Lives Of The Unknown Book 1: The Legend of Andrew Lockeford (13 page)

Or was it?

Andrew looked into the bushes and in
the trees to find any fruit. He spotted one tree with large, red
fruit hanging near the top. They looked like grapefruit, only with
red skin rather than beige. He tried climbing the tree that they
were on and fell down after climbing five feet; he landed straight
on his back. He tried a second time, succeeding now by climbing all
the way up to twenty feet, where he pulled off one fruit. He didn’t
grasp it well enough and the fruit ended up falling to the ground.
It crushed open into a juicy mess as it landed—it was too ripe,
anyway. Suddenly several animals came racing out to get it. They
were all brown, two-legged, large-eyed mammals with small ears and
small hands, a lot like lemurs. Not focusing much of his attention
on them, Andrew pulled hard on his suit at his chest to form a
pocket large enough to put a fruit in as he had to get down. He
successfully took another fruit, put it in his pocket, and
carefully creeped down. He did not want to fall at twenty feet,
although he didn’t know that his body was durable enough from the
genetic enhancements to withstand the impact. He made it halfway,
when suddenly one of the brown lemurs crawled up beside him. It
grasped for the fruit in his pocket, and as Andrew tried to shove
it off, he lost his grip and fell to the dirt. Most of the lemurs
got out of the way, although one had its legs broken when Andrew
had landed on them.

The human was stunned for a little bit
after falling, but he then quickly rolled himself over to keep the
lemurs from taking his food. He brought himself up to his feet and
screamed at the top of his lungs. This had scared many of the
lemurs off, as well as a lot of birds, but some had been scared
stiff and didn’t move. A couple didn’t even look like they were
scared—they started to make loud vocal noises in protest shortly
after his scream. Andrew was not going to put up with these
animals. He jammed his thumb into the fruit, peeled some of the
skin off, and bit into it. It was very sour, although not enough to
keep the thirsty human from drinking its juices.

Andrew wasn’t told
whether there were any specific foods that were humanly edible. The
scientists told him that, based on his digestive system, any
animals that would eat plants were up for grabs, but plants
themselves were specific. The only plants that they recommended he
should eat were fruits, and that was if the fruit looked like it
wasn’t poisonous or diseased. Yeah, that was
really
specific.

These rules had worked in his favor,
though, since he never got sick from those red fruits. In this
particular scenario, he didn’t have much luck for comfort. As he
was halfway through the fruit, he noticed some insects trying to
crawl out from the second half. He wasn’t sure whether they were
spiders or ants or whatever, but he was spooked enough to throw it
onto the ground by the lemurs. He hadn’t eaten any of the insects,
since their home was in the uneaten portion alone. The lemurs
lurched towards the squashed fruit again, this time picking out the
insects and eating them as well. Apparently they were edible
insects.

Andrew was still thirsty, and he
didn’t want to hang around these lemurs anymore. He ran forward
into some unknown direction for about half a mile. He tripped on a
branch and fell forward into some deep mud. He lay there for three
seconds in humiliation, tired of all this shit in this rainforest.
He sprang up quickly to realize that part of the mud was literally
made of shit. Smelling terribly, he wiped away what he could from
his face before hearing a sound in the background. It sounded like
running water. He ran for it, tripping a couple more times before
reaching the source of the sound. There was indeed a river, and he
plunged straight into it, scaring off all the nearby
fish.

The river was a
hundred feet wide and about ten feet deep in the middle. The water
was not entirely clean, considering that dirt and other things wash
into it, but nothing much to keep him from washing the feces off
his face and then drinking some water. It was cold, refreshing, and
most of all, relaxing. It was a rough twenty minutes he’s had,
added on to all the mentally strenuous time he’s had starting with
that Selentor incident. All that time sitting on Earth, bored out
of his mind, wishing his life was more eventful, and here he was
wishing he’d experienced
fewer
events.

Unfortunately, Andrew had to stay
focused. Even though the river was moving a mere mile per hour, he
swam to the riverbank to make sure he wouldn’t have to worry about
drowning or being swept down the mountain. Besides, how could one
tell if there were alien piranhas or something in that river
further down? For Andrew, it was neither the time nor the place to
take a risk and find out.

The lonely human was still hungry—half
a red grapefruit didn’t satisfy much. He walked around the area,
looking for berries and eating them if they looked edible, though
to little satisfaction. He started to accept the idea of finding
some meat. It would be just plain cruel to eat one of those lemurs,
and he highly doubted that lizards and bugs were a good idea, but
what other choices did he have? Birds would be impossible to catch,
and—

Suddenly an answer came from
behind.

Only a few feet
behind him, he could hear a loud thud from an animal trying to
sneak up on him. Andrew turned around immediately, holding his
breath, and looked into the eyes of his prey. The animal had
mistakenly thought that it would take the human by surprise and
have him as
its
food, but the moment their eyes met, the animal looked a
little frightened. However, it was not as frightened as Andrew was
surprised. The animal was a squid….on land. It created the thud
because it had fallen from the trees above. It’s size was half of
Andrew’s and it had curly tentacles like an octopus rather than the
straight tentacles of a normal squid.

Why???

Regardless, this land squid looked
like decent food. But Andrew decided to stare at it just a little
longer to see who would make the first move. Finally, the human
charged after the land squid which bolted away in reflexive
response. It could definitely walk on land with those tentacles,
and it was surprisingly fast. Andrew sprinted just a little faster
than the creature, but it swerved often and suddenly climbed up a
tree, leaving him standing in wonder. The squid used its tentacles
to swing between branches and trees like a primate, moving about
forty feet above the ground. Andrew ran again as he saw the squid
swing, since his determination was not going to let this meal
go.

