Atomic Mage

by Garrett Carter

  Then yesterday came back to him, the accident, the unimaginable pain, and the magical repair of his body.

  Shrugging at the notion of magical healing, and with the reminder of the roar he had heard last night, Cade decided he could look into it once he had more secure and comfortable accommodations.

  Swatting away the countless flies that miraculously hadn't awoken him from his slumber, he untied himself from the tree limb and began his descent.

  After finishing his climb down from his little home away from home, Cade stretched the kinks out of his body.

  "Gonna have a divot in my ass if I have to spend another night up there."

  He groused as he felt the soreness of his ass, as the feeling finally came back to it with the sensation of pins and needles that radiated down to both feet.

  "Time to take a look around and find other accommodations," he said as he looked around.

  "Yup still a fuck ton of trees now what are we gonna do about this shit."

  A growl eminated from his throat as he swatted at the flies that had returned and begun to land on him.

  Looking to his right he noticed the ground sloping down slightly.

  Thinking of some of the survival tips he gleaned during his chats with some of the S.A.R. (search and rescue) swimmers, about their time in S.E.R.E. (search, evasion, resistance, and escape) school.

  Cade hoped this planet obeyed the rules of physics and he might find some water downhill.

  "Might as well take a look down that way, but first let's take care of the morning business."

  His itritation at the flying pest returned as he waved a few of the increasingly insistent flies away before he turned to his treehouse come head.

  After he took care of business and with piss his soaked pants now adding to his misery, as the flies had been very interested in the blood and sick covering him when he had relieved himself.

  As Cade continued his journey for water and a much-needed bath, calm contemplation came eventually as he went to his happy place ignoring the flies that had become his constant companions during the trek downhill.

  "So I'm going to guess this isn't earth. Oversized moons don't just pop up, and I didn't naturally make my way from the Appalachian mountains to what looks like the Amazon." He said to himself as he walked through the humid jungle.

  Thinking back to his arrival he had to laugh, he was definitely on another world. He quickly sobered up as the realization hit him that he would never see his kids or grandbabies again.

  "Reality doesn't always play out the way you want it to though" he reasoned with his aching heart, having just 3 years ago been viscerally reminded of that fact.

  Sorrow tore at his heart as he stumbled to a stop. "Tony", he said as the realization hit him he wouldn't be seeing her again anytime soon, if his magical recovery after waking up was anything to go by.

  Not sure how to overcome the feelings that threatened to return him to his hermit like existence Cade continued his walk, memories of the love of his life surfacing in his mind.

  Their familiarity a balm to his current situation.

  Cade and Tony had a bit of a macabre running joke between them on who would die first.

  "What should I do love" he said after an absent-minded swipe as a few of his new friends buzzed by his face.

  Included in those conversations had been a few half-joked about rules for moving on afterward.

  Tony had been very explicit about finding someone who made him happy if she died before he did.

  His grief at her loss didn't lend itself to romance so Cade hadn't been on so much as a date.

  "Could I make a new life here?" Cade said to himself as he passed yet another tree.

  He let that thought roll around in his head, calming his inner turmoil somewhat, as he continued his trek for water.

  Suddenly his stomach let out a prolonged growl.

  "We should look at taking care of you to huh bud." Cade said covering the offending party with his hand.

  Looking around he spotted a tallish tree with small green grape-like fruit growing from its branches.

  "Well that might just do the trick." He said at least he hoped it would.

  Wouldn't it just suck to get poisoned by some alien tree grapes on top of all this other shit.

  Cade blew out a breath saying "nothing ventured nothing gained I guess."

  The climb up the fruit tree gained him some much-needed sustenance and a decent view of the tree-covered terrain.

  Spotting a break in the tree line far downhill, due to what he hoped was a decent sized river.

  He returned to the ground and oriented towards what he hoped was water.

  "And a bath" Cade said in frustration as he vigorously swatted the growing swarm of flies his stench was gathering.

  Captain Caveman

  Cades trek ended abruptly when he reached a small cliff as he exited the tree break before the river.

  Cautiously looking over the edge of the cliff he saw a wide sandy beach strewn with detritus that abutted the cliff.

