Asha

In the year 2025, the world changed forever. A mysterious blinding light came out from every hole and cave in the Earth and surrounded the entire planet. The rays from the light destroyed most humans only five million people survived around the world. The light had other effects as well. Some of the humans, animals, and weather had mutated and changed. Some humans developed gifts and abilities that were unique, and some were very powerful.

The remaining humans created colonies and fearing and second coming of the light covered the ground of the colonies with cobblestone to make sure all holes were hidden, and then put up large walls made of either stone or metal to keep the light from entering their dwellings. Fearing the power of most mutants, the colonies would not allow mutants to reside within their walls.

Asha sat on a large rock and used her binoculars to look across the desert for any signs of movement. About two miles north of her was the colony where the person she was hunting resided. Being a mutant made life tough, but Asha had a deal with certain colonies. In exchange for killing bad mutants and animals that provided meat, Asha would get pennies and food, sometimes even shelter for a night or two. The mayor of a colony called Pennington, after the mayor’s last name had tasked her with finding an informant with information unknown to Asha the type. This person had gone missing.

Asha had never hunted someone that she was not going to kill. So this task was much harder. Asha had little clothing on due to the intense heat. The temperature was one hundred and fifteen degrees. Asha wore a black sports bra and jean shorts with a couple of small holes near the upper right corner and a large hole on the lower left side. Around her neck was a silver necklace with a silver, heart-shaped locket that had belonged to Asha’s twin sister, Aria, who had disappeared with out a trace during the night hours on one of their journeys.

On her back was a small backpack carrying only a few necessary items so she could move quickly if need and a samurai sword and submachine gun slung over her shoulder. The mutant felt something wet touching her leg and glanced down to see Toby. Toby was her pet, two-headed dog. He had short, brown fur with a white spot on his chest. Toby touched his wet nose to her leg and sniffed in a friendly manner. Then he reached down with his other head and did the same. Both heads whined.

Suddenly, Asha heard the sound of wings beating and turned to see a baby Ravok flying around. Ravoks are giant birds that are like ravens. A Ravok is about five feet tall and could kill a human. The baby Ravok was less than half a foot which meant the mother was probably still around.

Toby noticed the bird and became very still. Asha knew that look in his eyes and that meant trouble if he did what he was thinking.

“Toby, no.” She was very stern.

But to her her dismay, he did not listen. A long tongue shot out of his right mouth like that of a frog and pulled the infant bird into his right mouth. The two-headed beast quickly devoured his pray.

“Toby!” She yelled.

He looked at her with his eyes widened. He knew he had angered her. He lowered his head in shame. But the damage was done. A loud cawing reached Asha’s ear and she turned her head to look for the mother. Her eye’s widened in terror as several Ravoks stood nearby on the ground and every single on of them were focused on her and Toby.

Ravoks were very protective of their own and though usually peaceful are also incredibly vengeful towards anyone who hurts or kills one of their own.

“Oh Toby. What did you do?”

Asha looked the other way and quickly realized that running would not help. Ravoks are very fast fliers and would catch up to her and her dog in seconds. She pulled her sub-machine gun from around her should and pointed it towards the birds. The two closest ones began to charge, and she began to fire. Both fell. The other Ravoks did not charge forward. They learned that option was not good. But they kept staring at her and cawing in anger.

Out of nowhere, Asha felt a large stabbing pain in her shoulder, which caused her to drop the weapon and cry out with immense pain. She dropped to the ground and turned around to see the mother Ravok. The mother stabbed her beak in the mutant hunter’s stomach.

Toby leaped forward growling and the bird flew up out of his range. But this gave Asha the chance to grab her submachine gun and point the handy weapon towards the huge bird. To her surprise, the bird flew over her and joined her group.

Asha got up and started walking away with Toby at her left heel. The birds had realized quickly that coming after her meant death. Asha was glad she did not have to kill all of them. She has a rule for herself that she does not kill unnecessarily. The only good reasons were self-defense and food. As Asha walked forward her wounds quickly healed.

Then the earth began to shake. Asha paused. That could only mean two things, an earthquake, which were more common now, or. She turned and again her eyes widened in horror. The Ravoks were flying off in fear and standing where they once were was a large, twenty-five-foot humanoid who wore a black coat. His face was large with a huge nose and two large eyes. In one hand, he held a wooden cane and in the other a net.