He followed the squid for about a
mile, then he stopped dead in his tracks. He realized that a dozen
other land squids, all staring from up in the trees, surrounded
him. The moment that he tried to run away, all the squids brought
themselves down to tackle him. Andrew had been knocked down to the
dirt and kicked by dozens of tentacles; this sounded like a cruel
and unusual punishment straight from the future.

As he lay wrapped in the coils of
several squid limbs, a huge roar echoed through the forest. The
land squids turned to the noise and looked into the eyes of a large
animal, appearing on four legs and walking at a steady pace. All of
the squids hurried away, leaving Andrew behind on the ground. He
stood back up as soon as he could to meet the eyes of the Alpha
Hupac.

The dominant animal
on this part of the island is the hupac, which is typically less
than two hundred pounds and about the size of a mountain lion. The
animal looked like the hybrid of a leopard and a wolf, along with a
few unique features. It was seven feet long, as heavy as Andrew,
and it looked
strong
. Andrew was paralyzed with fear— he knew he couldn’t take on
this animal right now, not without at least a little training. The
hupac had looked off to the side as though something was coming
from behind Andrew. He turned around quickly to see what is was,
only to find that nothing was there and to be scratched by the
hupac. It tore right through the suit—it could protect him from
fire and electric shock, but not claws. The hupac held nothing
back, slamming its claws onto Andrew’s body almost like a punching
bag, yet he managed to roll himself onto his back. He pointed his
index finger and tried to drive it into the animal’s eye, but it
quickly moved its head away and placed its paw onto his arm. Before
Andrew could do anything else, the hupac opened its jaws and bit
hard at his neck. For the human, it was the combined feeling of
being stabbed and being strangled to death. With blood running down
his neck, he lost consciousness within seconds.

The hupac dragged the human to its
den, a few hundred feet up the mountain.

Chapter 14

In any normal circumstance, Andrew
would have died.

His windpipe wasn’t punctured too
badly, although the flesh wounds were very deep. What kept him
alive was the regeneration gene. That, and the fact that the hupac
began its meal at Andrew’s legs.

The animal’s lair was simply an open
space of ground, hidden well by lush bushes and thick conifers. The
canopy of the tree leaves shaded almost everything in the area, not
including the few patches where the bushes were able to grow under
direct sunlight. The forest is pitch black during the night, not
just because of the canopy but also considering Ku-an Doel has no
moon.

Andrew regained consciousness on the
damp ground in the morning, marveling at the idea that he was still
alive. His neck was indeed painful, even though it had mostly
healed up. This pain, however, was overshadowed by the nerves in
what remained of his legs, sending powerful signals constantly to
the brain to tell him that something was obviously wrong. Both of
his calves had been eaten off, leaving behind only bones and some
flesh on his feet, all in a bloody mess connected by ligaments.
Some of the muscles and flesh had already regenerated, but Andrew
only had so much protein to give for repairing them.

Nauseous and terrified upon the sight,
the human came close to fainting. The leftover nerves changed his
pain into a sort of numbness as he endured a silent panic; he never
screamed, since his throat tightened to keep most noise from
escaping his mouth.

Tears came down his cheeks as the
hupac walked back in, carrying within its jaws a land squid, dead
and fresh. The carcass smelled less like seafood and more like red
meat. It dropped the squid in front of Andrew’s face, as though
hinting that he should eat it. As he stared at the dead squid, the
hupac walked over to the human’s legs and started sniffing them,
considering where to start off its next meal.

Andrew realized that the hupac was
using him as a long-lasting food source, being alive and
regenerative, and wondered why this animal couldn’t just eat the
squid. Deep down, he knew it would be stupid to ask the creature to
change its food choices, but his mind had lost the ability to care
at this point.

“Why can’t you just
eat
this
thing….eating me while I’m alive is just God damn
cruel….”

The hupac stopped sniffing in response to Andrew’s
words and their eyes met. He was surprised to see the animal
respond, but it showed no change in its expression. Andrew wondered
if and how the hupac could understand him.

“Are you not killing me because I can
regenerate? That you can just keep me alive and have an easy food
supply?”

The hupac still wanted to eat Andrew’s
legs some more. Still not caring.

“If your gonna eat me, at least wait
‘til I’m in better shape. Right now, I’m just a skinny-ass guy with
no good legs.”

The animal let out a loud
roar—according to Andrew, it was intended to shut him
up.

“If you can understand me, then just
eat this squid or some other squid or….just don’t let me die like
this.…”

The hupac paused,
then it inhaled and exhaled deeply, similar to a sigh. It nudged
the dead land squid closer to Andrew and then left.
I am pretty damn lucky
,
Andrew thought. He raised his arm as well as he could, laying it
upon one of the tentacles. After pulling the tentacle towards him,
he began eating.

The taste of dirty flesh and blood
made that red grapefruit he had earlier taste like sour candy in
comparison. He wished that the carcass was at least washed first,
but this was definitely no situation to complain. He found out
quickly how hungry he was; the tentacle was eaten to the bone and
he still needed more. Looks like land squids actually have bones
whereas Earth squids do not. The bones in the tentacles were
segmented like how a spine is.

He had the energy now to pull himself
towards the entire body so that he could eat it where he lay. The
sight of some things such as bones and organs from the squid didn’t
creep him out as much as he thought it would, and he gobbled up a
considerable amount before feeling the sensation in his legs
change. He looked towards them and realized that his legs
redeveloped about three more inches down from where they were last
seen. The protein that he took in from eating the squid had almost
entirely gone to his legs, which tingled as he saw—with his naked
eyes—muscle fibers reforming onto the bone and overlapping each
other. This regeneration was extremely rapid, considering how
lizard tails regenerate as well, yet those can take months to grow
back.