The Host (Jiskastya X NecroTec)

[Jiskastya]

When Jon finally woke, he woke quickly. One moment he was asleep,. dreaming of tomorrow, and the next he skyrocketed into consciousness. He had been so deeply asleep that he didn't even know what time it was anymore. And the words. There were words, echoing around inside his head. It was like he should be hearing them, like someone was standing right next to his ear and speaking them to him.

But no one was there. They were simply bubbling up within his brain. The only thing he could recall as they faded from his mind was the image of Manhattan Island that had come after he had... consumed that man. They were the same words too. The words of the images that had surrounded that moment, that past, when he had tried to cross the line.

This was the second... no, the third time that something had come from within him, and he didn't know where it had come from. There was only one logical possibility. This had begun when the pathogen had entered his body. Therefore, in theory, it must be causing it. Faulty causality, perhaps, but he could come up with no other solution.

Of course, that brought its own problems. If these really had come from the pathogen, that would have to mean that it had... created them, because it didn't take them from him. And creation involved some sort of sentience. Some sort of intelligence, beyond the desperate bid of any cell to survive.

For the moment, he shoved any thoughts of the implications out of his mind. He wouldn't think about how this thing was like him, fighting against the things that had created it and tortured it. Had then tried to dispose of it. He wouldn't think that maybe this thing had a right to live, all on its own, as much as any creature.

No, he wouldn't think of any of that.

If it truly was intelligent, what would that make the sounds and images that had come from nowhere. Attempts to communicate? Then maybe it was waiting for some sort of reply?

And so, he asked the one question that he had always been longing to be asked. Asked by the military, by his sister, by anyone in this abysmal war. It slipped from his mouth in a quiet whisper, barely loud enough so that he could hear it himself.

"What is it that you want?"

[NecroTec]

Self felt the noise - words - register in the host's brain and then the connections impulses made. And the further impulses that spawned from those. On and on. Until finally impulses to the throat and mouth causing the vibrations in the small taut muscles in the throat and convolutions in the tongue and mouth. But Self didn't know how to interpret those yet so it paid attention to how Jon responded to his own words.
It learned frustration then and disappointment. Self also wondered again if the host had affected - or infected - it with these new feelings. It had focused on the sounds that connected most to the visual cortex so it could try to learn which words represented what objects. But the words triggered non-visual connections. Self had so little to work with. It tries to connect the very few words with meanings. The host or the man he ate used the words but it didn't know the meanings yet.
It took some time - about as much time as Jon took - to correlate what it had sensed from the various portions of Jon's brain.
Connection between "military" & "base" & Destroyers
Connection between "you" & "who" & Host
Connection between "man" & Host-kind
Connection between "is" and "are"
Connection between "What are you doing?" from the consumed Man & "I'm sorry," & " kind" & a bad feeling it didn't understand yet although it wondered if the feeling was a softer despair
Connection between "want" & watchfulness maybe?
.
"What" – soft despair?
"is" – null meaning so far
"it" – null meaning so far
"that" – null meaning so far
"you" – host
"want" – watchfulness
.
"What is it that you want?" – (soft despair) (null meanings) (host) (watchfulness)
Self had put an image of Manhattan Island in its host's mind then Jon pictured certain things. Listing those things made him present (soft despair) (null meanings) (host) (watchfulness). It agreed with the idea of being cautious but Jon's feelings when speaking didn't match when he had been travelling.
So either it was wrong about the host having a self or it's meanings were wrong. With so little information, the meanings were probably wrong.
It didn't know what to respond so it resorted to what it needed: a basis – nouns. Self turned Jon's eyes to a building then released the eyes but then maintained the image for a moment more even after an instinctive twitch from its host.
It readied itself to force Jon to focus for a moment on the river and bridge and a few other objects in the hopes its host would understand.

[Jiskastya]

He didn't really know what he had expected. Perhaps a voice, words, floating around in his mind like when he had first woken up. Perhaps an image, perhaps a sound that he couldn't account for in the world outside his mind. But whatever it was that he had expected, it didn't come. He sat, the rough wall of the bridge he had slept under scraping gently against his back.

