There is something to be said about panic attacks. The shaking, sweating, then the chills and breathlessness sure alarmed some of my companions. It wasn't over quickly and my dead-not dead heart hurt like a mother. By the time I was still, most people had drifted away.
That was fine. I just needed a moment to convince myself that I'll get to eat again. I would scrape the moss off the alcove walls with my teeth, just to show them. If that didn't work, I'll find a way out. I'd rather get back to being alone in the forest with my beard, sticky hair and carapace. I'd rather roast rats and make soup out of maggots, then stay inside this numbness. Maya didn't get it. Weeks without food? Ross and the others, they're insane. They tell me that they watch the metal things from time to time but don't approach. The people that did go with the monsters never came back. Could that be the way out?
I got up and walked back to the group. Some of them gave me the odd eyeball but they said nothing about my episode. Let them. I've been judged all my life for my size and it never dented my spirit.
"Where did Fred and the kids go?" I asked.
"They went to watch those monsters from afar. They know not to get close." A woman said without worry.
"Fred found the place where those devils make the green things, stuff like the sculptures. We told him to take some of their stuff if he can. Maybe we can make our own things, eh?" Ross seemed awfully content with the situation. They all were. Content and mellow and fine with just being as they were. I first wondered if they were scared to confront those creatures. Did they want to just remain here and simply be? Were they happy to wait for another bald nobody to stumble upon their gathering so they could all get the chance to play the little nationality game?
"That's smart, Ross. I think I'll go see that place myself and make sure the kids are fine, you know?" And maybe I'll find another hole, get Fred and the kids and see if we can get the hell out of here. No one else seems to have any other plan. Could this place be messing with our minds?
"You'll have to wait for him to come back, man, and he'll be gone a while. After all, no reason to hurry, right?" He looked at me and smirked while tapping his lips.
Right. Kids don't eat here. Why else would they come back if not for food? That's not messed up at all...
I shuffled my feet, listening to Germans and Chinese and other gibberish. I passed them all and made my way towards a massive green structure in view of the alcove. My hands clenched uncontrollably and the skin of my back prickled. I
felt watched and criticized so I walked around, following the curvature of the shape until I was out of sight.
Pulling and ripping at the moss fibres didn't help me feel better. I was surrounded by white smoke for a few moments and I watched it wisp away to reveal a patch of the hard black material that the moss was attached to. It looked to be the same material that the creature's plates were made of. There was no digging any further after that. The black surface had no give.
I grazed some fibres off the edges of the patch with my teeth. Once inside my mouth, I felt the strips turn to smoke. Felt the particles too. They stuck to the roof of my mouth, my tongue and the back of my throat. I felt those tiny specks searing their way deeper and I coughed up blood and smoke. At that moment a mouthful of fertilizer would have been welcome. Any kind of taste, any kind of pain would have been better than the agony I was in.
I'm not sure how long it all lasted but I made a mess of my hiding spot. There were now black dents into more of the moss and I sprayed blood over everything. The red didn't look right, it didn't fit in a wholly green place like this.
What I didn't expect was to see burbling metal seeping through the moss and rushing out of the black patches. I threw myself around another corner scrambling to get away. My head was throbbing and my mouth was still oozing blood
but I really tried to put up as much distance as I could between myself and that thing. I could see the last corner of the structure. If I got past it, I'd be in view of the bald people again.
My feet stepped into what felt like sludge before I got to the corner. The creature just appeared in front of me. It had its hexagon face down and the plates that faced me receded mike doors, making room for the green foam to overflow. I clearly assessed all of this while I was tipping towards it.
Not that it did any good, but I had time to raise my arms in defence. I plunged inside and submerged in the green stuff. It had a Nutella-like consistency and I felt it oozing into my ears and nose, covering my open eyes and flowing into my mouth as soon as I impulsively opened it to gasp. It was everywhere and it touched my insides.
It all happened so fast, I didn't even have a chance to struggle for air. Abruptly, I was outside again, and the thing flitted around me like a spasming nerve, touching me with its antennae. My mouth was still full with part of it so I did my best to make the creature whole again I spit and coughed and clawed at my face for a long time. I checked the roof of my mouth with my tongue but found no dents or injury. All the pain was gone and my throat didn't even feel sore.
The contents of my mouth crawled on the ground back to the metal mass. As it made contact, a number of white
pellets surfaced on top of a metal plate. They looked like the white particles I've seen before, but clotted together. I'm assuming those were embedded in my mouth and throat a few moments ago. Did the creature just do me a favour by getting them out?
I was too freaked, too scared to hope, so I lunged towards the hallelujah corner and ran my ass back to the group.
