ã€ŠBBW: Anomaly Points (Book 1 Complete)ã€‹


 1. Fishing.

    I don¡¯t like fishing. I don¡¯t like boats. I get fucking seasick. Yay for our reward for all our good work. We got to go fishing on a boat in the Hauraki Gulf. I don¡¯t even like my fucking workmates. I don¡¯t socialise with them. I go to work, do work and then go home alone, which is how I fucking like it. I look over at the boss. The Aussie CEO is visiting for our end-of-year function, and the fishing trip is really for him. The Aussies are a bigger branch than us, so we have to try to impress them somehow. Well, our boss thinks she does. Here we are in a yacht heading out of Auckland, past Rangitoto Island, to go fishing early on a Friday morning. I had to get up early for this. At least it is not raining.

    I am looking forward to my Christmas break. I have two weeks off after this trip. I do like Christmas being summer, and I don¡¯t have to go back to work till after New Year. I might not like boats, but I do like swimming. Swimming is something I can do alone, even when the beaches are crowded. There is one good thing about the trip. We are scheduled to stop for lunch at a beach on Waiheke Island. They promise to cook the fish we catch. I am looking forward to the less crowded beach and a swim. I might not like fishing and boats, but I do like eating fish.

    ¡°Hey, Bob. Come and look at this mutation.¡± Susie was the boss''s PA and like the mother hen of the office. She tried to include everybody even when they didn¡¯t fucking want to be included.

    I was dragged over where they were crowding around someone¡¯s phone. The picture was like a spider had mated with a cat. It was all legs and teeth and tufts of fur. There was a ruler next to it, so you could tell it was only a couple of centimetres big. Strange mutations were popping up around the world. I found them less interesting than cat pictures, and I hate cats.

    ¡°Where was this one found, Joe?¡± Susie asked.

    ¡°Aussie somewhere. This is an Aussie website.¡± He flicked to the next page. ¡°This is the Aussie Army blowing up one of those dots they think are causing it.¡±

    The pic shows a before and after shot of Outback Aussie. The difference was the considerable crater the army left.

    ¡°That''s a huge explosion. Is that what it took to destroy those dots?¡± I didn¡¯t bother checking who said that.

    ¡°They are called Anomaly Points,¡± said know-it-all Colin. ¡°And that is how they are stopping the mutations.¡±

    That may or may not be true. I never fully trust know-it-all Colin. If it was true, I was wondering how they dealt with one that might appear in a city. I didn¡¯t ask. These people would only regurgitate what they have read on the internet, and I would be embroiled in a discussion I didn¡¯t want to be in.

    ¡°At least there have been none in New Zealand,¡± Caitlin said. ¡°We are safe.¡± Caitlin was scared of everything. I think the Health and safety rules were made for her. I don¡¯t know what idiot appointed her to the Health and Safety Committee, though. That was stupid. She was the only one on board wearing a lifejacket.

    ¡°Hey, we caught something,¡± came the yell and the pointless discussion broke up without me having to participate.

    The Captain and Charter boss had said we would drag a fishing line behind us on the way out to try our luck. Apparently, our luck is good. It took five minutes to reel in the Kahawai. It wasn¡¯t a large one, but apparently, that species has no minimum size limit.

    It got everyone focussed back on the fishing, and it wasn¡¯t long before we arrived at the first ¡°secret fishing spot,¡± where the crew were busy showing people how to bait the hooks, etc. I begged off fishing and watched them for a while. I then slipped away to the upper deck and got my e-reader out. I would much rather be reading.

    I must admit it was pretty pleasant sitting on the deck with a drink and reading a book as long as people would stop trying to talk to me. It is a bit hard to tell the boss to fuck off when she is paying for this trip. I guess she is doing the bossy thing and trying to connect with her underlings. She eventually went away.

    I was reading an apocalypse-type book, but one that had this system screen appear for everyone. I am willing to suspend my logic for a good story. This one was mediocre. The engineer in me liked quantifying everything in numbers, but it was pretty unrealistic. The story also seemed to be going downhill. I probably won¡¯t buy the next in the series.

    There is a lot of apocalyptic talk around lately with these mutations appearing and the ¡°Anomaly Points.¡± It is too fast for evolution, so something is causing it. The mutations do seem random, and more than half the mutated creatures have been found dead. I guess that part is evolution-like. The good mutations live, survival of the fittest, etc.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    I am not one to worry about surviving at all costs, like the crazies you hear about in the States. If the world goes to shit, I would prefer to die and miss it all. In this book I am reading, they are all worried about the human race surviving. Who fucking cares? For an evolutionist, if the human race doesn¡¯t adapt, it will go extinct. Only the religious who believe we are special and created by some higher power should care about that. I am happy to go extinct if I can¡¯t adapt. When I read some of these apocalyptic novels, I wonder why anyone would want to survive.

    I don¡¯t tell anyone these thoughts. My doctor already thinks I have mild depression and wants me to see a counsellor. I know he is right, but I haven¡¯t bothered to do anything about it. I guess that is another sign he is right.

    I scoffed at myself. ¡°I don¡¯t tell anyone¡­¡± Who the hell am I going to tell? It is no great surprise that I suck at relationships. Only one girl lasted more than a month. That was Denise. I am pretty sure she was trying to fix me. She gave up after three months. I stick to one-night stands now, except for Carla. We contact each other for a booty call every now and then. It works for us. I must see what she is doing in the next couple of weeks.

    Some people caught some fish, and we moved on. The Aussie CEO seemed pleased at what he caught, so I guess that is a win for our boss. Eventually, we got to the part of the day I¡¯ve all been waiting for. Lunch.

    The Yacht anchored off one of the beaches on Waiheke Island. We would be ferried to shore in the little motor boat, or the more adventurous could swim. The company already had people ashore in a picnic area and barbecues going. They had come by van. Waiheke is a larger Island with a permanent population and some good wineries. Some of that wine was being laid out on the tables.

    I stripped off my shirt, handed my bag to ¡®mum¡¯ Suzie to take ashore for me and dove into the water. This is better. Cool, clear water. No one trying to talk to me.

    I surfaced well away from the boat to the sound of someone yelling my name.

    ¡°Bob! Bob! Wait!¡±

    I turned around and saw Caitlin standing on the yacht. ¡°You need a life jacket!¡± she yelled, waving one at me.

    Oh, hell the fuck no. I just gave her a wave so she didn¡¯t think I was ignoring her, and then I turned around and dove under the water, ignoring her. I had spent my teenage weekends volunteering at the West Beach Surf Life Saving Club. It is a notoriously wild west coast beach, and you had to be a strong swimmer there. There were so many rescues they bought in the TV cameras for a reality show a few years later. The Club needed the money, and the idiots certainly needed the education. I am done saving idiots for free. I¡¯ve done my good deed if I ever need one to get into the next life.  Man, I am hilarious.

    I took my time in the water. All the non-swimmers were milling around the picnic tables with glasses of wine. If I went up there, they would want to talk to me. They haven¡¯t brought enough wine for that.

    I set out along the beach with long, easy strokes that power me through the water. This is good. This is the life. This is why I have an apartment near the waterfront.

    Eventually, I notice they have started eating, so I head up. I spy where Susie put my bag and grab a towel, wiping off the worst of the water.  I hook the towel over my shoulders and go to find a plate.

    I notice a couple of the ladies ogling me. I suppose I am OK to look at. Carla thinks so. I am fit and have powerful shoulders from all the swimming. I am average in height, and I think average in looks. It is not bad for forty years. They can ogle. I do my share of ogling when someone catches my eye. Many a girl has connected with me because I look good. Then, after the first night, they got to know me, and no amount of looks was enough. Looks are only the facade over the personality. My personality is a little toxic.

    The food was good. I tasted the wine but generally stuck to the fruit juices. I planned to go swimming again after lunch. The wind was changing direction, and there was more of a swell coming into the bay. While we were at lunch, we were given a choice. We could go back with the yacht or stay on the Island, and the vans would take us on a tour of the wineries and then catch the regular ferry back to Auckland. Those who chose to go back with the yacht mainly were the ones who had family they had to get back to. Or they were anti-social like me.

    I had an hour to swim before the yacht left, so I decided to head out to some rocks just offshore. It would be a good swim, and I could rest on the rocks before returning. The swell would make it more interesting.

    I set out with my easy, long strokes that I can keep up for hours. I miss-timed the swell several times and ended up with a mouthful of water, but that is not unusual. I was nearing the rocks when I felt a sting on my leg. I stopped and trod water while I looked around. Ah! A jellyfish. I hadn¡¯t noticed them. I checked around, and there weren¡¯t many. I wasn¡¯t allergic so far. This was not my first sting, although I didn¡¯t recognise the jellyfish. I floated on my back and raised my leg to the surface to look at the sting. A red welt marked the skin, with a piece of the tentacle still attached. I reached down to the tentacle to get it out and lost awareness of the waves. I took another mouthful of seawater that I coughed out. I will do it on the rocks. They are not far.

    When I pulled myself up on the rocks, I felt a little off. I have been stung by an unknown Jellyfish. Of course, I feel a little off. I look at my leg. It looks like the tentacles washed out getting here. That¡¯s normal. There was a bit of a prickling sensation, and I could see some swelling. All that was normal.

    What wasn¡¯t normal was the tiny pinprick of blue light I could see in the water not far from the rocks. My blood ran cold. Was that one of those Anomaly Points? It sure looked like what had been described on the Internet.

    Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

 2. Multiple Expletives

    <h2>2. Shit, shit, shit. </h2>

    Fucking hell.

    I looked around. The Yacht was closer than the shore. That is my fastest way out.

    I looked at my leg. The welt was the same. Maybe a bit more swelling. I have just been stung by a MUTATED jellyfish.

    Shit, shit, shit.

    Am I going to mutate? What if I turn to jelly? What if only my leg turns to jelly?

    Shit, shit, shit.

    I poke my leg. It is still solid. The welt hasn¡¯t got bigger, but the prickling is turning into a burning sensation. That is still all normal, right?

    Shit, shit, shit.

    I try standing on the leg. It feels OK. Still solid. It can take my weight. Time to swim for the yacht before anything else happens. I was a bit reluctant to get back in the water. I could get the motor boat to collect me.

    Shit, shit, shit.

    A wave crashed against the rock, splashing me. My blood ran cold again. I have taken several mouthfuls of mutated affected water. I have been immersed in it. My eyes. My skin.

    Shit, shit, shit.

    I coughed it out. It has been as far as my lungs. Am I going to become a mutated fish, half man, half fish?

    Shit, shit, shit.

    Images of the spider cat come to mind.

    Shit, shit, shit.

    I poke my leg. Still solid. Have I finished my panic attack yet?

    Maybe, maybe not.

    I take a deep breath. That calms me. It also means I can still breathe. I take another breath just to be sure.

    OK, first priority. I have been stung by a Jellyfish, and my leg needs treatment. Whatever the fuck else is going on, that is normal and can be treated. I hope.

    To get treatment for my leg, I must get to the yacht where the first aid kit is. The anomaly does not just affect water. It affects everything within a certain radius. That¡¯s what the internet said. Shit, I am regurgitating the internet. Things must be bad.

    It is best for me to get to the yacht rather than get other people close to this.

    Now for the big one. Who do I tell about this? From what I know, I will either Mutate good and live or mutate bad and die. Maybe I won¡¯t mutate? Yeah, right. I will do some proper research when I get back to my apartment.

    But.

    If I tell people, I won¡¯t go back to my apartment. I will be in a lab, probably for the rest of my life. Just like those mutated animals are in labs being experimented on.

    Shit, shit, shit.

    How many other people have been exposed and are in labs worldwide?

    Shit, shit, shit.

    If I don¡¯t say anything, this grows and affects more animals and people.

    Shit, shit, shit.

    Wait a minute. Mutated vinyard and mutated wine. That might be a good thing.

    Idiot.

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    I am obviously losing it. I am not thinking straight. Make a plan.

    First, get to the yacht and get my leg treated.

    Then, get to my apartment, do some research, and decide how to let people know without getting locked up. If I become a puddle of jelly on the floor, so be it.

    Right, plan decided, I check my leg. Not jelly. Still swollen. Still hurts. I take a deep breath. Still breathing. I examine the ocean. I don¡¯t want another sting. Or worse. No. Don¡¯t think about worse.

    The Yacht. Possibly a ten-minute swim. Piece of cake. I can do it with my eyes closed. I will probably do it with my eyes closed. No. I need to look out for jellyfish. Head above water means breaststroke, so maybe a fifteen-minute swim. I don¡¯t want to dive in, so let''s get in the water.

    The waves are getting stronger. That wouldn¡¯t be a problem if I could just swim normally. Maybe I should just swim normally. Less time in the water. Shit.

    I was in the water now, holding on to the rock. A wave hit at an awkward angle, and my leg scraped the rock. Shit, did it break the skin?

    Fuck it! I need to get to the yacht now. Just swim fast. I have been immersed once, and it is too late. Let''s go.

    I pushed away from the rock and swam. Fast. Not the fastest I could go as I was still feeling off, but it was fast.

    An eternity later, I came up to the back of the yacht, where there was a platform and ladder. My imagination was running riot. Was that a sting? What is that over there? Can I still feel my leg?

    ¡°Can I get some help!¡± I yelled as I hauled myself up on the platform.

    A crewman''s face poked over the side, ¡°Sure, mate. What¡¯s the problem?¡±

    ¡°I have a jellyfish sting that will need some treatment.¡±

    ¡°No problem. Can you get up the ladder, or do you need help?¡±

    I checked my leg. Not jelly. I stood and grabbed the ladder. I was a little dizzy, but it went away quickly. I am sure it is the exertion that caused that. Definitely. Absolutely.

    ¡°I can get up,¡± and I started to climb.

    ¡°Right. Take a seat, and I will grab the first-aid kit. Jellyfish stings are no biggy unless you are allergic. If that were the case, you wouldn¡¯t be climbing the ladder.¡± He headed to the cabin for the kit.

    I sat in the nearest seat. The crewman came back with a kit. Dave, according to his name tag. ¡°Let''s look at it and see if there are any barbs left in it.¡± I turned my thigh so it was visible. He put on some gloves and got a pair of tweezers. He then looked closely at the wound and used the tweezers on a couple of things I couldn¡¯t see. ¡°Right, that should be good,¡± he said. ¡°The next step is to get some hot water running over it. As hot as you can stand. We have a shower, but the hot water will run out quickly. Let''s get you in, and then I have some cream here that will help.¡±

    He guided me into the cabin and said, ¡°Stay in until the pain eases. If you have problems, just yell, as I will stay close by.¡±

    I had a shower and borrowed a towel. He let me apply the cream, and I put my swimming trunks back on. We were pulling out of the bay when I went up on deck.

    I grabbed Dave, ¡°Hey, my bag was back on shore.¡±

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry, it will be with the vans. We will make sure we get it back to you by Monday.¡±

    Monday, when I will be on holiday and not at work. It has my keys. And my phone. And my E-reader.

    Shit.

    A weekend without my e-reader?

    Shit

    I grabbed Dave, ¡°My wallet and phone are in it, man.¡±

    ¡°Right.¡± he thought briefly, ¡°I will call the vans, and maybe one of your coworkers can bring it to you.¡±

    I slumped a bit. ¡°Susie will know where I live. She won¡¯t be able to phone me¡­¡±

    ¡°No problem, I will do that now."

    No Problem? Big fucking problem. Shit. This is the last fucking company event I am ever going on.

    I dozed off on the trip back to Auckland. That was unusual. We were coming in to dock when I came too. One of my co-workers paid for my ride-share home. I promised to pay her back, so I have to remember her name. I am sure I will recognise her.

    I hope my neighbour is home. She has my spare key. If she is out, I have to find the property manager, and I don¡¯t have my phone. It is only a small apartment block., three stories, with four apartments per floor. The Property Manager is only here when needed, so contacting him might be difficult.

    I am sweating a bit when the ride-share drops me off. Shit. I am going to turn into jelly. I plug my code into the door to access the building and trudge up the stairs. My apartment is on the middle floor in the middle of the others. It was the cheapest for the location.

    I knock on the door of apartment 2A, and hear some mumbling and then a, ¡°What the hell do you want?¡±

    I look at the spyhole in the door. ¡°My spare key, Maple. Thanks for being such a sweetie.¡± I am always teasing her about her being named after something so sweet. She hates it. We get on well.

    I hear, ¡°Fucking idiot can¡¯t even keep his key safe.¡± The door opens as far as the security chain allows. She is a little paranoid about security. ¡°Here!¡± she shoves the key card at me. ¡°Now, leave me alone.¡± The door slams shut.

    ¡°When are you going to introduce me to your granddaughter?¡± I yell through the door.

    ¡°Fucking never!¡± is the reply. I smile. She¡¯s lovely. If only she were forty years younger.

    I open my door and then lean on the counter for a minute. Shit, I am not feeling well. I think I will lie down for a bit.

 3. Big News.

    I came too, with the sun streaming into the room. From the sun''s position, it is late morning. I reach for the bedside table to check. Shit. No phone.

    I look at my arm. Oh, good, not jelly. What I am is starving. I sit up on the bed. My swimming trunks are on the floor in the corner. I am bare assed naked. I look at my leg. The swelling has gone down. There is just a mark where I got stung. I got up to use the ensuite before I raided the fridge.

    I wandered out to the kitchen/sitting area and looked in the fridge. I grab some fruit and a cereal bowl and wander onto the small deck to eat. I am still naked. I am sure Maple would ogle me if she could, but she is now too inflexible to look around the privacy barrier between our decks. Maybe I should drill her a peephole. I wouldn¡¯t want her to have an accident on my account.

    I go inside for another bowl and grab my laptop while I am there. It is my only form of communication until I get my phone back. The world doesn''t seem to have ended overnight.

    I opened the messaging app to message Susie about my stuff and saw she had already been in contact. She apologised for the late contact as she was hungover from the winery tour. She would be available later in the afternoon.

    Good. I checked the time on the laptop. 11 am.

    The second message from her said she hadn¡¯t heard from me and she was going out with her wife on Saturday evening. She would be available most of tomorrow.  I didn¡¯t know she was married. Probably because I didn¡¯t care. I checked the time on the message. 5 pm.

    Wait. What?

    I rechecked the laptop. Shit. Today was Sunday, not Saturday. I slept a whole day. Fuck.

    I fired off a quick message to Susie suggesting a time and place to meet this afternoon. At least I left my motorbike keys here in the apartment.

    Then I got another piece of fruit and sat in the sun to think. Something happened. I looked closely at the mark on my leg. It doesn¡¯t look strange or different. I am glad I am not jelly. I do feel a bit different, though.

    I feel like I have an extra sense or maybe an extra limb. I checked my reflection in the ranch slider windows. No extra limbs. I looked down. Not even an extra penis. Oh well.

    What happens when I try to use this limb/sense thing? I tried to mentally poke, prod, push, pull, rotate, explode¡­ nothing. It''s probably a good thing with the exploding bit. So maybe it is not mentally activated? But my limbs are. I reach out onto the table, pick up the apple and take a bite. All activated mentally.

    I sit there for a while, chewing and thinking. The laptop pings. Susie has agreed to my time and place. I confirm.

    I take another bite.

    I put the half-eaten apple on the table. When I did that, I didn¡¯t tell every muscle how to move. Well, I did, but not consciously. I don''t tell my heart to take each beat. Otherwise, I would be dead. I had a purpose and a goal, and the muscles in my arm responded appropriately.

    What is the purpose of this sense/limb/feeling?

    Please don¡¯t let it be, turning into jelly.

    Shit. I mean, I have got to try it, but, Shit. Maybe I should leave a note for whoever comes to mop me up.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    I think I will have a cup of tea first. Green tea. I might need the extra liquid. I go back inside and make my cuppa.

    Should I get dressed? They might not recognise it as a body if I don¡¯t. Nah, stay naked and experiment on the deck, not that the penalty fees for messing up the carpet will be my problem. I take my cup of tea outside.

    If I turn into jelly, can I turn back?

    Who the hell knows?

    I put the mostly drunken cuppa on the table next to the half-eaten apple.

    I guess it has been an OK life. Time to do this.

    Turn to Jelly.

    ¡­

    ???

    Nope. Nothing.

    Turn into a jellyfish.

    ¡­

    Maybe I should have done this in the ocean. I might survive as a jellyfish there.

    Nope. Nothing.

    Am I doing it wrong, or is that not its purpose?

    Hopefully, that is not its purpose.

    Maybe I am just delusional, and I should see someone about this delusion. There is an email from my doctor somewhere with some recommended counsellors. This might be out of their league.

    I reach for the cuppa again, and my eye catches sight of the welt on my leg. I stop, and my eyes narrow. What if the purpose is to give people welts? I search Jellyfish on my laptop. Their tentacles contain some unpronounceable chemical to subdue and kill their prey.

    That apple is my prey.

    I reach out with my hand and grab the apple.

    Something happened - with this feeling sense thing. I pick up the apple to look at it. There is discolouring on the skin where I had my fingers. I moved my finger and tried again.

    Holy shit, I can give people welts.

    I need more fruit. I go to stand up and pause. I sit down again. Feeling a little dizzy. Maybe I don¡¯t have much of that energy thing.

    I can give people welts! This is big.

    Wait a minute. The Jellyfish use it to subdue and kill prey. Am I going to poison everyone I shake hands with?

    I need to go and greet some politicians. Maybe also the Mayor.

    I can¡¯t do it much. Two touches, and I am done. Maybe it will grow with use ¡­ or if I get more energy? I know where to get more energy. Shit, that is dangerous. I might pick up some undesirable mutation. Let¡¯s shelve that idea.

    I can poison people. What the fuck use is that? I live in a safe city, despite what Maple thinks. When have I ever had the need to poison anything? Maybe the weeds in the drive. Would this poison do that? I need to find out, but I am not going to become a gardener or pest exterminator suddenly. Especially not if I have to touch the pests.

    What am I going to do? Cover myself in honey so the flies land on me, and then I poison them? I don¡¯t think so. I guess I could never be bothered by Mosquitoes again. That would be a bonus. I need to do some research and then experiment.

    It is almost time to leave to meet Susie. I need a plan.

    First, pick up more fruit to experiment on. Different types. Maybe visit a pet shop. The pet shop can wait for now. Second, research this chemical, so I know what it does. Third, research these anomalies from proper scientific sources. I can¡¯t be the first to be affected. People who found these things, soldiers sent to guard them, and scientists experimenting on them must all have been affected somehow.

    What about warning people about this anomaly? I postponed that so I could get more information. I still need more information. And I need a phone.

    I have a few minutes. Let''s see what is happening in the world and what general info is out there. I pull up my usual news site and see:

    BREAKING NEWS

    The First Anomaly Point is found in New Zealand!

    My first thought was that I no longer had to worry about keeping my secret; they had found it.

    My second thought was Caitlin was going to be a nervous wreck.

 4. Fing Anomalies.

    <h2>4. Fucking Anomalies.</h2>

    Except I was wrong. Not about Caitlin. Who fucking cares about Caitlin? The Anomaly they found was in the South Island, not near Waiheke. It was inland from Timaru, near the foot of the Southern Alps, somewhere between Fairlie and Lake Tekapo. The armed forces were scrambling to blow it up because this one wasn¡¯t mutating anything. It was killing everything. Plants, animals, everything. The person who found it is in critical condition in Timaru Hospital and is not expected to live.

    There were some aerial photos showing a circle of dead vegetation. Fuck. This means there are different types of energy coming from these things. Some mutate, some kill some ¡­ do what? nothing? Yeah right. Dangerous fucking things. I could be dead if it were a different energy. I could be a slime on the floor as well. Dead is probably better.

    The world is definitely going to shit.

    I skim-read some more. Conservationists were concerned about the destruction of the local wildlife etc. Nothing important. What about the soon-to-be-dead person? They are lucky this didn¡¯t appear in a town, or the death toll would be much higher.

    Then, something triggered a thought. They could measure how fast it was growing by the dead zone. Different energy might have different growth rates, but it was something. How much would the Waiheke Anomaly have grown in the last two days?

    Then I noticed the time. Shit, I am going to be late to meet Susie. I rushed into the house. Shit, I need pants. And a shirt. And maybe gloves so I don¡¯t poison anybody by accident. I got dressed quickly and grabbed my riding gear, including the gloves.

    I don¡¯t usually ride my motorbike around town. I catch the bus to work. I bought it to get to the West Coast beaches. The roads wind through the bush and are fun to ride. Then you get a beach with some decent surf and a wild coastline. It is my favourite place to be.

    It didn''t take me long to get to downtown Auckland, and I saw Susie sitting in an outdoor cafe with another woman. There are no stopping lines on the road, but I am on a bike, so I pull up on the curb next to them and pull off my helmet. I leave the engine running and my gloves on.

    ¡°Hi, Susie.¡±

    ¡°Oh, hi, Bob. This is my wife, Rosie.¡±

    I smiled to give the impression I cared, ¡°Hi, Rosie, nice to meet you. I can¡¯t stop.¡± I indicated the no-stopping lines on the road.

    ¡°Right,¡± Susie scrambled for the bag, ¡°Here you go. Sorry about not getting it to you yesterday. I had a bit too much of a good time, you know?¡±

    ¡°No problem at all,¡± seeing as I wasn¡¯t even awake. ¡°I am really grateful for this. The phone, you know?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, can¡¯t live without them.¡±

    ¡°OK, thanks again. I¡¯ll catch up after the holidays.¡± I put my helmet back on and strapped the bag down. I gave them a final wave and merged back into the traffic. Quick and clean. That is how I like it.

    I stopped at the fruit shop and got a variety of fruit, including a couple of Watermelons. That should test things.

    I was back in my apartment in under an hour. I put my phone on charge. Then I put my e-reader on charge. Priorities.

    I made another cup of tea and took a bowl of fruit out on the deck. First up, laptop. Jellyfish. The tentacles have something called Nematocysts, which is a type of Cnidocyte, ever the fuck that is. I am not a biologist or cell whatever. I am a Civil Engineer. OK, here is something close to English.

    Nematocyst is the injection mechanism, it penetrates into the skin or exoskeleton. That is interesting. It must get through fish scales. It injects a Hypnotoxin that paralyses or kills the victim. It apparently attacks the nervous system.

    So what am I seeing on the fruit? I look closer. Ah. I have injected the poison. It is just not doing anything.

    Ok. Now, we are getting somewhere. How much would it take to kill a cockroach? A mouse? A dog? A human? How long would it take? All good questions. I opened a document on my laptop and noted all this down.

    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

    I am massive compared to a jellyfish; hence, I only have a welt from its attack. Going the other way should make a big difference. Revenge will be mine!

    Next question. Am I immune from my own poison? The jellyfish eat what they poison. Should I? I looked at the browning apple suspiciously. Internet first. That was a harder question to find an answer for. So the answer is probably. Animals with venom usually build up resistance to their specific venom. Usually. I am not ready to test that yet. My resistances haven''t had long to build up. I tossed the apple in the bin.

    Others can also build resistance. So if I continually poison someone and they don''t die, they will gradually build resistance. I can think of a few people I would like to test that on. But I shouldn''t.

    Ok, that''s enough for now on the toxin. I bought all the fruit for nothing. I need to go to the pet store. Luckily, I like fruit.

    Now, the anomalies. I need some actual scientific sources, although I am aware that public information might be restricted. I opened a document to note the key points from all the technical jargon I expected to find.

    There is a lot of information available on mutated plants and animals. The animal pics go viral, but the plants provide the most information because they are the most numerous, and outside the anomalies, there are the same plants in the same soil and conditions to compare with.

    From a thousand blades of grass, there might be between four hundred and six hundred different mutations. Roughly fifty percent of them die. Of the ones that live, half are beneficial to the animals that eat them, and half are detrimental. There is a lot of neutral ground in the middle. There are some extremes.

    When eaten, the mutations were not passed on to the one dining on it unless it was eaten under the influence of the anomaly. The chances increased the closer to the anomaly.

    What was concluded from that was the stronger the energy being emitted then, the higher the mutation chance. Just because you mutated once doesn''t mean you don''t mutate a second time, or a third or a fourth etc., all of which have a fifty percent chance of dying.

    We are fucked.

    The anomalies only affect living things. There is no change to rocks or dirt. From that, I assume it is not in the water. It is in the microorganisms, though.

    The anomalies are increasing. What is on land is only a part of them. They are in the ocean, so I assume they are also in the atmosphere and buried in the earth. Are they in outer space? On the moon? Who knows?

    My conclusion is, this world is fucked.

    You can blow up an anomaly. It takes a lot of high explosives, but it seems to disappear. Hence, it is affected by the physical world. It can be seen, so it emits light in the visible spectrum. They are not all the same colour, though. I will add here that the ones we have found are visible. There may be ones that can¡¯t be seen or emitted in the infrared or ultraviolet spectrums, etc.

    God, we are so fucked.

    Enclosing one in lead-lined concrete containers has no measurable effect. Or any containers. We can¡¯t move them. It passes through the container when it is moved. So it is physical and not physical?

    Yeah, we are fucked.

    There is no mention anywhere of human mutation. It is an obvious conclusion from the data, but nowhere is it mentioned that I could find.

    The only way to survive would be to find a way to block the energy the anomalies are emitting. We can''t blow up all the anomalies because we can''t access them, so we have to stop the energy.

    The trouble is nobody can even measure the energy or test it except for observing its effect on living things.

    We''re just fucked.

    I have been close to an anomaly, and I have mutated. Is this energy I sense inside me the same as the energy emitted from the anomaly? I don''t know. I probably don''t have any way to find out.

    This is not a mutate-or-die situation. This is a keep mutating until you die situation.

    Fucked to death.

    We have to find a way to stop mutating regardless of the energy. Are there some animals that mutate less than others? Does each mutation let you build resistance?

    There are different types of undetectable energy. Some are instant kill. Some are mutate. Do some anomalies have stronger mutations than others? Are there some safe anomalies? Safe zones would be good.

    What happens when the energy from one anomaly meets the different types of energy from another? Do they clash? Do they merge? What the hell are they? Why now? How fast will they appear? Will they grow? Their influence will spread, but will they grow stronger?

    I have so many questions, but there are no more answers I can find.

    Why aren''t there more people panicking? The information is there if you look. I guess it was not that easy to find, and there was a lot of technobabble to sort through. But I did it in an evening. Ok, most of the night, it is almost morning. But the point is I am not the brightest bulb out there by far. Others can find this info.

    I guess people don''t know to look for this. It is just strange pictures of mutated animals. Or maybe they don''t want to know. I didn''t know to look until this weekend.

    I am not sure I can sleep with all this rattling around in my brain. Maybe I will pop down for an early morning swim and then go to bed. After all, I am on holiday now.

    I don''t know what I am going to do. What I do know is, that we are fucked.

 5. Fed.

    <h2>5. Fucked.</h2>

    My apartment is only one block from the beach, which is why I live there despite the cost. I slipped on my trunks, a shirt and some jandels. I grabbed a towel and walked to the beach. It was about half four in the morning, still dark. The streets were empty. It was the best time of day.

    The street lights didn¡¯t extend far onto the dark beach. The tide was out. I dumped the towel, shirt and jandels above the high tide mark and walked to the gentle surf. These east coast beaches are so tame. I had to wade a fair way before I was deep enough to swim. The water was nice and cool.

    I turned parallel to the beach and set out with an easy breaststroke, just letting my mind settle after all the information that was swirling around in there. This is good.

    Some small sprats dart away from me in the water. It occurs to me that if I could catch them, I could try out my poison touch. The trouble is they are too fast. Should I get an aquarium and some fish to test on?

    My mind wanders. Even sticking to the more scientific sites, you can¡¯t avoid the crackpot theories. Portals from aliens. Judgement from God. A lot of end of the world stuff. I am in agreement. I think it is the end of the world as we know it. Who cares whether it is aliens, God¡¯s judgement or God correcting his mistakes? The end result is the same.

    The main question is, do I want to stick around for it? And the answer is, I don¡¯t know. I have survived one mutation. There is no guarantee I would survive another. Not surviving doesn''t worry me, but what if I am permanently crippled and in pain all the time? There are worse things than death, like company bloody fishing trips.

    I should have told everybody to fuck off.

    I stretched out into a full freestyle stroke. This was good. I turned around and headed back. I switched to a butterfly stroke to use some energy for a while. It wasn¡¯t my best stroke, but I liked it, and it tired me out quicker.

    The world is going to go to shit, and a lot of people are going to die. Do I care? Partially. Maple would be a loss. Not many others would be.

    The trouble is that infrastructure would break down. I am a civil engineer. Infrastructure is kind of my thing. I guess I would get the beaches to myself. I might have to learn to fish.

    I flip over and float on my back for a while, kicking with my feet. I do an occasion backstroke with an arm. The sky is getting lighter. Dawn is coming.

    Do I want to live through this? I don¡¯t know.

    I chuckle. Things could be worse. It could be like that harem apocalypse book I never finished. I couldn¡¯t stand one woman around all the time, let alone a dozen. That would be a nightmare. I would definitely find a use for my poison touch.

    Time to head back to shore. I see some early-morning joggers are out.

    I have time. I don¡¯t have to decide now.

    I have two weeks off. More if the world goes to shit in that time. I was going to spend a few days camping at Piha on the west coast. Maybe I should go to Waiheke instead. If I die, then I die. Game over, and I am done.

    Waiheke does sound more interesting right now. Maybe I could figure out how fast it is spreading. I have a wetsuit to protect me from the jellyfish. They have no protection from me. I could be the Great Jellyfish Hunter.

    Now, I am getting silly. I think I need some sleep.

    I towel myself down, slip on my jandels and head back. That jogger is worth ogling.

    I shower and have a piece of fruit. I am never going to eat all that fruit. A few hours of sleep will do me good. Before I do that, I fire off a text to see what Carla is up to. I don¡¯t want to head into the end of the world horney.

    I woke up after lunch and checked my phone. Carla is keen to come around after work today but then has to rush off to spend the holidays with her family. I know she is as thrilled about that as I would be. I never knew my mother and my father was a drunken asshole, so I am not about to rush off anywhere. At least I avoided inheriting the drunken part of that.

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    I pulled up the info for the vehicle ferry to Waiheke. It is summer and the major holidays. There are more available sailings than I thought there would be. I book myself and my bike in on one. Should I book a return sailing? What is the likelihood of me coming back? Probably less than 50/50. With this number of available spaces, I will find a spot if I return.

    I check the accommodation availability on Waiheke. As expected, it is slim pickings. I am probably better off camping anyway. I was planning to camp at Piha. They get grumpy at freedom campers these days. They want you to be at a campground. I shrug. I did inherit the asshole part from my father. There are plenty of shops in the town, so it is not like I will have to live off my nonexistent fishing skills. Those wineries also provide high-class meals, although I will probably stick with takeaways.

    My biggest problem right now, though, is how to make sure I don¡¯t poison Carla when my control loosens later. Looks like the fruit might come in handy after all.

    When I opened my door at 5:30, Carla greeted me with, ¡°Hello, asshole. No one knocked you off yet?¡± as she bounced into the apartment.

    ¡°Not yet, although the boss tried a couple of days ago. I guess she is not very good at her job.¡±

    ¡°End of year company do, huh?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    Carla is of medium height and slim. Small breasts, bronze skin, black hair. She¡¯s Samoan. See, I can learn something about someone. Eventually. She is also very fit. Running fitness classes at one of those high-intensity gyms for a living will do that for you.

    ¡°I told you that you should quit. Go into business for yourself.¡±

    ¡°Can you really see me dealing with clients?¡±

    ¡°Good point.¡± Carla threw her gym bag on the couch. ¡°I want a shower. Shall we start there?¡±

    ¡°Absolutely.¡±

    It was over four hours later when we finished our second shower. I followed her naked butt out to the living room. We were both comfortable naked.

    She grabbed a piece of fruit from the bowl. Then she noticed the discoloured fruit in the waste, ¡°Did you buy a bad batch or something?¡± she asked, indicating the waste.

    ¡°Something like that.¡± At least she wasn¡¯t poisoned.

    She sauntered over to the couch and perched on the edge, one leg on the floor and the other on the couch. It was a good view. I didn¡¯t miss her smirk. She knew what she was doing.

    ¡°Hey, can I ask you a favour?¡± She asked.

    My look changed.

    ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look, you selfish bastard. It¡¯s nothing onerous.¡±

    ¡°What then?¡± She knew she had me.

    ¡°I just want an excuse to get away from my folks early. Are you going to be at Piha?¡±

    ¡°Actually, I just booked a ferry to Waiheke. And since when do you need an excuse?¡±

    ¡°Really? Waiheke?¡±

    ¡°If I get bored, I can catch the ferry back and go to Piha.¡±

    ¡°Can I join you in a couple of days?¡±

    ¡°That might be dangerous. Since when do you need an excuse to duck out on your folks? You have never needed one before.¡±

    ¡°My sister-in-law is hosting her cousin from the Islands, and they all think it is a good idea for us to meet.¡±

    I just laughed.

    ¡°Shut up, you asshole,¡± she said while smiling with me. ¡°I turned thirty this year, and they all think I am getting past it and need to settle down.¡±

    I raised an eyebrow as I let my eyes wander over that fantastic body.

    ¡°Oh shut up,¡± she said again, even though I hadn¡¯t said anything. ¡°There are a lot of cultural expectations in the mix. So how about it?¡± She let her eyes roam over my body, ¡°I can make it worth your while.¡±

    ¡°In my tiny pop-up tent?¡± I said.

    ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be the first time. Besides, I don¡¯t mind putting on a show if you don¡¯t.¡±

    I sighed, ¡°I suppose I can take the spare helmet for the bike.¡±

    She smiled brightly, ¡°Thanks. I will message you when I am coming.¡± She gave me a peck on the cheek. ¡°Be careful, though. There might be some cracks in that hard heart of yours.¡±

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t go telling your folks I¡¯m your boyfriend or anything.¡±

    ¡°Heaven forbid,¡± she said as she rolled her eyes. ¡°If I did that, they would want to meet you.¡± Then, a small mischievous smile crept onto her face.

    ¡°No. Don¡¯t even think about it.¡±

    She grinned, ¡°I won''t, don¡¯t worry.¡± She checked her phone. ¡°I need to get going. I won¡¯t get there till after midnight as it is.¡±

    ¡°You had better get dressed first, or everyone will see how much of an old maid you are.¡±

    She just gave me the finger as she disappeared into my room to find her clothes.

    I¡¯m well and truly fucked.

 6. Peace on Earth.

    <h2>6. Peace on Earth.</h2>

    The ferry was crowded. I had what I needed packed in bags on the bike. I didn¡¯t need much. I had my small two-person pop-up tent that is really only big enough for one. I had a change of clothes and a thin sleeping bag. My wetsuit and flippers took a bit of space. I also had my diver''s knife, whose only use to date was to pry open shellfish. Does that make me a fisherman? I had a little bit of food, primarily energy bars and a couple of drink bottles. I had a solar recharger for the phone and e-reader, and a good first aid kit. I didn¡¯t forget my jandels. I planned to buy what else I needed on the island. Yes, I had the spare helmet. I am still deciding what to do about that. If I am still alive, then, of course.

    The passenger ferry terminal is a bit out of the main town, so I went there to familiarise myself with it. It has been a long time since I was here. I found the supermarket and noted the takeaway shops. And a brewery and distillery that looked interesting. I picked up some extra food and some beer. I could strap stuff behind me while I didn¡¯t have a passenger. I also had a small backpack, but too big a bag upsets the balance.

    I topped up the tank and then set out on the road that would take me closest to the bay we were in. My phone map didn¡¯t have a road going down to the bay, but there were vans there, so there was a road, but it was probably private.

    I was getting close when I passed a big fancy winery. Yeah, they probably own all the land around here. I kept riding, and a couple of hundred meters further on, I came to a road going off to the side with a locked gate and a sign saying Private Property - No Beach Access. Yeah, right.

    The gate was a metal bar with two posts that would stop vehicles. There were no fences, but the bush grew up close on both sides. I squeezed the bike around the post and went down to see where it went. It was about a kilometre of steep winding track before a familiar bay appeared.

    All the fancy tables and barbeques were removed, and only a couple of wooden picnic tables were the permanent occupants. I pulled the bike up to them and got off to look around. I could see the rocks out in the bay. It was maybe a bit more than a kilometre out. I couldn¡¯t feel anything different with this energy/sense thing. Nothing appeared different to my eye. The seagulls looked normal. The sea was fairly calm. The tide was lower than before, and the rocks were more prominent.

    I looked around a bit more. There was a small steam off to one side. That would provide fresh water in a pinch. I didn¡¯t have anything to cook with, so I couldn¡¯t boil it. I would stick to bottled liquid if I could, but it wouldn¡¯t be the first time I have drunk straight from a stream. Fresh water is also good for washing the salt out of things. Then I spied a tap. Of course, they would have some water down here for functions. It probably comes from the winery tanks.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    I set up the tent on the stream side of the clearing in the softest place I could find. I didn¡¯t have a mattress. I then moved the bike closer. And unpacked the essentials. The afternoon was getting late, so I had an excuse to put off getting into the water until tomorrow.

    I stripped off to my swimming trunks and jandels and grabbed a towel. I then went down to the part of the beach that was the closest to the rocks. I found a spot, sat, looked, and tried to see what I could sense. After half an hour, the answer was fuck all. I am becoming a bloody monk and contemplating my navel.

    I got up and wandered along the beach, looking at the sand and shells. There were some small crabs. They looked fine. Normal. I caught one and poisoned it. It died very quickly. Yesterday, with the fruit, I discovered size did matter. Apple-sized objects, I could do two, maybe three. Grapes were easy, but the watermelon almost caused me to faint. That didn¡¯t tell me anything about the toxin''s potency, but it did tell me the volume I could put out and the recovery time. The crab would indicate that it is quite potent.

    I reached the rocks at the end of the beach and walked out on them. I always liked looking at rock pools as a kid. Tiny sea creatures would get trapped by the withdrawing tide and have to wait until the next tide to escape. With the low tide, there were plenty of rock pools. Everything looked normal to my inexpert eye.

    Everything except the crabs were too fast for me to catch. Man, I am slow. I can¡¯t poison things if I can''t catch them. It is not a very helpful mutation, but I guess it didn¡¯t kill me.

    I spent some time watching the rocks from this angle. The tide is coming in. I still can¡¯t see anything wrong. It just looks like a normal lovely bay in the gulf. The weather is good. Summer is in full swing. Christmas is here.

    I wandered back and found a place to watch the sunset. It was a lovely spot to die if that is what I would do tomorrow. There was only one place that would be better. Maybe I will see Piha again, maybe I won¡¯t.

    I ate a couple of energy bars and drank some beer. It is Christmas Day tomorrow. That must be a good day to die. I am at peace. This is a nice spot.

    The Mossies came out. I practised poisoning them when they landed, but there is never an end to them. Eventually, I got up and got the spray.

    I took a leak in the bush and sorted out my sleeping bag. I didn¡¯t bother with the torch; I preferred to let my eyes adjust to the natural light. I got into the sleeping bag and lay there listening to the sounds of the night. I didn¡¯t even get out my e-reader.

    New Zealand has no large predators. Land predators, that is. If I am attacked in the night, it will be something that has mutated. There were no signs of mutated things on the shore. The scariest mutated thing, in my opinion, would be a mutated seagull. Those things can get vicious.

    The night sounds normal. I find it peaceful. ¡°Peace on earth and goodwill to man.¡± There won''t be much of either coming up soon. Let''s make the most of it.

 7. Merry Christmas.

    <h2>7. Merry Christmas.</h2>

    Nothing killed me in the night. Merry Christmas to me. Christmas day is overcast with a fifty percent chance of death. I must be on Santa¡¯s naughty list. Well, there is a fifty percent chance that I am on the list. There is a hundred percent chance I have been naughty. I will splash out on this wonderful Christmas morning and eat the energy bar with the most chocolate. I will finish with a piece of fruit. If I am alive this evening, I think I will go and see if the brewery is serving Christmas dinner.

    What the fuck am I actually doing? Suicide by mutation? Isn¡¯t it a little late to be thinking about this?

    I pick up my phone. It is charged and has a signal. There is the usual lack of Christmas well-wishers. Mind you, it is barely dawn. Most people aren¡¯t up yet. The kids are just getting them up now. That has never been my experience, but I have it on good authority that¡¯s what happens. You know. Internet regurgitation is good authority.

    Of course, I have no one to send any well wishes to either. I don¡¯t think Maple knows how to use a mobile, but I wouldn¡¯t mind her telling me to fuck off. One of these days, I will get an introduction to her granddaughter.

    Meanwhile, I have a peaceful bay all to myself, and I am too scared to go swimming. Maybe I should go skinny dipping.

    No. Head in the game. We are not here to kill ourselves.  We are here to conduct an experiment that has a high risk of death. First wetsuit on.

    Done. I don¡¯t have a hood, so my neck and head are exposed. I do have my mask and snorkel, but I won¡¯t bother with the snorkel.

    Flippers in hand, mask and snorkel ready. Let¡¯s get to the water''s edge. First task: swim out slowly and see if we can find the edge of the mutation zone. The tide is fairly high, so that means more swimming.

    Flippers on, wading deeper.

    Summarise. There are two ways to get mutated. You could be like me and get stung inside the influence of an anomaly. Or eat grass. Or smoke grass? But that is a secondary mutation. The primary way of mutating is to be the jellyfish or grass and just exist inside the anomaly zone for a period of time.

    The first question is, how far does the zone extend? Of course, the next question is how fast is it growing.

    I start swimming slowly. I am watching for any sign of mutated creatures. Half of them will die. That will draw other creatures to eat them. Then there are the currents and tides. This is doomed to failure, isn¡¯t it?

    Then I felt it. My sense/energy thing resonated? Reacted? With something. I assume the something was the energy from the anomaly. It is the same energy from my mutation, but apparently not mine?

    I stop swimming and float in place.

    Is this the border? Is this the edge? I looked around, but I could see nothing to mark this position. I would have to line things up from the shore to re-establish where I am. Those two trees? No, I will never get the same trees again. The picnic table and ¡­ what? OK, doomed to failure.

    What about this feeling/sense thing? I need a name for it. I am now close enough that I can sense it. I am assuming it is like light and disburses and gets weaker the further you are from the source. It is logical but may or may not be true. If I get closer, will the feeling get stronger?

    I float a bit further toward the rocks. I can¡¯t tell.

    The other question is, how long must I be in its zone of influence before it triggers a mutation? If I am closer and it is stronger is the time needed to mutate shorter?

    I swim back to shore and get my phone. Still no messages. I noted down the time, left it near the beach, and then swam back out to where I felt the influence/energy thing. I don¡¯t have a watch, and the phone is only water-resistant, not waterproof. I swim to escape contacting people.

    Ok, I feel the energy. Should I call it an essence or aura? Spiritual energy? I don¡¯t know; I am not good at this.

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    The name doesn¡¯t matter. Does it get stronger the closer I go? I swim closer for a bit. Maybe it does? I am not sure. I stop and float for a bit. I am lucky it is a calm morning. The breeze will get up later.

    If I can feel this energy and it is related but not the same as the energy already in me, can I manipulate it? Can I absorb it? Would that speed up a new mutation or strengthen my current mutation?

    I don¡¯t the fuck know!

    Let''s just try something and fuck it. Whatever happens, happens.

    I try to use my energy to grab the outside energy. Can I separate a small piece? Fuck I don¡¯t know what I am doing.

    I contemplate my navel for a bit out in the fucking ocean. How weird is that? I think maybe I did absorb some. Not sure. I didn¡¯t bring enough fruit to test it with. I never got how many crabs I could kill.

    It looks like it is mid-morning. Time to go in for a cuppa and a snack. By that, I mean a beer and energy bar. I check the time on the phone.

    There is a message.

    Carla: God save me from Christmas

    It was sent ten minutes ago.

    Bob: I am pretty sure God saving people is the reason for Christmas.

    Carla: That¡¯s Easter, dumbass. Xmas is the saviour¡¯s birth. I should know. I am sitting in a f¡¯ing Church service.

    Bob: Better pay attention. I might need saving.

    Carla: You¡¯re way beyond saving.

    Carla: I am coming.

    Carla: Tomorrow definite.

    Carla: Not sure which ferry. Hopefully early, but probably late.

    Bob: Not going so well?

    Carla: Can¡¯t say. I¡¯m in Church.

    Bob: Merry Christmas

    Carla: F off

    Well, that all sounds normal. I sculled the last of my beer. Let''s go mutate!

    I swim back out to the essence aura limit. That doesn¡¯t sound right. Plus, it is more of a sphere. Essence sphere? Essence? Are we going with essence? It sounds more like a perfume. However, it is used in enough fantasy books to be that unknown power, the essential element etc. Let''s just call it essence.

    So I swam to the essence limit, and then I kept swimming slowly. As I swam, I concentrated on absorbing the external essence and making it my own. I don¡¯t really know how successful I was. I kept an eye out for jellyfish and any other mutations. I saw some gulls fighting over some scraps on the rocks. Shit, there are going to be mutated gulls, aren¡¯t there.

    I felt I was doing alright, so I kept going. I decided I would go all the way and then turn around and swim back with a lazy breaststroke. I closed in on the rock and saw the blue dot in the water. It must be just below the low tide mark. Yeah, the essence was stronger here. I was struggling not to let it overwhelm me. Maybe when it overwhelms, then it triggers a mutation? I don¡¯t the fuck know, but let''s not let that happen. This time.

    I turned around before getting to the rock and swam back. Why is it blue? Is it related to it being in the water? I kept up the steady pace until I stopped sensing it. Was I closer to the shore than before? Was that because it had grown or that I had become more sensitive? I don¡¯t the fuck know.

    I swam all the way to the beach. I will take a long lunch now and see if I mutate. I stripped out of the wetsuit and towelled down. I slipped on my jandals and draped the towel and wetsuit over a picnic table to dry.

    I walked over to the small stream where I had stashed the beers to try to keep them a little cool, grabbed my e-reader, and sat down to wait. I flicked through different novels. I was not in the mood to read apocalypse-type books.

    How long did it take last time to start feeling off? I was feeling off by the time the yacht docked in Auckland. What was that, an hour, maybe an hour and a half after I was stung?

    I settled down to wait. While it was overcast, that meant it wasn¡¯t too hot. I contemplated my navel for a while and thought I had more energy. Sorry, essence. Get it right. If I can¡¯t get it right talking to myself, how am I going to get it right for others?

    I got bored after a while and wandered down to the beach, looking for crabs. They were only tiny crabs, nothing edible. The wind was picking up a bit or maybe swinging around into the bay. The sea was getting a bit choppier. I should have bought a paddleboard or surfboard or something. Not that it would have fitted on the bike. When I go into town tomorrow to pick up Carla, I might look for some sort of inflatable device.

    An hour and a half passed, and I felt no different. I was pretty sure my mutation was more potent, and I had more essence. Was this the way to stop the mutations? Survive your first and then grow your essence so as not to be overwhelmed. It is undoubtedly a viable theory. It would be a never-ending race if the anomaly were getting stronger. What about different anomalies with different essences? Who knows? Let''s concentrate on this one.

    What next? See what happens when it overwhelms me? Or concentrate on getting stronger for now. I looked out at the rocks, thinking. The tide was on its way out again.

 8. Christmas Dinner.

    <h2>8. Christmas Dinner.</h2>

    If I let it overwhelm me, am I going to pass out like I did last time? I have to assume I will, meaning I will miss Carla''s arrival. I have already risked that, and it is best she stays away anyway. I can message her that her plans have been cancelled, and she will just have to deal with that. Her family are not my problem.

    I could swim out to the rocks and let it overwhelm me while on the rocks, and then if I pass out straight away, I won¡¯t drown. If it is like last time, I will have plenty of time to return to shore.

    On the other hand, if I just go in and out a few times and get stronger, I can let it overwhelm me tomorrow, and Carla can watch my back. Make sure the evil gulls don¡¯t pluck my eyes out, things like that.  Carla might pluck my eyes out herself when she finds out about this. I will undoubtedly get a kick in the nuts. She has done it before.

    It is best she stays away. Or is it? If this is happening worldwide and nowhere will be safe, then she is going to have to mutate some time. Or die. Then again, she is a big girl. Well, a thirty-year-old woman, anyway. She will make her own decisions about these things. My decision will come down to when I will tell her, not if.

    I guess if I am awake and/or alive tomorrow, I will go pick her up and have a conversation. If I am not, we won''t.

    I guess I am doing this. I will definitely wear my mask so my eyes don¡¯t get picked out by the gulls. Shit, the things I am thinking about these days. The world has changed. My world has changed. The world is changing.

    I suit up. I wear the mask, but I have not bothered with the snorkel so far. I still don¡¯t. There is less swimming and more wading in low tide. I prefer swimming. The water is choppier. I start sensing the essence. Let¡¯s call it Blue Essence for now, based on the colour. I do what I did before in trying to control and absorb it.

    Am I swimming easier? Faster? I am not sure. I stop, Take a deep breath and dive underwater. I start counting in my head. I surface with a gasp. That is about my normal maximum, but counting is unreliable. I made a mental note to go to a dive shop tomorrow and get a diver¡¯s watch. One that has satellite navigation so I can record if I think the Essence Sphere is getting bigger. I am pretty sure it is, but at what rate is the question?

    I speed up. It is going to get harder to control the wild/blue essence the closer I get, and I need to at least be up on the rock before I am overwhelmed so I don¡¯t drown if I pass out. Last time, I kept going for a couple of hours or more before passing out, but you never know.

    Control absorb. Control absorb. Control Absorb. This started taking all my spare concentration, although I did have a fleeting thought that this was a strange sort of Christmas dinner to be having.

    Control absorb. Control absorb. Almost there. Was the anomaly brighter? No, the tide was out. It was just closer to the surface.

    Fuck I am not going to make it. I kick hard with my flippers and grab the rock. I start to lose control and haul myself up onto the rock. Shit, it is hard and sharp even through the wetsuit.

    Shiiiiiiiiit¡­

    I feel I am awash in blue essence. It is rolling over me like continual waves. I feel like I am drowning. Shit, shit, shit. Each wave of blue is buffering me, crashing against me. Fuuuuck. This was a bad idea¡­

    I didn¡¯t think it moved in waves, but fucking heeeeeeell¡­

    ¡­

    ¡­

    I came to in the dark. Nope, my eyes were closed. Nope still dark. Then I realised I was underwater. Fuck I am drowning, and I panicked. My leg was caught in a rock, and I tore my wet suit. It is probably not the only tear. Then I realised I was underwater, but I wasn¡¯t drowning. I was finding it difficult to breathe, like I was short of breath, but I wasn¡¯t drowning.

    What the fuck? I got my leg free and floated to see which way was up, and the surface was not far away. As I went for the surface, I became aware of other things. Blue waves were still crashing through me. Shit, shit, shit. I tried to get control. Shit can I even find my own essence? Has it been washed away? I need to get away from this anomaly. Shit, shit, shit. I am glad to be alive, but I don¡¯t want to do that again.

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    I look around to orientate myself. The shore is all dark on the cloudy night. Then I spot a white strip that must be the sandy bit. I strike out for the shore with strong power strokes and the blue waves lesson. I realise I have lost a flipper.

    As I was swimming, I realised I could still breathe with my mouth and lungs. I wasn¡¯t doing that when I woke. Shit, what have I done.

    Glad I can still breathe. Glad I am alive. I speed up. The tide is in. More swimming, less wading. Good. I swim good. Well. Whatever. I go faster.

    Once I feel the sand, I get to my feet, stagger ashore, and lie on the sand. I take a breath. That is strange. After that swim, I should be out of breath. I am not. I am nervous but also a little excited.

    I get up and strip off the wetsuit. As I am doing that, I am looking for my essence. It is there. It is bigger. It is also blue. I don¡¯t think it was before. Or maybe I just couldn¡¯t sense it. No, it definitely wasn¡¯t.

    I strip fully naked and examine my body. No extra limbs. No extra penis. I feel my neck and chest carefully. I am looking for gills. That is the most obvious reason for not drowning. As far as I can see, I don¡¯t have gills. I go and get my phone. It is 5 am on Boxing Day morning. I have only lost fifteen hours or so. A bit less than one and a half tides. It wasn¡¯t entirely out when I went and is not fully in now.

    I use the phone to take photos of my back. A bloody selfie stick would be useful. I look carefully at the photos, zooming in on parts. There were no gills that I could see. I also did not have a sense of an extra ability like I did with my poison. I am sure I would. If I had gills, I would need to activate them, wouldn¡¯t I? Or would they work automatically like lungs? I don''t have any fish friends I can ask. Where is Nemo when you need him? No, I am not going to go and find him.

    Childish humour aside, maybe I need to get into the water to activate them. I go and have a look at my wetsuit with the torch on my phone. There are a lot of rips. Fuck. I usually only wear my wetsuit when I swim in winter. I guess I can get another at the dive shop. Carla will also need one if she decides to risk it. I bet they are more expensive here due to the limited supply in the height of summer.

    Well, I am not going to swim far. Just far enough to get my head under and keep it there. I decide to go in buck naked as that is how I am. I wade in waist-deep and dived under, moving just enough to keep me under. Was I less buoyant than normal?

    I held my breath, letting it slip out in small bubbles. I stopped releasing it slowly to see what would happen. Nothing happened. I didn¡¯t feel the pressure build up in my lungs. I didn¡¯t feel the need to breathe.

    I felt around my body. Head, neck, chest, groin, bum, legs. No gills that I can feel. No need to breathe either. What the fuck?

    Am I a zombie or undead or something? Vampires don¡¯t breathe, do they? I check my teeth. Normal and blunt.

    I was breathing before when I was on the land, but I was not out of breath.

    I looked up, and the sky was lighting with dawn. It has probably been over ten minutes or more. I need that watch. It is certainly way beyond what I could have done previously, and I was not under any stress.

    I touched my skin again. Did it feel different? Time to get out and check. I stayed underwater as I crawled along the bottom toward the shore. When it was too shallow, I stood up, and the water was about knee-deep. I didn¡¯t take a breath as I waded ashore. It was hard not to breathe. Breathing was normal.

    I did start to feel a bit short of breath on land, but it was nothing like it should have been. I should have been gasping for breath by now. I should have passed out, and my lungs started again by reflex.

    I took a breath, and all feelings of being short of breath went away.

    What the fuck? I mean, it is pretty amazing, but what the fuck?

    I go to the tent and fish out a couple of energy bars and a water bottle. I refill the bottle with the tap and scoff the bars and drink. I missed my Christmas dinner at the brewery. I am definitely going to hit up one of the cafes for brunch later this morning. I touched my chin. I had better shave.

    I grabbed my phone again. No messages. I brought up a web browser and typed in, ¡°How do jellyfish breathe?¡± Well, that is as good an explanation as anything else. Actually, it is a better explanation than zombies and vampires.

    I look closely at my skin. I couldn¡¯t see anything, and the texture was still the same. It wasn¡¯t slimy like a jellyfish. I poured some water into the cup of my hand and looked closely. I couldn¡¯t see anything. I doubted I would be able to see oxygen absorbed through the skin.

    There have to be some serious changes to my skin and my circulatory system. Carla might know more. She must have done some basic human physiological studies for her Sports and Fitness Diploma. Could I still be classed as human now?

    Fuck. I am turning into a jellyfish.

    Hi Carla, how was your shitty Christmas? Me? For Christmas dinner, I pigged out so hard on blue essence that I no longer needed to breathe.

    Yeah, right.

 9. Evil Bch.

    <h2>9. Evil Bitch.</h2>

    I decided to pack up my mostly unused tent and take everything with me. At some point, the winery will have functions down here. Probably more than one as we closed in on the New Year. I could probably find out when if I asked. I could pretend to be looking for a job. No, that is not a good idea. They might actually want to hire me. Whatever.

    Then, it occurred to me that all those fancy people would go home from a function here and feel a bit off. It wouldn¡¯t be the food. Well, it might be the food, but probably not. I looked out to where I thought the Essence Sphere came to. It was still outside the normal swimming zone for most people, wasn¡¯t it? I didn¡¯t know. I knew if the yacht returned, it would probably be in the sphere.

    Let''s find out how Carla reacts first.

    I packed everything up, rode back up the track and headed to town. I had scratched off my whiskers. Now wasn¡¯t the time to grow a beard, and I still remember Carla''s reaction to the moustache I had for a year or so.

    An hour later, I was sitting comfortably at a beachside cafe, eating a nice cooked breakfast. This is great. Piha could do with more of this. I even had a fancy latte. The day is going to get hot, although there will probably be a cool sea breeze later. The kids were already out on the beach as the parents sat in cafes like this one.

    My phone pinged.

    Carla: I¡¯ll be on the 2 pm ferry. Passenger one from downtown. ETA 2:30ish.

    I gave her a thumbs up.

    I got a finger in reply. I guess she is still a bit grumpy after her visit home. That is probably not going to improve when I tell her about the anomaly.

    Time to find a dive shop. I bought a watch that linked to an app on my phone. It did lots of things I would never use, but it did measure depth. How deep could I go? How much has my body changed? I declined to buy the two-plus grand waterproof phone.

    There was a problem with the wetsuits. The stock was low, and they only had the summer ones with short sleeves and only covered to the thighs. I did buy two sets of flippers and a mask and snorkel for Carla.

    Flotation devices. I wanted something a bit sturdier than a blow-up mattress. Maybe I should get a blow-up mattress as well. Carla hates sleeping on the ground. I just tell her I have no objections to her being on top.

    Space on the bike is the main problem. An inflatable bodyboard is the answer. It has handles you can grab, and with the flippers, you can move quite quickly. I skip over the pink and yellow kids'' ones to find a sturdier green one. There were small hand pumps available to inflate it. I swung back and picked up a thin, inflatable mattress, seeing as I had the pump. Fuck I am going soft.

    Time to head to the ferry terminal. I removed my helmet but stayed sitting on my bike in the car park. I watched as the ferry dock and holidaymakers and tourists streamed off. Vans and busses waited for the various tours. There might have been a cruise ship dock in Auckland this morning for this amount of traffic.

    There she is. She is looking good. She has a small daypack slung over her shoulder. I always appreciated she could travel light. Her face lit up when she saw me, and she bounced over.

    ¡°Fuck it is good to get away from there,¡± was how she greeted me.

    ¡°I won¡¯t ask,¡± I said, handing her the spare helmet.

    ¡°Shit, that almost sounded like wisdom coming out of your mouth. What happened?¡±

    I ignored that. ¡°I have a place for the tent.¡±

    ¡°Fuck your tent. I found us a cabin.¡± She handed me her phone to show me. ¡°It is in the bush. Private. Close to the popular beaches.¡±

    I looked at where it was. Probably a ten-minute ride from the anomaly. I shrugged, ¡°Let''s check it out then.¡± It gave us a soft bed, and she was paying. Where was the downside?

    She grinned at me as she put the helmet on. ¡°I brought my favourite bikini.¡±

    ¡°You mean the one that is basically two pieces of string and should be illegal to wear around children and people with heart conditions?¡±

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    ¡°That''s the one.¡±

    I smiled. ¡°Good.¡±

    I rechecked the address on her phone and handed it back to her. She slid onto the bike behind me, and we were off. Carla insisted we stock up on some basic food before we left town, so we did.

    The place was easy to find, and we checked in at the main house before continuing on to find a basic but clean and private cabin. The land was steep, but there was a deck that looked out over the bush, and it had a hot tub on it. This was a good find.

    We dumped our meagre belongings in the cabin, and I made a cup of tea. Green for me, basic gumboot for her. Other cultures call it English Breakfast Tea. I took the tea out onto the deck, and we sat on the deck chairs to drink.

    ¡°How much trouble am I in with your family?¡± I asked. Not that I really cared.

    ¡°Oh, not much,¡± Carla replied, ¡°I just told them you were my Sugar Daddy.¡±

    ¡°What!¡± I exclaimed.

    Carla laughed. ¡°That was good! I should have had the camera ready!¡±

    ¡°God, you¡¯re an evil bitch.¡±

    ¡°It is the only reason we still hook up.¡± She paused, ¡°So, do you want to tell me what you are really doing here on Waiheke?¡±

    I took a deep breath, ¡°Well, you know these Anomaly Points appear in random places¡­¡±

    ¡°Oh fuck no!¡±

    ¡°Oh fuck yes.¡±

    ¡°Shit.¡± Then she looked me over carefully.

    ¡°No extra limbs,¡± I assured her, ¡°not even an extra penis.¡±

    ¡°Damn, that would have been fun. Why don¡¯t you start at the beginning.¡±

    So I did.

    ¡°So that fruit I saw in your waste bin, that was you practising your killer touch?¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I doubt it could kill back then. I wouldn¡¯t be so sure now. You probably don¡¯t want me to touch you again.¡±

    ¡°You can shut the fuck up with that line of thinking. You had that ability before I came to see you, and I vividly remember you touching me everywhere. And I do mean everywhere, inside and out. I was fine then, and I will be fine now. I trust your control, so if you don¡¯t, then you will just have to trust me and my judgment because you are not getting off that lightly. Speaking of my judgment, I think we need to open that bottle of wine we bought.¡±

    ¡°Yep, that is definitely good judgment. Maybe we could also finish this conversation in the hot tub.¡±

    ¡°At least you haven¡¯t lost all good sense, although some of your decisions were crazy.¡±

    She took the cover off the hot tub while I got the wine and glasses. We both stripped naked and slipped into the hot water. She then proceeded to demonstrate her willingness to touch me by running her hands all over me. She was checking for changes, but I will not deny that it was pleasant.

    We sat in silence for a while, sipping our wine. She had one hand gently stroking me, almost absently. I could tell she was processing things. I just left her to it and enjoyed the sensation. We both like silence.

    Every now and then, she would pop out with some random stuff, which gave me an indication of where her mind was going.

    ¡°Blue, huh?¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Linked to water?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s my guess.¡±

    Silence.

    ¡°The jellyfish directed both mutations?¡±

    ¡°It seemed to.¡±

    She grabbed my cock harder, ¡°You better not let that turn to jelly.¡±

    ¡°I will do my very best.¡±

    Silence.

    ¡°More anomalies appearing worldwide.¡±

    ¡°Mmhm¡±

    Silence.

    ¡°Maybe not so random.¡±

    ¡°I am not sure two is a big enough sample size.¡±

    ¡°But mutations can possibly be guided.¡±

    ¡°Possibly.¡±

    Silence.

    ¡°Fifty percent death rate.¡±

    ¡°That has a big sample size behind it.¡±

    Silence.

    ¡°You will show me this poison touch thing?¡±

    ¡°Tomorrow.¡±

    Silence.

    ¡°You could show me the underwater thing now?¡±

    ¡°If you want.¡±

    A smile spread over her face, ¡°I want.¡± She spread her legs, ¡°You go underwater and lick me until one of us can¡¯t take it any more.¡±

    ¡°My pleasure.¡±

    ¡°I am pretty sure it will be mine.¡±

    She could take a lot. Neither of us timed how long I was underwater, but we didn¡¯t have to. I had to help her out of the tub. We turned in for the night after that. This would take a while for her to process.

 10. Knowledge.

    <h2>10. Knowledge.</h2>

    We had a late start in the morning. I suspect Carla either wanted or at least expected to mutate after our visit to the anomaly today, and she was treating this like her last morning alive. This is a good attitude for all of us to have, and it will increasingly be true.

    When we eventually left the bed, she wanted to have a decent breakfast in town and visit a fish shop and a fishing shop. At the cafe, I had pancakes while Carla had the fish of the day, which was Snapper.

    I didn¡¯t ask her what she was planning. I had told her my experiences and theories. I am happy to do this her way. Her life is more on the line than mine. I am a bit curious about why she felt like she needed to do this now. I might ask her if we see the morning. I didn¡¯t think she was as crazy as me. However, she trusts me, so I will trust her.

    At the fishing shop, we bought small hand nets so I could demonstrate my skill on different small fish to her. She is trying to turn me into a fisherman, the evil woman.

    At the fish shop, she bought a fresh, medium-sized Kahawai and had them pack it with ice. She didn¡¯t explain that one. I will find out in due course.

    After all that, it was lunchtime when I turned into the private access road and manoeuvred past the locked gate. There had obviously been a function here yesterday, and there were barbeques, tables and chairs stacked to the side under a cover. There were more functions coming in the next few days.

    I felt a bit guilty. All these people were in danger, and I could have warned them. I mentioned that to Carla.

    ¡°Nobody warned you.¡± was her reply. ¡°From what we know, everybody will get their 50/50 chance eventually. If theirs comes early, then they are in the same position as you. Today is my day. We have a chance to go in with some planning, such as it is with how little we know. If I live, we can discuss letting people know. If I die, you can do whatever the fuck you like.¡±

    ¡°You''re the boss.¡±

    ¡°Fucking finally. Took you long enough to figure it out.¡±

    We started with the easy stuff. I poisoned a few crabs for her. We waded in with the nets and caught some small fish, which I practised on. I was definitely stronger, and the poison was more potent. I was on the shore with the net at my feet, a few sprats still wiggling in it.

    Carla said, ¡°You can do that with any part of your body, right?¡±

    I nodded and demonstrated by kicking off a jandal, touching a sprat with my toe, and poisoning it.

    Carla watched and then suddenly started giggling. Then she started howling with laughter. She kept going, and then she tried to speak and then kept going in uncontrollable laughter. I couldn¡¯t figure out what was so funny.

    Eventually, she calmed down, ¡°God, I think I needed that.¡±

    ¡°Care to explain?¡±

    She giggled again, then said, ¡°You, sir, can literally kill people with your cock. You have a killer cock! You can fuck people to death!¡± and she dissolved into more laughter.

    I didn¡¯t find that very funny. She saw that and laughed harder, but at me this time.

    ¡°You have a twisted, evil mind.¡±

    That set her off laughing again.

    ¡°Hey,¡± she said, ¡°We could make a murder mystery porno. ¡®The mystery of the Killer Cock,¡¯¡± That set her off laughing again.

    ¡°I think you gave away the mystery in the title there.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. The type of people who watch porno¡¯s are not interested in the mystery.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s true.¡±

    ¡°Hey, I have a question.¡±

    I looked at her doubtfully.

    ¡°No, no, serious question,¡± she said.

    I was still doubtful, but I nodded at her to continue.

    ¡°If we swim out there and you were to use a little bit of poison on me, do you think I would get the same mutation?¡±

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    That made me think. ¡°Maybe, I suppose, there is a chance. You might get something else from me or something random.¡±

    ¡°Hey, maybe I will grow a cock!¡±

    ¡°Really, is sex the only thing in that mind of yours?¡±

    ¡°You inspired me, Mr Never-stop-for-a breath.¡± She took a breath, ¡°besides, I have another reason for wanting your poison touch.¡±

    ¡°Oh?

    ¡°Yeah. You can kill people with your cock, so I want to be able to kill people with my Vag!¡±

    ¡°Oh fucking hell.¡±

    Carla dissolved into laughter again.

    We took a break. Carla definitely needed one. She would glance at me occasionally and chuckle. I am pleased she can let loose like this. She might not be alive tomorrow.

    I was coming to realise I would miss the evil bitch if that happened. She had better live. I have some payback to get.

    We ate and drank some energy drinks instead of beer. I inflated the bodyboard while she told me what she was thinking.

    She wanted to take the Kahawai out to the rock and eat some of it raw to see if that would trigger a mutation from it.

    ¡°Why Kahawai?¡±

    ¡°It is fast. It is a fighter. It is a predator and carnivore, but mainly because it is fast. I want speed.¡±

    I nodded. ¡°I can¡¯t think of any better reasons. You know as much as I do.¡±

    ¡°Knowledge and experience are not the same.¡±

    ¡°True.¡± I thought about it some more. ¡°The jellyfish that struck me was mutated. The Kahawai is not that we know of.¡±

    ¡°Fuck. I didn¡¯t think of that.¡±

    ¡°We have the nets. What if we take them and catch some small fry out there and combine the two? The small fry is what the Kahawai normally eat.¡±

    She was doubtful, ¡°I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t want to be the small fry. I want to be a fighter.¡±

    I waited, thinking. ¡°The small fry are fast, and you will always still be you.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, look at you, still the same old asshole.¡±

    ¡°Any mutation is a change, and they are good, bad and neutral.¡±

    ¡°How the hell did you get too good ones and survive?¡±

    ¡°Obviously, because it is me.¡±

    ¡°Oh, fuck off.¡±

    ¡°Do you want to try? Or do you want to come back later?¡±

    ¡°Can you last out there long enough to net some fish?¡±

    ¡°I might have to hold back while you net some fish and then come and help later.¡± The first time I encountered the anomaly, I did not sense any essence, so we assumed Carla wouldn¡¯t either.

