December 15th, 4 a.m.
The Thing that had once been Wylie Satterwhite issued a guttural growl. It was pleased. Many cycles of light and dark had passed since it escaped the metal cage and since been forced to forage for food.
The land was dry and barren. If not for The Passenger, he would have surely perished. Even so, his withered form struggled to stay upright. Leagues of walking without respite had reduced his feet to ragged lumps of flesh and bone, and his muscle fibers had degraded to such an extent that each fresh agony plagued each movement, but the Passenger wouldn't let him stop until he found food for them.
The shambling horror had since been able to subsist on reptiles taking refuge in the shade of rocks and from the nectar of the spiky plants that had turned his hands into scabrous ruins. He'd learned how to survive from a man another lifetime ago. He had once loved the man, but now, thoughts of the man made him more hungry. A dribble of saliva oozed down his cracked lips at the thought of food.
The Passenger sent fire through his body. The Thing lurched into motion towards the lights that twinkled on the horizon. The Passenger whispered to him of all the food he could ever want if he kept walking toward the light.
He smiled and felt skin split and flake off his lips. Cupping his hands together, he caught the descending morsel and plopped it onto his tongue. The salt of his dried flesh stung, but soon that wouldn't matter. The Thing's journey was almost at an end, and he was ravenous.
YOU ARE READING
The Permutation
Science FictionThe people of Lancet Falls, Idaho are changing, and it's all because of an otherworldly light that only a few can see, but the changes are affecting everyone. Animals are dying, people are disappearing, and what's with the men in jackets twenty year...
