New TF Story

[Dantwz]

Hip-hip-hooray for the next chapter finally coming out!!! Thank you Soy, the 7 month wait was killing me!

[Lord T Hawkeye]

Ah sweet. I was sure you had given up on this story.

[SoylentOrange]

Yeah, sorry about the wait. The next part will be quicker coming, I promise. I just managed to get through a rather nasty writer's block with Hmmm!'s help, and the next parts should be coming much quicker now.

[Lord T Hawkeye]

I know what that's like and with 3 stories I'm currently in the middle of, it's trying.

[dinnertime]

Great chapter!
Shandra keeps things interesting by stirring up conflict! Also leaves some room for character development as well.
Keep it up!

[something-wild]

Originally Posted by SoylentOrange

Yeah, sorry about the wait. The next part will be quicker coming, I promise. I just managed to get through a rather nasty writer's block with Hmmm!'s help, and the next parts should be coming much quicker now.

it's alright it's not heavy.

[SoylentOrange]

Mary wandered across the parking lot, the black asphalt stained glossy by the morning's dew. The sun wasn't really out yet, not for the pacific northwest anyways, but it was bright enough to be pleasant. Mary saw a pair of birds flying through the sky and thought about going back into the forest, but with the Body's incessant needs for more genetic material it was beginning to feel like work. No, what she needed was some human contact. Not anyone too familiar with her, but just to be around faces that weren't green and voices that didn't come from inside her head.

Mary snugged her sweater against herself, turning towards the southern driveway out of her apartment complex. She decided she'd go to the convenience store just down the street, at the first intersection down from her and Katie's complex. As the brisk wind blew by, Mary smelled something odd on the air, a musky smell, like a wet dog. Concentrating on the smell, she realized she could seperate it out somehow into two seperate dogs- an Irish Wolfhound and a Husky/German Shepherd mix. Mary clamped her hand over her nose, wondering what on earth was going on.
"Are your senses not working properly?" The Body asked, causing Mary to roll her eyes and slump her shoulders as she walked down the sidewalk.
"What did you do to me *now*?" Mary asked.
"We have realized from the other seeds we have taken in that your senses are dull, compared to the other meat in this place. Extensive, perhaps, but dull. We simply sought to improve upon them. Were we in error?"
Mary took her hand away from her mouth and realized the Body was right. The birds she head chirping had to have been a few football fields away, and she could read the names on the streetsigns all the way down the block if she squinted. The Body had given her eagle eyes, a bloodhound's nose, and ears like a bat.
"N-No, it's fine..." Mary replied to the Body. "Uh, thank you, I guess?"
"The Body exists to aid the Mind in the great purpose of the Flesh," the Body said back. It was still rather disconcerting, but any good debate relies on a back-and-forth; if Mary was going to have to make some concessions in her bargian to save humanity, she supposed this was one she could live with pretty easily.

As Mary entered the convenience store, she was relieved to see how normal it was, looking much the same as it always did. No tentacles, no half-eaten countertops, just the same rows of magazines, stacks of brightly-colord candies, and the low hum of a refridgerated soda fountain. Mary leisurely browsed the aisles, taking comfort in all the little eccentricities of the store's unusal inventory, sanitary napkins next to a sunglass rack with a box of "energy supplements" on top of that, every little nick-nack and piece of junk food crammed as tightly into the shelves as it could be. Mary paused and picked up a fruit pie off the shelf; the little single-serving treats were too sweet for her, but Katie loved them, and while not remotely close to actual restitution, Mary hoped Katie would appreciate the gesture nonetheless.

As she passed the hot dog roller, Mary's mouth began to water and she hauled to a stop, looking quizzically at the slowly-sliding hot dogs, glistening with grease and sickly-looking under their heat lamp. Mary felt her hand moving towards the hot dogs of its own accord until she was able to mentally wrest control of her hand back.
"What are you doing?!" Mary shouted inside her head.
"We desire the seeds of that meat," The Body said. "Why do you resist?"
"Because there's a ritual we have to follow if we don't want predators to swarm down upon us!" Mary repeated for what must have been the hundredth time. For a being capable of interstellar flight, the Body seemed amazingly dense at times.
"Oh. Of course," The body said, and Mary felt the creeping sensation of the Body's control fade from her. Mary picked up the tongs and grabbed a hot dog off the rack, grimmacing slightly as it made a kind of greasy velcro sound at being taken off the rollers. She dropped it in a bun, then went over to the free condiments and heaped it high with mustard, ketchup, relish, onions, pickles, and even a dab of the nacho cheese, any thing to mask the taste of an indeterminately-aged conveninece-store hot dog. Mary looked at the heap of artificial chemicals somehow warped into something that could technically be classified as food and grimmaced.
"You sure you want this?" Mary asked.
"Oh yes, very much," The Body eagerly replied. Mary shook her head and paid for her items.

