Northern Exposure: The Divided

by Luken Du Pont

  Chapter 13

  My spine began bending and my vertebra expanded, individually each one now the size of a softball, causing a ridged pattern from the base of my neck to the end of my back. Oddly shaped and out of proportion the transformation continued. My shoulder blades dislocated, without warning both simultaneously popped out of their sockets. For those of you who have been privileged enough not to feel the excruciating pain of that which is a dislocated shoulder, I cannot explain nor emphasise the magnitude of gut wrenching discomfort one feels, and now I sat with two, wishing I would be rendered unconscious by the pain. But no, the transformation would not allow such privileges.

  My arms hung out of their sockets limp at my side, giving way for my trapezium muscles which started growing at an accelerated rate, my neck bulged as blood flowed through my veins, causing them to swell and thicken. On each of my shoulder blades large keratin spikes began protruding and exactly the same occurred at the ends of each elbow. Smith lunged forward in a futile attempt as he tried rushing to my aid. He was as bewildered as the rest of my bunk mates, but instead made an attempt at helping me whilst blindly disregarding his own safety. He stuck out his hand, offering to pull me off the floor. Screaming at me, “take my hand boy,” but Sharif intervened, grabbing and restraining him, making sure he kept his distance from me. All they could do was hopelessly watch as I started to transcend, down the path of obscurity. I reached out begging them to help me, but the pain gripped me so intensely my arm fell to the floor.

  As I stared at my limp limbs, I could not believe what I was witnessing. My arms began growing just as my spine had. My bones strengthened and my skin stretched, reshaping and taking on a new form. My cells were working overtime, as they sped up and started releasing large amounts of calcium deposits around the growth plate, allowing both humerus and Ulna to grow in length and width until they had doubled in size. As my bones grew; a cluster of arteries and veins crept up the newly developed form. The map had been laid out, now it needed covering, so my existing muscle tissue started expanding. Fibres fused together leaving me with a muscular structure which was as hard and thick as that of an African Rhino. Lastly my finger nails began falling off, exposing the raw flesh were they once sat embedded in my fingertips. Suddenly soft keratin began growing, and once the fibrous protein had reached around four inches long it started hardening creating, claws which were razor sharp.

  My entire body had now replicated the process which began in my shoulder, neck and arms and I started to grow bigger and bigger. For a brief second the pain subsided, relieved I thanked the lord it was over. But I guess I was just fooling myself, allowing myself to experience the slightest relief from what seemed to be a perpetual voyage of torment. Oh no, this agony would soon seem non-existent to what I was about to endure. The pain riddled me again as the rest of my body tried to catch up to my overly grown spinal top half. Slowly I stood, but felt so disproportioned; the transformation had left me with this thick muscular upper body three times my previous size. My rib cage had reshaped and shifted giving room to my newly developed large internal organs, my core became as solid as brick, my Latissimus dorsi muscle were now the size of a basketball jutting out from under my armpits, and my entire body had been covered by layer upon layer of solid, bulky muscle. Standing ten feet tall, weighing in at around six hundred pounds. I was a living, breathing gargantuan.

  Eventually I mustered up enough strength to lift myself from the floor and stand upright. As I looked to the others they became dwarfed underneath the enormity of my newly formed goliath frame. I stood looking down on Sky, Smith and Sharif as if they were the size of Shahkierah and Zara. Suddenly I dropped to my knees; the last effects of the transformation begun. Now looking Smith directly in the eyes I could understand exactly how large I had become. Trepidation coated the old man’s face, hesitant to act he merely stepped back as did the others. I was not sure what I was becoming but clearly whatever it was had him looking at me as if I was the devil itself. Once again I was screaming at the top of my lungs as the last changes occurred, pushing any last resemblance of my humanity out the window the transformation began, welcoming the beast into the New world.

