7. Waiting

Examining the lady and man at the table, Kris noticed they were both covered in shards in areas of their body as well. The woman on his left seemed to have a full torso covered in shards. As he looked closer he noticed that her shards were neatly in fold of one another and ended at her shoulders in a perfect unison, as if a sleeveless shirt had adhered to her. Comparing his shard placement to hers he felt embarrassed, as his shards were far more scattered about and hardly uniform. The shards on his arms touched but were hardly in a tight formation. His hands were completely covered but looked jagged and doubled over on in some spots. His right leg and feet were in a similar shape and hardly neat altogether. Looking at the man on his left Kris began to examine him as well but was interrupted.

"So you gonna take a seat or what? Stop staring at my chest you perv" the woman said.

"Don't be rash, it's not like we weren't surprised as well. Look at him he's curious just like we are." the man interjected "Hello my name is Chance, Please come sit with us we should all talk about this.. situation we are having."

"Uh yea absolutely, sorry just kind of shook up." Kris replied as he pulled out a chair.

"I'm sure you are wondering about what these are. Do you have a navigation system like me? Or are you like her and don't have anyway to interact with the shards?" Chance said this as he pointed to the only shard visible to Kris, directly in the center of his forehead. It was a matte black color.

"Sorry a what a navigation system? No but there is Mother, she's like a voice in my head." Kris said this while pointing to his right ear, the side of his head covered in shards. "And I can still see out of this eye believe it or not." As Kris said this the woman across the table stare at him with a bit of contempt, seemingly annoyed with Chance's comment and jealous that Kris also had some interaction with the shards.

"Look you jerks don't talk like I'm not right here. The names Dathudia. Also Full house, pay up." Dathudia said as she flayed her cards on the table.

" *Sigh Okay fine, you know I was gonna talk anyways. Sorry we have only been in this room about a half hour or so and the first thing she says was we place bets for information. Anyways A voice in your head huh? Strange just have this intuition of a heading I should be going in. It's just like a pulling feeling I have that kinda guided me here. So what's the voice say? And how can you see? Looks like these things are just covering where you eye should be." Chance said.

"Kris I don't believe it is to wise to speak about me to the others here, Since they don't have a Neural system they could still be under control of the previous shard hosts. And if you were to speak about me to much they may surmise you are not under control as well. Just say you can hear a voice telling you to harvest. As that is the prime objecting for most shardlings." Mother spoke to Kris. However this was the first time she had spoken so much in what felt like in a fraction of a second. As the words were heard Kris was looking at chance and he watched him blink and could hear everything happening in the room with more detail. He could hear Chance's breath momentarily. Noticing this he followed suit.

"I hear a voice saying to harvest over and over. It's kind of annoying. But hey how come you don't have anymore shards on you? Just one on your forehead? I feel like a freak looking at how lucky you guys are. And you just have your torso covered." Kris replied.

Just then Chance and Dathudia both looked at each other and then both stood up. Kris became alarmed thinking he spoke to much. Then he realized they were showing themselves more clearly. Dethudia seem to have boot like shards covering her feet, and again in wonderful unison. Chance lifted his shirt and showed his stomach which was covered in shards just below his sternum all the way into his pants were one could only assume. Kris took a breath of relief and felt less out of place.

"Ah okay well that's reassuring. I don't feel so weird now HAHA. Hey were you naked or something when you got covered in these shards?" Kris spoke looking at Chance. Chance became flush red in his cheeks and a bead of sweat began to form on his forehead.

"Haha ha uhm no actually. I was wearing these clothes. I just thought really hard about trying to put my clothes on properly. And then the shards just released my clothes to the forefront. I don't know how it worked really. But it did, and I'm glad or I would have probably pissed my pants." Chance spoke while looking back and forth at the two of them.

Dathudia seem to be studying the two of their conversation and was chin in knuckle pondering. And after hearing Chance speak about going to the bathroom, he felt an immediate urge to poop. Now he was the one blushing with sweat beading on his forehead and a forced grin appeared on his face.

"Hey uh do they let you go to the bathroom ? I kinda gotta go as well." Kris said as he squirmed in his chair.

"Hahahaha Oh my god yea right. Have you not gone to the bathroom? Seems like you got the shit end of the stick didn't you bud, Literally! hahaha." Dathudia broke her concentration and belted out while laughing at Kris' unfortunate circumstance. "Hey how do you plan to wipe ? Have you even thought about that? HAHAHAH OH MY GOSH IMAGINE" She continued laughing so hard she nearly folded in half.

Chance look over at her not finding it to amusing. Sympathizing with Kris he looked back at him. He took the high road but what he said next took both Dathudia and Kris by surprise.

"Look can you take your arms apart?"

"Well no. They've been stuck together since this all happened." Kris replied.

"Okay. Well if they let us go to the bathroom. I'll uh ya know. Since you can't" Chance said as he took his middle finger and index finger in a wiping motion between a hole on his other hand made.

"HAHAHAHAHA HAHA OH GOD YOUR KILLING ME STOP! Your gonna wipe his ass! Now this I gotta see" Dathudia exclaimed.

"Listen here DATHUDIA! This isn't Funny I'm sorry I can't wipe my ass, And Chance thank you but no, we just met. I'll find a way. Also you wanna see him do it? Who's the weirdo now? Jeez why don't we all just forget it I don't have to go anymore anyway" Kris said visibly trying to hold back his turd as he adjusted in his seat and bounced his nee rapidly.

The two of them sat back down. They both seemed a little more focused on the situation.

"Okay well why don't we start with how we got these things on ourselves. I heard his story I guess I'll share mine then you're next Mr.Poo-butt." Dathudia said as she pointed to Kris. "So I was at the coffee shop performing a few songs like usual. And then all those meteors started raining down everywhere. Boom a car across the street got his and blew up, everyone went into panic mode. I was like nope I'm out screw this. Threw on my skates packed up my guitar in like a minute while everyone was running to their cars. Started skating home like lightning the whole time these things are still landing all over the place. I'm thinking its the end of the world somewhere on my way, thought I wasn't gonna make it home turned into the park to have a final swig of some Coffee liquor I usually bring to take the edge on and perform. And just before I bout gave up and wait for the next meteor to land on me I blinked and blam. Here I am with all these things on me. Guitars gone skates gone. Heavy as hell can't balance, don't know what's going on. Got up to walk home. Made it all the way to my flat after like 3 hours! People freaking out the whole way looking at me. Noticed my building was on fire. Thought great. Sat at the bus stop and just passed out in exhaustion then this guy pulls up. It's a cop. Says 'What ya waiting for the next bus? Get in I'll get ya somewhere safe'. Takes me here then leaves." Dathudia explained.