    ¡°Fuck it. I will still be me, and I will still be able to kick you in the nuts.¡±

    ¡°Not if I turn them into jelly.¡±

    ¡°You had better fucking not. I have plans for them.¡±

    I was hesitant to suggest it, but ¡°I could attempt to inject you with some poison if you want?¡±

    ¡°What is your main problem with that?¡±

    ¡°That I couldn¡¯t control the amount or potency, and I would kill you.¡±

    ¡°Ooh, that''s sweet. You do care.¡±

    ¡°Of course, I care. Where else am I going to find someone to fuck me one night and then kick me in the nuts in the morning and then come back and fuck me again?¡±

    She looked at me and nodded, ¡°Yeah, I can see your problem.¡±

    She thought for a bit. ¡°Fuck it. I will go fishing with the nets and try it. You are the backup plan if I don¡¯t think it is working.¡±

    ¡°I am cut to the heart. I am just the backup plan.¡±

    ¡°Shit, you didn¡¯t realise? You have always been the backup plan.¡±

    I had no other words for her. This was her life, and this is what she has chosen to do with it. I really hope it works. I didn¡¯t say it, but I wanted to keep being her backup plan.

    I was not doing any more testing until Carla lives or dies. I can see how deep I can go any time. I was taking the watch and will record where I thought the Sphere started on the way out. If Carla is like me, she might be out for two or more days, which is a good length of time to see any growth.

    There wasn''t much to get ready. I had my swimming trunks and a rash shirt on. I gave the knife to Carla to use on the fish. I had the diver''s watch.

    Carla had on a modest one-piece swimsuit with a shirt over top. I hoped to see her in the strings again soon. I tied the Kahawai to the bodyboard using the nets so they were both there, and Carla would swim out with it. We both had flippers and masks.

    I am stronger than before. I don¡¯t know if I am strong enough to resist the anomaly¡¯s waves of essence. I simply cannot lose it this time, so I must stay back, but not too far back. Carla may need her backup plan, but more importantly, she will probably need help getting back to shore. I am thankful for my teenage time in the surf life-saving club. I know how to swim while keeping someone else afloat and alive, with or without the bodyboard.

    ¡°You ready?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Not sure, actually,¡± She was serious now.

    ¡°We can wait.¡±

    ¡°No. No, that is something we are definitely not doing. This is happening.¡±

    ¡°At least you made your peace with the man upstairs by going to church on Christmas Day.¡±

    She rolled her eyes, ¡°The woman upstairs, you mean, and I am pretty sure texting my Sugar Daddy during the service cancelled out any goodwill. Fucking idiot.¡±

    That was a bit better. Now we were ready.

 11. Experience.

    <h2>11. Experience.</h2>

    I really enjoyed swimming out from the beach. I felt free. Not having to take breaths just freed everything up. I could stay underwater as long as I liked, and the flippers powered me forward. I felt like I could do anything. This was the best. I had never felt like this before.

    I came to a stop where I felt the edge of the essence sphere. I fiddled with my watch and had it record the location. Carla was making steady progress, and I waited for her. Her upper body was on the Bodyboard, and she was powering forward with her flippered feet. Carla could swim quite well, but it wasn¡¯t her preferred sport. I had helped her train for a triathlon once, but the swim was the weakest part of her race.

    She came to a halt near me. ¡°This is it?¡±

    We both knew that if she was going to back out, this was it. She set her eye on the rocks and powered forward. This time, I followed her, staying just off to one side.

    Control, absorb. Stay focused. That is not your favourite butt, just there. Actually, it is. Long bronze legs¡­

    Control, Absorb. I swim faster so I am not looking at her butt. Shit, she better live. I will make sure her Sugar Daddy gets her something nice.

    Control, absorb.

    Control, absorb.

    It is time for me to slow down and wait. I am comfortable with the level of the Anomaly Essence here. I was too far from the rocks for my liking, but I guess I will always feel like that.

    I watch as Carla moves steadily and with confidence toward the rocks. She reaches out, grabs the rock, and gets her feet under her. She is a bit unsteady in the flippers as she is not used to them.

    She drags the bodyboard up enough so it won''t float away. She untied the Kahawai and freed the net. She places the Kahawai above the tide on the rocks and moves across the rocks. I am guessing she wants to get a look at the anomaly.

    The crazy bitch. She is not looking. She is casting her net as close to the anomaly as possible. I can''t see what she has caught, but she is not happy. She is casting again.

    I don¡¯t know if the time she spends inside the sphere will affect the mutation. I basically saw the anomaly and got out as fast as I could. She has already been here longer than my total time. As she is casting again. Does she remember the anomaly affects every living thing in its sphere, including the microorganisms in the water, air and our bodies? I am sure this is where the randomness in mutations comes from, but I don¡¯t fucking know anything. This is the most frustrating part. Nobody knows.

    I am worried for her. I don¡¯t want her to die. OK, I fucking admit it, she has become more than just another booty call. Fuck. She has joined Maple as someone I care about.

    Yes, she has something she thinks will work. I see her draw the knife and stab something. The rocks are blocking my view, so I can¡¯t see what it is. She grabbed the Kahawai and sliced the stomach open. I see the guts slide off the rocks into the water. She puts something into her mouth I can¡¯t tell if it is Kahawai or whatever else she caught or both. Come on, let''s get out of here. Nope, she is taking another mouthful. She is working on something with the knife. Come on, come on.

    I start working my way toward her. I don¡¯t want to call out and distract her. She knows, trust her. She knows the risks. Fuck, I know what she is doing. She is going for everything she can get for her 50/50 toss of the coin. She is a sportswoman. She has a competitive nature. She is going to get everything she can on the bet she lives. I got one ability the first time. She is going for as many different things as she can. No wonder she didn¡¯t tell me.

    I stop moving forward. She is casting again. I am scared she is changing her 50/50 chance of living doing this, but what the hell do I know? Nobody knows.

    Shit, control, absorb. Shit, shit, shit.

    She is squatted down again, working the knife. She is betting everything, but I guess if you are betting with your life, why not go for the jackpot? I calm down. There is nothing I can do. This is her life. Or death.

    What the hell is she doing now? She is taking her time.

    Control, absorb.

    Control, absorb.

    She is biffing rubbish into the sea. Fucking hell, she is casting again. She bloody has nerves of steel. I freaked out. I guess she has my account of what happened and is not taken by surprise like I was. I admit I pretty much freaked out the second time, too. I guess she is not planning for there to be a second time. Why risk your life more than the minimum? This is all logical. Is it right? There must be factors we are not accounting for.

    Control, absorb. The time spent here is helping me grow as well, except for my nerves.

    Shit, how long is she going to take?

    Apart from cutting the Kahawai open, I don¡¯t think she has touched it. I move a bit closer and try to get a better view, but the rocks are still blocking me. Once I move all the way in, I will only have a limited time to hold off the blue waves. Even at this distance, the essence is starting to pulse at me rather than a steady pressure.

    I time my control and absorb for the pulses, and it helps.

    How long has she been there? Shit, I have a watch, I should have timed her. I am not used to having a watch. I also thought she would be quick.

    I move a bit closer. Yeah, this is definitely strengthening me. Now that I am not panicking, I can sense it. I still think she should leave now. I am not going to interrupt. I am going to trust her.

    I take a breath. I don¡¯t need to take a breath, but it is calming.

    What the fuck? Did she just give the anomaly the finger? Crazy bitch. Does that mean she is feeling something from it and reacting to it?

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    I move a bit closer, and the pulses are turning into small waves. It is a bit like swimming in strong surf. You have to watch the waves and time your moves. My years swimming at Piha are paying off.

    Suddenly, Carla stood up and moved hurriedly back from the water. Her flippers and the uneven surface meant she tripped. She put her hands down to catch herself, and one slipped on some slime. She rolled near the water, and her leg splashed in.

    I was frantically swimming toward her, so I couldn¡¯t see well, but I heard her scream. I hauled myself up on the rock. I was on the opposite side of the rock than her. She was rolling away from the water. The rocks must be bruising the hell out of her. Then I saw the blood streaming down a leg. Then the water churned, and a shark rose out of the water and snapped at the leg. It missed, but it has had a taste of blood now.

    I was reaching for her to drag her away from the edge, not that anywhere was far from an edge. The shark slammed down on the rock, and instead of slipping back into the water, it came for another bite. That was highly unusual. Then I saw the unusual stubs on the side of the shark.

    Fucking bloody hell. A mutating shark growing legs.

    Carla was quick, and that was the only thing that saved her leg. Even then, I saw the gouges the teeth made in her flesh. I reached over her to shove the shark back into the water and put poison into it as fast and potent as I could. My hand ripped along the shark¡¯s skin in the wrong way, and my skin ripped off. Shark''s skin is streamlined for speed, but rubbing the wrong way feels rough, like many tiny teeth. Actually, I think that is precisely what it is.

    My hands were bleeding now as well, but the shark didn¡¯t like it and went back into the water. I scrambled back to Carla and ripped off my shirt to make a bandage for her leg. I just put pressure on it for now to try to stop the bleeding.

    ¡°Is it dead?¡± she asked.

    ¡°No, it is circling and in a frenzy.¡±

    ¡°Can we kill it?¡±

    ¡°I doubt we can get to shore without it attacking.¡± I was tying my shirt as tightly as I could around her leg. The blood on my hand was mixing with hers. We have swapped enough bodily fluids in the past. Some more won¡¯t hurt. ¡°Where is the knife?¡±

    ¡°There,¡± she said, pointing.

    I grabbed it and gave it to her.

    ¡°My poison is probably the only thing that might hurt it, but I will need to get my hands on it for as long as possible.¡±

    Then I realised I was not control, and absorb, and everything was awash in blue. Fuck. I decide to take a page from Carla¡¯s book and go big or die.

    ¡°Can you bait it up on the rocks with the kahawai, and I will jump it and try to kill it with poison?¡±

    ¡°Shit, you can¡¯t do that.¡±

    ¡°This will be my third mutation. At this stage, your chances of surviving are better than mine.¡±

    ¡°Fuck!¡±

    ¡°Fuck!¡± I agreed.

    ¡°Give me the fish. Let''s kill the fucker.¡±

    She limped to her feet, and I could see blood still running down her leg. She grabbed the Kahawai by the tail and held the knife in the other hand.

    I moved to the side. She splashed the kahawai on the water and took a step back.

    ¡°It will be coming fast,¡± I warned.

    ¡°And I am going to go for the eye,¡± she said, tightening her grip on the knife.

    Everything happened in a rush. The shark burst from the water at speed. Carla dropped the Kahawai, dove left and stabbed with the knife. I dived to grab the back of the shark.

    The shark missed the Kahawai and Carla. Carla missed the eye but did get the knife past the skin, cutting a gouge. I landed on it, slamming my face into the dorsal fin. I grabbed it with one arm, and the other was trying to find a hold. I  tried to get my legs hooked around it, but it was bucking too much. I was pumping poison, trusting the nys¡­whatever could get it past the shark scales. We crashed back into the water. The shark took off. I had one hand desperately trying to hold onto the dorsal fin. My other found the side fin, whatever that was called. My brain randomly thought this was a copper shark, one of the most common here.

    I was dragged through the water, my legs trailing behind. I was trying to get poison in through any contact point I could. I was flooded with anomaly essence. If I passed out now like last time, the shark would eat me. I was trying to funnel the anomaly essence through my poison and into the shark.

    Fuuuuuuuuuuck!

    At least I didn¡¯t need to breathe.

    I had no idea where I was, but suddenly, something crashed against me, and I lost my grip. I caught a glimpse of Carla stabbing wildly before the shark left her behind as well. We must be close to the rock. I swam to her rather than the surface as the shark would be back. I grabbed her waist and swam for the surface. I seemed only to have one flipper again.

    I could also see her blood colouring the water. Maybe it was my blood. Our blood. There was also definitely shark blood.

    I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and shoved Carls toward the rock, which sent me in the other direction. The shark chose me.

    I had been thinking I was fast in the water and free, and I was fucking deceiving myself. The shark was fast, but it couldn¡¯t manoeuvre a damn. I got out of the way of the teeth but got swiped by a fin. It would have knocked my breath out, and I think it cracked something. The only positive was that I didn''t have any air in me. Fucking weird.

    Carla was quick. She was shoved to the rock but immediately pushed off back to me and stabbed the shark as it swam past, knifing it right along the side. She lost the grip on the knife, and it spun off somewhere in the blood-stained water. This is going to draw in more sharks. Shit, shit, shit.

    Carla was dragging me back toward the rocks, but she was struggling. I kicked my legs to help her, grabbed the rock with one hand, and tried to help her get out of the water. The shark was much less dangerous out of the water.

    She was half out when I felt the shark coming. I shoved her up, and I dove down. The shark was in a blood frenzy and, I hope, affected by my Hypnotoxin. It slammed into the rock and seemed stunned. I wrapped my legs around it and my arms near the head end and poisoned for all I was worth.

    I felt a tugging at my arms, and I was pulled up. I ran out of strength, and my arm let go of the shark, which just floated there, dead.

    Carla was tugging me, and I helped to get out of the water and onto the rocks. I just sat for a bit.

    ¡°Fuck.¡±

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she agreed.

    ¡°We need to go.¡±

    Carla nodded. ¡°If this is the end, then thank you.¡±

    ¡°Fuck,¡± I said.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± she agreed.

    I discovered I didn¡¯t have any flippers when I grabbed the bodyboard. I had a lot of cuts. My chest hurt with every breath I took. I stopped breathing because I could.

    I insisted Carla use the board, and I would hang off the side. She needed to breathe. She also had one flipper. Both our masks were long gone. Before we left, I ripped her t-shirt off and used it to bind the worst bleeding on her legs. I don¡¯t know where my shirt went.

    We paddled our way to shore. It seemed to take forever. I felt the effect of the anomaly fading. I could also see sweat beads appearing on Carla¡¯s forehead. Shit.

    My vision faded as I crawled up onto the beach, and that was the last thing I felt.

 12. The Lottery.

    <h2>12. The Lottery.</h2>

    To my surprise, I actually woke up. To my greater surprise, I was in bed. It was dark, but I could tell this was a hospital. The drip in my arm sort of gave it away. I turned my head, and there was a window, and I recognised the flashing night skyline of Auckland. The sky was brightening, so it must be near morning. I turned my head the other way and saw white material covering the door. There was no one else there. I was thirsty, and a paper cup and some water were on the side table. I helped myself. The water tasted funny. Smelled funny?

    What are the chances of surviving three mutations? Around 12% I think. I should have bought a lottery ticket as well. 12% is still a much better chance than winning the lottery.

    The critical question is, what did I win in this lottery? A much expanded internal essence, for sure. I could feel it. I could also feel a connection going off from my Essence pool. I couldn¡¯t feel who or what it connected to, but it was just through that wall there. I am betting it was Carla, which means she is still alive but potentially unconscious. There was nothing to tell me what day it was or how long I was out for.

    What else? There must be something else. This is where I wish I were in a LITRPG story where they have text boxes appear and tell you about everything. Unfortunately, this is not a fantasy story. It is very much real.

    I could sense my poison, and it had a much larger connection to my essence. I can¡¯t sense physical mutations like my breathable skin, so I did a physical check. Two arms, two legs, one penis. One head, unless you count the penis. I have ten fingers and ten toes. There is no webbing between them.

    My eyes appeared to see the same, or are they a bit better in the dark? I am not sure. Should I be able to make out Rangitoto Island this early in the morning? That needs testing.

    I could hear noises outside my door and the clear noises of a city waking up. My hearing is definitely better. Much better. I concentrate and can almost make out the conversation at the nurse''s station down the corridor. Super hearing. That is cool.

    I sniff. Whoa, that is a strong smell of disinfectant and hospital. Fuck can I shut that down? No, of course, I can¡¯t fucking shut down my sense of smell. Shit, this is going to take some getting used to. I breathe through my mouth and then just stop breathing. A monitor beeps, shit. Breathe through my mouth. Super smell, not so cool.

    Ok, a massive enhancement of my sense of hearing and smell. And maybe a more minor enhancement of my other senses. I did sense when the shark was coming a few times. Should I have been able to do that? I don¡¯t know.

    That last time, I definitely sensed it coming, but I was facing Carla, not the shark. How? I cast around, trying to sense what I couldn¡¯t see, and then I did. The area around me lit up with electrical sensations. It is like I was sensing electrical fields, but they only reached a meter, maybe two meters out. The monitor next to me was bright, as were the sensors on my chest. I am fucking glad it was only short-range, or I would be overwhelmed. The wall next to my bed snaked with wires.

    I really need to research sharks and their senses. Because I suspect that is where it comes from. Probably with some randomness added in. Of course, there is nothing here I can access the internet with. I wonder where my phone is. And my bike. I don¡¯t know how I got here. I assume it was Carla, or somebody found us and called the rescue helicopter. That would be easy to find out. What I have a problem with is that this looks like an isolation unit. Essentially, I am in a lab, and I suspect Carla is as well.

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    I lay quietly for a while, thinking about the consequences of being in a lab and what options there might be. I know New Zealand does not currently have laws around the Anomalies, but other countries are enacting some. I am sure laws can be passed quickly if they think they are needed. The recent Covid pandemic proved that.

    Take things slowly. Play dumb. Get as much information as I can. That is the only plan I can come up with. Especially play dumb. I can hear Carla saying that won¡¯t be hard for me¡­

    Then, my connection to Carla came alive. My eyes flicked to the wall she was on the other side of. It was definitely her, but the connection was of pain. Ongoing and shifting pain.

    Alarms started ringing from the room next door, and people started moving rapidly outside my door. The alarms were loud to my enhanced hearing. I need to manage this somehow.

    Pain moving through her body. Excruciating pain.

    I saw contamination-helmeted people move fast past my door.

    Shit, can I do anything with this link? I can feel her. Can she feel me? I try to project a sense of calmness and peace. What a fucking lie. I am not calm and at peace. When did I last feel peace? Christmas Eve, lying in my tent watching the stars, expecting it to be my last night alive. Shit, I don¡¯t want to kill her.

    I try anyway. If she dies, I would rather it was in peace than in pain.

    Well fuck, that is useless. The pain is getting worse, and I am only getting a secondary and muted sense of it. It has to be muted, or I would be screaming and tearing my eyes out.

    I must be able to do something. The connection is to my essence core. I can¡¯t call it core. That sounds too much like a fantasy story. Too bad.

    I try to shove essence down the connection, and it works. I can feel it going. I don¡¯t know what it is doing when it gets there, but I keep doing it. Fucking have some more. I have this massive core. Let''s use it. I don¡¯t know if I will get the essence back or if I have to return to the anomaly, but  I guess now is the time to test it.

    I can feel the core emptying. Not sure what is happening at the other end. Can I do waves of energy? Should I do waves of energy? I don¡¯t want to overwhelm her and cause another mutation. Can I do that? God, there is so much fucking stuff I don¡¯t know.

    I try pulsing the energy. That increases the flow a bit. The pain hasn¡¯t lessened. Shit, I hope she is not dying. This has gone on forever. How can she stand so much pain? She must still be unconscious otherwise, she will be driven mad by it. I gather my essence and then slam it down the connection in a wave. If I had some extra fingers, they would be crossed as well.

    The wave did something. The pain stopped. Did it kill her? I am getting no sensations back. Is that good? Is that bad? Hopefully, it means she is just back unconscious and not in pain. I will get attention soon and ask, but I will wait until they mostly finish with Carla.

    I lie back and test my senses, especially my smell and my electro thingy. My mind keeps drifting back to Carla. Did she lose the lottery? She might not be dead, but if she is in pain all the time she is awake, then she lost big time. Did they drug her to put her back under?

    Shit drugs. I eye the drip suspiciously. They could have kept us unconscious for weeks and run tests. I think it is unlikely, or I would not have woken, but it is something else to be concerned about. How can I tell? Ah. My wounds. My chest still aches, and I have plasters and bandages all over. Not weeks, but probably days.

    The sun is up, so it is probably about 6:30 am this time of the year in Auckland. It is time to find out what is going on. My stomach rumbles, and to get some food.

 13. Connections.

    <h2>13. Connections.</h2>

    The call button was very visible in my new electro sense, so I reached for it and pressed it. A face appeared at the door window, and I waved. I got a wave back that might have been meant to say wait a minute. I assume she needed to suit up in case I was contagious. It hadn¡¯t occurred to me that some mutations might be contagious. With microorganisms also being mutated, it is a very real and scary prospect. I assumed the killer anomaly in the South Island was lethal essence, but maybe it was mutated microorganisms? This world is fucked.

    The nurse came through the airlock on the door in a full contamination suit.

    ¡°Good morning, Mr Wilkinson. I am pleased to see you are awake.¡±

    ¡°Please, just call me Bob. I am pretty pleased I am awake, too.¡±

    ¡°Please just stay there. I need to run a few tests.¡±

    ¡°Fine. Ah, how long have I been here?¡±

    ¡°You were bought in by Rescue Helicopter on Friday. Today is Monday 30th Dec.¡±

    ¡°And Carla?¡±

    ¡°The young lady is considerably worse off than you with some severe physical mutations.¡±

    ¡°Oh, shit, can I see her?¡±

    ¡°I am sorry, she is in isolation like yourself. She has not regained consciousness yet.¡±

    ¡°What about me? Am I, you know, mutated?¡±

    ¡°We have detected some interesting changes, but the Doctor will explain everything when he comes around later. Please blow into here. Have you had trouble breathing?¡±

    ¡°Not that I have noticed.¡±

    ¡°You stopped breathing several times, and we had to resuscitate you.¡±

    ¡°Oh.¡±

    ¡°How do you feel in general?¡±

    ¡°My ribs hurt, and I am hungry, but other than that, I feel fine.¡±

    ¡°You have a broken rib. There is nothing on your file about not eating, but I will double-check and get some breakfast sent in.¡±

    ¡°Can you make it a double? I am really staving.¡±

    ¡°I will see what I can do, but we should take things slowly.¡±

    The nurse soon left, and I was left alone again. Shit, I should have asked for my e-reader. And my phone.

    I am worried about Carla. What do they mean by severe physical mutations? It could mean she grew a penis, and she would be rapt with that, but I don¡¯t think that is what they meant. Is she turning into a shark? What else did she eat?

    She is alive. I hope she still wants to be when she wakes.

    With nothing to do, I go back to getting used to my new senses. The smell is a problem. I am kinda glad everyone is in contamination suits. I don¡¯t have to deal with people''s smells as I get used to this. Smelling breakfast should be interesting.

    Smelling breakfast was interesting. This is going to be quite a powerful skill if I can keep a handle on it. I could tell you the perfume the person who dished it was wearing. Well, I couldn¡¯t name it, but I could track it down.

    Unfortunately, the person who delivered my food didn¡¯t know where my e-reader or phone was. I know they were on my bike in Waiheke and are now probably in police or navy custody and being gone over with a fine-tooth comb. I hope they like the Sci-fi/fantasy genre.

    I asked about a TV or something, and they would see what they could do. I assume people just use their personal phones these days like I would if I had mine.

    At least my Essence core was refilling on its own. If I had a clock, I could work out how fast it filled, but I don¡¯t have my phone!

    It was sometime between morning tea and lunch that the doctor arrived. Two contamination suits entered the room, and the female one introduced them.

    ¡°Good morning, Mr Wilkinson. I am Dr Amanda Mohan, and this is Commander Lewis of the Royal New Zealand Navy.¡±

    That got me suspicious. The nurse previously referred to my doctor as male. The doctor was small and slim and of Indian descent. She was maybe ten years older than me, from what I could tell through the suits. The Commander was a tall and well-built Pakeha. His white face towered over the docs. I would research them when I could.

    ¡°Just call me Bob.¡±

    ¡°Let''s get the preliminaries out of the way. Please tell us your full name and date of birth.¡±

    I rattled them off. Medical professionals are paranoid about making sure they are treating the right person and with good reason.

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    ¡°So what''s the verdict doc?¡±

    ¡°You seem healthy and aware. There are some large cellular changes in your skin and blood. We are still trying to analyse what they do, but they don¡¯t seem detrimental. The biggest concern is with your respiratory system. You have had to be resuscitated several times, and there was concern about ongoing damage from a lack of oxygen. Other than that, you seem healthy.¡± She took a breath, ¡°We were hoping you might be able to shed light on the mutations and their effect.¡±

    ¡°Skin and blood, huh?¡± I looked closely at the skin on my forearm and pinched it with my other hand. ¡°Looks and feels normal. Do you think I might develop allergies or something? Break out in hives?¡±

    ¡°We don¡¯t know Mr Wilkinson, sorry, Bob. Testing is ongoing. You don¡¯t feel any changes or unusual in any way?¡±

    I shook my head, ¡°You said blood as well? Do my wounds heal faster or anything?¡±

    ¡°No, everything is healing at a normal rate.¡±

    ¡°Damn.¡±

    She smiled. The Commander did not.

    ¡°Hey, how long will I be here?¡±

    ¡°Long enough that we can be sure you are not a danger to yourself or others,¡± the doc replied.

    ¡°Then can I get a phone, an e-reader, or a TV or something? I realise my phone is probably still on Waiheke or something, but I can pay for another. Maybe a laptop?¡±

    The commander spoke for the first time, ¡°We are controlling how much information is released to the public. There is already panic over the Anomaly Point, and people are fleeing from Waiheke. We have a considerable portion of the Hauraki Gulf cordoned off and are recommending people not go swimming at this time. If Information about Miss Vaa¡¯i¡¯s mutations is leaked, this will have a considerable effect on the public and on Miss Vaa¡¯i and her future.¡±

    ¡°Right. Yes, I can understand that.¡± I said. ¡°She is really bad, huh?¡±

    ¡°It is not good,¡± said the Doc. ¡°We can certainly get a TV in here and possibly arrange for an e-reader. Let the nurse know what brand.¡±

    I nodded.

    The Doc continued, ¡°You don¡¯t have anyone listed as your next of kin. Is there someone you would like us to contact for you?¡±

    ¡°They will need to sign a confidentiality agreement,¡± The commander said.

    ¡°No, there¡¯s no one in particular,¡± I said.

    ¡°I assume you know Miss Vaa¡¯i well. Is there someone she would like us to contact?¡±

    ¡°She is not conscious?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    Shit.

    ¡°She has a Sophia Hardcastle listed as next of kin. Do you know her?¡± the Doc continued.

    ¡°No. But I do know she does not get on with her family, so don¡¯t call them.¡±

    ¡°Right, thank you.¡±

    ¡°I have some questions about your experience with the Anomaly Point,¡± The Commander said.

    ¡°OK¡±

    ¡°How close did you get to it?¡±

    ¡°We were on the rocks next to it.¡±

    ¡°What did it look like to you?¡±

    ¡°Like a blue dot in the water. You must have found it.¡±

    ¡°Yes, we are monitoring it with drones, but a first-hand account is valuable. Did you see or feel anything unusual?¡±

    ¡°Does a fucking mutated shark count?¡±

    ¡°That definitely counts. Please describe it.¡±

    ¡°I am pretty sure it was a Copper Shark, which would make sense. It wasn¡¯t fully grown. It was only about as long as I am tall.¡± I had memories of trying to hold on to it and being dragged through the water. They could grow to twice that size.

    ¡°Please describe the attack.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t see the initial attack as I was in the water on the other side of the rock. Carla suddenly flung herself back away from the water, and I swam to help. I could see blood streaming down her leg. I got to the rock and tried to pull her away when the shark attacked again. The shark missed, but it landed on the rock, and I could see protruding things coming from the side that looked and acted like feet. It didn¡¯t retreat but was trying to move on these feet. Carla had our knife, and she stabbed it but missed the eye. It was bleeding, though.

    ¡°It circled the rocks for a bit. We had some hand nets, and Carla was catching small fish. We tried to distract it by tossing the fish away, but Carla slipped and splashed in the water, and the shark came again. I hauled her out, and I remember her slicing the side of the shark, leaving a long gash. I think that is when she lost the knife. She was bleeding badly, and I tried to bind the wounds with our shirts.

    ¡°We hadn¡¯t seen the shark for a while, so we decided to swim for shore. Carla was on our bodyboard, and I swam next to her. We were very lucky to make it.¡±

    ¡°You were very lucky.¡± The Commander agreed.

    ¡°I don¡¯t remember a lot of other details. It is a bit fuzzy. I might have mixed some up as well. I¡¯m not sure.¡±

    ¡°OK, that is enough for now,¡± the Doc said.

    ¡°Here is my card,¡± the commander said, ¡°We will need to have a longer conversation about this, but contact me if you remember anything else.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t contact you. I don¡¯t have a phone.¡±

    ¡°Just let the nurses know,¡± said the doctor.

    Just then, the link to Carla went crazy, and the pain returned. My eyes flicked to the wall where she was, and I started pumping energy through to her. My essence core was not yet full from last time. Then her alarms all went off, and everybody outside the room scrambled.

    ¡°Is that Carla?¡± I asked to cover myself.

    ¡°Yes,¡± said the Commander, ¡°is there anything you want to tell us?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t feel well. I think I need a rest now.¡±

    ¡°OK,¡± said the doctor, ¡°we will continue this later.¡±

    I had the feeling the commander wanted to continue this now, but the doctor ushered him out.

    I was pushing more essence through to Carla and preparing a wave, which seemed to help before. I used my super-hearing to keep listening to the Doc and the Commander.

    ¡°You saw that reaction?¡± The commander asked the doc.

    ¡°Yes, and it is the same as on the footage from before.¡± The doc replied. ¡°There is some sort of connection there.¡±

    ¡°This mutation is happening faster than the other ones.¡±

    ¡°Yes, the others were between 8-12 hours apart, but this is only four or five. The last mutation ended way quicker and was easier on her than the others. Whatever he is doing, it is helping her,¡± the doc said. ¡°That is why I got us out of there. We have almost lost her too many times already. The poor girl needs all the help she can get, even if I don¡¯t understand it. Understanding can come later.¡±

    Fuck.

 14. Kicked in the nuts.

    Fucking Carla. You always did things the hard way. You spend hours on that rock trying to get the good stuff. That''s what it bloody felt like. We fought a bloody mutated Copper Shark together and won. Now, the universe is refusing to give up the goods for you? No fucking way.

    You chose the Kahawai because it is fast and a fighter. Well, it sounds like you have been constantly fighting tooth and nail these last three days. I got my lottery win from the universe by snoozing in a bed. Now, it is time to shake something out of this universe for you. Time for me to join you in this bloody fight now I have finally fucking woken up.

    This time, I didn¡¯t hold back. I didn¡¯t do gentle. I shoved Essence down that connection in wave after wave. If this universe wouldn¡¯t give her the good stuff, we would just bloody well take it. And for fucking bloody sure, the universe is not taking her. Fuck your 50/50 odds. We have this fucking connection. We are going to bloody use it to smash those odds.

    Do you need more Essence, Carla? Here''s another fucking tidal wave for you to use. You fucking use it to kick the universe in the nuts.

    For the first time, I felt something back through the connection that wasn¡¯t muted pain. I think this might have been Carla¡¯s Essence. It was blue but had a different feel than mine. There was less volume than mine but somehow more density, wound and tightly coiled like a spring. This was Carla¡¯s essence. This felt like her. She was awake finally.

    Then, I heard something more than electronic alarms and urgent talking from the room next door. Carla let out a massive soul-wrenching scream, and a pulsing of her Essence accompanied it through the link. Yeah, she was up and fighting now. You go, girl, fucking kick them again, harder this time.

    Along with the pulsing essence came the full sensation of the pain she was experiencing. I fucking screamed, and my monitor alarms started going off. It felt like my skin was burning, and my insides were beaten to a pulp. It was pain that was off the fucking charts. If she could fucking do it, so could I. She had been suffering and fighting for days. Have another fucking wave of Essence, Carla, and kick them harder.

    And another. I am pretty sure I am running on empty but fucking have another one anyway.

    Then her link went quiet and dark again, and I was fucking losing consciousness. The first suited medical help was arriving, and  I vaguely recognised the doctor''s face as darkness claimed me.

    Beep.

    Beep.

    Beep.

    What the fuck was that? Oh yeah, hospital, Carla, essence.

    As I came to my senses, I realised I was wearing an oxygen mask this time. Well, at least they were trying.

    It was night again.

    I reached for the link to Carla, and it was not dark any more. It was like a blue trickle of essence constantly flowing back and forth between us. I checked my Essence core, and it was maybe half full. I am sure I shoved everything I had and more down the link to Carla, so this was it regenerating or whatever the fuck it does.

    I sent a small exploratory pulse down the link to Carla. I got a pulse back. I don¡¯t know how she fucking did it, but her pulse seemed to be saying, ¡°Leave me the fuck alone. I am trying to sleep.¡±

    I smiled. That sounded like a good idea, but my stomach was rumbling. I looked around and saw a tray of cold dinner sitting there, so I sat the bed up, pulled it over and scoffed it down with a couple of glasses of water.

    The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    One of the monitors must have alerted the staff, and a suited figure came in. The night nurse was a man I had not met before.

    ¡°Hi Bob, I am Alan, the night shift nurse. You are obviously feeling better.¡± He pulled out a blood pressure cuff and put it on me, saying, ¡°And how are you breathing now?¡±

    ¡°I am breathing fine. Can you tell me what happened?¡±

    ¡°I wasn''t here, so you will need to get the full story from Dr Mohan, but your friend Carla was having one of her sessions, and it was bad. Then, you also seemed to have a session, and you both passed out. She is fine. She woke up a couple of hours ago and had something to eat. She is sleeping now.¡±

    ¡°And what happened to me?¡±

    ¡°Nothing that we can tell. No Mutation, you seemed to be healthy, but you wouldn¡¯t wake.¡±

    I bet I ran my Essence core empty and then some, which was why I passed out, but I was not going to tell him that.

    ¡°Hey, the doc said there was going to be a TV brought in so I could catch up on stuff.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sure, there is one in the ward. I will wheel it in.¡±

    ¡°Some more food and some tea would be good too.¡±

    That is how I found myself sitting up in bed, catching up with the disaster that was Auckland in the aftermath of the discovery of what was now called the Waiheke Anomaly.

    ¡°Janet Jones, the minister in charge of Anomalous Affairs, reissued the warning that the Navy will fire on any unauthorised vessel breaching the Quarantine Zone. Several warning shots were fired, and one private yacht was boarded and impounded.¡±

    Ms. Jones reminded us that Waiheke town is outside the Quarantine Zone and is safe. Nonetheless, ferry spaces have been fully booked with people leaving, and there will be additional sailings soon. Flights to and from Waiheke are operating with strict airspace measures in place.¡±

    Everybody wanted to get off the Island.

    ¡°Auckland Council has closed all the beaches in the Hauraki Gulf. Bio-Security officers warn against approaching any creature that washes up on the beaches and to call the 0800 number below if you see anything suspicious. Teams are combing the beaches for Mutated sea creatures daily.¡±

    And so it goes on. A lot of Auckland is orientated around the Hauraki Gulf and life in and on the sea. A lot of Auckland is in for a hard time.

    Auckland is experiencing its first kick in the nuts.

    Conservationists are decrying the loss of the natural habitat in the gulf. The Navy had commandeered all the local trawling fleet to try to catch mutated fish before they spread. People weren¡¯t just fleeing Waiheke. They were fleeing Auckland.

    In world news, an anomaly appeared in a major slum on the outskirts of Chennai, and the death toll is in the thousands. The whole area was flattened when the Indian Army blew it up. China has stopped all reporting on anomalies.

    The latest poll in the US is that most people don¡¯t believe Anomaly Points exist. Of the ones that do, the majority think it is a Chinese-created weapon out to target them.

    Canada has discovered mutated seals and is desperately searching for the unknown anomaly.

    In religious news, this is, of course, the wrath of God on the wicked, just like every natural disaster and pandemic in history.

    Unfortunately, the TV was just spitting out the appropriate sound bites, and I couldn¡¯t go to proper scientific sources without a laptop. I was just getting frustrated with the TV so I turned it off.

    Then I turned it on again. It was 3 am on 31st Dec. I turned it off again. This is a fantastic start to the new year.

    I think for a bit about our options. I am definitely not staying a lab rat. I won¡¯t know our options until I can talk to Carla and see her Mutations. Are they useful? Can they be hidden? I don¡¯t need any special things or environment, but she might. What if she has to stay in the water or needs some medicine to survive? I need to stop thinking like that and wait to find out. What I did decide is I am not going to reveal my poison. That is going to be my hidden card. It will be my ¡®Get out of Jail Free¡¯ card. Probably literally.

    Happy New Year, world. I hope you are ready for a kick in the nuts.

 15. Evil Conniving Witch.

    Carla was awake and on the warpath. I think the hospital staff might be wishing she wasn¡¯t. I had no problem hearing her through the wall, and I didn¡¯t need my super-hearing for most of it. She wanted four things: A phone, a laptop, Sophia Hardcastle, who could bring both of the above and then, finally, she wanted to talk to me. I made the list, which is awesome, even though I was last. I even heard her threaten them with me, which I thought was hilarious. She is much scarier than I am.

    When the nurses came to see me, I started making the same demand to see her, as I could clearly hear her through the wall.

    Carla got a visit from the doctor, while I got a visit from Commander Lewis. He had a confidentiality Document for me to sign, and I figured I needed to read it through. I needed to know what things would break it, and what the penalties were. I was pretty sure I would end up breaking it at some point. There were a range of penalties all the way up to indefinite incarceration. It also included me giving consent to having my communications monitored. What I objected to was that there was no end date specified. I argued for six months, and he had other vague triggers he would accept. We had a vigorous debate. In my mind, the world was going to shit in the next six to twelve months anyway, so it didn¡¯t really matter. What I wanted was for Commander Lewis to take me seriously. It was part of my plan for extracting us from the lab without killing anyone. It was laying the groundwork.

    The consequence of debating with Lewis was that I didn¡¯t overhear Carla¡¯s doctor¡¯s examination. That was all right, I would see her soon.

    Then it was my turn with Doctor Mohan, and Lewis went to get Carla to sign his precious document. Lewis had a much shorter time with Carla, and then I heard her talking to a female I assume was Sophia. There was crying and other emotional shit I tuned out as the doctor needed my attention.

    ¡°Did the blood and flesh sample show any changes after yesterday, doc?¡±

    ¡°No, but I am sure you can shed some light on the situation for me, as it was too much of a coincidence.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I could, but I am not going to until I have talked to Carla, as this affects her as well as me.¡±

    ¡°That is pretty much what Carla just told me. There is some sort of bond or link between you, isn¡¯t there?¡±

    ¡°That is a pretty obvious deduction to make.¡±

    ¡°I know you helped her, essentially broke her out of her nightmare loop. You certainly have earned some respect and space, but I am not sure Commander Lewis will think the same.¡±

    I am aware everything is being recorded. Without our permission. I didn¡¯t say that, as I only overheard it with super-hearing. Without permission.

    The Doc continued, ¡°When you see her, there will be some obvious deformities from her mutations. Try not to be shocked or stare too much. It can be hard for people to have physical deformities suddenly.¡±

    Fuck, the universe kicked back didn¡¯t it?

    They wanted me to wear one of the contamination suits for the meeting. I dutifully put it on. As I was led out of the room, I snagged the TV and wheeled it with me.

    ¡°Why are you bringing that?¡± The nurse asked.

    ¡°So we can watch our favourite program together,¡± I replied.

    I got some funny looks, including from Carla and Sophia.

    Sophia was in a contamination suit like me, so I could only see a very pretty face and long blond locks of hair.

    Carla. Carla was sitting up in bed in a hospital gown. She had lost all the hair on her head, including her eyebrows, and she was covered in fish scales instead of skin. Her mouth looked human, and what I could see of her teeth was human. She still had ears.

    Her neck was different. There were six slits on each side of the neck. It took me a moment to click.

    ¡°Holy fucking shit, you have gills, that is awesome.¡±

    I moved closer and took off the helmet of my contamination suit. I never had any intention of wearing the thing the whole time, regardless of instructions.

    ¡°Aren''t you supposed to keep that on?¡± Sophia said.

    ¡°Yep,¡± I replied, stripping off the rest of it, revealing my stylish hospital gown. ¡°God, that was annoying to wear.¡± I could see Carla¡¯s smile. ¡°So, fish scales, huh?¡± I said.

    ¡°It is more complicated than that,¡± she replied.

    ¡°I figured,¡± I said, ¡°Just a minute while I get the TV set up for our favourite program.¡±

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    Carla knew I was talking bullshit, obviously. Sophia went to say something, and I saw Carla¡¯s hand stop her, and she shook her head.

    Meanwhile, I did a circuit of the room with my electro-sensors-thingies and found the camera. I plugged the TV in, found a channel with children''s cartoons and set it at a good volume, facing the camera. I hope they like Sponge Bob. Now, there is a mutant sea creature if there ever was one.

    ¡°OK,¡± I said. ¡°The room is monitored, and they will still see us, but if we talk low and do not face the camera, we should be able to talk without being recorded.¡±

    ¡°They can¡¯t do that!¡± Sophia exclaimed.

    ¡°How well did you read that document you just signed,¡± I asked. ¡°¡®Monitor our communications¡¯ was pretty broad, so as of when you signed, yes, they can as they have our permission.¡± I looked at Carla, ¡°How much do you trust her?¡±

    ¡°With everything.¡±

    ¡°Shit, that is pretty heavy,¡± I said.

    ¡°Bob, please meet Sophia Hardcastle. Sophia, or Soph for short, is my girlfriend. We are in love, have been living together for the last two years, and are discussing marriage. Soph, this is Robert Wilkinson or Bob, my casual hook-up and fuck toy.¡±

    Well, that is going to take a bit to get my head around.

    Carla continued, ¡°Give Bob a minute, Soph. He probably never considered I might have a life outside the occasional times we hooked up.¡±

    ¡°That is certainly true,¡± I said. I looked at Soph, ¡°If she hasn¡¯t told you, you will find out soon enough. I am not good at relationships, and I don¡¯t like people.¡±

    ¡°He is a selfish bastard, but we seem to get along,¡± Carla said.

    Then things clicked into place. ¡°Oooh,¡± I said to Carla, ¡°You are an evil conniving witch.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t say that to her!¡± Sophia said in protest.

    Carla interrupted her before she got going, ¡°No, no, that''s fine, Soph. He has just put two and two together. That was a compliment.¡±

    ¡°That is not a compliment!¡±

    ¡°Yes, for Bob, that is a high compliment.¡±

    ¡°Because you are an evil, conniving bloody witch.¡± I inserted. ¡°The reason you wanted to use me as an excuse to your family wasn¡¯t to escape their matchmaking, or at least not only that. It was to protect her,¡± I pointed at Sophia. ¡°I am guessing they are not accepting of same-sex relationships.¡±

    ¡°There are a lot of traditional cultural issues in the mix,¡±  Carla admitted. ¡°Besides, you don¡¯t care, whereas Soph does care, and I need that. Desperately.¡± She reached out and grabbed Sophia¡¯s hand and gave it a squeeze.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t care, but I am starting to think I should have.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    ¡°I am having visions of a bunch of huge hulking Samoans turning up at my door to beat me to a pulp. A bloody Samoan Hit Squad.¡±

    ¡°There is no Samoan Hit Squad out to get you. My brother sorted them out.¡±

    ¡°What! Was that the brother whose wife was going to marry you off to her cossie?¡±

    ¡°No, that is another brother. I meant my twin.¡±

    ¡°How many fucking brothers¡­ no! I can¡¯t deal with this. It is too much.¡±

    ¡°Bob, look at me, Bob.¡± She reached over to me with a scaled hand, ¡°You don¡¯t have to deal with this. It is my life and my family, and it is what I deal with. You gave me an easier way to get them off our backs, especially Soph¡¯s back. Thank you. There is nothing else for you to do. You would never have known about this and probably never even met Soph, but the world has changed. I have changed. This is what we now need to deal with.¡±

    Right. Focus. ¡°Thank you. Yes, we need to refocus on the mutations.¡± I could see Soph watching me closely. She probably thinks I am weird. Well, she is right.

    Then the next thing clicked, ¡°Oh, you fucking mad woman. You crazy bitch.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t Soph. It is a compliment.¡± Carla whispered.

    ¡°That is the reason you stayed so long on that rock, doing everything you could to get as many mutations as possible, nearly getting us killed by that shark. You probably would also have died over the last three days. You did it all for her,¡± I pointed at Soph.

    ¡°Yes, Bob, I did it for her. When you told me what was coming, I knew I had to be strong for Soph. So, I took crazy risks to be as strong as I could. And you know what, Bob? I would have died twice without you. I rolled the dice, and I would have lost that roll without you. You killed that shark, and you saved me. Then yesterday, I was drowning. The mutations were killing me. I couldn¡¯t keep going. I literally did not have the essence to do what the mutations needed to do, and I was in so, so much pain. But then you came and blasted your essence through it all. You blasted that link wide open and washed me with so much essence the Mutation could finish what it needed. It is not perfect, but I am alive, and there is power there. It is because of you, Bob. We have a chance only because of you.¡±

    I sat back and looked at them both. Soph obviously didn¡¯t know the whole story yet, but Carla must have been talking me up to her.

    ¡°Shit,¡± I said.

    I saw Carla put up a hand to stop Soph, ¡°Just let him process.¡±

    ¡°Fuck,¡± I expanded.

    Then it dawned on me. ¡°This is my worst fucking nightmare. I am in a Harem Apocalyse.¡±

    Soph objected, ¡°There''s not a harem. There is no way I am in your harem.¡±

    ¡°It is not my harem,¡± I said, ¡°it is hers,¡± I pointed to Carla, ¡°She¡¯s the one we are both fucking.¡±

    ¡°Bob, there is no harem,¡± Carla said sternly. ¡°This is not one of your stupid fantasy books. There are only the three of us. She is the love of my life. You are the fuck toy. You are wrong anyway. We,¡± she indicates Soph and her, ¡°are not fucking. She is A-sexual. Sex doesn¡¯t interest her much.¡±

    ¡°Right, well, that explains a lot. And I am not just the fuck toy! I am also the bloody lifesaver,¡± I said

    ¡°Yes, you are definitely the lifesaver. A lifesaving fuck toy. You are a man of many talents.¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Oh, fuck off,¡± I said.

 16. Many Talents.

    ¡°What we need to do, is talk about this,¡± Carla said, indicating her scales, ¡°and this,¡± she said, indicating the room.

    ¡°First, I want to keep my initial talent hidden as a trump card,¡± I said. ¡°I will tell them about the skin, which they are testing already, and it will at least mean they won¡¯t keep putting bloody oxygen masks on me all the time.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°What talent?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°I will tell you everything later, once we are away from this place. For now, just trust us.¡± Carla told her.

    ¡°I trust you,¡± She replied.

    ¡°Good enough,¡± I said. ¡°Communications. We can pulse through the link. I don¡¯t know if distance, anomalies, or anything else will affect that, but we can work with that for now. Do you know Morse Code?¡± Carla shook her head. ¡°Neither do I, but we should learn. For now, one pulse for yes, two for no, and we can make some other simple ones that might be useful. We are about to go into a conversation with Lewis, and we need to be on the same page.¡±

    ¡°One long pulse will mean, ¡°Shut the fuck up and let me talk,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Sounds like a useful one,¡± I said. ¡°The only one I remember is the emergency call for help, SOS, three short, three long, three short.¡±

    Carla nodded.

    ¡°I thought we were going to talk about Car¡¯s mutations?¡± Soph said.

    ¡°We will,¡± Carla said.

    I nodded, ¡°First, we need a backup plan.¡±

    ¡°That is you, Soph,¡± Carla said.

    I looked at Carla. I didn¡¯t know Sophia, so this was Carla¡¯s show. After all, she is the evil, conniving witch.

    ¡°You want my family backing you,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Just the law firm for now. I know how your folks feel about me. If things go south, Lewis will have your family lawyers crawling up his ass, and that is going to bring out things he doesn¡¯t want brought to light. Don¡¯t break the agreement over it, but give them enough so they can dig.¡± Carla had thought this through.

    I added, ¡°There is a provision in the agreement to allow you to seek legal advice on it. It is meant to be for before you sign, but I don¡¯t recall that being specified. Showing them that agreement will give them more than enough ammunition to start digging. In fact, they could probably argue that we were coerced into signing.¡±

    Carla was looking at me funny. ¡°I didn¡¯t think you were a lawyer?¡±

    ¡°I am not. I am a Civil Engineer. I deal with civil works contracts and contractors trying to slip extra costs past us. Your issues with her family aren¡¯t going to be a problem? Is it the same-sex thing again?¡±

    ¡°No, her folks are fine with that,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°It is not because she is Samoan either,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Soph had a few issues with some of her friends over that.¡±

    ¡°Ex-friends,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Carla¡¯s race being a factor never actually occurred to me.¡± I said, ¡°I just assumed it was her personality.¡±

    Soph exploded, ¡°There is nothing wrong¡­¡±

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    ¡°Soph, Soph, settle down. This is Bob. He just says things bluntly. It is my personality. They think I am a bad influence on you. You don¡¯t have to defend me against Bob. However, now that you have met him, if there is anyone you really want to offend, we can just send Bob their way. He is a man of many talents.¡±

    ¡°That is one talent I am always working to improve on,¡± I said. ¡°Offending people usually makes them go away.¡±

    ¡°What about about your mutations, Bob? I don¡¯t know what you have got after this recent debacle. Nothing physical?¡± Carla eyed me up and down.

    ¡°No, there is no second penis yet.¡±

    Sophia gasped.

    ¡°You had better tone it down for Soph, Bob. I think meeting you has been more of a shock than my mutations.¡±

    ¡°I am a man of many talents.¡±

    ¡°But only one cock, apparently,¡± Carla jibbed.

    ¡°I¡¯m the one that needs to tone it down, really?¡± I raised an eyebrow. ¡°Your backup plan is good. I didn¡¯t know about Sophia¡¯s connections. My backup plan involved the doctor. She was very concerned about losing you. She put that concern above Lewis¡¯ wants and made him toe the line. She knows I did something to save you and knows we have a connection. She is favourable toward us and was pretty upset she couldn¡¯t seem to help you. If we can¡¯t work with Lewis, we work with her, and she buffers Lewis for us. She is pretty interested in how I did what I did.¡±

    ¡°If all else fails, we have your ¡®Get out of jail free¡¯ card to play,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Exactly.¡±

    ¡°OK, we have backup plans. Let''s do your mutations first, as mine are complicated,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Let me list my many Talents¡­¡±

    ¡°Just the mutations, please,¡± Carla interjected.

    ¡°Spoilsport. Ok, I picked up senses mostly. I think they are from the shark, but I need to research them. The two biggest are Hearing and Smell. There are massive increases there. The TV, for example, has been causing me problems since I turned it on. I practised tuning it out last night, but it is going to need a lot of work. The smell is the same. I am really glad of the contamination suits, which block people¡¯s odour.¡± I looked at Carla, ¡°You smell a bit like fish with the scales, but you also smell like you. I am looking forward to finding out what you smell like when you are aroused.¡±

    Another gasp from Sophia.

    ¡°Right, tone it down, I remember. I have a smaller increase in my sight at night, but that will need testing. The other big thing is I seem to be able to sense electrical fields within one to two meters. It is very sensitive as I can sense the electrical fields in your leg there, especially when you move it. There is something bigger as well, like the earth''s electrical field or something. I am going to need help to figure this one out, and I am hoping Lewis can do that.¡±

    ¡°You really did win the jackpot, didn¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°I put it down to you messaging me during church. The man/woman upstairs took pity on me.¡±

    ¡°I messaged Soph as well, so I hope that is the case.¡±

    ¡°This connection we have, I am not sure where that came from,¡± I said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it is random,¡± Carla said. ¡°I have been thinking about all the blood in the water, yours, mine, the sharks.¡±

    ¡°That is possible,¡± I said. ¡°It might also be a way to get Soph a connection using your blood. This sharing essence seems like it could be quite powerful.¡±

    ¡°You are serious about me going through this, aren¡¯t you,¡± Soph said to Carla.

    ¡°We will talk about it more. I think that within two years, everybody will have mutated at least once. If we can control it, your chances are much better. Bob¡¯s the jackpot winner. I am very much less so, but we have learned from this.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± I said, ¡°Don¡¯t be a crazy bitch.¡±

    Carla rolled her eyes.

    ¡°If Soph is a permanent part of this, I think we should try to have her mutate at the same anomaly we did,¡± I said.

    ¡°I am not leaving Car. Ever.¡± Sophia declared.

    ¡°Even to risk death, or worse, end up like that for the rest of your life?¡± I asked, pointing at Carla.

    ¡°She went crazy for me.¡± she turned to Carla, ¡°Which I am going to yell at you for later.¡± Some emotions leaked out in Soph''s words there. She was angry and afraid but committed. She was holding it together well. It spoke well of her.

    ¡°Please do,¡± Carla said. ¡°I need you to yell at me.¡±

    ¡°Please keep your emotional shit to yourselves,¡± I said, spoiling the moment. ¡°As far as I am concerned, she is in. If she can see her lover mutated and covered in fish scales and be prepared to risk the same to stay connected, she is sufficiently committed. As a bonus, she has put up with me quite well. Just remember, I need my space.¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t ever let us forget,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°This means trying to work with Lewis is even more important,¡± I said.

    ¡°Oh?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°He controls access to the only anomaly currently in the country.¡±

 17. Mutant.

    ¡°OK, Carla, what¡¯s going on with you?¡± I asked.

    ¡°My mutations are complicated. Since getting here, my mutations have been trying to manifest, but I don¡¯t have enough essence. I would become conscious as they started, and the pain would go on and on until everything went black again. The first time I actually mutated was when you supplied me with essence, Bob. The Staff have photos of that mutation, but it is not this one. This is a result of the last change, and you swamped me with enough essence to bring me back to consciousness. Before that, it was like I was dying of thirst, but it was the essence I lacked.¡±

    ¡°So you have two different forms?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No. I have two completed forms I can use, plus my human form, but there are more potential uncompleted forms that may be possible.¡±

    ¡°You can change into your human form as well?¡±

    ¡°I am pretty sure. But there is a price. A high price for changing forms. The first price is Essence. I don¡¯t have enough on my own. I need to borrow through our connection.¡±

    ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be a problem, depending on how much and how much I have available. What is the other price?¡±

    ¡°Pain.¡±

    ¡°Oh shit.¡±

    ¡°Oh, shit,¡± she agreed. ¡°I am very reluctant to change forms.¡±

    ¡°I can understand that,¡± having felt a portion of the pain.

    ¡°Can I examine the scales? The change is not just the scales, right?¡±

    She held out her arm. I poked and prodded and tried lifting one. They were solid and like fish scales. I sniffed close to see if I could smell anything.

    ¡°These look real and solid, but you are saying they will go away somehow?¡±

    Carla nodded, ¡°Not that I have tried yet. It is going to take a bit to work up the courage.¡±

    I nodded. ¡°I am not sure you realise how big this is, though?¡±

    ¡°Big?¡± Carla queried.

    ¡°Essence. Until now, it was just a cause of Mutation. Fixed mutations that don¡¯t change, except yours do. Essence can, therefore, change physical things. What else can it be used for?¡±

    Carla and Soph were just looking at me. Carla shrugged.

    ¡°Yeah, I don¡¯t know myself, but we can experiment.¡±

    Carla looked at me suspiciously, ¡°Are you thinking it is going to be like one of your fantasy novels? Like magic?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ yes, maybe?¡± I said a bit sheepishly.

    ¡°I think we should get back to Carla¡¯s mutations,¡± Sophia said.

    ¡°Yes,¡± I agreed. ¡°Tell us what you think the forms are and what you think they might do. We realise you won¡¯t know until you test them.¡±

    ¡°OK, first of all, I think the gills are permanent in all forms, including the human one.¡±

    ¡°That''s good. Can I look at them closer?¡±

    Carla nodded, and I moved up the bed. She moved her head to the side so I could get close to her neck. There were six lines or slits where the flesh separated. The top one was a bit different. It seemed to be angled the opposite way to the others.

    ¡°How do they work?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I have had the gills since shortly after arriving, so they have been examined and x-rayed to death while I was unconscious. I activate them like this,¡± and she did something, and the top gill opened, but the others didn¡¯t change. ¡°The top opening isn¡¯t a gill. It is just an opening to let water flow into the mechanism. The water then flows through and out the other five, which are gills and extract the oxygen from the water. I have not tested them yet, but the consensus is I have to keep water flowing through them for them to work.

    ¡°That makes sense. Keep moving like the sharks have to.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but I need to test it in a pool or something.¡±

    ¡°You could be pulled along by something underwater. You wouldn''t have to be swimming.¡±

    ¡°That''s true,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I like them,¡± I said and then ran my tongue over them. The scales felt interesting.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t feel that past the scales,¡± Carla said. ¡°I wonder how sensitive they might be when skin covers them.¡±

    ¡°I guess we will find out,¡± I said. Sophia was looking at me strangely again. She had no touch or taste available through the contamination suit she was wearing. She would have to wait.

    ¡°The ultrasounds and other testing suggest my body is denser, hardened against pressure, which should also make it more durable overall. I am assuming that is also permanent, but we will see.¡±

    If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

    I just nodded.

    ¡°A sample of these scales has been taken for testing, but preliminary results suggest they have the same properties as fish scales and will provide protection, especially against piercing and cutting.¡±

    ¡°Not bullets.¡±

    ¡°Not bullets, but knives etc, as long as they are not going against the way the scales lie. They also make me streamlined and can help me swim faster.¡±

    ¡°So denser, more durable body and light armour plating. I like it.¡±

    Carla smiled. Then the smile disappeared as she said, ¡°I will probably never have hair again.¡±

    ¡°Phfft,¡± Sophia said, ¡°That¡¯s what wigs are for. You probably want to stick with black, But there was a nice dark purple one that I liked. A bit of make-up, and you are good to go.¡±

    Carla gave her a thankful smile. It would only help from a distance, but Sophia had obviously been thinking about it since she arrived.

    ¡°Anything else?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Not until we can test it.¡±

    ¡°What about your other form? What do you know¡±

    ¡°It is a different type of scale, more bone, like a shark''s scale. So it is not shiny like this. It is probably smoother in the water. There seemed to be flesh protrusions on my back and feet.¡± She sighed. ¡°Fins, they are fins. Like a shark''s fins.¡±

    ¡°No fins on this form?¡±

    Carla shook her head, then said hesitantly, ¡°There is something else. I ah¡­ ah¡­ get shark teeth.¡±

    ¡°Shark teeth, like in your mouth?¡± I asked.

    She nodded, reached over, pulled open the top drawer or the side cabinet, and handed over a tooth.

    It was pointed and curved and wicked sharp.

    ¡°Wow. Was it painful?¡±

    ¡°I was unconscious, but I imagine it will be very painful, and I can''t imagine I will ever need them.¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°No idea, but I don¡¯t think I ever want it to be me. Do they change your teeth or push them out and regrow?¡±

    ¡°Push them out and regrow.¡±

    ¡°Ouch.¡±

    ¡°I might not be trying that form for a long time, if ever.¡±

    ¡°So you are a limited shape changer, but at a high cost,¡± I said.

    ¡°Seems like,¡± she replied. ¡°I think there might be other shapes, but they may not be complete or formed or whatever it is. I ate everything I could get my hands on, including a crab and a Pipi that was on the rocks.¡±

    ¡°Shellfish? Wow, that could be strange.¡±

    ¡°You had a jellyfish, so you can¡¯t talk¡±, she said.

    ¡°True.¡±

    ¡°We made some final plans and unpacked the phone and laptop Sophia had purchased.

    ¡°Is my number on this SIM, or is it random?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°It is a random prepay. I figured you would get your phone back.¡± Soph replied.

    ¡°Are you staying in this room now?¡± Carla asked me.

    ¡°I fingered I would. I bought the TV and everything.¡±

    ¡°If we do get separated, take the laptop. We can message through it.¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Sorry, I would have bought two of everything if I had known,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°No problem, we will get our stuff back soon,¡± I said, logging into the hospital wifi.

    ¡°Everything tracked,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Everything tracked,¡± I replied. ¡°You know they are going to try and divide a wedge between us, right? Sophia is probably the weak link.¡±

    ¡°Sophia knows the deal, don¡¯t you?¡± Carla said.

    ¡°You and me forever. Bob the fucktoy.¡± She replied.

    ¡°Excuse me! I am the Lifesaving Fucktoy, thank you very much.¡±

    Sophia turned to me and said, ¡°Thank you. Thank you for saving Carla¡¯s life. She can be impulsive, reckless and even crazy. I wasn¡¯t there to pull her back this time, so thanks. I owe you for that.¡±

    ¡°Shit. I have never been in this situation before. How am I supposed to respond to that?¡± I said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t even try, Bob,¡± Carla said. ¡°Just accept it.¡±

    ¡°You know they will try to drive a wedge between the three of us? They will tell you, Soph, that you are inadequate in bed because she has a fucktoy. From being bad in bed, they will, therefore, say you are not a good enough girlfriend.¡±

    Carla just laughed.

    Sophia said, ¡°They won¡¯t be the first. I am secure in who I am and who we are as a couple. Not everything is about sex. They will never know, and it is none of their business.¡±

    ¡°I taught her that the best way to respond to those accusations is to laugh in their faces,¡± Carla said. ¡°She doesn''t do it often enough. She is too nice.¡±

    ¡°Nice is certainly something you need, you evil witch,¡± I said.

    ¡°So do you, you selfish bastard. I found my nice. Good luck finding yours.¡± Carla responded.

    ¡°Maybe you could share?¡±

    ¡°Fuck off,¡± Carla said. ¡°She¡¯s too nice for you,¡± and she gave me the finger.

    I just smiled. Things were getting back to normal.

    ¡°You know where you are going, Soph?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Lawyers, then my Mum''s place.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t let them side-track you, and don¡¯t answer questions,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I know. I will be fine. I have already had a text from the lawyer, and they are expecting me,¡± she said as she held up her phone. ¡°I would rather stay here with you.¡±

    She was talking to Carla, but I answered, ¡°It is your choice. If you want to stay, you can stay. You take off the helmet of the contamination suit, and they won¡¯t let you go. It is a backup plan. It doesn¡¯t have to happen today. Tomorrow is New Year''s Day. The city is going back on holiday, so I doubt anything will happen before Monday.¡±

    ¡°The lawyers will close as well, so now is the best time for that,¡± Soph replied.

    ¡°Then come back tomorrow and then stay,¡± Carla said. ¡°The room will be crowded, but we will deal.¡±

    ¡°Not sure I can,¡± I said.

    ¡°I will see you tomorrow anyway,¡± Soph said. ¡°We can discuss it then. If I don¡¯t stay, I will be back every day. I don¡¯t mind fetching and being the contact with the outside.¡±

    Soph and Carla hugged awkwardly with the contamination suit in the way. I gave her a nod and got one in return. I think I am seen as a necessary evil in her eyes. I am OK  with that.

    ¡°Do you think they have watched enough cartoons?¡± I asked Carla. ¡°I know my brain is numb.¡±

 18. The Doc.

    It was just before dinner when the Doc came in with good news. The test results were negative, and we were no longer considered contagious. However, as I was willing to share a room with Carla, they would bring in an armchair for me to sleep on. They had already reallocated my room. The hospital was full before the anomaly. Now, it is overflowing, and they are understaffed due to the holiday period.

    I didn¡¯t care. I was happy to sleep on the floor. An armchair was a significant improvement.

    ¡°Commander Lewis has requested a meeting with you both tomorrow at one to discuss where to go from here.¡± Dr Amanda Mohan said.

    ¡°Tomorrow, as in New Year''s Day and a Public Holiday?¡± I queried.

    ¡°As you would expect, there are many people far too busy to be on holiday or wait for the holiday to be over. The Anomaly is only getting worse,¡± She replied.

    ¡°Fair enough. Sophia will need to be here, and we hope you will be part of the discussion as well, Doc,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Yeah, we can¡¯t make plans without having expert medical advice, and you have been involved the most,¡± I said, hoping I wasn¡¯t laying on too thick.

    ¡°I will be involved going forward, and I can make time to attend if you want me to.¡± The Doc was keen to keep researching these mutations. There is a lot to research.

    ¡°I really wouldn¡¯t be comfortable without you there,¡± I said, knowing it would be listened to.

    ¡°This room is too small, though? Is there somewhere else we can meet?¡± Carla said.

    ¡°The commander has booked a staff meeting room, but we will need to hide your mutations getting there. Otherwise, rumours will spread,¡± she replied.

    ¡°That sounds easily accomplished,¡± Carla said.

    Sophia turned up in the morning. She had managed to score a black shoulder-length wig. She spent some time on Carla¡¯s makeup, and she could pass as normal from a distance. A hoodie, pants, and shoes, and she was good to go.

    Sophia was a very beautiful woman when she was not in a contamination suit. Long blonde hair framed a face that could have belonged to an international model. She was curvier than Carla¡¯s hard-fit body, with larger breasts. Overall, she was softer than Carla. Not fat, just soft in a pleasing way. That was my impression. She was also pale, not just white-skinned, but looking like even stepping outside would give her sunburn. She was very stylishly dressed and was rocking a very professional executive look for this meeting. I don¡¯t even know what she did for a living, but she certainly looks the part.

    Somebody provided me with track pants and a T-shirt.

    We obtained a wheelchair for Carla because you don¡¯t recover from days of traumatic pain overnight. She wanted to walk, but Sophia demonstrated how she kept Carla from acting crazy, and we wheeled her to the meeting.

    There was a large navy man standing guard at the door to the meeting room. I am guessing the Commander is already here. When we entered the room, Commander Lewis was seated at the head of the conference table. Next to him was the Doc, Amanda Mohan, and a navy flunky was on his other side with a pad ready to take notes. I kind of expected more Navy personnel.

    We wheel Carla into place at the other end of the table, and Sophia sits beside her. If I sat on the other side of Carla, it would look like battle lines were drawn, and the Navy are certainly more experienced in battle than the rest of us. I move around and sit next to the Doc. She is one backup plan. This puts me across the table from the flunky, a very attractive woman in a naval uniform.

    Lewis puts a recording device on the table and says, ¡°Thank you for coming. Let¡¯s not waste any time.¡±

    ¡°Just a minute, Commander,¡± Sophia said, placing a second recording device on the table. ¡°We will also be recording this conversation.¡±

    ¡°There are privacy agreements you have signed,¡± Lewis said sternly.

    ¡°Yes, we know,¡± I said. ¡°The agreement has nothing against us making recordings, only against us sharing them with unauthorised personnel.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t keep such electronic information private,¡± he said.

    ¡°Let''s be frank, Lewis. It is far, far more likely all this will leak from a large organisation like the Navy than it is from the three of us. If it leaks from us, you will enact the breach clauses. If it leaks from the Navy, you will undoubtedly court marshall the offender, but the result is that the information is out there, and that will be incredibly more harmful to us than the Navy. We will be hounded and ostracised and probably threatened by extremists. Believe me, we are far more invested in keeping this secret than you are. We are making our own recording.¡± My role in this meeting was to be the hardline asshole.

    Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    Lewis did not look pleased but didn¡¯t protest further. ¡°Let''s continue. For the record, present we have myself, Commander Lewis, Lieutenant Davis, Doctor Amanda Mohan, Robert Wilkinson, Carla Vaa¡¯i and Sophia Hardcastle. Doctor Mohan, perhaps you could start with a current medical update and when Mr Wilkinson and Miss Vaa¡¯i might be able to be discharged from hospital.¡±

    ¡°Mr Wilkinson is physically fine and could be discharged this afternoon. We would like to keep Miss Vaa¡¯i under observation for another day, and then she could be released. She should have someone close by in the short term in case there are complications with her mutations, and she should not attempt to change her mutations without full medical support. The mutations are an added complication. We still don¡¯t understand Mr Wilkinson''s mutation, which requires further study. Miss Vaa¡¯i¡¯s mutations are potentially life-threatening and will require significant ongoing medical assessment.¡±

    ¡°Thank the fuck for that,¡± I said. ¡°I am going home.¡±

    ¡°Mr Wilkinson, we have made accommodations available for you at the Auckland Naval Base where you can have ongoing assessments,¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°Fuck no, absolutely not. I am peopled out. I need space.¡±

    ¡°Mr Wilkinson, I am not sure you understand the time constraints we are under. The Navy is under a lot of pressure to destroy the anomaly as soon as possible. We have set a destruction date for seven days from now, but the pressure is mounting to bring that forward. This is our only opportunity to study the anomaly; you and Miss Vaa¡¯i are the key to studying the effects of the anomaly on humans. We really need your full cooperation on this. We have had too many delays on this already.¡± His glance at the doc indicated she had been part of those delays.

    ¡°What would we get for this full cooperation?¡± I asked.

    ¡°There would be free ongoing medical support¡­¡±

    ¡°Becoming a lab rat is not something I consider beneficial to me,¡± I said bluntly.

    Lewis sighed, ¡°What is it that you want, and more importantly, what is it you can provide to us? I don¡¯t have time to waste here. I have a city in crisis.¡±

    I got a long pulse from Carla, which meant shut up and let her talk.

    ¡°Commander Lewis,¡± she said, grabbing his attention. ¡°We can actually help a lot. Bob has done a lot of research on the anomalies, and we both have experienced it. What isn¡¯t in the research is that once you have Mutated, you have a pool of it inside you. We have been calling it essence. This means you can go closer to the anomaly and resist mutating again. Bob couldn¡¯t get next to it without being overwhelmed, but it seemed to be like building up resistance or something. Yes, we know this because this was not Bob¡¯s first mutation.¡± Everybody was looking at me. I just shrugged.

    Carla continued, ¡°We know the anomalies are becoming more frequent worldwide and can¡¯t be stopped. There are probably a number of anomalies in the Pacific that have been mutating whales for months, and we will never find them. This is getting worse. We think the resistance from the first mutation is the key to surviving.¡±

    ¡°At the risk of dying on the toss of a coin,¡± The commander said.

    ¡°The risk of dying is real,¡± Carla said. ¡°I should have died from my mutation, and it is Bob here who saved me. However, we think there are ways to increase the odds of survival. These need to be tested, and medical intervention is certainly a significant factor. The Doc kept me alive until Bob finally woke up. What we want for this is not onerous.¡±

    ¡°Go on,¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°Wait,¡± the Doc said, ¡°How many times have you mutated?¡± she asked me.

    ¡°That was my third.¡±

    ¡°Bloody hell, you have a death wish!¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°That is pretty hard to deny,¡± I replied.

    ¡°You know what your skin does, don¡¯t you?¡± Dr Mohan said.

    ¡°Yes, and I will tell you everything,¡± I lied, ¡°but one of our wants or conditions is for you to become our lead medical physician.¡±

    ¡°Yes. Done. Absolutely, and please call me Amanda.¡±

    ¡°Dr Mohan has an existing consultant contract with the navy, so she is an acceptable lead medical professional. What other conditions do you have?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t work anymore,¡± Carla said, indicating her scales, ¡°so we want to be paid. Generously. Perhaps one of those Consultant contracts would work.¡±

    ¡°That is a small matter,¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°Just to clarify,¡± Carla said, ¡°we will be independent consultants. We will not be Navy. We will not join the Navy. We are civilians and will be free to come and go as we please.¡±

    I got the impression Lewis was planning to tie us in with the contract. Sophia seemed to think the same, as she said, ¡°My lawyers will be reviewing the contract carefully.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have time to fuck around with lawyers and legal departments,¡± Lewis was letting some of the pressure he was under show.

    ¡°We can let this recording be the initial agreement,¡± Sophia said. ¡°Then we can proceed ASAP.¡±

    ¡°Bearing in mind, we expect to be paid at least half as much again above our Lead Medical Physician,¡± I said.

    ¡°Anything else,¡± he asked, showing more frustration.

    ¡°We want access to the anomaly,¡± I said.

    ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°Two reasons. First, we believe the resistance to mutating can be strengthened by being in the Anomalies Essence Sphere. I got closer the second time than the first. Carla and I want to strengthen that as much as possible.¡±

    ¡°Mutated creatures could attack you, or if you go too close, you risk mutating again,¡± Amanda said. She looked at me, ¡°You said you were overwhelmed.¡±

    ¡°There are risks, but they can be mitigated to some degree. We think the benefits are worth the risk.¡±

    ¡°You said there were two reasons,¡± Lewis said.

    Carla said, ¡°We want to get Sophia through her first mutation.¡±

 19. Agreed?

    Everybody looked at Sophia.

    ¡°You want to go through pain, mutation and risk death and permanent deformity?¡± Lewis asked.

    I responded, ¡°Commander, there are reasons that we can go through with you, and once we do, you may even be providing additional volunteers to go through this. Before we do that, do we have an agreement so far?¡±

    ¡°You are holding back information, but it will come to light. This is happening worldwide.¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°Yes, but not in time for this anomaly. There will be more anomalies, but there are reasons we want to use this one,¡± I said.

    ¡°Commander,¡± Carla said, ¡°I realise Bob is being difficult, and his basic makeup is to be a selfish bastard. I know you have contingency plans that will make our lives miserable, but they won¡¯t work in time for this anomaly, and this is an opportunity for you as well as us. Trust me, the more you push Bob, the more stubborn he gets. But we can move forward together, and I believe we can do it well.¡±

    ¡°Bob is not the only one I can push,¡± Lewis said.

    Sophia spoke up, ¡°You can certainly push us, but you are not the only one with contingency plans, and ours will also make your life miserable.¡± It was unsaid, but understood that secrets would come to light.

    ¡°Let¡¯s work together, Commander. Do we have an agreement?¡± Carla said.

