Hybrids: A New Species

The sun is blazing and there are no clouds in the sky, it’s a beautiful day. There’s a vast lake, and next to it, a small camp is set up. At the camp, there are men, they’re laughing, drinking, and enjoying the outside. These drifters have temporarily settled here, most are dirty looking, as if they haven’t bathed in weeks. Within the compound, Ben is there tied to a tree. The chatter of the men wakes him up. His eyes slowly open. Ben’s head is bleeding from the injury he received at the cave. Shirtless, his fit body is bruised and covered in dirt. Ben’s breathing is harsh. The bite wound on his left arm from his daughter, is throbbing in pain. He looks around in a daze, trying to figure out where he is.

“Hey! You’re awake.” a random voice appears.

Ben looks around, his head is making a circular motion. It feels like his skull is fractured.

“Over here, to your right!” says the voice again.

Ben looks over to his right, he sees a young man tied up to a tree. He is tanned, with black curly hair, and small squared glasses. He’s kind of thin and looks to be in his mid-twenties.

“Whe- where am I?” Ben mutters.

“Not exactly sure, I’ve been here for a few days myself” The young man says.

Ben looks around the area, he sees a few men up ahead laughing, another passed out drunk by some wood logs. He hears voices of others in a distance and notices the vast lake up ahead.

“Were still in the mountains.” Ben mutters.

“Well I could have told you that.” the young man responds.

Ben gives him a dirty look.

“You look terrible, and with that wound on your arm, I assume you were bitten by one of the Fallen?”

Ben just continues to glare at him and say nothing.

“I guess that’s a yes.” The young man says as he looks away.

He looks up in the sky and sighs, as if he’s bored and trying to think of question.

“What’s your name stranger?” he asks.

“Does it really matter? Ben responds.

“No, but you’re probably going to die anyway, so I don’t see the harm in asking.”

Ben gives him a strange expression. The man looks at him as well, as if they’re having a stare off. The few seconds of silence felt like hours.

“Whatever. Don’t tell me” he says as he rolls his eyes.

“Ben”

The man looks at him, as if he didn’t hear him.

“My name is Ben.”

The man smiles, “Hello Ben, my name is Cole.” he responds.

Ben nods his head to Cole in a gesture of understanding. Then he stares down at the dirt ground. He’s sweating from a fever, skin is becoming pale, and his body is aching in pain. He coughs vigorously, blood comes out of his mouth. He is unsure how much longer he has until he turns in to one of them. One of the undead.

Ben looks up ahead, he notices three men running to the other side of the camp. Suddenly, the high pitch scream of what sounds like a dying animal is heard from the distance. The mysterious noise strikes Ben with fear.

“What the hell was that?” he says.

Cole has his head down, he has a concerned look on his face. He knew what that noise was.

“Hey! Do you know what that noise was?” Ben asks.

Continuing to look down at the ground, Cole responds, “A mistake.”

“A mistake? What the hell are you talking about?” Ben says.

Cole is silent, not saying a word or even looking at Ben now.

“Hey!! What the fuck was that?!” Ben yells.

Two men appear from the other side of the camp. Both men are dirty looking. One has spots of blood on his face and a leather jacket. The other is shirtless, showing tattoos of skulls and tribal markings.

“Which one do we grab?” says the shirtless man.

“The one that’s dying” the other said.

They are talking about Ben. The shirtless man begins to untie him from the tree.

“Get the fuck away from me!” Ben says with frustration.

“Woah! You sure he’s dying?” the shirtless man says. “He’s still got some fight in him.”

The ropes come loose and Ben tries to run, but he immediately falls to the ground, he’s lost all feeling in his legs.

“Ya he ain’t goin’ nowhere.” says the other man. “I’d say you ain’t got much time till you turn now.”

Ben’s heart is racing, he can’t move and his body is in tremendous pain, as if his muscles are being twisted and ripped apart on the inside. He looks back to Cole, as if he’ll be able to help him. Cole has turned his attention completely away, pretending he doesn’t see what’s happening. However, he has guilt on his face, as if he knows what is going to happen to Ben.

The two men pick him up and start dragging him the other side of camp. He can’t move or defend himself. Anxiety sets in, he has no clue why or where these men are taking him. All he can do now is wait

Ben’s feet are dragging on the dirt ground, the sound of people cheering, laughing, and cursing is becoming louder. Ben looks up and sees a small crowd of men circling something. The menacing screech Ben heard earlier is becoming louder as he approaches closer to the crowd. Everything seems to be dreary, as if times has been slowed down. The two men are still dragging Ben by the arms, he can’t move or struggle. His entire body has gone numbed. The circle of drifters begins to open, as they let Ben and the two men dragging him go through.