Was that it, then? Had he been imagining things? Trying to come up with a solution where none existed? None, except an unaccountable insanity that was projecting sounds and images where none should be. Perhaps that was it. Perhaps the tiny, quavering thread that had been holding the web of his sanity together had finally snapped, and he had begun to unravel.

And then his eyes moved, locking into focus on one of the buildings that could be seen from underneath the bridge. He snapped his eyes involuntarily away from the building, not trusting the fact that, once more, he had done something without his own conscious thought. He had done something beyond his own volition. Next was the river, and the roof of the bridge over his head. Every time, even when he forced himself to look away, the image stuck in his eyes, in his mind, for a few moments afterwords.

Was this it, then? Had he finally gone completely mad. He didn't want to believe it. He had been through so much, faced so many tragedies, so much death, that he couldn't be going crazy now. Not now, when he was so close to getting out, to getting away. To being free.

For now he would reject the concept of insanity as even a possibility. But what did that leave him with? If he wasn't crazy that meant that something... else, truly was controlling his body. And what could that be but the strange infection that had wound up inside his body.

Perhaps he had expected too much from it. Whatever it was, it wasn't human. And that probably meant that it lacked the intelligence to understand his attempts at advanced communication.

But it had tried to communicate earlier. He had reached that conclusion as well. Perhaps, then, not unintelligent, but rather having no basis for communication via the English language. So, what now. His eyes had moved, focusing on specific things. If it didn't know the language, but wished to communicate, what choice did it have but to learn.

Could this thing, this infection, this pathogen, really learn that quickly? That implied a more superior intelligence. Which had its own implications.

Not the time to think about that. The consequences would come, whether he wanted them to or not. the consequences had begun when he had attacked the master part of the pathogen with deadly intent. And there was nothing he could do to change it now.

"Building," he articulated, slowly and clearly. "River. Bridge."

Time to wait, and see what would happen. This would answer his questions better than any amount of speculation could.

[NecroTec]

Self had noted the neurons activated by each of the images including the ones in the auditory cortex. But it didn't know how smart the host was. It could induce stimulus in Jon's brain to make him "hear" the words but that would still leave gaps in its knowledge. So it waited. Neurons fired furiously in the host's brain.
"Building. River. Bridge."
Self was happy - the host understood. They could learn to communicate. It wouldn't have to duplicate or eat Jon's brain.
Self was having more feelings but was noticing the new ones less - sort of. Not that it knew where the feelings were coming from: with his higher brain functions intact, Jon could have emotions and they triggered the release of an interesting melange of chemicals. Borrowing Jon's emotional pathways for brief moments gave Self little bursts of those chemicals. Self was like someone who has only had bland food starting slowly at a buffet but gradually trying more things. But it realized none of this.
As the happiness ebbed, in quick succession it used Jon's eyes to look at several different things and stimulated the words in the host's brain:
Grass. Weed. Door. Window. Rat. Wires. Pole. Boat.
Seeing the Destroyers - the military - on the boat, Self released control. It was a long ways off yet but it knew they had long distance weapons and Jon had proven himself in combat but also had tended to resist Self so it backed off. However, it remained very ready to intervene if the host seemed like it would do anything foolish.

[Jiskastya]

It took only a moment for the happiness to begin to bubble up in Jon. It was honest, pure joy, the kind of joy that Jon hadn't felt in so long. He had felt fierce pleasure, most certainly, as he succeeded in ripping his way out of situations. As he had torn apart both infected and military in his mad quest to find a way off the island that had used to be his home. It was only tinged with a slight taste of bitterness, because he knew that the joy wasn't really his own.

But it felt like his own joy. He didn't know how, or why, but it was definitely his own. He wasn't watching someone else smile and laugh through a glass pane. He was there, present, and happy for no reason other than he had pleased the thing inside of him, and it felt happy at that. And it had no way to express its emotions except through his own body.

