19. The spirit of the forest

Dwax found a jar of peanut butter. That stuff drove rats crazy. Dwax then walked over and simply blasted the rats with his bombadeer chemicals. Instant cooked meat. He took a handful and pushed it into his mouth. He wanted to utilize as much of the rat boom as possible. He developed a centipede that was supposed to be a predator for the rats. It had a growing step-by-step program built in, like the rabbit did. The final resulting titan would have exposed nerve endings in their bodies, with matching exposed nerve endings within Dwax's body. It is going to be a pilotable living being. A small cluster of neurons in both Dwax and the future giant centipede.

Dwax released two hundred thousand such centipedes into the wild to do their thing. He felt the bombadeer organ draining his energy and his nutrients to refill its reserves. However, as long as the things he consumed were meat, the calorie calculation was still in the green. Since there will be many centipedes, Dwax would be able to use their bodies to offload the calorie costs of creating new species by taking control over these centipedes through the nerve endings.

The centipede, after breaking its cocoon, immediately ran toward a rat and coiled it. It started eating the screeching mouse face first. The centipede ate its fill and found another rat to lay eggs into. Dwax took pride in how mean the centipede was. That was the kind of behavior he wanted to see in his animal kingdom.

Dwax smiled. His teeth were yellow, and his eyes were lit with a kind of sadistic emotion that could only be found in a man who had lost everything.

Years later, around a campfire, seven migrants sat around a campfire just outside their new town's territory. The bio-laboratory town is nothing but a memory now. Thick vegetation covered the land. It was a terrifying hell and, at the same time, a salvation. Every other piece of vegetation was assaulted by a relentless avalanche of rabbits and rats. A massive migration occurred when people heard about a land that was green and lush.

Dwax's territory was practically a rainforest. It was aggressively trying to expand, only stopped by the motion range of the giant mist beasts. As these beasts walked around, they watered the vegetation with their cooling organs. It would drink a substantial amount of water from a source, and as it walked around, it would spray the water from its holes to cool itself. The water would then rain down on the vegetation below. As a result, Dwax's genetically modified fauna grows ever more aggressively. A mist beast has a range. They need to be able to refill their water regularly. The point where they lose enough water to not be able to return to a water source is as far as they could go.

A man wobbled near the fire.

"Do you have any food to spare friends?"

The migrants broke their bread and gave it to the beggar. The beggar ate all the bread and walked away.

The next day, they found five rabbits and some vegetables bundled in leather next to their camps.

Away, at another campfire Five men, just like the refugees before, have been eating the produce from the forest. Just like before, a beggar came, begging for food.

The men stood up, and the one with the largest body pushed the beggar away.

"Get away, you filthy beggar. We don't have any food to give you."

The beggar wailed.

"Please, good sirs, just a little smidgen of food! I'm starving."

The five men got up and started striking the beggar. The beggar swiftly dodged the attacks and ran into the vegetation. Something about the beggar was really weird. He didn't run like a human being. The five men got back to roasting their meat on the fire.

"Why did that man run into the forest? Isn't it dangerous?"

The bald man spat.

"I don't know, and I don't care. I didn't survive by giving a shit about every poor sap out there."

A few hours later, a giant centipede appeared from the depths of the thick forest. The centipede was so fast that the men weren't able to escape before the centipede coiled around their campfire.

"Hello friends."

A man appeared from the slimy flesh hole in the centipede's head. His upper body was covered in dubious liquids.

"How come you didn't give any food to that beggar? You know how to plunder these lands; how come you can't share the land's bounty?"

The men were frozen with fear.

"Tell me, why should I have you beggars have the bounty of my domain? Better yet, give me a reason to not consume your little lives right now. Aren't you guys just a blight on this world? Aren't you small minded, mean little bastards who know nothing but plunder? Have any of you done anything good in your life?"

The men were silent. It was as if they were being scolded by their parents.

"First of all, I can tell when you are lying. Don't mock me with your lies. That being said, I will ask you something, and if you can't answer, your flesh will be consumed. I swear upon blood, ash, and ink."

Another jolt of fear ran through the men. They had no will to resist. One of them opened his mouth.

"I worked tirelessly for my community."

The centipede slithered and brought the man inside the bug face-to-face with the man who talked.

"You aren't lying. However, that's just work. I'm not asking about the work you did. I'm asking about even a single honest to god good deed you did."

The men were silent. Their minds were searching for that nugget of a good deed. To their shock, almost nothing came to mind. One of the men stepped forward.

"I saved a child from rain a few months ago."

The centipede and the man protruding from its head grew closer to the man who talked. He sniffed him and smiled a Cheshire smile.

"You are free to go. Climb through my body and run. Don't let me see you again."

He turned toward the remaining men. The short, skinny man with long hair, resigned and flaccid in his body language, started talking.

"I am scum. There is nothing good I did. Whatever I did, I had to do."

Tears streamed down his cheeks.

"Oh, interesting. Are these tears, tears of regret, or are they tears of fear? Are you afraid of me?"

The man was awash with grief over a wasted life. His entire life was wasted just scraping by. He acted like a rabid dog.

"Just kill me. I don't deserve to live."

The centipede scuttled and brought the two men face-to-face.

"Say, if I let you go, would you change?"

The man listlessly looked up.

"I could try."

The centipede demon recoiled suddenly.

"Good enough. You are not lying. You are free to go."

The man climbed over the centipede and ran away. The three remaining men eyed each other with a glint of malice.

"Erkan ate a kid a month ago!"

The green-eyed, auburn-haired man pointed at the bald man.

"Me telling you that counts as a good deed, right?"

The centipede man smiled. There was nothing human in that smile.

"Selling out your comrades to save your life? It hardly counts. However, you've told the truth. Which brings me to him. Did you eat a kid, sir?"

The man, shivering, answered.

"No."

The centipede man suddenly yelled out.

"LIES!" The beastly multivocal yell echoed throughout the woods.

The centipede snatched the man and started to eat into him with its mandibles. Bloodcurdling screams were eventually replaced by silence. There was nothing left to scream. One of the remaining men had soiled himself.

Shredded flesh dangling from the mouth of the centipede, the man who was lodged in its head asked.

"Can't any of you remember any good deeds you did? Are you that much of a scumbag? You got five munities."

"I've tried to be respectful of the dead after the cataclysm, if that counts. I also tried not to do anything too bad for my survival. I've even rejected opportunities to do so."

The centipede man invaded his personal space and sniffed him deeply.

"You are not lying. You are free to go."

The man escaped before the sentence was finished.

The last man said nothing.

"Your time is up. You've failed to answer me. What shall I do with you?"

The giant centipede held the man down and bored holes in his back. It pushed eggs into the resulting holes and let the man go. The man wobbled away from the monster. He was just glad to be alive.

Dwax thought to himself.

"Human beings are particularly successful at gathering calories. They are the best seedbeds for these new species. These scums are convenient shortcuts.