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Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:43 pm
It had been a day since Leonard had met Paul out in the jungle. He really hoped he wouldn't turn out like that; the guy had gone pretty crazy out there by himself.
The morning was not a good one. Everything ached. It felt like he had caught the flu, only without the nausea. It seemed he'd gotten some sort of illness, probably malaria, with his luck. He never should have gone past the first stream. Or tried to help Paul, for that matter. No good deed goes unpunished, as they say. Somewhere a small voice whispered he could have gotten infected like the others. He ignored it.
He'd just returned from getting some water. As miserable as he felt, he needed tp hydrate himself, he knew that much. Mercifully, it was somewhat cloudly, so lying down outside was an option; the fresh air would help. He took his sheet from the office he had claimed and spread it outside in the cracked cement. His arms felt stiff, like he couldn't move them as well as before. He chalked it up to the flu he had.
Lying down on his sheet, he used his breifcase as a pillow and closed his eyes.
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Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:50 pm
It was nice to be helpful - especially when one felt so useless. So it was with that thought that Skye walked towards the building, whistling some nameless tune. It seemed like a relatively nice day - for being stuck on an island, anyways. He had told Wesley about the buildings, and he had promised to meet Skye there - later, of course. So for now, he was to go ahead of him and warn Leonard of the soon to be visitor. Not only that, but he had found time to try out his fishing rod and had caught two nice, rather big fish. Hopefully, they were edible. Somehow, he managed not to get lost in the thick growth of the forest and soon found himself on the outskirts, within eyesight of the buildings.
Upon coming coming within hearing distance of what he thought was Leonard's abode, he shouted "Hey! L-leonard! You th-there? I g-got fish!"
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Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 7:37 am
Ugh. That stuttering kid again. Leonard had kinda forgetten about him, since he hadn't see him for awhile. Buthis opinion changed when he said he had fish. Leonard bolted upright, calling out to Skye. "Hey Monty, over here!" Maybe some real food would help him feel better.
When Skye arrived, Leonard could only stare at the fish; they looked good. He reached out to take the fish. He barely could though, his arm was so stiff. "You know what, you hold them. I'm not feeling good right now. I'll go get the fire ready."
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Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:16 am
Leonard's arm looked a little bit... jerky? Skye couldn't remember Leonard being uncoordinated from their first meeting, but he sort of seemed it now. When he tried to take the fish, he looked like he was struggling to straiten his arm out, something most people shouldn't have trouble with. Then he explained feeling ill, and Skye could understand. A person's body always acted weird when they were feeling ill.
Skye forced his mind back on track, unwillingly, seeing the problem he now faced. Although he had only met Leonard once, and even then quite briefly, he could tell how much fear he had of the 'infected people'. There was a high probability that he would start screaming again if Skye told him that Wesley was coming- and he'd probably go into cardiac arrest if Skye told him that he had been with the infected people and was most likely contaminated.
Skye bit his lip, unsure if he should tell or not. Then he remembered what had happened last time - it had not been pretty. So he tried to gentle his way into the subject, very discreetly. While Leonard's back was turned, making the fire presumably, Skye asked as courageously and unstutteringly as he could, "Ah, Leonard. Do you know a g-guy named Wesley?"
He wanted to at least know what their relationship was.
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Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 9:03 am
He was busy getting the fire ready by putting extra wood on it. Or trying to. He went to reach to the side to grab some more wood from the pile he made...and couldn't. His elbow wouldn't turn. "What the hell?" Try as he might, he couldn't get his elbow to rotate; all he could do was extend his arm.
Skye's voice filtered in from behind. "Do you know a g-guy named Wesley?" Leonard had never told...
A huge pain in his hands diverted his attention again. He screamed and rolled backwards, his brain warning him to stay away from the fire, whatever happened.
He couldn't see it, because his hands were clasped together, but skin was growing between his fingers, and his bones were following suit.
...never told Skye the names of the infected people. "You IDIOT! You... went to...the infect...ed camp." He accused between gasps of pain.
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Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 9:14 am
It looked like Leonard was still having problems. That was just a little bit strange... he looked at the ground, shuffling his feet a bit, not wanting to see Leonard's reaction to the question.
"What's -" he was cut off by a scream of pain, coming not from him, but Leonard. Skye's head snapped up in alarm, just in time to see Leonard rolling on the ground, holding his hands together in the strangest fashion.