For there was little doubt now in Jon's mind that the pathogen inside of him was alive, sentient, and controlling his body. He didn't resist as his eyes flitted from thing to thing. "Grass". But what did that mean he was to do now? "Weed". If the thing was still alive in his body, did that mean that the other parts of itself were still alive as well? "Door". If they were, how was he ever going to get off this island? He had been planning to escape once the military realized that the infected population was dying. "Window". So was he now going to have to find a way to destroy the thing that was living in his body? "Rat". Could he bring himself to do it? This thing, in its own ways, was just as alive as any human. Just as alive as him. "Wires". If he tried to kill it how was he any different from the military, in their endless quest to destroy him? "Pole". But he wasn't willing to just stay here either. If the military didn't win this war soon by natural means, then they would come up with artificial means to ensure that the infection never left the island. Whether that meant nuking the whole island, or some other equally nasty means of complete destruction, Jon doubted he would be able to survive it. And that meant getting off the island. Which entailed the pathogen's death. But could he kill it?

"Boat".

Their game of nouns ended suddenly, for his eyes had been directed to one of the military boats. Jon froze, pushing himself just a little further back into the shadows under the bridge. As a lone boat it wouldn't be hard to destroy. Eight soldiers at a maximum, maybe an additional one for the captain. The water would keep the tanks away, and he would probably be able to destroy it before they could radio for air support, and have the helicopters show up.

But there was no reason to engage in conflict. The presence was absent now, but who knew when it would next rear its head and try and wrest control from his own body. If it happened at the wrong moment in conflict, it could spell his death, or, at the very least, severe injury.

So instead he only shrunk back into the shadows, warily watching the military boat pass by. The soldiers eyes were roaming, but they weren't looking for a single human man underneath a bridge. Their eyes were trained for hunters, and other monsters of the infection that had become their primary targets.

Even though one soldiers eyes seemed to lock right on to his, staring across the distance into the eyes of one of their greatest adversaries. But what reason would they have to separate him from any other hobo sleeping under a bridge.

Except, by now, there were no more hobos under bridges. They had been long since eradicated by the infected and their conflict with the military. Anyone who couldn't find protection over the night was at risk of being caught by the infected waves that raided the military quarters. So perhaps him being under the bridge would be enough to alert them to the abnormality of the situation. He could only hope, and ready himself for conflict.

"Captain, this is 124"
"What do you see 124?"
"Sir, I think there is someone under the bridge over there."
"We don't have time to be chasing after stray people 124, you know that."
"But that bridge is on the edge of infected territory. No one would be under a bridge that close to infected territory, sir."
"Corporal, we don't have time to investigate. Our orders were to go check out the reports that the infected south of here have started acting out of character."
"But shouldn't we send someone to investigate, sir?"
There was a rush of static over the com set as the captain sighed.
"I'll report it to base. If they consider it important enough they'll send someone to look. But it is out of my hands either way."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir."

Jon watched the boat travel on. Clearly they hadn't considered it worth stopping for, but he would remember to keep a wary eye and ear out for approaching traffic. For now, though, the best thing to do would be to move. He stood slowly, then walked in the opposite direction of the boat. He'd see whether his unwelcome rider had any objections to the action.

[NecroTec]

