at increasing speeds. The mesa was just a couple meters away now.

“No sir, they aren’t useless. From what I see here, they’ve been programmed to help you create weapons on the go but nothing insofar as…curing your sickness. I’m sorry sir.”

Fuming, Johnny brought the Wrangler all the way it could climb on the mesa, its sides were steep but there was enough slope for the off-road vehicle to angrily grind its way to the top if he could just…get it…right.

Dust rose up around him as the tires roared against the earth, digging and pulling Johnny vertically until he shot up the top and parked.

“Sir, is that all?”

“Yes, that’s all but if you see Cole, tell him…tell him…whatever, just tell him to get back to me.” Johnny sighed, his breath waning even in the cool of the Wrangler’s air conditioning. He was growing worried about his state of health.

Putting that sour thought behind him, he hopped out and took a look. It was significantly cooler atop the mesa than down in the savannah of Magmasphere, the elevation bringing him closer to the passing winds and granting the vantage point to map his journey forward.

Squinting against the red sun, Johnny made out the four important things— a mountain range, a canyon, a river and the settlement itself. The mountain range seemed to guard the back and eastern sides of the canyon; its impenetrable peaks touched the clouds or would if there were more than three at a time in the red sky. The canyon itself was split into many directions, some of it even carved down south towards him but for the most part the canyon headed north with a river running through it that flowed from the north to east.

In the beating light of the day Johnny more of the world than he did when he was hunting. Just north of the settlement was a wall of green, he could scarcely make out the settlement itself, but the row of green was undeniably a forest.

It makes sense. Johnny thought. They’d want a source of food, herbs, water… He squinted; a hand shelved atop his brow as he took in the landscape ahead of him. He noted a few more things in the light than he did in the dark, for one, there were rocky outcrops to the southwest of the settlement but more than that, there was a wall of purple haze.

No matter how much he squinted he couldn’t quite make out what the haze was. It looked like a mirage but purple and it spanned around the rocky outcrops and perhaps even through the canyon, he couldn’t be sure.

Johnny sighed and wiped the dripping of sweat from his brow. Just standing out here for a few minutes had him sweating like a thanksgiving turkey. Hot, sick and tired he hauled back into the Voyager and shut the door, going through the details of what he’d seen and making a mental map while the air conditioning did its best to ease his plight.

He snatched a cold-water bottle from the back, the freezer came in handy after all even without meat to store— Another thing I’ve got to solve. Food. Johnny chugged the water and gasped a satisfied sigh before starting the ignition, “Alright, for now, let's find people, friendly ones. To the settlement we go, Albert!”

***

Johnny wasn’t sure what he was expecting or why he thought any part of exploring this world would make him have it easy. His stomach gurgled, he let out a fart and adjusted his elbows to support the hunting rifle.

Once again, he was atop the Wrangler, his eye pressed against the scope of his weapon and his target— a small herd of deer-like creatures with six legs instead of four— roamed near where he dared not approach.

The purple haze he’d glimpsed from above the mesa was none other than a toxic gas deposit— at least that’s what he assumed the gas to be, not many purple things weren’t toxic. A fissure, several actually, ran across the savannah spewing the purple gas into the air. It walled off the entire rocky outcrops from Johnny and now stood in the path to the settlement, he’d need to find another route to follow as a result but he didn’t want to— the only other route was through the canyon and that was a long, arduous path to follow. He was too sick to waste any more time, not to mention hungry.

“What do you think about driving through it, Albert?” Johnny muttered, watching the herd graze where they could find grass— this portion of the land was noticeably barren compared to others.

Albert chimed from his VoyWatch, “I believe that’s an option to explore but only across the narrowest fissures or perhaps a path between them. However, I am concerned about the heat intensity and possible toxicity of the gas, you are already vulnerable to illness and harm now, Johnny.

“Oh wow, thanks for your concern.” Johnny said, a smile finding his lips for what felt like the first time today, “But I think I’m going to shit out my colon if I don’t get to the settlement as soon as possible.”

He shifted his position so much as the herd began to move farther away, it was nearly time to take his shot. He inhaled deeply, picked out his target out of the odd thirteen deer-like fauna and rested his finger against the trigger.

Bang!

The bullet struck true, piercing the soft hide of the deer’s neck. Blood spurted in a crimson arc as the animal staggered, but before it could even crumble to the ground, the herd erupted in panic. Three bolted northwards, others veered east, hooves pounding against the cracked terrain.

Then, something happened, something Johnny never thought he’d witness.

A trio of deer, in their frantic escape, charged straight through the fissures spewing violet gas. The moment they took a breath, they collapsed. Johnny saw their bodies convulsing violently as the mist consumed them. Their flesh darkened, skin bubbling and sloughing off in thick, tar-like globs. Blood poured from their nostrils, their mouths, even their eyes, forming gruesome puddles beneath their twitching bodies.