  As he stepped back from the long drop to the ground below he growled out a frustrated sigh.

  Cade's patience was worn paper-thin from his lack of proper sleep to the hunger that had been gnawing away at his sanity for the past few hours.

  Those two paled in comparison to the gory mess of blood and vomit that had still not dried in the humid jungle air making him feel like a sticky lollipop a bratty kid had coated liberally in saliva and drug through a pile of dog shit.

  A fly landed on his nose and Cade seriously contemplated just jumping off the cliff and hoping for another round of magical healing.

  Waving away the insistent pest for what felt like the millionth time that hour he took a deep breath and centered himself with one thought, get it done and we can take a bath.

  As his frustration abated enough to cease the suicidal thoughts he let out a subdued internal clear, Hooray! for goal-oriented thinking.

  "So how are we going to make this happen?" He thought to himself emotions neutral and uncaring of the flies that landed on him as his goal was in sight and woe be to anything that tried to keep him from taking a well-deserved bath in that muddy river water filled with parasites, snakes, and Candiru, shivering in revulsion as the last one really tested his resolve.

  Cade shook his head vigorously as he got back on task, "do we want that bath Cade? Yes, we do Cade we want it very very much yes we do, urethra fish and all." He said to himself as his resolve hardened, he was getting that bath come hell or high water.

  Looking left then right Cade found no immediate signs of a path that might lead down at a more pleasant angle than the damn near 90 he was stuck with.

  Stepping to the edge again he located quite a few holes in the small cliff face he might be able to use as handholds.

  "Well might as well give it a try" he said as he contemplated the damage a fall from that height might cause.

  Remembering the pain he had just gone through yesterday he again rethought his jump and hope for the best plan.

  "Slow is smooth and smooth is fast." Cade thought to himself as he gingerly made his way over the edge, finding handholds and footholds as he made his way down.

  Close to halfway down the cliff and a quarter of the way to his much-needed bath, one of Cade's handholds crumbled under his fingers.

  Letting out a manly and totally not girly shriek he jammed his hand back into the crumbling hole, frantically searching for a new lip to use as a handhold.

  Through his panic, he felt a tingle in the back of his skull as the crumbly river bank wall began to melt into the shape of his fingers.

  Cade looked on wide-eyed as the riverbank wall solidified into a perfect form-fitting replica of his handprint.

  "Huh will you look at that" he said with an awestruck expression as he examined the new lifeline.

  He removed his hand gingerly bracing against the cliff with his other while he looked at the reformed hole.

  It had
formed under his fingers and palm, he could even see the creases of his palm.

  Shaking his head he put the new handhold to good use as he returned to his decent, a smile crossing his face as a plan came to his mind.

  Touching down on the pebble-strewn bank Cade looked up at the top of the cliff, particularly at the new handhold he had created in his panic.

  "Wonder if I can make that happen without fearing for life and limb" he said absent-mindedly swatting another fly away, all thoughts of the river bath he had been so eager for blown away by his impatience to test his new powers.

  Running his hands along the cliff face gained no results. Cade attempted to try to push his right hand into the cliff with the same results.

  Trying one last time he focused on not pushing his hand into the cliff but visualized the cliff face moving away from his intruding fingers.

  The tingle in the back of his skull he felt from the close call during his descent returned as he saw the compacted river rock mold around his first three fingers.

  His concentration broke suddenly as his excitement overcame him.

  The tingle in the back of his head dissipated as he looked into the depression he had made.

  Cade grinned to himself his body almost vibrating with excitement while internally he was doing backflips.

  "I'm a mother fucking earth bender!!" He shouted in his thoughts more eager than ever to put his plan into action.

  Laughing out loud he placed his whole right hand on the wall concentrated and pushed his hand again into the wall in front of him.

  The tingle came back as his hand sank in up to his wrist. Removing his hand he looked around finding nothing but sand up to the wide river 50 feet away.

  "Oh that bath is going to be soooo good." Cade said as he smiled to himself.

  His smile slipped as he realized how long it would take to make a decent-sized depression in the cliff face with just his hands.

