It was worse than earlier. I could see it as plain as day on her face.
I didn’t want to leave the safety of my sage patch, but I had to see what had Shannon silently restraining herself.
“How are you feeling, bud?” I asked him, trying to appear like I was simply checking in. As soon as I was within a few feet the rancid odor hit my nose, like meat spoiling on the counter, well past its expiration date.
Sweat dripped down his forehead like he was in a sauna, but wrangled together one of his puppy dog smiles. His breathing was a wet rattle like he was drowning. “Been better never.”
I pressed my lips together and didn’t bother correcting his confused sentence. His mental confusion made the bad feeling sitting on my stomach like a weight turn into a boulder.
My eyes went to his leg, and I fought my reaction with every ounce of control I had. In an hour, it had gone from looking like a gnarly infection had taken hold to looking like the meat smell I’d compared the odor still lingering in the air to. Gray in some places. Green and brown in others. It looked like something that should be triple bagged and taken right to the trash can outside, not something connected to a man.
Shannon leaned into my ear to whisper as softly as possible, “Toxin or venom? He’s…”
I watched her struggle to come up with the word, but I suddenly realized why Levicy Rinah named the monster the way she did, making the nausea worse.
“Rotting,” I offered.
He was alive yet he was decaying.
“That’s it.” Her perfect eyebrow scrunched as she thought it over. Her face grew pale. “Maybe we should cut it off. Otherwise, he won’t make it to morning.”
I would have agreed with her, except an hour ago I was already thinking about sepsis. My fingers hesitated at the edge of his shorts, unsure if I really wanted to know the truth.
“Fresh get don’t,” Drew giggled, half out of his mind.
I pulled the edge of his shorts up to find his veins big, swollen, and blue, with discoloration trailing up his body.
When I lifted his shirt I saw the same thing leading all the way to his heart. He was rotting from the inside out. Shannon covered her mouth with both hands, and I fought the tears pricking my eyes.
His gaze locked onto us, and the first inkling of fear shadowed his eyes. The hum of bugs hovering nearby buzzed in the air, waiting for their meal.
The rot had already reached his heart.
It was too late to cut off his leg.
Chapter 17:
Ittookmemonthsto condition him to obey my orders. I knew it was important to do while his mind was still unsteady from the change. I refuse to feed him, making him hunt his meals. His skills need to be perfect if I ever want him to destroy the monster terrorizing my precious family.
When his prey escaped we learned something. One bite, and he rots the creature until they are nothing more than goo on the inside. The perfect ability for my monster to have.
If the mimic destroys him, so be it. As long as my monster gets one bite, revenge is mine.
That’s all that matters.
After six months, I shall name him Rot.
I’d given up on sleeping hours ago, because every time I dozed off, agonized screaming woke me.
The sound hit something primal inside me that didn’t want to die like that. Every time he screamed everyone went silent. The discomfort in the camp was its own entity.
A reminder of mortality.
It didn’t help that it was impossible to move at this time of night. Unless we wanted to venture through the monster’s backyard blind.
I focused on the book instead to try and stomach Drew’s misery. Not that the contents of this were any better. The last year’s worth of pages could be summed in a couple words; endless torture.
At least I wasn’t witnessing it in real time, I guess.