Skye clenched his teeth together. In fear, anguish, panic, even he didn't know. But really, first Ian, now this?
He ignored Leonard's painful accusations, he would deal with them later. For now, he ran to Leonard, shouting, "L-leonard! Wh-what's happening!?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 9:52 am
More screams. The bones of his fingers were fusing together, leaving him with mittens for hands, basically. "You happened, dumbass!" The horrible pains in his hands were subsiding somewhat, and Leonard held them out in front of himself to look at them. He wished he hadn't. "Oh God..."
He didn't have long to look at his hands though, as it felt like his back was starting to cramp. There was a tight feeling in his skin, as though he'd gotten a really bad sunburn. The skin on his neck darkened to reddish pink, and became harder.
Suddenly, there was a loud CRACK, and something on Leonard's back pushed out against his shirt. His mouth opened in a scream, but no sound came out. All he could do was gasp like a fish, the pain was so bad.
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Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 10:12 pm
Oh god. So this is what happened when you got infected. Time seemed to slow for Skye. He was unable to move, only able to watch with strange, morbid fascination as Leonard continued to writhe on the ground, gasping in what could only be an unimaginable amount of pain. So this, this is what most likely would happen to him? He would go through agonizing and be left... something not exactly human?
Not exactly human. The words played over and over in his head, taunting him mercilessly. An idea came to him, something so bizarre and so unrealistic that Skye couldn't even believe he was the one thinking it. What if this wasn't a disease? What if somehow, on this island, human evolution was sped up by millions and millions of years and anyone who landed here would have their DNA drastically altered into what humans would be millions of years from now? What if this was what would happen naturally, but on steroids? He would have to bring it up with Wesley.
Skye mind was brought back to the present with another, very strange sound, sort of lie a cross between a gasp and a something trying to suck up air. It looked like Leonard still wasn't done. What could he do?
"Leonard..." he managed to get out before once again running out of words to say.
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:58 am
Another CRACK! And Leonard again gasped for air. Another bugle appeared under his shirt, and he was bent forward, his back no longer straight.
Finally, the pain in his back lessened, and he looked up to Skye. "Please, help me." It wasn't long before the next group of changes hit though, his abs writhing, and something pushing against his shirt in the front. He tried to arch his back from the pain, bit he couldn't; it didn't move right. At the same time, two growths appeared on his face, lengthening to about three inches, and waving about wildly.
Finally he screamed again, his voice ragged, the pain evident in the sound. It had to be over soon. Didn't it?
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 9:35 am
Wesley carefully picked his way through the jungle, using his staff more than usual. Not only was this a farther distance than he believed he'd walked yet, but there was a definite lack of streams in this part of the island, and he had to be careful or else harming his feet. According to the report Skye told him, this old base seemed to be on the waterfront, so that was good. Watching the sun, Wesley was guessing that this may be the exact opposite side of the island.
Suddenly hearing screams echoing through the trees, he hastened his pace to the closest to a dead run as he could force his feet to go. They were way to deep to by Skye's. it must be Leonard. Only two things would make Leonard scream as such, and he had a pretty good idea it wasn't a simple accident.
Bursting through the treeline, among the mass of rusted metal, he spotted the two figures a small distance away. Skye's tall form was obvious, but the hunched, rigged figure... Oh, Bloody Hell! So much for a nice simple explanation to Leonard that it wasn't contact driven. This wasn't the time for that, though. He rushed over, seeing a great deal of commotion under the man's shirt. Things were moving under there, and the man's back seemed hard-pressed against the back of his shirt. To Wesley's perspective, he might not even have had full lung capacity. Whatever was happening, clothing needed to come off. The shoes seemed fine for the moment, but the chest was urgent.
Finally closing the remaining distance, Wesley went straight to Leonard's backside. Dropping the staff, he gripped the man's collar. This side had a great deal more strain, and would rip much easier.With one hand pulling forward and the other back, Wesley began to hear the shrill scream of the fabric coming apart. What was revealed was three massive sections separated by folds, darkened from Leonard's dominating colour, leapfrogging down his back. He couldn't even see his spine. Whatever it was, Wesley needed to do more. One sleeve should be enough to completely take it off. Bursting it along a seam, the left shoulder tore loose, letting the shirt hang freely from his other arm as the man's covered chest was revealed, though Wesley couldn't see.
Shoes. Shoes. Wesley just hoped he wasn't to late to prevent damage.
