The City Parasite

June 2nd, 2015

??? since Event

I opened my eyes and saw stars.

All around me was the blackness of space lit up with stars and nebuli. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. The beauty of the dream I was probably in was unmatched.

My observation was interrupted as I sensed something. A weird mix of emotions that I could not quite identify. I felt a being that was calm, curious, and anxious at the same time. I could only imagine how one could be calm and anxious at the same time.

As the presence got closer, I saw a shape start to take form in the distance, sort of outline, shifting as I felt it come closer and closer.

Suddenly, a whine sounded off, followed by shaking the ‘world’ I was in. I felt panic spike from the being as I felt it rush towards me. The shape becoming distinguished from the world around me.

As I felt myself waking up, I heard the first words from this being as the shape in the distance became vaguely recognizable. I had no time to identify it, as the collapsing dream was shook by a voice that sounded like it came from God himself.

“NAY! NAY!”

Then I woke up.

I woke up to Blitz pawing at my prone form. My heightened sense of smell overloaded my new nose (or was it snout now) with a stench. A stench I knew well.

“God damn it, Blitz. Please tell me you didn't pee on the carpet,” I begged.

I sat up on my rump and looked around, trying to identify the source of the smell. Unfortunately, Blitz had indeed peed on the carpet. Some damp spots near the walls as well as a yellow stain on them confirmed my suspicion.

‘Damn it, I should have taken him out before I left.’

It was then I noticed the emotions I was sensing from the guest room I had. That feeling, just as… tasty as it was yesterday. I walked over to the guest room and pushed open the door.

There, in green pods, were the ponies from Albertson’s. Both of them looked fine, no injuries I could notice. They were floating in liquid which I assume was to keep them asleep and alive, given that there did not seem to be anyway to breath in there. The pod itself was soft to the touch, but did not yield much. Sort of like my exoskeleton.

The things I felt from the seemed subdued, in favor of a heightened sense of that feeling. My fin twitched as I began to… do something. Eat? Drink? I didn't quite know, but I consumed the feeling they felt for each other as one would physical food.

And it tasted good.

I couldn't describe what it tasted like, but it tasted amazing, and it seemed endless. I felt something moving around on my back, but I didn't care. I was only focused on my feast. After the thing on my back stopped moving, I felt something inside me being filled up. Like I have some sort of ‘feeling battery’ inside me.

What was this feeling? Was it emotion? I could ‘sense’ other feelings than this ‘tasty’ one. I could even identify what emotions they were feeling when I got close enough. But they did not taste good, unlike this one. Was it love? The sensation felt like it was being directed towards each other, and I was pretty sure they were brothers.

‘I guess I could call it love, if only so I can stop calling it “feeling”.’

It was only when I was ‘full’ when I stopped and looked at the two probable brothers I just fed off. What I saw shocked me.

They looked like they had not eaten for days now.Their ribcages were plainly visible through the skin and fur. There cheeks were sunken in. And the love in the air was much less potent.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, shit.” I swore aloud.

‘What if I killed them? What if they can't feed me anymore? Will physical food even work for me? DidIjustdoommyselfbyeatingsomuch?WhatifIcan’tfindanyotherminihorses?’ I rapidly thought as I panicked.

My thoughts were interrupted by my phone ringing over in my room. Either telemarketers were still around, bothering the survivors of the apocalypse. Or someone I knew was alive!

I rushed past the still whining Blitz over to my room, where my phone played its ringtone. My brother’s name lied at the top of the screen. I grabbed the stylus and accepted the call, putting the phone up to my ear as I did so.

“Christian! You're alive!” I chirped into the phone.

“I should say the same thing to you,” He chirped in the same language.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It's been about a week,” he answered.

“What do you mea—”

“There's no time to explain. Austin and I are at my apartment. Can you come get us?” My brother asked.

“Yeah, I’m on my way. Be there as soon as I can,” I answered.

“Be sure to bring food! We’re starving.”

The phone clicked as he hung up. My fear for his safety leaving me as I heard that he was alive. Not only that, but Austin was alive too! I just needed to bring food, which I assumed was the love I stored within me.

“San Francisco, here I come.”

Blitz whined again.

“Right after Blitz takes a piss.”

I walked over to the front door and opened it, dodging Blitz who rushed out like a bullet. I walked down the front steps of my apartment complex as I looked for my car, but I could not find it. Even after the four minutes it took Blitz to relieve himself, I could not find my car! As Blitz sat next to me, there was only one thing to say.

“What happened to my frickin’ car!”

One hour and thirty minutes. That's how long it took me to get my car at Albertson’s, walk to a gas station, get the gas to my car, stop at a car dealership, install extended pedals so I could see the road, and then get on the highway.

And now I had a six hour drive to San Francisco.

‘Not getting anything else done today,’ I thought with frustration.

My thoughts were interrupted when Blitz, who was sitting shotgun, pawed me, then moved his head towards the glass window.

I smiled at him, then pressed the buttons on my door, opening the windows of my seat and his. He stuck his head out and enjoyed the air rushing against his head. I enjoyed the air rushing past the window, cooling me a bit.

Like dogs, my new body could not sweat, and I felt like I was about to get heat stroke multiple times while preparing for this trip. This told me something about the state.

My new body could not survive here.

Already I could not survive here with California being a desert made paradise by large projects to get water into the state. It was too hot for my new body, and today wasn't even hotter than average! The love feast I had earlier had healed my wings, but buzzing them to cool myself off did not do much.

I would end up spending most of the trip thinking about where I could go to survive. The pros and cons of each location I knew.

