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It was a strange thing. The scavengers of this planet were circling closer. I was getting an education about the ecosystem here. I’d been walking for a long time. I decided to lie down for a while. I wasn’t so sure about the whole ‘getting back up’ thing.
Wide, black birds were circling in the air, lower and lower in wide, slow circles. Four-legged animals were pacing around me on the ground. They were like a cross between coyotes and hyenas. I could hear their panting, wheezy laughter getting closer. I could even feel the hardcase segmented worms making their way up to me through the ground, snuffling through the soil with their blind, razored snouts. I had become the focal point for this world’s carrion eaters. They were converging on the point of my imminent death on vectors as true as nature. I couldn’t decide if they were lazy or patient.
It’s not an experience I recommend. I felt a sense of peace steal over me and I knew that relaxing would kill me.
It was with a huge effort that I stood. The smell of my useless arm made me reel. I could feel the dead meat of my body turning into food for the specialized stomachs of the scavengers. Necrosis was spreading through me. I was in denial of my escaping life. It was leaking out of me like air from a pin-pricked balloon.
I saw the city then. The yellow clay walls were shining like gold in the sun. I walked toward it with my entourage accompanying me like a force field of death. I knew they’d never let me in but I kept walking all the same. I felt like a zombie as I shuffled forward, dragging my feet, my mouth slack and dry from thirst. I felt like I was commanding the dogs, worms and birds around me. A dark conductor of nature.
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Wide, black birds were circling in the air, lower and lower in wide, slow circles. Four-legged animals were pacing around me on the ground. They were like a cross between coyotes and hyenas. I could hear their panting, wheezy laughter getting closer. I could even feel the hardcase segmented worms making their way up to me through the ground, snuffling through the soil with their blind, razored snouts. I had become the focal point for this world’s carrion eaters. They were converging on the point of my imminent death on vectors as true as nature. I couldn’t decide if they were lazy or patient.
It’s not an experience I recommend. I felt a sense of peace steal over me and I knew that relaxing would kill me.
It was with a huge effort that I stood. The smell of my useless arm made me reel. I could feel the dead meat of my body turning into food for the specialized stomachs of the scavengers. Necrosis was spreading through me. I was in denial of my escaping life. It was leaking out of me like air from a pin-pricked balloon.
I saw the city then. The yellow clay walls were shining like gold in the sun. I walked toward it with my entourage accompanying me like a force field of death. I knew they’d never let me in but I kept walking all the same. I felt like a zombie as I shuffled forward, dragging my feet, my mouth slack and dry from thirst. I felt like I was commanding the dogs, worms and birds around me. A dark conductor of nature.
tags