The Mantis Continuum - Book Four - 29. Chapter 29 - Riam, Part One

Lonklam and Ronging struggled to keep pace with Riam. Despite her severely twisted body, she was much stronger and faster than either of them. The three were headed down the Pinewood Path away from the ruins of Ilin, but Riam was far ahead of Lonklam and Ronging. They moved as quickly as their strange bodies allowed, and yet Riam continued to pull away from them.

She reached Bloodwater Crossing, and in an instant, she had forded the Lonely River. The pull toward her prey was all-consuming. Riam sensed the many photonova glands in Gate Town, and as she approached a tiny shack at the very edge of the city, she honed in on two Shifts who were inside. Without stopping, Riam smashed into and through the wall of the little building. She collided with and incapacitated the individuals; her strength was terrible.

The two Shifts were slammed against the ground, and the fingertips of Riam’s multiple hands dug into and penetrated the meat of their necks, rupturing their flesh. Blood sprayed over the mutated woman. It took her almost no effort to rip both of their heads from their bodies, and she discarded the convulsing corpses without another thought.

Riam screamed with vicious ecstasy, and she peeled one of the skulls like a hideous fruit. She ripped the face and scalp from the bone, and two of her other hands came slamming together with the skull between them, popping the head like a pomegranate. Brains, blood, and bone shards sprayed through the air in a gruesome arc. Riam ripped her hands apart with the same force, and she snatched at the mess with yet another set of unnatural fingers. She found the photonova gland, shoved it into her mouth, and swallowed hard.

With the other severed head tucked under one of her many arms, Riam felt herself beginning to change. She made her way back toward the forests that surrounded Teshon City, as a new arm thrust out from her right collarbone. An oversized eye with no lashes formed on the back of one of her many hands. The weird extra mouth on her temple developed a second tongue, both of which perpetually hung toward her whiskered ear. Yet another breast grew from the side of her torso, and it had three nipples. On the back of her head, a large patch of hair dropped out, and from her scalp sprouted a new pair of thumbs.

“I see you’ve got a snack for later,” Lonklam said as he and Ronging finally caught up with Riam in the forest outside of town.

“I will need… again… soon,” she struggled to say.

“How soon?” Lonklam pointed with one of his hands at the severed head. “Will that allow you to travel?” He looked at Ronging, then back at Riam, and a bizarre smile stretched across his double mouth. “I think we should bring you to Xin.”★