They enter. What Ben sees strikes him with fear. He has never seen anything like it before, it was a kind grotesque creature about the size of a bear, however, it was skinny and muscular, with leathery gray skin, and some dark green scales around its body. It has human like eyes, however, with the face of what looked like a bat with sharp teeth, pointy ears, claws and a short tail. This mutated monstrosity, looked like the combination of different animals put together in some sort of sick experiment. Ben thinks he’s hallucinating; he’s never seen anything like this before. It was tied to the ground and screeching in pain. It was covered in blood, cuts, and bruises, the drifters have been torturing the animal. Ben is afraid, but at the same time, he felt sorry for the creature. He could tell it was in pain. The two men drop Ben in front of the creature. He struggles to pick his own head up. He looks at the creature. Their eyes meet. This mutated animal is crying.

“Alright boys!” yells a voice.

A man approaches the center. He stood out from the rest of them. He had a handlebar mustache, truckers hat, pilot sunglasses, some boots, denim jeans, a black shirt, and stood about 5′ 7”.

“It’s time we have a little fun here with our new friend!” he shouts.

The men around him cheered.

He kneels next to Ben,

“Don’t worry your little pretty face. We’re about to feed you.” he says to Ben.

“Go to hell!” Ben snaps at him with what little strength he has left.

“Already here. Can’t you see? The worlds gone to shit!” he laughs. “Alright! Let’s do this!”

“Brian wait!” yells a voice from the crowd.

Out comes a bald man with a beard, leather jacket and tattoos. Ben looks up at the man who halted his upcoming torture. He recognizes him. It’s the one of the two men he encountered at the pharmacy, James.

“This is the son ova bitch that got Greg killed!” James yells.

“Oh really?” Brian, the man with the pilot glasses, says.

James goes up to Ben and kicks him in the stomach,

“Fuck you! Greg was my brother!”

Ben loses a breath from the kick, but that pain was nothing to what he was feeling throughout his entire body already.

“I regret nothing.” Ben says as he chuckles.

“I’m going to kill you!” James hollers as he pulls out a knife. Brian suddenly grabs James’s arm, stopping him from stabbing Ben.

“What the fuck are you doing?! Let go of me!” James shouts at Brian.

“Now hold up, you can’t just kill him, there’s no fun in that.” Brian responds.

“Fuck you Brian! This piece of shit got my brother killed!” James yells in frustration. “I’m going to gut him open and make sure he suffers slowly!”

Brian is calm, “I understand your pain.” he says as he lets go of James’s arm. “How about you go get a machete instead? You can make bigger cuts with that.”

James smiles, “I like the sound of that.”

He turns away from Ben and begins to walk away.

Brian looks at Ben and smiles, “Don’t worry, that won’t happen.”

Ben is confused, and then, he sees the man take a revolver out and point it to James.

“Hey James! Tell your brother I said hello.” Brian says.

James turns around and his eyes widen in shock.

“Wait!”

Brian shoots James in the head, blood and tiny bits of his brain fly from the back of his head. James drops to the ground. Blood is leaking from his head. The other men ramble among each other. Some are snickering. Ben is shocked, as he lies there on the ground.

“Someone move his body, the sight of him is pissing me off!” Brian orders as he holsters his revolver.

Two men move James aside from the crowd.

“Alright! Let’s get this show going!” he says as he pulls out a large knife with a black onyx blade and dark wood handle. The light reflects off the black blade. He gets behind the mutated creature and grabs its tail. The animal is squirming and screeching but is unable to move from its bindings. Brian stretches its tail as much as possible and slices it off with his knife. It’s a clean cut and the creature screams in agony. Brian holds the once attached tail in his hand, it’s still squirming. Dark red blood is flowing out of the mutated animal’s dismembered tail. Ben slowly gets on his knees. His mind is jumbled. What were they going to do to him, and what was this mysterious monstrosity before him? Brian walks over to Ben, still holding onto the tail, and throws it in front of him. Ben just stares at it with disgust, and then looks up to Brian.

“Eat it.” Brian tells him.

“W- what?” Ben mutters.

“I know you’re hungry, I can see it in your eyes.” Brian says as he removes his pilot glasses. He reveals his green eyes and stares into Ben.