    ¡°It won¡¯t hold up in court,¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°No, but if we end up in court, everything is bust.¡± Carla said, ¡°We are willing to move ahead with trust and general agreement. Are you?¡±

    Lewis thought for a bit, then nodded, ¡°Very well, I accept the agreement in principle and will do my best to honour the spirit of it.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, commander. We also accept and will endeavour to abide by the spirit of it,¡± Carla said, and Soph and I also agreed verbally for the recordings.

    Carla nodded to me.

    ¡°There are several reasons why we want to use this anomaly. You are aware different anomalies have different colours?¡±

    Lewis and Amanda nodded.

    I believe they give off a different energy. I have been calling it essence, so we will stick to that. I believe some of the different essences will clash with each other; it may be related to the colour, or it may be something completely unknown.¡±

    I took a breath, ¡°Something happened in this last mutation that created a link or a connection between Carla and my essences. That is how I was able to save her. I pumped my essence down the link, and it was enough to pull her through and the mutation to complete. If I hadn¡¯t, she would be dead. As it is, she doesn''t have enough essence to change between her forms without me sharing essence with her.¡±

    ¡°He has a fuck ton of essence, like maybe five or six times what I have,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°And it took everything to keep her alive, Maybe not everything; I was only half refilled from the first time.¡±

    ¡°So it refills,¡± Amanda said.

    ¡°Yes, but rates and stuff we will have to experiment with.¡±

    ¡°Why do you have so much more than Carla?¡± she asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. It could be personal differences. My working theory is that the number of mutations you go through is the main factor. We are off-topic. What Carla and Sophia want to try is to recreate the link between themselves. Therefore, compatibility between the essences is an essential starter.¡±

    ¡°I understood mutations were random,¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t believe they are totally random. I believe they can be guided. I get that theory from my mutations. The first time I found I was in the essence Sphere of this anomaly, I was stung by a mutated Jellyfish. What changed is my skin.¡±

    Amanda perked up even more if that was possible.

    ¡°I believe my skin became like the membrane of a jellyfish and can absorb oxygen from the water because I no longer need to breathe when underwater. It works on land as well, but I think the humidity of the atmosphere plays a part there. More testing required.¡±

    ¡°I can focus our current cellular testing now we know what to look for,¡± Amanda said.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    ¡°That is a very useful skill to have,¡± Lewis said. I could tell his mind had made the connections, and he was thinking about how mutations could benefit the Navy.

    ¡°The risk of death is real. I think the 50/50 chances are the random mutations. I think with directed mutations, the chances of living are better, and with medical intervention, they improve again. Between Carla and I, we have four mutations. Without medical intervention, the survival rate was three out of four. With medical intervention, it is four out of four.¡±

    ¡°Medical intervention alone was not enough,¡± Amanda pointed out.

    ¡°No, but it made the difference that mattered, and I have no doubt you will get better as you know more,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Think about the benefits if we can guide the mutations,¡± I said. ¡°Carla has gills, and I can breathe underwater. Her body is tougher and pressure-resistant. Scales protect her, and who knows what else is in her other forms? She is essentially a shape changer. Can she enable other forms in the future? There is a good indication she can.¡±

    ¡°You are avoiding telling us your other mutations,¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°My other mutations all revolve around senses. My sense of hearing and smell are off the charts. I mean, off the charts, it is hard for me to control and concentrate. I can hear your heartbeats. I can hear the heartbeat of the guard at the door. The smell is a pain. I can smell your deodorant and what you had for lunch. I can fucking smell you are on your period,¡± I said to the Navy flunky, ¡°If you are here to seduce me, that is not a good start.¡±

    ¡°Bob,¡± growled Carla, accompanied by a strong long pulse. ¡°I apologise for Bob. He is blunt, rude and doesn¡¯t care what others think of him. She is not here to seduce you, Bob.¡±

    ¡°What else am I to think? She is pretty and sitting there with a pen and fucking paper even though the meeting is being recorded. What else is she here for?¡±

    ¡°She is with the Navy legal department,¡± Sophia said, ¡°You can tell by that badge on her shoulder.¡±

    ¡°Did you not see her give the Commander permission to accept our agreement?¡± Carla said. ¡°Now you have pissed off a lawyer. You are so fucked.¡±

    ¡°My life is so fucked anyway. Maybe I should go for another mutation.¡±

    ¡°No!¡± said Carla and Soph together.

    Carla continued, ¡°I can¡¯t change form without you, and I don¡¯t want to be called Fishface for the rest of my life.¡±

    ¡°Bugger!¡± I said, frustrated, ¡°I was saving that one for an opportune time.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps,¡± said Commander Lewis in commander mode, ¡°We can put down the previous comments as a simple example of the power of his mutation.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir,¡± said the Lieutenant flunky.

    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t suck up to him¡­¡±

    ¡°Bob!¡± Carla and Soph said together.

    ¡°Shut up.¡± continued Carla.

    ¡°Is there anything else we should know about your mutations, Mr. Wilkinson?¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°Actually, yes. There is one more I need help with. I think it is from the shark and is called electroreceptors or electromagnetism. I sense electrical fields that are close to me, like within two meters. I turned to Amanda, sitting next to me, ¡°I can sense the electrical fields in your arm, but there is more. It is like a huge electrical field we are swimming in. I did some research on sharks, and there is a lot of data to indicate sharks can sense the earth''s geomagnetic field, and that is how they navigate.¡±

    ¡°That is fascinating,¡± Amanda said, ¡°I look forward to helping you with that.¡±

    ¡°That is a lot of mutations for only three times,¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°I am special. I don¡¯t know why some get one, and some get more. Look at her,¡± I said, pointing to Carla, ¡°She went crazy and got at least two massive ones on her first try.¡±

    ¡°I want a clarification,¡± Amanda said, ¡°You, Carla, want to recreate the essence link but with Sophia. What you haven¡¯t said is what you think would help direct that mutation?¡±

    ¡°This is all speculation, but there was a lot of blood in the water when we were fighting the shark,¡± Carla said, ¡°Mine, his, the sharks. That is what we think might direct the mutation.¡±

    ¡°Mutation seems to be directed by being affected by a mutated creature in the essence Sphere of an Anomaly Point,¡± I said. ¡°I was mutated already, as was the shark. She has a link with me, but not the shark. The shark may have died, or maybe it was random, I don¡¯t know. Maybe it is something else entirely.¡±

    ¡°That seems pretty flimsy to risk your life over,¡± Amanda said to Sophia.

    ¡°The main thing is having the same essence,¡± Sophia said. ¡°If we don¡¯t create the link, we don''t. I am committed to Carla. I need to be able to be there to stop her from doing more crazy things. Bob is not a good influence. If she hadn¡¯t been in hospital on New Year''s Eve, we would have been in Rotorua in the hot pools, and I would have proposed to her.¡±

    ¡°Would you?¡± Carla said excitedly, ¡°I accept. All we need now are the hot pools.¡±

    ¡°No, we don¡¯t,¡± said Sophia, leaning over and kissing her.

    ¡°Congratulations on your engagement,¡± said Amanda.

    They both smiled back at her.

    ¡°Do you think the method you described for directing the mutation is reliable?¡± Lewis asked me.

    ¡°I don¡¯t fucking know, but that is what happened to me,¡± I said.

    ¡°But we can only test it with people,¡± he said.

    ¡°Are you thinking of getting some volunteers?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yes, and I am thinking we could get an aquarium of sea creatures and leave them to mutate close to the anomaly, and then the volunteers could kill, cut, eat, whatever is needed to direct the mutation.¡±

    ¡°Death or bad mutations are a real option.¡±

    ¡°We are the Navy. Death is always a possibility. We put our lives on the line for our country.¡±

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t just think about sea creatures. I bet those gulls are mutating, and Auckland does have a zoo.¡±

 20. Procrastination.

    The moment I was released from the hospital, I took off.  Lewis may have been sending a car to pick me up and take me to the Navy base, but my memory is a bit hazy.

    Sophia got me a prepaid debit card, loaded some cash on it, and I went home. My laptop was at my apartment, and Maple was a sweetie and let me in again. I used the Laptop to cancel my bank cards and order more, but the banks were closed for the holidays. I set up the new phone Soph got me, and Internet banking will have to do me for a while.

    Lewis was adamant that nothing was leaving the quarantine zone until the quarantine was lifted. Apparently, that was the whole purpose of the quarantine. I would not get my bike back until at least two months after the anomaly is destroyed.

    I didn¡¯t stay at home as the Navy knew where I lived, and I was seriously done with people for a while. Not only were they LOUD and annoying, but they also SMELLED. I think I had done well to last this long.

    I packed a bag with some clothes and a laptop and left it with Maple to give to the nice young people in Navy uniforms who came asking for me. I told her I had a new job for them and would be going away for a few days. I said the navy people could use a dose of good old-fashioned syrupy goodness to make their day and asked her to sugar-coat it for them. Then I gave her all my leftover alcohol as a thank you. I know her family has been restricting her access to alcohol because she goes a bit overboard, but I think it helps her enjoy life. I wish I had a camera setup.

    I went down to the beach. There were signs saying it was closed, and no swimming was allowed. I had a small waterproof bag with clothes, a towel, a phone, etc on my back. And of course my jandels. About 1.5km from where I live are the Bean Rocks, and an automated lighthouse is on those rocks. A 1.5km swim, including with the tides and currents, is not that difficult for me. It is a great place to get away from everybody, and no pleasure boats are out today.

    Swimming is a bit different now. I noticed it when I swam out with Carla to the anomaly. I am not as buoyant as I was. People usually float, especially in saltwater. It is probably just a combination of me not having fat and not holding air in my lungs. With lungfuls of air, I still float.

    I can see better underwater, so that is useful.

    My smell is different. To smell underwater, I have to have water up my nose. That is going to take a lot of getting used to. In fact, I don¡¯t think I can do it. Sharks continually have water flowing in their mouths and out their gills. I do not. My sense of smell is going to be useless to me underwater. Sharks can sense blood at huge distances, and I can¡¯t stand water up my nose. This is me learning about mutations and how they work. They are not all good. I think my Smell will be useful on land if I can learn to control it some.

    My sense of hearing is great. I can hear all sorts of things. Boats moving through the water splashes and fish, and I can track things by hearing. I am not even halfway to the lighthouse, and I can hear the waves splashing against the structure while underwater. This is a good mutation.

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    The tide is in, so the rocks are submerged when I arrive. I explore around under the water, testing my senses. I am going to need some diving knowledge and skills, and I have yet to test how deep I can go. I assume the Navy will teach me all that.

    The ladders up to the lighthouse are locked behind grills, but climbing up the outside is easy. It is only about three stories high. There is an inside where the light mechanism is housed and maintained, but I am not going to smash my way in. There is a narrow porch where I sit and enjoy the peace and test the sea air for different scents.

    Ferries still come and go to the different parts of the coast. There is one container ship coming past to the port. A couple of naval vessels come and go.

    I didn¡¯t get to the beach on the other side of the harbour until after 4 pm, but it doesn¡¯t get dark until half-eight at this time of year. It does cool off, but I think my tolerance for the cold has strengthened a bit. It is all the small things I am noticing.

    I decided I wouldn¡¯t swim for home. I would swim for the peninsula on the other side of the harbour. It is about the same distance, and the Navy base is on that side. I hope Maple wasn¡¯t too drunk to give them my bag.

    It took me a bit over an hour in the wind and tides, and I was tired toward the end. It was night now, and I was testing my Electroreceptors and how they might help me navigate. I couldn¡¯t figure it out. I could sense the earth''s field, and I could sense some small changes, but it didn¡¯t help me. Maybe it needs a wider area than three to four kilometres. Maybe I just suck at it.

    I made landfall at North Head because of the tides, which meant there was a bit of a walk around the coast to the naval base. Luckily, I had my jandels. This is a rich part of town, so there were restaurants open. I was a little underdressed for fancy restaurants in my swimming trunks, t-shirt and jandels. I ordered off their takeaway menu and went to eat on the dark beach.

    It was nice. Pleasant. Some people don¡¯t get the concept of being peopled out, but it is very real to me. I wondered what the time was. I started swimming at around 4 pm. The sun went down at 8:30 ish. I sigh, pull out my phone, and turn it on. It starts beeping at me. It is eleven at night. There were several voice messages that I ignored. I hadn¡¯t even set up my answer phone message yet to say don¡¯t bother leaving a voice message but text me. I am not interested in listening to people rabbit on when a simple text would do.

    There were several texts from Lewis, which I skipped to see the one from Carla. Carla¡¯s just said, ¡°Lewis is grumpy at you.¡± She needn''t have bothered with it. I could tell Lewis was grumpy. At least she kept it down to five words.

    I didn¡¯t bother reading the texts from Lewis but walked up to the naval base guard station. My name was on their list to let in, but I didn¡¯t have any Photo ID on me to prove who I was. My Driver''s Licence was in quarantine with my bike. This involved getting someone down to the guard station to verify who I was. The only people I knew were Commander Lewis and Lieutenant Flunky. Apparently, that wasn¡¯t her proper name.

    Eventually, a grumpy commander turned up and passed me to another flunky to get a temporary ID and show me to my bed. It was one-ish when I eventually got to my new room and discovered my bag had made it. That was a miracle in itself. I had a quick shower and fell asleep.

 21. Navy.

    I usually like waking early in the morning because it is quiet and no one is around, but not on a naval base, especially not on a naval base with super hearing. I was never going to get any peace and quiet here. Maybe I will swim back again.

    I decided to wander out and find some breakfast. This is my first time on a military base of any sort. I followed my nose to where I could smell food. The mutation is going to be useful on land.

    I was gathering some strange looks, but I guess I was the only one not in uniform. In my opinion, t-shirt, shorts, and jandels should be the standard uniform in summer. I found a dining hall, but apparently, I was not allowed to eat there. I was in the wrong Mess. Why can¡¯t they just call them the dining hall or a Food Court like normal people?

    Civilian Consultants were supposed to eat in the Officer''s Mess. I didn¡¯t know why we had to eat in anyone''s mess. The officer''s mess was fancier than the other one, and I was told I could not enter wearing open-toed shoes. They were not impressed when I kicked off my jandels and tried to enter barefoot. I was going to be reported to the duty officer, whoever they were. I just shrugged. I told Lewis it would be better if I went home.

    When the young man on the door discovered I had only bought jandals with me, he had a junior run off and got me some standard-issue boots. When they arrived, I slipped them on. I didn¡¯t bother with the socks or lacing them and went in to have my breakfast. Apparently, t-shirt, shorts and boots are more acceptable. Who knew? It is my first time on a military base.

    I was sitting in a quiet corner, trying to be left alone and sipping my third cup of tea, when another flunky ran up. Apparently, I was supposed to report for a medical examination, and I was late. It sounds like being late is the ultimate crime around here.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, kid, nobody told me.¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir, orders should have been delivered to your room.¡±

    ¡°That sounds labour intensive. Have you not heard of messaging apps?¡±

    ¡°Yes, sir. Can I ask you to hurry, sir? We juniors tend to cop the blame regardless of fault. Shit flows downhill and all that.¡±

    ¡°It sounds like I am the man that is needed around here then.¡± At the questioning look, I said, ¡°I am a civil engineer. Making shit flow uphill is definitely something I can do.¡±

    The medical exam was pathetic. There is no mention of mutations, just standard stuff and filling out forms. I might have made some of the answers up. I don¡¯t know why I bothered coming here.

    After lunch, I was escorted to see Commander Lewis.

    ¡°I have half a dozen complaints on my desk already. I have a city in crisis. I don¡¯t have time for your shit.¡±

    ¡°It is not my shit. They are your regulations. I don¡¯t know them or care about them. And what was with that fucking useless medical exam? I thought we had a bloody city in crisis.¡±

    ¡°The medical exam was needed to get you access to the training facilities. I fit it in while I was waiting for Miss Vaa¡¯i to be discharged. She is now ready. We are leaving by Helicopter now, picking up Miss Vaa¡¯i and Miss Hardcastle at the hospital helipad and flying out to the HMNZS Manawanui, which arrived at the quarantine zone this morning. We will be based on the Manawanui until the Anomaly is dealt with, six days from now.¡± He breathed, ¡°I have had clothing and footwear issued to you for safety reasons aboard ship. This is not a pleasure cruise.¡±

    No, it sounded like my worst fucking nightmare. I thought being stuck in a harem apocalypse was my worse nightmare, but now I am going to be stuck on a boat with who knows how many fucking people and nowhere to escape. For six bloody days. I am even more glad I took time out yesterday. Maybe I will last more than a day before going insane.

    The helicopter ride was great. A quick hop across the harbour to pick up Carla and Sophia and then a nice flight to the Manawanui. I had only flown over the gulf once, and that was two decades ago.

    It turns out the HMNZS Manawanui is the Navy¡¯s diving support vessel. There were forty crew members permanently stationed on it, and they were frantically making room for many more who were expected to arrive soon. I would be sharing a small bunk cabin with Carla, Sophia and Amanda the doc. Amanda was already on board.

    Amanda is probably around ten years older than me. She is short and slim with brown hair. I had looked her up as soon as I could, and she was born in India and trained in the UK, specialising in internal medicine. That meant she focused on the internal organs and diseases that affected them. She had done some genetic stuff as well. I bet Carla¡¯s body being strengthened against pressure was right up her alley.

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    There was no way Carla¡¯s mutation was going to remain hidden on a crowded ship like this, so I don¡¯t know what Lewis¡¯s problem was. If he also ends up getting volunteers to mutate, this is going to be public knowledge as soon as we dock. If not sooner. The Navy might not know about messaging apps, but I bet the people do.

    There will still be a public backlash to mutations because that is just people. He probably wants to control the release and put their spin on it. The Navy has everything under control blah blah.

    The navy didn''t waste time as Carla, Sophia, and I were in a conference room all afternoon getting a crash course on diving from the head of the dive team, whatever they were called. Tomorrow, we will be in the water, practising and testing. Technically, Sophia didn¡¯t need this, but she may, and what the hell else was she going to do?

    All the dive teams were currently out in the water looking to capture mutated fish that had swum away from the anomaly. They focussed on where the trawlers had got most of the dead ones. Switching from killing to capture was not easy, and the trawlers were being equipped with makeshift containers to keep mutated fish alive if they could.

    The diving course was the basics. We had a crash course in depths and pressure and different types of air. We practised hand signals, putting the equipment on and off and checking it. Carla¡¯s scales did not phase the instructor, so he had been briefed.

    My brain was full by the end of the day. The ship¡¯s helipad was at the front. I suppose it is called the bow. As I entered the deck, the flunky there said the next landing was due in 45 minutes. I walked to the front and just watched as the ship slowly moved through the moderate swell and let my mind drift.

    My mind kept plugging away at the fact that Carla needed Essence to change forms. None of my mutations required me to use Essence actively. Maybe I was using it without realising it? I had a lot, so maybe I didn¡¯t notice it when I used it. Do I use it for my poison? Back when it was my only mutation, I felt weak after a couple of pieces of fruit. Was that the poison running out or my essence at the time? I have been through two mutations since then. When I fought the shark, I had been through two mutations, and I used a lot of poison without feeling weak. I was exhausted and hurt, so maybe I didn¡¯t notice.

    I feel this is important, and I don¡¯t have time and space to consider it. This is why I need space. I need head space to think. I do not need distractions like the flunky coming to tell me to get off the helipad for the incoming helicopter. I can hear the helicopter quite clearly and track it. I have plenty of time.

    I sigh. I am not going to have time and space until the anomaly is dealt with. I head into the ¡®mess¡¯ to find some dinner.

    After dinner, Commander Lewis summoned the four of us to a meeting.

    ¡°We have collected enough live fish that we are sure are already mutated for a first attempt at mutating with four volunteers. These Navy personnel will go with Miss Vaa¡¯i and Mr Wilkinson near the anomaly. You will stop before it gets dangerous, but inside the mutation zone. You will deploy a platform, which will be anchored to the seabed, and cages of various animals and some aquatic creatures will be left there so we can monitor them as they mutate. The volunteers will attempt to direct their mutations with the already mutated creatures, and then you will return here. Dr Mohan will have the infirmary ready here, but we may evac them to Auckland if necessary.¡±

    ¡°I anticipate it will be,¡± Amanda said, ¡°the rooms are being prepared now. I will go with them.¡±

    ¡°The plan is to monitor the animals and watch the mutations. This in itself is a worthwhile exercise. From tomorrow, we will have five days before the destruction of the anomaly. We plan to hold off on sending more volunteers until the first four have mutated and we can see the results.¡±

    ¡°Based on the two of you,¡± Amanda said, ¡°that will take three days.¡±

    ¡°That will give us one to two days to send the final volunteers, depending on the animals that survive. We anticipate that you will go with the second wave of volunteers, Miss Hardcastle.¡±

    ¡°I have some questions,¡± I said.

    ¡°Go on.¡±

    ¡°Would it be possible for Carla and I to spend longer in the anomaly¡¯s essence sphere?¡±

    ¡°I anticipated that and possibly. We can send a small rubber dingy with you, but if the volunteers are overcome and need to be extracted, that will be the first priority. We will be able to communicate.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough. Secondly, when Carla and I were taken to Auckland Hospital that first time, I would have been wearing a diver''s watch. What happened to that watch?¡±

    Lewis looked at Amanda, who shrugged her shoulders. ¡°Why is that important?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Because when Carla and I swam out to the anomaly, I recorded where I felt the effective sphere of mutation was using the satellite navigation on it. This time, both Carla and I should be able to sense it, and we can see how far it has grown.¡±

    ¡°That is important information to have had,¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°Yes, well, I haven''t had any time to bloody think. I have been rushed around and crowded with people. It is not helpful.¡±

    ¡°I will contact the hospital,¡± Amanda said. ¡°Patient possessions would normally be kept with the patient, but this was a special case.¡±

    ¡°There will be more instructions tomorrow, but right now, I want the volunteers to come and talk to you and get a first-hand account of what they might expect.¡±

    I sighed. It was going to be a long night.

 22. Lab Rats.

    It was a long night, but it was also a late start in the morning. The barge wasn¡¯t scheduled to leave the Auckland Naval base until 11 am, and it was a slow-moving barge.

    This meant we got to try the dive gear, and, more importantly, Carla got to use her gills for the first time. She seemed quite pleased. We both went in with only a mask and flippers first. She could really slide through the water. It was faster than I could, and swimming is my thing. I am pretty sure she could also go deeper than me, but that would have to wait until we get proper sensors on so we don¡¯t cripple ourselves. I enjoyed it, and she enjoyed it, and I was only a little bit envious.

    I spent some time testing my senses in the deeper water. Then we were called back aboard, and the HNNZS Manawanui started to sail around the Quarantine zone to meet with the barge.

    When I saw the barge, I was impressed. The thing looked like a farmyard. There were cages everywhere. Two large tanks had been welded at each end. One end had saltwater fish with dividers in different sections. There was a tank of sprat, another with snapper and kahawai, and one had several sting rays. One tank had four baby sharks, two hammerheads and two copper sharks. After the saltwater tank, there were cages with cats and dogs. I think they had raided every animal shelter in the city. They also bought out the pet stores. Hamsters, rabbits, mice etc. There were cages with birds, budgies, parrots, pigeons, etc. Then came the farmyard animals, chickens, sheep, and goats. The tank at the other end had freshwater fish, eels, trout, salmon, catfish, etc. They were serious about testing the effect of the mutations, and the scientists would have a field day afterwards. The barge was rigged with sensors, cameras, feed, and water to keep the animals alive for a few days.

    Then there were the plants. They didn¡¯t just raid the pet sores but also the garden centres and nurseries. There, we potted plants all over the place, both native and exotic. By far, the majority were fruit and vegetable plants, but I think they went for some of everything. I assume a large quarantined scientific compound will be created after this. What kind of fruit and vegetables could be grown from the surviving mutated plants?

    The second wave of volunteers would also have a lot of choice amongst the animals that still lived. Then it occurred to me. They could choose to have their mutations guided by a plant. If fish mutation can cross to mammals like Carla, then why not plants? What is the worst that could happen? Do you grow grapevines instead of hair? Do you have to plant yourself? I looked at the bamboo; it is a tough, flexible plant. Bamboo skin would be interesting and the regrowth!

    Having met the four initial volunteers last night meant I knew them. They were not just faceless military flunkies anymore. The woman in charge was a large Maori woman with traditional tattoos on her chin. She was Lieutenant Wihongi and came across as competent and respected, yet she had a quick sense of humour and a boisterous laugh. She laughed often. There was Chief Petty Officer McDonald who was the strong, silent seaman who didn¡¯t ask many questions but seemed to be taking everything in. The short, inquisitive Asian girl who never seemed to stop asking questions was Ensign Jeong, and the final member was actually our diving instructor, Warrant Officer Toki. I was never going to remember their names.

    When you get to know people, the fact that at least one of them is probably going to die in the next couple of days has a bigger impact. I might be causal with my life, but I am a loner asshole. Other people can choose to put their own lives at risk, but at this time, they are doing it based on my half-cooked theories.

    The barge was self-propelling and towed two small rubber boats with outboards. I am guessing the second wave of volunteers would pilot the barge out of the area before they blow the anomaly.

    The seaman made sure we knew how to operate the boats, and we settled down for the slow journey from the edge of the quarantine to the bay with the anomaly. We slowed even further as we neared the cove. Carla and I went to the front of the barge. We were to signal when we felt we were in the essence sphere. They would record both positions and compare them with the data from my recovered watch.

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    I could tell Carla was nervous. This was the first time back after her mutation.

    ¡°Don¡¯t risk another mutation,¡± I reminded her. I knew she was tempted. If she could grow her own essence pool, she could change shape without me. It would be very tempting. I would succumb to it. ¡°Be cautious for Soph. You have a fiance now.¡± Yes, Soph had been coaching me as she was worried.

    Carla nodded.

    I sensed it first and waved at the Lieutenant. It was maybe another hundred meters before Carla sensed it. The barge slowed even further.

    Carla and I started to control and absorb the essence. I am pretty sure my theory on the essence is sound. The volume you can hold is based on the number of mutations you have been through, probably with some personal variations. The control and absorb are about condensing and making what you have more robust. I am sure there are many more uses for the essence than what we know now, but that is for later.

    When Carla signalled she was in a strong but comfortable place, the crew started setting the anchors and securing the barge. They then prepped one of the small boats, and I watched them all go to the separate tank with the already mutated fish in. One by one, they reached into the tank and did whatever they had chosen to do. We had told them about what we each did. I was stung, Carla ate, and we both shared blood with the shark. They were all using the first aid kit and swallowing, so they were all committed.

    ¡°Right, you two, we are off now.¡± the lieutenant said, ¡°The Manawanui will let you know when we are out of the quarantine zone. Stay in touch, and don¡¯t do anything stupid.¡± I am pretty sure that was Lewis¡¯s main fear. From our track record, the likelihood of us doing something stupid was quite high. ¡°Oh, and remember,¡± The lieutenant said, ¡°If you get the urge to fool around in this lovely cove, you will be recorded from multiple angles for the entire navy to watch!¡±

    ¡°Please do!¡± yelled the small Asian girl. I have got to get better at names.

    We watched them motor off out of the cove and disappear around the headland.

    ¡°What do you want to do first?¡± I asked Carla.

    ¡°I am actually good here for a bit, just getting used to this,¡± she said.

    ¡°Your essence always felt stronger and more condensed than mine from the start,¡± I said as I re-tasted it through the link. ¡°I think I will take the boat a bit closer and see how it feels to me. I want to test my senses in the water and see how they might sense the anomaly.¡±

    ¡°Are you going to get in the water?¡± Carla asked.

    After the shark attack, we are both more cautious about getting in the water. I am confident my hearing will warn me of danger, but I am a bit nervous. ¡°If I do, I will maintain in contact with the boat so I can get out.¡±

    ¡°Do you want me to come as backup?¡±

    ¡°How are you handling this level of essence?¡±

    ¡°This is comfortable, and I am improving in my control.¡±

    ¡°We should both stay safe,¡± I agreed. ¡°I won¡¯t go too far, and I will have the flippers, knife and spear. I need to put my head under the water, but I might not even get out of the boat.¡±

    ¡°OK.¡±

    I got on the radio to the ship, ¡°I am going to take the boat closer and test some of my senses. Where I stop is where it is just starting to get uncomfortable for me.¡±

    ¡°Roger, that.¡± was the reply. ¡°We expect you back on the barge by twelve-fifteen, and we will get you both to eat meal pack 1.¡±

    The animals were not the only lab rats here. There was a whole schedule of experiments for us. The first was if we could eat food that has been in the Essence Sphere for various periods.

    I looked up and spotted two drones. There were probably more higher up from the Air Force. I pulled in the small boat and prepped it. We had voice recorders, and we were supposed to record what we saw and felt. There were even bags for us to shit and piss in as well so they could be tested. I was going to piss in the ocean like usual.

    Lab rats. I looked over the barge. Yep, there was a cage of rats. Actual lab rats.

    Fucking hell.

 23. Showtime.

    <h2>23. Showtime.</h2>

    I used the outboard motor to move closer to the Anomaly. I would need to check with the maps, but I am sure where I detected the Essenance Sphere would be reaching the shore on the other side of it. It was also stronger. I stopped the boat well back from where I had waited when Carla was on the rocks. I wasn¡¯t close to being overwhelmed, but I was under pressure.

    I dropped anchor. I spent some time looking at the clear water for hazards. I think the shark had shaken me more than I thought. The tide was about mid-way in.

    I took off my T-shirt and put on the flippers. I strapped the diver''s knife to my leg. Before taking the plunge, I grabbed the rope on the edge of the boat and leaned over far enough to stick my head under the water.

    I listened. I could hear fish moving around. Nothing large seemed to be around, but the jellyfish wasn¡¯t large either. I let water up my nose for a one-off sniff. I couldn¡¯t smell blood, but there were a lot of smells I could not recognise.

    Before I took the plunge, I tried my Electro-receptors. I had been doing this, but there was a lot of interference on a bloody warship. Here, I could sense the Earth''s geomagnetic field quite well. I was about 35km from the Bean Rock Lighthouse, but it was westerly. This morning¡¯s swim from the Manawanui was about eight to ten km North of here. From my research, the earth''s geomagnetic fields were the strongest at the poles. That makes sense, as that is how compasses work.

    The nearest pole to me was the south pole, and I could feel the field being a bit stronger here than this morning, ten km north. I think that with a bit of practice, I will always know where South is. I guess if I were in the Northern Hemisphere, I would be sensing the North Pole. I have no idea why anyone would want to live in the northern hemisphere. I will stick to my little slice of paradise. Thank you very much.

    Unfortunately, my little slice of paradise is not going to be exempt from being fucked along with the rest of the world.

    Enough delays. Time to fully submerge and see what is around. I slipped over the edge of the boat and floated under the water, looking and sensing. I heard a propeller start up, and soon, a remote underwater drone appeared. I ignored it, but I was annoyed. And it fucked with my hearing. It is a shame the anomalies only seem to affect the living.

    I turn my attention to the anomaly itself. I can¡¯t see it, it is too far away. I can¡¯t hear it. I can¡¯t smell it. I take another noseful of water to check, and no, nothing seems to be there. Fuck, I hate doing that.

    My essence core knows it is there, and I can sense its direction. I can obviously sense its strength. What else? Its colour or flavour matches mine. Let¡¯s go with colour. We are compatible. That makes sense since it mutated me, but what would happen when I find a colour I am not compatible with? Eventually, I am going to find that out, but not now.

    My connection to Carla pulses with the signal that it is time to head back to the barge. Meal package one awaits, I assume. It is not an emergency, or that would be a different signal.

    I have a connection to Carla. Do I have a connection to the anomaly? That is a good question. Is its destruction going to hurt us or cut us off or something? I spent some time trying to sense any connection. I couldn¡¯t find any. That doesn¡¯t mean there isn¡¯t one. It just means I couldn¡¯t find one. The destruction of the anomaly will be the test there.

    This is why I need time on my own to think and process. Fuck being with people and always in communication with people. Give me peace and quiet and time to think. I spent some more time before going back to the radio in the boat. I am going to leave it on the barge next time with my phone.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    I surface and head the boat back to the barge, and Carla helps me tie it up and get back aboard. She has stripped down to her bikini, so I admire the view. It is not the string bikini. Her scales were all over her body. I wondered why she was bothering with a bikini.

    ¡°You had better eat your meal,¡± she said, ¡°I had mine half an hour ago at 12:15.¡±

    ¡°Have they been bugging you much?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but I left you alone.¡±

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

    I am not a good lab rat.

    I carefully examined Meal 1, but it looked normal. The apricot looked and tasted like an apricot. The assumption is the resistance against mutating will extend to what we eat as it seems to extend to the microbes that we breathe. This, of course, needs testing. Does food that is alive but not growing mutate? Can we eat mutated animals and plants in the anomaly¡¯s essence sphere without mutating? They are reasonably sure we can. Lunch was an egg sandwich, fruit, an energy bar and lots of water.

    ¡°How''s the essence?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Good. It is getting stronger, tougher, more compact, and my control is improving.¡±

    ¡°Mine is too, but yours seems to me improving faster. I am not sure if it is because of how much I have or if you are better at this than me.¡±

    ¡°Probably both.¡±

    ¡°Probably both,¡± I agreed. ¡°Are you going to go for a swim?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, just around the barge. I was waiting until you got back. I want to test the gills more and try different swimming techniques. I will see what works for me in this form.¡±

    I eyed her up and down, ¡°You know you are still looking good.¡±

    Carla laughed, ¡°You have strange tastes, Bob. It probably wouldn¡¯t feel so good if we were to put on a show for the Navy.¡± She grabbed my hand and ran it up and down her scales.

    ¡°Not sure,¡± I said. ¡°It would need testing.¡±

    She laughed again, ¡°You fucking idiot.¡±

    ¡°Oh, wait. I am not used to thinking about others. What does Soph think about us and ¡­¡±

    ¡°And your teenage sexual innuendos?¡±

    ¡°And the sex,¡± I said.

    ¡°She is OK. Being A-sexual doesn''t mean she is anti-sex, it just doesn¡¯t do much for her. She doesn¡¯t feel sexual attraction. It is the emotional attraction that is important to her. We have had sex, but I can tell she is just doing it for me. She is fine with me getting sex elsewhere.¡±

    ¡°So you have your stable of men and women around the city, huh?¡±

    Carla laughed, ¡°Something like that. Soph and I have been serious for a bit over two years, and I have had to cull my stable. People start to want to connect and share lives, go on dates, etc, emotionally. You, Bob, are my emotionally stunted hero.¡±

    ¡°What, even before I saved your life?¡±

    ¡°Yes, even before you saved my life.¡±

    ¡°Twice.¡±

    ¡°Yes, twice. Soph is fine with us having sex. It is your personality that is tough to get used to.¡±

    ¡°I can understand that. So she would be OK with us putting on a show for the Navy, then?¡±

    Carla laughed again, ¡°Soph would be fine, but I am not. I am not used to this form yet, and I need to get used to it. I am going to go for a swim. You might need to cool off a bit as well. When we have a chance to slow down, you can help me back into my human skin, and then we can experiment.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough. If we mess it up and you end up in your shark form, you are not coming near me with those teeth!¡±

 24. A glimpse.

    Carla dove over the side of the barge. I was about to follow her when the radio cackled to life. I looked at it, and I was this close to not ignoring it, but in the end, I did ignore it and splashed into the water. It was a nice day. We were alone in a lovely cove with a farmyard of animals complaining about life. Why wouldn¡¯t I go for a swim?

    I climbed back onto the barge about half an hour later. I checked my phone, and there were a number of messages. See, why do they need to talk to me when they can just message me? I had a long drink and browsed the messages.

    ¡°Volunteer Team One is back on the Manawanui¡±

    ¡°The water to the sheep pen is clogged. Please investigate and unclog.¡±

    ¡°A pod of dolphins have neared the quarantine zone, and we are trying to turn them around.¡± I guess the dolphins didn¡¯t get the memo.

    ¡°Volunteer Team One have been evacuated to Auckland. Two of them are having serious difficulty.¡± Well, shit. Not unexpected, but shit.

    ¡°Several animals are showing signs of difficulty and may be starting mutation. Please check the following pens: Mice, cats, goats, rats, and the turtle tank.¡± We have turtles? I can certainly check the cages/ pens, but I don¡¯t know what you expect me to do except say, ¡°Yes, they are showing signs of difficulty.¡±

    Sheep are horrible creatures. Goats are worse. What I did find was that my nose could pick out changes in some of the animals that were starting to mutate. Their smell changed.

    There was not much we could do here. We would not stay overnight because I can¡¯t process essence in my sleep. Yet. One of our jobs in the morning would be to remove the carcasses of the animals that didn¡¯t survive overnight. They want to study them, and they don¡¯t want the other animals in the cages/pens/tanks to eat them.

    Cannibal sheep sound like horror movie material.

    The sun was setting when Carla and I gave up for the day. No wild shark attacks. No dolphins want to mutate. The sheep haven¡¯t turned cannibal yet. Some of the science experiments were completed successfully. Others were ignored. Their poop bags were empty.

    Best of all, neither of us mutated.

    We had an early breakfast, and while we were eating, Commander Lewis came in with good news.

    ¡°Ensign Jeong has woken and is in good health.¡±

    I looked at Carla with an unspoken question.

    ¡°Short Asian chick,¡± she replied, then turned to the commander, ¡°What about her mutation?¡±

    ¡°She tells us she grabbed her fish and used a knife to remove the eyes and ate them, wanting her eyes to mutate. It seems to have worked; her eyes look similar to fish eyes, and she now has exceptional night vision. She will be spending the day with specialists, but it looks like she will be able to join you in the cove tomorrow.¡± The Commander was looking pleased about that.

    ¡°So focussing on one thing might be a key?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It might,¡± Lewis responded.

    ¡°The others?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°No change yet, Warrant Officer Toki is stable. Lieutenant Wihongi and Petty Officer McDonald are in critical condition.¡±

    I saw Soph listening intently. She looks like a woman with a plan. I hope she talks to Carla about it.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    The first job of the morning was to remove the bodies and transport them to the Manwanui, where they would be preserved for future examinations. It took two trips. I am pleased the remaining sheep did not turn cannibal on their dead comrade. The same could not be said for the mice and the rats. Or the fish. It was a horrible job.

    They gave us protective gloves, and I insisted on a quality mask to protect us from the smell. I let Carla deal with the cats. I hate cats. Even with the gloves, she lost some scales to those claws. The plants were just heavy. Two of the sharks were dead and I felt I spent hours with a net over the sprat tank.

    The barge was no longer a pleasant place to be with the stink of faeces, mutation and death. There was a pump and a hose, so hosing most of it away with seawater helped. We would not be swimming near the barge, though, and I am glad my super smell does not really work underwater.

    We certainly know what tasks we will be assigning Ensign Jeong tomorrow.

    We spent most of the day in the small boat upwind or in the water. My essence density had improved. Carla thought hers was at her limit. She kept going so she wouldn¡¯t mutate and tested how close to the Anomaly she could get. I didn¡¯t know if she could stop. Controlling essence was becoming second nature and did not require much conscious thought, so that helped.

    The rest of the day went pretty much like the last. The weather had turned, though, and we had a couple of showers. That didn¡¯t matter if you were underwater.

    We got back to the Manawanui that evening to sad news. Petty Officer McDonald had died, and Warrant Officer Toki had deteriorated and was on critical life support. Lieutenant Wihongi was still critical but not on life support.

    Commander Lewis is considering halving the number of volunteers for the second round because if three out of four sailors need critical care, they do not have the facilities for that. Equipment was being flown in from Wellington, Christchurch and Sydney, but there wasn¡¯t much equipment or personnel to spare. A building on the naval base was being set up as a temporary hospital.

    I was walking to our cabin when I heard voices coming from it. I turned around and went up on deck. Carla and Sophia were having a full-on argument. I assume Soph told Carla what she was planning, and Carla did not like it. I am staying well away from that shit. This is another reason I don¡¯t do relationships.

    Carla was more quiet than usual the next day. This was more than made up for my Ensign, ¡°Call me Min-ho,¡± Jeong. This kid was going to drive me crazy with her incessant chatter. She was wearing the darkest pair of sunglasses she could get as the bright sun hurt her eyes. She would get used to them, she assured us, and she was so excited about them¡­ blah blah blah.

    When we neared the cove, we had her sense when she could feel the anomaly¡¯s essence, and we stopped when she just felt it and taught her to control it and absorb it. We sat floating there for an hour and a half until we were sure she had it. I am sure if she had stopped talking, we would have been done in ten minutes.

    She was struggling with the pressure before we got to the barge, so Carla and I swam in, telling her to stay and practice and only come closer when she was not pressured. If she needed to back away and have a break, she should.

    While this meant we were saved from her continual chatter, it meant we had to do all the scutt work. I am sure somebody warned her, and this was a setup. There weren¡¯t as many bodies this time, but there were a lot of strange mutations visible.

    Thinking back to the first furred spider monstrosity I saw in the internet picture, that was nothing. One of the dogs looked like a dog/spider hybrid, but instead of being 2cm long like in the internet picture, I saw this one was dog-sized.

    There were extra limbs, but I am sure the green goat was photosynthesising. There were wrong mutations as well. I counted three blind mice, but Carla insisted there were only two.

    That cat needed to be put out of its misery as it had lost two legs and all its fur. The citrus tree that had small green fruit now had red fruit and seemed to be catching flies. There was only one shark left in the shark tank, and I am sure it now had two mouths, both full of teeth.

    Bloody hell, I think the last sheep had turned cannibal.

    It was a bloody horror show, and if this was a glimpse into the future, I did not want to be a part of it.

    The Ensign made it to the barge mid-afternoon, took one look at the horror show, and refused to go any further. We gave her the job of loading the carcasses onto the boat. They were smelling, and the ensign stopped talking when she threw up. We sent the Ensign back with the bodies as she was struggling to stay on the barge.

    I was bloody struggling to stay on the barge.

    Lewis can send as many volunteers as he likes. Half of them will refuse to come if he just shows them video footage of this.

    My super hearing caught Carla muttering that she would show Soph today''s video and she might change her mind.

 25. Incredible.

    I am not coming back on the barge again. I will have nightmares from today. I will pilot the boat with the volunteers so someone can get them all back if they keel over, but I am not setting foot on the barge.

    Then Carla said, ¡°Tomorrow, if Soph comes, will you help me look after her in this mess?¡±

    No!

    I will not.

    Fuck all of this, was what I thought.

    What I said was, ¡°Fucking bloody bullshit. You told me I was emotionally bloody stunted, but I am considering agreeing with you because of a bloody emotion.¡±

    Carla sighed. ¡°I know. There is some emotional transference through the link.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t do emotions, I don''t do relationships. You underhanded, crooked, scheming shrew.¡±

    ¡°I know that, you selfish bastard, but you will do it anyway?¡±

    ¡°Yes, I will bloody do it anyway. Fucking Sophia is my exact opposite, you know. Fucking emotions are her thing, and I am always going to be defective, and I bloody like it that way.¡±

    ¡°I know. That was part of our fight yesterday. She told me her plan, which is crazy enough to be one of my plans, and I told her how much actually travels through the link.¡±

    ¡°Fucking hell, bloody mutants. How long?¡±

    ¡°Since you saved me by flooding your essence through the link. You had no reason to save me, we were only fuck buddies. You couldn¡¯t hide anything flooding me like that. You wanted me to live and kick the universe in the nuts, hard and repeatedly. And I did. We did.¡±

    ¡°You were fucking badass.¡±

    ¡°We were fucking badass. I couldn¡¯t have done it without you. I don¡¯t know if you have noticed, but the universe needs a lot more kicking,¡± she waved her hand at the barge. ¡°You know what the clincher was for me? You saw me like this. No hair. Covered in scales, and you didn¡¯t flinch. You still wanted me. Me. Not this body that will scrape all your skin off if you try to fuck me.  Me. I gave you every option to get out. I called you a simple fuck toy.

    You.

    Didn¡¯t.

    Flinch.

    You didn¡¯t run. You could have run the night you got out of hospital. You didn¡¯t. You fucking came on to me the first day on the barge.¡±

    ¡°Were you telling me bullshit about Sophia that day?¡±

    ¡°No, Bob, it is not the sex she has a problem with. It is you.¡±

    ¡°And now that there is fucking emotion in the mix?¡±

    ¡°That is going to take some adjustment.¡±

    ¡°Bloody fucking link. It might not be too late to break it.¡±

    ¡°But you won¡¯t break it¡­¡±

    ¡°Because that will fucking cripple you.¡± I said, ¡°Which shows how much I fucking care. I hate this!¡±

    ¡°And the link shows you how much I care.¡±

    ¡°It also shows me how much you care for Sophia. She will never agree.¡±

    ¡°She didn¡¯t disagree.¡±

    ¡°That is ominous,¡± I said, ¡°What were her conditions.¡±

    ¡°She wants to kick ass too.¡±

    ¡°She knows you are crippled, and we need to fix you?¡± I asked.

    ¡°She knows, but Bob, she didn¡¯t flinch either. She has also just discovered she has to deal with you on an ongoing basis, and she still didn¡¯t run. She yelled. She swore, which is not like her at all. But, she is willing to deal.¡±

    ¡°God, you are an amazing fucking woman. The two of us are so bloody committed to you that we are willing to put up with each other. I don¡¯t fucking believe it.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t fucking believe it either. I must be fucking incredible.¡±

    ¡°Well, you are an incredible fuck, anyway.¡±

    ¡°And down to earth, I come.¡±

    ¡°You say she wants to kick ass?¡±

    ¡°We have to keep her alive, Bob. My mutation was brutal.¡±

    ¡°And her plan is just as crazy as yours?¡±

    ¡°She has more information than I did. It is a refined crazy.¡±

    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°You are alive because of the link, which was an accident. We are hoping the sharing of blood will help create another link,¡± I said.

    ¡°But we don¡¯t know that. It could just as easily have been one of us inclined that way, or it might be random.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, it always did sound too easy. Maybe it was the shark?¡± We both looked at the shark tank. ¡°Fucking crazy, you said.¡±

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Carla replied.

    ¡°So we need to keep her alive so she can be a crazy, badass, fucking ass-kicker.¡±

    ¡°Yeah.¡±

    ¡°Are the three of us really doing this? Together?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Sounds like.¡±

    ¡°You got your phone?¡±

    ¡°Yep. I grabbed all our gear when we loaded the corpses.¡±

    ¡°Get her on the phone.¡±

    Carla pulled her phone and pressed the top speed dial.

    ¡°Hey, Car. You talk to him?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, You are on speaker.¡±

    ¡°You want to be a crazy, badass fucking ass-kicker, I hear,¡± I said.

    ¡°The fucking part I can take or leave.¡±

    ¡°Hah! That is the best line I have ever heard come out of your mouth, and I''ve known you for almost a whole week now. Tell me why.¡±

    ¡°Because Car has always kicked ass and you. You are annoying, crude, rude, arrogant and selfish. But I talked to Dr Mohan. She said you almost killed yourself waking Car up through your link at the hospital. And that wasn¡¯t the first time you almost killed yourself for Car. Why would you do that? My feelings for Car make me want to give my life for her, but you have actually done it twice. Why? You must feel at least the same as me, if not more.¡±

    ¡°I might just be a selfless giving person.¡±

    ¡°You are selfish. I said selfish, not selfless. I have known you a week, and you don¡¯t give a fuck about anybody. EXCEPT for CARLA! You give your fucking life for Carla.¡±

    ¡°God, I am fucked up.¡±

    Carla put a hand on my shoulder, ¡°We know that, Bob. It is one of the things we like about you.¡±

    ¡°Speak for yourself,¡± said Sophia

    ¡°It is one of the things I like about you,¡± corrected Carla. ¡°You have proved your commitment to me even though I have done nothing to deserve it. Soph and I have proved our commitment to each other over the last two years, repeatedly. I fuck you a few times, and you give your life for mine. It doesn¡¯t make sense.¡±

    ¡°You are an incredible fuck.¡±

    Carla smiled, ¡°No, Bob, you are the incredible one. And you can¡¯t back out now.¡±

    ¡°But Soph can.¡±

    ¡°It is Car and me forever. You are now part of that deal. Even though I don¡¯t like you very much, it is now the three of us against a world going crazy.¡±

    ¡°And you want to help us Kickass,¡± I said

    ¡°I do, but it is more complicated than that. Car has always been the physically strong one. When she kicks ass, she does it physically. Her mutations have made her more robust, and once we get these mutation forms sorted, she will be unstoppable, especially with us behind her. I have always been the more social one. That is where I kickass, and that is where I want my mutation to head.¡±

    ¡°I am not sure I understand,¡± I said. ¡°I thought we were going to try to establish a link with you and Carla?¡±

    ¡°Preferably with all three of us, but the chances of that happening are not great. At first, I wanted it so Car could use me to change forms without relying on you. I had no idea then how committed you were. I still want the link, especially now I know it communicates emotions as well. A link might help me understand you because right now, you are just a confusing mess to me. But I am not putting all my cards in that basket. Mutation is risky and out of any direct control. There are no guarantees regardless of what we want.¡±

    ¡°You know you can¡¯t risk the three of us swapping body fluids in the Anomily zone to try to create a link. It would open you up to her mutations as well as mine.¡± I said. ¡°Hers should have killed her. Both of ours will kill you.¡±

    ¡°But¡­¡±

    ¡°No buts, Soph,¡± Carla said. ¡°You want the link, I can understand, but the chances are minuscule, and the risk of death is basically certain. I don¡¯t want to live without you, and I don¡¯t want to be the one that kills you.¡±

    ¡°But, he didn¡¯t become a jellyfish. Not everything transfers.¡±

    ¡°I have five mutations, quite strong ones,¡± I said. ¡°Carla has so many we can¡¯t count. The universe isn¡¯t kind. The dice won¡¯t roll in your favour just because you want it to.¡±

    ¡°It rolled in your favour,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°It didn¡¯t roll in mine,¡± Carla said. ¡°Look at me. I am a fish / shark / human bloody hybrid with intensely painful mutations, and most are useless. Don¡¯t, just please don¡¯t. I don¡¯t want to live without you.¡±

    ¡°You two can discuss it more in person later. What I want to know is, how do you plan to direct your mutation down a social path?¡± I asked.

    ¡°You have on that boat several of the most social creatures on this planet. Dogs. But I don¡¯t want to kill them and eat them and drink their blood or whatever. I want them alive and to form a bond with them.¡±

    ¡°Them? As in more than one?¡±

    ¡°If I can. How many are still alive?¡±

    ¡°Alive and reasonably healthy looking? Three. I am not including the spider dog or the one that ¡­ never mind. It is a horror show here. Why dogs?¡±

    ¡°Dogs seem to have this instinctive understanding of mood and emotion. I grew up with dogs. We even bred a couple of litters. They know when you are down, they know when you''re excited, and they share it. Sure, it is probably just them using their incredible nose, smelling hormones, getting clues from their hearing, etc. But they do it, and they are loyal. That is why dogs. What breeds are the dogs there?¡±

    ¡°Most of them are mongrels from animal welfare compounds. One is definitely a terrier of some sort, maybe not quite half a meter high. Black and tan coat. Seems to bark a lot. One is a labrador crossed with something else.¡±

    ¡°The other is simple,¡± Carla butted in. ¡°It looks almost like a pure breed Staffordshire Terrier. The other terrier is almost like a Manchester Terrier. Both terriers look tough and like fighters, but the labrador does not look so tough. We will try to separate them out, but there are no guarantees. Their mutations are not obvious. You won¡¯t know what you might get.¡±

    ¡°How do you plan to do this bond?¡±

    ¡°I have several ideas. Food is always a good start. I have the kitchen staff prepping some raw meat, which I will bring, so it should not make them mutate further. To a large extent, it will depend on the dogs and their willingness. Sharing blood is a probability.¡±

    ¡°This is something new. I don¡¯t know how to keep you alive when you will probably turn into a were-dog.¡± I said.

    ¡°That is one possible outcome,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Great.¡± I said, ¡°The three of us, Fucktoy, Fishface and Dogbreath. The kick-ass team. Those are some superhero names worthy of a franchise. Better than the aqua guy.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re no Jason Momoa, though,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°No,¡± I said, ¡°That is the wrong way to look at it. Jason Momoa is no Fucktoy.¡±

 26. Getting Emotional.

    We went back to the Manawanui as soon as the Ensign returned from delivering the corpses. We were not staying on the barge any longer than necessary. Carla spent her time with Soph. Soph could be dead a few days from now. The difference between them was apparent. On Carla¡¯s last night, she wanted to fuck. Soph just wanted to spend time and talk. I stayed out of the way. Soph didn¡¯t know me well; I was just a confusing mess to her.

    I had some thinking to do. There would be no Dogbreath if we couldn¡¯t keep Soph alive. I reviewed what we knew and what we had been through. Especially Carla and me. We were both unconscious when we mutated. I didn¡¯t know how or when the link had formed. It was primarily a link between our essence cores. The emotions seem to be along for the ride, a by-product. Or maybe that was the direction I forced it into to save Carla¡¯s life. So many unknowns.

    The link was connected to the essence core when I first found it. I think that is its primary function. That brings the next question: how do emotions affect essence? If emotions are flowing down the essence link, then emotions must affect the essence.

    This is not my fucking area. Sophia should be asking the emotional questions. Bloody hell, I¡¯ll be angry if I suddenly burst into tears. Fuck, anger is an emotion too.

    Emotions and Essence. These were knocking around in my empty head. I was floating in that water, watching Carla on the rock casting her net, when I realised I cared for her. Emotions and essence. There is definitely a link.

    I block, reject, and suppress emotions. I drive people away. I am self-aware enough to see that. It is how I am used to living. I am OK with that. I was OK with that. Carla is different, and I can also sense Soph worming her way in over time. Usually, I would drive her away, but I can¡¯t. I can¡¯t because Carla is already in with her hooks buried deeper than I ever imagined, and Soph is with Carla. Soph will worm her way in and bury her own hooks, and that is how emotional attachment works.

    I am fucking no good at this. Why the hell do I have to think about bloody emotions?

    However, that is not how emotional attachment works. That is only one half of the story. Somehow, my hooks have gotten into Carla. How, when? She said I was her hero because I didn¡¯t get emotional with her. What the fuck?

    I don¡¯t know. I can¡¯t deal with this. I am also getting sidetracked. It doesn¡¯t matter how it happened. It happened.

    The hooks were already sunk deep when I looked at her and realised I cared. Is that what directed the mutation to form a link? The emotion that I cared and she cared. That seems to feel more along the right lines than just sharing blood like some old-fashioned blood sacrifice or vampire ritual. It is also obvious that is not all there is to it.

    Emotions and Essence.

    There is definitely a lot of emotional connection between Carla and Soph. Enough to form a link? How would you use emotion to direct essence mutation? I was fighting to save Carla¡¯s life from the shark, and my own, of course. She fought to save mine. She didn¡¯t have to offer to be bait for it. She could have left me to the shark and swam for shore. She didn¡¯t have to jump back in from the semi-safe rock to knife it. She was fighting for me as much as I was for her.

    We do not want to recreate that.

    Fuck, I don¡¯t know.

    Think. Fuck, there are too many distractions on this ship. Fuck.

    Essence and Emotions and Mutations.

    Obviously, there are more things involved than just emotions. I got poison from the jellyfish and then breathable skin. Why Poison? Was that the jellyfish? The skin might be because partly because of my love for swimming. What other factors are involved? My senses came from the shark. I am certainly more emotionally attached to my eyes, being able to ogle women in the dark rather than to smell them. Yet, smell greatly outstripped my night vision in the boost it got.

    There is another factor. What about the anomaly itself? Why blue? Why that shade of blue? It is a bright, almost fluorescent blue. Blue, meaning it is associated with water, is far too simplistic. This is the real world, not some watered-down fantasy novel. Fuck there are so many unknowns. I wish I was transported to another world and had nice little blue boxes explaining everything to me. I wait expectantly.

    Come on, take me!

    I wait some more.

    Get on with it, super being. I want to leave this place.

    No?

    No. I am stuck in the real world, and the real world is going to shit.

    This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

    Right, back to it. I can¡¯t account for the Anomalies essence because I have no fucking idea what it is. I can only see its effects. It is based in the ocean but has no problem mutating land creatures, plants and birds. I can¡¯t see any patterns in the mutations. I am assuming the science geeks will figure that out in due course. Some mutations are apparent, and some are not. The three dogs will have mutated, but we don¡¯t know how.

    That is, except that emotions MAY influence it, or maybe it influences emotions. Maybe I have the anomaly to blame for my starting to care for Carla. That is a thought. Would it create emotions or maybe enhance emotions? How can something without emotion that we know of create emotion? It is more likely an emotional enhancer. One big emotion-enhancing drug.

    I think back to the barge. Did the mutated creatures display enhanced emotions? Was it an emotional cannibal sheep, or was it just grazing on the corpses of its fellows? How the fuck would I know? Nothing stood out to me, but animals were not my thing, just like people weren''t.

    Fuck.

    How can this help Soph live out her dream as a were-dog?

    Essence, Mutations and Emotions.

    Ensign Jeong. I need to find Ensign Jeong.

    I tracked her down and cut off her verbose and enthusiastic greeting with, ¡°Why the fish eyes? Why not the whole fish or some other part like the gills.¡±

    ¡°Well, we were talking the night before with you, and Carla was describing how she went for everything she could, and it went badly, and you talked about the jellyfish and the skin, and you mentioned you loved swimming, so I thought to reduce the risk I needed to narrow the focus. I didn¡¯t get much sleep that night thinking, and what it came back to was me as a young girl watching my grandfather cook in his small restaurant. He would use fisheyes in his broths and soups, and I would get to taste them. Sometimes, he baked them as a delicacy. It was a good memory, and I was happy then. So I thought, if I am going for one thing, I will go for the fisheyes.¡±

    Fucking hell. Emotion does play a part.

    I need to find Carla and Soph.

    Carla and Soph had retired to the cabin for the night. They were both squeezed together on the same bunk. They weren¡¯t fucking. They were just ¡­ just cuddling. I can¡¯t remember the last time I cuddled something. Or someone. I felt¡­

    I interrupted, ¡°Soph, I need you to tell me more about these dogs you grew up with.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°It is important. Was there one in particular you were attached to?¡±

    Carla interrupted me, ¡°Bob, slow down. Please explain why it is important.¡±

    I took a deep breath and sat on the bunk opposite them as they sat up on their bunk. So, I explained my thinking and reasoning. That took some time, and they had questions, especially about the anomaly being a potential emotionally enhancing drug. Were their emotions real?

    How the fuck would I know? What was important was not if they were real but how we could use them to help Soph live.

    Apparently, they disagreed that it wasn¡¯t important. Fuck, that discussion went on too long. Fuck emotions in general.

    Eventually, we got back to the dogs. Seriously, I could have just fast-forwarded the last hour. I am pretty sure I zoned out, so I wasn¡¯t paying attention anyway.

    Dogs, and Carla and Soph¡¯s emotional connection were now the main topic. How do we use that to form a link and smooth the mutation? Ensign Jeong had the smoothest mutation yet. How much of that was due to the emotional connection? We don¡¯t know, but it is worth trying.

    To do that, Soph would concentrate on the dog that seemed the closest to her dog when she was growing up.

    She still wanted to try forming a link, especially with Carla, but Carla had mostly talked her out of it. I was afraid she would grow envious of our link and become bitter. That needed to be raised, so I blurted it out.

    ¡°Shit,¡± Carla said, ¡°it might happen.¡±

    ¡°If I am honest, I am a bit envious now,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°You know he ignores or suppresses most of his emotions, so most don¡¯t come through the link. Being able to read his strong emotions means I can manipulate him better,¡±

    ¡°I am right here,¡± I reminded them.

    ¡°But¡­ I want to show you so bad how much I care,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°You do, my love. You already do. It takes more work, but that is how I like you showing me. Through the things you do.¡±

    ¡°But you can just sense his emotions.¡±

    ¡°Darling, he is an emotional Neanderthal. It took a fucking anomaly even to get him to think outside his cave, let alone actually take a step,¡± Caral said.

    ¡°Hey, I am right here!¡± I said.

    They ignored me. Carla continued, ¡°We, my love, are the Mozart compared to his caveman smash. I love the little things you do that are just for me. They show me your love. Our symphony does not need the emotional crutch the Neanderthal needs. We know how to communicate beautifully.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re sure?¡±

    ¡°Very, but it is you that needs to be sure.¡±

    Soph looked into Carla¡¯s face for a long time. Eventually, she said, ¡°It is you I trust.¡±

    I decided the Neanderthal needed to have a say, so I said, ¡°Ooh, Ooh, grunt, grunt, smash, smash.¡±

    They threw things at me. How the hell did I end up in this situation? The world has already gone to shit.

    When the discussion wound down, it was very late, early, in fact. Before we went to bed, I was surprised by two big thank-you hugs from the ladies. That was ¡­ nice.

    Apparently, I had given them hope and clarified a way forward. I am just hoping there was some truth to it and that it helps. Damn it. Sophia is worming her way in already.

 27. Dog day.

    Dog day dawned overcast with the news that Warrant Officer Toki died overnight, but Lieutenant Wihongi was conscious and in recovery. A fifty percent death rate was not encouraging. Yes, it was only four people, but half of them died. The deck on the Manawanui was crowded with the next wave of volunteers. Lewis had cut the number down to fifteen, including Sophia. Everybody was given a final chance to reconsider.

    Two people opted out but were replaced by two who had volunteered and hadn¡¯t made the final cut. There were six Army personnel; two were Airforce, and the rest were Navy. Ensign Jeong shared her experience, and then so did Carla, with her scales on full display. I declined to share.

    Sophia was nervous. She still looked committed, but with it returning to a coin toss, I can understand her nervousness. She wasn¡¯t depressed and suicidal like me. She wasn¡¯t crazy like Carla. OK, maybe a little crazy had rubbed off.

    Today, we were taking a larger motor boat into the barge for the increased number of people. Once we arrived at the barge, everybody would split up and find something to guide their mutation. They would have half an hour. Then, the Navy was upping the barge''s anchor and getting it moving away from the cove. Once it was moving, it would be Carla''s and my job to steer it until it was safe for non-mutants to come and take over. They didn¡¯t say non-mutants. Everyone else would pile back into the motor boat and head back to the Manawanui, where helicopters would ferry everyone to the naval base¡¯s prepared med bays.

    Political and public pressure had mounted, and this afternoon, they were blowing the anomaly and most of the cove with it.

    What surprised me was that Commander Lewis was coming himself. That I did not expect.

    ¡°Lieutenant Wihongi is my second on this, so she will be in charge if I am unable from here on in.¡± Wow. a Commander who is willing to put his life on the line like his people. Movies usually show them as cowards at the back giving orders. I guess cowards live longer, but it is also a reminder life is not a movie. Movies have better soundtracks.

    It was a straightforward ride into the barge. Carla informed everyone when they crossed the line of no return.  There were fewer bodies this time, and I checked, and all three dogs were alive.

    The soldiers spread out. This was all new to them, and they were fascinated with some of the mutations. Commander Lewis reminded everyone of the limited time, and people spread out.

    It was time for the dogs. Soph went to the edge of the cages and spoke to them. She fell in love with the labrador cross straight away. It was a friendly dog, and its tail wagged nonstop at the attention. She spoke to it quietly and encouragingly and fed it strips of raw meat she had bought. She soon reached in and tied a rope around its neck, and we had it out of the cage. Its fur was soft, and Soph spent a lot of time scratching its ears, which it seemed to like. I noticed bits of blood on its fur from her hand, but I wasn¡¯t worried if this was the one she had chosen.

    ¡°Ooh, a lab. Are you going to use that for your mutation?¡± one of the army volunteers walked up.

    Soph nodded and stood by the dog.

    He crouched down to have a closer look, ¡°No obvious mutations. There is a lot of weird shit out there. Labs are good in water and good at finding things.¡± He looked up at Soph, ¡°We can share.¡± Then before any of us realised what was going on, he grabbed the labrador and slit its throat.

    ¡°What the fuck?¡± I said, stepping forward. Carla got there first, pushing him away. Otherwise, he would have had a dose of poison from me.

    ¡°What¡¯s the matter, man? That is what we are here to do. Find something to guide our mutation. She looked like she was hesitating.¡±

    ¡°We were trying to keep it alive!¡± Soph exploded.

    ¡°Whoa,¡± he backed up at our aggressive response, ¡°It is all good. I figured the cute face was suckering you in. Sorry if I stuffed your plan. You can have it all. I am good.¡± He raised his blood-covered knife to his lips and licked it clean. ¡°I am all done, and I am looking forward to the hunt.¡± He backed right away and headed to the other end of the barge.

    Fuck.

    Soph knelt down by the cooling body and stroked the fur. She had tears streaming down her face.

    I looked at Carla. This is our fault. We should have made sure we kept people well away.

    Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    Fuck.

    Carla knelt down by Soph and stroked her back, talking quietly. Comfort stuff. I can appreciate it from a distance. I watched the area more diligently. I saw one of the Air Force ladies use a bird to trigger her mutation. Most of the navy were around the tanks. I saw one use a net to catch a stingray. One of the other army people was in with the cats, and another had a rat.

    Carla and Soph rose. I noticed Soph had not touched the pooling blood or anything else on the corpse.

    Carla was saying, ¡°We will put the body overboard and let it be blown up.¡±

    Soph turned to the other two dogs and, in a much firmer and more aggressive voice, said, ¡°So either of you boys hungry?¡± It turned out they both were. And they were both male.

    She fed them and talked to them, and she got the Staffordshire Terrier on a lead first and got it out of its cage. It wasn¡¯t a pure breed, but we couldn¡¯t determine what else might be in the mix. It was short and strongly built. About 40cm at the shoulder with short tan fur and a white patch on the front. Its snout was black, and it had short but floppy ears. Its tail had been cut off at some point, so there was just a stub.

    She soon had the other terrier out as well. This was mostly a Manchester Terrier. It was a bit taller than the Staff but thinner and looked more agile. It was black and tan and had a thin tail. It had a lot more energy than the Staff and was more vocal, barking often as it bounced around.

    She decided to try keeping both. She let them lick the blood off her wounds but didn¡¯t take any of theirs at all. I am guessing the saliva in her cuts still counted.

    Soon, the navy personnel were weighing anchors and starting the barge''s engine. All other personnel were loaded into the motorboat.

    Lewis came up, ¡°Time to go. Do you two know what you are doing?¡±

    I nodded as Soph said, ¡°I am not going with you.¡±

    His eyes narrowed, taking in the three of us and the two dogs, ¡°What is going on?¡±

    ¡°I am attempting to mutate to create a bond with these two dogs. We don¡¯t know if it will be successful but to test it I need to be close to these two at all times. And they need to stay alive.¡±

    ¡°Interesting,¡± Lewis said, ¡°Definitely useful if it can be done. I can see the dogs causing problems back at the base. They won¡¯t be going on a helicopter.¡±

    ¡°You need medical attention,¡± Carla said.

    Soph pointed at me, ¡°He didn¡¯t.¡±

    I appointed at Carla, ¡°She would have died without it.¡±

    ¡°I can see the potential in this,¡± Lewis said. ¡°I tell you what, The normal crew will be here in about half an hour and I will instruct the boat they come with to take you straight to the naval base. That should only take half an hour if they push it. I will order a separate room for you and the dogs, but you two will need to control the dogs when the medical people enter.¡±

    ¡°Sounds good,¡± said Carla

    ¡°Thanks,¡± Soph added.

    Lewis left, and I said, ¡°Carla and I need to get used to the dogs, and they need to listen to us. You could be unconscious for days.¡±

    There wasn¡¯t a lot for us to do on the barge, we just had to keep it going straight and wait to be relieved. We spent the time with the dogs, having them get used to us, seeing if they knew any basic commands etc. The Staffy was better trained than the Manchester.

    ¡°They need names, Soph,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°They are rough and tumble boys, especially this one,¡± she said, rubbing the Manchester Terrier. ¡°He was bred to catch rodents, especially rats.¡±

    ¡°He is noisy,¡± I said.

    ¡°Iosefa,¡± Carla suggested, ¡°He is a Samoan opera singer.¡±

    ¡°Shit, no,¡± I pointed to the dog, ¡°That is not opera. What about  naming them after sportsmen?¡±

    ¡°Jonah, after the All Black,¡±

    ¡°No,¡± I said, ¡°He is more a Buck.¡±

    ¡°After Buck Shelford?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°Yeah, Bring back Buck!¡± I chanted.

    ¡°God, you are showing your age,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I like it though. He can be Buck. What about the Staffy?¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Same theme? Richie.¡± I said.

    ¡°McCaw?¡± Carla asked.

    I nodded, ¡°he had fair hair, so it will trigger for me.¡±

    ¡°I will probably shorten it to Rich. Buck and Rich. Done.¡±

    We got to teaching the dogs their names. Buck was going to be a handful and a half.

    ¡°Even if the bond doesn¡¯t work, I am guessing you are going to keep them,¡± I said to Soph.

    She nodded.

    ¡°They will have mutations even though they are not obvious,¡± I said.

    ¡°I know. We will need to figure them out.¡±

    ¡°We will have to move flats,¡± Carla said, ¡°No dogs rule.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. we will need a yard or something. Buck has an awful lot of energy.¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Did anyone check their mouths in case they have a poison bite?¡± I asked.

 28. It Gets Worse.

    Sophia was sweating quite badly as the boat neared the navy docks. I could tell she was losing concentration and holding onto consciousness. Buck didn¡¯t react to her stress and kept investigating everything. Buck must still be pretty young, not entirely out of the puppy stage. Rich did react to her and stayed close. Rich seemed to be an older dog.

    Carla was concerned, but we knew this was coming. Knowing and seeing were two different things. The seamen radioed ahead, and there was a wheelchair waiting for her. We were taken to a small room that had obviously been quickly cleared, and a bed moved in.

    Buck is going to be tearing up the place and climbing the walls within the first day. We are going to need a place for him to let out some of that energy.

    Amanda came up as Soph was moved to the bed and proceeded with some normal checks and questions. All the staff were in contamination suits, and I think the whole building was quarantined from the rest of the base. The whole building was crammed with medical beds. There was a lounge at the end with a small kitchenette and tea-making facilities. It looked like the building used to be offices and storage facilities and had been hurriedly repurposed.

    This is going to make exercising the dogs difficult, and we won¡¯t be able to go out and get supplies for them.

    Soph was fully unconscious now, and Amanda and a nurse were hooking her up to monitors. The dogs were already getting in the way in the small room despite Carla taking charge of Buck and leaving me the easier Rich.

    They brought us a couple of chairs and a folding cot to sleep on, but there was no room for two cots. Buck is not the only one who will go crazy and climb the walls.

    We were able to use the whole building and a temporary fence was being placed around the outside. Once it was done, we could take the dogs outside as long as we stayed inside the fence. That sounded better.

    Amanda would arrange for some supplies to be delivered for the dogs. Carla made a list including proper collars, leads, bowls and food. I had never had a dog. It all seemed to be an awful lot of work. They would also arrange for a vet to see the dogs, but that might take a day or so.

    Hopefully, Soph will be like Ensign Jeong and only be out for a day or so. Yeah, right.

    When Rich lay down for a nap, I placed him at the end of the bed by Soph. Unfortunately, we soon discovered Buck was not properly toilet trained and was soon going around spraying things. Who the fucking hell would ever have a dog? I know his scent now. Intimately. Who the hell thought the enhanced smell was a good idea? Bloody, uncaring, random universe. My nightmare is getting worse, and the end of the world is not even here yet. Carla took him outside.

    Soph was mostly peaceful. There were periods when she would break out in sweat and others when she would toss and turn, but it didn¡¯t seem to be as bad as Carla''s. With my hearing, I kept track of the other patients, and that afternoon, only three medical alarms sounded. It would probably get worse, and we wouldn¡¯t get much sleep.

    Carla and I ate dinner in the lounge area with the dogs eating from bowls. Dinner came with confirmation the Anomaly had been destroyed. We both examined our Essence core and link and could feel no difference. We hadn¡¯t sensed when it had been destroyed, so I am guessing there was no ongoing link to it.

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    Carla took the dogs out for a run around the building after dinner to try to tire them out. She was the gym bunny, so I think she needed it as well. It took a while to settle the dogs in the evening. Rich was happy to curl up on the end of Soph¡¯s bed, but Buck was not. He ended up sprawled awkwardly, half on and half off a chair.

    I left Carla to it and escaped to the lounge area. I relaxed and brought out my phone. I didn¡¯t have my e-reader, but the app on my phone did the job OK. I was still keeping track of the sounds and alarms.

    It was a bit after eleven when I heard Rich whine. A few seconds later, Soph¡¯s alarm sounded, and both dogs started barking. I went down to help and ended up getting stuck holding the squirming and whining dogs so the medical staff could get to Soph.

    Sophia was convulsing and foaming at the mouth. Her pale skin looked inflamed, and they were trying to keep her cool by wiping her down with damp towels. It was half an hour before she settled again. It was a lot longer before the dogs settled again. Carla had to take them outside again.

    The medical alarms were definitely becoming more frequent.

    I was asleep on the couch in the lounge when the barking dogs woke me again. It was 4 am. I dragged myself down the corridor to help. Fucking bloody hell. I gagged and recoiled. Soph was convulsing again, but this time, it was accompanied with projectile vomiting and diarrhoea. The fucking smell! I grabbed Buck before he could lick up too much vomit, and Carla shoved Rich at me. I ran for the outside door.