The first bite Mary took felt almost similar to when she'd drank bleach. Her face screwed up as she chewed, knowing that there was nothing that could hurt her but feeling distasteful all the same.
"Oh, this is glorious!" The Body exclaimed. "So many seeds!"
"Seeds?" Mary asked, halting mid-chew.
"Oh yes, much better than those we added to our glory previously," The body said. "And from so many different meats at once! Truly wonderous."
Mary looked at the hot dog, realizing that the "Seeds" the Body was talking about was the dna of all the different micro-organisms living on the hot dog.
"There are even seeds within some of the other seeds," The Body continued. "Why, there are-"
"You know what?" Mary interrupted. "No, stop, no more."
"What?" The Body asked. "You confuse us."
"You like it, that's great, I'm happy for you," Mary said as she took another reluctant bite. "Just spare me the details, I don't want to know."

Mary grimmaced as she approached her old apartment, fishing her key out of her purse. She was sure if she still had a stomach that it would be roiling right then. The ramifications of what the Body apparently found tasty caused her to cringe; what else would it like to sample, a dumpster? Compost? Mary shuddered as she fit the key in the lock and went inside, the warmer apartment air much more inviting than the chill outside air. She shut the door behind her, making her way through the front room and into Katie's bedroom, putting the fruit pie on her desk in front of her computer. A nice little surprise when she got home.

Mary noticed that Katie's computer was still on, and thought back to the CDC e-mail she'd replied to, wondering briefly if they'd replied yet. Certain that Katie wouldn't mind, MAry sat down at Katie's computer and accessed her e-mail client. The CDC hadn't responded, so Mary just delted the few spam messages that had accumulated, then opened the previous CDC e-mail to see if she could glean any new insights from it. She was disappointed that she couldn't send a "sample" of the parasite, but she didn't trust her tentcles outside her immediate vicinity. She didn't know how far her control over them extended, and certainly didn't want to find out what happened to any Flesh without either the Body or the Mind there to control it. What she needed was a dead version, like a fossil or something.

Mary perked up, remembering the meteorite. It might contain enough traces of what the Body originally was! A longshot, to be sure, but as Mary rose from her chair and headed to the kitchen she knew it was the best lead she had at this point. The little crater spiked into her floor was still there, but the fragments of the meteorite was gone. At first Mary wondered if it had dissolved or merged back in with the Flesh or something, but the presence of a broom leaning against the refridgerator posited a much simpler explanation: Katie had swept the pieces up. Mary looked in the trash can, but found it empty, only a breakfast shake in the bottom of the bag. Mary blanched, not about to go searching the outside dumpster for fear the Body might get peckish again. Instead, she got down on her hands and knees, hoping that perhaps Katie's sweeping had been haphazard enough that a sizable enough piece wound up under the refridgerator or the lip of the counter. She crawled up and down the length of the tiny kitchen, finding little more than black specks in the crevices of the counter, so small and indistinct she couldn't be sure if they were particulate from the meteorite or just poppy seeds off of Katie's morning bagels.

