Excerpt: The Hive

Rayna woke up in a bed, she could barely see, but she knew it was not her own. she ached all over, what had happened last night? Last thing she remembered was leaving a nightclub at about two, was she that drunk, this didn’t feel like her usual hangover, and who’s bed was she in? She rubbed her eyes and tried sitting up, it was difficult but she managed it. It was dark in the room, the blackout window was activated, but she could make out everything now at least it’s shape, then the door opened and a man walked though.
“Oh, you’ve woken up” he said.
“Uh, yeah, where am I?”
“Don’t worry you’re safe, and don’t try to move too much, the aching will go away eventually, I bought you some water.”
“Right. I’ve woken up in guy’s beds before but I really can’t remember what happened last night, I must have been wasted.”
“It wasn’t last night, you’ve been unconscious for about 28 hours”
“Uh okay, what happened? Was I mugged or something, and you saved me?”
“Not quite, you were attacked and I guess I saved you, but I was also the one that attacked you.”
“Uh, what? You attacked me, and you bought me here, what are you kidnapping me or something, your loss, cause I ain’t worth shit, are you going to turn the light on so I can see your face?”
“oh no, nothing like that, I would turn the light on, but your eyes may be very sensitive, I was going to try an break it to you gently, but here’s my face”
Victor turned the light on to it’s dimmest setting and Rayna immediately threw her hand over her eyes.
“Hey not so bright man, what’s the deal?”
“This is only the dimmest setting, this is what I was going to tell you, your new eyes may be more sensitive than normal, they’ll take a moment to adjust.”
“New eyes? What the hell are you talking about man, you ain’t making sense!”
“All will become clear, now look at me.”
Rayna lowered her hand and looked upon Victors face, he had shaved not long ago, and the accelerated hair growth had slowed down to normal but his face was still a shocking sight. Rayna Screamed.
“Shh, not so loud, it’s still pretty early in the morning.”
“Who, wh, what are you?” Rayna said, petrified.
“My name is Victor, and there’s nothing to be afraid of, I was… exposed, to a virus which changed my appearance, which I’m sorry to say I have inadvertently passed onto you.”
“WHAT, so I look like that too, like a fucking vampire, you’re a fucking vampire!”
“No, no I’m not, there is no such thing as vampires, I assure you.” He said “I tried using anti-vials to stop or slow down the virus, but it was futile. The virus has reacted some way with my ASRESCs [Aggressive Self Replicating Embryonic Stem Cells] and seems to infiltrate the system too quickly. Please do not be afraid, I have done everything I can to nurse you through this, to keep you well, and safe, from yourself.”
“What do you mean?”
“When this virus first… infected me, the animal part of my brain took over, I attacked you, possibly fed on you, and transmitted the virus. Thankfully you didn’t die, the virus saved your life, and I have been keeping you here, feeding you sugar water so the same thing didn’t happen to you, you must understand I have been doing this for your own good.”
“ok, what if I believe you, what now? You say you’re not a vampire, even though you look a hell of a lot like one,”
“I assure you the similarity is a coincidence, although…”
she cut him off “Say if I believe you, I can just go back to my life, right? So I might look a bit different but some guys are into that, I could make a good buck.”
“I don’t think that will be possible.”
“Why not?”
“Your physical changes have been a little more extreme than mine, as I was saying before the virus is designed to change a person, give them the traits of a combination of animals, in this case Cats and Bats…”
“You made me part bat? So I am a fucking vampire!”
“No you are not, please listen, the transformations were originally supposed to be subtle, but something in the way the virus infected me, and combined with my ASRESCs, the transformations are more extreme. My transformation has favoured the cat aspects, but apparently yours have favoured the bat, and may look more striking that you have assumed.”
“What do you mean, show me!”
“Very well” victor left the room and returned with a small mirror.”
Rayna looked at herself in it and saw what he meant, her canines were long, like Victor’s, perhaps slightly longer, but other transformations were apparent too. She hadn’t noticed before but her finders had grown, perhaps by another one third, and had begin to web Also she seemed to have lost weight since the transformation, she was a little tubby before but now she was practically waiflike, although her muscles seemed much more toned than they have ever been. Her ears had grown slightly, pointing at the top, her nose seemed to have widened, and wrinkled in the bridge and her eyes looked slightly sunken. The biggest change of all however, was a flap of skin under her arms running down her side to her knee, she lifted her arm up to look at it and a muscle she didn’t know she had pulled taught, she had a membranous flap of skin running up her side.
“Oh my God” she wailed and began crying. “I’m fucking hideous.”
“Please don’t cry” whispered victor, “I am so very sorry for what I have given you, but you are not hideous at all, it’s beautiful in fact, I am a lonely man, I want you to consider living here with me, I hope you can forgive me, and we can live with this curse together.”
“Fuck you.” she said through her tears. “Where the fuck are my clothes?”
“I’m afraid they were… damaged, I went out earlier to pick you up some more, they are in the bathroom.” he said, and she stormed off.
She locked herself in the bathroom for several hours, sobbing occasionally. Eventually she decided to emerge, and came to speak to Victor.
“What if I do decide to stay with you, what then?”
“Well… I work with some rather shady individuals, who will be very interested in the changes we have exhibited, our changes may be passed onto many other people, we will not be alone then.”
“I’m listening, who are these people?”
“you may have heard of them, depending on who you listen to, they are called Humanist Underground, or the Anti Queen Terrorists.”
“You work with terrorists?” she shouted shocked.
“Yes, please be quiet, people may hear, but they are not as bad as the media makes them out to be, their goal is to save us all from oppression under the government of the Hive Queen.”
“I though the Hive Queen was good and stuff?”
“That’s just what she wants you to think, in fact for years she has been brainwashing people and conducting illegal research secretly, eventually she plans to have the whole world under her control”
“What about those people on Mars?”
“I don’t know much but I believe they are on our side, even though they say different. They supply the Humanist Underground with technology and funds occasionally.”
“I was going to go, you know, but I couldn’t afford it in the end.”
“That’s good to know, one theory is, the Hive Queen encouraged the mars colony as a way to weed out her opposition, get them all in one place.”
“Then what? Nuke it out of space?”
“Oh no the Hive Queen would be more subtle than that, possibly cause a disease, seal off the planet, and say it is native to Mars, people would praise her for saving Earth from the contagion.”
“Wow yeah, that’s pretty heavy stuff, you know I think I will be better off with you, my life was shit anyway, I don’t want to go back to it. I’m Rayna by the way.”
“I’m glad” said Victor and smiled warmly. “Rayna, that’s a beautiful name.”
She smiled back.