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 1:57 pm
Where the hell could Wesley be? He had said he would come right after Skye. The young was finally starting to panic, he just gaped wordlessly as Leonard looked up at him, imploring for help. Suddenly, before Skye could even register what was going on, Wesley was there, tearing Leonard's shirt off.
Of course. How stupid could Skye be? Finally, Skye snapped out of his semi-dazed state, jumping in to help Wesley, who looked like he was trying to take off his shoes. Tugging at Leonard's right foot, Skye was extremely glad to see that his shoes were rather loose and popped off without too much strain. Then he went after the left one, which seemed a bit more stuck than the other. Looking at Leonard's feet, Skye noticed the strangest thing. His toes seemed to turn a light shade of pink and then, right before his eyes, fuse together until there weren't any distinguishable toes left.
"Thanks f-for stopping by Wesley." Skye managed to blurt out when he got near enough to the older man.
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 3:19 pm
He wasn't sure what was happening. Through a haze of pain, he felt someone ripping off his shirt, thankfully releaving some of the pressure.
And then, just as his feet started to cramp, someone took off his shoes. Looking towards his feet, he saw Skye, and to his surprise, Wesley. He didn't have time to say anything though, as his toes merged together, and then disappeared completely. More ragged screams, though he was losing the strength to do so. It felt like he was getting terrible cramps in his feet as his arches flattened out, and the bottoms of his feet thinkened and changed texture. Soon his feet had nothing but a red inflexible ridge for soles and toes.
It finally seemed as though it was over. After nearly twenty minutes, the changes stopped, areas of his skin finishing changing color.
He could do nothing but gasp for a moment, though he was surprise at how quickly the pain faded. For the most part it was a dull ache
Once the pain was gone, Leonard had time to think about what had happened.
"Oh god. Oh god" He gasped.
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:14 pm
Wesley surveyed the 'damage' done to the man. He had the most altered to him, by far. The bony protrusions on his feet and back were completely something else. The most bone changes Wesley had see were found on Ian, and even those the eyes could work around without noticing. This... was far greater. Wesley watched his hands closely too, as he lay there on the sand. When Wesley had been in the same circumstance, he had gone completely limp near the end. Leonard's hands, to be honest, looked to Wesley like one of his friends who was crippled back in Britain - rigged and bent unnaturally. He was behind Leonard though, and only knew he was conscious from the mutterings coming from the man. Wesley couldn't blame him; not at all.
Things had to be set in motion, though. Leonard needed care for the moment, whether he wanted it or not. It was important that Leonard didn't try to isolate himself; it would only exasturbate things. Wesley just feared Leonard would blame them for everything.
"Leonard, we should get you to the water. It'll help. Really."
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 5:50 pm
This was beyond bizarre. It was... slightly disgusting and not that happy looking. And bizarre, of course. Leonard looked absolutely different than he had, not even twenty minutes ago. He had weird ridges on his back, kind of like Ian, but just on his back instead of a circle around his whole body. His feet were something else. Where the toes used to be, it was just kind of flat and pink. And all his fingers had fused together. Now that was interesting. After hearing Wesley's recommendation for water Skye nodded in agreement, though Leonard probably couldn't see him.
"Alright. Wesley, w-we better take him anyways. H-h-he may just pass out sometime s-soon..."
After looking at Leonard and thinking some more, Skye finally blurted out what he had been thinking since the moment Leonard stopped changing.
"He kinda r-reminds m-me of sh-shrimp."
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:33 pm
Thoughts were jumbled in head. It had happened; he'd been infected. For that matter, he'd been infected by Skye, but he wasn't up to yelling at him right now. "Help me up. Please." He said, extending a fused hand.
When he was up, leaning against the person that helped him up, he somewhat took asessment of himself. One, his back was stiff and he couldn't stand up straight. Two, he was having trouble standing, and he could see why. He had no toes left. Hell, what he had, one could barely call feet. He tried flexing his foot and toes; nothing. It was like the muscles weren't there anymore.
It was as he was looking down that he noticed something else. He had grown two new limbs, each with a little joint in them. Leonard looked away, suddenly feeling sick. "S-some water sounds good, Wesley." His throat was dry and raw.
Though he didn't realize it, the growths on his face twitched when Skye called him a shrimp. "Please don't tell me I look like a meal at Red Lobster..." There wasn't any tone to his voice, no way to tell how serious he was.
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