There came a sharp knock on the door, and Mary instinctively called out "Coming!" before cringing, having overstayed her welcome in what was ostensibly no longer her apartment. She looked up at the hole in the ceiling, wondering if she could just slip through and leave whatever deliveryman or solicitor waiting until they went away.
"Police!" Barked the officer behind the door, and MAry nearly melted with panic, feeling like she was literally going to unravel in a split second.
"J-Just a second!" She called back, shakily rising to her feet.
"Okay, listen. LISTEN," She said to the Body. "One of the predators has come here- STOP!" She yelled, feeling her fingers pull into claws. "Do NOT attempt to eat them! They will bring more and more and overwhelm us!"
"But our glory-"
"To hell with your glory!" Mary yelled inside her head as she staggered stiffly towards the door. "They don't yet know I'm Prey! If you just let me handle everything, I can get them to leave and never return!" Mary looked through the peephole and saw them, one male and one female officer. She took a few deep breaths, looking to make sure she didn't have any fangs poking out or anything. The officers knocked again as Mary reached to open the door, the male officer's third knock whiffing as she opened it.
"Mary Carver?" The male officer asked.
"Yes?" Mary replied, trying to stay calm. She realized that without an autonomic nervous system that she had no pores to sweat out of, no heartbeat to race, so hoepfully the officers couldn't read any suspicious body language off of her.
"Can we come in?" He asked.
"Oh, you know, it's kind of a mess," Mary said as she began to step outside, "But we can talk out here-"
"Actually, ma'am, it's kinda important that we see inside," The male officer said again. "May we please come inside?"
Mary's mind raced. Not wanting to arouse suspicion by being stubborn, she agreed.
"Doesn't look very messy to me," The officer said as he stepped inside.
"Oh, well, I, ah, was jus trying to be polite," Mary said, faking a nervous laugh. "Really it was the wet shoes, I didn't want you muckhing up the carpet, but I didn't want to hurt your feelings, either."
"I don't mind if you hurt my feelings," The officer said, "Just don't lie to me."
"S-sorry," Mary stammered, almost missing the thumping of her nervous heart, if only to give her some kind of psychic metronome.
"So, you called for Jerod Alogara on the morning of the 23rd, is that correct?" The male officer asked.
"Yes," Mary said, then caught herself. "Well, I mean, that's the repair guy, right?"
"Yes ma'am."
"Oh, and I called the day before. Really quick service for this place," She said, cracking a smile.
"Not fast enough, apparently," He said. "Could you show me what he was supposed to fix?"
"Sure, it's right here," Mary said, gesturing to the kitchen floor."It was that meteor shower earlier in the week, dropped straight through the ceiling."
Both policemen looked up at the hole in the ceiling, and she felt a feral instinct seize her, a desire to slit their throats, rip out their windpipes.
"STOP!" She yelled to the Body. "You're going to get us killed!"
"They're vulnerable!" The body yelled back. "Kill the predators while you've got the chance!"
"That will just bring more of them! STop it! STOP. IT!" Mary yelled, setting her jaw.
"Ma'am, is there a reason you're clenching your fists like that?" The female officer asked, arching an eyebrow at Mary.
"Huh?" Mary asked, before realizing she was squeezing her fists tightly. "Oh, that. Just, typing too long. I was doing a paper this morning," She said, giving a weak chuckle and grabbing one hand in the other, waggling her fingers while she massaged the bones on the back of her hand, or at least where they would be if she had them.
"You're still in school?" The male officer asked.
"Law school," Mary said, still feeling the subtle prickle of the Body's aggression just under her skin. "The one up by the freeway, just off exit-"
Mary was interrupted by a trio of thumps against the ceiling, and not only did she hear them, she'd felt them, as Shandra banged her heel against the floor. A cold tingle of dread raced over Mary's skin as she quickly diverted her attention to her lair, a surge of tentacles tightly immobilizing Shandra in seconds.
"What was that?" The male officer asked, following Mary's gaze.
"Oh, uh, just the neightbor's dog scratching itself probably," Mary said, waving the incident off.
"...You know pets aren't allowed in any of these apartment complexes, right?" The female officer said.
Mary felt her whole body tense, but she fought it back, letting her head droop.
"Ho, geeeze, she's gonna kill me..." Mary said, feigning sorrow.
"You know we're gonna have to tell the landowner when we leave, right?" The female officer said.
"Yeah, okay..." Mary said, shrugging her shoulders. "So what did you want to know about the repairman? What was his name again?"
"Jerod," The male officer said. "Now, when you called-"
"Wait a sec," The female officer said. "Okay?"
"Okay what?" Mary asked.
"Well, you don't sound too upset about your neighbor losing her dog," She said. "Were you two not friendly with one another?"
"Oh no, we're best friends," Mary said, "Since we were freshmen. But what'm I gonna do- stop you?"
"...Do you think she'd mind if we took a look inside?" The female officer asked.
"I dunno, probably not, but she's not home right now..." Mary said, trying to sound casual and innocent
"Well, we can get a key from the super," The male officer said. "Why don't you come with us, in case we forget the unit number?"
Oh God, Mary thought, they're trying to trap me.
"Well here, I'll just write it down on a sticky note," Mary said, opening the closest counter drawer to her but finding it arranged completely differently than she was used to. "Got some around here somewhere..." She went through two more drawers, trying not to appear too frantic in her searches. "Well, anyways, it's 22-D, not hard to remember at all, she said, smiling.
"I'd still like it if you came with us," The female officer said, shifting her stance to face Mary more directly.

