Chapter 2: Exit plan

The creature was forthright with its answers, though it struggled to explain itself, its cadence stuttery and sentence structure virtually entirely vacant in anything it spoke.

It told Nathan, or rather Nathan understood from it, that they were currently 'Earth Adjacent' which Nathan simply took as "Not on Earth" and that he and this creature, or 'Hive' as it referred to itself, were intrinsically linked.

The exact nature or purpose for this link was vague, but Nathan got the idea that they were telepathically linked and could share feelings and thoughts between one another which is how this 'Hive' was communicating.

He also discovered that the Hive saw him as it's Charge, Owner and Master and Nathan found out it would happily do anything it could that Nathan asked it to do, it was even willing to die for him supposedly.

Nathan rubbed at the bridge of his nose, trying to ignore how it was distinctly more protruded than it was before all of this.

"So what about the physical changes to me?" He asked to the empty room, he still elected to voice his questions even though he had established the creature could 'hear' thoughts he directed to it.

"Adaptation, Integration. Compatibility… Improvements?" The response came, though this time the last word came with a distinct hint of concern.

Having grown somewhat fond of the creature in his time inquiring with it, Nathan found himself quickly trying to reassure the creature, "Mostly, but… what about these lumps? These aren't good, right?" There was a pause, far longer than usual then "Vestigial, eat to complete."

When the creature finished its sentence there was a distinct air of accomplishment and pride, and somehow Nathan knew the creature was happy with the rhyme it had come up with. The response was somehow endearing and Nathan couldn't help but briefly smile at it.

Shaking his head, Nathan asked "Eat what?". In response there was a sense of incredulity that washed over Nathan, then the creature bluntly said, "Food".

Nathan initially scowled at the creature, before his mind reminded him that he was not on Earth and he was likely talking to what is probably an alien intelligence. Reminded of this, Nathan sought to clarify, "Define food in your opinion."

Again another long pause, before images of animals and various meaty meals from Nathan's memory were drawn into his mind, but ontop of what Nathan would consider food he also saw flashes of what were definitely people. "Wait, wait wait… Why are you showing me people?"

"Best Food"

"You can't eat people! That's… wrong."

"....Lamb, you eat."

"Yes"

"Lamb made of food, meat."

"I guess?"

"People: meat too."

"...Yes, but no... its... just wrong." Nathan replied, somewhat pained by the fact this creature seemed to be completely devoid of morals. Then again, his morals were fundamentally a construct of human society and this creature was far from a product of that.

"Carnivores eat people, normal."

"Yes, but they don't know any better. What if something ate you, would you be happy?"

"No, Hive be... scared… angry"

"Exactly." Nathan said with a sigh of relief, foolishly believing he had managed to instill the complexities of Human moralities on the Hive.

"But Lamb be scared." The Hive said with confusion.

"Urrgh…" Nathan groaned.

Nathan kept the debate up for a while before finally giving up on trying to make the hive understand, deciding to follow another line of questioning as this conversation had basically dashed the initial plan of waiting until somebody came to the rescue.

Of course the initial plan was a very temporary and hastily made one, as now upon further reflection Nathan realised the likely hood of anyone being in a position to save him was fairly low given he had been informed that he was supposedly no longer on Earth.

A fact that in retrospect, he perhaps accepted way to easily, then again with all the crazy he was currently experiencing it was not too much of a stretch.

Deciding to believe everything the hive had said up until this point, at least until he had sufficient evidence to prove contrary, he asked "So hypothetically how would one go about getting food here, its a sealed room?" This question opened up a whole other can of worms, and a painful conversation once again about defining 'food'.

Eventually Nathan managed to conversationally corral the Hive into giving him straight details, which worked far better than attempting a deep philosophical debate.

Firstly, this place actually had two adjoining rooms. This was illustrated by a region of one of the boney protrusions in the far right corner of the room from which Nathan entered, opening up like a vertical jaw devoid of teeth. The motion was particularly quick, and let out a click much like cracking one's knuckles though distinctly louder.

Walking over to the new... Door? Nathan could see into a short fleshy tunnel, though unlike the flesh behind the bone-mesh grating in the main room this flesh was thinly stretched over the wall without any of the mesh over it. It was so thin in fact, Nathan could make out stone behind the flesh which Nathan could tell the flesh was somehow holding open.

Noticing this, and realizing the flesh was probably only designed to hold the corridor open for a short while, Nathan hastily scooted through and into the next room.

Emerging out of another boney support protrusion Nathan entered another similar circular room. It was identical to the last in terms of styling.

Fractal patterns of dancing bioluminescent pink danced across the ceiling that was much higher than the last room, looming easily at 100 foot above him. Looking at the walls, he once again saw the same pattern of bone mesh coating a thick, glossy obsidian flesh.

However, in the center of this room there wasn't a recess. Instead there was a single half dome made of a strange material.

The half dome extended to a height of around 7 to 8 feet, and was around double that in width and, of course, half the width long.

From the angle Nathan had entered from, he could see that the dome was hollow, but more interestingly as he began to walk around the room to explore he noticed that the external side was an oblique bone structure, comprised of an intricate weave of fractals layered atop one another. However, from the inside the structure was almost completely transparent, aside from the extreme edges which gradually became solid bone.

In front of this, structure was a series of what looked to be perfectly carved basalt stairs, no more than about ten fairly short steps each elevating no high than around 5 inches from the last. The stairs led up to a platform that extended to the far back of the room and was elevated around 4.5 feet from the floor of the room itself.

On this platform, there was only a circular dip that extended around 20 inches into the elevated platform and was about that in diameter.

Situated above this, its tip no less than 15 foot above the dip, was a Stalactite made of a mixture of flesh, bone and granite. Looking closer at it, Nathan could just barely make out slight groves running along its surface that upon comparison with the active ones in the ceiling, were clearly for whatever created the pink bioluminescence in the ceiling to flow through.

Despite looking... interesting the room distinctly lacked what Nathan was looking for. He couldn't see a door, or a hole or any sign of a way to leave. However, he did remember the Hive saying something about exiting was not easy.

Originally at the time the Hive said it, Nathan half shrugged it off assuming that it was either confusing the fact that he was mobile, and it was not or simply that it phrased its response incorrectly and what it was actually meaning to say, wasn't conveyed correctly.

In either case, Nathan needed to find out how to get back to Earth, as the Hive had specifically said that this Exit led there. However, as Nathan spoke his query he felt a distinct air of fear and uncertainty. "Hive? You alright there?"

"Concerned... of Others." The Hive said, its echoing chorused voice sounding uncharacteristically down compared to its usual if not uncaring playful tone of speech.