_ The quiet had gone on too long for the military forces. No excursions from the infected for a full 24 hours. No sign of their experimental walking weapon for the same period. Could they have destroyed each other? Time to investigate.
.
_ Alpha squad was in the lead. But no one felt comfortable. Every time the infected started being weird something bad soon followed.
_ Rogers stepped badly on a chunk of rock sending it clattering and half the guns were trained on him. They turned back to the infected up the street.
_ "Still no movement from the tentacles or infected, Captain," Alpha leader said.
_ "Roger that."
_ Before continuing Alpha leader decided to assign specific duties to individuals in the squads. Looking at Beta squad he said, "Shellberg, Saldivar cover our left flank." To Gamma squad, " Orlebeke, Walton right flank." To guys from each, "Cardenas, Ahuja rear. Hathorn, Adams sunside." They'd learned to check upwards.
_ As they reached each cross street, alley, or even deep dark doorway, the closest soldiers would cover it as those standing behind them shown their powerful flashlights into the shadows. It would be dark soon so there were far too many shadows for anyone's liking. But then, that was true here even at noon. Those focusing forward were not comforted by the fact that the ranks of the infected had not grown as they approached. They crept forward until they were only 50 feet from the nearest travesty of what had once been human. But it only looked at them, occasionally looking at the nearest tentacle. It laid there pulsing but otherwise motionless.
_ "Sir, 50 feet and no response. Infected is stationary. Seems to be checking closest tentacle every so often. That is a little shriveled maybe. Total of 7 infected and 3 tentacles in sight. All were present from first sighting. No new arrivals. Orders?" Alpha leader said into his open mic.
_ The reply is switched so all the soldiers can hear it: "Take them out but watch for hidden or flanking enemy."
_ "Lukowski, Vang both of you on the big one in back," Alpha leader said to two of the men with what were normally anti-vehicle weapons. As they ready them he gives orders, "Lukowski and Vang fire first then everyone else open up. Move so you have clear field of fire and aim at your twelve - don't need any blue on blue contact."
_ Moments later Lukowski and Vang nod to each other then fire on the hulking creature easily 10 feet tall. Then the air is full of bullets as the two rockets streak towards the behemoth. One explosion sends the hulk's head and right arm flying away while the other explosion removes it's guts and pelvis. Some intense moments then the infected are down and the chainsaws start up to chop up the closest tentacle into ineffective chunks. None of the three last long without infected support.
_ "Status!" Alpha leader calls out.
_ There are no calls for a medic – a first since the war with the infected started.
_ "Sprained ankle, sir. Still mobile," one soldier calls out after a moment's wait to let any injured call out.
_ "Captain. All hostiles neutralized."
_ There is a wait. They assume the captain is making a decision while he's actually dealing with a report from a patrol boat. The captain considers sending the three squads to investigate the man under the bridge since it is odd but not as odd as what's going on with the infected.
_ "Report back to base. This needs to be kicked back upstairs."
.
.
Self had personally learned Jon was quite adept at combat but multiple enemies could still pose a problem so it was relieved the host didn't try to attack. It stays quiet as Jon finds a new location for them.

[Jiskastya]

No response from his unwelcome guest. He discards it from his mind, at least temporarily, and begins jogging out from under the bridge. When he reaches the end of the little arroyo that the bridge spanned he glanced around cautiously, then jumped up to the street in one powerful leap. Another cautious glance, he jumped to the top of the derelict apartment before him. It was only two stories, and he landed lightly on the top, crouching to both absorb the impact and to make sure that anything that had a higher vantage point might look over him.

After a few more moments he straightened. He had always felt safer on higher ground, at least when he wasn't planning to sleep, because it gave him a clearer view of the surrounding area. Right now, with his goal being move away, visual seemed good.

What he hadn't been expecting to see was a small group of infected milling about on the far side of the block. Brow wrinkling, Jon moved forwards carefully and slowly. He had bee watching and fighting the infected for over a month now, and this wasn't the way they acted. Still, yes, but they never had this meaningless movement to them. Everything they did had some sort of ultimate goal to it, or they did nothing at all, conserving energy. They didn't flounder about meaninglessly, looking as though they were lost in how to proceed.

For a few more moments he stared, trying to figure out the possibilities.

It wasn't entirely true that he had never seen the infected act like this before. When he destroyed one of the higher-ranking, for want of a better term, within the infected, its subordinates would start acting like this. They never survived long, the military usually obliterated them before Jon had a chance to see what was truly happening.

Did that mean it had worked? Was the chain of command completely destroyed when the primary part of the pathogen had been... absorbed into his body? The military would have no problems destroying such an uncoordinated force. Maybe this would all work out in the end, somehow. Maybe he was finally done with having to fight his way out of everything.

Time would tell.