Mary knew she shouldn't have said it. It was a terribly rookie mistake, the kind of thing she would groan at watching deposition videos in class, but she said it anyways.
"Do I have to?"
"Ma'am, are you hiding something from us?" The male officer said, also turning to more fully face Mary, the two officers trapping Mary in her small kitchen.
"No!" Mary exclaimed, "Not at all!" But despite the lie, Mary was devoting nearly all her attention and willpower just to keeping the Body in check, it's calls for bloodshed ringing in her ears.
"Then why can't you come with us? Where's the fire?" He asked.
"Well, I mean, I just..." Mary stammered.
"Ma'am, I'm afraid I'm going to have to detain you," The male officer said as he reached for Mary. "Now, you're not under-"

As soon as the officer's hand touched Mary's arm, her own hand whipped around, grabbing the officer's wrist.
"Ow! Hey, leggo! Let go!" The officer said, pulling away. But the Body had the officer's wrist in a vice-like grip, and Mary was pulled clumsily along, grabbing her wrist with her free hand and trying to pull it off.
"Let go!" The officer yelled.
"I can't!" Mary pleaded, trying to pull against herself, leaving her in a bizarre tug of war with the officer.
"Leggo or I'm gonna pepper spray ya!" The officer said. "Leggo!" He repeated.
"I'm trying!" Mary pleaded, trying to wrench her hand free of its grip.
The male officer's partner came around Mary's side, spraying her in the face with her pepper spray, but it might as well have been water for how much Mary reacted to it, causing her to blink briefly but causing no further irritation.
"Spray her!" The male officer yelled as he pulled bakwards, slamming against the wall and dragging Mary along with him.
"I am!" The female officer yelled back. "It's not working!"
"Let go!" The officer yelled again as Mary pulled against him. "Quit resistin'!"
"I'm trying!" Mary pleaded. "Please, you've got to stop!"
"You stop!" The female officer said as she sprayed Mary again.
"I can't!" Mary yelled. "Please, get out of here!"
"LET GO!" The Male officer yelled again, finally drawing his nightstick with his free hand and smacking it against Mary's forearm. Mary could feel the impacts; the officer was obviously swinging with all his might. But it was like the impact didn't *mean* anything to the Flesh, like it had just turned all its nerve endings off. She felt a crack against the back of her skull, and dimly realized the female officer was using her nightstick as well. she jabbed the end of it into Mary's ribs, but Mary's attention was now focused solely on holding back the Body, its howls drowning out any protests she could make, her suppression of its murderous instincts accomplished solely through sheer force of will.
"Taze her!" managed to pierce through her mental maelstrom, and Mary snapped back into the present, the male officer's shoe against her face as he lay back on the couch.
"But it'll get you too!" the female cop yelled as she continued to beat ineffectually against Mary with her nightstick.
"I don't care, just do it!" the male officer said.
"No, wait!" Mary managed to get out before she felt the needles pierce her back and sixty thousand volts charged through the Flesh.

The Body let out a mighty roar, not just in Mary's mind but through her mouth, spinning and throwing the male officer against the opposite wall. She felt her arms change into tentacles as she whipped around, the nearest snaring the female officer's neck and injecting her with so much transformative venom she all but melted into tentacles on the spot, the writhing green mass snaking its way out of her clothes even as Mary continued her spin, her other tentacle lashing around the male officer's leg, piercing the cotton uniform effortlessly. The male officer screamed briefly as his leg swelled and disintegrated before passing out, his remaining mass disentangling into tentacles and leaving two empy police uniforms on the ground.

Mary sunk to her knees, sobbing furiously. She'd killed. She'd killed two policemen. What was she going to do? Where could she go?
"Officer Ramsey, is the suspect in custody? Officer Ramsey? Come in officer Ramsey, please respond!"
Mary looked at the squaking radio still clipped to the shoulder of the empty uniform.
Officer down, she thought. They're going to send more.

Mary rose to her feet, the newly-created mat of tentacles following behind her as she walked to the door, eating the officers' uniforms as they went. Mary went outside and saw the police cruiser parked in front of her apartment. Inside, the radio was blaring out the apartment complex's address, and in the distance her improved ears could hear sirens.

Mary looked at the cruiser. They're sending more, Mary thought. They're going to keep sending more. It's only going to get worse from here.
"I need a way to defend myself..." She said as she approached the rear of the cruiser, claws growing from her hands.

[dinnertime]

Hey, great chapter!

You almost had me thinking the Body would be making a new "friend" out of the female police officer, heh (although that doesn't necessarily leave a female police officer TF out of the question).

Anyways, I'm dying to see how Mary will get out of this one!

[Dantwz]

WHOOHOO! The plot gets interesting...
Great suspense in this chapter Soy, and well done with the story!
Mary's in really really deep crap this time.

[SexyJin]

OMG THAT WAS AWESOME! A sudden change in plot. Those where great transformations, things quickly got intense and now it's going to get insane.

[Drake G. Reaper]

I just read the entire thing I hope we get to see a pic of Shandra soon and put up the next chapter as well.

[hmmm!]

Hey all. We're finally getting back to this story a bit, Soy and I. For my part, here's a picture depicting a certain portion of the story. Enjoy!

Other pictures I've done for this can be found here:

http://www.process-productions.com/f...&postcount=176