    Fucking hell, this just keeps getting worse. I must be in a nightmare. I so need to wake up now. I pinched myself and then grabbed some skin and twisted so bloody hard to wake myself up. I WANT OUT!

    We had only been outside for a half hour when another alarm went off. This time, it was shut off quickly, and fifteen minutes later, a body bag was carried out and placed in the van of a medical examiner.

    The dogs and I stayed outside for hours. I really don¡¯t think I can live through this. One way of opting out is to get out permanently. Who the hell wants to live through an apocalypse anyway? The apocalypse has not even really started yet, and I can¡¯t handle it.

    If I opt out, I will permanently cripple Carla. I think she should opt out as well, but she won¡¯t see it that way. She has Soph. Is this why people choose to live through an apocalypse? Because they care for others? What a bunch of crap. And now I am caught in this nightmare of caring for someone.  I just sat for about ten minutes, going through every swear word I knew. Then, I made up a few for good measure.

    I blame the anomaly. It must have awakened this caring bullshit.

    Oh fucking hell. My preferred way to off myself was to swim out into the ocean until I couldn¡¯t swim anymore. Drowning is never nice, but at least I would be alone and in the ocean. The anomaly has taken that option away from me as well. I don¡¯t think I can drown anymore.

    Oh, this means war. The fucking anomaly wants to come here and fuck up my life and fuck up my death? I am going to find you and fuck you up, you bloody uncaring asshole. I don¡¯t care how big your gonads are, me and my caring ass-kickers are going to kick you where it hurts most. Then, when we are done, I am going to let Buck sink his teeth in, and he will never let go.

    The dogs and I eventually ventured back inside to the lounge for a late breakfast at 8 am. Carla joined us, and Lieutenant Wihongi made an appearance. She was inspecting things. The body I saw removed earlier was actually the second death. Fifteen had become thirteen.

    After breakfast, we went back to Soph''s room. She was lying quiet again. The strong smell of disinfectant did not remove the underlying smells enough. Fuck Super Smell. I looked at the dogs. They have an enhanced smell as well, and they handle it. Buck seems to search out the worst smells on purpose. Maybe it is a different mindset. A different way of sensing the world. I am going to need something different.

 29. Countdown.

    Thirteen became twelve by morning tea time.

    Soph was still quiet, but you could tell something was happening. Rich was definitely responding to her, which was a good sign for a potential bond. He always wanted to be near her and would jump up onto the bed. He often let us know she was struggling by letting out a whimper or going up and licking her face. He was more and more reluctant to leave her.

    Buck couldn¡¯t seem to careless about Soph. He did join Rich in barking to alert us of something serious but he barked more anyway. We had no idea if he was just following Rich¡¯s lead.

    The vet came after lunch and examined both dogs. She took samples of everything away to be analysed and couldn¡¯t tell us much except that they seemed healthy and gave us an approximation of their ages. As we suspected, Buck was probably only a year old. Rich was maybe four or five years old.

    By the time the vet left, twelve had become eleven. Keep it up, you uncaring anomalies. This is all going on your tab, and we will be coming around to collect with interest.

    Then came the news that the first successful mutation had happened, and they were awake. It was one of the Army people, but I don¡¯t know which one.

    There was now a spare room for Carla and me to use if we wanted. We moved the cot, and they provided a second one.

    I decided to take Buck out for a walk. I needed a new mindset for the war on the anomalies, so I started with Buck. Where he sniffed, I sniffed. What was he sniffing for? I had no idea, but he lived with a super nose permanently. I now have to do the same.

    Some of those smells were disgusting, but quite a few were only interesting. I had no idea what I was smelling, but that would come with time. It would take effort as well.

    I need to do the same with my hearing. I sat on the grass as Buck roamed and let my ears take in as much as possible. This would take time as well. I think I can hear more low-pitched sounds than I used to.

    Then we heard Rich barking again. We went in, and Soph was definitely struggling. Something was wrong with her skin. She was sweating, but it was more than just sweat. I collected the dogs and left the professionals to work. Rich really didn¡¯t want to leave. In the end, I gave him to Carla to hold, and I took Buck out.

    This time, it didn¡¯t end in half an hour like all the others. After an hour, eleven became ten, and I was worried Soph would be next. However, another successful mutation woke up, so there was progress.

    As the second hour rolled around, the professionals had done all they could, keeping her hydrated and full of nutrients and monitoring her. Carla and Rich were in there constantly. Buck and I would pop in every now and then with food and water as the dinner hour came and went.

    The evening wore on, with Soph sweating and struggling and whimpering sounds coming from her and Rich.

    Ten became nine as the sixth hour ticked by, but Soph held in there. Then, another awakening.

    Still, Soph held on as midnight came and went. Rich was asleep on the bed next to her, and Carla had fallen asleep in the chair. I sat in the chair next to her, and Buck fell asleep on my lap.

    Rich woke us up with his yipping and bouncing, and his rear end was wagging. I think it would still have been wagging if he had a tail. He was up by Soph''s face, and he licked it. I saw her respond and reached out to the dog. Carla was up by her bed in an instant, blocking my view. I didn¡¯t need to see, but Buck wanted to get in on the excitement.

    ¡°So glad you are awake,¡± Carla said, pushing Rich out of the way and giving her a hug.

    There was a mumbled reply, and then I heard, ¡°I need a shower¡­ Oh shit.¡±

    Carla laughed, ¡°Oh shit indeed.¡±

    I moved to where I could see. I could only see her head, shoulder and arms, but she was completely covered in fur. It was short fur, but it covered everywhere, including her face. It was tan-coloured, and her hair had changed to match, although the length was still the same as I remembered.

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    Carla ran her hand over Soph¡¯s arm. ¡°It is short and thick,¡± she said. ¡°I wish I didn¡¯t have these scales so I can feel in properly. You are going to give fantastic hugs.¡± They both burst out laughing at that.

    Soph was running her hands up and down her arm, feeling it herself. ¡°It is thick, and I am pretty sure it is labrador fur. It is the same colour as the lab on the barge, and, ¡°she reached up to touch her ears. They were still human-shaped ears but covered in fur. ¡°Oooh, that is nice,¡± she said as she stroked her ear. She looked at Carla, ¡°remember that spot.¡±

    ¡°Well, at least you won¡¯t need to shave anymore,¡± Carla said. They both laughed at that as well.

    Soph poked a furry leg out from under the blankets. ¡°I am definitely not shaving that,¡± she said.

    I noticed her feet were human. No claws or anything. No dog ears, no dog teeth. ¡°Do you have a tail, but any chance?¡± I asked.

    She actually felt behind her to check before answering, ¡°Nope, but definitely a furry butt.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± Carla asked. ¡°I hope you like being petted because you are becoming more irresistible all the time.¡±

    ¡°Before we get carried away, is there anything besides the fur? What about a bond or senses, etc?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Come here, Rich,¡± she said, ¡°Yes, and you too, Buck,¡± she grabbed the dogs in a hug, and they sniffed and licked her excitedly. Yes, there is a bond, two bonds, actually. They are different from each other and different from what you described with your essence link. The bond isn¡¯t from my essence pool. Oh, hello, essence pool.¡± She stopped for a few minutes, obviously exploring the changes.

    Carla and I gave her time. We both remember what that is like.

    Soph continued, ¡°So the bond is not centred from the essence pool, but it is based in my mind, or that is what it seems like. Essence does not flow down it, but feelings and maybe some of what they are sensing. It has the feeling it will grow as we grow, but for now, I can sense how they are feeling.¡± She paused a bit, testing what she could do.

    ¡°Rich, here, is actually quite intelligent and is very sensitive to emotions ¡­ actually, essence and emotions around him. I think that might be his mutation, sensing essence and emotions, which gives more evidence to the theory that this anomaly links essence and emotion.¡±

    ¡°That might explain why Rich was so sensitive to the changes you were going through while you were mutating,¡± Carla said, ¡°He would react first, and then you would do something.¡±

    ¡°That''s because he is a good lad and very loyal,¡± she said, giving him a rough, affectionate rub. ¡°Buck here.. Come here, Buck,¡±

    Buck had wandered off sniffing something but returned when she called. That must be the bond, as he doesn¡¯t come when I call.

    ¡°Buck here is a totally different dog. He wants to hunt and find things. He can use essence as well, but I really don¡¯t know how. He uses it in hunting. We will have to figure it out.¡±

    ¡°So they both have their own essence core?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yes. Rich¡¯s one is bigger, I think, but Buck¡¯s is more active, harder? I''m not sure how to explain it.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it for now,¡± Carla said. We will figure it out. The important thing is that you are alive. You made it, and it worked. Two bonds! And fur! Jackpot for you!¡±

    ¡°The fur is going to be interesting¡­,¡± she said uncertainly.

    ¡°Fur is going to be great,¡± Carla said, ¡°especially if I can get skin again. I will be coming for so many hugs.¡±

    Soph smiled. ¡°I need some food and a shower.¡±

    ¡°Ooh, we need to get you some brushes. You will like being brushed.¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I think I might,¡± Soph said, ¡°I am glad it is short fur.¡±

    I will grab some food from the kitchen,¡± I said and popped out, leaving them to chat and explore. When I got back, Amanda had been summoned and was examining Soph. Amanda looked exhausted. I passed the food and stepped back out of the way.

    I backed out of the room altogether as it was too crowded. Soph never made it to the shower. She was exhausted and fell asleep with the two dogs curled up beside her. Carla came and crashed on the other cot.

    I lay awake thinking for a while. Step one was done. Soph had succeeded. I don¡¯t know how she succeeded. Was it the emotional response when the labrador was killed? I don¡¯t know, but it was a factor. Emotional bloody Essence. I bet other anomalies are not like that one.

    We are going to have to do a lot of testing. All of us. Step two will be to see if we can get Carla back into human skin and what it actually takes for her to change form.

    What I need now, though, is space. I need some time out. The Navy will want to get us into testing straight away, but I need a break.

    I hear a scratching at the door. I get up and open it, and Buck is there. I let him in, and he climbs onto my cot and curls up to sleep.

    Shift over you, mangy mutt. That is my bed.

 30. Solid Logic.

    It is a late start the next day. Carla decided to help Soph shower with her having all that fur and being weak after mutating. The first priority is to get Carla back into her skin so she can enjoy that more. Maybe she will take a tumble with me as well. You never know.

    Then she needed food, and the Doc wanted a full assessment.

    Amanda did say that the death toll remains at six so far, and they are hopeful about not losing anybody else. Lewis has come out of the Mutation Coma, as they are calling it and is recovering. Amanda wouldn¡¯t say what mutations they had discovered due to patient confidentiality, but I could tell she was excited.

    Six deaths out of fifteen was pretty good. Sixty percent survival. That drops if you count the fifty percent with the other four volunteers. We must be able to do something to keep improving that, but smarter people than me are working on it now, so that is not my problem.

    Eight lives to claw back from the uncaring anomalies. The tab is running.

    We had two rooms across the corridor and one door down from each other. The lounge room was busier. Now, there were other survivors up and about. I was feeling crowded. I generally stayed in the cot room, and Soph and the medical team were in her room. The dogs trotted back and forth, although I saw Buck more frequently than Rich. Carla stayed with Soph all morning.

    I did some internet searching on my phone, focussed on Labradors and Terrier dogs. I wasn¡¯t a dog person, but I didn¡¯t hate them like cats. If Soph had wanted to bond with a cat, we would have a real problem.

    It was lunchtime when we finally got together. I suggested we meet in the cot room as I knew there were no listening devices there. I doubt the place was rigged anyway due to the speed at which it had to be converted.

    ¡°We need to agree on where to go next,¡± I said. ¡°I want our focus to be on transforming Carla, but we need medical assistance for that, and the Navy will have other things they want us for.¡±

    ¡°Testing,¡± said Carla.

    ¡°Testing,¡± I agreed.

    ¡°That is not your biggest concern, though, is it?¡± Soph said. ¡°Something is really bugging you. What is it?¡±

    I looked at her suspiciously. She glanced pointedly at Rich. Rich, who is sensitive to essence and emotions. ¡°Bloody cheater!¡± I accused.

    ¡°I learned from my Fiance, who is good at these things,¡± She replied

    ¡°What is his range?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Short, like your electro-receptors, but with the potential to grow. Are you not upset? No, you are pleased, why?¡±

    ¡°I am the emotional Neanderthal. Grunt, grunt, smash, smash. I now have two people to interpret my emotions for me, so I don¡¯t have to fucking worry any more. I can ignore it, and you can tell me when I am emotional. Damn right, I am pleased.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t make sense,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Does to me,¡± I replied.

    ¡°Bob,¡± Carla said, ¡°What¡¯s bugging you?¡±

    ¡°I need space. I need to get out of here. It¡¯s too crowded.¡±

    ¡°Do we know how long they are quarantining us for?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°No, how long was it at the hospital?¡± Carla asked

    ¡°I don¡¯t fucking know,¡± I said.

    ¡°No problem, I will ask Amanda,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°We have to fix Carla,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes, but it is not going to happen in the next few days. There is time for you to have a break,¡± Carla said.

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Where would you go?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°If I make a break for it, I would probably swim to Auckland and catch a ferry to Waiheke. Waiheke is empty at the moment.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have ID,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t need it to get to Waiheke.¡±

    ¡°You do if you want to hire a car or bike,¡± she said.

    ¡°My bike is ¡­ oh shit. My bike may well be blown into small bits. It was in the cove. It had better not be busted up. Shit, I can hitch or walk. Whatever, I will figure it out.¡±

    ¡°What about us as a group? We are a group. A kickass group. Whose ass are we going to kick?¡± Soph said.

    ¡°The anomalies ass,¡± I said

    ¡°I think the Navy just did that.¡±

    ¡°There is more than one anomaly,¡± I said.

    ¡°You want to go around and help deal with anomalies?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°What else are we going to do? What else are we qualified to do? I am a Civil engineer. You are a Fitness instructor, she is a¡­ What do you do?¡±

    ¡°I am a primary school teacher,¡± said Soph.

    ¡°Now we are Mutants.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, they are never going to let me in front of a class looking like this,¡± Soph said, indicating her fur.

    ¡°The kids would love it,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°It is not the kids that would fire me,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°We definitely have to change your Mutant name. You can¡¯t be Dogbreath any more, no, you are Furry. Fucktoy, Fishface and Furry. Triple F.¡± I declared.

    ¡°I think he has gone off the deep end here,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Yeah, but that won¡¯t drown him anymore,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Wait, You are not the Furry. That has too many weird sexual connotations. You can be called the Mongrel. Fucktoy, Fishface and Mongrel. FFM for short. Hey, there was no need to throw that!¡±

    ¡°Yes, there was,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°He needs time out desperately,¡± Carla said, ¡°and probably a good fuck.¡±

    ¡°That is not going to happen until we fix you,¡± I grumbled.

    ¡°I am not the only woman in the world,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°You said good fuck. I need an incredible fuck, so yes, you are.¡±

    ¡°Wow.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, wow,¡± I agreed.

    ¡°Back to the Anomalies, if you want us to go around helping deal with them, won¡¯t we need the Navy for that?¡± Soph asked. ¡°You know, Island nation, Gills, Breathable Skin. Kind of indicates we should stick with the Navy.¡±

    ¡°Solid teacher logic that,¡± I said. ¡°Don¡¯t forget that Labrador fur of yours is basically waterproof.¡±

    ¡°We discovered that this morning,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°We are already consultants for the navy,¡± I said, ¡°with expertise and experience with anomalies. You two finalise our contract with the Navy while I do a runner and lay on a beach.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound fair,¡± Soph complained.

    ¡°I am one hundred per cent certain we don¡¯t want him involved in contract negotiations with the Navy,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Rich is the one you want involved,¡± I said.

    ¡°And my family''s lawyers,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°And them,¡± I agreed.

    ¡°How would we contact you? You never have your phone on. I distinctly remember a certain commander complaining to me about that not long ago,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°You can¡¯t get away from everyone if they can just ring you,¡± I said. ¡°Anyway, you can just pulse me. Keep it simple. I will learn Morse Code while I am on the beach.¡±

    ¡°If it works over that distance.¡±

    ¡°It worked from my home to the hospital. Waiheke is only three times that distance.¡±

    ¡°OK, but if you get there and it doesn¡¯t work, you phone me, and we will work out something else,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°There is still email. Remember that ancient form of communication?¡± I said.

    ¡°Are we really just going to let him go sit on the beach while we do the work?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°He does his best work sitting on a beach,¡± Carla said, ¡°or swimming or anywhere alone. Look at what he came up with in a few hours the night before your mutation. It was a major factor in getting you through.¡±

    ¡°I guess,¡± she said doubtfully. ¡°I want to sit on a beach too. With this fur, I won¡¯t burn at the touch of the sun anymore.¡±

    ¡°But you will get hotter,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Humpft,¡±

    ¡°One thing is clear,¡± Carla said, ¡°We want to work with the navy, but we don¡¯t want to be tied to the navy. After this, we need time off so, we will get this sorted and go join him on the beach.¡±

    ¡°Sounds better,¡± Soph grumbled.

    Carla looked at me, ¡°We will need accommodation big enough for all three of us and two dogs. And NO tents.¡±

    ¡°Bloody fussy women.¡±

 31. Beach.

    It was surprisingly easy to break out of the Navy base. I didn¡¯t even wait till evening. It was set up in a hurry and was really for quarantine purposes, which means keeping out idiots so they don¡¯t contaminate themselves. Everybody inside the quarantine was military and volunteered to be there. Well, almost everybody.

    I took Buck for a walk around the building and found a place out of sight. I let Buck loose and climbed the fence. I then walked like I was meant to be there until I got to the docks, slipped off my shoes and dove into the sea. I didn¡¯t surface until I reached the Auckland waterfront. I could almost constantly sense where South was now, so keeping a straight line was easy.

    It was mid-afternoon when I climbed onto the Auckland waterfront''s wharves. I found a tourist shop and bought a towel with a beach scene to dry myself and some Jandels to wear. I found it strange that a tourist shop would have jandals for sale, but maybe they are a unique Kiwi thing. These ones were blue and had white stars like our flag, so I guess they were touristy.

    Then I went shopping. I had my phone as I had double-wrapped it in some ziplock bags I found in the kitchenette. First, I went to the bank and ordered some new bank cards. Then I ordered a new driver''s licence. They issued me a temporary one with no photo, and the proper one would come in the post.  I had them all sent to Carla at the Auckland Navy base, as I was not planning to be anywhere they could send them directly. Then I withdrew cash from the bank and went shopping.

    First, I bought a good but slim backpack and some waterproofing if I ended up swimming with it. Then, I bought some supplies: clothes, beach gear, an e-reader, a laptop, decent walking shoes, a water bottle, and some snack bars.

    I caught the dinner-time ferry to Waiheke. On the way over, I searched the websites for accommodation options. Contrary to the last time I searched, there were a lot of unexpected vacancies. I found a nice three-bedroom Rent-a-Bach overlooking a beach. It was surrounded by bush, so the dogs would have somewhere to run. There was a track down to the beach. Dogs were not prohibited. Available immediately. I booked it for two weeks starting immediately.

    I walked from the ferry terminal to town and had dinner in a nearly empty beachside restaurant. I could sense Carla through the link and sent her a pulse to say I was on Waiheke. It took more effort to send the pulse from this distance, which was a learning experience. Distance does make a difference, and I would need to be close for her to transform.

    I made my way to the Rent-a-Bach via the supermarket for supplies, including alcohol. I left my phone switched off and set up the e-reader and laptop. The place had internet and Wi-Fi, so I moved out onto the deck and watched the evening with my enhanced night vision. This was much better. Quieter. Calmer.

    I was up early the following day, grabbed the towel and Jandels, and headed to the beach for a swim. It was mid-morning when I returned in a much-relaxed state. I hung my towel over the deck rail to dry and then did the same with my swimming trunks. It was going to be a hot day, so I rinsed the salt water off me but didn¡¯t bother getting dressed.

    I started with the internet news, which covered what was happening worldwide, particularly in New Zealand, and the anomalies. It was hard to tell from the news if the anomaly rate was increasing. They were out to sell stories, and facts were only relevant to achieve that goal. There was a lot of relief at the Navy''s destruction of the Waiheke Anomaly, and no new anomalies appeared in NZ. Australia had found another one, and some Fijian fishermen had caught some mutated fish not far off the island of Vanua Levu.

    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    I just let the news sink in as I ate a leisurely lunch.

    I started learning Morse code and found a website where I could practice crafting messages and deciphering the messages it sent me. Doing it works better for me than rote learning.

    I went for another swim in the afternoon. I took my towel but forgot my swimming trunks. Oh, well, there was no one around to get offended. On the track to the beach, I channelled my inner Buck and tried to smell and hear what was around me in the bush. I was trying to make this a habit, despite some truly nasty smells.

    This time, I swam near the rocks at the edge of the beach and watched the fish with my enhanced eyes. I went quite deep, but not deeper than the limits in our diving theory class. I sat on the ocean floor for over an hour, watching and testing my senses, including my smell. This water up my nose is a problem.

    I was trying to get a feel for ocean life through my senses, firstly to get used to them and secondly to know when something might change around me. I would hear the occasional boat in the distance. Sea birds diving into the ocean and swarming schools of fish were loud. Some types of fish were quieter and moved more smoothly in the water. They were harder to sense. This would take some time. A lot of time, I decided. At least twice a day for as long as I could make it happen.

    I also decided I needed some gear. I needed a diver¡¯s watch so I could measure depth and time, flippers, a knife, and probably a spear. Sitting quietly on the ocean floor meant fish swam unexpectedly close. I could have caught some dinner with very little effort.

    I returned to the cabin and remembered to get dressed before heading to town and finding the Divers shop. I stayed in town and had a nice fish dinner cooked for me by a quality chef at a nice restaurant. I had better not tell Carla and Soph about this. I might not survive.

    After my ¡°senses testing session¡± in the morning, I tried gutting and scaling a fish. This would also need practice. YouTube is a helpful tool. The flesh looked pretty munted, but I managed to get all the bones out, and it tasted good with my salad at lunch, finished with a nice cup of green tea.

    That afternoon, I went to some of the more scientific websites I had used in my initial research on the anomaly to see the scientific community''s progress. What I found was not encouraging. There was less information than when I had first looked. I checked the website''s national origins, and some nations were censoring information more strictly than they had been. Articles I had accessed freely before were now behind authorised login walls. New information was scarce and from less reliable sites.

    This told me things were getting worse, but not how much worse. It also did not tell me what new information had been discovered. Bugger. I guess this is something else I will need the Navy for. They will have access to this information.

    However, I could rely on the internet to spread crackpot conspiracy theories far and wide. These were getting weirder and contradictory. How could the anomalies be the wrath of God and the second coming of Jesus? There were a lot of religious references to the book of Revelation in the Bible, the anomalies being the seven seals that were opened or something.

    The New Evolutionists were hailing the next wave of evolution and the new age of the Super Man. I assume they also included the women, but they forgot about the Super Sharks and other terrifying mutations.

    There was a whole cult dedicated to getting and cooking mutated plants and animals for the ¡°positive health benefits.¡± People were encouraged to post their recipes and describe the health boosts they had received. There was a whole vegan section. I guess the ones who poisoned themselves wouldn¡¯t be around to post. The guy that was smoking mutated grass was just weird.

    The world was going to shit before the anomalies could destroy us.

 32. Moving on.

    Two days later, I received a series of Morse code pulses that just said, ¡°email.¡± I checked my email, and there was a draft consultant agreement for me to review. I read it once, then read it again. Then, I headed down to the beach to let it percolate in my brain while I was ¡°Sensory Testing.¡±

    I grabbed my towel and jandals and headed down. I only bothered with clothes if I was going into town or on some colder evenings. Occasionally, there were other people on the beach, but they kept their distance, and nobody was worried. Well, I wasn¡¯t worried, and I didn¡¯t care if they were.

    I had discovered that I was not a jellyfish, and I was limited to normal depths a human can go without needing decompression stops. Decompression stops were no problem for me as I would not run out of air, but the diving information the navy taught me was relevant. According to my diver¡¯s watch, 9m deep was a good general maximum for me to observe.

    After the last few days, my nose and ears were more in synch, both in and out of the water. I was well familiar with the bush around the cabin and knew when the sparrow was catching insects and when the Kerer¨± wood pigeon was nearby. It was similar in the water near the beach. I had been moving in a wider arch, diving deeper, testing, and listening. I knew there were a couple of stingrays that hung close to the sandy part of the seabed. The sound of the Snapper chasing its breakfast, the smell of it catching the same breakfast etc.

    This break was not just relaxing but very useful for understanding and working with my mutations. I headed back with a fresh snapper for lunch. I am getting better at preparing the fish without mutilating it.

    After lunch, I prep an email with questions and potential amendments to the contract and send it off, letting Carla know it is there. The lawyers are already copied in. The clauses around publicity were extensive. I assume that Soph¡¯s lawyers added them to protect her when this came to light. She and Carla¡¯s mutations would be hard to hide.

    I check the news. The government has released information that some of their military had been affected by the Anomaly, and six people had died from it. However, there were survivors that had potentially useful mutations, and they were undergoing extensive medical testing. More information would be released as it became available.

    That had to come out. Too many people had mutations or had seen Carla¡¯s mutations. There was nothing about it being an intentional human experimentation, though. Lewis¡¯ head would roll if that came out, even if the decision was made above him.

    This was causing huge speculation, and I am sure the government would be choosing a publicly acceptable mutation and person to be the face of this. Ensign Jeong would probably be a good choice. Not my problem.

    I get dressed and head to town for supplies. It is going to be a long while before Waiheke recovers from this. I support the local economy by eating fancy food for dinner. The Navy consultant fee offer was well above what I expected. I guess I have Soph to thank for that. There is no harm in spending some of it.

    I got back to an email with a contract to sign. Soph added that it is urgent, so maybe another anomaly has been found. I made sure to read it to check for changes. If anything, it was even tighter than the last and had good protections and a generous fee. I signed it and sent it back.

    The next day dawned overcast, but that made no difference underwater. Today, I was going to try something different. I have been fascinated with Carla using Essence to change form. This tells me Essence can be used in conjunction with physical mutations. This is going to be critical to understanding how to help Carla change, but I also think the essence is used actively in my poison.

    I had not poisoned much recently as I was keeping it as a hidden ace. I am now out here alone, so now is my time to test things. Poison first, as this is my only active mutation, but I also want to try to use it on my senses. Can I use essence to improve or make my senses do more?

    It is my hearing that triggered this thought. I am better at hearing low sounds than I used to be. What if I could use essence to expand the range of my hearing? What if I could use it to expand the range of my eyesight? Could I see into the infrared range? The answer to these questions might be no, but what if I could?

    The senses are delicate, and the last thing I want to do is damage them. That is why I have been spending so long getting used to them. That and they are very useful.

    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

    But first, poison. I think it actively uses essence, but I need to figure out how. The local wildlife is going to take a hit, but it is in the name of science. Actually, no, it isn¡¯t. It is just in my name. I am no scientist. I am going to start small, and I move to the rock pools. I don¡¯t want to pump out a lot of volume; I just want to figure out how it works and how it uses essence. The volume might come later.

    I grab a tiny crab and concentrate on what happens when I trigger my poison. The crab dies; that''s what happens. I have left a mark and a little needle-like stinger. So, where did that come from? I look at my finger, and I can''t see anything. I shift the crab around and try again. It is coming out of my finger, but where and how?

    I find another. Maybe I should go back to the cabin and murder some fruit for a while as I try to figure this out. I can¡¯t believe I didn¡¯t think of that before I came down. I head back up and pick up an innocent apple. Just the lightest touch with my finger, and I trigger the skill. I might have seen something, so I tried again and again.

    I was definitely using essence. My essence core is so large now it doesn¡¯t go down noticeably for small things like needles and poison. It is the repetition that draws it to my attention. The other thing I noticed was that the forefinger that I have been using does not have half a dozen needles in it. Where are they coming from?

    This poison mutation is similar to the jellyfish¡¯s poison but not the same. The jellyfish has to regrow the injection needles. I do not. I have just sent half a dozen from the tip of the same finger.

    Question. Is the essence creating the needle and the poison? I am pretty sure it is. Amanda would have told me if I had sacks of stored poison in me. She would have taken samples.

    I stop for lunch and then go for a swim to clear my mind.

    Essence does speed growth. Massively. Carla said her shark teeth grew. She never said how long it took. Maybe that is a function of how much essence you pour into it. My needles are tiny. My essence, causing the needles and poison to grow super fast as needed, would be consistent with the teeth growing idea.

    So, are there two types of mutations? Permanent physical mutations like my senses and mutations that require essence to grow?

    What does that mean for Carla? Will her scales fall out and the skin grow back? That sounds logical and painful. No wonder she has no hair. Will her hair grow back in human form? We don¡¯t know.

    Carla has permanent physical mutations, such as her robust body and her gills. But other aspects are changeable. Why the difference? Couldn¡¯t gills grow back? Maybe she is wrong, and the gills aren¡¯t permanent? The gills and her robust body would be required for both her fish and shark forms. Is that the difference? Changes become permanent if needed for more than one form. If that is the case, we need to be very cautious about moving to new forms. Or maybe I am totally wrong. This is all speculation. I need to get back to testing what I can for now.

    Poison and needles created by essence seem likely. If I pump in more essence, does it create poison faster, more needles or what? Can I make the neurotoxin stronger? Can I make it weaker if I just want to knock someone out? I can test these things.

    I might need more fruit and different types of fruit. Can I strengthen the needles to penetrate a coconut shell, for instance? It should penetrate scales, but scales are thin. Would more essence make the needles penetrate further and harder?

    Let''s try the first ideas about more frequent needles and varying the strength of the poison this afternoon, and we can go down to the shops and get some coconuts and other things later and have a nice dinner down there.

    Hey, I am about to have money. I could buy a new bike. I think a trip to Auckland might be happening soon. I could check in on Maple, she is such a sweet old lady.

    The afternoon soon went. I didn¡¯t crack the problems, but I did discover the way we controlled the essence in the anomaly sphere was the key. Instead of forming it into a shield against mutation, it needed to be used in a different way. Still working the details there.

    I headed down to the town and picked up a couple of coconuts and saw the regular nuts. They could be good to test against. I grabbed some different types and munched some as I looked for a new place to eat dinner.

    I got back to the cabin late, so I decided to check if Carla had sent an email update. If there had been anything urgent, she would have pulsed me.

    Yes, there was an update. The contract is all signed, and the signing bonus should hit my bank account the next working day.

    Bike shopping, here I come.

    My bank cards and new Driver''s licence have arrived. Great.

    She and Sophia have been released from quarantine and have relocated to her parent''s house in Shelly Beach, address below. They plan to stay there until the media frenzy dies down a bit.

    WHAT

    THE

    FUCK?!!!!?

    What have you done, you crazy bitches.

 33. Busted Brain.

    With growing dread, I opened my usual news site. There they were on the front page. Sophia wearing a thin summer dress in all her furry glory, and next to her, holding her hand, was Carla, in a similar dress in all her scaled glory. Below the headline shouted.

    MUTANTS LIVE AMONG US!

    Oh, fuck no! I read further.

    ¡°Sophia Hardcastle, daughter of New Zealand Rich Lister Samantha Hardcastle and her ex-husband, property developer Ian Albright, has revealed she and her new fiance Carla Vaa¡¯i discovered the Waiheke Anomaly and have been irrevocably changed by it.¡±

    Oh, hell no.

    ¡°Sophia and Carla were celebrating their recent engagement by holidaying on Waiheke island when they saw a ¡°blue dot in the water.¡± They swam for the shore to raise the alarm, but it was too late to stop their mutation. This reporter has confirmed that two people were emergency airlifted from Waiheke Island on the 27th Dec just before the Navy moved to create the quarantine zone.¡±

    Fuck.

    ¡°Sophia said, ¡°The mutation was brutal and traumatic, especially for Carla. She would have died multiple times if it weren''t for the heroic staff at Auckland Hospital. We especially want to thank Dr Mohan for her efforts that directly saved Carla¡¯s life.¡±

    Well, at least they are bloody keeping me out of it.

    Fucking hell.

    ¡°When asked how their relationship will change because of the obvious and difficult mutations, Carla responded, ¡°We have grown closer together. We rely on each other much more and our love is stronger.¡±

    I thought Carla was using me to protect Sophia and their relationship from her family. I guess everything has changed now. Fuck, fuck, fuck.

    ¡°Sophia is a popular Year Three teacher at Central Primary. When asked about her job, she said, ¡°I plan to take a year off from teaching, but I am hoping to return. This mutation will not go away, and I need to learn to live with it. I hope people will be understanding of my disfigurement and that there will not be any discrimination because of this.¡±

    ¡°Carla was a Fitness Instructor at the Get Hard Gym in downtown Auckland. The manager said, ¡°We would absolutely welcome Carla back as an instructor. She ran several popular classes, and while we understand her need for time off, we will give the public plenty of notice before she returns. We expect her classes to be booked out early, so watch for the advertisements.¡±

    Shit, shit, shit. This is the reason for all those specific media clauses and the generous remuneration. Fuck. It is not nearly generous enough.

    ¡°The Navy spokeswoman praised Carla and Sophia for alerting them early and saving many more lives. ¡°While we mourn those servicemen and women who died from their mutations, we celebrate the others who survived, like Carla and Sophia did. Some of those military personnel have disfigurements that are obvious, and some are less obvious, but the Navy is a non-discriminatory organisation and will support all its personnel through all the hazards that arise from protecting our nation.¡±

    Fuck.

    Fuck.

    Fuck.

    What the fuck?

    I think my mind has blanked. My brain has busted. Shit.

    They are pushing the non-discriminatory theme hard.

    I guess they are good-looking women with obvious but apparently harmless mutations. I assume Carla¡¯s gills will be a feature soon. People will have to be careful around Sophia, though, as they might catch fleas. Articles detailing the mutations down to the nth degree will soon be published, I am sure.

    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

    There is no mention that Carla could change forms. I guess she is staying as Fishface for a while. That will give us time to study things.

    Fuck!

    I plug in the address of Sophia¡¯s parents. I turn on the aerial photos. It is a fucking gated clifftop mansion overlooking the marina. Fuck. Rich lister indeed. I guess it is a good place to hide from the media. They will have their own security guards.

    What the fuck do we do now? I guess they have a plan. I am definitely shopping for a bike, along with a leather jacket and a full-face helmet.

    Talking over the phone is no good. I need to go and see them and find out what the fuck they were thinking. Crazy fucking women.

    I bet the Navy talked them into this.

    Fuck. I didn¡¯t sign up for this. Fuck. I just literally signed up for this last night. Fuck. This isn¡¯t what I meant. Fuck fuck fuck.

    I don¡¯t have to do this. I could ditch them.

    I am so not going to be able to sleep tonight.

    Fuck, what is the strongest alcohol I have? Just beer and not much of that. I don¡¯t normally like getting drunk, but sometimes¡­

    No wonder there are so many alcoholics in the world. It is bloody relationships that drive you to drink. Fuck.

    Calm the fuck down, Bob. They have kept you out of the media. This is their shit, not yours.

    Shit, shit, shit.

    Distract yourself. How can I distract myself? I need a new motorbike. I bring up vehicles for sale on websites and browse. What type of bike? My last one was for running around town and getting to Piha. I think this one needs a bit more off-road capability. I will be mainly driving on the roads, but there will be more going to out-of-the-way places.

    There are a lot of options.

    Piha. I need to go to Piha for a while. Fuck this calm east coast. I need to get to the wild West Coast for a while. I need a tent. Fuck.

    You know, Buck would love the west coast. I couldn¡¯t take him on a bike, though. Maybe I should look at utes. I could fit a bike on the back. I could live out of a ute. Throw a mattress on the back and a tarp. I wouldn¡¯t need a tent.

    What utes are around? Definitely 4WD. Diesel is better than petrol. Doublecab gives more internal space.

    Fuck.

    They have done it to me again, haven¡¯t they? Fucking evil witches.

    I have changed the way I act because a fucking dog has wormed his way past my defences. Her fucking dog. Bloody Sophia. She comes across as all innocent and nice. She is as evil as Carla in her own way. Worse because I know how to handle Carla. Sophia is as much a mystery to me as I am to her. What I do know is that she is an evil witch working subtle, bloody magic.

    Carla, the Bitch. Sophia, the Witch.

    What the hell does that make me? I guess I am the Bastard. There are some fucking good superhero names. The Bastard, the Bitch and the Witch. BBW for short.

    Fuck. I am not going to ditch them, am I?

    I am so taking off with Buck, though. He is too good for them.

    A ute is a good idea. A tarp cover for the back, not a hardcover. I will get a bike again soon. I could get a flat wooden floor for the back rather than the factory corrugated floors. I probably wouldn¡¯t even need a mattress then.

    I''ve bookmarked some options. It doesn¡¯t need to be new. There are a couple of dealers and a couple of private sellers with options. I could afford new, but we will see. I want something that will last.

    I sit and think.

    I can¡¯t do this consultant job for the Navy and my old job. The Bitch and the Witch have already resigned their jobs. I typed out my resignation and emailed it to my boss. Their policy is to pay out your notice period rather than making you work it. That works for me, and another lump sum of cash will come in. I have some holiday pay due as well.

    What about my apartment? I bought it, and the mortgage is steadily decreasing. The only reason I bought there was it was close to the beach and close to work. I am no longer working in the city. Do I sell it? There is a no-dogs policy there as well, and Buck would be frustrated there. I could rent it out. No, the world is going to shit. Sell it. I will miss Maple, my sugar mummy.

    Ok. I have a plan. I look at the time. Shit, no point staying here. I gather up my stuff. If I leave now-ish I can catch the early bird ferry to Auckland.

    That dealer had a low mileage secondhand ute that I might be able to drive away in. Contact a real estate agent and get my apartment on the market. Go to the apartment and get the few things I want. The agent can then trash the rest and get the place cleaned up.

    Alcohol. I need alcohol. One last visit to Maple with alcohol and see if I can get a meeting with her granddaughter.

    Then, go to the mansion to pick up Buck before they ruin him. It is a mansion. It might be worth staying a night. Then to Piha.

    The brain is now un-busted. I have a plan.

 34. Hardcastle Estate.

    ¡°I am not sure about the stripes,¡± I told the salesman. The Ute itself was fine. Good, in fact. It was a common brand, which I wanted, as it made getting parts easier. It was a dark blue and would probably look black in some light. There were bullbars on the front and a tow bar on the rear. It was only a couple of years old. I liked the tinted windows.

    ¡°The previous owner bought it new from us two years ago. I think he wanted to re-live his surfing days; a bit of a mid-life crisis that didn¡¯t work out for him. We can get the stripes removed.¡±

    I thought the salesman was thinking the same mid-life crisis stuff about me. If I told him how my mid-life crisis was progressing, he would never believe me. I looked at the stripes. They were just sign-writing, ¡°I can remove them myself. How much for cash? I want to drive it away.¡±

    Of course, I paid too much. Don¡¯t you always? But I was happy with it. It had been a long while since I drove something this big, but I didn¡¯t hit anything I shouldn¡¯t have.

    I stopped at an electronics store and replaced my solar chargers. I had to remember that I now had a Ute that could recharge my phone. I got an adaptor to charge the laptop as well. While I was there, I upgraded my phone from the cheap one Soph got me. They were selling a rugged one with an extended battery for the outdoor crowd. It was not waterproof, but it could take a hit and wouldn¡¯t have to charge it all the time.

    I stopped at a hardware store and got some plywood for the Ute¡¯s tray. They cut it to size for me. I would need to fix it down, but that was good enough for now. I picked up some new camping gear. I am not used to having all this space. I splashed out and got a small gas burner element and a billy so I could make a cup of tea. Still, there is more space. I got some spare knives, different spear gun styles, and some hand spears. I was reminded about Fijian fishermen catching mutated fish. The ocean is probably going to be the first place that is a real danger.

    I showed the agent the apartment and signed up with her. Even a drunk Maple wouldn¡¯t give me her granddaughter''s number. I spent all afternoon trying as well. I figured I was too drunk to drive after that, so I crashed for one last night in my apartment.

    I woke early, as usual. I packed the ute with everything I wanted from the apartment and drove down to the beach for a last swim. Some idiot tried to tell me swimming was still banned. He got shown my middle finger. I swam out to Bean Rock Lighthouse for old-time''s sake. By the time I dried myself off and had something to eat at a local cafe, rush hour was over.

    Time to find this mansion.

    Shelly Beach is a suburb right next to downtown Auckland, so it didn¡¯t take me long to get there. The main road is called Shelly Beach Road, and it is the first offramp after crossing the harbour bridge. You literally leave the motorway the moment the bridge ends. The Hardcastle Estate is off a small cul-de-sac right at the end of Shelly Beach Road before this offramp. The cul-de-sac was blocked with media cars. I discovered my new Ute had a good horn.

    I made sure to wear sunglasses and a baseball cap. I was thankful for the tinted windows. I inched my way through, leaning on the horn, and the front bullbars might have encouraged a few people to make way.

    Hardcastle¡¯s security people had kept their drive clear, so I pulled in and stopped just before the gate. A security goon approached, and I lowered the tinted window a crack to talk to him without revealing anything to the cameras pointing at us.

    ¡°Good Morning, Sir. Do you have an appointment?¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t. If you could just contact the house and tell either the Bitch or the Witch that the Bastard has arrived, it will be fine.¡±

    ¡°We are only accepting people with appointments at this time, Sir. You will need to reverse out the way you came in.¡±

    I was busy texting Carla.

    ¡°I am at the gate in the ute. Tell the goons to let me in.¡±

    Then I pulse her that I texted. I hadn¡¯t talked to Carla or Sophia since I had created their new Superhero names, but they would learn about them soon enough.

    Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    I said to the goon, ¡°Just phone the house and say the Bastard is here to see the Bitch and the Witch, and we will be all good.¡±

    ¡°If you don¡¯t leave, I am going to have to call the police.¡± the goon said. ¡°They have been here five times since yesterday, and they are not happy. I strongly suggest you reverse out the way you came in.¡±

    Then my super hearing heard the phone in the guard house ring. ¡°That will be the Bitch now. Make sure to tell her what I said.¡±

    The goon was called over to the guardhouse, and I saw him talking on the phone. I smiled when he gave me a funny look.

    ¡°Open the gate, let the Ute through,¡± he yelled.

    The media got really excited when they saw me being let in. All the goon squad was out, holding them back as I drove through the gate. I thought I was very restrained and didn¡¯t give them all the finger. Physically.

    Landscaping blocked the view from the gate to the massive covered entrance to the mansion. I pulled up as Carla was coming out the door. Soph was behind her with the dogs at her feet. It didn¡¯t seem like the sort of place they would let dogs inside. Not tornadoes of destruction like Buck, anyway.

    Carla came up and gave me a hug, which was interesting. ¡°I am glad you came,¡± she said. ¡°I thought you might ditch us.¡±

    ¡°It was a close thing,¡± I replied.

    Buck came bouncing up, and I knelt down to give him a rub.

    ¡°Nice ride,¡± Carla said, ¡°I like the stripes.¡±

    Removing them just went higher on my to-do list.

    ¡°He likes you, you know,¡± Soph said, indicating Buck.

    ¡°Good,¡± I said, ¡°because I am taking him with me.¡±

    That got two surprised looks. ¡°Oh?¡± said Soph uncertainly.

    ¡°Somebody has to save him from a life of luxury,¡± I explained, indicating where we were.

    ¡°Do you want to come in so we can talk?¡± Carla said.

    ¡°That is why I am here. Is the truck OK there?¡±

    ¡°It is fine,¡± Soph said as she opened the doors for me.

    ¡°Fucking hell, I didn¡¯t know people actually lived in places like this,¡± I said. It was a large marble entrance with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and a wide curving stairway going up.

    ¡°I grew up living here,¡± Soph said. ¡°It has been in Mum¡¯s family for three generations.¡±

    Mum was coming down the grand stairs to greet me. She looked like an older version of Soph before she got all furry.

    ¡°You must be the famous Mr Wilkinson,¡± she said in greeting to me.

    ¡°Bloody hell, what have you two been saying about me?¡± I complained to them and then said, ¡°It is just Bob, thanks,¡± as I shook her hand.

    ¡°And you can call me Sam,¡± she replied. ¡°They have been saying good things about you, Bob.¡±

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t bloody believe them. It is all lies.¡±

    ¡°I tell you what, I will reserve judgment on you, and you do the same for what the media says about me.¡± She replied.

    ¡°You mean you are not a genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist?¡± I said, quoting an old movie.

    She laughed, ¡°Well, I am not a playboy, anyway.¡±

    ¡°You never know these days, and I don¡¯t like to assume,¡± I said

    Sophia¡¯s loud complaint of ¡°Bob!¡± made me smile.

    Sam smiled as well, ¡°I think you are going to be fun,¡± Sam said.

    ¡°Wait till you get to know me,¡± I replied.

    ¡°I look forward to it,¡± she said. ¡°I will leave you guys to it,¡± she said as she left through a side door.

    ¡°You were coming on to my mum!¡± Soph accused.

    ¡°Well, she is probably only a decade older than me. You are what, a decade younger?¡±

    ¡°I am twenty-eight!¡± she said.

    ¡°A bit more than a decade, then,¡± I said. ¡°I am a happy middle-age and free to swing both ways.¡±

    ¡°You are a Bastard,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°It is good to have you back, Bob,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I am pretty sure Soph doesn¡¯t think that.¡±

    ¡°Come on through to Soph¡¯s suite. There is a minibar there and some snacks.¡±

    ¡°Now you are talking.¡±

    ¡°So I am the Bitch, and Soph¡¯s is the Witch?¡± she said as she led me off.

    ¡°I think they work quite well,¡± I said.

    ¡°You are definitely the Bastard!¡±

 35. My Best Work.

    Soph¡¯s suite was on the ground floor, which was good for the dogs to come and go. Her lounge area was bigger than my whole apartment. I could see the edge of a large swimming pool, and everything was nicely landscaped except for the holes where the dogs had been digging.

    Carla handed me a beer.

    ¡°Do you want to tell me why?¡± I asked.

    ¡°There are many reasons. These mutations are not going away. Well, Soph¡¯s isn''t, and we need to function in the world, so putting it out there in people¡¯s faces is the quickest way. We have the publicity team of the whole armed forces behind us right now, so they are doing most of the heavy lifting in this. Soph¡¯s mother is also behind us, and her media company is stepping up. We will need to make some appearances, talk shows, and the like and start showing our faces around. People need to start getting used to seeing mutations. There will be more and more of them.¡±

    ¡°So you are pulling the bandaid off now, passing the work on to others, and getting paid for it, " I summarised.

    ¡°Basically,¡± Carla agreed.

    ¡°So what is my role in this? I am getting paid, too.¡±

    ¡°Your role is to stay away from all this,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°That¡¯s a bloody relief.¡±

    ¡°What have you been doing,¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°I have been having a good time,¡± I said. I found a nice, quiet cove. I went for long swims. There was lovely bush and nobody else around. I learned to gut and clean fish! I dined at restaurants. Oh, I bought the ute out there with the signing money. It was great.¡±

    ¡°What!¡± Soph exploded. ¡°We have been working our asses off, getting our story straight, photo shoots, medical exams, Media team, Negotiating that contract for you. We have been working hard, and you have been lazing on the beach?!¡±

    Carla was calmly watching me while Soph exploded at me. When Soph took a breath, Carla put a hand on her lap to stop her. ¡°Soph, just stop a minute. Remember what I said about him doing his best work when sitting on a beach? ¡± she turned to me, ¡°How far did you get?¡±

    ¡°I made some progress. I got a good handle on my senses, both in and out of the water. I made some progress on how essence interfaces actively with some mutations and how to control it. That is going to take a lot more work, but it will be the key to helping you change forms efficiently and, preferably, without dying. Once I have a better handle on that, I want to experiment with essence and the mutations that they don¡¯t seem to interact with actively, like my senses. That could have benefits with Soph¡¯s fur and your body resilience. That is a long way away. We have to get you changing forms first. What progress have you made?¡±

    ¡°You can see all our progress online,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you just say that,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Because he is the Bastard,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Hey, these names might stick!¡± I exclaimed. I looked at Soph, ¡°And because all the things I told you were the things I enjoyed. OK, I also enjoyed experimenting and learning about the mutations, but,¡± I shrugged, ¡°I am the Bastard.¡±

    ¡°The Bastard, the Bitch and the Witch, huh? Why am I supposed to be the Witch?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°You are way too nice to be the Bitch,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Your magic is evil and subtle and worms its way in,¡± I said. ¡°You use bloody emotions to work your magic.¡± I pointed at Rich, who was currently outside digging a hole for a bone he had. ¡°You have a bloody essence and emotion detector running around with you. How much did detecting emotions help you at the negotiating table? A lot, right? If we can turn that passive sense into an active sense ¡­ You are definitely the Witch.¡±

    Soph was just sitting there with her mouth open, ¡°That''s¡­amazing. Do you think we can do that?¡±

    ¡°I am working on it, and I think it is all linked. Using essence on passive senses to make them active is the key, but it is a long way away.¡±

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    ¡°I told you, didn¡¯t I,¡± crowed Carla, ¡°He does his best work sitting on a beach.¡±

    ¡°I am moving beaches,¡± I said.

    ¡°Piha?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°Probably, West Coast anyway.¡±

    ¡°Is that why you bought the Ute?¡±

    ¡°Partly, but also, I couldn¡¯t take Buck on the back of a bike.¡±

    ¡°You were serious about taking Buck?¡± Soph asked, ¡°Why?¡±

    ¡°He has an active essence ability. Do you know what it is?¡±

    Soph shook her head.

    ¡°We need to get him out hunting and exploring so he uses it. Then, we can find out what it is. He is young, and it is an active ability to help him hunt. We need him to be able to be aggressive. In gaming terms, he is one of our damage dealers. We are going to be fighting mutated creatures more and more. The way I see this team working, the Bitch here is our main tank. She is dense in body as well as in¡­ let''s leave it as in body. She has light armour naturally covering her. She will be able to take some hits. If we can get her shark form going, she will be able to bite back. I am a damage dealer and scout. Scout, with my senses and poison damage, probably working with Buck a lot.¡±

    ¡°And me?¡± queried Soph.

    ¡°You are the Witch. You are in crowd control and tactical. You and Rich are reading the emotions of our attackers and directing us to the most dangerous. Hopefully, eventually, you will manipulate emotions to avoid some fights and control them.¡±

    I continued, ¡°A lot of this is speculation and way down in the future. Step one is to get a handle on our mutations and essence control.¡±

    ¡°We also need to improve our fighting skills,¡± said Carla. ¡°I did some boxing for fitness, but that is all.¡±

    ¡°I haven''t been in more than a bar fight until the shark,¡± I said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think I have ever fought,¡± said Soph.

    ¡°The navy could probably help train us, but they won¡¯t see an urgent need for it. Carla, start boxing for fitness with Soph. That is a start. I think we all need to learn knives as they are useful in and out of the water. Knives are also easy to come by. Guns are a lot harder to get hold of here in NZ, but we can hopefully get some training from the Navy in due course. I think the better options for us are spear guns and hand spears. Spear guns can be used in and out of the water, and both are available at regular hunting and fishing stores. I brought some spares, and you can each choose a knife and spear gun to practice with.¡±

    ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding, were you, Carla,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°His best work. Give him a beach, some peace and quiet, and this is what you get.¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Meanwhile, you are fluffing around with photoshoots and talk shows,¡± I said.

    ¡°No. no, no,¡± Carla said, ¡°It is much more than that. We also have to make appearances. That means we have to go to parties. High profile parties.¡±

    ¡°Right, well, that makes it important then. You have to take Rich to these parties and practice reading emotions and being aware of your surroundings. You will also be a target for fanatics, so boxing and knives.¡±

    ¡°Boxing and knives,¡± Carla repeated. ¡°I am the tank and a damage dealer. Boxing and knives.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget Rich can also deal damage, and watch him for early warning signs. Dress him up as a pretty lap dog for rich folk; he won¡¯t care, and people will underestimate him.¡±

    ¡°Do you need anything?¡± Carla asked me.

    ¡°I need information. A lot of the proper research is being locked behind passwords, and I need access so I can continue to prep. The Navy is probably the key here.¡±

    ¡°Yes,¡± said Soph, ¡°but the person to whom the navy has given access will be Dr. Mohan.¡±

    ¡°Good point. Can you set up a meeting? We probably need all of us there.¡±

    ¡°Oh? Why?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°Because I am a Bastard, and she is a Bitch, so we need some magic to smooth the way. Also, so that she knows it is important to all of us and that we are a team.¡±

    ¡°This is really serious, isn¡¯t it? I mean, I know it is, but learning to fight? It is just another level of seriousness is dawning on me.¡± Soph said.

    ¡°It is literally the end of the world. The way I see it, we have been given a head start and need not to waste that,¡± I said.

    ¡°How long are you staying?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°I thought only one night, but that might depend on Amanda¡¯s schedule.¡±

    ¡°You know we could probably use somewhere out of the way to train. Could you rent a house near Piha where we could come? It is under an hour from here, depending on traffic.¡± Soph said.

    ¡°I guess I could look. Maybe I could buy one? I just put my apartment on the market.¡±

    ¡°Did you?¡± Soph asked. ¡°Mum is a shareholder in a realestate agency. She could have got you a deal.¡±

    I just shrugged. ¡°I will have a look around for places to buy or rent. There is never a lot available, as it is hard to get consent out there, and most of it is a regional park.¡± I changed the subject, ¡±So we all agree that this is the way we should go?¡±

    Soph nodded.

    Carla also nodded, ¡°Definitely the best work I have seen from you.¡±

    ¡°Excellent,¡± I said, ¡°The Bastard, the Bitch and The Witch it is.¡±

 36. Wants.

    I was shown to a guest room upstairs. I had a fantastic view of the Auckland Harbour Bridge. Before we went down to dinner, I wanted to do a bit of research. Learning to fight requires expert help, especially fighting humans. I hope most of our fights will be against animals, but if the world goes to shit, well, humans were shit to begin with.

    I researched knife care, sharpening and fighting. I need some basic self-defence moves first. I am too old to learn any martial art crap, so I need to learn to punch and poison. I will practice a poison punch. Every hit will stack more poison in their system. All I need to do is stay alive and connect my punches. That is the hard part. Staying alive.

    For me, the knife will be a backup weapon. I have a lot of extra testing to do for my poison. For instance, what thickness of leather can I get it through? Can I apply my poison to my knife or a spear?

    We don¡¯t have any ranged attack options except the spear gun. I wonder if the Navy can get me a gun licence as a Consultant. I think we need at least some hunting rifles. Put it on the list to ask. I am sure the Navy will not be considering anything else for us until the PR that Carla and Soph are doing has run its course. Unless an Anomaly appears.

    There are other common tools around that can be used as a weapon. I need to get an axe. Living in the bush, I need to chop firewood, but I can use it on other things as well. The machete is bigger and more versatile than a knife. Some come with saw teeth on the rear side, and others with a hook. I can see a use for both. I need to get used to these tools so I am familiar with them.

    I searched properties for sale or rent in the Waitakere Ranges area and nearby. There were some around. I narrowed the search to Karekare, Piha, Anawhata, and Bethells as my preferred areas. I booked marked some to go and look at.

    Dinner was a simple affair. Sam cooked, which surprised me. I was expecting them to have a chef or something. There were just the four of us. It was a huge house for just four people. The dinner discussion was kept general. I had not been brought up to speed as to how much Sam had been told.

    In the morning, I tried out their pool. I let Buck and Rich in as well, and Buck dived into the pool while Rich just watched from the edge. Swimming lengths in a pool are not the same as the ocean. Buck tried following me. The pool had a lap section to it, which was about twenty meters long. It takes five lengths to swim a hundred meters. It is quite short. And boring. I swam five hundred meters and then did the next five hundred completely underwater. Without flippers, it takes a while. Buck was fun trying to catch me while swimming on the surface.

    When I surfaced, I noticed Sam watching me from an upstairs balcony. Oops. I gave her a wave. She smiled and waved back. She is a smart lady. I bet she has worked out much more than she was told.

    I helped myself to breakfast in the kitchen and then joined Soph and Carla in their suite. They had a nice selection of teas, and I was trying something different from my normal supermarket green tea. It was called Matcha Tea, and I hadn¡¯t heard of it before, not that I am a connoisseur or anything. Not bad.

    ¡°We have our first function tonight,¡± Soph said. ¡°It is a formal meet-and-greet with the Mayor and Councillors. A couple of the Auckland Members of Parliament will be there, as well as some business leaders, including Mum. It is mostly just to parade us around and show people they are not afraid of us.¡±

    ¡°Do you want to come?¡± asked Carla.

    ¡°It sounds absolutely horrible,¡± I said, ¡°Although when I got my poison touch, I did say I would go and shake the mayor''s hand¡­ but no. I will pass.¡±

    A phone beeped. Soph looked at hers, ¡°Amanda can make space to see us after lunch,¡¯ she said. ¡°She especially wants to see you, Bob. You skipped out on the major testing.¡±

    ¡°She did the major testing the first time I was in hospital,¡± I said

    ¡°Yeah,¡± said Carla, ¡°but I think she wanted an update and to compare the results with the newbies. That is what she told me.¡±

    ¡°Well, she is going to be out of luck,¡± I said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be too hardline, Bob. She has things you want,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°What I want is to get laid,¡± I said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think Amanda is going to be into that,¡± Cara said.

    ¡°I would normally message you for a hook-up or find a bar or something.¡±

    ¡°I am not available while like this,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°What are you like down there, out of interest? Do you want me to take a look?¡±

    ¡°Soph and I have thoroughly examined each other. The inside is flesh and still sensitive, but the scales cover right over the slit. I could do with getting laid as well.¡±

    ¡°We could give it a go.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t recommend it,¡± Carla said, ¡°The dildo had layers scrapped off the side.¡±

    I winced. I looked at Soph, ¡°I bet Soph has a nice soft furry muff.¡±

    ¡°She does,¡± enthused Carla, ¡°It is a shame the fur on her face covers over her blushing.¡±

    Carla and I laughed.

    ¡°You lot are so mean,¡± Soph complained.

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    ¡°She¡¯s the Bitch,¡± I said.

    ¡°And he¡¯s the Bastard,¡± Carla finished.

    ¡°Hey, does your Mum have a boyfriend?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Shut up. And you guys better be careful because I am the Witch. You won¡¯t even see it coming,¡± Soph said.

    Then my phone rang. It was my real estate agent.

    ¡°We have a buyer,¡± she gushed when I answered. ¡°It is above market price. They want an immediate settlement for cash. This is what you wanted, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but the adverts haven¡¯t even started.¡±

    ¡°We haven¡¯t even cleaned the place for the photos yet. Do you want to take it or push for a bit more?¡±

    ¡°No, we will take it.¡±

    ¡°Great. I am emailing the contract now. I will talk to you once you have read it, " she said, and then she hung up.

    ¡°Good news?¡± Carla asked.

    I looked at Soph, ¡°Did your mum just go out and buy my apartment?¡±

    ¡°She wanted to do something nice for you to say thanks for helping me. Plus, it is in a nice area, and she will have no problem letting it out.¡±

    ¡°You said she doesn¡¯t have a boyfriend, right?¡±

    ¡°She does, actually, but it is kept very private,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°You just made that up.¡±

    ¡°No, I have actually met him,¡± Carla said, ¡°She does.¡±

    ¡°Bugger.¡±

    I was reviewing the real estate contract when Soph said, ¡°Hey, look at this.¡±

    She had a social media site up. There was a picture of me in shades with the window down, talking to the goon at the gate. There were big letters with ¡°Who is this Bastard? Who are the Bitch and the Witch?¡± then there was a recording of my conversation with the guard captured with their ¡°special microphones.¡± ¡°Are they code names? Is this a government conspiracy?¡± ¡°Why was the Bastard let in and has not come out?¡± etc.

    ¡°This has gone viral,¡± said Soph. ¡°The general consensus is that you are the Bitch, Carla, and I am the Witch with unknown mystical powers, and the government is hiding something.¡±

    ¡°Well, they got it right on all counts,¡± I said.

    ¡°The Navy PR is not going to be happy,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°This is just normal Bob,¡± Carla said. ¡°If they didn¡¯t know that before, they needed to be fired.¡±

    ¡°I am pretty sure most government employees need to be fired,¡± I said.

    The appointment with Amanda was at the hospital. We went by Helicopter. Of course, the Hardcastle Estate had a helipad on their property. The helicopter itself was a rental. Sam had no need for a permanent one and, therefore, wasn¡¯t going to waste the money.

    It meant the media throng was left behind.

    ¡°You skipped out on me.¡± Amanda accused.

    ¡°I know you are such a fine person, and you would not normally be stood up, but in my defence, I really needed to go and lie on a beach for a while,¡± I replied.

    ¡°The Navy was not going to include you in the contract because of the way you behaved. Carla was adamant you had to be included, and Sophia wouldn¡¯t sign it if Carla didn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Soph, you cut me to the heart,¡± I said, putting my hand to my heart to cover the wound.

    ¡°You really are a Bastard,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Those memes are actually you, then?¡± Amanda asked.

    ¡°There are memes?¡±

    ¡°There are,¡± Amanda said, ¡°and the Navy wants to cut you out for breach of contract.¡±

    I looked at Soph.

    ¡°Mum¡¯s lawyers have asked them to specify which clause was breached because they can¡¯t see it,¡± Soph replied, ¡°They wrote those media clauses.¡±

    ¡°You really are working your witchy magic, aren¡¯t you?¡± I said.

    ¡°You had better watch your back,¡± Soph said threateningly.

    ¡°I hope you have something better for me to take back to the navy than, ¡°I lay on a beach for a week,¡± Amanda said.

    ¡°Well, I also did a lot of swimming,¡±

    ¡°Bob,¡± Carla warned.

    ¡°Right. On task. I want to propose an information swap,¡± I said.

    ¡°What information do you have?¡± Amanda asked.

    ¡°That would be me telling you information, not swapping information.¡±

    ¡°What information do you want?¡±

    ¡°I want access to all the latest research information on the different anomalies and mutations here and worldwide,¡± I said.

    ¡°That is a lot of information,¡± She replied. ¡°We have seen no evidence you can understand it or that it would be of any use to you. A degree in engineering is not exactly relevant.¡±

    ¡°What I have is experience with an anomaly and mutations. My information helped Soph bond with live mutant dogs.¡±

    Amanda looked at Soph, and both she and Carla nodded.

    ¡°Can you make it happen again?¡± Amanda asked.

    ¡°I can share the same information, but I am pretty sure it was linked to this particular anomaly and the type of essence it produced. That is partly why I need information on other anomalies. I would like to experience other anomalies.¡±

    ¡°Giving you access to the research seems possible. The Joint Military Forces have compiled a database. However, if it leaks, you will be buried very deep,¡± she warned. ¡°What can you give me?¡±

    ¡°You know Carla¡¯s transformation requires active essence use?¡±

    ¡°It is the leading theory.¡±

    ¡°I can confirm it, as we have an essence link, and my essence is needed for it.¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡®Let me prove that essence can be actively used in some mutations. Do you have a piece of fruit or something else you don¡¯t like? Maybe someone you don¡¯t like, depending on your ethics?¡±

    I showed her what I could do, and she saw the needles being created. She had me do it during an ultrasound scanner and some other thing. It turned into a long afternoon, and Carla and Soph had to leave to prepare for their meet-and-greet. I would make my own way back to the Hardcastle Shack.

    ¡°Thank you, Bob. You have more than earned your salary.¡± Amanda said as we were finishing.

    ¡°Can I take you out to dinner to seal the deal?¡± I asked.

    ¡°My husband would not approve of that, but thank you for the offer.¡±

    Bugger. I am never going to get laid.

 37. Best Laid Plans.

    I walked out of the main entrance to the hospital at around 5 p.m., right on rush hour. There is a shuttle bus that circles the main centre, but I decided to walk. The Hospital is right next to the Auckland Domain, so I wandered through the tree-lined walkways. The waterfront is all downhill from the hospital. I will probably look for a bar, maybe some dancing. I have enhanced senses since I did this last. It is going to be an interesting experience.

    My enhanced hearing picks up the same footsteps following me, and I vary my path to check that they are not just heading in the same direction at the same speed as I am. No, they are definitely following me, and there are two of them. One of them has a heavy foot and a slight limp. Probably male. The second has a lighter step, meaning they are female or used to walking softly.

    The most logical explanation is that the navy would keep tabs on their wayward mutant after I had just been at a known location.

    I circle around this lovely park, sniffing the flowers. Once I get the breeze flowing in the right direction, I pick up their scent. This is good practice for me. They are both female. They haven¡¯t talked to each other yet. That is unusual.

    I mull over options. I can let them follow or ignore them. I am heading to the Harcastle Shack, assuming I don¡¯t get laid. The Navy knows that is where I am at the moment.

    Maybe they are not Navy. Maybe they are reporters? There would have had to be some sort of leak at the hospital, and I am sure the Navy is very careful with Amanda¡¯s schedule. Less likely, but possible. What would be the outcome of that? Do I get outed as The Bastard? Hey, if they try to seduce me, that could work. I am pretty sure it only works in fantasies.

    I cross over a couple of streets and enter Albert Park. They are still there and still the same distance. I am pretty sure reporters would have approached me by now. Who else could they be?

    I consider my defence options. I have a knife, but I don¡¯t know how to use it, and I don¡¯t really know how to throw a punch. My best attack will be to slap them until they fall. Once one falls, I can hug the other to death. That doesn¡¯t sound very badass to me. I can¡¯t kick them in the nuts because they don¡¯t have any, although I am told females are still sensitive in that area.

    The sun is going down, and the shadows are getting long. Should I confront them? If so, should I do it in the park with fewer witnesses or in a crowded place with more witnesses? Would they have weapons? I was going to head over to the Victoria Park Market, as that is a lively place with a lot of variety. It is also about halfway back to the Hardcastle Shack.

    If I leave Albert Park, it is a straight walk down Wellesley Street to Victoria Park. Busy streets all the way. Stuff it. I sit down and wait to put eyes on my followers. Then I can decide to chat, fuck or run.

    ¡°Lieutenant Wihongi! What a surprise to see you here. Are you out to experience some nightlife with your girlfriend?¡± I didn¡¯t recognise the dark skinned, slim lady next to Wihongi, but she walked quietly and was very aware of her surroundings.  I judged she was the most dangerous of the two. Actually, I would put the odds on her being the most dangerous person in the park.

    ¡°Mr Wilkinson.¡±

    ¡°Bob, please.¡±

    ¡°Bob. We are here to make sure you don¡¯t get lost again,¡± Wihongi said.

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    I laughed. ¡°I will most certainly get lost again, but not tonight. Tonight, I am heading down to Victoria Market for some fun and relaxation and maybe to try and get laid. You can join me if you like. You could be my wingman, wingwoman, no, what is the navy term for that?¡±

    ¡°Friend.¡±

    ¡°Right! You could be my friends, but I would at least need to know your first names before you can enter my friend group.¡±

    Wihongi laughed. I remember the easy, boisterous laugh. I am glad to see she hasn¡¯t lost it. ¡°I am Ataahua, but just call me Ata.¡±

    We both looked at the smaller woman. ¡°Call me Kate.¡±

    ¡°So, Kate, what part of the military are you in?¡±

    Kate just looked at me in silence.

    ¡°Not a talker? I actually really appreciate that in a friend. If Ata here had bought Ensign Jeong with her, I would have been driven mad within half an hour. Come on, Victoria Market is this way. Ata, I am glad you recovered. Was it beneficial or burdensome?¡±

    ¡°A bit of both, but not too negative.¡±

    ¡°What fish?¡±

    ¡°No fish. One of the trawlers caught a Tak¨¡pu,¡± She paused, wondering if I knew the Maori name for a Gannet. I nodded. You pick up words here and there. ¡°It had an extra leg and something we couldn¡¯t determine. None of the others wanted to try a bird, and I always thought they were nice-looking birds, so I went for it.¡±

    I could tell Kate was not happy with this topic of conversation, but if she didn¡¯t want to participate, she didn¡¯t get a say.

    ¡°Biggest benefit?¡±

    ¡°The Eyesight. Much better than the twenty-twenty. Everything is clearer and sharper for further. Amazing.¡±

    ¡°Downsides?¡±

    ¡°The feathers are hard to manage.¡±

    I looked at her face and neck. No feathers.

    ¡°Back mostly, although I plucked a few from my neck to look normal.¡±

    ¡°Fascinating. What colours are they?¡±

    ¡°White with black tips. The ones on my neck were yellow, and I really like the yellow head of the Tak¨¡pu.¡±

    ¡°I am sure they will grow back, and you won¡¯t have to hide forever.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, soon.¡±

    We hit the market and the food stalls and beer. Ata was from Northland and grew up near the Bay of Islands. She shared stories of her life in the Navy, and I promptly forgot most of them. There was a band playing and that was interesting to my new ears.

    Kate faded into the background, but I still caught her scent every now and then.

    We were both tipsy when she escorted me back to the Hardcastle Shack. She thought that was hilarious, so I invited her in to look around. We played the drunk sightseers coming to gawk at the mutants to get through the media gauntlet. We weren¡¯t the only ones, but we were the only ones the guard let through the gate.

    We dashed out of sight, and I showed her the Shack. She showed me her feathers, which were beautiful. They gave her a white back with a line about her waist when they turned black and flared out from her ass to almost be a tail. They were on her upper arms as well and hung down like useless wing feathers. They must be real trouble when wearing sleeves. She showed me a yellow one she had kept, and I could see they would have covered the back of her neck. I wish she had not removed them.

    One of her regrets was the feathers covered a tattoo she had on her back, but that was minor.

    The feathers shone beautifully in the moonlight when we went skinny dipping in the pool. I told her she should never wear clothes again. She had a powerful and beautiful body with a fascinating back of feathers.

    She just told me to shut up and fuck her again.

 38. Escape.

    The next morning, I tried to get Ata to leave her back feathers free, and she really wanted to, but she was not comfortable doing so in front of strangers at the breakfast table. There was no way she would fit anything of Carla¡¯s or Soph¡¯s. As I had discovered first-hand last night, she was a big, powerful woman.

    Carla and Soph were eating at the breakfast bar when we entered, and I introduced Ata.

    Carla got up and gave me a high-five and then did the same to Ata. ¡°Good sex should be celebrated,¡± she said.

    ¡°Where¡¯s Sam?¡± I asked as I showed Ata where things were.

    ¡°She has already eaten,¡± Soph said. ¡°She is about to leave.¡±

    Then I heard the sound of the incoming chopper.

    ¡°When do you report for duty next?¡± I asked Ata.

    ¡°Tomorrow morning, on account of I was working last night.¡±

    ¡°You were definitely working hard last night,¡± I said. ¡°Speaking of, what is the deal with Kate? She followed us. She even got into the grounds. I know she was watching us swim.¡±

    ¡°Everybody was watching you swim,¡± said Carla.

    ¡°Even my mother,¡± added Soph.

    I could tell Ata was a little embarrassed by the talk, but I couldn¡¯t tell if she blushed under her chocolate-coloured skin.

    ¡°Those are beautiful feathers,¡± said Carla. ¡°We should find you something to wear where you can show them off.¡±

    ¡°That would involve a shopping trip,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°That would be a bit difficult for us right now,¡± Carla said, indicating her scales, ¡°but we can look online. If you don¡¯t have to rush away, we can hang out, basically nude, if you like. We don¡¯t mind. Look at my scales and her fur. Bob is the only light-coloured skin around.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to be in the way, but I could hang for a bit. I don¡¯t have anywhere to let my feathers out, and they do feel uncomfortable under clothes.¡± Ata said.

    ¡°Great,¡± said Soph. ¡°I bet you we can find you some great open-backed dresses. You would look stunning.¡±

    ¡°You never did say anything about Kate,¡± I said before they got carried away.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know much about Kate. I was told to meet her, make sure she recognised you and then follow her instructions,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°She never gave you any,¡± I pointed out.

    ¡°No, so I just did what I wanted,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°Good choice.¡±

    ¡°I am not going to be in the way if I hang out,¡± she asked.

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    ¡°Definitely not,¡± I said. ¡°I will be on my laptop most of the day reading research papers and planning my escape away from everyone, including the Navy.¡±

    ¡°Should you have told me that?¡± Ata asked. ¡°That is the thing we were supposed to be preventing.¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°I doubt I will be hard to find. I am too predictable.¡±

    ¡°Piha is the first place to look,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°OK, then,¡± Ata said uncertainly.

    ¡°This clod tends to leave his phone off a lot. Let them know that I can always contact him in an emergency, and by emergency, I mean an anomaly appearing,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Really? That will help,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°There you go. You have slept your way into the information you needed,¡± I said. ¡°I will leave you guys to it. I am going to find a nice shady spot with my laptop, probably a balcony where I can ogle all the naked ladies.¡± I left them to it.

    I ended up on a downstairs patio so the dogs could come and go as well. The naked ladies were wonderful. It was the first time I had seen all of Carla¡¯s scales, and I had never before seen anything of Soph between the shoulders and the knees.