[NecroTec]

Self recognized its handiwork. Host-kind - man - was a useful platform to modify but they tended to go rogue if it didn't curtail certain portions of the brain. Eventually Self had made some higher-functioning units that could substitute for its control but the basic units needed guidance. For a moment it wondered if it could restore the brains of the units but only for a moment. It knew it was trapped in this host for now and the host didn't co-operate when it tried to do things. Although it might be learning that co-operation could be useful.
It considered an experiment where it would try to block control and sensation from a section of the body then manipulate the flesh out of sight of the host but then dismissed that in favor of communication.
But the host seemed very alert and might react badly if it resumed attempts at this time. It would wait a bit to verify what Jon was doing.

[Jiskastya]

Eventually, Jon stopped his staring. He had gained little additional information from his survey, and he still needed to hide, just in case the soldiers on the boat had reported his existence. Now was not the time to risk a fight. He had to make absolutely sure that he got off this island. That had to be his only goal, his only purpose, or he would risk getting lost in the fight with the military. Their job was about to get a lot easier with the infected no longer able to respond and create a united fighting front. Perhaps they would relax, but there was also a chance that they would use this time to increase their hunt for him.

He was their final mistake, their final challenge. If they killed him they would be almost to the end of their fight.

Well, he certainly wasn't going to let that just happen. He had survived this long, he wasn't going to die now. No matter the cost.

Jon took off running, jumping fluidly from building to building, gathering power, and jumping over the street that separated the blocks. He was heading inland, getting to a narrow block of streets where the tanks would be trapped in the tight alleys. The only type of technology they would be able to get at him with would be the helicopters. Of the military's technologies, that was by far the easiest to destroy. The foot soldiers would be mostly useless too, getting jammed in the alleys and thus becoming susceptible to his power attacks.

If it came to that, of course. He would rather it not. Not until he understood more about his situation, and how he would be able to cope with his unwelcome passenger.

He dropped from a building, rolling out at the bottom. It wasn't a silent landing, by any means, but it was the quickest way down, and made a lot less noise than a straight drop. He should be safe here, at least for the moment. The infected had taken over the area a while ago, so the military presence was even weaker because of that. He had abandoned this particular hideout when the infected attacks had grown almost beyond control. But, with the infected so disorganized, now would probably be the time to return. He settled back against a building, taking some of the weight off of his feet.

Maybe now he would have the time to puzzle out what to do with this unwelcome, sentient pathogen.

[NecroTec]

. Self watched as Jon travelled through the city. Its host dropped down from the rooftops to street level then leaned up against a building. It waited as Jon remained there doing nothing. It wondered what he was doing since there was no other beings around but it also wasn't a safe place to communicate.
. Self got annoyed. With nothing else happening to distract it, Self noticed the emotion and got annoyed at being annoyed. It searched for the source and found its connection to the emotion centers in Jon's brain. It withdrew from them and peace settled upon it again.
. It thought back on what it had experienced since entering Jon. Several emotions had affected it. The happiness was good. The despair was bad. The annoyance was bad. Host-kind – man – might have a use for emotions but Self found them to be more of a problem than a help.
. It used the abundance of fuel currently in the body to construct a barrier albeit with a hatch in it around Jon's emotion centers so its host could still use them but it couldn't. At least, not without opening the locked hatch in the barrier. The lock was complex enough that it would need to concentrate to open it enough though it would not take long.
. It looked at what Jon was doing – still nothing it seemed. It didn't understand why its host didn't find a secure location where they could try to communicate without impairing their safety.
. It considered that while man had a self, they weren't good at thinking. It also considered severing Jon's connection to his emotion centers but it hadn't studied them yet so it didn't know if they served a useful purpose. Emotions only seemed superfluous or problematical to Self but man was complex enough that it thought it best to observe and evaluate first.
. It thought about making a complete copy of Jon's brain to test and experiment with but the partial auditory complex took long enough that it discarded the idea of making one from scratch. But the next time Jon consumed someone it would divert the brain and reform it to match the exact architecture of Jon's brain then reformat it with impulses matching its host's brain.
. Plans made it went back to studying the activity in Jon's brain as it waited for him to do something.