“Come now, eat it! You know you want to. You’re beginning to crave flesh.” he claims.

Ben looks back at the tail, it stops squirming, and now it just lies there in a small puddle of blood. Ben’s mouth begins to water; he tries to shake the craving out of his head.

“No!” Ben yells. He won’t let the craving of blood and flesh overtake him. Brian grabs Ben’s head and pushes it into the ground,

“Eat it now!” he yells.

Ben lays there, looking at his last meal. He can’t deny it anymore. This bloody leathery tail actually looked satisfying to him. He slowly lifts himself up and grabs the small tail. He holds it in his hands and his heart beat is becoming faint. He’s sweating, and the thoughts of his daughter and wife appear in his head. These are Ben’s final thoughts, he can’t understand why he’s going to devour this raw flesh he holds in his hands. But his instincts aren’t his anymore. The drifters around him keep chanting “Eat it!” over and over. Ben looks up at the mutated animal, it has passed out from pain. The sounds of their cheering start to become faint, as if they’re just a muffled-out noise now. He licks his lips and stares intensely at his bloody meal. He doesn’t hesitate anymore and takes a salivary bite out of it. It’s chewy and bloody, however, Ben continues to eat into it, as if it was a juicy steak sirloin.

The drifters are cheering; some flee away from the scene because it grossed them out. It was only a matter of seconds before Ben devoured the small tail, he’s lost control of himself. He starts licking the blood off the dirt like leftovers off a dinner plate. Ben’s face is now covered in dirt and blood, and he begins to pant, as if he’s out of breath.

“I gotta say, that was just disgusting.” Brian laughs. “But it sure was entertaining as hell! I’m not sure why Jack wanted us to do this but it’s done now.”

Jack? Ben thinks. That name, he’s heard it before.

“He wanted us to wait a few minutes before killing you. But…” Brian snickers as he pulls out his revolver.

“Let’s just put you out of your misery.”

Brian pulls the trigger, but nothing comes out.

“Heh, I’m all out. Damn James made me use my last bullet.”

He looks at his men,

“One of ya’ll go get me some bullets!” he orders.

Two men scurry to complete the task. Ben just kneels there, staring at the ground. His heart begins to rapidly beat and he begins to pant like a dog. Brian looks at him,

“What the hell is wrong with you? You want seconds already?” he jokes.

Suddenly, a sharp pain strikes Ben’s heart, as if someone’s hand was squeezing it. He drops to the ground and yells in agony. The sudden noise from Ben frightens Brian and the few men left around him.

“What the hell?” Brian says as he backs up.

Ben begins to squirm on the ground, as if he’s having a seizure. Brian and six other men are just looking at him with confusion and curiosity. One of the men that went to fetch the ammunition comes back. He sees Ben squirming on the ground and has the same expression as the others around him.

“Uh, sir?” the man says.

“What?” Brian says, still watching Ben with interest.

“Here’s the bullets.”

“Okay, uh thanks.” Brian says as he takes them, still watching Ben fight with himself.

Ben continues to scream in tremendous agony as he clenches his chest. Brian slowly loads up the revolver, as he watches him. Ben’s head feels like it’s going to explode, his heart feels as if it’s going to burst out of his chest, and the pain of what felt like hundreds of needles stabbing him drives throughout his body. Then, he stops thrashing, and his entire body goes limp. He’s faced down, motionless. Everything is quiet. The sound of the wind brushing through the trees are heard throughout the area. The drifters are all watching Ben’s lifeless body in silence.

“Well I got to say, that shit was weird.” Brian says as he releases a sigh.

He walks up to Ben and turns him over with his foot. There’s little blood drooling out of his mouth, and his face is pale.

“I guess his last meal was poisonous.” Brian says with a chuckle.

Suddenly, Ben’s body shoots up, and he releases a loud gasp, as if he was out of breath. Brian falls to the ground from the sudden movement. Then, Ben drops back to the ground.

“Holy shit! You have stop scaring me like that” Brian nervously laughs as he gets back up. He dropped his gun by Ben,

“Let’s just put a bullet in your head so you stay down for good.” He says as he reaches for the gun.

He grabs the gun, until suddenly, he can’t move his hand. Ben has grabbed onto Brian’s wrist.

“What the hell?!” Brian says with shock.