    Most of the research was dry and boring, and there was a lot of repetition. It wasn¡¯t going to happen in a day. I found the Aussie Army¡¯s report on the animal experimentations on the Anomaly in the outback. That anomaly was a bright yellow, and a lot of fires started. There was speculation it was fire-attuned in some way. There is no mention of emotions or mental effects. Wait up. Fire attuned.

    I thought this one was water-attuned, but I have no evidence of that, probably because it was in water. But maybe that is the key to using essence more actively. Water, or in this particular case, emotional water. That sounded weird. I am going to be pretty stuffed if I have to rely on emotions, but water has possibilities. It may not be water, and we can try other things, but water is a start.

    I joined the girls and the dogs for a swim just before lunch. Sam is going to have to get her pool filters cleaned more frequently. Everybody was naked, and nobody worried. We were still naked when we got lunch.

    Then we discovered Ata had some combat training. ¡°Only the basics. I am a sailor, not a soldier.¡±

    That was how we were all shown basic combat moves for three hours that afternoon. There were only seven basic fighting moves that we practised over and over. We would need a lot more practice, but it was a start. Practising naked was quite fun, except one of the moves was a knee to the groin.

    We were in the pool again, cooling off when Sam came home. She came and joined us. She was wearing a bikini but didn¡¯t seem to mind we were all naked. We were a strange lot.

    Ata stayed for dinner and then left for the naval base.

    I got a whiff of Kate every now and then, so I knew she was around. She was good. I could have hunted her out with my hearing and smell, but I didn¡¯t bother. She would probably just kick my ass. I suppose she could have been the NZ secret whatever, but it is more likely she was a foreign agent on loan to NZ or just working alongside the NZ. Forces. New Zealand is pretty small in world terms. The most likely source was Aussie due to our ANZAC agreements. Aussies get on well with the US, but we don¡¯t. I don¡¯t think we have ever been forgiven for banning their nuclear warships a few decades ago. Our anti-nuclear stance is pretty well known. The French don¡¯t like us because of it either. So, the next most likely source after that was the UK. Kate only ever spoke three words, so I assume she was hiding an accent.

    My biggest problem was getting out past the media and nut jobs at the gate. I was surprised the nut jobs had taken this long to make their presence known. A cop car drove into the cul-de-sac and back out about every hour now, making sure the road was clear and making their presence known. I planned to time my exit with the cop car.

    I waited until it was dark. Shadows and headlights are a great combination. I loaded the truck, and Buck sat next to me. The security guards were primed. When the cops turned in the cul-de-sac head, they would open the gate. I would drive out on the tail of the cops and disappear into traffic.

    It was a good plan, and the only thing that marred it was that the cops saw the opening gate, stopped, and waited for me to go first. Thank you very much.

    I headed straight out to the West Coast. It was only an hour''s drive from central Auckland. It is only half an hour to the Western suburbs. I got to Piha late and parked in the beach car park. Buck and I went for a night walk along the beach just to hear the pounding waves and feel the spray on out faces. Buck was very excited and ran around like a lunatic. I knew he would love this place. I laid out my sleeping bag in the tray of the truck and dozed off with Buck next to me.

 39. Search.

    We started the day with a swim on a beach with some decent waves. Buck loved it. Piha is not like Waiheke; there is only one cafe on the whole beach.

    To get to Piha, there is a narrow, twisty road through the Waitakere Ranges, which is primarily a Regional Park. Nestled in the bush are the occasional private cabins. Piha has quite a few houses in the less steep parts. Most are surrounded by bush. A few of these were on my list to look at, both for sale and for rent.

    Piha is not connected to a lot of the city''s services. There is electricity and phone, but no public water supply or wastewater disposal. Roof water is collected for drinking, and onsite waste disposal systems are required. This is the same for all the west coast beaches. It keeps the housing density low and the townies away.

    Buck and I walk along, looking at the mixture of beach cabins and the newer fancy houses. While we do that, we also work on some obedience training for Buck. That is going to take a bit of work. If Soph was here, she could reinforce good choices through her bond, but I need to work the old-fashioned way. His time with Soph meant he mostly came when called now.

    The houses I chose to look at were all close to the beach rather than up in the hills. We were water mutants, so we needed to practice in the water as much as on land. One of them was a possibility. It was back off the beach and in the bush, although the beach was only a five-minute walk away. The neighbours were too close for my liking, so I kept looking.

    That was enough looking for today anyway. The tide was in, and there was a large rock just off the coast called Lion Rock. I wanted to swim around it. I used my flippers and set out in the moderate surf. Swimming underwater was easier than in the surf but not as much fun. You also have to watch out for rips that will drag you out to sea. While it would be hard for me to drown, exhaustion was still a factor.

    While I swam, the fact that the Anomaly was in the water kept going around and around in my head. Australia often had bushfires. Did the Anomaly appear in one of them and become fire-related? Were the anomalies affected by where they appeared? Those were all good questions. I needed to do more research on other anomalies that had been found.

    I spent the afternoon on my laptop, synced through my phone to the internet, and read about the Indian anomaly that appeared in the slums of Chennai. It was a reddish-brown colour. It had taken a while to find it as it appeared underneath one of the slum shacks, and those living in the shack died. Death and poor health were common there.

    The most interesting thing was the number of human mutations that appeared. The death rate was well over fifty per cent, possibly due to the poor condition of the people. Some of the first-hand accounts that were recorded were interesting. One elderly person said he watched his leg turn to dust and blow away. One child said she could see different patterns in the air, mostly brown and red. I was wondering if her mutation enabled her to see the essence. There was no record of what happened to her after the medical researcher finished with her. She couldn¡¯t speak any English either, and I was reading an English translation, which may not be accurate.

    The Indian researchers had tried categorising the mutations they recorded. This wasn¡¯t easy as the level of superstition amongst the poorly educated slum dwellers was high, and there was no physical manifestation of some mutations. Some mutations seemed to be in multiple categories. Earth or dirt mutations were the most common, followed by animal mutations. There seemed to be a surprising number of effects in the blood samples that were taken, which was high on the list. Blood research was ongoing. Several people had expressed a desire to drink blood.

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    I tried not to let my Western fantasy/horror stories affect me, but that sounded scary. I needed a break after reading the horror stories written by Indian scientists. How do we combat that? Would my essence control/barrier work to protect me from that? How do I strengthen that control/barrier without an anomaly to use? That is my only defence against essence, and I really need it to be as strong as possible.

    Can two essence users practice against each other to strengthen their control? That would require an active essence attack. My active essence ability creates needles and poison. It doesn¡¯t attack directly. I looked at Buck, lying exhausted at my feet. His essence attack might be direct. I need to find out what it is. All the humans controlled their mutation in some way or tried to. Buck¡¯s mutation was random. No random is the wrong word. Uncontrolled or undirected may be better as there may still be things in Buck that may have influenced it. There is so much we don¡¯t know.

    My priorities are to work with Buck and find a way to strengthen our essence control. The laptop battery is almost empty. I am glad I got the longer-life battery on the phone, but I need a place with some electricity. I could book into a campground for a night. I pack up, for now, They can charge as I drive.

    I drive to Anawhata, the next bay up the coast accessible by road. There is nothing on my list for Anawhata, but I wanted to look at the place. It looks deserted and difficult to get to. There are private houses dotted along the road and a guest house at the end. I booked into the guest house for the night.

    An old couple ran the house. There were only two rooms available for rent, but there was camping space outside. Buck and I were the only guests.

    ¡°I am looking for a quiet getaway close to the beach for several months. Do you know any? I like Anawhata,¡± I said.

    ¡°George¡¯s place is empty,¡± Mabel said, ¡°His family finally shipped him off to a rest home, but he won¡¯t let them sell it. It is pretty rundown.¡±

    ¡°Power, water, a roof and privacy are all I need. Even then, some of those can be worked around.¡±

    ¡°Power is a bit iffy at times here. There are a lot of trees interfering with the line. Most folks supplement it with solar panels like us. I don¡¯t think George''s place has, though.¡±

    ¡°I would be interested in having a look and discussing a long-term rental. You wouldn¡¯t know where I could contact them, do you?¡±

    ¡°There is a number here somewhere. Fred can show you the place, and you can look from the outside.¡±

    George¡¯s place was a three-bedroom cottage up the Anawhata stream from the beach. I am sure the stream would flood the drive in storms coinciding with high tide. It was very basic, but the water tank held water, and there was power and a roof. We could walk down the stream to the beach in about fifteen minutes. The house was just up a hill from the stream, nestled in bush, but there was a grass area adjacent to the stream that the house looked over.

    I got hold of the family, and they were happy to rent it and let me make some small upgrades. As soon as the old man died, they would be looking to sell, and if I looked after the place, I could have the first option. Sounded Ideal.

    The next day, I drove the forty minutes to Auckland''s West City. I signed a lease agreement and bought some portable solar panels, an axe, some machetes, and other necessities like food and something to sleep and sit on. I actually had the Ute full. I stopped and had the stripes removed as well to be a lot less recognisable as the crazy Bastard who consorts with mutants, to quote one social media post.

    The internet and cell phone reception was shit. I ordered one of those satellite link internet connections, and it would arrive in a few days. The forty-minute drive to civilisation was good, and it was peaceful and quiet.

    I drove into West City several times over the next few days and set myself up quite well. I got some spare cots for the Bitch and the Witch for when they came, but if they wanted luxury, they would have to bring it with them.

    Once the satellite link was running, I was sorted.

 40. Beware of Owner

    I put a sign at the gate, ¡°Buck¡¯s Estate: Beware of Owner.¡±

    Buck and I would rise with the sun and go to the beach for a swim. If I caught some fish, that would be our breakfast. Then, we would vary things. Sometimes, I would practice chopping wood with various implements. I soon had wooden targets set up everywhere. Sometimes, we went into the bush, exploring and sometimes hunting.

    Don¡¯t bother trying to throw knives like in the movies. It doesn¡¯t work- not for me at least. The hand spears, though, worked OK. They''re not as good as a spear gun, but I practised anyway. I might not have a spear gun or shot the only spear it held. I practised.

    We would sometimes go hunting at night. Our main prey were possums. I still think it is funny they are super protected in Aussie and a major pest here. Spear guns are not the best for this as their range is only six to seven meters. One type I have managed up to ten meters. I will get more of those. The longer guns were more accurate than the pistol-type design. They were all only single shots, and I got good at fixing the spears.

    Buck was getting better. I winged a possum with a spear, and it fell to the ground, but the spear fell out. Buck was onto it quickly, but the possum was also quick and darted for the tree, even though it only had three legs working. It got to the tree first, and Buck barked at it. No, he didn¡¯t just bark at it. He did something else. The Possum froze and fell from the tree again, and this time, Buck was onto it and tearing at it. I moved in and killed it with poison, but Buck earned so much praise for that. He had learned to use his Essence to stun the possum. Maybe stun, maybe more. This is what I wanted to see. Now, I had an idea of what he could do, and I could work at it with him and practice.

    I moved to skin the possum. I was getting better at it. This possum was going to be special though. This possum had the privilege of being turned into a training tool for Buck.

    At night, I would wade through research documents. This was complicated by language. I only spoke English and a smattering of Maori. For every other language, I had to rely on the provided translation. Free online translators were useless because of the number of technical words that were used. Not every document has been translated yet. English documents were also being translated into other languages, but much more of the world was multi-lingual compared to us poor English speakers.

    I also keep tabs on the socialites. I assume their social media accounts were being managed for them as there were regular posts that didn¡¯t sound like them. Carla would never have said that without swearing. They weren¡¯t just partying anymore; they were shopping and doing regular rich people''s stuff. They were really playing into Soph''s status as the daughter of an NZ-rich lister. They did have security wherever they went. Soph was the most popular. She had used dye on her fur, and each arm was a different colour for fashion. Oh, not fashion. It was to support the NZ SPCA, and Rich was dressed up as well, and the fact he was adopted from an animal shelter was played up. It was a whole different world.

    They had their haters. They were called all sorts of things, starting with animals and getting worse. There were protests and petitions to lock them up to protect us humans. Carla''s family had been hounded, and they had disowned her and retreated back to Samoa to escape.

    Carla had her own fan group, which was mostly the young but less well-off demographic. Many Island teens painted fish scales on their skin and made comparisons with their traditional legends. She was Sina or Kupe reborn. They were likened to Taema and Tilafaiga and some others. Mostly, there is always a place for young people who rebel against tradition, and that fits Carla. One young girl had fish scales tattooed on her neck and shoulder. I say young, but she was a teenager. I am just old.

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    January moved into February, and all the schools started up again. Buck could use his Skill three times in a short space of time and had become quite responsive. We started developing teamwork, and my skills improved.

    Only one new anomaly was found, indicating to me that several went undiscovered. The world was a big place.

    I did discover how to collect my poison. You do it the same way they collect snake venom, by getting the snake to inject through clingwrap or similar. I got some jars and clingwrap, and I soon had my Hypno nerve toxin stored in jars. I dated them as I wanted to test how long they could stay potent. Comparing it with snake venom, freezing it was the best way to store it. I was not going to bother freezing it as I produce it easily and I wanted to know how long it would stay potent on knives and spears at room temperature.

    The first priority was still to help Carla change. I had been exchanging emails and video calls with her, and Amanda was readying a medical room for the first attempt. I could now use my essence to alter the potency of the venom quite easily, but not the penetrating power of the needle. Yet. The trick was water. I was sitting at the bottom of the ocean, trying to get my essence to copy the ebb and flow of the waves. That was easier than the control/absorb I had done before. I thought about the essence of the anomaly and how it flowed out like waves that got stronger the closer you got to it. This seemed to be the key to using the essence from this anomaly, making it flow in waves. Some waves are gentle, and some pound hard on the beach. Making waves was the key. When I used that with my skill, gentle waves produced a weaker poison and pounding as hard as I could, produced a more potent poison.

    When I was sure, Buck and I jumped in the truck with some supplies and headed to the Hardcastle Shack. I needed to go over this with Carla and Soph, as this could make a big difference in how they work, especially Carla. I remember sending waves through the link to her that day when I woke her up, but it didn¡¯t click until now. I think if we practice syncing the waves, it might be the key to a smoother transition. We need to test it.

    I think Buck was also missing Soph and needed to reconnect. I also messaged Ata to see if she had any time off. If we could get Carla changed, she would not be holding back from a good round of sex. The last time we video-called, she mentioned she had a metal dildo made and was OK. I wonder who made that?

    This time, I didn¡¯t drive to the estate but parked in a nice, quiet suburban street a couple of blocks away and walked. If this is going to be regular, I might need to rent a garage or something. The media at the gate was mostly gone. Only a few die-hards were still there. I could probably bring the truck next time. This time, I wore a fluro worker jacket and carried a machete, spade, hat, and shades. I am here to do some nameless stuff in the garden. Actually, Buck will be doing the nameless stuff in the garden.

    The gate security let me in, but the place was empty. Not empty, empty, there was someone cleaning the kitchen, and I heard a vacuum cleaner somewhere else in the house. I spied the pool cleaners out back.

    The kitchen lady had no idea where anybody was. I rang the gate security. They left this morning at 9:30 a.m. and were expected to return around 4 p.m. Then, my phone binged a text accompanied by an urgent pulse.

    Carla: ¡°Head to town. Trouble¡±

    Bob: ¡°In Town. Where?¡±

    I accompanied that with a pulse. The link didn¡¯t give a direction, but you could get a sense of how far you were from each other.

    Carla: ¡°Fish Market. Guns.¡±

    Bob: ¡°Coming.¡±

 41. Serious Shit.

    Fuck, why did I park so far away? ¡°Buck! Come!¡± and I ran for the gate, Buck hard on my heels.

    As I ran for the gate, I said, ¡°Trouble! Call for backup. We might be coming back fast.¡± I ran up the street while having my photo taken. I still had my hat, shades and fluro jacket on. The gate staff were on the phone to their HQ as I ran out of the cul-de-sac.

    Where the fuck is the Fish Market? Maps finally brought it up as we were driving off. In town. Wynyard Quarter. Not far at all.

    I was mentally assessing what I had. There was a spear gun in the back and a couple of hand spears. I had a knife on me and two more in the truck. I was wearing the machete, but I had left the spade behind. First aid kit in the glovebox.

    Bloody traffic. I made good use of my horn. Where are the cops when you need them?

    We were about five minutes out, and Buck got all upset and wanted out. ¡°Wait, soon,¡± I told him.

    Traffic was all backed up on Daldy Street, so I crashed through the street planting, my bullbars pushed over a medium-sized shrub, and people scattered as I drove on the footpath. I slammed to a stop, opened the doors, and let Buck out. I paused to grab the spear gun and ran after him. I didn¡¯t know this place, so following Buck was my best option, but he had already disappeared. I could see the commotion, and people started pouring out of the building as I heard a gunshot.

    I barged my way opposite the crowd. I could hear shouting and smell blood, even over the smell of fish. The first body I came across was a security guard lying motionless but alive, I thought. Then I heard Buck Power Bark. and the sounds of fighting. The first fighting I saw was Carla, with ripped scales, struggling with a guy with a rifle. He was overpowering her, but not by much. I dove to the side, so I was behind him and shot my spear into his back, hoping like hell it wouldn¡¯t go through. The guy was frozen in shock, and I recognised the move Carla used to knee him in the groin, and then she ripped the gun from his hands. He lay still with my spear in his back. I never killed anyone before, but I think I just might have.

    I moved up beside Carla, drawing my machete, as I heard sirens sounding. The police were responding to multiple calls they would be getting. Soph was down and bleeding, Rich had blood on his mouth, and I saw him limp when he moved. Rich was in a standoff with an attacker whose hand was mangled and bleeding. Buck was savaging the throat out of the attacker he had downed with his bark. There were two other bodies down, one lying still and another moaning, clutching at his groin and bleeding from his nose. The last standing attacker was rethinking his choices and turned and ran.

    Carla raised the rifle and shot him as he ran. The rifle clicked on an empty chamber. It was a bolt action hunting rifle, and the next shot needed to be loaded into the chamber, but she didn¡¯t know that. Automatic weapons were tightly controlled in NZ, which is why they only had the bolt action. Only farmers and hunters really bother with guns here, so Carla had no idea how to use the gun. The runner was lucky she didn¡¯t know.

    I moved to pull Buck off before he killed the guy, although it may be too late as there was a lot of blood. Carla moved to Soph. There was blood around Soph, and she had a gash on her head. I pulled Buck off, but his victim was not my first concern.

    ¡°Stay. Guard.¡± I told Buck. He wasn¡¯t very good at those commands, but he was guarding Soph, which probably counts for something. I checked her breathing, and blood was coming out, so her heart was beating. The wound on her head was not the cause of most of the blood, and finding the wound in her fur was not the easiest. I ripped part of her dress and said to Carla, ¡°Here. Hold this against the cut while I find a first aid kit.¡± She did as I looked around the large open shop/food court we were in.

    As I looked around and spied a green sign with a white cross, I thought, ¡°Maybe I should not have complained so much about that first aid course the company made us do.¡± Under the sign, there was a first aid kit, and I grabbed it. I ripped it open, spilling half the contents, but found something to help stop the bleeding better.

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    Then the cops arrived. Fortunately, they didn¡¯t try to make us stop treating Soph. Carla and Soph were very recognisable, and I was helping. The dogs wouldn¡¯t let the cops close. One cop insisted I slide the machete to him, as it was lying on the ground next to me. Other cops went to help the other wounded, and then the paramedics arrived, and then more cops, and even more cops.

    I controlled the dogs so the paramedics could treat Soph, and Carla needed attention as well. They were both carted off in an ambulance, and I stayed with the dogs and was interviewed. New Zealand is typically a reasonably safe country, so this was a big deal. Then, the military arrived.

    I was asked to hold the dogs while evidence was obtained from their mouths. I ended up swabbing them for the technician. The cops were not happy. Only I could control the dogs, and a dog handler had arrived. I am sure Buck killed his person, but I was not told anything. My hearing was picking up a lot.

    There were three dead. Buck¡¯s person bled out on the way to the hospital. My spear killed the gunman, and the one lying motionless on the floor died of a knife wound. The security guard was critical and was being rushed into an operating theatre.

    I was asked to get the dogs into separate cages, so I did. I was then taken down to the police station, and everything was taken as evidence. I was shown to an interview room and waited. The soundproofing muffled my hearing but didn¡¯t stop it.

    I heard some aggressive discussion outside my room, and then a young man entered, gave me his card, said he was a lawyer, and asked if I wanted him to represent me. He was from Hardcastle¡¯s lawyers, so I said yes.

    Then, there was a formal and long interview. The whole place was covered in CCTV cameras, so I figured they would know the sequence of events better than I did. I took them through my part step by step and then again and again.

    They got stuck on my relationship with Carla and Soph.

    ¡°Why would Miss Vaa¡¯i text you for help?¡±

    ¡°Because I have known her for over a decade.¡±

    ¡°Please describe the nature of your relationship.¡±

    ¡°Fuck buddies.¡±

    ¡°Please expand on that.¡±

    ¡°I would message her occasionally for sex, and she would do the same.¡±

    ¡°So you were in a sexual relationship.¡±

    ¡°No. We were having sex, but it was not a relationship.¡±

    Et cetera.

    Eventually, the lawyer told them to move on.

    I was more concerned about the dogs. A dog that kills someone is usually put down. The military stepped in there and identified the dogs as military assets, and I was the consultant managing these assets. I had to identify a place where I would keep the dogs until their fate was decided. It was Buck¡¯s fate, really, as Rich hadn¡¯t killed anyone. I guess we would have to tough it out at the Hardcastle Shack. Isn¡¯t it nice to be rich?

    My truck was going to be unavailable until the forensic investigation was complete. I was told to be available for further interviews. Shooting someone in the back with a spear gun was not strictly self-defence, although I was acting in the defence of others. If Carla had actually shot the runner, she would be in some serious shit. I am going to have to learn the laws around all this.

    The next day, I arrived at the Hardcastle Shack with the two dogs. Sam greeted me. She had just returned from seeing Sophia, and she should be released from the hospital later in the day. Carla would come with her. Sam was ready to pamper the dogs so badly for saving her daughter. I caught the edge of that. Rich had a severely bruised rear leg, but it would fully heal with time.

    Sam had a chef come in that evening, and we celebrated being alive. Soph had a knife wound in her back, but it didn¡¯t go very deep. It was the head wound and the concussion that they really kept her under observation overnight. I don¡¯t think they really knew what her mutations did and were cautious.

    Carla had scales missing from a run-in with a knife and more where the bullet grazed past. She was so close to dying, and Soph was only alive because of Rich and then Buck.

 42. Reorganisation.

    Carla and Soph filled us in on the rest of the story. They were at the Fish Market because Carla had agreed to film a new advert for them. Rich immediately started scoping out the place and gave Soph an indication something was wrong. Soph warned their guard to call for back up and get them out of there while Carla texted me, not expecting me to be close by.

    When the attackers saw them leaving, they acted before they were in the proper place to take them out all at once. The Security guard was struck on the head and stomped first. Two came for Carla, and she surprised him with a knife in the chest.

    ¡°The one with the gun was well back.¡± Carla said, ¡°I didn¡¯t appreciate it at the time, but he called me a bitch. The one who took out the security guard came up behind me, but I ducked out of reach and managed the groin/face combo Ata taught us. That was when the gunman shot at me, and I rushed him.¡±

    Soph added, ¡°Rich got the hand of the first attacker that came for me and got booted for his trouble. I danced out of the way of the other, but he stabbed me, and while I was dealing with it, he must have hit me, and I don¡¯t remember anything else until I woke at the hospital.¡±

    ¡°From the glimpses I saw,¡± Carla said, ¡°Rich held them both at bay long enough for Buck to arrive. And what was that Buck did?¡±

    ¡°It is his Essence Skill. It is like a stun, but I think the target muscles lock up briefly. I haven¡¯t managed to study it too much on a live target. We have been practising on Possum fur balls on a string.¡± I replied.

    ¡°I think his muscles might have spasmed,¡± Carla said, ¡°but I was too busy to watch.¡±

    ¡°We need to try to get hold of the CCTV footage,¡± I said.

    ¡°Good luck doing that,¡± said Sam.

    ¡°Anyone know why they attacked?¡± I asked.

    Everyone shook their heads, ¡°No one spoke apart from the occasional swear word.¡± Carla said.

    ¡°The Police will find out why,¡± Sam said.

    I nodded.

    We had a quiet evening, and Carla and Soph retired early. I sat outside with the dogs for a long time, just watching the stars, boats, and harbour bridge. I killed a person. I wasn¡¯t sure how I felt about that. I know others have big breakdowns and emotional times. I am not them. I didn¡¯t know how I felt. It didn¡¯t feel right or good, but it didn¡¯t feel bad either. I didn¡¯t know, so I just sat and watched the night.

    Eventually, I got up and got some blankets. The dogs and I lay there and watched the summer night until we fell asleep.

    The next day, Commander Lewis arrived at the gate. He had with him the same flunky he had at the first meeting we had with him in the hospital: the lawyer lady.

    Once we were gathered, he said, ¡°I am here to let you know the attack on Ms Hardcastle and Ms Vaa¡¯i has been classified as a terrorist attack, and the Military will be involved. We don¡¯t know yet if they are associated with any known terrorist group, but they were foreigners and committed an act of terrorism on New Zealand soil and against New Zealand Citizens. The police have arrested the one who ran, but Mr Finau, your security guard, is in a coma and is not expected to wake. His family has been notified.¡±

    Fuck. Any of us could have died. Soph, Carla and Rich especially.

    ¡°The three of you and the two dogs will now be formally attached to the military. This is necessary to take you out of Police jurisdiction. Having reviewed the camera footage and read the interviews, it is clear you are using the mutations to get advanced warning, and one of the dogs has a previously unknown active attack. Lieutenant Davis has new agreements for you to sign.¡±

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°They will require time for my lawyers to review them,¡± Sam said.

    ¡°I need time to review them,¡± I said. ¡°If you are planning to try to enlist us, that is not going to work for me. I will take my chances with the police case.¡±

    I saw a slight frown appear and then disappear from Lewis¡¯s face. I thought they were playing up the Police to get us to sign up. We were the victims in this, admittedly victims who bite back, literally in Buck and Rich¡¯s cases.

    ¡°We do not want you to join the military in the normal sense,¡± Lewis said, ¡°and these agreements reflect that. You all need some basic training, and I gathered from Lieutenant Wihongi that this is something you are looking for. Dr Mohan was very impressed with your information on active essence use and wants to work closely with you, Mr Wilkinson. We were also interested in your previously unknown poison ability.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think you get it,¡± I said. ¡°I don¡¯t do people.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you do, and very thoroughly,¡± Carla said. ¡°Ata and I can both verify that.¡±

    I frowned at her, ¡°Bitch.¡± She grinned. I looked at Lewis, ¡°I need to be away from people. I do my best work when I am alone.¡±

    ¡°You have had a month alone. What have you done?¡±

    ¡°I figured out Buck¡¯s ability and trained him to use it. I also think I have cracked the key to helping Carla change forms. That¡¯s why I came back into town.¡±

    ¡°That is impressive. I can see why Dr Mohan wants to work with you. Do you not think you would have worked faster with others to bounce ideas off?¡±

    ¡°No. I think I would have run for the hills.¡±

    ¡°Dr Mohan is working with our other Enhanced People, including myself, and we are making good progress. We would make better progress with you.¡±

    ¡°Enhanced People, is that what we are calling it? I am not here for other people, Lewis. I am a selfish Bastard. I am only working with these two because I am linked to the Bitch,¡± I said, pointing at Carla. There is no need to go into deeper reasons with these two. ¡°I will work with Amanda as I feel it best. The rest of you can find your own way. You are not idiots, well not all of you.¡±

    ¡°Did you use poison in the attack?¡±

    ¡°No. Wait¡­¡± Was the spear poisoned? No, I am pretty sure it wasn¡¯t. ¡°No.¡±

    He waited for me to elaborate on why I paused. I didn¡¯t. Eventually, he said, ¡°I thought the dogs were bonded to Ms Hardcastle. Why are you training them? Wouldn¡¯t she be better doing that?¡±

    ¡°Because you have them dancing around playing pretty little harmless mutants in front of society. The harmless part has just been debunked, but the way. They only survived because they had been training themselves and spent an afternoon with Lieutenant Wihongi.¡± I was letting my anger show now. Maybe I can get in touch with my emotions after all.

    ¡°And because the Bastard suggested we needed it,¡± Carla added. ¡°Good suggestion.¡±

    ¡°We wish to rectify this with some basic training,¡± Lewis reiterated.

    ¡°How long is this training?¡± Sophia asked.

    ¡°For you three, a month, maybe slightly longer. And we would get the police dog trainers to help you train your dogs,¡± Lewis replied. You will need to wait until you have mostly healed, " he said to Soph. ¡°Your stitches should be out in a week, so maybe one to two weeks after that.¡±

    ¡°We will review the agreements and get back to you,¡± I said.

    ¡°I want them signed as soon as possible, a week at the outside. Lieutenant Davis will be the contact for the agreements.¡±

    With that, they left.

    I looked at Carla and Soph. ¡°I will go mad on an army base for a month.¡±

    ¡°You are already mad. Can you get worse?¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Watch me.¡±

    ¡°We do need the training, which will include firearm training,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°You are looking forward to that, aren¡¯t you, you crazy bitch?¡± I said. She just grinned.

    ¡°I will need your help with the dogs,¡± Soph told me.

    ¡°Fuck.¡±

 43. Change.

    ¡°I want skin.¡± Carla declared.

    ¡°Need a good fuck?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Absolutely,¡± she replied. ¡°But I also want to cuddle up in all that fur and actually feel it, ¡± she said, looking at Soph.

    ¡°I could do with a fuck as well, but Ata is unavailable till the end of the month. If we can get you some skin, we can satisfy each other.¡±

    The three of us had spent the week manipulating our essence into waves we sent out rather than trying to control it. Carla and I concentrated especially on using our link to synchronise the waves. Getting a steady rhythm going seemed to be the key. There were two ways it could work. If we synchronised it so my crests met her troughs, then it would result in a smooth melding of essence. Crests vrs crests clashed, and that was a way to strengthen our control against each other. Carla had tight control and small, powerful waves. I had more volume available, but volume wasn''t everything, and I also needed to create that power. Our clashing for power was probably a metaphor or something.

    We could do that, though. I was improving over the week clashing essences against each other. I was experimenting as well. Slow, gentle swells right through to chaotic, pounding surf.

    Soph was being left out, and she only mutated just before the anomaly was destroyed, so she had no chance to strengthen her essence control. Her bond with the dogs was mental, not an essence link like ours. So she couldn¡¯t replicate what Carla and I were doing.

    I was convinced we could use essence outside of our mutations. According to the vet, Buck did not have mutated vocal cords, but he could attack through his bark. I have to figure out how.

    We had kept up a training schedule, and Carla had greatly improved her unarmed combat moves by practising against Soph and, surprisingly, Sam. Sam had been joining them. Soph was out until she healed, and Carla consistently wiped the floor with me. Sam and I were more evenly matched, but now that I had someone to spar against, I was improving.

    Amanda was a regular visitor. She came to pick my brain, and I picked hers. She had been working with the Enhanced Soldiers when they were together and now met them individually as their schedules allowed.

    Eight soldiers and Soph survived the Mutation. Add Ensign Jeong and Lieutenant Ata Wihongi, and that made ten. Commander Lewis had followed Ensign Jeong in focussing on the eyes. His mutation was rougher, but it worked. Ata''s primary mutation was the eyes, but she had added feathers, which were noted but not relevant as yet.

    The army soldier that had killed the labrador survived and went full were-dog. Fur, snout and teeth, smell, hearing enhancements, and claws. It is a puzzle as to why he went through an almost full mutation, and Soph just got fur. He was also the last to recover and probably wouldn¡¯t have done so without the medical help.

    Other results varied. The surviving Air Force lady got the eyes of a parrot but also grew a beak. She was finding that very difficult. One army guy got the horns of the goat but also developed the hooves, fortunately only on his feet. He was being called the Faun. One army person got the claws of a cat and also the whiskers.

    Some mutations were better than others. They all had an essence pool but didn¡¯t know what to do with it. There didn¡¯t seem to be any mutation requiring active essence unless they were like me and didn¡¯t realise an ability used essence.

    I think this essence pool is the key, and the other mutations were the bonuses or burdens you had to live with. But I had no proof of that yet, and like most people, they were focused on the apparent mutations.

    By the end of the week, I was getting peopled out again. I could escape, but Carla really wanted to change.

    We synced small waves and then grew them, and the shared essence was good.

    We convinced Amanda that we would try the first change here at the Hardcastle Shack. She could bring medical equipment and help, and she outfitted a room.

    Carla was way past wearing scales, and we thought the chances were good. I had a bed in the room beside Carla as the last time I passed out, using too much essence. Last time, I was only half full when we started, so I was confident I would be fine.

    On the day, Amanda brought another doctor, two nurses, an ambulance and two military paramedics. She has such high confidence in us.

    I asked Soph to be there with Rich. Rich can sense essence and emotions, and Soph should be able to sense what is going on. That was the plan. Rich could not sense our link in action, but he could when we were creating waves in us as individuals, whether the waves came from ourselves or the link.

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    It was a crowded room.

    Carla and I locked eyes and started syncing our essence. We thought the crests cancelling the troughs seemed like the best approach, but it may not be. We started with that. We started gently, like pebbles dropped in a pond. It took several starts for the waves to synch. Once they were, it was a matter of increasing the power without changing the timing. Soph¡¯s idea of getting a metronome to help keep the time was good, and we had it running. It definitely helped. I figured I had to be ready to adjust my essence to hers, as when she started to change, she was likely to lose focus. Pain has a tendency to do that.

    She signalled the start, and I felt a draw on the essence in the link. Nothing physically seemed to be changing for her, but the draw on the essence was increasing. It was hard to keep the waves synched.

    Carla moaned, and I felt a fluctuation in the essence and tried to compensate, but things were a bit rough there for a few minutes. She wriggled as if she was uncomfortable and then tried to scratch under her scales.

    ¡°The skin is changing,¡± Amanda said. And she was taking samples of something.

    Then Carla screamed, and I heard a Rich whimper. I felt that as well. I am starting to sense her pain through the link.

    ¡°She is speeding up,¡± Soph said, and I realised that was true. We were getting out of sync again, and I tried to adjust. The draw on my essence was getting stronger, making it harder to keep the time, especially the sped-up time. I reached out and swiped the metronome, knocking it off the table, as it was more of a distraction now.

    My essence pool was down to around half now, and I had to increase my waves, but Carlas were reducing rapidly. I could feel the pain increasing. Her crests were the troughs now. This synching was not working anymore.

    I looked over and saw a scale fall off her. I realised it was not the first. We were coming up on the end, and the synching was not working, so stuff it. I increased my waves, ignoring hers. I was not in full tidal wave mode because I think most of the work was done, but I pushed.

    Carla gave an agonised groan and passed out. I groaned, but I kept the flow going until Anamda brushed off the last scale, and then I stopped. My pool was under half but more than a third. It was hard to tell.

    The medical people checked her vitals, and one came to check on me. Apart from heavy essence use, I was fine. I could do it with a drink and some food.

    ¡°The system fell apart at the end but carried the change most of the way,¡± I said.

    ¡°She has skin, but it is like newborn skin.¡± She checked her feet. ¡°There are no calluses. That is going to be painful for the next two to four weeks. She will have to be careful of blisters.¡±

    ¡°Do you think she will grow hair?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± Amanda said, ¡°we will have to see. The gills are still there.¡±

    I looked at her neck, and the slits were still there.

    Amanda was scanning her with something, ¡°She is still hardened as far as I can tell.¡±

    ¡°How long did it take?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Sixteen and a half minutes,¡± a technician said.

    ¡°There has got to be a better way,¡± I said, primarily to myself.

    ¡°It was a success and no risk to her life,¡± Amanda said. ¡°That is a great start.¡±

    Carla woke after fifteen minutes with a groan. ¡°Fuck, that hurt all over.¡± She felt herself checking for scales. Amanda had collected them into bags for testing. ¡°No eyebrows or hair. No scales. Seems like no extra bits and no bits missing,¡± she said as she checked her fingers and toes.

    ¡°No calluses either,¡± said Amanda. ¡°Your feet will be sensitive to the ground for a few weeks. Start with some soft slippers.¡±

    ¡°Amanda said your hair should grow back now,¡± Soph said, going over and giving her a hug.

    ¡°Oooh, you are nice and soft,¡± Carla said, running her fingers through Soph¡¯s fur.

    She looked at me in a querying way.

    ¡°No,¡± I said, ¡°you can wait till later before I fuck you.¡±

    ¡°Bastard. I was asking what happened?¡±

    ¡°The wave system broke down when you ran out of energy. There has got to be a better way.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I was not concentrating on anything but the pain.¡±

    ¡°The system carried us most of the way. I just needed to finish it off.¡±

    ¡°You were always good at finishing with a climax. Thanks.¡±

    ¡°The climax is yet to come.¡±

    ¡°What happened from your perspective?¡± Amanda asked, spoiling the banter.

    ¡°At first, it was like a skin rash, then it started to itch like all over, and then the itching got real bad and then painful. Then, it was suddenly like my skin was on fire. I was losing control of the essence before that, but then I totally lost it. I think that was the tipping point. The part where the scales were disconnected from ¡­ well, from me, I guess. How long was I out?¡±

    ¡°Fifteen minutes or so,¡± I said.

    ¡°Where are the scales,¡±

    ¡°Amanda collected them in bags.¡±

    ¡°Can I see?¡±

    We handed scales around to everyone who wanted to look at them and got Amanda to leave a bag with us.

    ¡°I am sure there is a better way,¡± I reiterated.

    ¡°Yeah,¡± Carla replied, ¡°but it is a successful start. I have skin! I have missed having skin!¡±

 44. A Better Way.

    ¡°Fuck!¡± Carla said as she bumped into a chair. ¡°Sometimes I miss having scales. I would never have felt that with scales.¡± Her feet were sensitive as well, and she wore my jandels everywhere. Jandels really were the Samoan safety boot. It wasn¡¯t just a joke.

    Once Carla got up, she and Soph disappeared into their rooms together. Carla couldn¡¯t seem to stop touching Soph¡¯s fur. Carla was mostly exhausted, and she dozed through lunch.

    They both appeared mid-afternoon wearing only bikini bottoms to sit by the pool. Carla was still constantly running her fingers through Soph¡¯s fur. It wasn¡¯t sexual. It was just loving.

    It looked sexual from my horny perspective, and Carla knew it. She was more than a little horny herself. I could smell it. Carla was teasing me. I went for a naked swim. Two can play that game.

    Soph knew what we were doing, but she wasn¡¯t horny.

    Carla and I were both horny, but we weren¡¯t like out-of-control teenagers. We knew our bodies and the tease and innuendos that went on all afternoon and into the evening were part of the game. The fisherman is baiting the hook and getting only nibbles, knowing the big catch is inevitable.

    I must admit that when Carla came to my room around midnight, the first round was more like out-of-control teenagers. There is fun in that as well.

    Carla left around 3 a.m., and I got a couple of hours of sleep. Around 5 a.m., I was swimming laps with both dogs in the pool. Pools are boring, but the dogs are fun.

    I let my mind wander. The military contracts had been reviewed, and the amendments were on Lieutenant Fluncky''s desk for review.

    Mostly my mind was on Carla, and I don¡¯t mean the sexy ass and perky tits. I mean the essence and the change. O.K, maybe a little ass and tits.

    There has to be a better way. I swam lap after lap at a leisurely pace, letting my mind wander over the events. There was the build-up and the climax. A bit like our sex yesterday. The build-up included her skin rash and itching rising to a painful level. Then, the climatic release as the scales gave way under a wave of burning. The wave system handled most of the build-up, and I needed to bring her to the climax and finish her off.

    The link is the key. I don¡¯t think we are using it efficiently. Using the link to finish by squirting essence all over her gets the job done, but there has to be a way for her to maintain control, like riding on top, controlling the pace, and directing our bodies so she can hit the right spot.

    There has to be a better way.

    Can we go partway through the change and then back off? These would be test runs, as it were, like tease and then denial, where we can practice different build-up techniques and then not finish. That is worth exploring.

    We need to find a way to ease the pain so she can stay in control. Losing control in the climax is normal, but she needs to be in control right up till that moment. If she is in control, she can direct the essence, which could be much more efficient than the explosive finish. Could she suck the essence out, controlling her swallows as it were? We need to practice that as well.

    Carla and I need to spend a lot more time together practising.

    What about Soph? She could sense the changes in Carla when Carla was losing it. I need to find out more about what she was sensing through Rich. If she could warn me when Carla was reaching her peak, I could back off. What else could she sense? I could sense nothing once my essence passed through the link, but Soph could sense Carla¡¯s essence and, I presume, my essence. Could she become the one in the middle? If that was the case, we could become an effective threesome.

    I had been spending too much time on my own exploring my own essence. Obviously, self-exploration is key, but I forgot I am already linked into a threesome, and to make this work, I need to understand more intimately about my partners and the way their bodies work.

    I have been neglecting one member of our threesome in particular, and her body works very differently from ours. She must be feeling left out and untouched, but Soph is an integral part of this. I need to figure out how she works her essence and what turns her on. She is the Witch with essence and emotion. If she needs us to dance naked around a fire and bring the cauldron to the boil, then that is what we need to do.

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    Wait. That analogy is stupid, but what if she is like a cauldron? Rich and Buck have two similar but different essences and are linked mentally. Could she create more bonds with creatures from different anomalies? Could she add different essences to her cauldron and stir it all together? I have been thinking too small for Soph. She needs variety. Could she create a mental bond with us? There is so much we need to explore with her. Just because she is not like us sexually or in the way she uses essence doesn¡¯t mean she is left out in the cold.

    Soph could be the key to Carla keeping control through her climactic changes. It is not just her bond with the dogs. It is her bonds themselves that could be the key. Are the bonds only one-way, or are they two-way? Is Soph learning from her bonds? I need to spend more time with Soph.

    Oh, fucking hell, this is a weird ass harem, isn¡¯t it? Its basis isn¡¯t sexual, but essence bonds and links. Bloody emotions. I feel Buck¡¯s Estate calling me.

    I have been concentrating on Carla, but to further penetrate her, we need to focus on Soph and include her in the threesome. Soph''s bonds could be the key to giving Carla the biggest orgasmic change of her life.

    Just then, the house doors opened, and Carla and Soph came out in dressing gowns. The dogs ran over and sprayed them with water as they shook themselves. Good on them

    Soph and Carla dropped their dressing gowns, revealed their naked glory in the rising sun, and dove into the water. The lap pool wasn¡¯t that wide, and I had swum a lot already, so I moved to the side and watched them. If I weren¡¯t feeling so empty, it would have gotten a rise out of me. It might, anyway.

    Soph soon moved over to me to let Carla extend herself and get used to the gills in human form. Her neck was still an erogenous zone for her, probably even more so with the gills.

    ¡°Can you shake yourself like the dogs and spray water everywhere?¡± I ask.

    ¡°No,¡± she said, ¡°but it would be handy.¡±

    ¡°I am happy to watch if you want to try,¡± I said.

    ¡°You are not actually that sexual, are you? You just like making people uncomfortable. Push them away,¡± Soph said.

    I felt a cold nose on the back of my head, and I could see Buck across the pool. Good Rich is here. We might actually have a conversation.

    I said, ¡°I have been neglecting you as part of our threesome. I have been focussing on bringing Carla to her peak, but you might hold the key to her essence and not just her heart.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    ¡°I need to know how your bond works. Have you tried forming a bond with Carla?¡± I asked.

    ¡°What? No. I thought the bonds with the dogs were due to them happening during the mutation, so that would be all,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°That might be the case, but I have some doubts. I think your mutation enables you to form emotional bonds, and the dogs are only the first.¡±

    ¡°Really? What makes you think that?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°No hard evidence, just speculation, but we need to test it because I think Carla needs to stay aware during her change and direct the essence. If you had a bond with her, it could help her stay calm and focused.¡±

    ¡°I ¡­ ah, I don¡¯t know what to say. I was feeling left out yesterday.¡±

    ¡°You are already invested emotionally in Carla. She is invested in you. I think this would be the easiest bond you would ever be able to form, assuming I am right. I have been known to be wrong occasionally. It could be that you have a dog mutation and, therefore, can only bond with canines. A bond with Carla would then cement her as the Bitch, but maybe you can bond with all sorts of things.¡± I pondered.

    ¡°I most certainly want to try!¡± Soph said. ¡°How would we do this?¡±

    ¡°If it were me and Carla, I would suggest sex, but that is not where you and Carla connect the most. How do you connect the best with her?¡±

    ¡°Talking, spending time together, just doing things together, doing things for her- that sort of thing really connects me. It is the little things. Carla gets it.¡±

    ¡°Well, we need to talk to Carla and understand how your current bonds work.¡±

    Soph looked at me and said, ¡°This would mean a lot to me and Car. You are alright, Bob.¡±

    ¡°No, I am not. I am rude and crude and don¡¯t like people.¡±

    ¡°And yet you are doing this for us anyway. I would have sex with you if you wanted, you know. I don¡¯t hate sex.¡±

    ¡°The thing is, sex for me is all about mutual pleasure and enjoyment. You would be doing this for me. That is different. It is not something you are doing because you will enjoy it,¡± I replied.

    ¡°I do like doing things for other people, though, so it is not all one way,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°It is not the same, and I am not some sex-crazed idiot who can¡¯t control themselves around a naked, beautiful lady. You are beautiful. You have an absolutely gorgeous body, and the fur makes it even better. I am happy ogling you from afar.¡±

    ¡°You really are a good man. No!¡± she put a finger to my lips to shut me up. " Don¡¯t say anything. I will say this, though. If I ever want to give Carla a child, I will come and see you.¡± She then dove under the water and swam out to Carla, so I didn¡¯t get a chance to reply.

    I think I was speechless anyway. Somebody wanted to have my child? I didn¡¯t think that would ever happen. It really must be the end of the world.

 45. Dog Shit.

    ¡°Soph told me about your conversation,¡± Carla said as we ate lunch by the pool.

    ¡°Did she tell you the sex bit as well?¡±

    ¡°She did. All of it,¡± she winked at me, ¡°and I must say I can¡¯t think of a better person.¡±

    ¡°Fucking hell. My life is officially fucked.¡±

    She laughed at me.

    ¡°Are you finished having fun at my expense?¡± I grumbled.

    ¡°Not by a long shot,¡± Carla said. ¡°However, we need to talk about Soph¡¯s bonds.¡±

    I looked at Soph, who was only wearing the bottom half of a string bikini- Carla¡¯s string bikini. She is taking this ogling thing to the extreme, isn¡¯t she?

    ¡°Describe your current bonds to us,¡± I said to her.

    ¡°I really don¡¯t know how. They are just there.¡±

    ¡°Where?¡±

    ¡°In my mind.¡±

    ¡°And are they the same?¡±

    ¡°No, they are unique. I know which is Buck and which is Rich.¡±

    ¡°Tell us about the bond with Rich. What do you sense from him? Are there things that strengthen the bond?¡±

    ¡°I can sense his emotion. He is very happy/satisfied right now, chewing on the bone. ¡±

    ¡°What about at the fish market? How was he communicating that things were not good?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I can sense when he is using his essence to reach out to sense others. And sort of what he senses.¡±

    ¡°OK, this is important. You can sense when he is using his essence. Putting aside the fact it is an active sense, not a passive one, sensing it through the bond is important.¡±

    ¡°Why¡±

    ¡°It means that although it is a mental bond, it is Essence created or, in other words, a mutation. It is essence-based and resonates with Rich¡¯s essence use. But not his essence pool? Can you sense how much essence he has?¡±

    ¡°No, but I can feel when he is getting low. He got low at the fish market.¡±

    ¡°You can sense when he uses it. Can you ask him to use it?¡±

    ¡°Sort of. I send by sending my concerns or worries about what is around, and he is very protective of me and checks.¡±

    ¡°What about now? You are not worried about Carla like you were when she changed. How would you ask him to sense her or had him sense me earlier in the pool?¡±

    ¡°You are easy. I am always worried about you. Carla? Perhaps by sending my excitement at what she is feeling.¡±

    ¡°Go on,¡± I said, ¡° and describe what you are sensing.¡±

    Rich raised his head, ¡°He is a bit annoyed at being disturbed. Carla is feeling a lot of interest and excitement about this discussion.¡±

    ¡°What about her essence? Can he sense that?¡±

    ¡°No, she is not using it.¡±

    I nodded to Carla and felt, through our link, her essence move.

    ¡°He can¡¯t feel her emotions so much now but can sense her essence waves.¡±

    ¡°Interesting. Essence use blunts the emotional sense. I wouldn¡¯t have picked that. What about now?¡± I was sending essence waves through to Carla via the link.

    ¡°It has changed, got stronger. No rhythm.¡±

    ¡°OK. Let¡¯s try something different. You can sense how Rich is using his essence. Can you use your essence that way?¡±

    ¡°You want me to sense others directly? Isn¡¯t that Rich¡¯s mutation?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but is it a physical mutation or a way he can use his essence? Maybe it is a mental mutation, and your bond is mental in nature. Why can¡¯t you do the same if it is the latter? Just try to copy Rich.¡±

    She was silent for a while. I helped myself to another cup of green tea. This was a nice brand of tea.

    Eventually, she said, ¡°I don¡¯t seem to be able to.¡±

    ¡°That is OK. It may not be possible, or it may come over time as you work with Rich. What about Buck, how is he different from Rich?¡±

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    ¡°Buck¡¯s bond is more active and more aggressive than Rich''s. You are not going to try to get me to bark at you to use his skill, are you? Because you will be out of luck.¡±

    ¡°The thought never crossed my mind. You can sense when he uses his Skill as well?¡±

    Soph nodded.

    ¡°What about from a distance, like when we were at Anawhata?¡±

    Soph nodded again, ¡°The distance didn¡¯t seem to make any difference.¡±

    ¡°Interesting because distance makes a difference to our link,¡± I said, indicating Carla. ¡°Let''s find something Buck can use his Skill on,¡± I said, getting up.

    Suddenly, I heard Buck Power Bark, and it was like all my muscles spasmed at once, and I stumbled and fell to my knees. The feeling passed after a few seconds. Carla was there holding my semi-upright.

    I heard Soph giggle, ¡°So that¡¯s what it does.¡±

    ¡°Shit, woman. You¡¯ve been hanging around Carla too long. This is her sort of crazy,¡± I said.

    Carla suddenly let go of my arm, and I had to catch myself. Carla stood over me with her hands on her hips, looking cross.

    ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that. It is definitely your sort of crazy.¡±

    She grinned and high-fived Soph, ¡°Well done, my young padawan.¡±

    ¡°Bloody hell, I am fucked.¡±

    ¡°Well and truly, in every sense of the word,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Buck is a fun and mischievous dog,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Bloody traitor,¡± I said to Buck. ¡°That was an interesting experience,¡± I said after a minute. ¡°Everybody should experience that.¡±

    I received a bunch of scoffs dismissing that suggestion.

    ¡°I am going to ask you to get Buck to do that again,¡± I said, ¡°This time, I am going to be sending waves of essence through my body and like Rich¡¯s emotions were muted, this should be as well.¡±

    ¡°If it doesn¡¯t,¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°Then I will spasm on the ground again.¡±

    ¡°Wait,¡± said Carla, getting her phone out, ¡°I want to record this. For science, of course.¡±

    ¡°It had better not appear on the internet.¡±

    ¡°The thought never crossed my mind,¡± Carla replied.

    ¡°OK,¡± I nodded at Soph.

    Buck Power Barked again, and this time, my muscles only twitched. I was pulsing waves as hard as I could.

    ¡°So active essence combats essence attacks. That is good knowledge to have. We will be coming against animals with these attacks, and possibly humans,¡± I said. ¡°Let''s take a break. I need to reset the brain with a swim.¡±

    It was afternoon tea when we reconvened. My brain needed a long reset.

    ¡°What do you remember about when you formed the bonds?¡± I asked Soph. ¡°Did they form before you lost consciousness?¡±

    ¡°No, definitely not, but they were there when I woke up,¡± she replied.

    ¡°So the mutation had to happen first, pretty much what I expected. When you think about Carla and your emotional connection to her, how is that different to the dogs?¡±

    ¡°I ¡­ I don¡¯t really know. It is not clearly defined like the dogs. It is just a huge bunch of feelings¡­ I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Could you define it or a part of it? Take what you like best or a situation you felt love recently and try to make that section defined like the dogs?¡± I looked at Carla. ¡°You will need to be part of this. I expect it will take time and effort. No guarantee it will work, but ¡­ maybe?¡±

    Soph looked at Carla, ¡°What do you think?¡±

    ¡°Worth a try.¡±

    ¡°I suggest you go and spend time alone talking about what you like and how you feel and all that shit, and see how you get on,¡± I said.

    ¡°You just want us to leave you alone,¡± Carla accused.

    ¡°Too right! Me and the dogs will hang out here.¡±

    ¡°Should we take Rich? It might help,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°I would try on your own first and see how you get on.¡± I said, ¡°It is a bond between the two of you.¡±

    Soph and Carla disappeared, and I didn¡¯t see them at dinner. Sam and I ordered takeout, and she settled in to watch a movie. I wandered outside with my e-reader. All my books felt tame against the natural end of the world and the shit we were going through.

    I hopped back in the pool and floated. Thinking. Buck and Rich both had random mutations from the anomaly.  Both were active essence uses rather than physical mutations. A lot of the animals on the barge had physical mutations. As far as I knew, all the people who directed their mutations ended up with physical mutations.

    What about those people in India? A lot of them would have random mutations, maybe some were direct essence uses. I wouldn¡¯t know, and the information was hard to understand. The researchers didn¡¯t know the questions to ask, and the poor, traumatised people didn¡¯t know how to explain things.

    I am of the opinion all essence can be used outside the body, but I don¡¯t know how. I also have no proof for this, but if Buck can, so can I.

    This bond thing with Soph and Carla is based on pretty flimsy reasoning. It is worth trying, but¡­

    My part is transferring essence through the link in a way Carla can use it. The waves were only a partial success. The thing with waves is she is sending them to me so we can sync them, but she needs to be using her essence, not sending it to me. That might be useful when we are trying to use our essence jointly, but not for this.

    Using our essence jointly- that is another whole new area to explore.  I got out of the pool and went to make a cup of tea.

    Focus. Why sync waves? We didn¡¯t at the start; I just flooded her through the link. Straight delivery, like a river- smooth flowing, volume and speed regulated. That is the easiest delivery system.

    The problem is how to use that essence. She has to combine it with hers. The waves meant the essence came through her link as hers, but a river was spitting out my essence. Yes, they are very close, but each person has their unique flavour or shade of colour, maybe. I should probably stick with the colour imagery.

    I sat for a bit, sipping the tea. The night was cloudy.

    How do you mix the essences together to make them hers? It has to be easy to do. Waves were hard. It has to be simple, so she doesn''t need to concentrate on it. Just use it.

    And the answer is¡­ as simple as a cup of tea.

    You stir it. Get a whirlpool going, and it will keep going even if you stop stirring. Well, water will, and maybe essence will as well. A whirlpool will mix the incoming essence, and she can just use it.

    This needs testing. First, I need to test the viability of the whirlpool in my own essence pool. How will it work compared to waves?

    I settle down for a session of navel-gazing. I meant Essence testing.

 46. The Bitch.

    ¡°Check your emails,¡± Soph said. ¡°The military contract is approved. Basic training starts in two weeks at the Whangaparoa Army Base.¡±

    That was interesting. It was an army base, not a Navy base, and it was Whangaparoa, not the usual army training base down south. Whangaparaoa is at the end of a long peninsula and surrounded by the sea. The usual army training is in the central North Island with no coast in sight, so that is a good start.

    I checked my emails, and my Truck can be collected. That''s good. Two weeks in Anawahta would do me good before basic training.

    ¡°How¡¯s the whirlpool going?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Good.¡± was the reply.

    Both ladies were practising the whirlpool. Carla has found it effective in incorporating my essence. Now, we need to practice and test. I think of the waves to push things out, like foreign essences and essence skills and whirlpool to incorporate things. This is speculation. We need to test, and we are limited in our testing ability at the moment.

    Since the attack, Carla has used that as an excuse to withdraw from the social limelight. No pictures have gone up for her since the change. Soph was the focus anyway, and while her appearances have dropped, she is still active. Some foreign ¡®Enhanced People¡¯ are making a social media presence overseas. Some have difficult mutations they struggle with and are documenting that for the public and to raise money for treatment.

    The US had its first anomaly, and that was a media sensation. Things are now quite public, and over half of Americans think it could be true, finally. China is still being blamed. It really is a weird country.

    The Canadians found and destroyed theirs. They are pretty sure there was one in North Korea, but it is hard to get information from that country. Russia has admitted to destroying one, and two have been found in Africa, one in Botswana and one near the border of Morocco and Algeria.

    There have been no reports from South America yet, but with seventy per cent of the earth covered in ocean, what has been found is probably less than a third of the true number. That is not even thinking three-dimensionally. How many are appearing in the earth''s crust and in the atmosphere? Even if they are not mutating life in the earth''s crust, they are still releasing essence.

    I can feel the urgency building. We have got to be ready.

    ¡°How was the bonding last night?¡± I asked Carla as she appeared. Carla now had a stubble of hair on her head.

    ¡°No success, but it was a great time. We will be attempting this regularly. It is great for our relationship.¡±

    ¡°My truck is ready, so I think I will spend some time at Anawhata.¡±

    ¡°Do you want to take Buck?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°No, I think he should stay and help you with your bonding. Maybe you should get a normal dog and see if you can bond with that.¡±

    Soph looked at me, ¡°You are sure you want to be alone?¡±

    ¡°It is when I do my best work,¡± I replied glibly.

    Then Carla surprised me. ¡°I want to test my different forms before Basic Training.¡±

    ¡°The Shark one as well?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but maybe we will go back to the scales first and see if we can improve the change. I am not going to get better at it if I don¡¯t try it again. I need to see how the whirlpool works.¡±

    ¡°When?¡±

    ¡°How about we try the Scales tomorrow, and then you go to Anawhata. I will contact you about changing back to flesh or trying the shark.¡±

    That day, I picked up my truck and got supplies for Anawhata.

    The next day, no ambulance turned up. ¡°Where¡¯s Amanda?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t tell her we were trying this. Soph was not happy. She has them on speed dial.¡±

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    ¡°No bond yet?¡±

    ¡°No, but that is part of this trial. Maybe it will work in times of stress. Soph is stressed.¡±

    We used the same room as before. I wasn¡¯t sure what would happen. Would her skin peel off? This could be a horror show.

    ¡°This time, as we are not concentrating on the wave, try to direct the essence to the change specifically. I think this could be more efficient.¡±

    Carla nodded. She started whirlpooling, and I started a small stream of essence through the bond. She nodded at me again, and I increased the flow. This was a problem. I had no sense of how much she needed, and I was not in contact with any of her essence.

    ¡°Soph, I need you to tell me when to increase as I can¡¯t sense Carla this way.¡±

    Soph nodded and started giving me hand signals to increase a bit at a time.

    Carla started scratching herself and squirming. ¡°Itching again,¡± she said.

    I was not feeling that. Oh, no, there it is, but it is muted, which is probably because the essence is all flowing one way. This method is better for me.

    ¡°Direct the essence to the skill. If you need more, let us know.¡±

    She nodded.

    Soph indicated more as Carla squirmed and let out a moan.

    ¡°Concentrate, Car,¡± Soph said.

    More.

    More.

    The pain was increasing through the link, but it still felt muted.

    Carla let out a cry.

    ¡°More,¡± said Soph.

    Skin did start to flake off her as Soph said, ¡°More.¡±

    Then the climax happened, and Scales seemed to push out from her skin as Carla screamed in pain. I felt that.

    ¡°Drop it to a trickle,¡± Soph said.

    Carla was not quite passed out but was not quite with it either. The change was complete. She was surrounded by dead skin and what had grown of her hair.

    Soph was checking her. It is hard to get a pulse through scales. She was using a Stethescope she had got from somewhere.

    I checked the time. ¡°twelve minutes twenty. That¡¯s shaved a quarter off the time.¡± I checked my Essence Pool, and it was less than half full. ¡°Less essence, too.¡±

    ¡°It is still bloody painful,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Yes, but you didn¡¯t pass out,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Fuck.¡± Carla said as she spat into the sink and sipped some water. Looking at all the skin and hair. ¡°I need a shower. Shit, I am going to miss the fur.¡±

    ¡°Hey, wait, wait, wait,¡± Soph said, getting excited, ¡°I think I can feel you. It is small. Smaller than the dogs, but I am sure. Can you feel me?¡±

    Carla paused, ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t know. Are you sure it is not just Rich?¡±

    Soph opened the door and let Rich out. ¡°I am sure. I am awfully excited. Can you feel that?¡±

    ¡°I am not sure, maybe?¡±

    ¡°Ooh, I''m sure that''s it. We need to work on it,¡± Soph said, almost bouncing up and down.

    ¡°Well, Soph,¡± I said, ¡°I would encourage you to really work on this and make Carla your Bitch.¡±

    Soph gave me a thumbs-up, and Carla gave me a frown.

    ¡°This will take me about half a day to recover my Essence, what about you Bitch?¡±

    ¡°My essence will be full in a couple of hours, you Bastard. I should have physically recovered by then, as well. I can¡¯t believe how much essence you have.¡±

    ¡°You feed on my lifesaving essence. You treat me like a fucktoy. Now, you are going to banish me to the middle of nowhere. What a Bitch.¡±

    ¡°I am going to be Soph¡¯s Bitch now, so your life is really going to be fucked. It is never going to be a quick and easy change. Nor painless, but I am hopeful.¡±

    ¡°You work on this bond, Soph, and make sure you can get the Bitch in line to ease the transition. I hope you can take the pain because I felt the fucking Shark transition pain back in the hospital. If she wants to try that, she is definitely a crazy bitch.¡±

    ¡°That was the mutation forming as well. Hopefully, this will be easier.¡±

    ¡°Hopefully,¡± I said without hope. ¡°Soph needs to try to grow the bond and see if she can deaden pain through it.¡±

    ¡°Pain is not a feeling. It is probably the uncomfortable, nauseating feeling and the fear, anger, and hopelessness she feels.¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Fucking hell, don¡¯t you turn your witchy feelings on me,¡± Then I had an idea, ¡°However, you should practice incorporating all that into your waves. If we can get them out beyond your body like Rich and Buck, then that will be an awesome weapon.¡±

    ¡°And you think I am the scary one. Those ideas are frightening.¡± Soph said.

    ¡°You will undoubtedly be the Scary Witch if you can project that. Everyone will be scared of you, even more than I am. The Scary Witch and her Bitch. Fucking hell.¡±

    ¡°Oh, no,¡± Soph said, ¡°if I can project feelings, everybody will love me.¡±

    ¡°You are so fucking scary,¡± I said.

    ¡°We will be powered and directed by the Bastard, so don¡¯t you be putting all this on us,¡± Carla said. ¡°We are definitely a badass fucking threesome.¡±

 47. The Pool.

    I drove off to Anawhata shortly after that, alone at last. For all our talking ourselves up, we were a long way from being a badass fucking threesome. Soph couldn¡¯t project anything out of her body except through the bonds, and that was just communication. Making everybody love her or scaring the shit out of them was a long way off.

    Carla was the most badass of us, as demonstrated in the attack. Getting her some decent fight training was going to help a lot, although her enthusiasm for guns is a bit scary. I am pretty sure her shark form will be scary. It remains to be seen how useful it is.

    Me? My poison is my main weapon. Other than that, I am the sensing platform. What I need to do is crank those up. I have all this essence - five to six times what the others have. I need to learn how to use it. I have two weeks to work it out.

    Bucks Estate looked unchanged. I moved my supplies in and spent some time just enjoying the silence. There was no motorway noise, no dogs, no bloody women. I could just relax. That is what I did. I went for a swim in the afternoon in the moderate swell, ate a simple dinner, sat outside, watched the stars, and listened to the night. Bloody awesome.

    After my morning swim, I spent the next day sitting on the porch browsing the internet. Several new anomalies were recorded, and the database had information on some of them. It was the colours that were bugging me. What do the different colours mean?

    The Waiheke Anomaly was a fluorescent blue. We verified that colour''s emotional portion and assumed a water association. The water association has not been verified. The land animals and plants that mutated show no water connection. We got a lot of water mutations because we used sea creatures to guide the mutation. Soph¡¯s dogs show no water abilities. Are we making an error, and is the blue group mind-focused? Mental Bonds and Emotions.

    I read the updated articles on the New Zealand Enhanced, half of which were written by Dr Amanda Mohan. No particular mental abilities were mentioned.

    The US Anomaly was the most documented anomaly. It was found in the Davy Crockett National Forrest between Dallas and Houston. It was a dark green colour. A wide variety of mutations were listed, but it was noted the plants seemed to be more aggressively mutated than the animals. Some of the trees seemed actually to attack those who came near. A lot of plants developed poisons, both when touched and shooting spines and releasing poisonous gasses. Did that mean it was plant-focused or poison focused, or both?

    South Africa helped Botswana with their anomaly. It was in the southern Kalahari Game Reserve. They had to dig it out of the ground to expose it, as it was buried about ten meters down. They mapped it from the mutations, but a squad of six soldiers were exposed before they found it. Three survived. It was light brownish in colour. There was a wide variety of mutations, but the general trend seemed to be making the creature more durable, with some almost creating exoskeletons or protective shells on their skin. One of the soldiers that survived had his skin permanently caked in dirt, but it was part of him and grew back when removed.

    Is Brown an earthed-based anomaly, and if so, what is the difference between light brown and darker browns? I don¡¯t know. The trend seems to be there, but there is a lot of variation and a lot of nuance we don''t know.

    The Canadian one was the clincher for me. It was found on the north side of Hudson Bay in Inuit-owned lands. It was a very light blue, almost white. There were a lot of Ice and snow mutations. Resistances to cold and frostbite. Slowing of bodily functions without dying.

    I realised that the anomalies were adapting to their surroundings. This may or may not be intelligence-driven; it may just be the way they were. Blue in the water, Yellow fire, Brown earth, Green plant, white or ice colour for cold/snow. The general trend is there, and the mutations have a trend toward the element in which they appear. Then I found a paper postulating the same thing, written by a fellow who had a lot of letters after his name, so he must be important.

    That reiterates that the Waiheke Anomaly has something to do with water. How? I can¡¯t see it. But what I need to do is to ponder this while in the water. It is time for a swim.

    I sat on the ocean floor for a while, playing with my essence. Whirlpools, waves, big and small, a river in one direction, keeping it as still as possible. It was in the stillness I noticed something. I always seemed to be tapping into the Essence pool. I guess I was breathing through my skin, which is not an entirely natural process. I am using my essence for what I assumed was a passive mutation. I guess that was a faulty assumption. It was probably a dumb assumption. What human breathes through their skin?

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    Mutations tap into the essence pool as it is needed. What about my other senses? My primary ¡®unnatural¡¯ senses are my electroreceptors, which I have largely ignored. I can always sense where the south is, and I know there is some variation as I move east to west. I can sense other electrical fields close to me, within a meter or a bit further.

    I concentrate on the sense. It is like my other senses and always on, but I tune it out most of the time. I can sense the earth''s magnetic field, and I notice the essence pool dips a bit as I concentrate on it. It might be a natural sense for sharks, but it is not for me.

    It draws on the pool as needed. Can I push essence down the link to empower the sense more than is unusual? This is scary. If I do it wrong or too much, I might cripple myself. I spend some time concentrating and relaxing the senses, trying to get a handle on how or where it is drawing the essence.

    I think the electroreceptors are in my face, somewhere near my nose. They must be a physical mutation like my skin, not an essence mutation like my needles and poison. I guess the skin is part physical and part essence, as are these.

    I gently coax the smallest part of the essence I can to where I think the sense was drawing the essence.

    Nope, lost it.

    Nope, slipped away on me.

    Shit, this is not easy.

    Ok, it is going to need serious practice before I will even know it might work. This is good for my essence control, though.

    OK, I have thirteen days.

    I have gotten way off track, though. I was thinking about Blue Essence and water.

    I can¡¯t see Rich¡¯s or Buck¡¯s essence when they use it. How water-like is it? I assumed Buck¡¯s essence attack was sound-based, but having experienced it, I don¡¯t think it is. It is just the way Buck triggers it.

    Water and Essence. There has to be a link.

    I head back to the house and get some dinner, letting these ideas percolate in my brain.

    Twelve days to go. I am getting better and moving small slithers of essence. A regular pathway for the essence to travel would make it easier. Shit. Shut up, you stupid fucking Bob. This is not a bloody cultivation novel with Qi bloody pathways through the body. Next, I will be wanting to break open nodes or some shit. This is the real world, not a bloody cultivation novel.

    However, I do want to get Essence to a specific part of my body in a controlled and regular way. Creating a path for it does sort of make sense. I play with my essence some more. Can I make a tube?

    Not easily, it is too fluid. It is too fluid. Fluid.

    Fluid.

    I am a Civil Engineer, and controlling and directing fluids is part of my job. Usually, it is Water supply, stormwater and wastewater. Getting a liquid from A to B depends a lot on gravity. If you want it to go uphill, you need to apply pressure in the manner of a pump. Is Essence subject to gravity?

    It doesn¡¯t seem to be as the anomaly created a sphere of influence. So, how does Essence hold together? Viscosity is the measure of the internal friction in a liquid, in other words, how easily it flows. How easy does Essence flow, and how is it held together? I have no instruments to measure this, but there seems to be very little internal friction. It slips out of my grasp easily.

    If essence has a low viscosity, which is a low resistance to flowing, then it does need something to direct it rather than trying to move it by hand. I can¡¯t use it as a channel or pipe, as its viscosity is too low. It will never hold together. The only other factor here is my body. I am back to creating channels in my body¡­ or¡­ or¡­ or using existing channels in my body.

    My body is riddled with channels called arteries and veins. They go everywhere, supplying blood, oxygen, and nutrients. Why wouldn¡¯t they also supply Essence? The pump is already installed, even if Essence does not need it.

    What is Essence? I assumed it was like radiation, but it wasn¡¯t. My essence is acting like a fluid. The essences of other anomalies may be different, but this is my essence- or ours if I include everyone mutated by this anomaly, including the dogs.

    Blood pumps around my body automatically. I don¡¯t control it. If it breaks out of my body, I keep it in by applying pressure until the body fixes itself. I control essence. I can create waves and whirlpools and send them to Carla. If I flood my circulatory system with essence, I am flooding myself. I have visions of turning into a Jellyfish. But I don¡¯t have to flood myself. I control it. I can create the links and direct the flow to the desired mutations.

    Why direct the Essence to only the mutations? My circulatory system goes everywhere. What would happen if I sent essence to my muscles? I don¡¯t know. I know my senses are mutated, so essence has changed them. Let''s start there.

    Oh, Oh, Oh! Carla¡¯s whole body has been changed by essence. Oooh, that¡¯s exciting.

    Me first.

    Oh, I missed lunch, and it is now dinner time. Let''s calm down and let this percolate overnight and see if there are any flaws in the logic. Tomorrow, we will start experimenting.

 48. BWY.

    Days to go¡­ oh, who cares? Carla will let me know if I miss the start of the training.

    I start the day with a swim. I am not going to do this in the water, though. I eat a large breakfast. I sit comfortably in the camp chair on the porch with a cup of tea.

    I turn my attention to my essence pool. How do I connect this pool with my circulatory system? I''ll start with just one connection, maybe more later. My pool sort of is and isn¡¯t physically there. I always think of it as being at the bottom of my ribcage, but that area is actually full of stomach and intestines. All my cells are connected to the circulatory system, which is how they are kept alive.

    Let''s take the smallest tendril of essence and connect it to the nearest cell. I think it might have killed the cell, but it seems connected. I can feel a cool sensation slowly expanding from the place. I stop the flow. Are the nonmutated cells it is coming in contact with dying? I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t think so, or I would feel sick, wouldn¡¯t I? Maybe, maybe not. Shit, I don¡¯t know. Maybe I should have got Amanda here.

    Let¡¯s keep going. I turn on the tap again, but it is too much, breaking the connection. It is a tiny vein. Small, think small. I make a new connection and trickle essence through the veins. I chose the veins as I didn¡¯t want to push against the arteries. Going with the flow, so to speak.

    I try directing it up to my arm, but that has a problem. All my veins go back to my heart and then out again as arteries. Do I want to risk Essence in my heart? Do I have a choice? Shit, this could be bad.

    It is probably halfway to my heart, and I don¡¯t feel bad. In fact, I feel good. I keep going. It is only a trickle, but I sense it is reaching my heart and infusing it. It keeps pumping, so that is good. From there, it wants to flow in every direction, but there is not enough of it. It is spreading too thin, and the amount is not enough. Increasing the flow will break the tiny connection, so I make a second connection and a third. I stopped trying to control it and let it seep through my body.

    I continue to make connections. If this doesn''t kill me, it should make me stronger. That is false logic with mutations. Mutations may not kill you, but they may cripple you rather than make you stronger. Shut up, brain. We are going with the first option.

