Calm and Calamity

Chapter 8

Day: 254 (Food Drop-Off)

Days Left: 5226

Lives Saved: 1

Calixte's antennae popped up, the orb glowing but it was already too late. Riley swung her bat and sent the amphibian's body hurtling across the ground, the nails embedded in the bat scraping off a chunk of Calixte's scales.

Corinna screamed out, her voice deadened by the cascade of silver food packets plummeting from the sky.

Drawing her dagger, Harmony lunged towards Riley, her hand caught by Jackson. The hulking man towered over her, his expression remained ever vacant and dreary. With his free hand, he donned his mask that resembled his own face but deformed with bulges of the skin, one right above one of his eyes, the lump almost blocking his vision. Jackson's grip on Harmony's wrist tightened, and he twisted slowly.

Gasping in pain, Harmony dropped the dagger, her fingers trembling. Sucking in a breath, she kicked the large man in the stomach, but he continued to stand stationary, barely reacting to having just been struck. Jackson yawned and tapped his mask lethargically. The edges of his mask fused with his skin and it travelled across the rest of his body. A huge bloated lump formed on his back, forcing his shoulders to hunch forwards. His limbs expanded and stretched until the already tall man was now nine feet tall. Lumps of skin continued to appear across the rest of his body, his left hand was consumed and covered by the expanding skin, now just a large slab of bloated flesh that dragged across the ground.

Effortlessly, the hunchback flung Harmony to the ground, her body skidding across the brittle dead grass nearby Calixte.

"Harmony!" Corinna screeched, her hands quivering as she clutched onto her spear.

"Don't bother with them now," said Bryce to Riley as she began heading towards Harmony and Calixte, bat in hand. "Just go get the food."

Riley nodded and put on her mask. Just like Jackson, her mask was a replica of her face, though this time with no alterations. As soon she wore it, Riley winced as her body swelled and grew until she was fifteen feet tall. Corinna's cowered, her knees buckling, almost collapsing to the ground if it weren't for the support for her spear. She gazed up at the giantess, only being as tall as the transformed Riley's legs. The giantess stepped over Corinna and Bryce, her every stride causing the ground to quake as she headed towards the food pile.

The goblin glanced at Corinna, its eyes averting back to the ground when she saw. It bowed its head low, fingers fidgeting and pulling its hat down to cover its eyes. Its friend had already transformed into a headless knight upon a white steed, carrying a helmet in his arms which supposedly contained his head inside. The knight pulled the goblin onto the horse's back and charged towards the food pile in the centre of the stone circle followed by the lumbering hunchback and Clarence who, being maskless, shambled after them only armed with a broken metal pipe and a distressed expression.

Bryce turned back to face Corinna, a smile spreading across his lips as he saw her tremble.

Gritting her teeth, Corinna lunged forwards with her spear, but Bryce evaded it. She continued with a relentless assault, but all of her attacks failed. Bryce caught the spear, disarming Corinna and pushed her to the ground.

He pointed the blade at her throat. "Don't worry. I'll spare you," he cooed. "Consider it me repaying my debt for when you saved my life when we first met." Bryce took out a mask from his jacket pocket. It was a yellow sand-like coloured metal with two sets of small black eyes, one near to the top very close together and the other lower down far apart on either side of the head. Below that were small pincers. "If you behave, I might consider giving you a packet or two." After adjusting it, the metal mask glimmered and coated his entire body. Bryce then dropped to the floor as his whole being morphed and changed shape in a large sand-coloured metal scorpion. Its body's length was the same as Corinna's height, as was the length of its tail. The metal scorpion gave one last glance to the young woman before scuttling over to join its allies at the food pile.