Ben’s eyes instantly open, and he glares at Brian. However, Ben’s brown eyes were no more. Instead, they were yellow, and the pupils in his eyes have become thin, as if he had the eyes of a snake. Brian has a startling expression. Ben’s eyes has frightened him. Then, there’s a sudden loud cracking. Ben breaks Brian’s wrist like a toothpick. He barks in pain. The other men are trying to comprehend what just happen.

Brian falls on his side, holding onto his wrist and yelling in torment. Ben grabs the revolver left on the ground and aims it at the men watching. He shoots two of the men in the head within seconds. Everything feels slow to Ben. He sees the men around him scattered, some are grabbing their weapons, ready to attack. The scent of blood and dirt feels his nostrils, it’s strong. Ben feels a sudden tingling sensation in his spine. He quickly turns his body over. A shirtless man with tattoos comes running up to Ben with an ax. Only a foot away from him, Ben swiftly kicks him in the knee, causing his leg to bend backwards and breaking it. The man’s bone rips out of his flesh. Ben is shocked by this, he feels stronger than ever. The tattooed man drops to the ground, his screams of agony fills the air. He loses the ax he had. Ben picks it up and gets on his feet, two more men run up to him with machetes. Ben’s yellow eyes quickly scan the area, the two men running to him only have machetes. He sees another off the right with a gun. He seems to be struggling to take it out of the holster. Ben only has a moment to act. Without thinking, Ben throws the ax at the first man running up, stabbing him in the head. He drops to the ground, instantly dead. The second one approaches Ben and swings his machete at him. Ben can see his movement, its slow. He easily dodges it and grabs the man’s arm. He breaks it in half. The man falls to the ground and hollers in pain. Ben stomps on his chest, crushing it and shattering his insides. The last man finally manages to free his gun from its strap and prepares to fire. Acting quickly, Ben grabs the revolver he left on the ground. He quickly shoots the revolver at the guy and kills him instantly. The bullet punctures his head, making a clean shot through.

Brian is still on the ground, and as he realizes that his men around him are dead, he desperately tries to crawl away from the slaughter. Ben walks up to the tattooed man, who’s still yelling in pain from his broken leg. Ben takes the ax he left in one of the other drifter’s face. He walks over the tattooed man. Then, Ben forcefully thrusts the ax into the tattooed man’s head, killing him. Brian is terrified, as he continues to struggle crawling away. Ben slowly walks up to Brian and points the revolver at him. Brian is out of breath. He looks up to Ben, terror in his eyes.

“What the hell are you?!” He fearfully says.

Ben just glares at him with his new yellow eyes. He has the look of a predator trapping its prey in a corner.

“What the hell did you do to me?” Ben says as he cocks back the revolver.

“Please! Don’t kill me! This wasn’t my idea; it was our boss, Jack!” Brian cries.

Ben kneels down close to him. He stares ferociously into Brian’s eyes. Ben put his hand close to him and he flinches. He grabs the black onyx blade off of Brian.

“I’m keeping this.” Ben mutters, and he stands.

“It-it’s fine. Take it! Please just don’t kill me!” Brian pleads.

Ben doesn’t say anything. He straps the onyx blade to his pants and just glares at him. Then, Ben points the gun to Brian and shoots it three times. Brian’s body flinches from the shots and becomes limp. Ben doesn’t say a word. As he walks away from Brian, he examines the dead men around him. He picks up a machete that was left on the ground and punctures the lifeless bodies around him in the head. They won’t turn into the Fallen if the brain is damaged.

Ben hears groaning. He looks to see it’s the mutated creature the drifters were torturing. He walks up to it; the animal is in pain. Ben looks at it in the face. Its leathery gray face was quite ugly, but it had sadness in its eyes. Ben lays his hand on its head,

“What are you?” he asks.

The animal moans again, it’s in terrible pain.

“Whatever you are, you didn’t deserve this.” Ben says, as he examines the cuts and bruises around its body.

The mutated animal closes its eyes and passes out. Ben shakes his head in sorrow, he felt sorry for this mysterious animal. Ben hears the other men shouting something. It’s coming from throughout the camp. He searches the bodies around him and finds another gun and some ammo. He loads up and prepares himself for a fight. Ben is filled with rage. His heart is racing and he feels adrenaline rushing through his body. He is going to kill every person in this camp.

Cole, the other tied up prisoner, hears the sound of gunshots and men screaming within the compound,

“Wonder what’s happening” he tells himself.