    I continue to make connections.

    Eventually, my essence has made its own circulatory system and is in every part of my body. I decide to stop for lunch and see if I keel over and die. Carla will kill me if that happens. Soph will bloody bring me back so she can have my baby. Shit, my life has got weird. But I keep living for now, and I keep my lunch down. Enjoy the small bonuses.

    Right. So, I am flooded with Essence despite that not being my plan. I feel good- better than I was. I decided to go for a swim to test things out. Yep, I am definitely better than I was. Not a whole lot. I go up to the beach and see how many press-ups I can do as a guide to the improvement.  Maybe five per cent better? That is pretty good, as those are nonmutated parts of my body. It is hard to measure how my senses have improved. As a guide, I use my electroreceptors and my cell phone. It was about 1m -1.5m distant, and I could sense it. Now it is about 2.5m meters. About a sixty per cent improvement? My hearing and smell are definitely better. I wonder if I need sixty per cent less oxygen? Is my poison sixty per cent better? All things I need to test.

    Right, well, that was a success, even if it was not what I was going for. I will take the credit, absolutely. I wonder what the ongoing effects will be. Will it help against foreign essence anomalies and attacks? I am hopeful.

    I was trying to see if I could empower my mutations with essence. I have done that. But it is passive, not active. What happens if I actively direct essence to my electroreceptors like I was planning?

    First of all, the essence is right there, so directing more is easy. I use my cell phone again as a guide and keep increasing the essence as I walk away from it. Shit. 3m. 4m. 5m. It is starting to get painful, so I ease it off to 5m. The earth''s electromagnetic field is a lot clearer as well, and I can sense the changes much better.

    I ease off the essence and reduce it to the normal flow.

    Fuck.

    That is awesome.

    I spent the afternoon testing my other senses, and then that night, I tested my eyesight.

    A five per cent general level-up with a sixty per cent level-up on the mutations. Then, I can actively boost the mutations another hundred per cent on top. That is doubling them on top of the general boost. Fuck yeah!

    I texted Carla.

    Bob: Come see me ASAP.

    Carla: ????

    Bob: Bring S + D¡¯s

    Carla: ????

    Bob: You left me alone. BWY! Best Work Yet.

    Carla: Again? Be there in Morn.

    My swim in the morning was an experiment as well. I am sure I am more oxygen efficient, but I am not sure how much.

    An SUV drove up, which I assumed belonged to Sam. The dogs lept out as soon as the doors opened. Rich hadn¡¯t been here before. Neither had Carla or Soph, I realised.

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    ¡°So this is Buck¡¯s Estate? Interesting,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t say anything bad; he has sensitive feelings,¡± I replied.

    ¡°I know exactly how sensitive his feelings are, and they are still more sensitive than yours,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°So no fresh fish for you then,¡± I said

    ¡°And your feelings are just fine,¡± she added.

    We sat for breakfast.

    ¡°How is the bond coming?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Slowly,¡± Soph said disappointedly.

    ¡°But it is coming?¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°Bloody hell, stop stalling, you Bastard!¡± Carla exploded. ¡°Spill!¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t rush a good cup of tea,¡± I said

    ¡°I am not sure you can call this good,¡± Soph said, looking at her cup.

    ¡°Bloody hell. You rushed us all the way out here, and now we have to wait! BWY, you said,¡±

    ¡°She doesn¡¯t have a lot of patience,¡± I said to Soph. ¡°Do you think she got up too early, or is it that time of the month?¡±

    ¡°I would not be so glib,¡± Soph warned. ¡°She is The Bitch, and when the Bitch is at that time of the month¡­¡±

    ¡°Right, yes, I see your point. Time to get on with it. I figured out a new way of using the essence pool. This should work for everybody who mutated at this anomaly, possibly anyone who mutates at a primarily blue anomaly. What I got from this new method was a general five per cent increase in overall nonmutated body performance and a sixty per cent increase in the mutation performance.¡± They were sitting up and paying attention now. ¡°In addition, I can boost the mutations actively to double them again.¡±

    ¡°Fucking Hell,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Definitely BWY!¡± Soph added.

    ¡°So here is the thinking behind it, and then I will walk you through it.¡± We had a second cuppa as I talked them through it. Carla was not interested in the theory, but we went there anyway.

    By morning tea, I was trying to talk them through how to connect their Essence Pool with their circulatory system. This wasn¡¯t as easy for them as I had spent the best part of a day playing with tiny pieces of essence and failing. It is called practice.

    While they kept attempting it, I went to see the dogs. ¡°Now, what about you boys? Can you do the same, and if so, how?¡± I would need to consult with Soph, but it can wait until she is successful. ¡°Taking the dogs to the beach,¡± I yelled. I got a wave in response.

    We came back for lunch, and Soph had packed treats from home. The girls were frustrated at the lack of success.

    ¡°If the Bastard can do it, I should be able to!¡± she muttered.

    I didn¡¯t tell them about the practice day.

    It was an early afternoon when I heard an excited  ¡°Oh! Oh! Oh! I got one!¡± from Soph.

    There was more muttering from Carla.

    ¡°I heard that,¡± I told her, ¡°because my hearing is boosted sixty per cent.¡±

    ¡°Bastard.¡±

    ¡°Well, done, Soph, but you need several to get it through your whole body. Then, just keep making more connections. The more, the better. I am still making more.¡± I am going to keep going as long as I can, making them.

    ¡°How does this affect the waves and the whirlpool?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°The whirlpool just rotates inside the connections, so there is no effect as such that I can tell. The waves pulse out through the circulatory system as well, and the first time, I lost some connections, which is why you need as many as you can get.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t forget he has a big ass pool, so probably not as bad for us,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Your waves might be smaller, but you are stronger at manipulating them, so I would not assume that.¡±

    ¡°Fucking Bastard.¡±

    Soph had her third when Carla said, ¡°Fucking finally!¡±

    I gave her a thumbs up, and they continued to work.

    It was dinner time when I finally talked to Soph about her boost and the dogs. Carla was still in the corner, swearing away, but making progress.

    ¡°Tell me about the boost for you?¡± I asked.

    ¡°My fur is boosted, and I can increase it too!¡±

    ¡°What, softer and cuddlier?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No, you Bastard. Stronger and tougher. More resistant to damage and cuts.¡± She demonstrated with a knife on her arm, not penetrating the fur.

    ¡°Awesome, but what about the bonds?¡±

    ¡°The bonds are definitely clearer. I can feel more and sense more. I can shut them out now, temporarily. I never could do that before. I think I could close the bond permanently as well, but that isn¡¯t going to happen. I have more control. I think for me, my mutation is mental, and therefore, my boost is mental, not just the bonds. It is not an intelligence boost; it is more of a mental energy control boost. I am not sure how to explain it.¡±

    ¡°So you can make everybody love you?¡±

    ¡°You know, I might be able to, sort of. I was assuming we were joking the other day, but projecting emotions might actually be a thing. I am going to need to test it.¡±

    ¡°Feel free to test it on me. You know you got there if I burst into tears or express my undying love,¡± I said.

    ¡°Bastard, I will test it on easier things. I am not sure if I have to touch the person or if I can project it in some way. I think it is probably by touch only.¡±

    ¡°Probably because we have not learned to project things outside our bodies yet. We will get there. It is an active ability to influence others mentally. You are the Scary Witch! If you get a handle on this, this is our new secret weapon now that they know about my poison.¡± I thought for a bit, ¡°But what about the dogs? Can we boost them in the same way?¡±

    ¡°I am not sure.¡± she was silent, exploring her expanded bond. ¡°I still can¡¯t sense their Essence Pool, so I can¡¯t help them do this. I can ¡­ Oh, oh, oh. With this better bond, I can use Rich¡¯s Skills while he is not here. I can shut the bond, and it stops or partially close it¡­  Wow, such control.¡± She looked at me, ¡°Spasm!¡± She said.

    ¡°Fucking hell.¡± It passed quickly. ¡°Evil Witch. It was not as strong, or maybe my defences are stronger with essence running through me.¡±

    ¡°Probably the latter,¡± Soph said. ¡°I can use their skills, but I can¡¯t boost their skills in any way. If one of them died, I would lose the skill.¡±

    ¡°But what about the dogs? Can we get them this boost? What about other mutated animals? Can they get this boost?¡± We don¡¯t know.

 49. Super Bitchy.

    I woke at my usual early hour, and Carla was not around. I collected the dogs and went down to the beach for a swim. There was no sign of Carla, but her scent was in the water. I kept the swim short. There was no fresh fish for breakfast, but Soph had brought goodies from home.

    I was cooking sausages when Carla walked up from the beach in all her naked glory, scales glistening from the water. I gave her a wolf whistle. She gave me the finger.

    Soph appeared at the door bleary-eyed and only wearing panties. I think the wolf whistle drew her out, but she paid more attention to the sausages.

    ¡°Happy?¡± I asked Carla.

    ¡°Oooh yeah. Watch.¡±

    She stood next to the SUV and, from a standing jump, lept over it.

    ¡°Fucking hell!¡±

    ¡°And that is not boosted. That is just the sixty per cent increase. My scales are harder, and if I boost them, they might deflect a bullet - not that I am going to test that.¡±

    ¡°Probably not a direct bullet?¡±

    ¡°Probably not, and not a high-powered one either.¡±

    ¡°We could semi-test it when you change and get descaled. We could test the scales.¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°Sixty per cent stronger?¡± I asked.

    ¡°And sixty per cent harder,¡± she said, walking up to me, ¡°A lot harder than you get,¡± she said, rubbing my groin.

    ¡°So you have put on weight, you fat bitch.  Oow!¡± That¡¯s right, her hand was at my groin.

    ¡°I may be heavier, but there is no fat.¡± She demonstrated by lifting her arms above her head and turning a slow naked circle in front of me, displaying her tight body and smooth lines.

    ¡°I am not sure I got a good enough look. Could you do that again?¡± I moved back out of reach this time. My electroreceptors detected the arm movement. ¡°So you are not really faster?¡±

    ¡°Only a little - maybe five per cent. I want to change and see what a difference this makes. I want to try the shark form in the ocean.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± Soph said, ¡°We are a long way from help.¡±

    Carla nodded. ¡°I am sure.¡± She squatted down before the frying pan and snagged a sausage out of it. ¡°Ow,¡± she juggled the hot sausage for a minute before biting into it.

    ¡°Well, we just discovered her scales are not heat resistant,¡± I observed as I dished up what I had cooked, and we all dug in.

    After breakfast, we headed down to the beach. I took a blanket as we wanted to collect the scales. Carla stayed naked, as she saw no point in dressing.

    Soph changed from her panties to a bikini bottom, which provided less coverage overall. ¡°My fur gets too hot,¡± she complained. I wasn¡¯t complaining.

    I just shrugged and stayed naked, as that was how I swam. Carla thought it was fun teasing salutes out of me. Maybe I should go back to being called the Fucktoy.

    I laid the blanket on the sand, and Soph called Rich over to supplement her borrowed skill. Carla lay down on the blanket.

    ¡°Are you sure?¡± I asked.

    She nodded.

    ¡°I will try projecting soothing, calming feelings,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Keep the whirlpool going. Direct everything into the change.¡± I reminded her.

    ¡°Yes, grandpa,¡± she said like an annoyed kid.

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    She nodded to me, and I started the river flowing.

    This was rougher- much rougher. There were two peaks, one where the scales fell off and another when the shark''s scales, teeth, and fins grew. The second one lasted much longer. She was in pain, and I could tell Soph felt it and struggled to send back calm. I felt it even though I was only sending through the link. Her screams echoed off the hills around the cove. Repeatedly. She struggled to keep control, and she mostly managed it.

    Fucking hell, why would she ever want to do this? Crazy Bitch.

    It was over sooner than I expected, although it seemed to last forever.

    Carla lay exhausted on the blanket, surrounded by scales. Soph looked emotionally wrung out and exhausted. My Essence pool was under half, but I looked at the time, and it only took about twelve and a half minutes- less than the first but the same as the second.

    Carla spat out a tooth. There was blood in her mouth. I passed her a drink bottle, and she washed her mouth out and spat blood on the sand. She just rested for about five minutes before she sat up. Soph helped her.

    Then she grinned at me, displaying her teeth.

    ¡°Wow, that is scary. There is no way you are giving me a blow job like that. To be even scarier, leave the blood in.¡± She had a row of wicked, sharp, pointed teeth filling her mouth. Shark teeth.

    Soph handed her a mirror.

    Shark scales are not shiny like fish scales. They are actually small shaped pieces of bone covering the body, providing protection and smooth flow through the water. I touched her new scales, and they were smooth in one direction and rough when I went back against the flow lines.

    Then there were the fins. No one wonder she sat up. There was a shark dorsal fin on her back along her spine. I was shaped like a shark''s fin, coming to a point and rising about 30 cm from her back. She had two other fins coming out from each ankle and the side of her leg. They were extended about 20cm out from her leg, and when her legs were together, they would make natural flippers. Fast and built for the water and that mouth of teeth¡­ wow.

    ¡°I very much like it,¡± I said, getting looks from them both. I want to see how you go in the water. Your body''s strength and the fins will make you incredibly fast, and then you can boost. I am jealous." I got up and held out a hand to help her up, ¡°will you show me?¡±

    She grabbed my hand, ¡°Sure, let''s dance.¡±

    We went down into the surf and dove under, and she was away. She was fast, smooth, and quiet in the water, even with my enhanced hearing. I boosted my eyes to see better as she would flash past. She jumped out of the water, easily clearing it, and Soph clapped from the shore in delight. I guess she was feeling Carla¡¯s happiness and joy. After all that pain, it is good to see her get some joy from it.

    After half an hour, I went back onto the beach and sat with Soph, watching and enjoying the day. Carla tugged on my Essence Pool every now and again as she practised boosting, not having recovered her pool after the change.

    As I sat by Soph, she said, ¡°You are happy, and you are not. Why?¡± That is right. She could channel Rich¡¯s Skill now.

    ¡°I am really happy for Carla. She needs this after all the pain she went through and has to go through every time.¡±

    ¡°And?¡± she prompted.

    ¡°I am a little jealous. Swimming is my thing, but only a little. Mostly, I feel like the weak link here. You are coming into your powers. Carla is coming into hers. I don¡¯t seem to have that much.¡±

    Soph was silent for a minute before she said, ¡°You know Carla would be dead without you?¡±

    I nodded.

    ¡°She couldn¡¯t change at all without you and your Essence pool.¡±

    I nodded again.

    ¡°I am betting she is drawing on your essence now because hers isn¡¯t big enough to boost her this long,¡±

    I nodded again.

    ¡°That, " she indicated to where Carla was, ¡°is all you. She owes everything to you and we,¡± she emphasised again, ¡°and WE will never forget that.¡±

    She continued, ¡°Then there is this incredible brain you are hiding. Who worked all this out and made everything possible? You did. We. Owe. You. Everything. All of that is on top of your incredible senses, poison and underwater prowess. There is no weak link here. We are a badass fucking threesome.¡±

    ¡°You are very good at that,¡± I said.

    ¡°Emotions are my thing.¡±

    ¡°BFT. Badass Fucking Threesome.¡±

    ¡°No, stop it with the acronyms.¡±

    ¡°They are good.¡±

    ¡°No, they are not.¡±

    Two hours later, Carla turned up with a Kahawai in her hand. It had teeth marks on it. I cleaned it, and the dogs and I ate it raw as she disappeared again.

    Carla came back an hour later, pretty exhausted, and we all went back to Bucks Estate for a late lunch.

    ¡°I think I know the problem,¡± Carla said. ¡°I changed from Fish to Shark directly. That¡¯s why it was so difficult. Not that it is ever going to be easy. I think I have a default form, and that is my skin or near-human form. I think the easier changes will be to and from my skin form.¡±

    ¡°Do you want to try it?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yes, but I am going for another swim first, maybe more than one.¡± Two minutes later, she was asleep on the blanket.

    ¡°Sleep first, then swim,¡± I whispered to Soph. She nodded, and I took the dogs for a walk in the bush.

 50. Rushed.

    Carla came back as it was getting dark. She might have the body of a Shark/Girl, but she didn¡¯t have the senses of a shark. She couldn¡¯t see in the dark.

    As we ate dinner, she said, ¡°I want to change back to skin.¡±

    ¡°Tonight? Two changes in one day?¡± I queried.

    ¡°Have you got the essence for it?¡±

    ¡°I am not the one that has been using my essence all day.¡±

    She grinned. ¡°Thanks. I had fun. I will let you into something else I found out.¡±

    She got a knife and dug under her scales to draw blood. We watched, and the bleeding stopped quite fast. Then, it seemed to close over as we watched.

    ¡°It needs more testing, but I am pretty sure I heal sixty per cent faster, and I can double that with a boost. Minor cuts should be healed totality in a couple of days. This is my whole body. I am guessing that for you and Soph it will only work on your skin.¡±

    I grabbed the knife and sliced a shallow cut on my skin. On average, cuts would take one to two weeks to heal, say twelve days. Sixty per cent faster means just under five days. Boosting it reduces it to one to two days. Boosting for a day is pushing it even for me, but boosting it for an hour meant three hours or more of healing. I will see what it looks like in the morning.

    ¡°That is big,¡± I said, ¡°and with it covering your whole body and using my Essence pool, you are going to come back from wounds very quickly.¡± Carla grinned. ¡°And Soph and I can cope with light wounds, and Soph can toughen her fur¡­ this is good.¡±

    Carla poked me lightly, ¡°You are the squishy one.¡±

    ¡°I am always hard for you.¡±

    ¡°Turn me back to skin, and let''s do that.¡±

    ¡°OK, Soph, You heard the lady. It is skin she wants.¡±

    ¡°Perhaps outside,¡± Soph said, ¡°You know, we wouldn¡¯t want to get blood and bone everywhere.¡±

    ¡°Shit, that sounds bad,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°It is your blood and bone,¡± I said, and we are collecting it alongside the scales.¡±

    It was bad, but not nearly so bad. It took around five minutes of pain. Her teeth were the worst. We made sure she was lying on her side so she didn¡¯t choke on them. Her fins just fell off and her skin still itched as it grew under the bone scales until the scales fell off. It also only took about a third of my essence pool. That is all of hers plus a third of mine.

    It still exhausted her, but it wasn¡¯t so traumatic for Soph and, therefore, less traumatic for Carla.

    Carla was back to her chocolate-coloured skin, no hair or eyebrows and smooth, callus-free skin. The wound she had made under her scales was still visible, so the change didn¡¯t miraculously heal her. It is pretty miraculous, anyway.

    Soph engulfed her in a big, soft, cuddly hug, and she fell asleep in her arms. So much for the promise of sex. Soph knew what she needed most.

    I woke erect and engulfed in a warm mouth with a tongue swirling around. I looked down and saw a hairless and naked Carla grinning back at me. I also saw Soph lying awake across the room, watching us.

    ¡°Soph?¡± I queried. She had never been present before.

    ¡°It is OK, I don¡¯t mind,¡± Soph said. ¡°In fact, I am very interested in what you both feel during sex.¡±

    Right. Emotions. Feelings. All that shit.

    ¡°So this is an experiment for you?¡± I asked as Carla kept up her work.

    She giggled, ¡°Yes, but a bit more than I would let my primary school kids do.¡±

    ¡°I should bloody hope so. So this is for science?¡± I asked.

    Carla swung her body around so her rear end was directly over my face, and said, ¡°For science,¡± and lowered herself down and went back to work on my member.

    I am not the one to ruin an excellent scientific experiment, so I went to work.

    It was only three orgasms later, two for Carla and one for me, that all our phones went off together with messages, and Carla¡¯s started ringing.

    ¡°Carla¡¯s phone, Soph speaking.¡±

    ¡°No, she can¡¯t come to the phone right now.¡±

    ¡°Anawhata.¡±

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    ¡°Two hours?¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll be there.¡± She hung up.

    Shit, I could have used my hearing to listen to the whole conversation if I had thought about it. My mind is on other things.

    I pushed Carla off to one side, ¡°Shit, you are heavier.¡± She just grinned. We both looked at Soph.

    ¡°There is an anomaly found in Northern Australia. They want us to go with Amanda and some of the other available Enhanced. We fly out of the Whenuapai Air Force base in two hours.¡±

    ¡°It is going to take us an hour to get there. Shit, I hate being rushed.¡±

    ¡°So much for our training,¡± said Carla as we got up and started looking for clothes and packing.

    ¡°Shall we take both vehicles?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°Probably a good idea,¡± I said. ¡°How much should we tell them?¡± I ask.

    ¡°We should play it by ear,¡± Carla said, ¡°We should decide what we don¡¯t tell them.¡±

    ¡°Soph¡¯s abilities,¡± I said immediately. ¡°She is just the dog handler. They know about Buck and Rich but not Soph.¡±

    ¡°Agreed,¡± Carla said, and Soph nodded.

    ¡°What about you, Carla?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Let''s play down the change improvement and the healing.¡±

    I nodded, ¡°Perhaps we should not reveal the ability to boost our mutations if we can; keep that up our sleeve. We have improved dramatically but hide the boosting.¡±

    ¡°OK, sounds like a plan,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°How long can you boost for on your Essence Pool?¡± I asked Carla.

    ¡°About an hour using it constantly. Short bursts are better.¡±

    ¡°I am more likely to boost in short bursts, using a particular sense at a time so that doesn¡¯t use much Essence and it is replenished fast. If you had a constant draw, say six hours plus replenished, it would maybe keep you going for nine hours straight. Let''s try not to test that, though.¡±

    ¡°I think my body would give up well before that,¡± Carla said.

    I packed spears, spear guns, knives, and machetes into a bag with some clothes and general stuff. I wore a knife, and so did the others. The Air Force will not be worried about knives on a plane. The dogs were excited even though they didn¡¯t know why.

    Carla and Buck came with me, and Rich went with Soph in the SUV. We left with ten minutes to spare.

    The Air Force base was busy. Their Boeing 757 was on the runway being loaded up. Lieutenant Lewis was there, and he called us over.

    ¡°I have taken the liberty of issuing you each a standard combat kit. I suggest you get changed once we are airborne.¡± He noticed Carla, ¡°No scales? Fascinating. That will have to wait. I will be holding a briefing once we are in the air. We are heading straight to Darwin from here. You best get aboard. Will the dogs be Okay? I have got two cages on board if we need them.¡±

    ¡°The dogs should be fine,¡± Soph replied, ¡°They can use the cages like a kennel, and it should be sufficient.¡±

    We were ushered aboard and shown seats and the kits. Soph set the cages, and the dogs went in, but she didn''t close the doors to them.

    I looked around to see who I recognised. Ata wasn¡¯t there, unfortunately. The Army were-dog guy was there, and a Navy guy with rat fur. Ensign Jeong was there, and Commander Lewis was the only other Enhance participant. Four military personel and the three of us. There were other normal army aboard.

    ¡°That¡¯s a Special Forces Squad,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I guess you don¡¯t mean ¡®special,¡¯ as in retarded. They look too competent for that.¡±

    ¡°You are right,¡± Soph said, ¡°They don¡¯t look anything like the special kids I had in my classroom.¡±

    Amanda and two other medical people were rushed aboard, and the door was closed. We were taxiing for the runway straight away.

    Once we were in the air and levelled out, the speakers came on, ¡°Good morning, everyone. I am Commander Lewis of the Royal New Zealand Navy. I am currently the overall commander of New Zealand¡¯s joint Anomaly Response Unit. This means I am in command here regardless of whether you are in the Navy, Army, Air Force, or a Civilian. There are four civilians aboard. Dr Amanda Mohan is our leading medical researcher in Enhancements and Essence. Mr Wilkinson, Ms Hardcastle, and Ms Vaa¡¯i are Enhanced, and we have two enhanced dogs aboard bonded to Ms Hardcastle.¡±

    ¡°This is roughly a ten-hour flight. I will hold a briefing in an hour so everyone can get settled first. For now, relax, get yourself sorted, and introduce yourself to others.¡±

    The general noise and chatter rose as Lewis stepped away from the mic. People got up and sorted their gear. I figured I had better see what was included in this Combat kit. Basically, it was fatigues, boots, and a belt with pouches. There was a backpack with more pouches. There were hats and gloves. There were no guns or knives, but there was a basic first aid kit.

    Carla left to get changed.

    ¡°Hello, I am Corporal Gibson.¡± It was the were-dog. ¡°I just wanted to apologise for the barge again. I thought I was helping, but I''m sorry I stuffed up your plans.¡± He was primarily talking to Soph. ¡°It seems to have worked out in the end.¡±

    ¡°Thank you for your apology. I was quite upset,¡± Soph replied.

    ¡°When we get somewhere civilised, let me buy you a drink. Since you are engaged to Ms Vaa¡¯i, I will buy you both a drink.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, Corporal, that is appreciated,¡± Soph said.

    The corporal went to walk away, and I heard a stranger say, ¡°You dogs trying to get it on together?¡±

    Gibson said, ¡°Don¡¯t make me deck you before we even land, Jenkins. She voluntarily went where you refused.¡±

    Then a voice in the isle behind Jenkins said, ¡°You won¡¯t have to deck him if he doesn¡¯t show respect to my Fiance.¡±

    Jenkins spun around and towered over Carla, ¡°And who are you, little girl? Bloody civilians shouldn¡¯t be here, you won¡¯t ¡­ Fuuuck!¡±

    Carla had grabbed him by the balls. She manoeuvred him into an empty seat row and gave him a shove.

    ¡°I am the Bitch,¡± she introduced herself, ¡°with a capital B.¡±

    Jenkins was looking around for support.

    ¡°Don¡¯t look at me,¡± I said. ¡°I am the Bastard with a capital B.¡±

    Soph stepped into the aisle next to Carla and smiled sweetly. ¡°We may not be military, but we are a team. If you have trouble with one of us, you will have trouble with all of us. We are Enhanced. I am known as The Witch.¡±

    She then grabbed her fatigues and headed down the aisle with Rich and Buck following.

    I guess that was the introductions done.

 51. Yagoonya.

    The fatigues were not too uncomfortable. I basically hadn¡¯t worn clothes for the last week so I would have to get used to it again. I left the boots off for now. My jandals were more comfortable.

    Amanda came up to chat, ¡°So, I remember that Meme a couple of months ago?¡±

    ¡°Memes have a habit of sticking in the mind,¡± I said.

    She laughed.

    ¡°You have been busy. I read some of your articles,¡± I said.

    ¡°And yet I haven¡¯t heard from you,¡± she accused. ¡°You are a major source of inspiration, and you disappeared. Carla has changed, but she didn¡¯t call for my help. It is enough to make a girl suspicious,¡±

    ¡°You are right,¡± I said, ¡°We have been cheating on you.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t mind that,¡± she said, ¡°but I want to know all the juicy details.¡±

    ¡°Well, there are a few things, but we are hoping this anomaly will help us test some theories.¡±

    ¡°You are not the only one there!¡± she said.

    ¡°Please take your seats,¡± Commander Lewis said. ¡°Five days ago, local bushmen reported an anomaly about fifty kilometres North west of Yagoonya, Population 25, in the Staaten National Park in Queensland. It is being called the Yagoonya Anomaly. We will be disembarking at Darwin and transferring to smaller planes as the army has established a base camp on a short dirt airstrip south of the anomaly. The whole area is a river delta with the worst of Australian creatures inhabiting it.

    ¡°The Australian Army is having particular difficulty with mutated crocodiles, but there are snakes, spiders and everything else. The park has a number of endangered species as well, and there is pressure to destroy this anomaly quickly. The problem is the anomaly has been there for a while undetected. Australian snipers have been trying to pick off the mutated creatures, but some of the crocodiles, in particular, seem to be shrugging off their bullets. Or maybe they are healing. For whatever reason, they are very difficult to kill.

    The Army is very interested in our experience with the Waiheke Anomaly, and that is the primary reason we are going. We will provide first-hand experience and advice. The anomaly is in a very difficult place right on the bank of a deeper river channel, and the local crocodile is aggressive and has destroyed army remote-operated equipment.

    The area affected is huge, and there have been a number of casualties. The other reason we are going is to try to map out the Essence Sphere for them. Our Enhanced people can sense when entering an Anomaly area. That is why Ensign Jeong, Mr Wilkinson, and Ms Vaa¡¯i are here. They have experience in this.¡±

    ¡°What colour is this Anomaly?¡± I asked.

    Lewis looked at his notes, ¡°It is a blue/green colour, close to turquoise in shade but darker than normal Turquoise. Why is that important?¡±

    ¡°Research shows that the colour of the anomaly denotes the different essence types it produces, which can relate to the types of mutations it causes.¡±

    ¡°And blue/green means what?¡±

    ¡°Not sure yet. Waiheke was almost fluorescent blue, with more water mutations. The Canadians were blue-white, and a lot of ice and snow came from it. The Chennai one was red-brown and earth and blood. The Aussie outback one was yellow and probably fire-related.¡±

    ¡°Mr Wilkinson is correct,¡± Amanda added her support.

    ¡°There will be more updates as we get closer. Enjoy your flight. This will be the most comfortable you will be after we land.¡±

    What a cheery note to finish on.

    I pushed Amanda off onto the others. I didn¡¯t get a lot of sleep last night, and I know Carla was tired as well. Buck jumped up into my lap, and I closed my eyes. I wanted to discourage people from talking to me and just listen to what was happening around me.

    Lewis came to talk to Carla about her lack of scales, and Amanda was also interested when she found Carla had switched to scales and then back again. Carla did not mention the shark form.

    Soph fielded questions about the dogs and her public persona. Both Carla and Soph were asked about the Fish market attack. Soph talked Carla and the dogs up to be the heroes.

    A lot of questions were deflected. I was glad I was pretending to be asleep. I did actually doze off for a while.

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    Darwin was hot. I let everybody else rush around, and we were loaded onto an Australian airforce twin prop and arrived on a dusty, desolate piece of dirt. The dogs were glad to be out and run around. I immediately started getting used to the smells and sounds of the Australian savanna.

    The army camp was basic, and we were assigned a tent. They immediately wanted one of us to go with a group and find the edge of the Essence Sphere. I volunteered. Commander Lewis and Ensign Jeong also came, and we loaded into two 4WDs with the local army. We had only driven about 4km when I said to stop.

    I could sense it. It was my first strange anomaly, and it was different. It didn¡¯t feel like the waves of Waiheke or the clear bright blue. It was muddy and stagnant, if that makes sense.

    ¡°You got to be kidding me,¡± our driver said. ¡°Here?¡±

    ¡°Here. I am probably more sensitive than the other two. I suggest you wait here, and we walk on.¡±

    ¡°Bloody strewth, mate, that means it is about a 25km radius.¡±

    The three of us got out.

    ¡°Control and absorb is the one, right?¡± Commander Lewis checked.

    ¡°It works, but I find making my essence into waves to repel the foreign essence is a better way,¡± I replied, and then I talked them through it. That is what I was doing.

    ¡°When did you discover that? We destroyed the anomaly.¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°It was when I was helping Carla change form. Amanda was there at the time. It fell apart at the end, but it was still better- better at repelling essence, not better at helping Carla. I''m doing it now, and it is working well.¡±

    We were about five hundred metres further in when Jeong said she felt it. I marked the satellite position, and then the commander felt it another three hundred meters in. A 25km Radius. That is an area of 2,000km2 as well as 25km in the air and 25km in the ground.

    They stayed there practising, and I took the satellite position to the vans. They reported it back to the base. They started making plans to relocate the base to Yagoonya, about 50 km away.

    We returned to base camp, and I got a handle on the local situation. The army had several people going through the transformation right now, and some had already died.  They had been evacuated to Darwin, with Cairns available for the overflow. Amanda and her Australian counterpart were holding lectures on what to do to minimise the risk of dying if you were caught in the zone and provided information about mutations.

    The Were-dog and Soph were obvious reminders of survivors and mutations, and everybody took it seriously.

    I wandered outside of camp and just tried to get a sense of the bush and Identify the smells and sounds. Channel my inner Buck. Why don¡¯t I just go and get Buck and go for a walk? I slap a mossie on my arm. Shit mutated mosquitoes. Mutated flies. Shit, I hate Australia.

    I am a Kiwi. I don¡¯t know where snakes will hide. I am used to spiders not being poisonous. Now we have all this and mutations. Shit, the irony. I can probably fend off any mutations with my essence. It is a normal snake that will kill me. I arranged for the locals to introduce us to the Australian bush so that we are at least somewhat aware. We went for a walk, and common things were pointed out to us. I am sure they were thinking we were idiot Kiwis. New Zealand is a safe place. Most places are safer than Australia.

    What we also got was basic firearms training for a couple of hours. Safety, care, and maintenance and then we fired army rifles and pistols. It was quick and basic but gave us more confidence in using weapons if we had to. Carla was the best shot.

    I took Buck for a walk, and we explored the area close to the base camp, getting used to the area some more. Now I know where to look, and I can identify smells and things.

    Our next task is to go into the zone with cameras and record as much wildlife as possible, especially the mutations. More people dropped into mutation comas daily because they didn¡¯t know where the boundary was. Now, people can keep out. They have drones flying through the zone, but animals hide from drones. We also are there to monitor the rate of growth of the anomaly.

    If they can¡¯t get ground explosives close to the anomaly, the Australian Air Force will have to bombard it from the air from further than twenty five kilometres away. That will cause massive destruction and there is no guarantee of hitting it enough times in the right spot.

    Lewis said some of their personnel who have survived are willing to come and learn from us and will be arriving in two days. Until then we are on our own.

    During my first foray into the area, I was stuck with the were-dog and rat-man. Corporal Gibson was actually OK, a bit rough and impulsive, but I can hardly fault that. Petty Officer Blake had been in the Navy for almost ten years. She went for the rat because it was a survivor. She got the fur and the sense of smell. Gibson also had a dog nose, so we identified different smells and explored the area. I showed them how to create waves and how to tell when it might be too much.

    We would drive for a while and then get out and record and explore. I was the only one to test the rivers. I would go to the edge, scoop out some water, and sniff. If I thought it was safe enough, I would duck my head under and use my hearing and smell. Crocs were noisy in the water when they moved. When they just floated, they were silent and dangerous. I could identify their scent in the water, but they were only the ones upstream from me.

    Australia has a surprising number of water snakes. Fortunately, they were not normally aggressive. There were fish as well. All these crocs needed to eat something. Where we were, it was fresh water, but closer to the anomaly, it was salt water. Salt water crocs are more aggressive than freshwater crocs.

    As for the Essence, the marshy, swampy, muddy sense persisted, and I filtered it out easily. As I got used to it more, I felt more of a decay or rot sense. I haven¡¯t checked if the mutations match what I am sensing. It is the dark aspect I am clashing with, as our anomaly was bright. The blue/ green colour is okay I tried absorbing it a bit, and it wasn¡¯t pleasant, but my essence converted it. That was a risk. I am not going to tell the others.

    I really don¡¯t see how the Australians are going to deal with this. A small nuke might be the only way. Dealing with it is not my problem.

 52. Inwards.

    They are trying to make dealing with the anomaly my problem. They want me to go into it as far as I can go. I said I would need Carla and Soph. Carla has the strongest essence I have seen. Not that I have seen a lot, but Soph said she and Rich have tested those around us with essence, and Carla is the strongest. I have the most, but Carla is strong in using it and presumably defending with it. Soph and the dogs are coming because they need experience.

    We pack a 4WD for a couple of nights just in case and head in. I am interested as I have questions. How do the animals stop mutating? How do they resist the anomaly¡¯s essence, or am I missing something? OK, I am missing a lot.

    We drive slowly. We stopped a lot for Soph to build strength, which is why we came ready for overnight. Soph and the Dogs need to build strength, and I don¡¯t know when the next anomaly will appear. A full day in the zone, and the waves are automatic now. Our bodies being flooded with our fluorescent blue essence helps.

    We don¡¯t want to sleep. We might lose control. I am testing things. I am trying to match my waves to the amount of pressure, but no more. If I misjudge it, I can absorb some dark turquoise essence without it threatening to mutate me. If there is too much foreign essence, I think we will mutate. I have a bigger essence pool, so my margin of error is larger than the others. If I did mutate, would it change my colour or add to it?

    My main interest is the dogs. They are not bothered by the foreign essence.

    ¡°Speak to us,¡± said Soph. ¡°What is bothering you?¡±

    ¡°The dogs. Look at Buck asleep. He is asleep, isn¡¯t he? He is not mutating, right?¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s asleep,¡± Spoh confirmed.

    ¡°You are here actively holding off the foreign essence, and he is asleep doing nothing to hold it off. But he is not mutating.¡±

    ¡°True,¡± Soph said. ¡°I didn¡¯t think about that.¡±

    ¡°This is Bob¡¯s brain. We are getting a glimpse of how it works,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°So why? You can sense essence. Is he using essence?¡±

    ¡°Yes, it is about the same level of use as you.¡±

    ¡°Interesting. I have been trying to match my usage level to the surrounding level. He is doing it automatically. Why can dogs do that, but humans must be active in their usage? Do we have to be active? Have I got it wrong? Is there an automatic defence system, and we only need to be active in stronger areas?¡±

    ¡°If we fail that test, we mutate,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Not if we move out to the edge and test it. I have a lot of leeway in absorbing foreign essence before it gets critical for me. This anomaly does not have such a steep power gradient as you move closer. In Waiheke, a few meters, the essence got noticeably stronger. Here, you need a few hundred meters.¡±

    ¡°Because it is so large?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°Maybe. Maybe it is just a different type of anomaly. Waiheke was what? A kilometre radius when they destroyed it? This is twenty-five times larger. I suspect the reason is a combination of both the anomaly and the size. Let''s test it.¡±

    We drove to where Soph thought the edge was. I stopped using my essence actively.

    ¡°Carla, do you want to try as well? You will know when you need to repel the essence. You have a smaller pool, but you have always been stronger in using it. It is like your essence is firmer, tougher, like you.¡±

    ¡°OK.¡± There was a pause. ¡°It is not getting through, or my pool is converting the small parts that make it through.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, same for me. You might be better at converting as you convert a lot of my essence when you change.¡± I said. ¡°Soph? Do you want to try it? You can always repel it with waves.¡±

    Soph was reluctant, but she did. I think.

    ¡°It might be kind of like building a poison resistance,¡± I said. ¡°Let''s drive in a bit and build a bit more. If anyone is struggling, let me know.¡±

    ¡°What about the plants and animals here? They are soaked in it?¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Maybe it is their home essence, so they are immune?¡± Carla suggested.

    ¡°No. Waiheke was my home essence, and it overwhelmed me. I mutated three times. It is something else.¡± I thought for a bit.

    We travelled in and then stopped, and then repeated the process as long as everyone was comfortable.

    ¡°It may be like Snakes and their poison immunity,¡± I pondered. They are not automatically immune but build up resistance quickly due to exposure. Other creatures can also build immunity.¡±

    ¡°That sort of makes sense,¡± Soph said. ¡°You can only travel so far in, or you will get poisoned or mutated in this case.¡±

    ¡°Different animals will probably stay at the level they are comfortable with or in lesser zones. Those animals that are closest to the anomaly will be like the snake. Very high immunity and very dangerous. Probably the essence has soaked through their entire body, something we had to do manually, as we didn¡¯t have the anomaly any more,¡± I mused.

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    ¡°So they will be faster, stronger, heal and boost,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Very likely,¡± I replied.

    ¡°But what about Buck and Rich? They are not infused like us, and I can¡¯t work out how to do that.¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Yes. We are probably very lucky they have not mutated again,¡± I said. I don¡¯t know where their limit will be. There will be a time when our immunity reaches its limit. Can they actively repel essence? And can we teach them to do that?¡±

    ¡°I am supposed to be a school teacher, and I have no idea,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°But you are a school teacher. How would you teach your kids something new?¡±

    ¡°Make a lesson plan, walking them through it step by step. Lots of examples and simple problems for them to work on.¡±

    ¡°So make a plan. Treat this like a school lesson. Your delivery will need to change due to your students ¡®special needs¡¯.¡± I said.

    ¡°Hear that, Rich, you have special needs,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°I am pretty sure his special needs include tummy rubs,¡± said Carla.

    ¡°Let me think about it,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°If this theory holds,¡± I said, ¡°I mutated three times because my immunity was not high enough. These animals, Crocs, have been living for months next to an anomaly. How many times did they mutate before their immunity built up?¡±

    ¡°They may have more essence than you,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°They might. More than twice, my essence. Boosting longer. Boosting doubles the effect, but can we boost to triple the effect? We haven¡¯t tried that,¡± I mused.

    ¡°I think that would break my body,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°But you could boost the healing as well,¡± I said.

    ¡°We have to test it. If one of these high-level creatures wanders to a lesser zone and comes to us, we will need everything we can.¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Don¡¯t cripple yourself. Let me try my poison first.¡± I walked over to the nearest tree and put my hand on it, ¡°Ow!¡± I pulled my hand back, and there was a needle in it and some poison discolouring the skin. ¡°Remember, the plants are mutated as well.¡± I pulled the needle and kept it and focussed a healing boost through my skin. The poison visibly reduced, and I kept it up until there was no sign of poison.

    The ladies were watching closely, and Carla had her first aid kit out.

    ¡°Lucky it was only skin deep,¡± I said. I looked at the tree, ¡°Right, you deserve some poison back. How is your healing?¡±

    I spiked it with a handful of 100% boosted needles, receiving two in return. They were cleared up, but the bark I poisoned kept its discolouration. Right, how can I boost harder, not longer? I started the boost again but concentrated on where the Essence was going. I didn¡¯t have poison sacs or anything; I was creating it as I did it, so the Essence was concentrating on where I wanted the poison to come out.

    I used the tip of my finger this time. I tried doubling the amount of essence used. I darted my finger in and out to avoid the tree stabbing me.

    ¡°What happened?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°Wait.¡± I then tried again with a 100% boost to compare the same things. I waited, looking at the results in the bark. ¡°I think it increased when I used twice the essence, but it is not double the effect. There are definitely diminishing returns.¡± I tried a few more, and I could only squeeze maybe four times the essence into the skill, and I was, maybe, approaching double the effect. It was hard to judge.

    ¡°There are serious diminishing returns on the amount of essence you have to use, and the skill seems to have a limit,¡± was my summary to the others.

    Carla tried it with her strength and how high she could jump. Higher, higher, a bit higher. Then she landed wrong and twisted her ankle. ¡°Yeah, serious diminishing returns,¡± she said, ¡°but still helpful.¡±

    ¡°Helpful because you have access to my Essence Pool,¡± I reminded her.

    ¡°True, but I could still briefly boost high on my own. I would just be out of Essence.¡± She limped over, ¡°Let''s try boosting the healing.¡±

    Twisted ankles take four to five weeks to heal. Sixty percent faster is 5-6 days. Boosting that when we could reduce that time. If I got a twisted ankle, it would still be four to five weeks, less five percent. Lucky lady.

    ¡°I think I need my scales here,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Fuck no, you just want to escape the flies,¡± I said.

    ¡°Too right,¡± she said, ¡°but I will also be ready if we have to fight something dangerous.¡±

    ¡°Is changing in this foreign essence safe,¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°Should be. She is using my essence to change,¡± I replied, ¡°but we should move back to a less intense area to be sure.¡±

    We retreated a kilometre, and we helped her change. It was only five minutes and a third of my pool. She was tired, so we stayed so she could have a couple of hours of sleep. This was also a test. Can we do a Buck and sleep in the foreign essence zone?

    Yes, we could. Soph and I had a couple of hours, then pressed on into the night. I could see fine boosting my eyes. Soph and Carla were not so good, and they stayed in the vehicle. I drove without headlights, so all our nightsight were the best that they could be.

    The wildlife was more active at night. Bats. Mutated bats. We got hit with a sonic attack, and it affected me the worst with my enhanced hearing, Fuck. I slammed the brakes. We were only crawling along and stopping regularly anyway. It was a meandering route winding our way closer to the centre.

    We wound up the windows and waited the bats out. One clung to the side of the truck window, and Buck Power Barked at it, and it fell to the ground and eventually flew away. Eventually, they all left for other targets.

    ¡°I might have been able to bond with one of those,¡± Soph said cautiously.

    ¡°Really?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yeah, when that one clung to the side of the van, it was close, and I felt it might be a possibility.¡±

    ¡°So, cool,¡± Fishface said excitedly.

    ¡°Think about what type of animal might make you a good bond.

    Then we go to making suggestions for her,

    ¡°Snake,¡± I said, and she shuddered in revulsion,

    ¡°What about a native tree rat,¡± Carla said

    ¡°Platapus, it is amphibious,¡± I suggested.

    ¡°Kangaroo. Plenty around and could be a fighter,¡± Carla said

    ¡°Wallaby¡¯s are smaller and softer. Croc¡¯s would be hard to keep,¡± I thought aloud.

    ¡°Spider?¡± Carla suggested, and Soph shook her head.

    ¡°Koala?¡±

    ¡°Wombat?¡±

    ¡°Emu?¡±

    ¡°Termite,¡± I said, swerving around a mound, ¡°Shit mutated termites.¡±

    ¡°Shut up, you lot,¡± Soph said

 53. Upsized.

    We dozed again in the truck in the early hours of the morning. We were probably about 10km from the anomaly and approaching Soph¡¯s limit. Time might increase the limit, but we don¡¯t have that right now. To go closer, we would need to actively repel the essence, which is not too bad.

    I woke to Buck growling. I looked out to the dawn, and there was a large mob of kangaroos moving through the area. Mutated kangaroos. I woke the others and got the camera going. Some were obviously mutated with extra limbs and things, but others looked normal.

    We stayed quiet, trying not to draw attention to ourselves. Soph was holding Rich, and I had Buck. We were in the truck, so we should be safe enough.

    We had been updating the base regularly and shared our experiments with acclimatising to the essence. The soldiers that were mutated here should acclimatise faster than us. The base was being fed data from the truck on our position, and two outside cameras were feeding direct information. Yesterday, we spotted an aerial drone keeping tabs on us every now and again.

    Carla had changed inside the Truck out of sight of cameras. I made sure we were not recorded constantly. We had not planned to spend the night in the zone, but Base was pleased when we did. This expedition is generating a huge volume of data for them.

    So, with the cameras and the drones, why were we not warned of the mob of kangaroos?

    Oh. I turned the radio off so we would not be disturbed, and there was no phone reception out here. Oops.

    The mob was moving slowly and just grazing. I saw some Joeys. That was interesting. What would young born in the anomaly zone be like? Would they mutate in the womb or pouch, in this case? It is a whole new field for someone to study.

    Buck and Rich were tense but in control, right up until a kangaroo jumped and missed the landing because of a mutated foot and banged against the side of the truck.

    Buck let out a Power Bark before I could stop him. The kangaroo spasmed and froze, but all the kangaroos turned to look at us. I grabbed the truck ignition to start getting it moving when the bonnet of the truck collapsed under the weight of an absolutely massive kangaroo- obviously mutated to that size. The bonnet caved, as did the axle of the front wheels. We are lucky he landed on the bonnet and not the roof, or we would be crushed.

    ¡°Out out out.¡± I scrambled for the door. Buck slipped out ahead of me, and Powered barked at the monster, drawing its attention. It didn¡¯t spasm. It might have twitched. It jumped after Buck, but Buck was quick.

    I rolled out, and I saw Soph and Rich come out my side. Carla was on the opposite side of the vehicle. Buck came racing back toward us, unfortunately bringing the kangaroo with him. Rich started barking as well.

    The rest of the mob was just watching or backing off, which was good. That was right up until Carla started firing one of the two rifles we were given. That caused a stampede.

    It was a standard EF88 with a 30-round magazine. I think she held the trigger down until it was empty. Some hit the monster. Many others hit other kangaroos, adding to the stampede. Soph and I stayed low, out of range of her somewhat erratic fire.

    The monster was bleeding but not down and went for Carla. This time, he landed partly on the roof of the truck, crushing it. Carla clicked empty, and there were kangaroos bouncing everywhere. I heard one of the dogs yelp in pain, but I lept for the monster kangaroo. My knife barely dug into his fur, showing how he survived a dozen rounds from the EF88. I was pumping Boosted poison into his fur as fast as I could. I only think half of them penetrated, but it was potent.

    I saw a flash of scales as Carla went flying, and then I was flying. I hit hard and rolled. Luckily, I didn¡¯t hit a tree or anything. I was winded, but my lungs weren¡¯t my only source of oxygen. In the dry outback air, I did need my lungs.

    Carla was up OK. She was still limping from her ankle but otherwise seemed OK. Rich was going at the monster Kangaroo and had its attention. I couldn¡¯t see Buck anywhere. Then, the second rifle we were given started firing. I saw Soph braced against the wrecked truck, carefully firing controlled shots, and I saw several hit the Roo on the head. That hurt it, but they couldn''t have penetrated the skull. The Roo had a broken main leg now, which I assume was Carla¡¯s doing. Soph must have realised the skull was too thick and aimed for the last main leg. Then she ran out of bullets.

    I got up and realised my ribs hurt. I opened the rear of the truck and pulled out the spear gun. I dodged forward, and the Roo tried to push me with its forearms. I ducked and put the gun under its jaw, and put a spear into its brain. Even then, it had time to punch me and then fell on top of me, and I heard my ribs crack.

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    Carla limped over. ¡°I¡¯ll lift; you drag yourself out.¡±

    She disappeared again, and then the weight eased, and I dragged myself out as best I could. I just lay there, catching my breath as I could. All the Roos had gone. My hearing could pick them up, getting further away.

    ¡°Fuck.¡±

    Carla held out a hand to help me up, ¡°Come on, Soph needs us.¡±

    ¡°Shit, Buck?¡±

    She nodded. We helped each other around to the other side of the truck, where Soph was on her knees, cradling Buck¡¯s broken body. Buck was still alive, but it was clear his back was broken, and his back legs had bones sticking out.

    Fuck. We knelt beside Soph as she wept and poured some water into the cup of her hand for him to lick. Rich was whining nearby.

    Fuck, buddy, don¡¯t you do this to me.

    Fuck, what the hell am I going to do now? Tears dripped off my cheeks. Shit, I never cry.

    Fuck.

    Fuck.

    Fuck.

    Then Buck¡¯s eyes closed, and he stopped breathing.

    Fucking hell, what am I going to do now. Both Soph and Carla had their arms around me. I guess they could both sense how I felt in their different ways. Soph must be hurting so bad, and all I can do is kneel here and cry.

    The three of us held each other. Then Soph said, ¡°Wait, Rich!¡±

    He had gone silent. I looked around, and he was lying on the ground twitching. Fuck! He is mutating.

    Soph picked him up and carried him to the back of the wrecked truck. We all watched for a while. He had blood on him, but I don¡¯t know from where.

    I walked away and picked up the rifles first. I checked them, reloaded a new magazine, and leaned them against the side of the truck, just in case. Shit, my ribs are definitely broken.

    I grabbed a spade and started digging a hole under the nearby tree. Carla limped over after a while, handed me a drink bottle, took the spade, and completed the hole. She stayed with Rich as Soph, and I buried Buck. We had no words. Just tears.

    Fuck.

    I left Soph there and went over to Carla. After a while, Carla grabbed a knife and went over to the dead Roo. She cut out a number of large hunks of meat and stripped a good portion of the fur on the upper side off. She brought both back to the truck, got out the camp stove, fired it up, and started cooking the meat.

    None of us had spoken. Silence was the best. When she started cooking the meat, I raised an eyebrow. She just shrugged. Whatever will be. That was how I felt as well.

    Soph came over and sat to watch Rich. The smell of cooked meat started to spread. Then I saw a movement in the bush line, and I grabbed a rifle. It was a while before the first dingo ventured out to the Roo, and when we didn¡¯t respond, others followed. They started tearing at the carcass and feeding. I watched to make sure they stayed there. The flies were also gathering.

    We had Roo stakes for lunch. They were a bit gamey, but it was good. I saw the aerial drone appear and circle the scene. I bet they were wondering why we had gone quiet and why their feeds had stopped. The drone circled us three times and then flew off. Nobody was coming in to rescue us.

    Rich was in distress. He was twitching and whining, and I could see the stress in Soph as she did what she could through her bond. She was trying to cool his body with water. There was a large container of water in the rear of the truck, and it was intact. We needed plenty for the trek out of here.

    It was probably a two-hour walk out of the zone, but I had cracked ribs, and Carla was limping. I estimate four to five hours until we can get somewhere we can be picked up. We were not going anywhere while Rich was mutating.

    The afternoon wore on. It was hot. The carcass started to smell. I kept watch.

    Carla led me to the back seat of the truck, which I could crawl into, and I dozed for a while as she kept watch. I woke as the sun was going down.

    I crawled out, then jumped back, startled at the monster in front of me. The monster licked my face. ¡°Shit, Rich?¡±

    Two evil women laughed.

    It was Rich. He still looked like a Staffordshire Terrier but was now the size of a Rottweiler. No bigger, maybe the size of a small pony. He used to be 40cm high at the shoulder. His shoulder is now at my waist. His head used to be knee height, but it is now past the waist and bangs my stomach. He is bulked to match.

    ¡°You got your teeth into the Roo, didn¡¯t you?¡± It was the only place the mutation could have come from.

    ¡°He has been hungry as,¡± Soph said. ¡°He has been digging into the carcass even though it has been going off.¡±

    ¡°When you got to eat, you¡¯ve got to eat,¡± I said sagely.

    I got dry rations to eat.

    ¡°Do you want to leave now or wait till morning?¡± I asked.

    ¡°You are the only one who can see in the dark,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Morning it is.¡±

 54. Base Camp.

    I spent most of the night on watch. I was boosting my healing, getting my 5% rate up to 10%  on my ribs. Carla was pumping 120% for her ankle for most of the night. For her, it was well into the second day for her ankle, so she was about a third of the way there.

    We loaded the packs with essentials. If the army wanted anything else, they could come and get it. Carla had cleaned the Roo hide as best she could and left it out to dry yesterday. Now she rolled it up to carry out of here. I am not sure why she wants it, but it would make a nice rug at Bucks Estate.

    The drone flew over at dawn, so I pointed in the direction we would be walking. My electroreceptors were fantastic, keeping me oriented.

    We were about to set out when Soph popped into the bushes to take a leak. Then she didn¡¯t come back. I looked at Rich. He wasn¡¯t worried.

    ¡°I will go check,¡± Carla said, taking her rifle off her shoulder and holding it. She dropped her pack. She limped into the bushes where Soph had gone and disappeared. Then she didn¡¯t come back.

    Rich still lay in the shade of the truck, unworried. I waited a bit longer, and then Rich got up and trotted into the same bushes. Then he didn¡¯t come back.

    It must be a portal because my hearing didn¡¯t pick up anything. I dropped off my pack, picked up my rifle and walked to the bushes of doom, otherwise known as the female toilet. The boy''s bush was in the other direction.

    I walked into the shade and then picked up some sounds. There was no panic or screaming. It was like they were cooing a baby. Well, Rich wasn¡¯t. Sensible lad, that one.

    I went further toward the sounds. They were funny noises, like when ladies talk to babies.

    I finally look around the tree, and Soph is sitting on the ground, feeding seeds from her ration bar to a green bird. A parrot. Ok, then.

    I crouch down to wait, well away from them, so I don¡¯t disturb what is going on. Almost an hour later, Soph finally rose, and the parrot hopped onto her shoulder. It was medium-sized yellow-green in colour and a flash of red in the wings. It was probably a handspan and a half long.

    ¡°Bob, meet Eliza. She was lost and needed a hand. She is obviously a parrot. I will find out what kind later.¡±

    ¡°Eliza?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Kiwi Olympian I met and Mum sponsored. I liked the name.¡±

    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you have picked an Aussie Olympian?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Shut up. I like it.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure it''s female?¡± I continued.

    ¡°Shut up.¡±

    ¡°What is it¡¯s Mutation?¡±

    ¡°Still working the details,¡± Soph replied.

    ¡°Right, time to head away then.¡±

    We returned and collected the packs, and I led the way into the bush. Eliza didn¡¯t stay on Soph''s shoulder but hopped down and rode on Rich. I thought Rich was large enough for me to ride him with my broken ribs. I would sigh, but that would hurt the ribs.

    The going was slow, but two hours later, we had well passed the halfway mark, and my hearing picked up the sound of a vehicle. We popped out of the trees and saw an Aussie army tuck moving toward us at a good speed. We were well inside the now 25? km radius. I waved them over, and the truck changed directions toward us.

    ¡°G¡¯day mate,¡± greeted the driver, ¡°I¡¯m Trev and I am here to give you the VIP trip back to base.¡±

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    ¡°That is bloody fantastic,¡± I said. ¡°She has a sprained ankle, and I have a couple of broken ribs.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s all part of the fantastic service we provide here in Butt-Creek Nowhere. Let''s chuck your gear in the back. Ah, I''m not sure if you have noticed, mate, but I was told there were two dogs. One seems to have turned into a horse, and the other into a parrot. That is some pretty massive mutations there.¡±

    ¡°You Aussies have an impressive anomaly. I assume you are recently mutated?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s right, mate, and with the info you sent back, they let me come and give you the VIP treatment.¡±

    ¡°So when I mutated, I missed out on getting an extra dick. Were you successful?¡±

    Trev chuckled, ¡°No, mate, but the missus is happy enough that I am coming home.¡±

    ¡°I bet you are, too.¡±

    ¡°Too right, mate.¡± he looked at Rich. ¡°I am not sure where we are going to put the horse, though.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m riding shotgun. I can¡¯t squeeze in with broken ribs.¡± I heard some mumbling behind me, but my Super Hearing is selective. It is an extra Skill.

    I had a comfortable ride back to the base, except that Trev wouldn¡¯t shut up.

    When we got back to base, Lewis and his Aussie counterpart wanted an immediate report. Carla and I really had to see the medics, so Soph was thrown to the wolves. Carla was definitely playing up her limp. I might have been whimpering with each breath. We were seriously injured.

    Base camp was an old outback station with airstrip and water ponds. It was only a couple of hundred meters from the Gilbert River, which eventually went past the Anomaly 30-odd kilometres down steam as the river meanders.

    I grabbed a medic, ¡°I haven¡¯t seen Amanda, sorry, Dr Mohan around.¡±

    ¡°And you won¡¯t. Early this morning, she took off into the Anomaly Zone, found a Billy Goat Plum, ate it and returned. She was evac¡¯ed to Darwin.¡±

    ¡°A what plum?¡±

    ¡°Ah.. the other name is a Kakadu Plum. It is a fruit that grows around here and has been used in traditional medicine since way before the white fellas arrived. Very high in vitamin C.¡±

    ¡°Ah, thanks.¡± I guess Amanda couldn¡¯t wait. I hope it works out for her. A plum tree? Really?

    I was on light duties for now, as was Carla. Soph, Rich, and Eliza escorted newly Mutated Aussies into the zone and back again.

    I worked out Eliza¡¯s Mutation without Soph¡¯s help. The anomaly stuffed up her digestive tract. She shits everywhere, or rather everywhere on my side of the tent. I think Soph might have it in for me. I can¡¯t figure out why.

    Turns out Eliza is a female. The male Red-Wing Parrot has their entire wing in red feathers, not just a stripe like the females.

    I gave a couple of verbal reports on our trip and discoveries. If they want written reports, they can bloody write them themselves.

    My restful week is not turning out well, and I don¡¯t have Buck to take out for a walk.

    I just kept feeding Essence to Carla all week.

    The three of us did more gun training and target practice, using pistols as well. That was the limit for me, but Carla and Soph got some of the soldiers to spar with them and teach them more unarmed combat. I bet it wasn¡¯t hard to convince them. Carla excelled. She was made recruitment offers from both the New Zealand and Aussie military and had at least five marriage proposals that I knew of. She was loyal to her fucktoy, and Soph, of course.

    At the end of the week, Carla was taking trips into the zone as well. Base camp was packing up and preparing to move to Yagoonya as the anomaly was growing. It is now only three kilometres away. They will leave a small base here for Enhanced only.

    With the edge now only three kilometres away, I was taking long walks to the edge to get away from people. I was really missing Buck. I know Soph was, as well.

    Then Amanda turned up. She looked healthy. ¡°No extra limbs?¡± I asked in greeting. ¡°Have you become a sweet, tasty little morsel?¡±

    She laughed. ¡°I always was, but you haven¡¯t tasted the Kakadu Plum have you? They are quite tart. I have a passive mutation. My immune system has been massively improved. I am not sure I can get sick any more. We are testing, and there are exciting new ideas for some drugs. Pandemics like Covid could be a thing of the past.¡±

    ¡°That''s good because we have new things to worry about. Hey, your immune system wouldn¡¯t heal bones, would it?¡±

    Then we heard Ensign Jeong had gone too far into the anomaly and started mutating. She died before getting back to base camp. It was a stark reminder that this was not the New Zealander''s home essence type, and the danger was real.

    I was running sessions teaching people to connect their essence with their circulatory systems, but only Commander Lewis has achieved it. I am sure it is not my teaching, as Soph and Carla got it within a day. I think if the Aussies spend enough time in the essence zone, they will develop this without the work.

    Then we got the countdown. In ten days, the Australian Air Force would bomb the Anomaly out of existence. Apparently, the US was coming to help and had directed one of their aircraft carriers into the region.

 55. Special.

    The first noticeable thing was an influx of Americans. The Americans camped on the other side of the airstrip, which was now in constant use. The Americans were nice enough in general, which is not what you would expect from their media. Carla had to be a bit more forceful in rejecting offers, as they tended to be quite direct in their approach despite her fish scales. I think it is a cultural thing. Soph was fine; she had Rich nearby all the time.

    My problem was that Americans were loud. No, that is not right. They are LOUD. Constantly. It was driving me crazy, and I needed to get away. Commander Lewis helped by assigning us to the NZ special forces squad. Our job was to penetrate as close to the anomaly as we could, hopefully, get eyes on it.

    We loaded a truck and drove to meet them, as they were already camped in the zone. Because of my healing ribs, I was the designated driver. Rich and Eliza were now native to this Essence. Soph and Carla had increased their immunity by quite a lot due to spending time in the zone. I was the poor, weak sap. In my defence, my large Essence pool could soak up more before it became dangerous, and my active defences were good.

    Three of the original five Special Forces soldiers that came with us were still alive. Glen was in charge. He was of medium build and was covered in fur like Soph. ¡°Just call me Ngoi,¡± he said, ¡°and that is Kai. You can guess why,¡± Kai waved a hand that was holding a chocolate bar. Eating must be his thing. ¡°Lastly, there is Neke. Neke is crazy. She is double mutated.¡± Neke gave us a huge grin, and the snake fangs were prominent, which matched her snakeskin. Her tongue flicked out like a snake. Ngoi shrugged, ¡°she says she smells with her tongue.¡±

    Ngoi continued, ¡°We will spend the next two days here getting to know each other and our abilities. We will get you competent with the weapons before you can carry any with us. Kai hates being shot in the butt.¡±

    ¡°You know that wasn¡¯t an accident, right?¡± Neke said.

    ¡°We also believe you have something to teach us about getting our mutations super-enhanced,¡± Ngoi said.

    Neke was super keen on this.

    ¡°Neke¡¯s mutations are obvious, Taipan Snake, twice. Venom, smell and skin.¡±

    ¡°I can trade smelling tips with you and poison tips. Have you extracted any poison?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Just a little,¡± she said.

    ¡°Kai is batty,¡± Ngoi said.

    ¡°I was going for the eyesight, man.¡± he looked disappointed, ¡°I didn¡¯t get it, but,¡± He gave a big grin, ¡°Echolocation, for the win!¡±

    ¡°For myself, I stuck to the dingo,¡± Ngoi said. ¡°Dogs, I know. I have the fur and teeth,¡± he smiles, showing us a row of sharp teeth, but he doesn¡¯t have the snout like the were-dog. ¡°It makes eating interesting. I also have an increase in my hearing.¡± Then he paused. ¡°We lost Legs and Poi to get this.¡±

    We went through our abilities. As we discussed, Soph only mentioned the animals. When I heard what Eliza¡¯s mutation did, my eyes flicked to Soph. Bloody hell, I hope she can use that! I saw that sneaky, bloody smile. She can so use that.

    Eliza can short-range teleport. Teleporting a meter is fairly light on her essence pool, but twenty meters will use everything she has. So that is how I found bird droppings even where I had locked things away. Bloody hell, there is no escaping her now.

    We spent the rest of the day teaching them to connect their essence to their circulatory system. Soph was definitely a better teacher than I was. Even then, they were struggling. I think it is a difference in the type of essence. This dark turquoise essence is not as easy to work with as the fluorescent blue of Waiheke.

    Maybe there is a different way that works for this essence? Maybe the green or the dark shade is interfering? We left them with ideas to try.

    Lewis had sent us with three rifles and three pistols. The NZ forces use a Glock 17 for a pistol and the MARS-L assault rifle. Ngoi took us out, and we practised until he was happy. The special forces use the M4 Carbine instead of the MARS-L.

    Two days later, we headed to the anomaly. We would drive for about 5km and then walk. Ngoi wanted to be quiet and disturb as few creatures as possible. They expected me to stay with the vehicles, but I really wanted to go with them. I strapped my ribs tight.

    Ngoi said he was glad to have me. He had good hearing, and Neke had good smell, but both mine were better. I could also boost them, but he didn¡¯t know that. Eliza flew around the edge as well. Kai brought up the rear. His Echolocation was only really good for about 15m range and only works in the direction he is facing.

    Carla was getting along great with Neke, which was a big worry. I think Neke might be even crazier than Carla.

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    Soph stayed close to Rich, or it might have been the other way around. Rich¡¯s ability to detect essence has been refined with his second mutation, or maybe it is just the amount of time they have spent in the anomaly zone. They can sense different types of essence. The kiwi¡¯s fluorescent blue stands out from the Aussie dark turquoise. One of the Americans had a light brown essence, and another was dark green, possibly from the anomaly I read about in the southern States. I wonder if he was poison or plant-orientated? They were the only two Enhanced in the American contingent that she sensed, and they didn¡¯t stand out in any way.

    I started sending out waves to fend off the essence shortly after we left the vehicles behind. We were moving cautiously when Soph gave the signal for danger, and we dropped into the grass, and even Rich crouched down.

    I boosted my hearing. I whispered, ¡°Humans. Five. one on each side, three spread out ahead.¡± I heard Neke and Kai move out into the grass, one on each side. Then the wind changed slightly, and I could smell one. I could tell Ngoi smelled him with the wind change as well.

    The grass about 50m ahead moved, and a person stood up. Thanks to Soph and Eliza, we weren¡¯t quite in their ideal trap position.

    ¡°Very good, Mr Wilkinson. You do not disappoint.¡± The voice had an Asian accent. I was not going to jump to any conclusion about a country they might be from, as there are many Asians around the world working for many different countries. Accents can also be faked. ¡°We are going to need the three civilians to come with us. You others may go on your way or become casualties for the anomaly.¡±

    ¡°Well, you see, there is a problem with that,¡± Ngoi said. He was still lying in the grass. I am pretty sure he was buying time as he was busy doing something. ¡°The three civilians are New Zealand Citizens, and it is our job to protect them from foreign hostiles.¡±

    We were facing five enhanced military opponents. The front guy obviously had super hearing, but we don¡¯t know what else he had or how strong it was. Was it Ngoi strong or me strong? Was he tracking the people manoeuvring around in the grass like I was? What about the others? How were they enhanced? I felt a pull on my essence and fed a stream to Carla. Hopefully, she was enhancing her scales. If they want us alive, they won¡¯t shoot to kill us.

    ¡°But we don¡¯t have to be hostiles, Mr kiwi soldier. They could come for a vacation and be returned in due course.¡±

    Ngoi pointed left, which I assumed meant for us to move that way. Then he tossed something in that direction. The front guy probably had improved eyes as he saw it, even though it barely topped the grass. The guy dived back into the grass, and three explosions happened together as I rolled left.

    The three troopers had gone straight for grenades. If you knew where your enemy was, overwhelming firepower was the way to go. Kai and Neke had thrown explosive grenades at two of the closest enemies; Ngoi¡¯s grenade was thrown behind us and upwind. It started billowing smoke.

    All the soldiers started shooting. I was stunned. Grenades are loud, and I had my hearing boosted. That may be the other reason for the grenades to confuse the senses.

    I checked around. Soph was hiding behind Rich, who had taken a couple of bullets for her. He was growling and poised to pounce. I could smell blood on Ngoi, but he was crawling forward regardless. There was no sign of Carla. It was too noisy to boost my hearing, and the smoke was confusing the vision.

    Hopefully, five opponents have been reduced to three. My ribs hurt. I hope Eliza was not caught in the blasts.

    Then Ngoi indicated we were to keep moving left. He was obviously on protection detail. The gunfire eased. I crawled in the indicated direction. The smoke cleared a bit, and I saw a camouflage person moving in a fast crouch. I felt a pull on my essence, and then a silver rocket shot out of the grass and slammed into the person, and they both disappeared from view. I hope Carla knows what she is doing.

    Ngoi was firing again, and I heard more gunfire from the right. Then things settled down, and Ngoi indicated to wait quietly. Then Soph said quietly, ¡°Two are moving north at speed. One is limping.¡± Ngoi just nodded and continued to wait.

    Eventually, I heard Neke, ¡°Area secure, three confirmed kills.¡±

    Ngoi rose to his feet, ¡°Two on the run North, one injured. Search the bodies, then we move back to the vehicles.¡±

    Carla came out of the grass with Kai. She had blood on her and a bandage tied around her arm. Soph moved to help Ngoi with bandaging his leg. There didn¡¯t seem much we could do with Rich. He had stopped bleeding on his own. He wasn¡¯t even limping.

    ¡°Know anything about that?¡± Ngoi asked.

    I shook my head, ¡°No, but they obviously knew us. We were referred to in Amanda Mohan¡¯s writings a bit. Probably they were just after the socialite,¡± I said, indicating Soph.

    ¡°Of course, why didn¡¯t I think of that,¡± he replied.

    Neke came up, ¡°North Korean military, sir.¡±

    ¡°That is probably why we are still alive,¡± Ngoi said. ¡°Anything else for the spooks?¡±

    ¡°Just a few things,¡± she said, patting a pouch. ¡°And I got photos for facial rec, although one didn¡¯t have much of a face left.¡±

    ¡°I have something,¡± Soph said. The same anomaly enhanced both runners; it was a dark pink, almost a purple.¡± Of course, she can use the skill she borrowed from Rich through Eliza. Is that sensing skills only?

    ¡°Who gets the extra drink when we hit the bar?¡± Ngoi asked

    ¡°Miss Vaa¡¯i, sir. She caved his face in,¡± Kai answered.

    ¡°Shit,¡± Ngoi said, ¡°You weren¡¯t kidding about the strength. How do you feel about that?¡±

    ¡°Fine right now. The Witch will help me later,¡± she indicated to Soph.

    ¡°Any weapons we can use?¡± I asked.

    ¡°There is a KS-23 shotgun with cartridges, two useable Type 88 assault rifles, three FN-Hi Powered pistols and three knives. But why would you want foreign guns?¡± Neke answered.

    ¡°It seems like we need to defend ourselves beyond here, and the NZ military will want their guns back,¡± I replied.

    ¡°Let''s move out and find a new camp spot, then we can discuss it,¡± Ngoi said.

 56. Gates.

    Once a discrete camp was made, Ngoi asked for the weapons. Neke laid them out on the ground. There were three assault rifles, but one was clearly not useable. Ngoi examined them all and set one assault rifle aside. There is only one useable assault rifle. He pointed to the pistols. ¡°The Canadians make a version of those, which makes ammo easier to get.¡± He paused a long while. ¡°You are sure? If you get caught with illegal weapons, then that is entirely on you.¡±

    ¡°I am sure,¡± I replied.

    Ngoi glanced at Rich and said, ¡°Bullets aren¡¯t as definitive a solution as they used to be.¡± He came to a decision, ¡°Obviously, the Assault rifles will go to the spooks for evidence, but I didn¡¯t see anything else.¡±

    ¡°The rifles were all I collected off the bodies, Sarge. My apologies for not being thorough.¡± Neke said.

    Carla gathered up the pistols, shotgun and ammo as I collected the knives.

    ¡°Remind us to buy you a drink when we find a pub,¡± I said.

    ¡°Always,¡± Kai said quickly.

    We put the guns away for now. There is no use wasting our ammo when we have military-supplied weapons. Actually, I suppose all our weapons are military-supplied, just not the same military.

    Ngoi had his leg grazed by a bullet, and another was caught in his armoured vest. Carla had a bullet deflect off the scales on her arm, and it left a groove. I was feeding her essence for healing. We got out of that very lightly. These are very good soldiers, probably the best NZ has. They are definitely the best now they are enhanced.

    ¡°We going after the runners, sarge?¡± Kai asked.

    Ngoi thought, then said, ¡°No, there are only six days until destruction. We have to be out of here in five. The Anomaly is our mission. I have already let Command know they are here, and Neke is sending the photos now. The rest of the army can earn their keep. It is Aussie territory. I am sure command will pass it to them, and the Americans are here in force. The biggest question is going to be why you, Bob?¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°My great personality?¡±

    ¡°If it came down to your personality, I would have handed you over and walked away.¡±

    ¡°He hides it well, but he has a pretty impressive brain knocking around in there,¡± Soph said. ¡°The locals haven¡¯t figured it out, so I''m not sure how the Koreans have.¡±

    ¡°Amanda, probably. She is giving too much credit to him.¡± Carla said.