I would also need a lot more than just a location. I would also need to set up renewable energy sources at the location, and find ways to get clean water. I would also need to get a server for Wikipedia, and download all of the articles I can from it. It would save me and any other survivors a lot of trouble trying to reinvent everything.

Or I could go through the horror of raiding a library.

Books are boring.

When I finally got to Christian’s apartment building, the doors to the lobby were missing, allowing me easy access. With no elevators, Blitz and I had to climb 8 flights of stairs before I made it to his floor. When I got close to his door, I felt the emotions of those inside. Though this seemed more like a ‘link’ rather than the sense I felt with the mini-horses. I felt a mixture of feelings and thoughts that I identified as Christian and Austin, and I knew that they felt me as well.

I opened the door, and rushed in, feeling how relieved they felt, knowing that I was here. They were both on the couch, looking semi-starved, with the same green substance on the pods back home on a wall. Seeing them here made me want to make some sort of comment.

So I did.

“I’m back, bitches!” I announced.

I felt a bit of amusement from them. Blitz then ran over and started bathing them with his licks. Apparently he recognized them too.

It was then I noticed how… malnourished they looked. They were very thin, much more than what was probably healthy. They seemed like they could barely move, and their eyes drooped as they attempted to focus on me.

“Are you guys ok?” I asked.

Austin’s stomach growled. “No,” he exasperatedly answered.

“You know what we eat now?” Christian asked. “Because regular food doesn't do anything.”

“Uhh, yeah. But, it's kinda hard to explain, and I don't really know much about it,” I replied.

I had no idea what to do. I didn't know how to transfer the love I had to them, and they were starving. Faced with having to feed them, I decided to just do what feels natural and work from there. And what felt natural was to hug them.

When I hugged Christian, I felt a bit of surprise from him and Austin, but soon after, I felt some of my love stores empty, and transfer to him. His fin twitched, and he accepted the love even through his confusion. When Christian was done, I did the same to Austin, and soon, both were healthy and ready to tackle the day. Even though they were still confused.

“What did you just do?” They both asked, the near synchronization of their words causing some amusement to make itself known in the ‘link’.

“I transferred some of my love store over,” I answered.

Seeing them open their mouths to say something, I stopped them. “And before you ask, it's a long story. I’ll tell you on the way to my place,” I told them.

Sensing their agreement, the three of us and Blitz moved back down the stairs to my car. Christian taking shotgun while Austin took the back seat with Blitz. Soon, we were back on the road to my place, with the sun on the horizon, signalling the end of the day.

“So what did you mean by ‘It's been about a week,’ Christian?” I asked.

“It's been about a week since all this happened. You and Blitz have been missing since May twenty-third.” Christian answered. I felt his nervousness. He was probably not expecting me to react well to the news.

“...Odd, but this whole situation strange as hell,” I answered, surprising them.

“Only you could act like something impossible didn't just happen,” Austin told me.

“Yeah, but I think that all three of us would call our situation impossible before it happened. Besides, all this does is just confirm that there is some intelligence behind this whole thing.”

“Since when did you start believing in God?”

“I never said that. I just think that there is something behind this whole thing, not sure what though.”

The trip continued in silence while everyone digested the new information and the implications it brings.

The silence was broken when Christian spoke again. “So we eat love then?”

“I think so. It's more like a ‘feeling’ that I call love because calling it a feeling does not fit into conversation well. It tastes good though, like my favorite food.”

Austin spoke up, “Tasted like steak for me.”

“Tasted like a cheese burger for me,” said Christian.

“Where you get it from?” he asked.

“Well, the day I woke up, I had gone down to the store. When I was down there, I ran into these technicolor mini-horses. Some other part of my body must've took over then ‘cause I woke up at my apartment with both ponies in pods in my apartment. Got breakfast from them, then got your call,” I explained to them. Their confusion matching my own about how it happened.

“You think they used to be human?” Austin asked.

“I assume so, they were speaking English and one had a gun,” I answered.

Silence reigned for a few minutes.

“Does anyone else find it weird that I see nothing wrong with keeping those horses in the pods?” Austin asked.

“No, because I don't find it wrong either,” answered Christian, who felt a little disgusted with himself.

“No,” I answered, as my thoughts ran miles a minute.

“I think that's because of the new bodies. Maybe we have different instincts,” Christian said, mimicking what I had been thinking and giving me confirmation. He was a psychology major after all.

Some more time was spent in silence before I asked them a question. “So, how have you guys been doing during this whole thing?”

We continued this line of conversation for hours. Talking about what we were doing since the event and even talked about what we were up to before the event. Austin had managed to get a bunch of hard drives from Best Buy and download almost all of Wikipedia before the power went down, which saves me from having to track down a server that hosted the site later.

When we got to my apartment, the sun was gone and nighttime had begun. With our better eyes, the lack of lights did not stop me from feeding Blitz and getting some blankets for my guests to sleep on my couches for the night.

They had expressed their surprise at the colours of the mini-horses. Austin had also explained that we could puke up the green substance and mold it before it hardened. He thought that it's what our bodies do with regular food now, which would normally suck, but I had also confirmed we still had taste buds that night as well. So now we could eat all the junk food we want without consequences!

We did not eat anything much that night, as Christian and Austin were tired and went to bed quickly. I retired to my room and grabbed a book from one of my desk drawers and a pen. Turning it until I reached blank pages, I practiced my hoof-writing a bit. While not perfect, it was good enough, considering I was lucky that this body could even write at all.

As I recalled everything that had happened in the last two days, I began to write.

Dear Journal...