  Setting his shoulders Cade let a wild idea run through his mind, focusing on a large part of the cliff face he visualized a hole and pushed forward with his mind.

  A ten-foot-wide half-circle of cliff face began to flow inwards, simultaneously a loud buzzing began in the back of his skull.

  Startled by the intensity of it Cade's concentration faltered stopping the wall flowing inward.

  "Well can't have it all can we huh" he said with a determined look on his face.

  Refocusing and braced for the loud buzzing he continued to form his little cave.

  Close to 5 feet in he started noticing rocks and dust particles falling from the ceiling.

  Looking at the floor and ceiling of his little home renovation project Cade tried to increase its structural integrity, concentrating on thickening the walls and ceiling.

  Noticing a slight drop in his energy his concentration broke once more.

  "What was that" he said in surprise at the wave of slight exhaustion that slipped over him.

  Collecting himself Cade thought through the process.

  "If I am carving a hole in this cliff then where is the rock going and why didn't I feel that tired when I was doing it?"

  Experimenting with his abilities he placed a hand on the edge of the rock wall and focused on the curved surface of his soon to be home.

  Cade felt a humming vibration so faint he almost missed it.

  He used that specific vibration and expanding his focus to encompass as far as his senses would allow.

  Suddenly he felt a discordant humming from all around him.

  Baffled by what he was feeling he focused back on the wall his hand was on and the disorganized humming fell back to the original hum he had started with.

  Cade's heartbeat was running a mile a minute as he listened to the hum of what he could only assume was the rock he had his hand on.

  Slowly that humming increased in frequency and intensity as he listened.

  Sudden pain shot through his hand, jerking it away with a scream that was a little too high pitched for his liking he saw it was red and blistered.

  "Mother FUCKER!" he groaned through clenched teeth.

  Looking at his seared hand and back to the rock it had just been on Cade saw the rock glowing cherry red.

  Looking back to his hand he noticed it was still burnt and blistered.

  "Why isn't it healing" he asked himself.

  Cade focused through the pain in his hand the same way that he had the wall.

  Slowly he felt not the humming that he had noticed in the rock but felt the seared skin of his palm then the blood vessels then bones, ligaments, and then the skin on the back of his hand.

  "Well I left my burn cream back on earth, lets see if I can do anything about this with these powers of mine." He said to the burnt and blistered hand.

  Cade set his left hand next to his burned right hand focusing on his whole left and remembered to mirror them in his mind.

  "Would be just my luck to fix my hand and end up with two left hands in the process."

  Using his left as an example he recalled his first aid burn knowledge and focused on regrowing the damaged tissues first.

  Cades right hand began to slough off old dead skin revealing healthy unburnt skin underneath.

  Pain-free and slightly fatigued from the healing Cade got back to the job of getting his shelter made before nightfall.

  Placing his hand gingerly back on the now cooled rock with a nice hot bath in his mind he again focused on the humming from before.

  "Let us think this through, if I just burned my hand and heat is caused atoms and molecules vibrating and releasing that kinetic energy to reach a more stable state then I must be feeling the rock atoms vibrating." He mused as he tried to sus out how the wall had burned him.

  Cade blew out a breath in disbelief, not as wild as broken bones snapping back together or cuts and burns magically healing with nothing but will power.

  Wondering where that energy had come from Cade looked around.

  An ever so slight depression only noticeable from the terrain around it by its uniformity, he saw an almost perfect circle around where he was standing.

  Understanding dawned on him, cringing at the memory of his painful arrival on this planet he remembered seeing the identical but deeper depression this one thankfully blood-free.

  Cade had unconsciously converted the matter around him into energy to fuel his power, Magic? Whatever he was going to call it opened up a plethora of options for him even just for now.

  Want to build a home in the side of a cliff, use the cliff to power it.

  Want to make a campfire, vibrate the wood atoms until it lights itself.

  Barking out a laugh, Cade refocused on his soon to be cave home, "so hot and deep and wet oh it's gonna be so good." He said with a grin.

  Stepping forward Cade began again on his new home. "Gonna have to pry me out of it with a crowbar" Cade laughed as he got to work.