    ¡°So they might target her as well,¡± Ngoi said, nodding at Neke to pass that along. ¡°Today, we rest. Tomorrow, we go in and see the bastard, get our samples, and then extract.¡±

    After a while, I pulled Carla and Soph away for a quiet chat. This bloody super hearing on Ngoi¡¯s is a pain. ¡°Do you think it is me they are after? You two have a higher profile.¡±

    ¡°I''m not sure we will know. They might just be looking for mutants from other anomalies, and we are the target of opportunity. There are not many of us from the Waiheke Anomaly and less now,¡± Soph said, thinking of Jeong.

    ¡°They must have been here a while to acclimatise this deep,¡± I mused. ¡°You want to tell us about this teleport, Soph? It seems to break several laws of physics. Is it instant disappearance? It is superfast travel between two points without disturbing the air. Actually, instant disappearance would leave a hole in the air that would be noticeable when it filled. What is it?¡±

    ¡°See?¡± Carla said, ¡°Big brain, not just big dick.¡±

    ¡°I am sure dick size denotes brain size,¡± I said.

    ¡°It is usually the inverse in my experience. The bigger the dick, the smaller the brain,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°It is all part of my clever plan to hide then,¡± I said. ¡°Soph?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t have that much experience with dicks, the physical kind, I mean. Personality-wise, I have too much experience with.¡±

    ¡°Teleport,¡± I reminded her.

    ¡°It is not actually a teleport. It is like a gate opens, and you step through. It seems like a teleport when Eliza does it because she is flying and is already moving fast.¡±

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    ¡°So you could open this gate without stepping through? How long is it open for?¡±

    ¡°Less than a second. I have this innate sense of when to move.¡±

    ¡°Could you open it and not move through?¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°What happens if you open it and get stuck halfway?¡±

    ¡°The gate fails. That is why I can¡¯t wear a big backpack or carry long things. I have to keep the assault rifle against my body.¡±

    ¡°Could you open it and throw something else through?¡± I ask.

    ¡°Or shoot through,¡± Carla asks.

    ¡°I think so? I''m not sure. The timing would have to be very exact. It always appears right in front of me, and I can¡¯t seem to change that.¡±

    ¡°If you open it with your arm stretched out, where does it appear, by you or at the end of your arm? Can we see?¡±

    Soph looks around, sees nobody, and stretches out her arm. The air seems to shimmer for a second, and then it stops. It was right at my fingertips.¡±

    ¡°So you couldn¡¯t hold a pistol,¡± Carla said,

    ¡°But she could open it at the tip of her left hand, holding the pistol in her right hand,¡± I said. ¡°Where does the other gate open? You know we are just going to call them portals eventually, not gates.¡±

    ¡°We should just call them gates,¡± Carla said, ¡°in case we are overheard. Gates are less interesting than portals.¡±

    I nodded, acknowledging the point.

    ¡°It is always opens the way I am facing. I can¡¯t seem to change that.¡±

    ¡°So fast movement forward, not a change of direction. Where your body is facing or where you head is facing?¡±

    ¡°Body.¡±

    ¡°I am wondering if some physical organ is doing this, or is it purely essence? It must be pure essence if you can use it through the mental bond. Or is it a mental skill? Why can''t we learn it if it is pure essence or mental?¡± I wondered.

    ¡°It is Eliza¡¯s mutation, isn¡¯t it?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°Yes, as far as I can determine, it is her only mutation.¡±

    Eliza appeared suddenly and landed on Soph¡¯s shoulder.

    ¡°That is one way to surprise someone with enhanced senses,¡± I said, being surprised.

    ¡°Yes,¡± Soph said, ¡°although Rich senses the essence use, so he can tell.¡±

    ¡°Could you open a port¡­ gate for Rich to jump through?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I think so, although the timing would have to be exact.¡±

    ¡°What would happen if it closes if he is halfway through?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, and I don¡¯t want to risk chopping him in half.¡±

    ¡°Fair enough, but we can test it with other objects partly through. You said the portal fails when you don¡¯t make it through, so it will probably just fail for him as well. If you are part way through and it fails, are you here or there?¡±

    ¡°Here. If it fails, it fails.¡±

    Suddenly, I heard Neke at the camp say, ¡°Sarge, Kai, something happened! It is like a gate opened, and I feel flooded with power. Oooh, this is cool.¡±

    I smiled, ¡°come on, let''s go help her with her new essence power and see if we work out how to get the others there.¡±

    We spent some time working with Neke on enhancing her powers and what we had discovered about healing and boosting. She would discover boosting herself soon enough. She can work out the super boost herself.

    ¡°You said it was like a gate opened?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Yeah, but that was just the energy flooding me. Essence, I suppose it was,¡± Neke responded.

    ¡°What were you doing before that?¡±

    ¡°I was playing around with your idea of linking the essence to the veins and stuff, but it didn¡¯t feel right. I felt I should be letting it grow through me like an invasive water weed, and yeah, it invaded.¡±

    ¡°A weed, huh?¡± Ngoi said.

    ¡°An edible water weed, like watercress?¡± Kai asked.

    ¡°Whatever works for you, mate,¡± Neke responded.

    An hour and a half later, I heard Ngoi say, ¡°Yeah, that''s the good stuff.¡± His skin would would heal fast now.

    It wasn¡¯t until the morning that Kai came in from the last watch with a big grin. ¡°My range has expanded to twenty-five meters, more with a boost he said.

    I had the feeling these three would now have no trouble with the power of the essence at the centre by the anomaly.

    The three of us would have to resist it. I wasn¡¯t sure about Rich or Eliza. Eliza is a native, so hopefully, she may also get flooded with essence. Soph can sense the essence in Eliza. That is a helpful skill of Rich¡¯s. Eliza is not flooded yet.

    Rich is a hybrid, and I had no idea what that means. He and Buck showed incredible resistance to the dark turquoise when they were pure fluorescent blue. Now I don¡¯t know. Soph can sense his essence. The colours have not mixed as such. They are both there together, all mixed up but still separate, if that makes sense. I told Soph it didn¡¯t.

    Looking at us and the soldiers, she can see what a flooded Essence looks like, and neither Eliza nor Rich is flooded.

 57. Prep.

    Before we left, Ngoi pulled out a high-powered rifle from the back of the truck. ¡°We only have the one,¡± he said, ¡°but the way he shrugged off two bullets, we will need the extra punch.¡± He was referring to Rich taking two bullets, and it basically did not affect him. They did not hit critical areas, but it was still pretty impressive, like a certain Kangaroo.

    ¡°Pay attention to Eliza and Rich,¡± I told Soph as we walked through the savanna toward the anomaly. ¡°No more Mutations.¡±

    Soph nodded.

    We moved slowly and on foot. Ngoi can now boost his hearing and Neke her smell. Everybody was twitchy. Eliza was out there somewhere, so we were in the same order as before. I was weary of the Kangaroos, but they grazed peacefully. There were cattle around as well, as there were outback ranches in the area. Well, there used to be ranches in the area. I wonder what benefits eating mutated meat would bring? It probably depends on the mutation. The Roo meat didn¡¯t seem to have any effect, and the Roo was definitely flooded with essence.

    Neke signalled, and Ngoi changed course. We skirted a larger tree, groaning under the weight of a monster python. Neke and I could smell it.

    We changed course again to avoid a carcass of a steer. It was swarming with flies, and some that came near were registering on Soph and Riches'' essence sense. I wondered if the flies had brought down the steer.

    We paused when we came to the river. We were probably and hour away from the anomaly and this pace, and from here, we would travel parallel to the river. The problem was Rich and Eliza. They were starting to struggle. We were closer than we had ever been, and this was their current acclimatised limit. I was constantly sending waves and had been for a while. I think Cala and Soph had only just started their waves. They had both spent more time in the anomaly zone than I had.

    Ngoi found us a slight hollow to rest in, and Neke disappeared scouting.

    Soph spent her time with Rich and Eliza. She was focussing on the bonds with them.

    I moved closer to Carla. ¡°Do you know what she is doing? Your bond has grown, right?¡±

    ¡°She is teaching them.¡± When I raised an eyebrow, she said, ¡°You gave her the idea, and when Ngoi and company discovered how to be flooded with the essence, she spent time with each, learning what they did and working on a plan to teach them. Now she is doing that.¡±

    ¡°She is quite a talented teacher, isn¡¯t she?¡±

    Carla nodded, ¡°I would never put up with a classroom of brats, but she thrives in it.¡±

    ¡°What is your bond like? You guys haven¡¯t mentioned it.¡±

    ¡°It is a mental connection transmitting emotions, so way outside your understanding. It has brought us closer together, but you must be prepared for brutal honesty. Emotions can change, so while they play an important part in a relationship, they are not the basis of it. You need a bedrock of commitment, even if emotions shift.¡±

    ¡°Can you break the bond?¡±

    ¡°Either of us can. We can restrict it as well, so not so much is communicated. That is hard, too, when one of us wants more and the other wants time out. It has made normal communication more important and has made us much more honest than before, which can be hard.¡±

    ¡°You are right. It is way beyond my understanding.¡±

    ¡°You are a simple bloke, and that is why this works.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, I think.¡±

    She patted me on the shoulder, ¡°I have been thinking about the river. If we end up in the river, my shark form will be much more useful.¡±

    ¡°It is a wide river. I am pretty sure Ngoi is planning to stay inland to avoid the crocs. The anomaly is on the other side, so he is planning to keep his distance. Will your shark form help or hinder you on land?¡±

    ¡°It won¡¯t hinder. I will need to slit a hole in the back of the fatigues for the fin and go barefoot, but¡± she shrugged, ¡°Shark scales. The shark scales don¡¯t stand out as much.¡±

    ¡°It is a lot to go through for a maybe, and it will be obvious it takes less time than we have indicated,¡± I said.

    ¡°I am much faster in the water as shark-girl, with the same defence of scales. The only difference on the land are the fins and the teeth.¡±

    ¡°You just want to show off your teeth to Ngoi and make him feel inferior.¡±

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    ¡°Idiot.¡±

    ¡°Your choice. You probably need to talk to Ngoi. We will be here 2-3 hours to change and recover.¡±

    ¡°Which is why we need to make the decision now. If we need it, I can¡¯t change in a fight.¡±

    ¡°Can you keep repelling the essence while you change? That is critical. If you start mutating, this mission is over, whether or not you survive.¡±

    ¡°I am pretty sure, but we would have to go to the skin, then back to the shark.¡±

    I indicated she should go and talk to Ngoi, so she got up and went over. I could have listened, but I didn¡¯t bother.

    Ngoi was in charge. If it were me, I wouldn¡¯t let her. What are the chances of ending up in the water? I have jinxed it now, haven¡¯t I?

    Fuck. If she goes in, then I go in.

    Maybe we should be ready. Mutated Crocs. Fuck. Why are we here? Just let them bomb the place.

    Ngoi said something about samples. I don¡¯t recall him expanding on that. What samples for what purpose?

    I wander over to catch the end of the conversation. Ngoi is caving too easily to Carla.

    ¡°Just a quick question, Ngoi. What samples are we collecting and why?¡± I ask.

    ¡°The brains want all types of examples of biological material within a kilometre of the anomaly. Our packs are chocker with temperature-controlled containers.¡±

    ¡°I am sure they do want that, but that doesn¡¯t seem to be enough reason,¡± I said.

    He looked at me for a minute, then said, ¡°There is strong evidence from overseas that the more strongly the creature is infused with essence, the stronger the chances of the mutation being strong.¡±

    ¡°You are hunting a mutated croc.¡±

    ¡°Not just a croc. Any creatures and plants in the zone. Mohan proved plant mutations are very viable. Preferably, we shoot the Crocs on the bank,¡± he patted his high-powered rifle.

    ¡°That¡¯s why you are letting her change. This is not just an, go in, observe and collect. This is a hunt.¡±

    ¡°We are a day behind schedule already due to the attack. Several volunteer fire teams are arriving at the base camp as we speak to mutate before the anomaly gets blown to shit. The big shots think we need strong mutations to defend our country from these things. That is why the Americans are here. I imagine it is why the Koreans were here. It is the new arms race, but the enemy is not human.¡±

    ¡°Not only human, you mean,¡± I said, thinking about the North Koreans.

    Ngoi nodded.

    ¡°The North Koreans were probably wanting us as live samples,¡± I said.

    ¡°That occurred to the brains,¡± Ngoi said, ¡°along with your knowledge. Dr Mohan has 24-hour protection now.¡±

    ¡°Shit. If the North Koreans have an anomaly to mutate their people and want a variety of source material, to mutate their army¡­¡±

    Ngoi nodded, ¡°The race is on, and our job is to get the samples back so they at least have a chance to mutate with the good stuff. Experience inside the anomaly zone will have to come later.¡±

    ¡°So why are we waiting?¡±

    ¡°For you. You three are experiment number one. And we are not technically waiting. Neke is up ahead, scouting and collecting. We are only 3km from the anomaly here.¡±

    I narrowed my eyes at Ngoi, ¡°The evidence for the spooks Neke collected yesterday¡­¡±

    ¡°Included DNA samples, which were sent back by drone last night,¡± Ngoi said. ¡°They didn¡¯t need their fingers anymore, and the fingerprints were a bonus. I expect they will be analysed to determine their mutations and see what we can discover about their anomaly, rather than somebody attempting random mutations from them. Might as well do the 50/50 coin toss. We allow our people a choice, as well. Volunteers only. That is probably not the case everywhere.¡±

    I thought about my mutations. Carla and I were on the rock right next to the anomaly with creatures that were right there. Soph was mutated from a dog that had only been in the zone for a few days. Did that make a difference? It seemed like it might have, but Soph is turning quite powerful, so there is still a large randomisation. Amanda¡¯s plum was close to the edge, and she lucked out well. Maybe she would have had more if she was closer.

    I looked at Carla, ¡°Do you need Soph?¡±

    ¡®Probably not for the change to the skin, although she will monitor me. Definitely for the shark change,¡± Carla replied.

    ¡°You don¡¯t mind it being recorded, do you?¡± Ngoi asked. ¡°The brains were annoyed last time when you disappeared off camera and reappeared with scales.¡±

    Carla frowned. I just waited for her. It was her decision. I guess Ngoi was polite enough to ask.

    ¡°I guess it would be OK,¡± she said.

    We went to the edge of the hollow, and she stripped off naked and started her whirlpool. She was pulsing the pool and sending waves through her body at the same time. That is clever; I must try that. I unblocked the river, and she started her change. Six minutes later, she was exhausted and in skin.

    We waited an hour for her to recover, and while we waited, Soph said, ¡°Good girl, here is a special treat.¡± Eliza had flooded her body with essence. Her ¡®teleports¡¯ were longer and cost less essence now.

    Then, I fed Carla the remaining essence to top her pool up. Soph paid attention, and Carla lay on her side. This was the painful one. She tried not to scream but had more important things to worry about. Seven long and painful minutes later, she was an exhausted Shark girl. This time, we waited the full two hours, and even then, my essence pool was only half full. Carla wanted to doze but had to keep out the foreign essence. We fed her energy bars and talked and walked the exhaustion off.

    ¡°Neke is going to be pissed she missed that,¡± Ngoi said.

    ¡°Good boy, Rich,¡± Soph said. I guess we were good to go. Thanks to our fantastic teacher.

 58. Hunting.

    ¡°My, what big teeth you have, grandma,¡± Neke said when she rejoined us.

    ¡°It is the new dominance ritual,¡± Carla said, ¡°We don¡¯t measure dicks any more. We measure teeth.¡±

    ¡°I bet you used that line on Ngoi a lot. The bid bad wolf.¡± I said.

    She just grinned, showing me her impressive snake fangs.

    I had to increase the level of the waves I was outputting now to moderate. I didn¡¯t have to concentrate on the waves much. They were reasonably automatic, which was good. If I got into a fight, I needed to keep the waves going, or I would mutate once my Essence pool was contaminated enough.

    Walking parallel to the stream, we saw crocs sunning themselves on the banks. There was a lot of bird life, including dingo and kangaroo tracks. I smelled snakes and various other animals, some that I recognised and some I didn¡¯t.

    When we closed in on the 1km mark, Ngoi said, ¡°Spread out and start collecting. Looking for Kakadu Plum, Emu Plants, Stinging Nettle, and Witchity grubs for the medics. Anything dangerous looking for the fighters. Any seeds are good, but try to identify the plant they came from. Stay in sight.¡±

    The three obviously had photos on their phones of what to look for. I saw Kai capture a funnel web spider into a container, and Neke had a sack with a live python, but it was smaller than the one we saw in the tree.

    Kai used his knife to open a rotted wood log and brush grubs into another container while Ngoi dug into a Termite hill. Then I saw him duck out of the way as a green liquid-turned-mist came at him. He redoubled his efforts to get some samples and live termites. I think it might have been an acid of some sort.

    Everything is mutated.

    I saw Neke poking into a burrow with a stick, then grabbed the small shovel in her pack and dug furiously. Did she pull out a mole or something? Ngoi caught some lizards. There are a lot of reptiles. For most of what we caught, we had no idea what their mutations were. A few were evident, and some used them to defend themselves, but most were shot and had no chance.

    Neke killed a snake with her shovel and shoved it into her pack. Kai was packing away some eggs he found in a nest. Good luck keeping them unbroken. Carla was helping Neke, and Soph and Rich were helping Kai. I sort of helped Ngoi, but my ribs were still healing, so I mostly packed samples away.

    After two hours of this, Ngoi said, ¡°OK, silencers on and let''s see what birds we can get.¡± They attached silencers to their pistols and started bringing down birds and shooting small rodents and marsupials.

    Then I saw Rich take off after something, and he brought it down. It was a wallaby. Kai cut off the head and one of the small arms to take. Rich crouched down for a snack.

    Dusk was starting to fall when Ngoi said, ¡°Time for some larger game.¡± he prepped the high-powered rifle, and the others unslung their Carbines. Kai brought down an Emu, and Neke tagged two dingos. After taking samples, we kept moving, letting the animals settle again.

    We were moving closer to the river and the anomaly. I knew they wanted samples from one croc and other water creatures before they left.

    ¡°Fuck,¡± Neke swore. ¡°I hate toads.¡±

    ¡°Did it get you?¡± Ngoi asked.

    ¡°Nah, I have been enhancing my snake skin.¡±

    Everyone had been enhancing their skin except Kai and me, who couldn¡¯t. At least mine could heal fast. I wish my ribs could do that.

    ¡°OK, let''s approach the river carefully. Let''s secure an area and let our water sensor in,¡± Ngoi said. That was me. Carla would watch over me, well, everyone would, but I trusted Carla the most¡­ except when she was holding a gun, like now. The soldiers were more trustworthy with guns.

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    I approached the water. I had bought my spear gun but just took a hand spear for this. I smelled the water. It was salt water this low. I smelled fish, crocs, and a few other things. I splashed the water for a bit, baiting what might be hiding. Once I was reasonably confident, I ducked my head under. I smelled and listened with boosted senses. Something was close, something I didn¡¯t recognise. OK, there were a lot of things I didn¡¯t recognise. Then my eye caught a movement, and I jerked out the spear, hitting something and flinging it onto the bank, startling everyone. It was a long-necked turtle, but I am not sure of the proper name.

    ¡°Fuck you, you bastard,¡± Carla said.

    I grinned, ¡°There are a lot of fish, but you will need a net or something,¡±

    I saw Kai was bagging a frog.

    ¡°We don¡¯t have a net. Let''s keep going upstream until we are out of the zone and get what we can, and then it is back to the truck and base camp. The turtle is a good start.¡±

    We move cautiously up the bank, collecting wildlife and plants. Both Carla and I would swim except for the fact the crocs just floated there, waiting for prey to come along. Mutated Crocs. We stuck to the bank and often went back away from the water.

    I went and sensed every now and then. One time, I smelled Croc very strongly and backed off fast. We all backed off and readied our guns. Ngoi tried baiting it with a dingo carcass tossed on the water''s edge.

    There was a tense pause as nothing happened. And nothing happened. And we waited. The water had splashed, and the smell of the carcass would be spreading.

    Ngoi moved cautiously forward to give the carcass a nudge.

    Then, the crocodile exploded out of the water at Ngoi rather than the dingo. Ngoi flung himself back as Neke, Kai, and Carla all fired into it. Then it did something, and we all shuddered. I forgot to keep my essence waves going for a bit. The first wave afterwards cleared my head.

    It kept coming after Ngoi, who was still stunned. Soph grabbed his collar to drag him back. It moved up the bank toward him, and the shots had stopped.

    Carla pounced, grabbing the crocodile''s body and wrestling it off its feet. It seems the skill it used was more effective on the native mutations than on the foreign mutations. The soldiers are just starting to come out of it now. I had my spear gun ready, but Carla was there.

    Then Rich was also there, bit down on a front leg, and started dragging it sideways. It was big for a croc, but Rich was big, too, and Carla was strong.

    It tried to whip around and bite Rich but only scraped his hide with its teeth, not being flexible enough, especially with Carla dragging it in the other direction.

    ¡°Back off,¡± said Ngoi, and Rich let go and skipped away. Carla tried to toss it away from her, unsuccessfully. Before it could grab her, Ngoi acted.

    Bang.

    The croc''s skull cracked open, and then Ngoi did it again with the high-powered rifle.

    Bang.

    The croc lay still.

    ¡°Grab what you can quickly. I want out of here. ASAP.¡± He never stopped scanning the water with the high-powered rifle ready.

    Kai darted in with a knife, and Carla also pulled a knife.

    ¡°Grab me some teeth,¡± Neke said. She was scanning the water with her carbine ready as well.

    ¡°Thirty seconds, then we go,¡± Ngoi said, and Kai and Carla worked furiously.

    Something was making him nervous.

    ¡°Move out now!¡±

    Everybody moved backwards, and Ngoi and Neke covered the river, Kai taking the lead with Eliza watching. We moved directly away from the river.

    I was out of sight of the river when I heard a large splash and then silence. ¡°What was that?¡±

    Ngoi moved a little so he could see. Then he backed off again in a hurry. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but the croc carcass is gone. We don¡¯t stop until we get to the trucks.¡±

    The night was falling fast. Kai, Rich, and I had good night vision- well, night senses in Kai¡¯s case. I guided Carla, and Soph stuck close to Rich. The moon was up before long, and we made reasonable time.

    Kai downed a couple of bats with his silenced pistol and stuffed them in his overflowing backpack. All I knew was my ribs were hurting.

    The night sounds were different, and all sorts of nocturnal creatures had come out to forage. I had the best senses of everyone and the best sense of direction. Kai had his satellite navigation, so I guess that was actually the best.

    It was early in the morning, but Ngoi wasn¡¯t stopping when we reached the trucks. We loaded up and were driving to the base camp immediately and as fast as the terrain allowed. The longer we took, the more degraded the samples would be.

 59. Newbie.

    We approached the base camp an hour after dawn, and I spotted the Royal NZ Navy Seasprite Helicopter departing the airfield. The NZ part of the camp had expanded, and they were waiting for us. The packs were taken off us, and the three of us stepped back and let the special forces take charge of the distribution and labelling of the goodies. Some were immediately packaged up for transport, and some were kept aside for immediate use. There was a lot of hassle, and I realised there was a large medical tent set up. However, many volunteers they had found they were going out now.

    Carla, Soph and I backed out of the way. Soph was keeping a tight hold on Eliza as there was a lot of air traffic, which she was not happy about.

    I was about to go and find some food and a bed when I heard, ¡°Bob!¡± I turned and saw Ata striding toward me. I smiled as she came up. I was about to greet her when she hit me with a powerful right cross, and I went flying. I landed in the dirt, and my ribs ached, and my jaw ached and ¡­ shit.

    ¡°Nice punch,¡± Carla was saying.

    ¡°Hey, I see you have flooded yourself in Essence. That''s great,¡± said Soph, ¡°but why are there two centres of Essence?¡± She thought for a second, ¡°Oooh!¡±

    ¡°Yes, oooh! Exactly. I should have kicked him in the balls,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°Go for it,¡± Carla said, ¡°I did it once. It is very satisfying.¡±

    ¡°I have broken ribs,¡± I mumbled.

    ¡°Oh yeah,¡± Carla said, ¡°Watch out for the ribs. They are broken.¡±

    ¡°Somebody want to tell me what is going on?¡± I asked.

    ¡°You got me pregnant, you Asshole,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°I what?¡± I mumbled, confused.

    ¡°You know, sex, pregnancy, babies. Remember how the three are linked?¡±

    ¡°I what?¡±

    ¡°Pregnant, you idiot. I am pregnant!¡± Ata shouted.

    ¡°But I thought you said¡­?¡±

    ¡°Well, something went wrong!¡± Ata said.

    ¡°Well, shit.¡±

    ¡°Well, Shit is obvious,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°Wait, we were both mutated at the time,¡± I said.

    ¡°Yes, you Bastard, and now I am carrying a mutated baby which is flooded full of essence.¡±

    ¡°Oh, shit.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you bastard, shit! You have anything useful to say?¡±

    ¡°Ah¡­ I hope it has your feathers. I like you grew out your yellow neck ones.¡±

    ¡°I am going to kick him in the balls.¡±

    Carla put a hand out to stop her, ¡°You had better watch the ribs. They are badly broken, and he has not been looking after them.¡± Thank you, Carla. Then she went on, ¡°You can owe him one or maybe two for later.¡±

    ¡°Later then, you Bastard. Two! There is good news, too! I have been assigned to babysit you three, so I will be around to deliver some decent ball-busters later,¡± Ata said.

    Soph came around and helped me up. At least someone cared, at least a little. Ok, she was probably just pitying me a bit. Whatever.

    ¡°Where have you been, Ata?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°I was assigned to the HMNZS Te Kaha, and we have been searching the Pacific for Anomalies. Then we got sent here, and the Te Kaha is just off the coast. Then, a bloody US battle fleet followed us in. She is bloody busy out there now. We are pretty sure there is at least one US sub lurking around as well. We know there is an Aussie one.¡±

    ¡°What do the docs have to say about the pregnancy?¡± Soph said.

    ¡°They have no fucking clue what to do. I have been turned into a lab specimen and taken off active duty.¡± She looked at me like she was adding to the ass-kicking I was going to get.

    ¡°We¡¯ve been up all night, so we need some food and a bed,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Right, well, follow me. I am still a Lieutenant even if I am on ¡®special assignment¡¯.¡± She glanced at me as if that was my fault as well.

    Having a lieutenant sorting things out for you made it very easy. We were soon fed and assigned a tent. We had to share, all four of us together and the horse.

    I woke in the sweltering heat of the afternoon. I was alone. No, I wasn¡¯t. Ata was sitting on the floor watching me. I found a drink bottle and drank the warm liquid.

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    ¡°What the fuck are we going to do, Bob? I ain''t no mother. That¡¯s why I joined the Navy.¡±

    ¡°I am even less of a father, so I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°I am not getting rid of it, even if it makes me a lab experiment,¡± she said.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what, it is going to be one tough little bugger with us as parents.¡±

    ¡°Bloody hell, it will,¡± she agreed.

    ¡°I will have to put money aside now to save for the therapy it¡¯ll need.¡±

    ¡°You are not dumping me then?¡±

    ¡°I figured you wouldn¡¯t want to hang around me.¡±

    ¡°I haven¡¯t decided. Carla and Soph don¡¯t think you¡¯re that bad.¡±

    ¡°Shit, don¡¯t believe their lies. Soph probably wants you around as a test case for mutant babies.¡±

    ¡°She wants one?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, for Carla with me as the donor.¡±

    ¡°You are a popular bastard.¡±

    ¡°Not by choice.¡±

    We lapsed into silence for a while.

    ¡°What if it is really badly mutated?¡± Ata asked.

    ¡°Then we will have to deal with that, but what about the reverse? What if it has all the best of us? It would be bloody awesome.¡±

    She smiled a bit, ¡°It would, wouldn¡¯t it?¡±

    ¡°As long as it got your personality,¡± I said. I got up with a wince and looked for a shirt.

    ¡°Ribs real bad, huh?¡± She asked.

    ¡°I shouldn¡¯t have been running around the anomaly zone with them.¡±

    ¡°I will make sure you heal up good. I have an ass-kicking to deliver,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°At least you are motivated,¡± I said. ¡°Let¡¯s find something to eat. Where is everybody?¡± as the camp looked empty.

    ¡°If they are not out mutating, they are preparing the hospital for them to get back,¡± Ata said. ¡°The anomaly zone is less than 2km away now, so all the others are setting up at Yagoonya.¡±

    ¡°You been in?¡±

    ¡°Just in the outer edges to get some resistance in but not hurt the kid. The leading theory is that the kid will have my protection while in the womb, but it is all theory.¡±

    ¡°How long now until the big boom?¡±

    ¡°Three more days after today.¡±

    ¡°So, what is your assignment?¡±

    ¡°Baby sit your ass. I guess more orders will come in due course. Carla showed me the guns, by the way. You guys can have the pea shooters. I am having the shotgun.¡±

    ¡°I feel safer with it in your hands than Carla¡¯s. Where is Carla? She probably wants to change back to skin.¡±

    ¡°They are probably in the mess tent. Yeah, she does want to change. I wouldn¡¯t mind watching.¡±

    ¡°That would be up to Carla.¡±

    They were at an outside table in the mess area. Rich was chewing on ¡­ something next to the table. They had cold drinks each, and Eliza was pecking at a bowl of seeds. I grabbed some food and an iced tea, Ata grabbed a beer, and we joined them.

    ¡°Eating with these teeth is fucking impossible,¡± Carla complained.

    ¡°They look awesome, though,¡± Soph said. ¡°You just had to smile at those blokes, and they scampered.¡±

    ¡°We can turn you back to skin as soon as I finish here if you like,¡± I said.

    ¡°Can I watch?¡± Ata asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not,¡± Carla replied. ¡°It is on bloody video now, so every idiot and their dog will have seen it soon.¡±

    ¡°I am starting a pool,¡± Soph said, ¡°About how long it will take before it is on YouTube.¡±

    Carla scowled.

    ¡°What can you sense about the kid?¡± I asked Soph.

    ¡°Not a great deal. I understand more of what I sense all the time. There is a lot there I don¡¯t get. Basically, it is a separate centre or pool of essence in her womb. It is a fluorescent blue like the both of you. It seems to be the same strength as Ata, but it is pretty small. I don¡¯t know if it will grow in strength as well as size.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t tell about the mutations?¡± I asked.

    ¡°We call them Enhancements now. No, I can¡¯t, but now that I am looking at more Enhanced, I am starting to figure out what different things in the essence mean. Give me time to understand more and for the little one to grow.¡±

    ¡°So sometime in the next nine months,¡± I said.

    ¡°More like seven, now,¡± Ata said.

    Shit.

    We finished our food and drinks and made our way to the tent. Rich lay in the shade of the awning guarding the door, still gnawing on the bone.

    I laid down a sheet to catch all the bone scales and teeth. The bone and scales are enhanced materials, so there must be something we can use them for.

    Carla stripped naked and lay on the sheet. She has a nice body. We did our thing, and Carla suffered. I don¡¯t know how she does it. I don¡¯t think I would ever change once I knew the pain was coming.

    Carla lay there recovering as Soph brushed bits of bone off her. I went over to fetch the bucket of water we bought so she could wash. Soph helped her up, and my eyes followed her.

    ¡°You like her body, huh?¡± Ata said.

    I nodded. ¡°Absolutely.¡± I was hardly going to deny it.

    ¡°Hummpf,¡± Ata said, ¡°I guess it is alright. A bit skinny, though.¡±

    Carla gave her the finger. Ata laughed. It was good to hear her laugh again.

    ¡°If Bob is getting distracted by naked bodies, it means he is getting horny again,¡± Carla said as she wiped down her boobs with a wet cloth. ¡°One of us should service him soon so he can keep his head on straight.¡±

    ¡°I saw that bloody wink,¡± I said.

    ¡°He has got fucken broken ribs. He is not going to be up for much,¡± Ata said. ¡°I guess he can¡¯t get me pregnant again.¡±

    ¡°We could find some poor girl out there to sacrifice to him,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°What, and ruin her life too?¡± Ata said.

    ¡°If you two are finished discussing my sex life¡­¡±

    ¡°Not by a long shot,¡± Carla said. ¡°Ata and I will need to have many more long discussions about it.¡±

    God, I am so fucked.

 60. Countdown.

    Carla snoozed the afternoon away. Trucks started arriving from the Kiwi volunteers. Most went into the hospital tent, and a few evac¡¯ed to the HMNZS Te Kaha. A large number of people were trucked to Yagoonya and the base away from the zone. I caught glimpses of Amanda, but she was frantically busy. The Americans and the Aussies were also in full ¡®Enhancing¡¯ mode. I started to wonder why they were going to destroy the anomaly. Politics, probably.

    I knew the medical staff wanted as much help as they could, and I did for a bit, but then I went wandering off. I had a lot on my mind. Rich found me before I had gone too far into the bush. Then I remembered Ata saying we should not go off alone. Soph sent him to find me. Bloody hell, they are getting to know me too well.

    We wandered a bit into the Anomaly zone. The boundary was not a straight cut-off. It was where the essence was strong enough for me to sense. There is minor essence in the camp already, which is why the staff are short-handed and a lot of people are being transported to Yagoonya.

    Bloody hell. Pregnant. What the hell am I going to do about that? Not that there is anything I can do about that. Ata is keeping the kid. It sounds like she might stick around, too. She and Carla are getting on much too well for my liking.

    Fuck.

    Either I ditch all three of them, or I have to deal with this. I am no bloody father, that is for sure. I certainly didn¡¯t have any sort of role model to go off.

    Fuck.

    I smiled a bit. It was fucking that got me into this situation. Ata said she was on the pill. I should have had that vasectomy I was considering. I should have used protection regardless. I know nothing is foolproof. Fool, being the operative word here.

    Should have, should have, should have.

    Fuck. Too late now.

    Do I ditch them, or do I deal? I know the North Koreans will have me, no questions asked.

    If I try to deal, I am going to fail. I guess the consolation prize is that I can¡¯t fail as badly as my father. I guess if I do stick around, I need to try to be as less of a failure as I can. Wow, what a goal to aim for. I guess dear old dad is a role model. A role model of what not to do.

    I could ditch them all. It leaves Carla high and dry, but I could. She could live semi-normally in skin. They could get away from all this and settle back into life in Auckland or any city, really. I don¡¯t think Carla would ever be happy with the quiet life. She has had a taste of the danger and adventure and thrives on it. That is why she is willing to go through the pain of changing forms. Soph is Carla¡¯s rock. She and Carla could still adventure without her changing forms. They could join the military. There are plenty of options for them.

    What about me? Could I be happy with them? Or the question is, would I be happier with them than alone? I can survive alone fine. I have quite enjoyed working with Carla and Soph. They leave me alone when I need to be, like now. Soph sends Rich to look out for me - and check on me. She cares. She shows it in the little things like sending Rich and not hassling me.

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    Carla, Soph and I have settled into a working relationship that suits us all. Now, there is Ata and a baby. Ata is a big, powerful Maori woman, and it is the baby I am scared of. Shit. I am scared of how my life will change. A kid needs looking after. They are bloody helpless. Shit, how can I wipe their ass with my sense of smell. What is the chance of their mutation making them fart rainbows? Yeah, that''s what I thought.

    Then, there is a mutation to consider on top of the normal baby issues. It could be cripple for life. It could mutate digestive problems like Eliza''s. Yeah, right. It is Ata¡¯s baby, not Soph. And my baby. If the mutations follow the parents, they will have a selection of our mutations, enhancements, or whatever they are called. Probably good eyes, as we both have that. Oh, hell no. It is going to shit poison, isn¡¯t it?

    Calm the fuck down, man. There are competent medical people around to help.

    First question. Will Ata stick around? If she gets on well with Carla and Soph, then the answer is probably. In spite of me. Soph will definitely be interested in helping with the baby. Carla, not so much.

    Can I live with them and a baby? I don¡¯t know. That is the problem. I. Dont. Know. Ata, I can probably live with. A baby? I don¡¯t know if I can live with a baby until it arrives. Seven months and counting down.

    Do I want to try and see how badly I fail, or do I bail out now? Fuck. I had a nice quiet life on my own, and then Carla invited herself to Waiheke. Bloody mutations are messing with emotions, I am sure of it.

    The fluorescent blue one definitely had an emotional component, but there is no sign the dark turquoise one does. What do the colours mean? The kid is fluorescent blue like Ata and me. If it was Soph¡¯s kid, I would expect mental and emotional shit like her bonds. Ata is a very physical woman.

    I don¡¯t know. I don¡¯t know shit.

    Do I stick around? If I am going to leave, I need to do it well before the kid arrives. If I did it after, I would have Carla and Ata out to kill me, literally. That might happen anyway; not even the North Koreans might be enough to stop them.

    I don¡¯t have to decide now. The first thing is how Ata fits in and if she sticks around.

    I head back to camp, but Rich stops growing at something. It is fully dark now, but I can boost my eyes to see better. I draw the machete I am carrying. Is it a person or an animal? I can¡¯t smell human or hear human sounds like a heartbeat. Animal then.

    The night has gone quiet. I can hear the base camp in the distance. There are several common scents on the wind: snakes, mice, and various small creatures. It could be any of the above or something different. It could be masking its presence by using essence. That might be why Rich can sense it, and I can¡¯t. Fuck, the world has become a more dangerous place.

    I direct Rich around where he thinks there is a danger to try to avoid a fight. He does respond to me, and we move away slowly. Anything mutated could be a danger. The smallest mouse might carry a new plague. I remember the termite mound spraying acid at Ngoi. Then, there are strange essence abilities like Eliza''s. Yeah, it makes sense to try to destroy the anomaly and slow the mutations.

    We do make it back to camp without a fight. Rich is his own form of intimidation. I open out the tent flap to enter. Three faces turn to look at me. Three female faces. Shit. This has turned into some weird as, harem apocalypse thing, hasn¡¯t it? I almost turned around to go and find the thing Rich was growling at to end it, but then I got shoved into the tent. Rich wants in, and he trotted over to lie next to Soph¡¯s cot.

    Fuck. What the hell am I going to do?

 61. D-Day.

    The last three days leading up to Destruction Day went quickly. Some people were waking up with mutations, and some people were dying. Ata, Carla, and Soph were busy helping those who had woken up. I helped sometimes. I have a lot rattling around in the empty space in my skull. I am also a selfish bastard. Soph is still playing her games with my stuff and Eliza. Not so much poop as moving things and leaving things etc. It is quite clever where they are managing to do some things. I ignore them for now. I chalk it up to training.

    I let them recruit me to take trips into the Anomaly Zone with the freshly enhanced. They needed to build up their resistance and learn to flood the essence through their bodies.

    I asked Ata how she learned to flood her body with Essence, and she said Commander Lewis taught her. Apparently, Lewis said, ¡°It is not that complicated, not like Wilkinson made it out to be.¡± I never claimed to be a teacher, let alone a good one. I will leave all that to Soph in the future. That is good. It is something else I can get out of doing.

    Two people who woke up will need medical attention for the rest of their lives. Most of the others were OK. The mutations were not always visible. One guy had clawed hands and feet, which was going to make his life difficult. Another person could lower a protective film over her eyes like the emu. She could still see in dust storms and the like.

    Some of the medics that tried to copy Amanda were interesting. One had an increase in their immune system like her but also seemed to exude an oil through her skin, making it soft and constantly oily. Another had her skin turn to grey bark. One who used the Emu bush seemed to produce a natural antibiotic. The stinging nettle has changed the person, so anyone who touches them gets a rash, but their blood is also being investigated for health benefits.

    The soldiers obviously went for the creatures with offensive capabilities. There were various dingo versions around. I wonder if they will all form a pack. A few adventurous ones went the snake route. The spider attempt died. The acid termite person can spit acid, but it burns his mouth every time. The first time, he almost died from it. I hope his body will build a defensive skin or immunity over time; otherwise, he is in for a lifetime of pain. A few had various senses upgraded.

    There is a lot of variety appearing. I couldn¡¯t see a pattern in the mutations, but I am sure a researcher is making lists somewhere. Good or bad, they all have an essence pool. They all wanted to spend time in the zone to strengthen and flood their bodies with essence, hoping for an upgrade or sometimes a cure.

    D-day dawned bright and clear. Ata and I were sent 2km into the zone to sense when it was destroyed. Others were at various distances, no one closer than 10km.

    ¡°Why are they destroying the anomaly?¡± I asked. ¡°Everyone seems to want to use it, and it is out in the middle of nowhere.¡±

    ¡°A number of reasons. The Aussie government is under pressure from the public to do so. Their agreement with the Americans was for their help to destroy it, and that was publicised. I think mostly it is to prove they can. The bigger the anomaly gets, the harder it is to destroy with normal explosives. No one has attempted to destroy one this large yet.¡±

    ¡°If they can¡¯t?¡±

    ¡°There is talk about going nuclear.¡±

    ¡°Aussies won¡¯t like that.¡±

    ¡°That is why it is only talk at this point. Normal explosives first.¡±

    We settled in for a long, boring day. The bombing runs would happen, followed by various missiles, progressively getting bigger. I could hear the explosions with my super hearing, but I couldn¡¯t see anything. Ata said she could see the planes in the distance, but her eyes were mutated, sorry, enhanced for distance and clarity. Mine were only to see in the dark.

    I like long, boring days. I bought my e-reader, but I also had a lot on my mind.

    ¡°Do you think you will stick around us when the baby comes?¡± I ask.

    ¡°Still deciding. I get on well with Carla. Soph is very supportive. Apparently, you are the fucktoy?¡±

    ¡°Carla and I used to hook up. I am not good for much else.¡±

    ¡°Good to know that from the start.¡±

    We lapsed into silence for a while.

    ¡°Do you want to be involved in the baby¡¯s life?¡± Ata asked.

    ¡°Not sure. I don¡¯t do people. I need space.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not a no.¡±

    More silence punctured with background explosions.

    ¡°Carla and Soph said that about you. You are a selfish bastard, but then you went all out and almost died, saving Carla¡¯s life twice. It doesn¡¯t make sense. Do you love her?¡±

    ¡°I am not sure I know what love is.¡±

    She looked at me in silence for a while.

    ¡°Would you do that for me or the baby?¡±

    ¡°Not sure. You and Soph, probably. I don¡¯t value my life very highly. The baby? I don¡¯t know, I haven''t met them. I know some people get emotional when their partner gets pregnant. ¡®Do anything for the kid, blah, blah, blah.¡¯ That is not me.¡±

    ¡°But you would do it for me? Why? We have probably only spent a week together in total. We barely know each other.¡±

    ¡°You seem like a good woman. What I know about you seems better than what I know about me. Better you live than me.¡±

    ¡°Shit, you are depressed and suicidal.¡±

    ¡°Best you know these things upfront. I would argue it is not suicidal. I am not planning ways to kill myself. Your life has more value than mine.¡±

    ¡°But you know nothing about my life. I could be a violent, abusive person.¡±

    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°I doubt it. The way you dealt with your subordinates in the Navy was more motherly than abusive. The fact you want to keep the kid speaks to you valuing life. Carla and Soph have accepted you if they are telling you about me.¡± I shrugged, ¡°That''s enough.¡±

    ¡°I am still going to kick your ass,¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°I do kick back.¡±

    Ata just laughed.

    Then the radio spluttered to life, ¡°Lieutenant, the 1km scouts report the zone is retreating, report.¡±

    ¡°Zone still active here.¡±

    ¡°It might be reducing in strength, though,¡± I said after concentrating. Ata repeated that to them.

    Fifteen minutes later, the essence strength was reduced below what I could sense, and Ata passed that on. It was going to be a long day.

    ¡°I joined the Navy after spending time in prison,¡± Ata said. ¡°Petty crime. A car theft. I was drunk and did some drugs. What actually put me inside was hitting the arresting officer. The Navy straightened me out, and I found a home. They gave me a chance at officer training.¡±

    I just nodded.

    ¡°The Navy is important to me. I have been able to help some others straighten out, too.¡±

    I nodded again.

    ¡°This baby puts all that at risk. I will be on light duties when they need all hands on deck. Especially us enhanced people.¡±

    I stayed silent. I didn¡¯t know what to say. Some people would offer advice or platitudes. That is not me. I get the feeling she is just thinking aloud. If she wants my opinion, she will ask for it.

    The silence stretched out.

    ¡°You think this life is worth more than yours?¡± She asked.

    I nodded, ¡°Definitely.¡±

    She studied me in silence for a while.

    ¡°I am not sure who I am without the Navy.¡±

    ¡°So keep being Navy. Why stop?¡±

    ¡°Being a mother and an active officer is not really compatible. I spend months out at sea.¡±

    ¡°And you want to be a mother?¡±

    ¡°I really think I do, yeah.¡±

    ¡°You get Maternity Leave, right?¡±

    ¡°Twelve months. Most other women who take it don¡¯t return. Some do, most don¡¯t, not those active on ships. Also, I am not sure you have noticed,¡± she said, waving her arm around, ¡°But the world is going to shit.¡¯

    We lapsed into silence.

    From the radio chatter, the zone was reduced by 5km before the bombing stopped. The Americans were prepping some larger missiles. 5km from the 27km total didn¡¯t seem a lot.

    ¡°The world is going to go to shit everywhere, whether you are in the Navy or not,¡± I said.

    She nodded. ¡°The kid is going to need someone to guide them through the mess. Probably someone with the same essence type. That is one draw card to stick with you guys. We all have the same essence type.¡±

    I didn¡¯t respond.

    The radio came to life. ¡°All personnel are advised to find cover. Multiple MAOBs will be incoming, and the blast radius could be beyond the 5km mark with wider effects. There will be a five-minute warning.¡±

    ¡°MOAB?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Massive Ordinance Air Blast, more commonly known as the Mother of all Bombs,¡± Ata supplied.

    ¡°How does that stack up to a nuke?¡± I ask.

    ¡°A small nuke is probably a thousand times stronger. If this doesn¡¯t work, the nuke discussion will increase.¡±

    We ate lunch while we waited.

    ¡°Why do you think they are waiting?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Probably to see how far the Zone retreats before the next blast.¡±

    I nodded.

    ¡°If the baby and I stick around, will you take off?¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t know,¡± I said truthfully.

    ¡°Carla and Soph said that you might. They want you to stick around. Carla is particularly worried.¡±

    I just nodded.

    ¡°I could find somewhere else to go. It is unfair for me and the bub to break up you three.¡±

    ¡°You never wanted to be pregnant, though. That is also on me.¡±

    ¡°I am choosing to keep it. All the researchers will be pissed if I abort, but it is my choice.¡±

    ¡°But you are choosing to keep it regardless of it turning your life upside down.¡±

    She nodded. We sat in silence for a while.

    ¡°Five-minute warning. Acknowledge.¡±

    Ata acknowledged. I looked around for cover, but Ata said, ¡°We will be fine. It is over twenty kilometres away.¡±

    Five minutes later, a series of massive explosions happened.

    ¡°At least that will have killed the Crocs,¡± I said. ¡°How long do you think they will make us wait?¡±

    ¡°All day anyway, depends on what happens further in.¡±

    Silence.

    ¡°If you leave, where will you go?¡± I ask.

    ¡°I¡¯ll find somewhere. I am no longer an incompetent and drunk teenager.¡±

    I raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°I had an abortion back then. I sort of regret it and sort of don¡¯t.¡±

    I just nodded, and we lapsed into silence again.

    ¡°I am going to fail, you know,¡± I said eventually.

    She just raised her eyebrow.

    ¡°If we both stick around. I am not good with people, and I actively avoid kids.¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°I leave for long periods.¡±

    Ata nodded, ¡°So Carla said, and then you come back to get laid.¡±

    I snorted a laugh, ¡°It¡¯s probably not that bad, but basically. I am the fucktoy.¡±

    ¡°Carla and I can make sure you keep getting laid as long as you keep coming back.¡±

    I raised an eyebrow.

    ¡°Carla and I will really enjoy fucking your brains out as long as you keep coming back,¡± she rephrased it.

    ¡°Ha!¡± I laughed. ¡°That is more enticing. I am still going to fail.¡±

    ¡°I know my parents tried and failed. If this kid goes through the rebellious teenage years I did, I will probably end up killing them myself. The point is my parents tried. They still failed because it was idiot, stupid me, but they tried. I got there in the end.¡±

    ¡°You want me to stick around, don¡¯t you?¡±

    She nodded. ¡°We are both fuck ups. This world is going to be soon fucked up badly. I don¡¯t see any way of succeeding in life anymore, but I want to do my best for the kid.¡±

    ¡°You''re not nearly as fucked up as I am,¡± I stalled. ¡°You¡¯re a bloody saint.¡±

    She rolled her eyes. ¡°Stick around?¡±

    ¡°It is going to stuff up our superhero names.¡±

    ¡°We could just go for ¡°The Bastard¡¯s Bitches,¡±¡± Ata said.

    ¡°Oh, hell no!¡±

    ¡°The Bitches¡¯ Bastard?¡±

    ¡°Slightly better, but no.¡±

 62. Health and Safety.

    The MOABs reduced the zone right back past the 10km watchers. Explorers found it about 8km from the Anomaly. By morning, the zone had crept back to a 10-kilometer radius and was expanding.

    Nobody pretended they were happy, even though volunteers were continuing to be Enhanced at a constant rate. I rarely check the news, but the aerial photos from the bombing were published before and after. There is a big hole in the ground that is now a small lake. The anomaly can be seen suspended above the new lake. I am sure that is a long telephoto shot. To nuke or not to nuke is the debate of the day.

    Nowadays, you have to travel fifteen kilometres or more to get to the edge of the zone. I miss the short stroll it used to take. That does not mean there aren''t mutated animals and plants everywhere the zone used to be. There are, and the animals wander further afield.

    I am starting to think our time here is done. I can feel Anawhata calling me.

    ¡°I resigned from the Navy,¡± Ata said. ¡°They want to put me on the same consultant agreement as you three because I am Enhanced and experienced. They don¡¯t say it, but they want access to the baby.¡±

    ¡°I would say, ¡°Great free health care!¡± but we are Kiwis, and healthcare is free anyway. You will get better healthcare.¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Go for it,¡± Soph said, ¡°We can insist on being a group and sticking together.¡±

    ¡°If we are some sort of formal group,¡± I said, ¡°you are our military liaison.¡±

    ¡°And combat instructor,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I am a sailor, not a soldier.¡± Ata reminded us.

    ¡°You still have more experience and training than any of us,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Are you guys actually OK with this?¡± Ata asked.

    I knew she was giving me a last chance to back out, and she would leave rather than make me leave.

    Carla and Soph nodded enthusiastically for their own reasons.

    I paused, then said, ¡°We are going to need a decent group name.¡±

    ¡°Shut up, Bob,¡± Carla and Soph said together.

    ¡°The Witch¡¯s Coven?¡± I got things thrown at me for that, so I guess it is a no. I probably should not suggest ¡°The Bastard, the Bitch, the Witch and the Hag.¡± No, I will keep that one to myself for my own health and safety. Especially for my sexual health.

    Ata left to sign the contract so they were effective immediately, and she wouldn¡¯t need to work out her enlistment time.

    I decided to take a wander away from camp to get some space. I went near the river this time as the trees were shady, and it wasn¡¯t too far. I saw Eliza in the trees nearby. That''s right, we were not supposed to go out alone. I shrugged.

    What was bugging me was my huge, big pool of essence that was mostly unused. There have got to be other ways to use it than just empowering mutations. Enhancements, I must call them enhancements.

    I put my hand into a pouch and pulled out a fish scale and a bone scale, both from Carla. These are the product of Essence. They were literally created by essence. I pulled out a shark tooth and a human tooth. These were also created by essence. The tooth looked like a normal tooth with the nerve endings that go into the tooth. They will be why it is so painful. We need to find a dentist so that we can numb the teeth before the change. That will help a lot with the pain.

    Why didn¡¯t we do that earlier? Fuck I am dumb. I pulsed Carla through our link, ¡°Dentist, Numb Teeth.¡± in Morse code so she would know there was a better way. She pulsed back, ¡°Fuck Yeah.¡± I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if she was hitting up Amanda for it right now. She would have a numb mouth for a while, but drooling is better than pain.

    Wait, teeth. Can I use the shark''s teeth to inject poison? I look at it. No dumbass. Snake teeth and my needle are hollow to inject the poison through. Sharks teeth are not.

    I looked at the scales. Essence created those. I picked up a piece of bark off the ground. I put a finger on it and injected poison, leaving the needle in it. Essence created the needle and the poison. Essence created things. Essence mutated things. Living things. Could I empower this essence-created scale, even though it is no longer attached to Carla? Even though I am not Carla. I do have the same essence type.

    I put a fish scale on the bark and placed a finger on it. Then I shot a needle through it into the bark. My poison and needle injection is designed to go through fish scales.

    I put a second fish scale on the bark. I put a finger on this. Instead of injecting poison, I just tried injecting essence, empowering it like my senses and my skin. The essence seemed stuck in my skin. I know that is not right because Buck could project it. Yes, it was a mutation, but he could do it. Eliza, watching me, can project it to form a gate. It can be done.

    I kept hitting a blank. I bet I could figure it out in the peace and quiet of Anawhata. Maybe I need Soph to use Rich¡¯s Essence sense. I know I am onto something here. I pick up the bark and head back to camp.

    If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Rich was lying just outside the tent entrance, so I guess Soph was inside. She was resting on her cot. I showed her the bark and pulled out some more of Carla¡¯s fish scales.

    ¡°I figure I should be able to empower these scales, but I am not getting it. Can you look at the essence and tell me what is going on?¡±

    ¡°Bob, I was asleep!¡±

    ¡°Yeah, sorry you are awake now, though. Only you and Rich can do this, and he gets grumpy if I wake him.¡±

    I got a very grumpy look. Soph is too nice for her own good.

    She sighed, ¡°What did you want?¡±

    See? I repeated myself.

    ¡°The scales are¡­ how do I explain this? They have Car¡¯s pattern to them. Show me what you are doing?¡± I showed her. ¡°Yeah, it is bouncing or being rejected because the pattern doesn¡¯t match.¡±

    ¡°Oh! Well, that¡¯s an easy fix.¡± I pulled on the link with Carla, and instead of absorbing her essence, I fed it to my finger and onto the scales and in it went easy as. I followed it up with a poison needle, and the needle bounced¡ªone empowered scale.

    ¡°What did you do?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°I drew Carla¡¯s essence through the link and used that¡ªtime for her to send essence for a change.¡±

    ¡°Right, yes. The link goes both ways.¡±

    ¡°Right, can we do more than one at a time?¡± I laid out a row of scales, making sure they all touched, and then I empowered one end and spiked a needle in the other. ¡°Yes, easy as. Awesome!¡±

    I got a pulse query from Carla and sent her back a DND meaning, ¡®do not disturb,¡¯

    ¡°What are you going to do with that?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°That is proof of concept that essence can be used for other things than empowering your enhancements. But this, specifically? I am going to make some scale armour that I can empower. We could probably make it two or three layers thick to stop most things. It will need some testing. Probably fish scale on the bottom and bone scale on the top.¡±

    ¡°Can you make me some, too?¡± Soph said.

    ¡°I suppose, but only Carla and I could empower it. Your fur might have to be enough.¡±

    ¡°Oh, is that what you think? I don¡¯t have access to her essence, but I see her essence, and I have been copying it. Watch.¡± She put her finger on the fish scale and then nodded to me. My needle bounced.

    ¡°Fucking fantastic. We can copy people''s patterns. Let me try.¡± I looked at Carla¡¯s essence and saw how it swirled or the pattern it was at the core and tried to make mine copy it. ¡°Fuck, that''s not easy.¡± It was sort of like moving small parts of my essence again but twisting the slippery bugger into a pattern.

    When I finally got it, Soph was dozing again. It didn¡¯t take that long¡­ Oh, I shook Soph again.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s dinner time.¡±

    ¡°Oh, ta.¡±

    Over dinner, I explained what I was doing to Carla and Ata. Ata was excited.

    ¡°That''s great! my feathers only cover my back. I need something for my front.¡±

    Carla wasn¡¯t so sure, ¡°I think I am starting to feel like a sheep that is about to be shorn.¡±

    ¡°We have lots of scales to go on with. We have been collecting them, remember.¡±

    ¡°Hummpf,¡± she said noncommittally.

    ¡°Now the next task is, how do we see other people''s patterns without Soph¡¯s Skill?¡± I asked.

    I got silence as a response.

    ¡°Soph? You can see Rich and Eliza¡¯s patterns, right?¡± She nodded. ¡°They are dark turquoise. Can you match their patterns?¡±

    ¡°With my fluorescent blue?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Can you change your colour to match?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I am familiar with the colour, and not just from being in the zone so much.¡± She sounded uncertain. ¡°What I can do is match the pattern with my blue, and it enhances our bond, but I haven¡¯t tried changing colour.¡±

    ¡°That is interesting. Maybe matching patterns is enough? I am trying to match colour, as we all have been in the zone a lot,¡± I said. ¡°You won¡¯t change your core colour. You will need to separate part of your essence out and then try to change only that part.¡±

    ¡°It is not easy, is it?¡± said Carla.

    ¡°You should start by trying to mimic my essence and then Sophs, as those are the two you know best. We are also all fluorescent blue. I mimicked yours first.¡±

    Carla nodded.

    ¡°By that logic, only a limited number of people will be able to mimic our essence as only a few have spent time in the Waiheke zone and been changed by it,¡± Ata said.

    I nodded. That made sense. Maybe patterns are enough. Colour might be a step too far, but it is worth trying.

    Changing the colour of the essence is hard. When I collapsed in bed that night, I might have been getting a slightly darker shade of blue. Maybe. There was no green yet.

    Amanda came and sat with us at breakfast. ¡°How are my favourite Enhanced? I''m sorry that I have been too busy to catch up. Too many people are mutating, and far too many are dying.¡±

    ¡°You are not exactly in our good books,¡± I said.

    ¡°Oh?¡±

    ¡°North Koreans,¡± said Carla.

    ¡°Right. That¡¯s the reason for¡­¡± she indicated the soldier sitting at the table over with a coffee.

    ¡°Good,¡± said Carla.

    ¡°Serves you right,¡± I said, ¡°Fancy an academic being popular reading in North Korea.¡±

    ¡°I write well,¡± Amanda defended herself, ¡°and my subjects are fascinating.¡±

    ¡°As one of those subjects, I don¡¯t want people fascinated with me,¡± I said.

    ¡°Sorry. Normally, I would change names and obscure details, but in my defence, I did have permission.¡±

    ¡°Oh?¡± I inquired.

    ¡°The agreements we signed,¡± said Soph. ¡°They give permission for academic work.¡±

    ¡°Those things- I will have you know that being referenced in academic journals is not good for our health and safety,¡± I said.

 63. Cattle.

    We were having morning tea and had no success with changing colours when the loudspeakers came to life. They never came to life.

    ¡°Attention! Attention! All Combat personnel report for immediate deployment. Attention! Attention! All Combat personnel report for immediate deployment.¡±

    I went to get up when Ata stopped me. ¡°We are not combat personnel. We are consultants. Sit down. I will find out what is happening.¡± She walks off.

    I can hear similar things from the Aussie and American camps. Is it the North Koreans again?

    Trucks were rolling out with heavily armed soldiers when Ata returned.

    ¡°And?¡± I inquired.

    ¡°Huge monster crocodile heading this way. I saw the photos. It is massive. Multiple buses massive. Bullets are not affecting it, and it is heading for the base camp. It is still kilometres away and now outside the Anomaly Zone. They are going to try grenades and explosives and see if that works. Then the Air Force will probably have to blast it.¡±

    ¡°Why would it head here?¡± I asked.

    Ata shrugged, ¡°Who knows? Revenge? Following something back this way?¡±

    ¡°This doesn¡¯t make sense.¡±

    Ata shrugged again. ¡°It will be dealt with long before it reaches here. They are doing what they can to keep as much of it intact as possible for the researchers, which is why they are holding the Air Force back.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± I said again. ¡°This doesn¡¯t make sense.¡±

    ¡°Bob, what''s going on in that brain of yours,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Where the anomaly is, it is saltwater. They are saltwater crocs. This far upstream, it is fresh water. A saltwater croc will not come to freshwater. If they want revenge, they will go out to sea and try to bite a frigate or something. This doesn¡¯t make sense.¡±

    ¡°Mutation, working funny?¡± Ata suggested.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t think so.¡± Then I hear the sound of heavy vehicles coming from the wrong direction. I got up in a hurry, ¡°Get the guns and some water. We are going bush.¡±

    To their credit, they didn¡¯t argue but acted. I saw Carla move Soph, who was the most likely to argue. We grabbed our illegal weapons as the NZ military took their guns back. Mere consultants have no need always to be armed.

    We ran out past the tents to the tree line and swung around to where I could see the NZ camp.

    ¡°What is that truck doing?¡± Ata asked. That¡¯s right. She has good long-distance sight.

    We watched as a cattle truck and two utes drove into the NZ camp at speed. They spewed armed people who started shooting. The North Koreans had arrived. Several went to the edge of the camp facing the Americans and the Aussies and fired that way, keeping them at bay.

    The others started with the hospital tent, rounding up people and dragging people from their sick beds. One opened the back of the cattle truck, and they forced people inside. Some others started on the mess tent and personnel tents. They seemed more intent on capture than killing.

    ¡°Those are our people. We have to stop them,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°No, we don¡¯t,¡± I said.

    ¡°Bob! Yes, we do. Don¡¯t be a selfish bastard.¡± Ata said.

    ¡°No, we don¡¯t. This doesn''t make sense.¡± I reiterated.

    Ata looked disgusted at me. ¡°I am going to help.¡±

    ¡°No, Don¡¯t. It is not right,¡± I said, my mind working over time. I didn¡¯t have much time for words.

    ¡°Ata stop a minute,¡± Carla said. ¡°This is Bob thinking. We need his brain. Bob. Why doesn¡¯t it make sense?¡±

    ¡°They are not escaping in a bloody cattle truck.¡±

    ¡°They look like they are, with all our people,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°Why not Bob?¡± Carla asked.

    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    ¡°Think about where we are. How many satellites are focused on us right now? Half the bloody world¡¯s satellites. The Aussies know this land and have the transports to traverse it, not a bloody rusted cattle truck. There is a fucking American battle fleet anchored just off the coast with an aircraft carrier and all the best sensing equipment they can get. They are not going to get far in a rusted fucking cattle truck. Now what the fuck are you really up to?¡±

    ¡°What¡­¡± Ata started.

    ¡°Shush.¡± Carla said, ¡°He is sensing. Finding out what is going on.¡±

    I was boosting my hearing and concentrating on different parts of the camp. It would help if I spoke Korean. Where was Ensign Jeong when I needed her? Fucking dead, thanks to the anomaly.

    I kept shifting my attention to different areas and then realised what an idiot I was. This is the distraction. The real event is happening elsewhere. I moved my attention to the surrounding bush. Then I heard a muffled scream and some Korean that sounded like swearing.

    ¡°Gotcha,¡± I said. ¡°They have snatched Amanda, and three or four are sneaking to the river, probably a small boat.¡±

    ¡°Amanda, why?¡± Ata asked.

    ¡°Because she is one of the leading minds on anomalies in the world, and she has the fountain of bloody healing in her veins. Maybe their anomaly has created diseases they can¡¯t deal with? Maybe they are immunising their troops for biological warfare. I don¡¯t know. I know she is worth it, and the North Koreans think so too.¡±

    ¡°If I get into my shark form. I will catch them fine and get her back,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Five to seven minute change time, and you will be exhausted?¡± I said.

    ¡°You fill my essence pool after, and I will deal with the exhaustion.¡±

    ¡°You can¡¯t on your own!¡± Soph said, concerned.

    ¡°You are right,¡± I said. ¡°I want you to send Rich with her as backup. He can track them until she arrives, then help her.¡±

    ¡°Soph,¡± Carla said, ¡°This is what I am made for. Help me do this, don¡¯t hinder.¡±

    I saw Soph take a deep breath and steel herself. Then she nodded as Cala started stripping, and I felt a pull on my essence.

    ¡°Soph, help her by sending Rich. You can¡¯t help her change. I need you to send Eliza to the truck to find out what they are planning for it. If it is not to escape, what is it?¡±

    ¡°But,¡± she looked at Carla lying on the ground. Carla was pushing the change. Rich turned and headed to the river.

    ¡°Soph! Twenty to thirty people are being loaded onto that truck. We need to know what they plan before Ata goes all cowboy on us and charges in. You can see through Eliza¡¯s eyes, can¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°What!? How did you know?¡±

    ¡°You said you had already matched their patterns and enhanced the bond; that''s when it clicked. Some of the things you left in my bed needed more control than just an emotional bond. That¡¯s why I didn¡¯t complain. You needed the practice. Now, I need you to get eyes on that truck.¡±

    ¡°You are a clever, sneaky bastard,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°It is always better if people underestimate me,¡± I said offhandedly as my attention was elsewhere. Carla was struggling with the change and not having Soph''s help. ¡°Make sure she doesn¡¯t choke,¡± I said to Ata.

    I saw a green dot appear near the truck and walked underneath. Soph¡¯s attention was all on Eliza. Fortunately, she was sitting down. She had done this before.

    I kept scanning the area, flicking my attention to different areas. How long would they wait? They were struggling with some that couldn¡¯t walk. Why?

    ¡°There is something strapped under the truck. It is held with cable ties and a cargo strap.¡± Soph said. ¡°Eliza could pick through the cable ties, not the cargo strap.¡± There was a pause. ¡°They are the thick ties. It is not easy.¡±

    ¡°A bomb. It is the only thing that makes sense. Pack it full of people and blow it up, and it will be weeks before we discover Amanda is missing. They might drive off first to lead the chase away before they scatter into the wilderness. They could just blow it here. It just makes them getting away less likely,¡± I thought allowed.

    ¡°Fucking hell,¡± Ata said. ¡°I am supposed to be the military officer here.¡±

    ¡°You are a sailor, not a soldier,¡± I said.

    ¡°And why are you a bloody civil engineer? You should be a soldier,¡± she replied.

    ¡°Fuck no, it would be worse than being in a har¡­e¡­.m, forget that. Just fuck no.¡±

    Carla stirred, ¡°Shit, you done already?¡± I am sure it was less than six minutes.

    She was struggling to her feet. The naked shark form looked good. Ok, naked Carla looked good regardless. I tossed her the spear gun and two knives, which she strapped on clumsily. Oh, I wanted to see her fight naked so badly, but I had other priorities. I do need to get laid, but that is not a priority either. Carla headed toward the river.

    ¡°Soph.¡± I held out a knife to her, ¡°Can you get under the truck and cut the bomb free and get it out of there?¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°You have been practicing your Gates, right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but not as much as I¡¯d like due to keeping it a secret.¡±

    ¡°Could you get from those nearby tents to the truck?¡±

    She nodded hesitantly. ¡°But I will be seen. There are too many around.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s Ata and my job. We will go around the other side and start a distraction. That will be your cue. Get in, cut it free and get it out, into the bush if you can, or anywhere away is fine.¡±

    I could see she was very nervous. She was a primary school teacher, not a saboteur. She steeled herself, and Eliza appeared and landed on her shoulder.

    ¡°Five minutes, maybe ten. Work your way down there carefully.¡± I said as I gathered my stuff and prepared to move out.

    Ata approached her and spoke quietly in her ear, which seemed to help. I guess she has had leadership training. She was giving encouragement and shit like that. Whatever.

 64. Truck.

    Ata and I circled the camp well in the bush line to avoid detection.

    ¡°Shit, my ribs are not healed yet.¡±

    ¡°Well, don¡¯t make ''em worse. We can¡¯t have a decent fuck till they are better.¡± She glanced over her shoulder at me, ¡°I saw how you looked at Carla.¡±

    ¡°She looks good naked, doesn¡¯t she? I wish I could see her fight naked.¡±

    ¡°God, you¡¯re horny.¡±

    ¡°I would love to see you fight naked too. In fact, the two of you sparring¡­ Later. Naked is for later. What we need now is armoured vests. Do you know where any are?¡±

    ¡°Yes, but they are not close.¡±

    ¡°Fuck. Of course, they are not. How would you distract the ones at the truck?¡±

    ¡°Shooting them should work. I will need a longer-range gun than this shotgun, though,¡± Ata said.

    ¡°How do we distract them without them shooting back?¡± We were slowing down and nearing the edge of the trees.

    ¡°Is your aim that bad?¡± Ata half turned to me.

    ¡°Yes. Plus, don¡¯t forget they are enhanced.¡±

    Then a strange and heavily accented voice said in halting English, ¡°Stop! Hands up.¡± then he sounded pleased with himself and said, ¡°We Enhanced!¡±

    Ata had her back to him and slowly raised her arms. I couldn¡¯t see him behind her, but she mouthed to me, ¡°Three, two, one.¡± then she threw herself backwards at the gunman. The gunman fired a three-round burst into her back, and it twisted her away, and she landed heavily on the ground.

    By the time the gunman came into view for me, I had the pistol up and pointed at his face, and I fired three times to make sure he stayed down.

    I knelt down to check on Ata, saying, ¡°Fucking crazy as Carla. I die for you, you idiot, not you die for me!¡±

    Ata coughed. ¡°I am not that stupid. Fuck that hurt.¡± She levered herself up on one arm. ¡°Fucking bitch that hurt. I am going to have massive bruises, but I don¡¯t think anything is broken.¡± She moved her shoulders to check.

    ¡°Armoured Feathers?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Multi-layered and boosted to the fuck.¡±

    ¡°I thought Carla was the crazy bitch.¡±

    ¡°Calculated risk.¡± She looked over at the dead gunman. ¡°At least you didn¡¯t spoil his armoured vest. It won''t fit me, but I am having the assault rifle.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t think it will fit me either, but let''s try.¡±

    We stripped the gunman of anything useful. I couldn¡¯t do the vest up as it was too small, but it would protect my back a bit. I really wish I could armour my skin, but boosting it only made it extract more oxygen from water.

    Ata handed me the shotgun, ¡°It doesn¡¯t need aiming so much, but don¡¯t bother if they are more than 20m away.¡± she said. She took the guy¡¯s pistol, and we shared the ammo. I noticed she was moving carefully. She was more hurt than she let on. I couldn¡¯t see any blood on her shirt.

    We moved more carefully. I don¡¯t know how that gunman hid from my senses, but he did. We came to the edge of the tents, and it looked like the number of prisoners had dwindled. They would be moving soon.

    We moved a little closer. Ata said, ¡°I will light them up. You protect my back.¡±

    ¡°I thought your back had the feathers.¡±

    ¡°Dumbass.¡±

    I moved to one side where I was not immediately visible if they came for Ata. I could sense what was around and could shoot through tents. I reminded myself they could also shoot through tents.

    Then Ata fired. Two figures dropped, and a third dived for cover, yelling a warning. I guess that is what we wanted, as we were the distraction. It didn¡¯t seem like what we wanted.

    Two gunmen rounded the back of the cattle truck as Ata fired at them, then she was up and moving as they now knew her position. She backed up, firing at the initial person she missed, who fired back. Bullets whipped through the tents. I lay flat to avoid it. Ata also dived to the side.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    Then, we were both up and moving. I figured if they saw me, it would spread their fire from Ata alone. Fuck that was close. I dived to the ground, and my ribs protested hugely. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I kept crawling anyway.

    Then I saw Ata dodge between tents, and something clipped her, and she spun and disappeared. I frantically crawled in that direction. Then, there was a massive pull on my essence that kept up for about two full minutes before dropping to a steady stream.

    Then I smelled him. He was creeping around to flank Ata. Once I knew he was there, my hearing could track him. I paused and waited. I knew roughly where Ata had gone down, and I could smell her blood. She was moving, so I knew she wasn¡¯t dead.

    Two tents over now. I line up the shotgun. This shotgun only holds four rounds. When I was sure, I fired directly through the tent and kept firing all four shots. After the third shot, I saw his legs lying prone. I don¡¯t know if I got him or if he had dived for cover, but the fourth shot took his head.

    Then I went flying as bullets struck my back. The vest saved me the worst, but my ribs were done. I lost the shotgun, but it wasn¡¯t just the ribs that were pretty much done. Ata crawled around the tent, giving me a bloody heart attack. She still had the assault rifle but was holding her hand to her shoulder, which was leaking blood.

    I had a first aid kit somewhere. Fuck. I hope Soph is done because we certainly are. She passed me the assault rifle and drew a pistol.

    Then I heard the cavalry coming.

    ¡°Get down,¡± yelled Ata. ¡°It¡¯s the SeaSprite from the Te Kaha, and it is coming in hot.¡±

    The noise from the approaching helicopter grew rapidly. I caught a glimpse through the tents, and then there was a loud explosion and the rhythmic thump, thump, thump of a heavy machine gun from the door gunner. The tents basically went flying as the Seasprite went over us and then touched down, disgorging troops. I recognised Neke. I saw the ute with some Koreans fleeing madly as the SeaSprite lifted to give chase.