  My body had changed so drastically and now my face was about to do the same. My eyes turned a reddish colour; now only leaving this red membrane covering my pupils and sclera. My jaw expanded and slowly my gums bulged until they started pushing out my teeth making way for my newer sharper jagged fangs, which crept out until they sat fitted in my mouth each around an inch long. My hair follicles began shrinking and soon retracted into my skull, my head was completely bald, lastly my nose broadened, whilst my nostrils simultaneously flared.

  Eventually it had ended, but now I was left wondering what had caused it. This could not have been a sickness, no way this could be food poisoning; this was something way more terrifying. For a brief second I thought, the only logical reason behind the changes must have been infection, was I becoming a reaper? The reaper girl’s blood must have been infectious. I guess Smith was wrong about the whole situation; looks like these things could infect you. “OH shit,” was I becoming a reaper? Just my luck, from that bitches betrayal to the coma and now this! I was becoming a mouth foaming, flesh tearing Neanderthal!

  But if I was becoming a Reaper why was my anatomy so different to theirs? My physiology seemed so far from that of the Reapers, structurally we were so contradistinctive, me a behemoth, a colossal mountain, walking ten feet high jacked with layer upon layer of bulging muscle, while the reapers body mass and height had not changed. There had to be another solution, I had to be something else. Who knows perhaps I was some kind of Reaper hybrid, a new form of the obscure creatures. Or maybe I was something different all together, But if not a Reaper then what?

  As I looked up at the others, through my blurred vision I saw Sharif running to the back of the room, turning almost immediately back towards me; eventually one of them was going to make an effort to help me. I knew the smart Arab man must have had some kind of trick or remedy up his sleeve, if anybody could help figure out the precarious predicament which had been placed upon me, it would be him. Before I could fully focus on what he was bringing back, the cricket bat held in his hands had been raised in the air and with one swift blow he drove it down onto my face with such conviction. I guess he was not out to help me after all, unless you call smashing the side of my face, help! Great once again I had been rendered unconscious by someone I trusted, this shit was becoming a pattern and frankly I was getting rather tired of it.

  In a way I could not blame him, the safety of the group was his first priority and the safety of his girls even more so. He may not have known exactly what knelt in front of him, but one thing was for sure it was dangerous; he saw a monster, not his friend and had to make the choice to protect the group. Sharif’s actions were a mere reflection of what we had become, a constant paranoia drove us to protect our own, at all costs. But even though he had hit me with enough force to kill any normal man, the beast was simply rendered unconscious for only a minute or two. Unsure of the extent or damage he had bestowed upon me, he kicked me as if I was road kill, double checking if I was alive or not.

  As I regained my consciousness my eyes peeled open, trying to adjust to the light, I slowly covered my face, blocking out the harsh glare of the lanterns which shined directly into my impaired vision. Through the blur I took a closer look at my hand, something was clearly wrong here, was I still asleep? Was this some kind of late post dramatic stress attack? I slowly rotated it falling with a-gust at the enormity of the appendage. Then I remembered exactly what had happened, I was not dreaming and this was no panic attack, unfortunately the circumstances of my current existence where all as real as the air I breathed. I moved my hand from my eyes and saw Sky and Smith hovering over me, Smith was pointing the shotgun to my head as Sky did the same with both pistols. I turned to Sky, and sympathetically begged for an explanation.

  ”What the hell’s going on,” Sky, Sky pleas
e answer me.” She blatantly ignored me, and kept asking Smith, “What is it trying to say?”

  She shook as she tried steadying her guns, I had never seen Sky so scared before, this was so uncharacteristic of the hardcore, gun slinging chick I had come to know. I turned to Smith pleading for help but received a similar reaction. It was so heart breaking, being rejected by the one man I thought would care for me regardless, how he could have grown so cold towards me so quickly, when I was just confused as he was. It’s not like I intentionally did this, I had not hurt any of them but they acted so aggressively as if I had asked to me dubbed this title of monster. Then I looked across the room where Zara and Shahkierah where cuddled together trembling with fear, it made a bit more sense, those girls meant everything and frankly if I was in their position I would have done the same.

