A Fortuitous Meeting

Crunch. Eris licked the marrow leaking from the broken end of a bone. It's so odd, she thought wiping blood from her chin. I know I'm strong, but it seems like I can just snap these bones like balsa wood nowadays. She spit out a white shard and continued gnawing on the prize.

All around her the sounds of the jungle were intense. It was waiting for its chance to betray her. She knew it. That's why she refused to eat anything out of the jungle. It could be poison. Safer by far to kill her fellow Hei-Shi, the ones she'd convinced to come on this trek with her. They made surprisingly good eating.

Stop it, Eris! Something is wrong.

There was that voice again. Bizarre. It had been trying to get her attention lately, but she couldn't figure out why.

The wet ground after the rain made a cooking fire impossible. So she'd decided to risk eating the leg raw. Still better than jungle food, but she knew she'd have to be careful not to eat it all. She only had the one leg left. Hei-Shi have a lot of meat on them, but after even a day in the jungle it is infested with who knows what and unsafe anymore. She'd discarded most of her companions on the trail behind her. In fact, she was all alone now.

You're alone because you killed them Eris. Think about it. You would never have done that before! Something is wrong.

Well, not completely alone she supposed. That voice kept butting its way into her internal monologue. Presently she was following a trail that she presumed belonged to the Mechified Moses and his crew. Why on the 50 hells of Karia Moses had come out into the jungle she had no idea, but then precious little was making sense to Eris these days.

C'mon Eris. How did you find this trail? How do you seem to know where Moses is headed? Something is driving you!

Much as she hated to admit it, the voice had a point. Back when she was a Hei-Shi, following orders was her sun, moon and stars, but out here in the jungle she had no superior to boss her around. Yet she still felt like she was doing what she was told. Huh.

Up ahead. People talking. Eris tossed the bone aside, took cover in the underbrush and adjusted the scope on her rifle.

"I don't give a shit, Donkey Man! You promised me a blade and you're gonna deliver," the speaker was a young male Allskin, red in the face from shouting. Beside him a portly Zipsum with blood shot eyes stood, smoking a cigarette and looking bored.

"Tricks here says we can keep heading south, so we're heading south."

The injured Gogajin whom he was upbraiding gave a weary sort of look and replied, "I'm telling you that we'll cross straight through Jevumm territory that way. It's a detour, but we should go West a while."

From further on down the trail an enormous Mechified came lumbering back, Eris got suddenly excited before realizing he looked nothing like Moses. Dammit. Wrong fucking Mechified. How many of them are wandering around this cursed jungle!

The Mechified spoke up, "Look, I'm pretty sure we can handle whatever trouble you think is that way. Ryuunosuke doesn't know how to lose."

The argument went on for several minutes before anyone said anything that interested Eris. It was that angry looking chemist lady who was speaking.

"...die of old age if we stand here arguing any longer. Matthew, give our Donkey friend some incentive to keep moving. Tricks, do your job and scout out the damn trail. Ryuunosuke has a date with Daitokuji Kiyoshi."

Eris stifled a scream of joy. She hadn't lost the trail after all. These people would lead her to her prey.

You aren't thinking clearly. You don't know these people, who knows what they're after.

"Shut up!" she shouted at the voice in her head, only to realize she'd said it out loud.

The Mechified called Matthew came running back toward her hiding spot. She stood up, rifle trained on his face. He froze.

Are you going to eat these people too Eris? Don't you realize you're going mad? Ever since the labs back in Geneva Prime. You stole those prototype DisLocators for you and the other Hei-Shi. That's how you've gotten so far in such a short time. That's when the nightmares started. Can't you feel it right now, pressing into your neck?

"Are you going to shoot Matthew here or not, lady?" The Allskin was approaching slowly from the side. His voice was smooth. Eris tried to shake the fog from her mind.

"You said you were after Daitokuji Kiyoshi," she spat, lamely.

"Heard that did ya? Yeah, he's an old friend. Why?"

Eris looked around nervously, the others were approaching from the opposite side and the Zipsum, Tricks, was nowhere to be seen. "I have a score to settle with a man named Moses."

And causing untold harm on the way to that goal. You have to get rid of the DisLocator, Eris. Remember the accident two days ago? Is your mind so clouded you can't even remember that far back? You and one Hei-Shi teleported into the middle of some Zipsum encampment. What happened there? Did the DisLocator betray you? The attack was instantaneous, you barely got out with your life. As you teleported away did you see the bloody Hei-Shi sinking to the bottom of the lagoon taking his DisLocator with him?

"Hello? Hello!" The Mechified had dodged out of the way and the Allskin man was trying to get her attention. Now that he was closer he appeared... enhanced. "Whoa, you've got a habit of drifting off there. Are you present?"

Eris nodded.

"Well, let's say we don't mind taking a crazy sniper with us if she's got a grudge against Moses. Are you willing to follow my orders?"

She nodded again.

"Good. If you point that thing at any one of us again, I'll snap your neck, understood?"

Once more, she nodded. Everything seemed so distant and unimportant. They began forging a path through the jungle southward, waving her on. She followed, blankly.

This can't end well Eris. Not for you. Not for them. Maybe it's too late, even if you got rid of the DisLocator. Might as well create some mayhem on the way down.

Now the voice was starting to make sense.