Then came the transformation.

In less than a minute, their muscles had dissolved, leaving behind skeletal frames slick with oozing black sludge. Their ribs jutted out, grotesque and exposed, yet still, impossibly, they moved.

It’s like those monsters! Johnny noted, the similarities were almost identical, the only difference being those monsters were hyenas while these were deer. He watched in silent horror as the corrupted creatures staggered back onto their hooves, their newly formed bodies pulsing with unnatural life. Organs dangled loosely from their ruined torsos, swinging with every jerky step. Their mouths hung slack, a viscous drip of fluid sizzling against the dead earth below.

Johnny watched through his scope as they trotted about the other side of the fissure, their mouths drooling and organs flopping out of their now dissolved place. Johnny wore a disgusted face, his mouth hung open in disbelief and horror— How the hell those that happened?

He continued to watch the transformed creatures until they strolled off in a daze of pain and madness. He gulped, remembering how difficult it was to get the corrupted hyenas away from him and even then, they seemed to have a pack. Clasping his hunter rifle close, Johnny hopped off the roof of the Voyager and whispered to Albert, “Follow me.”

Back hunched and all five senses set on high alert, Johnny creeped forward to collect the prize of his hunt, Albert followed closely behind, moving the Voyager and its modified weapons forward. But there was nothing to fear, nothing besides the fissure itself anyway. Johnny stared at the thing, it spouted the gas continually, spraying it a good distance into the air where it then showered back down onto the barren soil.

It's no wonder it’s barren. Johnny thought, staring at the ground the herd had tried their luck plucking at. His prize lay dead next to one of the few spots untouched or at least, uncorrupted by the purple mist. He wasted no time hauling it.

The kill was fairly large, even though he hadn’t felt true hunger since he kept emptying his stomach, Johnny still chose the largest of the deer-like fauna to shoot. His six legs tangled as he dragged it towards the Wrangler, huffing from the stress alone, Johnny quickly decided it was time for a well-deserved break.

He tangled the legs further together before roping them all and tying the corpse up to the back of the Voyager. The Voyager— in its current form— couldn’t accommodate the animal’s full size without some extensive butchering. He decided then that this was the best time for it.

Johnny let out a sigh and hopped in. The fissures blocked the path to the settlement, his one and only true destination on Magmasphere and so he’d have to find a path through the canyon— if there was one anyway.

Leaving that doubt for later Johnny set his next priority, “Looks like you were right Albert, crossing over blindly is no good but at least we got a meal, well, I did. Time to find some shade.”

He hit the gas and turned the Voyager around as quickly as he could, the animal corpse dragged along behind him as he drove down into the canyon. It wasn’t difficult finding a slope leading in, the walls of the canyon were steep but hardly a challenge for the Wrangler.

The canyon’s river greeted the Wrangler first, it flowed with a steady, strong current that allowed Johnny the fantasy of fishing— assuming they wouldn’t be corrupted fish. He shook his head and drove through the river until there was enough dirt land along its bank. All the while he searched for any potential camping spot, preferably somewhere with a shade and proximity to the water— “Oh! Found it.”

Just ahead, before the canyon split into three corridors was a natural alcove where the canyon wall jutted out, casting a cool shadow over a patch of land. Young trees sprouted near the water’s edge, adding a rare touch of greenery to the otherwise lifeless terrain.

“Perfect.”

Bringing the Voyager to a stop, he hopped out and set off to work. Butchering the carcass was no easy task. Dragging it across the rough ground had already stripped some of its hide and flesh, but there was still plenty of meat to carve through.

It was rather early on the day when he started but by the time he’d roasted his first stick of meat, the sun had risen up to what he felt would count as high noon on this planet and evening back on Earth.

He took a cautious bite—chewing slowly, waiting. No burning sensation on his tongue. No nausea twisting his gut. “Mmm.” He took another bite, savoring the taste. “Albert, I don’t think this one’s poisoned. Damn good, actually.”

Johnny patted himself on the back for the good work. He’d learned his lesson from the devil horned rabbit, used less salt but also let the meat roast over the pit he’d set up with branches and twigs from the young trees.

He’d refilled his water bottles and tossed most of them in the freezer in the back seat. With four more deer kebabs roasting over the pit, Johnny felt content sitting in the cool shade of the canyon.

That is, until he heard voices.

His entire body tense. Instinct took over, he grabbed his rifle, eyes scanning the canyon walls. The voices echoed, distant yet growing closer.

Johnny’s grip tightened.

So much for a peaceful meal.