Suddenly, Cole’s attention is caught from the brush movements coming from the bushes nearby. One of the Fallen have emerged, Cole’s heart is racing as he can’t move from his bindings. Its face is slimy and molded. Its white eyes scan the area. A low gurgling noise emits from its mouth. The Fallen takes notice of Cole and begins to walk over to its meal. Cole is violently struggling to escape from the ropes he’s tied to, but he makes no progress. The Fallen is getting closer and Cole closes his eyes, preparing for his death. Until suddenly, its head explodes, blood lands on Cole. He looks at the Fallen as it lays there dead, and then he sees the man who saved him approaching. Cole is shocked to see who it is.

It’s Ben!

His eyes have gone back to their normal brown color; however, he stands there with blood on his face and hands, wearing a black t-shirt, cargo pants and boots he took from the men in the camp.

“Ben?” Cole says in disbelief.

Ben just stands there glaring at Cole in anger.

“Wha-What happen? I thought you’d be dead by now.” Cole says

“What was that thing?” Ben angrily mutters.

“What thing?’

“Don’t act stupid! They fed it to me!”

“You ate it?!” Cole says in shock. “And you’re still alive?”

Ben clenches his fist, “What the fuck was that thing?!” he repeats himself.

“I can explain to you later, but-”

Ben puts a black revolver to Cole’s head, cutting his sentence short,

“Tell me now!” he yells.

“Okay! It’s supposed to be a cure!” Cole quickly answers.

The two say nothing at first. Did Ben hear that right? A cure? Silence, the only sound comes from the wind dancing in the trees.

“When you ate it, you became cured from the Fallen virus.” Cole explains.

“A cure?! That’s bullshit.” Ben says in disbelief.

“Look I know you don’t believe me.”

“Ya no shit. Why would a cure to the undead be out here with some lowlife scumbags?”

“Look, if you-”

“It took me ten seconds to kill eight men! I’m more than cured, I’m not even human anymore.” Ben says as he puts the gun down.

Cole is getting annoyed as he waits for Ben to stop talking.

“Look, untie me from here and I can explain more to you.” Cole says.

Ben and Cole exchange glances, and then, Ben grabs his large onyx blade and cuts the ropes holding Cole. He stands up and stretches, finally being released from his bindings. He’s wearing a dirty white shirt, black pants, and stands about 5′ 8”, just a few inches shorter than Ben.

“One thing before we go.” Cole says as he cracks his head.

Ben listens.

“Please take me to him. That animal.” Cole says as he cleans the blood off his glasses.

The mutated creature that looked like the cross breed of different animals lays there, barely alive. Ben had cut the ropes holding it down. Cole is kneeling next to it, muttering something to himself.

“I can’t save him.” Cole sadly says. “He’s lost too much blood.”

“Let’s put it out of its misery” Ben suggests, as he draws his gun.

“No!”

“It’s in pain Cole, put it down.”

“I can’t because he’s my friend!” Cole tearfully says.

Ben looks at Cole with confusion,

“This thing is your friend?” he says.

“Was a friend, then a science experiment.” Cole responds.

“You experimented on your friend?! You’re sick!” Ben angrily points out.

“It wasn’t my idea!” Cole yells back, “I- I couldn’t save him...”

Cole looks down on himself. Ashamed.

“But you’re right. Give me the gun please.” he says.

Ben hesitates at first. He doesn’t know this man, why give him a weapon?

Ben can see the sorrow on Cole’s face. He sighs, then hands his gun over.

Cole stands up and puts the gun to the mutated animal’s head.

“I’m sorry my friend. But your sacrifice wasn’t in vain. We will cure the world.” Cole mutters.

He then pulls the trigger, the shot echoes through the air. Some birds fly out of a tree. He killed the mutated creature, putting it out of its misery. Cole hands back the gun.

“Ben? If you want me to explain this entire situation to you, we need to go somewhere safe.”

“Why not tell me now?” Ben asks as he checks his ammo.

“This place isn’t safe. The man who owns this camp might be here soon and he’s someone I don’t want to mess with.” Cole answers.

“Fine. But I better get answers.” Ben utters.

Cole nods.

Ben is curious of what has happened to him and what this creature that laid dead before him was. The two prepare themselves to leave the camp, grabbing any kinds of supplies they can gather. Ben has been on the verge of death, but now, he is more alive than ever. From what he knows, he is supposedly cured from the virus. However, Ben doesn’t feel the same. He feels stronger. Whatever has happened to him, there’s one question he continues to ponder in his head. Is he still human?