The Headhunter!

The Headhunter was a horrible mutant who ate other humans but collected their heads. His saliva would seal the wounds at the bottom of the necks and keep the heads alive. He would then attach the heads to the walls of his cave. The walls were wooden as an extra layer covering the dirt walls of the cave. Anyone who comes within two hundred feet of the cave and hear the cries of the many heads he has collected over the years.

The terrifying mutant was looking directly at her and he licked his chops. His mouth was really large and had rows of sharp teeth.

Asha turned to run fast, her only hope was that he would tire quickly or come across someone more delicious as he chased her. Toby was right beside her. As she ran, Asha began to sweat terribly. Running in this heat was not good for anyone.

She heard footsteps getting closer ever second and then she felt his large hand wrap around her as he picked her up. He held her up to his face and smiled.

With his other hand he flicked her head, and everything went black.

***

Asha woke up with a huge headache. She tried to move but for some reason, she could not. She looked with her eyes and saw a wall full of heads. She looked in front of her and saw her clothes in a pile on the ground. Then her eyes looked up and to the right to see the large Headhunter with a body in his mouth. She saw a star tattoo on one of the legs and her eye’s widened in terror. That body was hers!

She looked down to see that she had no body. But her head was not nailed to the wall yet. She looked around and saw her submachine gun. She used her telekinesis to raise the gun in the air and tried to fire. But the magazines were not loaded. She lowered the gun and then glanced around the room trying to find a magazine, or her backpack that had more. As she did, she some a living person chained to the wall. The man had a tattoo of a goat’s head on his chest, which was one of the features the mayor used to describe the informant. He also had two sets of arms, one set coming out from his abdominal area. He had no clothes on.

The Headhunter turned towards the large, muscular man and wrapped his hands around the man’s head. The man screamed as the headhunter pulled off his head and tossed the round object down to the ground.

Asha did not want to be trapped in this cave forever. She glanced around and finally saw her samurai sword. She lifted the sharp object into the air with her mind and aimed the weapon straight towards the large terror. She slung it forward and plunged the object into the back of his head. He fell to the ground and was dead before impact.

Then a terrifying question popped into her head. Now what? She had no body, no way of moving, and was pretty much stuck there. Her only hope was that an animal would find and eat her head. Then an idea clicked. A crazy one but maybe it could work. Her three mutant powers, which was rare for a mutant to have more than one, were telekinesis, mind control/reading, and self-healing. She glanced back at the headless body of the informant. She wondered if she could somehow get her head onto his body and use her healing to attach her head to his body. If she were able to, could she control the body?

Ultimately, Asha decided that the idea was worth a shot. She wondered if she could use her telekinesis to lift her own head up and over to the headless body. She began to focus and slowly her head lifted up into the air. She floated up and over to the informant and spun around, then softly landed her head on his neck. To Asha’s surprise, she felt her neck’s blood cots reopening and the skin and blood veins, even spines, and everything else attaching.

She tried moving her new body’s hands and succeeded. Then she used her telekinesis to break the chains holding her. She searched the room and found the informant’s clothes. A bullet proof vest designed to accommodate his third and fourth arm. A large pair of black, leather pants and a black leather jacket with a hood.

Then she lifted the informant’s head and looked into his eyes. “Can you speak?”

“Give me back my body.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” She replied. “But there is not a way to do that. I only have self-healing capabilities. But I will find a way to help you live if you agree to bring the information you know to the mayor who hired you. Laurence Pennington.”

“Okay.” He agreed hesitantly. “I don’t really have much of a choice I guess. The information is in my head. So, my survival is crucial to that.”

Asha picked up her backpack and placed his head inside.

“Hey, how will I be able to breath in here?” He asked.

“I’ll leave the top unzipped.”

***

A few hours later, Asha sat across from the tiny Mayor Pennington, who was really a fourteen-year-old boy. But a smart boy who managed to become in charge of a colony. He was astonished at her change.

“So, my informant,” he took a fearful swallow. “He actually kept all of his information in his head. Which means his body is of no use to me. For your efforts, I will give you half the wages and you can stay one night instead of two.”

“Oh, he’s here.”

Asha reached down to unzip the backpack and then pulled out the large man’s head and set the head down on the desk.

“Hello.” The informant smiled at the astonished boy.