    Then the ute exploded into a massive fireball, far beyond what anyone would have expected.

    I started laughing. Oow! That hurt my ribs. Ata looked at me questionly. ¡°Guess where Soph put the bomb,¡± I said. Then she started laughing as well.

    That is how Ngoi found us¡ªwounded, laughing and complaining about our wounds. Neke bent down with a first aid kit as Ngoi called for a medic, and Kai kept watch.

    ¡°Wait, wait. Carla,¡± I said. ¡°And Soph. Where are Soph and Carla? You have to help Carla. Four North Koreans took off up the river with Amanda Mohan, and Carla and Rich went after them.¡±

    Ngoi got on his radio, and I saw the SeaSprite veer over towards the river.

    ¡°They went upstream. Carla is in her shark form. Where is Soph, she will know.¡±

    ¡°Sophia is being treated by a medic on the other side of the camp,¡± Ngoi said. By this time, I was seeing Aussie and American uniforms, as the SeaSprite had broken the stand-off. The people in the cattle truck were being helped out, and vehicles were arriving from the adjoining camps to transport them.

    The medic arrived. She was an Aussie. Then Eliza suddenly appeared. She flew around checking on us, then flew to the river.

    ¡°Follow her! She will lead you to Carla and Rich.¡±

    Ngoi called another team over to watch over us or to watch us. I am not sure which. Then he, Neke and Kai jogged after Eliza.

    I think Eliza would be more frantic if they were in trouble. There is a steady draw on my essence. The Medic had us loaded onto stretchers, and we were moved to the Aussie medical tent.

    Soph was carried in about five minutes later. Her leg and shoulder were bandaged.

    ¡°Carla and Rich are OK.¡± was the first thing she said.

    ¡°But what about you?¡± I asked.

    ¡°These aren¡¯t deep,¡± she said, ¡°although the bullet is still in the leg. Boosting my fur worked well.¡±

    Now, I feel like the only one without natural protection.

    ¡°You did put that bomb in the ute, didn¡¯t you?¡± I asked.

    She grinned, ¡°you said wherever.¡± Then her grin faded, ¡°I am just glad they drove away first. That would have killed a lot of people.¡±

    ¡°They knew the bomb was that big,¡± Ata said. ¡°They would get out of the way before triggering it.¡±

    It was two hours later when we heard familiar swearing.

    ¡°Get your head out of my sight, you fucking pervert. I will fucing bite it off.¡± I could imagine her showing her shark teeth after that.

    The first one we saw was Rich, who was limping. Fuck. It takes a lot to make him limp.

    ¡°Hey, Rich, who¡¯s my hero? There''s a good boy. We will find a vet and get you fixed right up.¡± Soph layered praises on him.

    ¡°He is my fucking hero as well,¡± Carla said as she was carried in on a stretcher. Shit, she was covered in bandages. She was lying on her side as her dorsal fin stopped her lying on her back.

    ¡°How many times were you shot?¡± I asked. ¡°Did you forget to dodge?¡±

    A second stretcher was carried in with an unconscious Amanda on it.

    ¡°The doc said Amanda was just drugged, and it would wear off in the next couple of hours,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°You ignored my question,¡± I said.

    She gave me a dirty look, ¡°Of course, I bloody dodged. There were four of them, and they were their bloody top commandos. They didn¡¯t fucking let me get far. I would be dead if it weren¡¯t for Rich jumping from the shore and capsizing the boat. I saved Amanda, put the spear in the leg of one, and Rich killed the one he jumped on, but I am sure the other two are still out there, probably with the wounded one.¡±

    ¡°And there is a massive manhunt underway right now,¡± Commander Lewis said from the door. ¡°Everybody with senses is out there now, and the Americans have helicopters overhead.¡±

    ¡°The Croc was baited up here, wasn¡¯t he?¡± I asked.

    Lewis nodded, ¡°We are not sure how, but yes. We think it might have been an Essence skill. Why don¡¯t you tell me what went on from your perspective?¡±

    Thus, the debrief happened with a flunky at the door, who recorded it and took notes. I tried to put all the credit on the other three, who did all the work, but they wouldn¡¯t shut up about me. I told them to shut up about me. Now, I am never going to be left alone. Fucking hell.

 65. Maybe. (End of book 1)

    We were flown to Cairns instead of Darwin. Soph, Carla and Ata needed operations. I just had my ribs strapped again and was told not to do anything strenuous. That is my whole aim in life. I don¡¯t want to do anything more strenuous than sex. Gentle sex, for now.

    The Vet was puzzled about what to do for Rich. She dug out the bullets and patched him up, but that was all.

    The doctors were also puzzled about the three ¡®Enhanced¡¯, but Amanda turned up and oversaw the operations. As soon as Amanda was happy, Carla turned back to skin. She and Soph were inseparable.

    I was up and around the quickest, but I am pretty sure it is going to be Carla, who will be healed the fastest. She was constantly pulling on my essence.

    We spent two weeks in Cairns. I really wanted to go swimming in the Great Barrier Reef, but I was barred from it. It was right there, and we were too bloody injured. Fuck. They did this just to torment me, didn¡¯t they?

    I fiddled with Carla¡¯s scales and worked out how to make them into armour. Glue is the answer. Glue all the fish scales on one side to a piece of light fabric, do the same with the Shark Scales, and then join them together with the fabric on the outside so the scales are wrapped in two layers of fabric. I bought some Army surplus camo gear for the outer layer, and as long as the inner layer touched some skin, then there was no problem empowering it. Selective stitching held it together. I will make a casual wear version as well so we don''t stand out in public. They look a little bulky, but for a vest or a coat, it is fine. I think a trench coat would look good.

    They made us fly commercially back to NZ, so we drove our leisurely way down to Brisbane for a break first. By the time we spent two weeks there, my ribs were mostly healed, and I engaged in some gentle, strenuous activity with both Ata and Carla.

    I was a bit concerned with Carla. ¡°How do I know Soph is not looking out your eyes?¡±

    ¡°Would it matter if she did? She watched us back at Bucks Estate.¡±

    I shrugged, ¡°I suppose not. Should I make it instrucional for her?¡±

    ¡°She doesn¡¯t need instructions.¡±

    ¡°No, you are more than capable of instructing her if needed.¡±

    ¡°Too bloody right.¡±

    The problem with flying commercially was Rich and Eliza, but mostly Rich. They all took one look at him and said, ¡°Nope.¡±

    In the end, we charted a flight just for us and passed the invoice on to the Military. By the time we hit Auckland, we were all in pretty good shape.

    Of course, there was a problem with Rich and Eliza entering NZ. Australia is full of nasty bugs and parasites and things New Zealand doesn¡¯t want. Added to that, we were in the swamps and savanna of Northern Queensland. We were swimming with the Crocs.

    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    I then brazenly said what everybody was ignoring: ¡°Soph has more fur than Rich.¡± Well, they didn¡¯t know what to do with that. We ended up volunteering to be quarantined at the Hardcastle Shack while various tests were done. What a hardship. It wasn¡¯t just Soph¡¯s high profile that influenced them, but the military was trumpeting us as heroes, and there would be an award ceremony, and the Prime Minister and Governor General would present us with medals. Whoop-de-doo.

    That all had to wait until the quarantine was over, thank God!

    At least the Air Force delivered my truck back.

    The minute quarantine was over, I was driving out to Anawhata. It is only vicious rumours spread by the Bitch that say I left before the quarantine was over. I would never.

    Driving into Bucks Estate brought back a lot of memories. He was a bloody good dog, that one. Full of energy. There was the ripped possum fur we used to practice his Skill. I will fucking miss him.

    I just sat for several days and pottered around sorting things out. I swam- the water was getting cooler now- and walked through the bush. Autumn was approaching. I may have forgotten to charge my phone during that time. I didn¡¯t open my laptop. I just contemplated things and life and something else that was new to me.

    I contemplated relationships. That was brand new territory. I didn¡¯t know what to think about it.

    A baby. What the fuck? A baby? How far has my life changed? Way too far. It has been good and bad.

    My mind kept travelling to Buck.

    About a week after I arrived, a fancy silver SUV drove up. Ataahua Wihongi got out. She looked good in normal clothes: boots, jeans, an untucked button-up shirt, and a jacket.

    ¡°Can I join you?¡± She asked.

    I nodded.

    We sat in silence on the porch for a bit on our camp chairs.

    ¡°You missed the ceremony. A few people were upset.¡±

    I nodded. Carla could have pulsed me, but she hadn¡¯t bothered. She knew I would ignore it.

    Ata tossed a medal to me. ¡°Congratulations, you are a hero.¡±

    I just grunted.

    She went to the back of the SUV and pulled out a roll.

    ¡°Here, Carla sent this.¡± She unravelled a Roo hide carpet. It was about half the size of the pelt she took, so I guess Soph got one, too.

    ¡°Thanks.¡± We took it inside and lay it on the floor.

    ¡°Do you want to go for a swim?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Sure,¡± she said.

    We grabbed some towels and walked down to the beach. We stripped off at the beach, neither of us bothered with a swimsuit.

    ¡°Your feathers really are beautiful,¡± I said.

    She turned to face me while nude, and the baby bump was very noticeable.

    ¡°That is beautiful too,¡± I said.

    ¡°You are not having second thoughts?¡± She asked.

    ¡°I have been having a lot of thoughts. I am capable of more than two.¡±

    ¡°I am about halfway now,¡± she said.

    ¡°I guess we should start a pool and see who thinks it will be a boy, girl, bird, jellyfish, or shark.¡±

    Ata laughed. I have always loved her laugh. It is a full-body laugh, loud and cheerful.

    Maybe I could do this.

    ¡°It¡¯s twins,¡± she said.

 Intermission

    This is the end of book 1. Book 2 is in progress, tentatively titled The Heroine¡¯s Bastard. I will be taking a hiatus from posting as I work on it.

    Buck

    Rich

    Eliza

    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    For those of you wondering where the story is going, here are some rough indications.

    The world will go to shit. The Anomaly points portals will expand and start leaking alien creatures rather than just alien energy. Sapient aliens probably won¡¯t appear until book three. The next generation will be the natives who will navigate this new universe, so book two will have some babies.

    If you see this posted anywhere other than Royal Road, it has been stolen. Please let me know.

    King Dad.

 66. Commune.

    ¡°Carla and I want a baby,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Is that each? Or are you going to share?¡± I replied.

    ¡°Bastard,¡± Carla said. ¡°I don¡¯t want to be pregnant. Soph does.¡±

    ¡°That is weird. I was sure it was you I was fucking, not her. You know it is the end of the world, right? Why would you bring a baby into this?¡±

    ¡°A lot of reasons. Ata is due in four months, and the babies are healthy as far as they can tell.¡± Soph said. ¡°I want a kid, and it growing up with Ata¡¯s kids would be good.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you push Ata away, either, you bastard,¡± Carla said. ¡° She is nice, and she could be your nice if you let her.¡±

    ¡°She hits me!¡±

    ¡°Only when you need it,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I also think it is important to keep the same Flouescent Blue Essence for us all,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°You know Commander Lewis is Florescent Blue, so is dog-boy and rat-man,¡± I countered

    ¡°I hit you too,¡± warned Carla.

    ¡°Wait a minute!¡± I turned to Soph, ¡°Have you seen something in the baby''s essence pattern?¡±

    ¡°I am getting better at that, but they are still too small and overshadowed by Ata. I have had glimpses, and they appear to be various combinations of you and Ata, which makes sense,¡± Soph replied.

    ¡°I knew I should have got that vasectomy. This is turning into a commune.¡±

    ¡°Bob, settle down,¡± Carla said, ¡°This will be our baby, not yours. We will look after it.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but you and I hang around a lot. I have sensitive hearing and smell.¡±

    ¡°Yes, you are an antisocial, selfish Bastard, but you are also one of the smartest people I know,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I thought you wanted me for my cock, not my brain.¡±

    ¡°That is when you were the fucktoy. Now, you are being promoted to a sperm donor, and we want your brain and essence.¡± Carla explained.

    ¡°That seems very one-sided,¡± I said. ¡°What about what I want?¡±

    ¡°You get to make love to me,¡± Soph said.

    I looked at her. She was softer than Carla, with generous curves and larger breasts. The fact that she was covered in dog fur made her look very comfortable and cuddly.

    ¡°That is very enticing, but I am not sure it is worth twenty years of child-rearing.¡±

    ¡°You won¡¯t have to do the child-rearing,¡± Soph said. ¡°I have a legal agreement here that ensures you will have no responsibility for the child.¡± She handed over several pages of legal documents. Her family is the rich one, with fancy lawyers. That is why we are standing in her mum''s mansion on the edge of Auckland Central, overlooking one of many Auckland marinas and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

    I took the papers to read later. ¡°You know the kid might be a jellyfish, shark, dog combo?¡±

    ¡°I know. Ata¡¯s scans and DNA samples indicate that her children are mostly human, so I assume the same with me,¡± Soph said. ¡°If not, that is fine too.¡±

    ¡°Ata is having twins, which is unusual, but you are a dog mutation. You might have a litter,¡± I said.

    ¡°Ata is not laying eggs from her Gannet mutation, so I don¡¯t think that is likely,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°And you really want to take the risk?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I really do,¡± Soph saidThe author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    ¡°We really do,¡± Carla said.

    I stepped close to Soph and inhaled deeply. ¡°You know you are ovulating now?¡±

    ¡°That looked really creepy,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I have become very sensitive to the smell of ovulating women after Ata got pregnant,¡± I said. With my boosted smell, I didn¡¯t need to step closer to smell it, but I wanted to look creepy. The smell of Carla on her period did overshadow Soph, but it was still for show.

    ¡°I am ready if you are,¡± Soph said with a smile.

    ¡°Is she?¡± I said, nodding toward Carla.

    ¡°Go on,¡± Carla said. ¡°Show her why you are my favourite fucktoy.¡±

    Soph grabbed my hand and dragged me towards her suite. She wanted to get pregnant on her bed. In my view, beds were optional but quite comfortable. She was very different from Carla. Carla was energetic and active. Soph was soft and more laid back, and soft. Did I mention soft? She was lovely, with fewer hard muscles than Carla, more curves and soft fur.

    It is a good thing I am not allergic to fur. I wonder if she gets a winter coat and then sheds it? I guess we will find out.

    Soph wanted to make love frequently over the next few days as this was the opportune time for her. I got her riding me one time when Carla came into their bedroom to get a jacket. I tore my eyes away from Soph¡¯s large, soft, furry breasts bouncing in front of me to glance at Carla. She just gave us a thumbs up and exited, saying, ¡°Save some for me later.¡±

    ¡°It will have to be a while later,¡± I said.

    She just laughed.

    Soph seemed enthusiastic even though she was A-sexual and not that interested in sex. I guess she is interested in pregnancies and babies. She is a primary school teacher, so I guess she likes kids.

    They could have done this through a fertility clinic, but I am not going to complain.

    Later that week, Ata drove up in her silver SUV. She had been visiting her folks up north and spending time on her local Marae near the Bay of Islands. She looked very pregnant, but twins will show more than a single baby.

    ¡°How did it go?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°Mixed,¡± Ata replied. ¡°My folks were alright with the feathers, but not everyone was. The pregnancy was a different story, particularly when I said the father was a basic white pakeha, and you didn¡¯t come with me to front up.¡±

    ¡°Oh shit,¡± I said, ¡°I have just got over the Samoan hit squad, and now there is a Maori tribe on the warpath. I can¡¯t catch a break.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be such a baby,¡± Ata said. ¡°My folks wanted me to come back and raise the kids with them on our family land. I said I needed to be near you with the essence and Dr Mohan. You guys got an invite to come as well.¡± She looked at Soph, ¡°Are you pregnant yet?¡±

    ¡°I hope so,¡± Soph replied.

    ¡°What is this a bloody conspiracy?¡± I said.

    ¡°Shut up, basic white fella,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°It would be a good place to raise the kids,¡± Ata said. ¡°The Marae would get used to us and rally around quick enough. We have the Navy to consider first, but when the world goes to shit, it would be a good place to settle.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we should all go for a visit after the kids are born,¡± Soph said.

    I am feeling Anawhata calling me.

    Ata smiled, ¡°Auntie Wai would love that. You would love Auntie Wai as well. She is everybody''s Auntie. Even I am too skinny for Auntie Wai. Her par¨¡oa parai is to die for.¡±

    ¡°Par¨¡oa parai?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°Fried bread,¡± Ata said.

    I definitely feel Anawhata calling me, although par¨¡oa parai has its own call.

    We get Ata settled. She has taken over my room upstairs with a view over the harbour. I have been moved downstairs to the wing opposite Carla and Soph¡¯s. My room opens directly onto the pool, which is an advantage for me. I am the one who uses it the most.

    The next day, Ata and Soph go to the hospital for Ata¡¯s check-up. Amanda Mohan is overseeing the pregnancy, but obstetrics is not her field of speciality, so another obstetrician is working with her. The world''s first mutant babies have turned Ata into a lab experiment, but it means she is getting the best of care.

    My apologies. They are not mutant babies. They are ¡®Enhanced¡¯ babies. We are Enhanced whether it is positive or not.

    Soph goes to all these things with Ata. Sometimes Carla goes as well. I don¡¯t. She invited me, but I don¡¯t think she expected me to go. It is a funny relationship if you can call it that. She gets on better with Carla and Soph than me. I really don¡¯t know how to do relationships. I am not sure I even want to. Ata getting pregnant was not intentional. I don¡¯t know what the fuck I am doing here.

    Anawhata is looking better all the time.

    It was late that night, and Ata had just left my room. Sex around a pregnant belly is a new experience. If Ata was trying to communicate something, I totally missed it. She needed to be like Carla and tell me bluntly. Ata was still outside in the hall when her phone went off. My hearing could pick up Soph and Carla¡¯s phones ringing at the same time. I think my phone is around here somewhere, but it must be off or flat.

    Ata came back in, still reading her message. She was only wearing an oversized t-shirt, and her breasts were already enlarged because of the pregnancy. I shouldn¡¯t be so easily distracted.

    ¡°An anomaly has appeared in the Hawkes Bay. They want us down there.¡±

    ¡°I will get up. Want to join me for a quick shower?¡±

    She gave me a distrustful look but joined me anyway. We weren¡¯t too late.

 67. Hawkes Bay.

    We decided to take both Ata¡¯s SUV and my ute. Hawkes Bay was a six-hour drive south of Auckland. Rich, our Staffordshire Terrier, the size of a small pony, was much more comfortable in the back of my ute than any other vehicle. I had a piece of wood on the tray floor so it was flat, and Soph made him a den.

    Soph¡¯s other bond, Eliza the Red-Wing parrot, would ride with her. Eliza and I don¡¯t get on very well, as she shits all over my stuff. I keep forgetting that Soph¡¯s third bond was Carla. I must find out more about how that works.

    The four ladies rode in Ata¡¯s Silver SUV, and we two boys were in the ute. Rich was in the back, and I had peace and quiet. Soph could sense emotions through Rich and using Rich¡¯s power, so I am guessing she organised this for me. I was getting peopled out.

    I had most of the gear with me. We had lost our illegally acquired weapons from the illegal foreign combatants in the last fight in Australia. The Navy had issued us with gun licenses for NZ but hadn¡¯t bothered to issue us with any guns. We had bought some. From our experience in Australia, powerful weapons would be more useful than light weapons that mutated creatures would shrug off.

    We went for the 9mm handguns rather than the smaller .22in. I am still puzzled by why countries still work in inches and feet. We each went for the Glock 19, and we all shared the same ammunition.

    We each had a longer weapon as well. Because my aim was shit, I went for a Shotgun. I got one that was reasonable out to a hundred meters and got a selection of buckshot and slugs to fire. Carla also got the shotgun, and we shared ammo.  Her aim was fine. She just intended to be up close. We also got one for Soph and Ata, and we all practised. They had a five-shot magazine and one in the chamber.

    Carla and the girls also got rifles. They got me one, too, but I don¡¯t intend to use it if I don¡¯t have to. They stuck to the .308 bolt action as the ammunition was plentiful, and they were reliable and good for big animals. We practised out to a kilometre, and Ata outshot Carla only because she could see that far much more clearly. Soph was better than me but only average. She stuck to the rifle as she did not want to get close to anything. When we tested how fast we could shoot the bolt action, Carla won hands down, emptying the five-round magazine they came with. We got larger ten-round magazines as well.

    With us all using the same guns, we got familiar with them and only had key ammo to stock up on. The longer guns and ammo were locked in a gun safe in the back seat area of my double cab ute. We also had knives and machetes, and I brought the spear guns.

    I had made scaled vests for Soph, Carla, and me. They would protect our torsos anyway. Carla needed to shed some more scales before I could make leggings and headgear. Ata could not empower the scales yet. She is working on it. She has been slowly donating feathers so we can put together a vest for her, but it is a work in progress. She wants to keep the feathers to make a blanket/backpack for the babies, but we will see. Feathers take time to grow back. Boosting does speed it up, but she has a limited Essence pool and no access to mine. I am working on something for Rich as well.

    Soph has the vest, but she and Eliza¡¯s best defence is to get out of the way with their gate system, which is a quick portal. Soph is getting better with practice. If she stays under ten meters, she has the essence for multiple gates. The interesting thing is that the opposite gate needs to be in the clear, but multiple objects can be in the way. She can gate through walls if she can see an open space through a window. If she times it right, she can shoot through a gate and, hence, through a wall. She times it right about fifty percent of the time, but it is improving with practice.

    We travelled through the night, stopping in the early hours of the morning at an all-night cafe in Taupo. Rich needed to get out and stretch his legs, so I took him down to the lake and let him run. I waded into the cool water. The snow-capped mountains of the central North Island feed Lake Taupo, so I always find it cool. This was into autumn now, although no snow had yet fallen.

    Rich came bounding up. Then my improved nightsight noticed the huge pile of dogshit he had left. I was very tempted to leave it and see if the locals could work out what animal had left it, but in the end, I removed it. Fish eat dogshit, right?

    As we returned to the vehicles, I heard the ladies argue about something.

    ¡°Hey, Bob,¡± Carla said, ¡°Ata thinks she has offended you in some way.¡±

    ¡°No,¡± I said, puzzled. ¡°Why would she think that?¡±

    ¡°Because you are being your normal uncommunicative, self-obsessed, antisocial self, and that is not how someone normally acts,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Oh.¡± I shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°See Ata. It is just him. Talk bluntly and clip him over the ears to get his attention,¡± Caral said.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

    ¡°Oh fuck off.¡±

    ¡°Prime example for you, Ata. This is normal for Bob,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Rich and I are leaving now,¡± I said, hopping into the truck as Rich jumped on the back, causing it to rock.

    We led the way over the windy Napier-Taupo Road. Dawn was coming as we crested the top of the Tarawera hills and headed down into Napier. Hawkes Bay is the name of the region that includes the twin cities of Napier and Hastings. It is a huge food-producing area with many orchards, market gardens, and vineyards.

    We drove through Napier and into Hastings. Soph had been searching for accommodation and found a lodge in an orchard just southwest of Hastings that accepted dogs. She booked the whole place for two weeks. We stopped for breakfast in Hastings as the current lodge guests would not check out until 10 a.m.

    Carla was on the phone with Commander Lewis¡¯s aide, and the military had taken over the Hastings Aerodrome. The main commercial airport was at Napier. The Hastings Aerodrome was for smaller planes, sightseeing tours, topdressing, gliding clubs, etc. They''re going to be pissed. The anomaly is about 2km southwest, between an orchard and a vineyard. It was discovered early and is only about 200m radius. We would meet at the quarantine barrier at 2 pm.

    We drive up to the lodge at 10:30, and I am in the lead. An elderly couple is out front, obviously expecting us. As I stop and Ata pulls up beside me, I feel a movement in the back and see the welcoming smiles drop off their faces. I glance in the rear vision mirror and see Rich¡¯s hind legs. He has his front paws up on the roll bar behind the cab and is looking over the top. They did say dogs were welcome.

    Then, the three ladies get out, drawing their attention. They look a bit puzzled for a minute, then recognise Soph. Of course, they recognise Soph, who is the media star, and then Ata and Carla, the heroines of Yagoonya, whose faces were plastered all over the news for weeks. I decide to wait it out in the truck.

    The wife is particularly forward: ¡°Welcome, welcome. Are you here to sort out that nasty business down the road for us, deary?¡±

    ¡°We have come to see if we can help, but the military is quite capable,¡± Soph says diplomatically.

    ¡°Your fur is so soft, isn¡¯t it, dear? It¡¯s lovely. Oh! I didn¡¯t realise you were pregnant, my dear. Come and take the weight off your feet.¡±

    ¡°Oh, is that your dog? My, he¡¯s a big one.¡± The truck rocked as Rich jumped down to greet the lady.

    ¡°You have a bird as well, aren¡¯t you wonderfully trained not to fly away.¡±

    I wish it would.

    ¡°Aren¡¯t you a little cutie? Howard, hey Howard, can you take a photo with our new guests.¡±

    Howard looked at me. I nodded that he should go ahead and take a photo of the women and animals. I am sure the local knitting group, or whoever, are going to be fascinated. Howard took a couple of photos on his phone.

    ¡°Now, we don¡¯t want people coming around to see us, Bethel,¡± Soph said sternly, ¡°Ata here is going to need her rest.¡±

    I am surprised Ata didn¡¯t clobber her. I am pretty sure Soph has been reading her emotions the whole time, and the pregnancy is probably the thing she will respond to the best. Our Witch is at work.

    ¡°Yes, yes, dear, these are just for us.¡± Yeah right. ¡°I know what it is like with a young one on the way. I have had four, you know. Come in, come in. I will show you the units.¡±

    Bethel led them off to see the two free-standing cottages that they rented out, talking the whole time.

    Howard watched them go and then wandered to my side of the truck. I lowered the window to talk to him.

    ¡°Morning.¡±

    ¡°Morning,¡± I replied.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about Bethel. She gets excited, but she will calm down. Don¡¯t worry about the photo either. Bethel can¡¯t even unlock these cofounded things,¡± he said, indicating his phone. She still uses the landline in the house.¡±

    Holy shit, I thought landlines were a thing of the past. ¡°Appreciated,¡± was all I said. I wonder if they have wifi here.

    ¡°Do you want to come in?¡± Howard asked.

    ¡°I was waiting for the excitement to settle, but we can start with some of the luggage,¡± I said. Howard helped me get some bags from the SUV, and I followed him to one of the cottages. We put the luggage on the porch and went back to get the groceries we bought.

    ¡°Oh, here,¡± said Howard, handing me a piece of paper. ¡°It''s the Wi-Fi password, but if you have trouble, I will need to call my granddaughter. She set it up for us. Just let me know if I need to. The last folks were fine.¡±

    ¡°Thanks.¡±

    We were bringing in the whole chilly bin full of dog food as Soph ushered Bethel out of the other cabin.

    ¡°Thank you for all your help. We need to rest now as we have been driving all night. We will be sure to call you if we need anything,¡± she said.

    ¡°Thanks, Howard,¡± I said.

    ¡°Sure thing,¡± he replied and went to guide his wife away.

    I grabbed a couple of bags, and Soph grabbed the others.

    ¡°They are two-bedroom places. We three will be fine here. You can have that one to yourself.¡±

    ¡°Thanks. Here. Wi-Fi password.¡±

    We sorted the luggage, and I lay down for a rest. I made sure to set the alarm.

 68. Exciting.

    I woke feeling groggy, so I had a quick shower. I would prefer a swim, but it was about a half-hour drive to the beach, and I didn¡¯t have time right now, maybe after we had seen the anomaly. I grabbed a bite to eat and went to see the ladies.

    They were gearing up. Ata was checking the pistols and two shotguns. Soph was making sandwiches, and Carla was stretching.

    ¡°You going to stay in skin?¡± I asked her.

    ¡°For now,¡± Carla replied. ¡°The danger seems low at the moment.¡±

    ¡°Bugger. I could do with more scales.¡±

    She gave me the finger.

    We all squeezed into my truck to head out. It was a double-cab ute, but it was still squashed. The anomaly zone was only five minutes away.

    We drove up to the checkpoint, which the Army manned. We all piled out of the ute and must have looked a sight in our homemade cameo vests. They got nervous when I strapped the pistol and a machete to my waist, and the girls pulled out the shotguns.

    I walked up to the soldiers while the girls armed themselves.

    ¡°Robert Wilkinson,¡± I said, showing my military ID, ¡°We have an appointment with Commander Lewis.¡± Rich trotted up beside me.

    Two tents were set up just inside the cordon, and a Lieutenant emerged from one of them. Rich growled.

    He examined our IDs and said, ¡°You will need to leave your weapons here. We will provide what you need.¡±

    ¡°We have provided what we need, Lieutenant,¡± I said. ¡°The commander is waiting for us.¡±

    Behind me, Carla pulled out a phone and pushed the speed dial.

    ¡°You will not be proceeding armed as you are. We will provide an escort,¡± The Lieutenant insisted.

    ¡°You have never been inside an anomaly. We have all experienced two. We know what we need,¡± I said.

    Behind me, I heard Carla say, ¡°No, there is a Lieutenant obstructing our entrance. Yes, he¡¯s going to be a problem. Thank you.¡± She hung up. Then she stepped forward, ¡°Don¡¯t bother the Lieutenant, Bob. There is an escort coming.¡±

    We all retreated to the truck and waited, leaving the Lieutenant with nobody to argue against. Two minutes later, an army jeep drove up to the checkpoint from further in.

    Ngoi jumped out and then waved us forward. I jumped in the truck, and Ata got in the front passenger while Soph and Carla rode on the back tray with Rich. The barrier arm lifted, and we drove through and followed Ngoi.

    The drive toward the anomaly was past rows of ripe grapes. Whoever owns this vineyard will lose a whole season of grapes. The forward camp was at a farmhouse past the vineyard. I could see rows of trees, most laden with fruit. The anomaly appeared in the harvest season.

    Ngoi pulled up to the farmhouse, and we pulled in behind him. We greeted each other, and then I said, ¡°What¡¯s happening in Aussie? I haven¡¯t heard about any nuclear blast.¡±

    ¡°Nah, They are still dithering. The anomaly is already larger than before. It expanded faster, and the theory is it is because it is stronger.¡±

    ¡°So it is being used as a source of enhancement then,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Essentially, the UK is there now, along with Indonesia, Japan, Papua New Guinea, and some of the smaller Island nations,¡± Ngoi replied.

    ¡°I am sure Australia has negotiated many benefits when granting that,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°I am sure. They have also found another one by Perth, but that is not common knowledge yet.¡± Ngoi agreed. ¡°Come in, the Commander is waiting.¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

    Commander Lewis was in what used to be the lounge area, but it was now a meeting room. Three others were there, one of whom was Dr Amanda Mohan.

    ¡°Good, you are here,¡± Lewis said. ¡°You know, Dr Mohan. To my left is Captain Griffiths, and to my right is Dr Goodwin. Captain Griffiths is now second in command from the army, and Dr Goodwin is a horticultural researcher specialising in genetics, biotechnology, and environmental biology. Please meet our most experienced Enhanced consultants, Robert Wilkinson, Carla Vaa¡¯i, Sophia Hardcastle and Ataahua Wihongi, who, until recently, was a lieutenant in the Navy and my second in command.¡±

    We greeted each other. Captain Griffiths was reserved. He was about my age and looked like he had a lot of experience. Dr Goodwin was enthusiastic in her field of expertise. She was a plump middle-aged woman and seemed like she would be more at home in a lab or classroom.

    ¡°Let''s get into the background. Five days ago, Zeb Harris was admitted to Hastings Hospital with unknown symptoms. He went into a coma, and three days ago, he was confirmed as going through an enhancement. Zeb is the onsite caretaker for the vineyard and does general handyman work in the neighbourhood. The orchard is owned separately, but Zeb is known to do the odd job for them as well.¡±

    A picture of Zeb appeared on the screen. ¡°Zeb is 69 years old and has suffered a limp since his teenage years when his leg was badly crushed in a motorcycle accident. Zeb¡¯s Enhancement process has completely healed his leg. We are not sure yet if this is a one-off enhancement or if there are ongoing effects, like Dr Mohan''s. Dr Mohan is here to find out.¡±

    ¡°The anomaly itself is just on the vineyard side of the boundary between the two properties. It is at ground level, and while some vines and trees have died, it is less than expected.¡±

    We were shown low-level aerial drone footage of the vineyard and orchard. As Lewis said, while there were some dead plants, they were much less than fifty percent. The anomaly itself came into view, and at first, I thought is was yellow, but then decided it was a light green, perhaps with some light brown.

    Lewis continued, ¡°Our colour experts consider this to be a very light green with some tan mixed in, although it also could be a yellow with tan. The green theory is persuasive as those who were enhanced at the Yagoonya Anomaly have an easier time than those of us who were Enhanced at the Waiheke Anomaly.  We think the dark Turquoise green makes that easier than the Fluorescent Blue of Waiheke. That is partly why you four are here to test the Waiheke Essence against this anomaly, as I am the only other one present at the moment.¡±

    Lewis paused, and an aerial map appeared on the screen with some concentric circles drawn on it. This blue circle is the average distance the essence can be sensed by those enhanced that are present. It is a 180m radius from the Anomaly, with a 30m variation in detection positions. These other circles are at 50m intervals.¡±

    I looked at the image carefully. It was entitled The Ruakawa Anomaly, after the nearby road and small group of houses. Inside the 50m radius was a barn and some labelled beehives. The vines were labelled Syrah grapes. Rows of orchard trees in the 50m zone included Nectarine. The 100m radius included some Plum and Pear trees. The 150m included some grazing paddocks with a few sheep. The 180m touched a neighbour''s fields, and they were labelled maise and squash.

    ¡°As you can imagine,¡± Lewis continued, ¡°There is a lot of interest in this miraculous healing. We are under pressure to see what benefits might be gained from the Ruakawa Anomaly. We are also under pressure to destroy it before it gets too large, so time is limited. Crop samples have been retrieved for Dr Goodwin, and a number are showing health benefits.¡±

    ¡°Yes indeed,¡± piped up Dr Goodwin, ¡°It is very exciting.¡±

    ¡°Here is a link to our current knowledge and leading theories. At this stage, it is ¡°need to know,¡± so don¡¯t share it.¡± Lewis said. ¡°You four provided a number of very insightful inspirations for both Waiheke and Yagoonya, so we want you to go in and do the same here. Dr Mohan wants to go with you this time, and you will be escorted by Ngoi¡¯s squad, whom you know already. Here is a copy of the aerial map for your reference. Any questions?¡±

    Dr Mohan and Dr Goodwin had several, but I let them wash over me as my mind wandered. Is it the lack of blue that will make things difficult for us, who are pure blue? Is a mix of colours better? Rich is a mix. I wonder how he will cope. Eliza is Dark Turquoise from Yaggoonya. Perhaps light colours tend toward health and healing. It is not absolute, as Amanda has shown, but this anomaly could be a huge boon to New Zealand. We could make wine into health potions.

    ¡°Bob!¡±

    I bring my attention back to the room. Everybody is looking at me.

    ¡°Do you have any questions, Bob?¡± Carla said with a slight smile.

    ¡°Not at this time. I have to do some reading first,¡± I said, indicating the link that was also now on my phone.

    ¡°Were you even listening?¡± Captain Griffiths said in a disapproving way.

    I just ignored him, ¡°I assume there is a queue of people lining up to get what Zeb got?¡±

    ¡°We are trying to contain the information for now, but I imagine it will complicate things,¡± Lewis said.

    ¡°So, are we ready to head in?¡± I asked.

    We all went outside, and Ngoi, Neke and Kai were waiting. ¡°We will be going on foot from here,¡± Ngoi said.

    I emptied my backpack of most things, as I wanted space to collect samples. Rich came up to us, but I didn¡¯t see Eliza anywhere.

    ¡°Let''s go.¡±

 69. Ruakawa Anomaly.

    We walked in relative silence for about five hundred meters. I was comparing our position on my phone mapping to the aerial map I had been given. I was weaving in and out of the others. I stopped at 220m out. Amanda got her phone out and started recording us and her surroundings.

    ¡°Here?¡± Ngoi said.

    ¡°What can I say? I am a sensitive soul,¡± I replied.

    Carla snorted.

    ¡°Let''s keep going until we can all feel it,¡± I said.

    About 50m further in, we were all sensing it, and we stopped.

    ¡°It does feel uncomfortable,¡± I said.

    ¡°A bit like sandpaper,¡± Soph said, ¡°no, that is not quite right.¡±

    ¡°Like it is roughly trying to suck essence out of us?¡± Carla said.

    I nodded.

    ¡°See, it is not like that for me,¡± Amanda said. ¡°It is not the same as Yagoonya, but it is not trying to fight me.¡±

    Ngoi, Neke and Kai agreed with Amanda.

    I tried the wave technique, and it helped. The whirlpool didn¡¯t. Combining both was about the same as the waves; I needed the practice, so I did that. Keeping your essence moving was a good general defence against foreign essence, and none of us four had built up immunity to this yet.

    ¡°Perhaps we should wait here for a bit and see if we built immunity,¡± I said. I moved to a nearby fence to lean against it.

    ¡°Can you turn off your recording for a bit, Amanda,¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°Sure.¡± and she put her phone down.

    ¡°What about you, Ngoi?¡± I asked, indicating his shoulder cam.

    Ngoi shrugged, ¡°OK.¡± He reached up and pressed a button on the side.

    ¡°Now that is interesting,¡± I said. ¡°That didn¡¯t turn it off.¡±

    Ngoi looked at it and said, ¡°The light is off.¡±

    ¡°But it is still recording,¡± I said, looking at him.

    ¡°It is?¡± he acted surprised.

    I saw Soph nod. He was surprised.

    I mused aloud while it was still recording, ¡°I wonder if we will get back and find out the vehicle and rooms are bugged? Who would do that? I''m lucky I bought my bug-finder.¡±

    ¡°It is either mistrust in the military, or it is foreign players already,¡± Soph said, ¡°as your equipment is faulty, Ngoi, it would indicate we shouldn¡¯t trust the military,¡± she said, knowing it was still recording.

    Ngoi finally got frustrated and ripped it off his shoulder, and the electrical field I was sensing died.

    ¡°That seems to have done it,¡± I said.

    ¡°Who is Captain Griffiths?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°According to his record, he has been around a lot of different army units, both here and overseas,¡± Neke said.

    ¡°I know he wasn¡¯t Lewis¡¯ first choice,¡± Ngoi said. ¡°We are now permanently assigned to this unit,¡± he added.

    ¡°He hates enhanced,¡± Soph said. ¡°When I entered with my fur and Ata with her feathers, his hate spiked.¡±

    ¡°I didn¡¯t notice,¡± I said.

    ¡°I am more sensitive than you to the small signs,¡± she said. ¡°You can¡¯t even recognise a legal officer wearing patches signifying it.¡±

    ¡°Really?¡± said Ata. ¡°That''s a true story? That is hilarious. I heard a version from the legal section and didn¡¯t believe it.¡±

    I grumbled as everyone was laughing at me.

    ¡°I hadn''t noticed anything particularly hostile from him around our team,¡± Ngoi said, indicating his fur and Neke¡¯s snakeskin.

    ¡°He doesn¡¯t spend much time around us,¡± Neke said. ¡°Maybe that is on purpose.¡±

    ¡°I have overheard him pushing Lewis to close the anomaly quickly,¡± Ngoi said, ¡°but that is no different to others.¡±

    ¡°I suggest he is more dedicated to that than he lets on,¡± I said. I fully believed Soph and wanted the source of things to come back to me. I can be the target of retaliation. ¡°I believe he needs watching. If he takes command, can he destroy the anomaly?¡±

    ¡°The commander is the man on the ground with the final say,¡± Ngoi said.

    I didn¡¯t say any more. They were smart.

    I turned to Ata, ¡°How are the rugrats handling this?¡±

    ¡°They are fine, but I might stay here and build immunity before going deeper. I think building immunity will take longer in this hostile essence.¡±

    ¡°I think so, too.¡± I turned to Soph, ¡°What about Rich and Eliza?¡±

    ¡°They are fine. Eliza has already had eyes on the anomaly, but she can¡¯t get within the last 30m or so.¡±

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    ¡°I want to get a sense of the power gradient. Waiheke was a lot steeper than Yagoonya, but it was smaller.¡±

    ¡°Rich will go with you,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°So will I,¡± said Ngoi.

    ¡°And I,¡± said Carla.

    ¡°Well, why not,¡± said Amanda, ¡°it is why I came.¡±

    So, the four of us set off after Rich. This was a lot more difficult. We paused to examine the plants and fruit. Some trees were red stickered as they had been tested with detrimental effects. Testing was ongoing.

    I was annoyed that I didn¡¯t test the gradient increase at Waiheke, but I was pretty ignorant back then, as we all were. We still are.

    Carla stopped first to wait and build immunity. Amanda and Ngoi seemed fine. It must be the essence type. I was constantly circling my essence and sending waves through my body. It was harder than Yagoonya. More hostile, but that implies intent. It is more inhospitable or incompatible with the Waiheke Essence.

    It was a steep power gradient. I wonder if that was because it was young and small rather than spread out like Yagoonya. We were more compatible with Yagoonya, and that definitely makes a difference. I am pretty sure Yagoonya grew with power over time as well. The way it expanded back so quickly indicated that as well.

    I picked a nectarine.

    ¡°That tree hasn¡¯t been tested,¡± said Ngoi.

    I grabbed my knife and cut it open. It looked like a ripe, juicy nectarine. ¡°What sort of variations have been found,¡± I asked.

    ¡°It is all on the link you have, but some improve the effectiveness of various vitamins and aspects, and some will give a boost to your immune system and speed up healing. Some will give you the runs for days. Some are deadly. You can often tell which ones are dangerous by the dead insects and animals on the ground under them.¡±

    I looked around this tree. Nothing unusual. I put some fruit into my pack, as well as a small branch. I was doing this to most large plants we walked past.

    ¡°How do they measure the Essence Content in the fruit? What effect does that have?¡±

    ¡°Mate, you will have to read the data collected for that. I am not that scientifically minded,¡± Ngoi said.

    He was a soldier, first and foremost. I was a jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

    Except for civil engineering. I mastered that one.

    I looked around.

    ¡°What are you looking for?¡± Amanda asked.

    ¡°Insects, ants, things like that.¡± I saw a couple of small birds.

    I saw a barn in the distance and checked the aerial photo. It was just on the 50m line. Behind the barn were the bee hives. I was not going to get anywhere close to the 50m line. The way I was feeling now, I would be lucky to make 100m.

    ¡°What¡¯s in the barn?¡± I asked Ngoi.

    ¡°Machinery, sprays, tractor, and other farm equipment like that.¡±

    ¡°Has the honey been tested?¡± I asked.

    ¡°I believe so.¡±

    I stopped well short of how far I could go. I am paranoid, but people underestimating me always helps.

    ¡°What are your thoughts so far?¡± Amanda was fishing.

    ¡°You are the specialist here,¡± I countered. I tossed her a nectarine, ¡°Want to go for double or nothing?¡±

    ¡°No, I think not,¡± she said. ¡°I will study it, and the personal experience is great, but I am not risking it again.¡±

    ¡°Wise,¡± I said, picking a bunch of grapes and putting them in my pack. ¡°It seems like a blend of colours makes you more compatible with more anomalies. We might be restricting ourselves with the florescent blue.¡± That didn¡¯t feel quite right to me, but it is a logical deduction. There is so much we don¡¯t know. ¡°I am going to head back to the others.¡±

    I was conscious that everything I said was going to be reported back, so I kept things to myself, not that I had a lot of thoughts. It was harder for us as the essence seemed more incompatible with mine.

    I would need time to read and process.

    We picked up Carla and joined Soph and the others. Soph and Ata were chatting. They could both be pregnant now. I wonder if Soph can sense a baby in her own womb.

    We joined them, and I showed them both the map. ¡°This barn doesn¡¯t have any animals, according to Ngoi, but the bees are alive behind it.¡±

    Soph nodded. ¡°Eliza is in the area.¡± She nodded to me slightly. She got the message. Search for animals she might bond to.

    ¡°What is in it?¡± Ata asked.

    ¡°Farm equipment and chemicals,¡± I said, ¡°But Eliza is checking.¡±

    Then I noticed Rich trotting away into the orchard. It was getting late and nearing dinner time.

    ¡°Time to go,¡± I said. The immunity is vastly slower here. At Yagoonya, we moved and stopped and repeated. This had a steeper strength gradient, but I felt I hadn¡¯t made much progress after three hours here.

    We arrived at the truck, and a Lieutenant met us. ¡°I am sorry we can¡¯t let you take any live samples from the quarantine zone,¡± he said, indicating my backpack that had a branch sticking out of it.

    ¡°That is fine,¡± I said, getting Carla''s backpack and filling it with the stuff I had emptied from mine. I tossed the keys to Ata and grabbed my shotgun. ¡°See you guys tomorrow,¡± I said, walking back into the zone and then going off the track to find a spot where I could see things easily. I found a spot on a small rise where I could see the side of the barn and the metalled area in front of it. The hives were just out of sight, but if I climbed the post the vines were growing from, I could see the top of them. I couldn¡¯t see the anomaly. I made a camp. I pulsed Carla, ¡°Watch for bugs.¡± She acknowledged.

    I watched the sunset as I munched on some fruit. They were the fruit from the trees not marked in red. I had to keep a steady, active resistance going, and it was uncomfortable for me. It would be a long night. Shortly after the sun went down, Rich came and joined me.

    More animals are active at night than during the day. In the early evening, birds were feeding, and insects were out and chirping.

    Rabbits appeared and grazed. Possums started their hunt for food. I hear the call of the More-pork owl. There were mice or rats about, according to my smell and hearing. It was early autumn, so not many crickets were still about.

    I sat and contemplated my navel. I was testing my hearing and my smell, pushing my night sight. I heard a patrol of obviously enhanced soldiers circle the outer 150m mark. An aerial night drone flew over. Once it had gone, I shifted position. I didn¡¯t go far, but not where they saw me.

    All the while, I was tasting, testing the essence. Why was it different? Why did it feel wrong to my essence? I had no answers.

    I rang Soph at 11 pm, ¡°I have put four nectarines in front of Rich from four different trees. Can he tell the difference between them with essence?¡±

    ¡°No, they are all the same.¡±

    Then Carla pulsed. ¡°L to R. S to W. 1 3 4 2¡±

    So definitely, the closer in the fruit, the stronger it is. But what does the essence do? The fruit mutates according to the tree it was on. Does the essence contained in it just make the mutation enhancement stronger, or does it do something else, as well?

    I ate another one, trying to sense what would happen to the essence as I ate. The essence seemed to be rebuffed by mine. That made sense, as the Roo meat we ate in Aussie didn¡¯t do anything either. Maybe it assists in immunising. Maybe. I stored the stone pit from the centre with the other grape seeds, pear seeds and plum pits.

    Rich took off for a while. I assume he was checking something out for Soph.

    Others can work out mutations, genetics, and other stuff. I still feel the key is the essence and essence types. I have worked out some limited crafting with it from Carla¡¯s scales. There has to be more. Patterns are part of the key there. I know it.

    I still can¡¯t use Essence outside my body like Buck could. I am not convinced it is just a mutation. Soph could reproduce it through their bond once she was strong enough. Why? How?

    I moved again. This time, nearer the edge, I didn¡¯t have to repel the essence actively, so I slept for a few hours.

 70. Testing.

    The Anomaly is only 5km from our accommodation as Eliza flies. It is only 2km from a nearby road in the same direction. Eliza turned up, holding a small cloth bag as the sky was lit up with the rising sun. I put the seeds and pits into the bag, and she flew off. Soph would examine them with more care over breakfast. She and Rich are the ones who can see patterns. I hate to admit it, but she is more intelligent than Rich.

    At dawn, I find a comfortable spot, crack open my Laptop, sync to the mobile data on my phone and start reading what the brains have figured out to date. The latest article is Amanda¡¯s impressions of the Anomaly from yesterday. Nothing really new. I start reading backwards in date order from there.

    Dr Goodwin loves her techno-jargon. Seriously, her writings are almost incomprehensible. Was it even English? On the difficult ones, reading the introduction and the summary/conclusion at the end is often enough. I often didn¡¯t even understand her conclusion. There were others, and I absorbed what I could and let it percolate in my brain.

    Around 10 am, I packed it up and moved further out to the edge. I was at the opposite edge of the army base. Ten minutes later, I heard the sound of my truck approaching. Carla was driving around the edge of the anomaly to me. She parked nearby, and the five ladies, including Eliza and Amanda, got out.

    It wasn¡¯t Amanda I was worried about. It is the rest of the world, especially those with grudges like Captain Grudge himself. Rich came bounding up from wherever he had been. I checked them all for bugs, the electronic kind. I didn¡¯t mention Soph¡¯s fleas. The Ute cab was bugged, and there was a tracking device on the back, but I left them for now. I put my phone on charge and set up the solar panels to charge the laptop.

    Soph had brought brunch, so we sat well away from the truck and ate, enjoying the lovely morning. The ladies chatted about various unimportant stuff.

    Amanda kept glancing at me. I could tell she was keen to turn the conversation to the anomaly. Eventually, she turned to me and asked, ¡°So, any insights last night?¡±

    ¡°Are you asking for you or the military?¡±

    ¡°Me, although the military wants answers ASAP. You have a problem with Lewis?¡±

    ¡°Not Lewis, but I distrust organisations as a rule, particularly when I don¡¯t know those sending the orders down the line.¡±

    ¡°Especially when they covertly listen in to us,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°They placed listening bugs on you? After Ngoi yesterday?¡±

    I nodded, ¡°The cab of the ute is bugged.¡±

    ¡°That certainly doesn¡¯t engender trust,¡± she said. ¡°Are you certain it was the military and not someone else?¡±

    ¡°The truck was not bugged when we arrived yesterday morning, and when I packed my gear for the overnight stay, it was, so it was sitting all day inside a quarantine with only army-controlled access. What do you think?¡±

    Amanda frowned, ¡°I will bring it up with Commander Lewis.¡±

    I just nodded. I looked at Ata.

    ¡°I am good,¡± she said.

    I looked at Soph, ¡°No problems.¡±

    ¡°Carla?¡± I asked

    She shrugged, ¡°I guess I am OK.¡±

    OK then. ¡°No big insights last night, but there are some things we can test. Soph?¡±

    ¡°I have a few options around for potential bonds,¡± she said. ¡°There is a rat nest in the barn and some rabbit burrows nearby. Catching birds is an option, but it is too late for nests. There are some skinks around as well. A possum came and went last night, and there are the sheep. I would prefer a smaller animal, though. I am not sure about the bees. I looked up queen bees, and I was unsure if I could recognise them or whether bonding would enable control of the hive.¡±

    ¡°Have you figured out what makes a good bond? Is it the pattern?¡± I asked.

    ¡°It is not the pattern, or it is not anything I can currently recognise in the pattern. Rich and Eliza had very different patterns and essence colours. I know I can only bond with enhanced animals. No plants unless they somehow develop mental abilities. So it is essence, but it also has to do with the mind, and I think we can test that today and hopefully narrow it down.¡±

    I noticed she left Carla out of the list of her bonds. She is not fully trusting. Maybe Carla and I have taught her something. ¡°What about temporary bonds?¡± I asked.

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    ¡°I don¡¯t think that is me. I get emotionally attached, and while I can close bonds, I don¡¯t want to.¡±

    ¡°So your emotions probably play a part in the bonding.¡±

    ¡°Most likely. We stopped at a pet store and got different types of food, nets, cages, etc. They are in the back of the ute.¡±

    ¡°How many bonds can you have at once?¡± Amanda asked.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know,¡± Soph said. ¡°It could be an essence limit, or a mental limit, or a combination. It might depend on the type of bond it is. Dogs I know. I grew up with a dog. Birds are more work, I think. Although getting to know Eliza over the last few months makes it easier to understand her.¡±

    ¡°Of the animals we found, which resonates the best for you?¡± I asked.

    ¡°The mammals, definitely. Rabbits, rats. The sheep, not so much, though. That may be because Rich looks at them hungrily. The birds are also OK, probably because of my time with Eliza. Lizards and insects, not so much.¡±

    I wondered about fish and sharks through Carla, but I didn¡¯t go there yet. ¡°We should probably start with the least likely as if you can build an understanding that will make things easier in the future.¡±

    Soph made a face but didn¡¯t disagree.

    ¡°What is your plan,¡± I ask.

    ¡°I plan to sit here with Ata and enjoy the day while Rich and Carla go hunting to capture animals for me. We bought plenty of snacks and drinks, didn¡¯t we, Ata?¡±

    Ata smiled and nodded. Soph was acting as if she was pregnant even though we didn¡¯t know yet. That was wise. We couldn¡¯t confirm for a couple of weeks unless she can sense the essence of the new baby. I am sure she is checking.

    Come to think of it, I don¡¯t think I signed the legal papers she gave me. They are back at the Hardcastle shack somewhere. We will get back there eventually.

    ¡°I might need to change those plans a bit. I can go pet hunting with Rich, but I have another test for Carla. Is that OK with you?¡± I asked. I was really asking if her senses through Rich were enough or if she needed Carla¡¯s senses.

    Soph nodded. ¡°It is fine.¡±

    Carla perked up.

    I looked at Carla, ¡°You have two forms you can change into, but I said there might be more, but they are not complete, fully mutated or something.¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°Do you think those forms are fixed at the time of your mutation, or can new forms be added?¡±

    ¡°Enhancement, not Mutation,¡± Amanda reminded us.

    Carla and I were in sync because we both gave her the finger simultaneously. The Bitch and the Bastard together as one! The Witch told us off, though. Ata needs a superhero name. Hawkeye? No, we would get done for copyright infringement. Birdbrain? No, I would get clobbered.

    Carla was concentrating and said, ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Want to test it?¡±

    ¡°What are you thinking?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°Before we go on, in your unformed mutations, is there a Kangaroo?¡±

    ¡°You think eating mutated things might open other forms?¡±

    ¡°It is a thought. There has got to be more to this essence that we currently know.¡±

    She concentrated for a bit, ¡°I don¡¯t think so.¡±

    ¡°Maybe we just didn¡¯t eat enough? Why did you cut those stakes and cook them for us?¡±

    ¡°It was just a last ¡®fuck you¡¯ to the Roo that killed Buck.¡±

    ¡°The carpet is good too.¡±

    She smiled.

    I continued, ¡°Maybe you just need to eat more to get the option. I don¡¯t know, but we are in a mutated orchard at harvest time. We can test that.¡±

    ¡°You want to turn me into a tree?¡±

    ¡°Grapevine, preferably. Then if you start pissing wine, we can bottle it and make a fortune.¡±

    That got a laugh from Ata and Soph. Amanda looked a little shocked.

    ¡°Fuck you,¡± Carla said.

    ¡°Toasting with a bottle of the Bitch¡¯s Piss sounds awesome. I have the branding all worked out,¡± I said.

    ¡°I don¡¯t want to know,¡± said Carla.

    ¡°Your transformations are only partial,¡± I said more seriously. ¡°If not, we can plant you somewhere until I decide to give you the essence to change.¡± I ducked that swipe. My electroreceptors are good at giving me that little advanced warning. ¡°Grapes, nectarines, plums and pears are your choices. Grapes are by far more plentiful.¡± I tossed her a grape, and she ate it.

    ¡°Sitting around all day with Soph and Ata eating grapes sounds like a great test to me,¡± she said.

    ¡°I thought it might. Nothing might happen. It might be fixed, but now is the chance to test it. This is also a strong test, as it is in an incompatible Essence zone. If it can be done here, it can be done anywhere, or that is the theory.¡± I said. I looked at Ata, but I spoke to her and Soph, ¡°You might also consider eating mutated fruit. It might speed up the immunisation, giving the kids a head start. Not sure, but it might.¡±

    ¡°But what about upgrades for you and Ata?¡± Soph asked. ¡°You have worked out possible upgrade paths for me and Carla, but what about you two?¡±

    ¡°The Bastard and the Babe? Oh, is Babe is not a good name? No, let''s consider more options there. There is more about essence to come. I am working on the details.¡±

    I am working on the details. It is not all bullshit. Or dogshit, in this case. Birdshit? I think the key is using our essence to enhance our mutations and the link to patterns. There have to be other uses.

 71. Live capture.

    Capturing live animals is a bitch. I put a couple of spiders in a jar. That was easy. I thought the skinks would be next, as we would go for the least likely animals first. Skinks are small and fast and can get to all sorts of places as a bond. I can¡¯t catch them because they are small, fast, and can get in all sorts of places. Even with Rich ¡®herding¡¯ them towards me, I missed them. It was a very frustrating hour. Then bloody Eliza swoops in and grabs one so easily. Then she eats it. At that point, I gave up on skinks as a bond.

    We tracked the possum next. It was sleeping in a tree outside the Anomaly Zone, but it had been in, so it was either mutating or had mutated already. It certainly was not in a coma and got away from me the first time. I thought they were supposed to sleep during the day. I got it on the third try in the second tree. Why can¡¯t I just shoot them?

    We stopped for lunch with the ladies at that point. They had a blanket out, a drinks cooler, and snacks laid out. They were having a great time. There was a plastic lid on the grass next to the blanket with small piles of grape seeds in various groupings.

    ¡°What is that smell, and where is Carla?¡± I asked.

    Ata just laughed.

    ¡°Ah, yes,¡± Soph said, ¡°that last bunch of grapes were from a not-so-great vine, and Carla is voiding her bowls and emptying her stomach. We did ask her to go further away, but I think it was urgent. We might need to relocate.¡±

    ¡°Not pissing wine yet, huh? Going by the smell. Where is Amanda?¡±

    ¡°She had to go to the hospital to see her patient. The good news is I have identified a difference in the patterns in the essence of the grapes, which means I can probably avoid this in the future,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°That is good news. Maybe we should relocate over that way,¡± I said, starting to pick things up.

    It didn¡¯t take us long to move upwind. Carla joined us a short time later but didn¡¯t want lunch. She started to pull on my essence for healing. It is a cheat for her whole body to be able to do that. Good on her. Cheating is good.

    ¡°Not spiders, not insects,¡± Soph said. ¡°The emotions they evoke are not conducive to bonding.¡±

    ¡°Not skinks either?¡± I asked.

    ¡°No, but I wouldn¡¯t necessarily rule out all reptiles.¡±

    ¡°The possum?¡±

    ¡°Maybe? I could perhaps bond with it. There is more involved than just my emotions; there is the animal, and I think the essence and the mutations. In this case, the essence is hostile, so I need more positives in the other areas, and I have no idea what its mutation might be.¡±

    ¡°Hostile is an interesting way to describe it.¡±

    ¡°I seem to have to fight against it. That was not the case in Waiheke and much less so in Yagoonya.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s leave the possum for now. It can sleep in the cage, and we can decide later,¡± I said.

    ¡°Birds, rabbits and rats, I think,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°The rats might be a problem as I don¡¯t think I can get as far in as the shed,¡± I said. ¡°Bird hunting after lunch,¡± I said to Rich.

    He ignored me.

    ¡°Hey Carla, do you want to share this watermelon with me?¡±

    She gave me the finger and shifted further away.

    I had a fairly peaceful lunch after that. Ata just looked on, amused.

    Birds. Birds needed patience and a quick net. By late afternoon, I had caged a thrush, sparrow and a fantail. Rich was useless at bird hunting.

    I did see Enhanced military personnel come and go collecting samples and labelling things.

    I left the bird cage with Soph, and we went rabbit hunting. Rich was much better at rabbit hunting. He loved chasing rabbits. For this reason, I had the feeling they would not be a suitable bond. Nonetheless, we had two uneaten rabbits in a cage by dinner. I think Rich had had his dinner.

    When we got back, the birdcage was empty. ¡°No luck?¡± I asked Soph.

    She smiled, and a small fantail fluttered around me. ¡°Bob, meet Barbara. Barb for short.¡±

    ¡°Barb? Not another bloody sportswoman, I hope.¡±

    ¡°Of course. Barbara Kendell. Five consecutive Olympics, three medals, Sailboarder.¡±

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    ¡°I am not interested in the original Barbara. What about this one?¡±

    ¡°You should be. She is amazing. Barb here was the most compatible. I am still not quite sure why.¡±

    ¡°I should be calling you Birdbrain. I wouldn¡¯t think of calling Ata that,¡± I said

    ¡°You had better not!¡± Ata responded. ¡°I said she should call it P¨© as the most common Maori name for a fantail is p¨©wakawaka. She ignored my advice.¡±

    ¡°I suggested Manulele, but I also got ignored,¡± Carla said, ¡°I think she is more interested in sports than I realised.¡±

    ¡°I used to love coming and watching you compete,¡± Soph said, ¡°I am an enthusiastic supporter!¡±

    ¡°And how is our little grapevine growing?¡± I asked Carla.

    She scowled, ¡°I don¡¯t think I want to see another grape in my life. However, you may be onto something. It will take a lot more than a day, and I am sure my immunity to the essence needs to be much higher. Are you planning to stay overnight again?¡±

    ¡°I was in two minds about it. I could do with a swim, but this opportunity may be taken from us at any time, so I feel we need to make the most of it,¡± I replied.

    ¡°I am going to stay the night,¡± Carla declared. ¡°I am not having grapes for dinner, though!¡±

    ¡°We should probably set up a more permanent camp.¡± I looked at Soph. ¡°Is my tent in the ute?¡±

    She nodded.

    ¡°What are you thinking, Bob?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°Many things. Most recently, Essesence compatibility or immunisations are more important than I realised. There is probably some advantage to having one pure type, but I am not sure what it is at the moment. The blue-green of Yagoonya seems more versatile, as it allows easier access to others with green aspects and, I presume, also with blue.¡±

    ¡°Do you think we should diversify, like Rich?¡± Soph asked.

    ¡°That is a big risk. Definitely not for pregnant people,¡± I replied.

    ¡°Not for you either!¡± Carla said.

    ¡°But you are wondering, aren¡¯t you? A second mutation means more volume of Essence. Would it be enough?¡± I said to her.

    ¡°And it might make this change easier,¡± she added.

    ¡°But¡­?¡±

    ¡°But I can¡¯t do that to Soph. You are my lifesaver, and you continue to save me because if you weren¡¯t here, I would probably tempt another mutation.¡±

    ¡°You know my price to stick around, now.¡±

    ¡°Pissing wine?¡±

    ¡°Pissing wine.¡±

    ¡°It is probably not going to happen,¡± Carla warned.

    ¡°Not with that attitude. Put some effort into it,¡± I said. I tossed her a small bunch of grapes.

    She gave me the finger.

    ¡°What are you doing, Soph?¡±

    ¡°I think this rabbit might be a good bond.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure? I think Rich ate several of his relatives for dinner,¡± I replied.

    ¡°No, this is different. Rich will be fine with another bond.¡±

    I looked over, and Rich was sitting watching us, and Eliza was standing on his head. I guess they were.

    ¡°How many can you bond?¡± I asked

    I think I am reaching my limit, and I think it is a mental limit. I am going to take him back with me for the night.¡±

    ¡°You never said what Barb¡¯s mutation was,¡± I said

    ¡°Here.¡± She pulled her knife and made a shallow cut to her forearm. She kept the fur pulled back, and we saw the blood. Barb landed on her arm, and the blood scabbed over. ¡°It is a touch heal. For those of us with Enhanced skin, it is a small boost. It could help with more serious wounds but is very Essence-intensive. I think it could keep someone alive. For those without enhanced skin, it would benefit them the most. The essence does grate, so building immunity is important.¡±

    ¡°Can she use it on herself?¡± Carla asked.

    ¡°That is when it is most effective,¡± Soph replied.

    ¡°Is it an essence ability or physical mutation?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Essence, as I can use it as well.¡±

    ¡°Any chance of finding out what the mutations are before you bond?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Not yet, but I am getting better as I see more and different patterns. Barb had some small similarities to Amanda, so I guessed it was a health area, and I was right. The rabbit, I have no idea. He is very different.¡±

    ¡°You did check he was a boy?¡±

    ¡°Yes, he is a boy,¡± Soph said.

    ¡°Do you want to stay the night, too?¡±  I asked.

    ¡°I think we all should, but Ata and I will go shopping first, and then we can stay.¡±

    Ata nodded in agreement.

    ¡°Hey, if you bond the rabbit, are we going for Bugs Bunny or Roger Rabbit?¡± I asked.

    ¡°Neither, you annoying Bastard,¡± Soph said definitively.

    ¡°What¡¯s up, Doc?¡±

    ¡°Shut up!¡± sounded good in triplicate.

    I decided to stay with Carla. I wasn¡¯t comfortable with Soph and Ata alone as Ata was slowing down some. Not that I would tell her that. There are no direct threats, but care is prudent. We sent Rich back with them, and they will return with more camping supplies.

    We weren¡¯t the only ones camping out in the zone, as the army was setting up tents on the side near the farmhouse.

    ¡°Bloody copycats!¡± I yelled at Ngoi.

    ¡°We''ve got beer!¡± he shouted back.

    Carla and I drank with them before retiring to ¡®our side¡¯. There were ten in total. Ngoi seemed to be in charge.

    Carla settled in, still snacking on grapes. I went roaming with my senses out wide.

 72. Insights.

    Waiheke and Ruakawa anomalies are much more intense than Yagoonya. Is that because they are newer? We had no idea how old Yagoonya was. Four months? Six? Maybe eight? Anomalies have only been around for less than a year. Is it good or bad to ¡®Enhance¡¯ at a new anomaly, or does it make no difference? Carla, Soph and Ata are all one mutation at a fairly new Waiheke. Ngoi, Neke, and Kai mutated at a six-month-ish Yagoonya. I don¡¯t know how to compare them.

    We are all pure fluorescent blue, whereas they are blue/green, known as turquoise. A dark turquoise. This is a light green/brown. The green is definitely making it easier for the other greens.

    Mutations are different, too. I got poison and breathable skin from the Jellyfish but pure senses from the shark. Plus, the link. Four improved senses: Sight, smell, hearing and electroreception. Carla got none in her mutations. She is all physical. Why? Apart from the fur, Soph is all mental. Ata is half and half, one physical and one sense. Is that somehow to do with the Essence interacting with each individual? There is always going to be a bit of randomness, and I put Soph¡¯s fur down to that.

    Or maybe not. She is mental focussed and grew up with dogs. She went specifically to bond with dogs. The surprising thing is that it worked. Why? It does not appear to be as random as we thought.

    What about me? The first time was just a big surprise. There was no intent. Carla was very intentional, and she did so much it would have killed her without our bond. Why our bond? I had just realised I cared, and then the shark attacked. Did that enable our bond?

    I don¡¯t fucking know.

    How do the mutations from Waiheke differ from the mutations at Yagoonya? Ngoi, Neke and Kai each got a sense¡ªhearing, smell and echolocation. Kai went specifically for a sense, like Ensign Jeong. There is a database of mutations from Yagoonya, which is well over a thousand now, but there are fewer than twenty mutations from Waiheke. I grabbed my laptop and looked it up. There are over ten thousand successful mutations from Yagoonya now. The death rate is hovering around thirty-two percent.

    Close to three-quarters of the mutations from Waiheke included a sense. Less than ten percent of those from Yagoonya did, and never more than one. I wish Waiheke had a bigger sample size. Yagoonya has no one with a bond, like Soph, and no one survived a Carla attempt if they tried it. I am sure someone did.

    I isolate the health mutations like Amanda. About ten percent of mutations are positive health mutations, like Amanda''s. Well, over half of the surviving mutations have some sort of poison or rot effect like Neke. The rest are neutral, like Ngoi and Kai. Australia is known for its poison animals.

    I am sure that almost all of the mutated humans guided their mutation. We do have a boatload of animals and plants from Waiheke. Random mutations can be strange. Would anyone have worked out Rich¡¯s mutation without Soph? Probably not, or not for years.

    There is only one human mutation from Ruakawa, and it was a random mutation. I wonder if he had an ¡®enhancement¡¯ like Barb¡¯s? Amanda will check as soon as she finds out about Barb. Also, Zeb can talk, so they may already know and are not releasing the information. Zeb might be the new Jesus going around healing the sick. There is good money in religious cults. Maybe I should get him on board and start one. We have Barb. We don¡¯t need Zeb as long as he is not a rival cult. I guess an elderly bearded man has more religious imagery and connotations than a fantail.

    Get back on track with my wandering thoughts. I am thinking in general terms, but light tends to heal, dark colours tend to poison and decay, and maybe fluorescent colours are senses or mind skills. None of that is immediately relevant, but we need to look out for more colours. That probably means travel. New Zealand is a long way from anywhere.

    However, we need to focus on senses, particularly sight, for Ata and myself. We each have a different enhancement for sight. Mine is to see better in the dark, and hers is better over distance. I look up how that is supposed to work biologically. Apparently, eyes have two different types of receptors, Rods and Cones, and the rods work in low light. Hence, my rod receptors have been enhanced.

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    I couldn¡¯t find much on Gannet''s eyesight, but the Hawk has more cone receptors and unique ones, so I am guessing this is how things have been enhanced from a layman''s understanding. Broadly speaking. Amanda and Dr Goodwin would correct me at length and incomprehensibly in Goodwin''s case.

    Directing essence to our enhanced eyes increases the effect and improves my vision, seeing in the dark, shapes, etc., and for her colour and movement, etc. Is that it? Is that all there is to the eyes?

    The eyes are more than the receptors. There are lenses and muscles to focus them. The photoreceptors must also send the signal to the brain. All of that must have been enhanced. I don¡¯t narrow my essence to focus on the rod receptors because I didn¡¯t know about them until now.

    The receptor also only receives signals in a certain light wavelength, but there are other wavelengths beyond our human vision. Infrared, Ultraviolet. If it is the cone receptors in our eyes that interpret colour, then it is probably Ata who can, perhaps, enhance the wavelengths she can see to see into the wider areas. That is not going to stop me from trying, though. Seeing into the infrared is essentially seeing heat. That is cool. Hot. Whatever.

    Rods don¡¯t deal with colour, so night vision is greyscale. They are activated in less light and take longer to activate as such a movement is not so noticeable. Rods give better peripheral vision, apparently. Now it is night time. Now is the time to test this.

    I shut my laptop and give my eyes time to adjust. I feed Essence to my eyes but only slowly concentrate on night vision. The rods are my major enhancement. I will focus on other parts of the eye later; for now, I will just focus on night vision.

    I am not used to directing the essence with this finesse. The sky is overcast, but I use a shirt to cut down the light level even more. How much can I enhance even the minimal light coming in?

    After a while, I gave up and tried something different. The eye consists of a lens. Can I use essence to change the lens? Our lens is for focussing, but other animals can layer a lens to protect the eye and see better in water, etc. Can I overlay a different lens with essence?

    What I am really hoping for here is to be able to see essence with my eyes, so I am not reliant on Soph to interpret Rich¡¯s skill. I want to see the patterns for myself. Why shouldn¡¯t it be possible? The eyes are mutated/enhanced, so why shouldn¡¯t this just be a different way of using Essence through a mutation?

    I started with lenses like glasses. I figured it would be a type of pattern to fit my eyes. I relaxed everything and let my natural pattern overly it, and¡­ it didn¡¯t work. Why not? Then I tried it as a close fit over the eye lens like contact lenses and¡­ That was it. So easy. The area lit up with the flow of essence coming out from the anomaly. I could see the nearby vines and plums and the essence contained in them. Everything in the anomaly zone lit up, but it wasn¡¯t the light green/tan colour that was almost yellow.  Everything seems to be on a blue scale rather than a grey scale. Bluescale/greyscale, huh? I tried the trick to enhance my rods again, and all the patterns and shapes became clear. Oh, this is awesome.

    I try adjusting the essence lens for fine details. There are a lot of layers of patterns as I go finer and finer. I find a comfortable level of detail and start examining different plants and leaves, trying to get a sense of the patterns that Sophia has been building up.

    I moved closer to a leaf and looked for patterns. Yes, I think that is it. I can tell these are from different plants, even though they are next to each other. What the patterns mean is the next task. First, I have to catch up with Soph¡¯s understanding. I head back to the truck, where there are small plastic bags with different types of grape seeds.

    I settle down for the night to examine them.

    ¡°What are you doing?¡± Carla asks, sitting there with a bunch of grapes.

    I explained the breakthrough with my eyesight and that I could see the essence patterns now. I also explained how Ata might be able to expand her vision past the human norm of light range, and she gets very excited for us.

    She insists I type it up for Ata and Amanda. She can alert Soph to see through her eyes so Ata can get the information now. We can email Amanda about it in the morning at that point, letting the military know about the breakthrough. This is us earning our pay. I drafted an email to Amanda but didn¡¯t send it. It is about 1 am now, and Carla has Soph read it through her eyes and share it with Ata so she can practice. Maybe we are being paranoid. We will send it to Amanda soon anyway. Maybe in a couple of days.

    After all that, it was nearer 2 am, and I wanted to sleep. I had been pushing the long nights for a couple of days now, so I lay down and rested. My mind was still bussing over patterns and possibilities. I tried a couple of calming techniques and eventually started to drop off when I heard Carla say, ¡°If you can do that with your eyes, I can¡¯t wait to see what you can do with your hearing and smell.¡±