  Another stinging sensation happened in my back, the redundancy of these sudden sharp pains was getting so annoying; couldn’t this damn transformation just get done already? I reached over with my large hand and felt the wound, something imbedded in my flesh. I was wrong; it was not the transformation after all. Sticking out of my back was a large serrated steak knife. Sharif had stabbed me. I thought to myself,” geez what the hell is this guys problem first the bat and now this!” I mean I know some strange stuff was going down but did his approach to the situation have to be so pugnacious?

  One thing’s for sure I was not going to stay here and find out why he was so adamant on killing me. I pushed the Arab man out of my way, but while doing so I unintentionally sent him hurdling across the room. I got up and shoved Smith and Sky to the floor with one bump then and bee lined for the door. As I ran I heard the distinct sounds of shots being fired in the distance, followed by a cluster of buckshot’s which went whipping past my face. I ran for my life stumbling in this new form, as I tried to get my bearings on this disproportionate body, my equilibrium still out of whack sending me swaying from left to right. I heard the shots get fainter and fainter as I ran further and further. What was happening? Why were they trying to kill me? And more importantly why the hell was my body so freaking Huge!

  I was bleeding, confused and out of breath, I needed to stop and figure out my next move, running blindly down the passageways was not going to help my situation, I needed to stop and think. A puddle of relatively clean water lay at my feet, I bent over and made an attempt of rinsing my wound; I struggled to cup the water as it ran through the large gaps between my fingers. Distracted by my reflection in the puddle, I fell to my ass in horror at the creature staring back at me. This had to be the little girl, after all Sky covered me with reaper gunk as she blew its head clean off. Who knew what types of virulent microorganisms where swimming around in those creatures blood, what else could have done this? So much for the reapers not being contagious Smith, I clinched my fist and in an enraged outburst sent it smashing into the concrete pillar beside me! My whole arm sliced through the hard stone like a hot knife through butter. Fragments of cement scattered across the floor as the structure crumbled in front of me. I looked at my arm not a single scratch! I was left dumbfounded at the increase of power which flowed through my veins. How could I have been capable of such a feet of strength? This situation became more confusing by the minute.

  So what now, I could not go back to the bunker, and I could not risk being top side. I sat on the floor right beside the puddle, confused and unsure of what I had become, wallowing in my own self pity. I wish I could say, I possessed a stronger sense character at the time, I wish I could tell you I embraced the beast. But that would be a lie, I will never forget how I moaned and howled, as I was taken on the emotional rollercoaster. I reminded myself of my mother when she first experienced menopause, I was a hysterical mess. I had to figure out how I could get back to normal, then it hit me, what if I would never get back to the way I was, what if I was trapped in the form forever? I sat in tears thinking of how my life at the ripest stage had been turned upside down. Thinking about what Layla had done to me, the coma, all the killings I had witnessed, the bodies which lay scattered across the streets and now this, I had become a reaper or something at least. What worse could happen? The tunnels echoed with my moans and roars. This was now what my life had resolved to, sitting in the sewer passageways, a monster crying like a child.

  Eventually I decided to try get up and walk, I had to get out of the sewer, if Sharif found me I wouldn’t be so lucky the second time around, it was already sheer luck the three of them had not finished me off in the bunker, in my opinion I had a better chance with the reapers. I walked through passage after passage until I had become lost and confused, due to my delirious state caused by the transformation. My mind was caught in a battle between my human thoughts and the primal nature of this new creature I had become. It felt like my humanity was slowly being replaced by the beasts aggressive predatorily nature. In just an hour or two I had gone from sad to aggressive, I tried to fight it but the feelings were too strong, a cocktail of power and aggression stirred in my body waiting to be released. Time started slipping away as I kept walking; as I fought the urges the beast wanted to release. This continual battle of trying to subdue it was taking a toll on my body, this new form needed lots of fuel and I had nothing to feed it. My strides became slower, until eventually I had to sit and not before long I was asleep on the cold concrete floor of the sewer.