Chương 34: The beginning

While two distinct shapes were running through the ground, directly above them lay the large complex in which the people lived. Seeing the transition from the tough rubbery material to concrete above them, they stopped.

"Hey, Alejandros! Wake him up and ask him to make us a small room!"

"Ah, erm, we just gotta wait here a bit…"

--Loading dock--

*Doo doo doot do do doot dooo doot*

"Oh good morning sir, to what do I owe this honor for?"

"Yes sir, I am the captain in charge of taking care of this facility."

"I collapsed a few houses? Sir, I don't think you understand the threat we faced. The creature was a terrifying existence!"

"Well you'd have to ask the scientists who got it what it is, but from what I got from them, the thing's a slime..."

"Sir I'm not joking! It's a slime mold!"

"Yes I know that's a small organism without a brain!"

"Yes I know it's soft and squishy!"

"But sir! They mentioned that its shell was literally made of diamond!"

"I'm not sure but they mentioned how they lost an entire team to that creature!"

"Sir regarding that the loss may have been just a coverup, you'd have to ask the organization that, but there was still the thing they called a mole!"

"Well sir, it appears that it tore through the hallways."

"No sir, I'm not exaggerating, it tore through the steel and concrete hallways!"

"Yes sir, I looked at the building schematics, those hallways are definitely made of concrete and reinforced with steel."

"Sir, I'm guessing it simply tore through the steel rebar in the concrete walls and compressed the direct even more."

"Sir, sending men down would've been suicide in that narrow hallway!"

"Sir, again, you'd have to ask the scientists for more details but there was an entire warehouse of creatures!"

"Yes sir, I understand my demotion."

"Yes sir, I understand that this is for the people to be satisfied."

"Sir may I ask where I'll be transferred to after this?"

"Ah I see. I'll say my goodbyes then."

The captain closed the blue light emanating from the device in his hand and sighed while looking down. Besides him was the vice-captain who saw the sigh from his friend.

"Hey David what's wrong? Higher ups chew you out?"

"I've been deployed."

"Man, why'd this have to happen to you."

"They needed to explain it to the masses, nothing unexpected. You'll probably get a promotion soon. See ya next time we meet."

"Heh, as if. Good bye, you have anything you want me to take care of?"

"Well… You see, I got this stash in this place right? I probably don't have time to go clean it so I'd appreciate it if you'd just go there ya'know… give them a bath."

"Heh sure thing, what if you come back though? Would be pretty sad if you lost it all."

"Nah it's fine, I'd rather get rid of it all."

"Man what decisiveness. So fitting of a captain. Real shame man."

"Yeah I guess I'll go home to begin packing now."

--Suburban area--

The parts of the land were torn apart to show the true amount of manipulation that the humans here had caused. The cross section revealed ordinary things at first, like the layer of grass above and the concrete. Just centimeters under the dirt however lay a thick black layer which lay unexposed after extending from underneath the sidewalk which was only there to keep in line with what people were used to. The spacious roads were used to create the ambience and peacefulness to foster young minds which could then bring new technological developments to further their military campaigns.

--Underground--

The cockroach twitched and finally become still. Out of its mouth split in two crawled another cockroach, but this time lacking the legs it had previously, losing four pairs of legs. That wasn't the biggest change though, as it lost its entire shell, leaving behind pink flesh for all to see as its muscles struggled to hold up its form without any support. The old body lay in stark contrast to

A slit split open and sounds attempted to come out.

"Ss-kuhh -eww iiihh- tuhhh"

Again, through that same featureless slit came another slightly smaller being but this time it grew a shell over its back and its four limbs while laying flat on the ground. The delicate skin underneath however, after scraping against the rough powder underneath split open. Blood spilled out, dying the powder red as the powder resisted the spread of the liquid, each grain soaking up a bit of blood.

The mushroom supported by the light grey dust around it began laughing.

"Hah! Alejandros! What are you trying to do? You forgot a skeleton the first iteration and skin the second iteration?"

"Shut up! You're not the one that has to do this! You've gotta start with a blank slate when you do stuff ok? I cut my shell away!"

"Yeah well why don't you just start from your core!"

"What am I supposed to do with only my core? Blow up?"

"Dunno, but if you look at Senny over there, he's doing better than you."

"What? He just gave himself some bumps! How's that called anything?"

"Well it's closer to a human being than the bag of meat that's barely holding on right now… At least it can stand up sorta…"

"Hrmph"

The second and third lump of flesh had an oversized abdomen which the skiny boneless lumps of tissue couldn't support at all. The third however, had a thin carapace over its back, which simply flopped over since the carapace was unable to support it. Giving up, it opted to turn back into the form which it knew so well, the cockroach. Then it began eating its past bodies, all of which had failed except for the original which it tried to come out of. They all went well until the cockroach faced the original. The shell began to be crushed, but not without some effect on its surroundings. Shards of shell flew out with each bite, pelting the one while they barely reached the other.

The closest one, the mushroom, was obviously the one who complained first.

"Ugh, Alejandros can't you bite a bit cleaner? Or get some lips so that shell doesn't spray everywhere!"

"Just deal with it! I'll be done soon!"

This statement from Alejandros was in no way true. Compared to before in the laboratory the cockroach was barely as far after only having taken a few small bites out of it. There were two factors that caused this. First was the fact that the majority of energy was left in the bodies unlike before since gathering the fluids in its body with them trying to flow naturally was inefficient energy use, thus the majority of its instantly usable energy was left behind in its fluids. The second reason was pretty simple. It was simply smaller and thus could only take smaller bites. Each change left behind a considerable amount of mass which could only be grown slowly and carefully, lest they mutate and the whole process begin once again.

Slowly though, with each crunch the original shell was disposed of.

The cockroach suddenly obtained an epiphany.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! I've suddenly realized what I need to do! I just need to reshape my cockroach form to be a human and cover it with skin! Hah! I'm a genius!"

"Sure you are…"

"How about you try being a human then!"

"Sure no problem!"