Escaping Chaos

This place is cruel, I thought, as I gazed across the bone-scattered volcanic wasteland, with rivers of molten rock dropping into chasms between the islands of stone.

Cruel, but beautiful.

I admired the flickering flames in the few standing trees, and the smooth curves of the obsidian that coated the ground.

It was nothing like my last home in the near-lightless depths of the ocean. The oppressive heat and glossy volcanic glass were the opposite of the freezing water and rough coral inhabited by fish and sharks. I wouldn’t be returning there for years, as the order-obsessed dystopia of Inevra would be watching it. They tracked me incessantly, hoping to obliterate the chaos I am. Inevra has tried to eradicate chaos and disorder ever since the Fatal Wars. The chaos and miscommunication led to the destruction of most of humanity. Inevra’s rulers refused to acknowledge the fact that too much order caused the wars, and was the cause of the miscommunication. In their minds, I was just a little bit of chaos hoping to destroy humanity, and I had escaped their clutches and was continuing to do so.

I had just completed my third circulation through my hideouts, so I decided to try a new location. The volcanic desert was between two bases, and would be difficult to adapt to, but they might think I was traveling to another base I had already visited. I knew they would avoid the volcano because it was one of the few places they couldn’t tame. They acted as though such places were cursed, magically killing everyone who enters the area.

I broke into a sprint, rapidly closing in on the distant mountain. My feline legs were strong from years of swimming, granting more power to each step. Every stride propelled me forward further than most humans can leap, easily passing over the chasms and rivers of lava in my path. I glanced back, spotting two soldiers appearing over the ridge bordering the wasteland.

They’re here already!? Gotta get into a tight spot!

I shifted my path, slowing down to drop into one of the mid-sized ravines. There they couldn’t maneuver well enough to harm me, so I would easily defeat them. Hoping to lead them to the trap, I made sure they could see me. I soon realized that wasn’t necessary as a helicopter became audible, accompanied by a bullet slamming into a rock near my head.

The ravine had ledges scattered every six feet or so down the side. Perfect! I can take down the helicopter first, possibly sending it into the infantry! The helicopter hovered over my head, and I could just make out the voices of the pilot talking to two other men.

“You ready to go? Are your guns ready?”

“Yep. I don’t understand why we need these new ones, though. I’ve seen one knock a plane from the sky. How come we need these for this creature?”

“So far, he’s killed 38 well-armed Elites, and about two hundred common soldiers.”

“Well, I think he’s listening to us. If those ears work like a cat’s, he is most definitely listening to us.”

“How would you know?”

“I used to be a veterinarian. I understand cats; they always move their ears toward what they’re listening to. It increases the sensitivity of hearing.”

They fell silent. Ten minutes later, the two soldiers who were tracking me dropped into the gorge, guns at the ready.

“Are you willing to surrender, or will you fight?” questioned the first soldier.

“I’m a monster whose power comes from an obsidian locket. I’ve killed hundreds of men. Do you really think I will surrender?” I answered sardonically.

“Well, I guess we go the hard way.”

“Yep.” I jumped seven feet up and three feet to the left. I leaped over the first shot, landed on the lowest ledge, tensed my legs, and leaped again. I jumped from ledge to ledge, until I was at the top of the chasm. One last leap, and I was in the helicopter.

The two men raised their guns as the pilot screamed in terror. With a roar, I fired my ink sacks—fading remnants of my time in the ocean—and charged. The glands were meant to produce ink to fill water around me. Out of water, they produced concentrated streams of ink straight into the eyes of my foes.

I tore one man’s throat out with my teeth. A single kick broke the other’s spine. I swung my tail at the pilot’s head, then took control of the chopper, sending it into a free fall toward the soldiers in the gorge. As it plummeted, I jumped from the helicopter and attempted a roll to break my fall. For the most part, it succeeded, but my hand smacked against a rocky spire with a nasty crack.

Some wings would be nice, I thought, and felt my locket hum as my back prickled. The radiation tuned to my consciousness would cause me to grow wings over the next week. My hand would be fine as well, because the black heart locket’s power hastened my healing.

The locket was an obsidian heart on a fine iron chain. Inside the locket was a small crystal statue, purple and white like an amethyst. The statue was made of an extremely radioactive material. It had been created in an experiment to allow a person to attune to the statue, mutating them in any way the statue’s holder wished.

I was the first test subject, forced to participate for refusing to obey Inevra’s ruler. They made a mistake, though, and the statue let me control my own mutations instead of leaving me at the mercy of the scientists.

Once I escaped, I had slowly adapted to survive my surroundings, wherever that may be at the moment. I had obtained catlike legs, a long, eel-like tail, claws and fangs, chameleon scales, cat ears, and now wings.

I had planned to set up a permanent shelter in one of the chasms, but now that plan was compromised. I would have to either move to a new territory, or set up inside the volcano. I assumed they would expect me to find a new territory, so I traveled toward the volcano.

At the base of the volcano, I found a cavern complex—a large network of lava tubes that was now cut off from the lava that once flowed through—and I made this my new hideout. The bigger caverns with some natural lighting were turned into farms. Smaller ones were turned into bedrooms and living spaces. One room had a long table-like protrusion in the middle and several smaller caves in the wall. That one got turned into the kitchen, where I used the side caves for ovens. It took a few years to complete, and other than a few raids to gather supplies for my farms, I haven’t left the finished base.