Chapter 28 Definitely not human!

"Wait, what?!" cried Dustin, his hand automatically flying to his head.

"Ah, I'm just kidding! It was only part of your head. Honestly, you've lost some of your sense of humor!" chortled Granny, waving a hand at him.

"How much is part of?" asked Dustin, as they made their way towards the smoldering ruins of the ship.

"If you want to try and save anyone, I suggest you stop worrying about yourself and get moving. That warp engine looks unstable. In fact, I think I could use a snack." Granny took off at a wobbling run, towards the back end of the ship. Debris was scattered for a good mile or so, but the ship was still mostly in one big lump.

"What makes you think I want to save anyone?" he mumbled, heading towards where the bridge should have been. He was more interested in how much of his head was just regrown.

'PED, how much of my head was just missing?'

(YOUR INJURIES WERE QUITE SUBSTANCIAL. IF I HAD NOT MOVED MOST OF YOUR BRAIN CELLS THROUGHOUT YOUR BODY, WITH THE LAST EVOLUTION, YOU WOULD NOT STILL BE FUNCTIONAL.)

'Well, good job and thanks,' he thought, awkwardly. This PED was turning out to be very useful! He never thought it would make him so resilient.

Movement out of the corner of his eye had him jogging towards the ruins. A figure in a suit was struggling out from under a large metal plate. Grabbing an arm, he jerked the person out, and turned them around to see it was Walter.

"The others," he gasped, pointing back at the small hole he just climbed out of.

Sending the nanobots, he quickly got several large pieces moved. A pair of legs were sticking out from under a large jumbled mess, and he could see a gloved hand not too far from there. The debris was so tangled he couldn't figure out what to move next.

'PED, I need to become a slime, I think, to figure this mess out.'

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

Everything went dark for a moment, as he lost his eyes, but then the area awareness kicked in, and he was able to make out Walter as he stumbled away from him.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

Dragging the PED as close to the debris as he could, he left a tendril attached to it, and plunged into the still smoking debris. Within moments he had a good idea of what he needed to move first and in what order. He couldn't tell if they were still alive, as their suits were still intact. Honestly, he didn't want to take the time to check.

Leaving the debris, he returned to the PED.

(INITIATING EVOLUTION)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

He glanced at Walter, amused to see the look of horror on his face, and then started commanding the nanobots to take the ruined ship off the other two. Within half an hour, they were uncovered and a neat pile of rubble was laying off to the side.

Walter rushed over to them as soon as it was safe to do so, and started checking their vitals.

"The air here is unbreathable for us. It's a good thing our suits held up. I can't believe I'm saying this, but that Gooblen saved our butts."

"That's Granny Gooblen, to you," she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand as she walked up to them. "Now, we should probably move before the locals come to investigate the disturbance here in their backyard."

"Locals?" asked Walter, looking around. "Something actually lives here?"

"Obviously, or she wouldn't mention them," said Dustin, grabbing Trey and throwing his unresponsive body over his shoulder.

Walter picked up Sherry, and followed as they left the crashed ship behind. Granny led them deep into the wastelands, stopping only when Walter couldn't walk any further.

"Alright, Dustin, make camp." She sat down and started picking her teeth with one of her claws.

Shaking his head, he put down Trey, and started building using the nanobots. There was soon a small hut for them to escape the sun. Walter quickly moved them into the shade, and started trying to wake them up. Dustin left him mumbling to them, and sat down next to Granny.

"These humans are so weak. If they didn't breed so quick, I don't know how they could spread out like they are."

"Speaking of that, something I was wondering about, was how fast my race breeds? I don't know how long it takes for the pregnancy or anything…" he gazed off back in the direction they had just come, refusing to make eye contact.

"Oooo! Olivia is pregnant??? Well! We're definitely going to have to hurry our asses up and get back to her."

"Wait, but how long will she be pregnant?" asked Dustin as Granny jumped to her feet.

"It all depends on the form she was in when she got pregnant. That's what determines the speed of the pregnancy. Though, if she's a clone… no matter, we'll just have to hurry the soul healing up. Hurry up, we need to go find some form of space travel to get off this blasted rock!"

Dustin stood up and glanced back at Walter who was furiously working on his friends.

"Should we try to help them?" he asked, nodding in their direction.

She paused and glanced back, then sighed.

"We may need them to sacrifice later or something. Go see if you can help."

Dustin shook his head. This was like having a mom tell him what to do, but a psychotic mom with murderous tendencies.

"Come on! Breathe! Damn you!" Walter panted between shoves. He was almost crying as he leaned over Trey's still form.

Sherry was at least breathing, but she was still unconscious. Dustin crouched down next to Trey, and touched Walter's shoulder.

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked, looking down at the face of a dead man. How long had he been not breathing? Dustin was pretty sure he was breathing when he picked him up.

"Unless you can shock his heart into beating again…" whispered Walter, gazing down at the man.

"Alright," said Dustin reaching for Trey.

Walter jumped back, off of him, a crazed look on his face of surprise and disbelief.

Gathering electrical energy in his hand, he directed it into Trey. It jumped from his hand, through the suit, and into the man. Frowning, he realized the suit was blocking most of the charge, and redirected the next blast. This time, the body jumped. He listened for a moment, for a heart beat, then did it again.

With a gasp, Trey opened his eyes and looked around wildly. Walter was just looking at Dustin like he didn't know what he was, then jumped for Trey's hand as he reached out wildly for anything.

"Thank you! Thank you, thank you!" he said, as tears flowed down his face.

"Such a softy!" chided Granny shaking her head. "They're only clones you know."