A Quicker Trip
It was a safe bet that there were no satellites focused on him; so far as he knew, all of the high-powered military gadgetry was pointed toward the re-erupting Middle East conflict. Though they let genetically-modified monsters run free in the wilds of the northern part of the state, the military did little to alleviate the situation.
Rumors of the creatures' existence were roundly denied every time the subject was brought up at a defense meeting, but everyone in the area knew full well that going outside at night was a bad idea if you lived anywhere near the national park. Most of the time, the things kept to the woods, feeding on deer and coyotes and staying out of the way of humans. Hunters had learned that a rifle shot or three could take one of the things down, but collecting its body was an impossibility; they disappeared as soon as their vital functions stopped working.
Tim knew there was a slim chance anyone was watching him being menaced by the pack below, but still he hesitated. The monsters the government had made weren't the only things in the park that were dangerous, and weren't the only things in the state that had undergone a transformation. Unlike those down below, however, Tim had no easy explanation for what had happened to him.
As near as he could tell, he had simply woken up one day with a very different set of abilities than he had gone to bed with. During his early twenties, he'd done his best to figure out just what had happened to him, but with no luck. Medical testing revealed nothing, and there was no one in the world that he trusted enough to tell that he could tap into the latent energy surrounding him, double his size, and increase his strength an almost infinite amount.
He'd never tested the absolute limits of what he could do. His size seemed fairly fixed – he could swell only so much and only so quickly, but the amount of strength he could feed into his body felt limitless. When he'd tried to draw as much as he could from the air around him, he began to feel a buzzing, a trembling sensation as if he were a balloon near to bursting. Though he knew he could easily pour more strength into himself, he wasn't sure what would happen if he did, and decided he liked his body in once piece, and he preferred living to knowing the maximum amount of energy he could draw.
“Little one,” the lead creature called from below. It had been doing that every hour, hoping to force Tim down out of the tree. It had promised not to kill him, not to maim him, and finally not to hurt him, but Tim didn't believe a word of it. As soon as his feet hit the forest floor, the leader and his four companions would swarm him, and he would die in seconds.
Or so they thought.
Taking a deep breath, Tim focused on what he wanted to do. Timing wasn't crucial, but it would give more of an impact to his actions, one that he hoped even the things down below would have to acknowledge.
Without a word, Tim let himself fall from the branch he was perched on, opened himself up to the energy that surrounded all things, and began to drink it in. By the time he was halfway down the tree's height, he had reached his doubled size, and strength began flooding in. Extending his legs, he locked them as he reached the forest floor, driving deeply into the loamy earth.
The closest creature screamed as Tim reached out and tore its head off, then threw its dissolving corpse at a second member of the group. Teeth and claws came gnashing and slashing at him, but his improved physique met every one easily, quickly, and three more died in rapid succession.
That left only the leader, the smallest of the pack.
Tim felt a stab of guilt as he advanced on the thing; not for it, but for Christie and Todd. He hadn't been expecting the attack, and was too slow to react when the monsters came crashing through the forest. He had considered for a moment if using his abilities was worth the risk, and in that moment Christie died, with Todd torn to shreds moments later. He had fled into the woods, cursing himself for his lack of action, and hoping he could simply outrun the things behind him, but they had refused to give up.
“What isss thisss?” The leader hissed, real fear showing on its face for just a moment.
“Your end, fool,” he grated as he reach out to take grab the thing's long arm. It didn't struggle, but instead drove toward him with all its strength. Tim grunted, but simply drew on what was around him to increase his ability to endure punishment. A menacing grin slid across his face as he tried something he'd never thought of before: drawing energy from another being.
The creature in his grip screamed as he took its strength, crumpling into the dirt at his feet. Tim let the strength burn off, and then looked down at the pitiful wretch underneath him.
“Now,” he said, “you know how my companions felt. Now,” he reached down and placed a hand on top of the thing's chest, “you will know their pain.”
A single, massive downward blow from his enhanced hand was enough to tear the creature nearly in half, and leave it writhing in the dirt in agony.
Letting his strength go, Tim stumbled forward as the weight of real world came crashing back down. His hand hurt, and both legs throbbed from their landing impact. He would be sore for days.
Bright light flared up all around him, and he stood frozen as he heard the unmistakable sound of guns being drawn and made ready to fire.
“Tim Carlyle!” A voice boomed in the darkness. “This is the US Military. You will surrender. Now!”
He had known this trip was a bad idea.
- D
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