Hydra's Wake Writing Exercise

“I’ve heard the legends of the Hydras and how they hunt, but never in my wildest dreams would I figure that I’d be face to face with one.” I said to Joe.

“I can’t believe this!” Joe shouted. He was usually a well-mannered man, but this thing had put us both past our breaking point.

Truth be told, I felt broken. That feeling of powerlessness. When the odds get stacked so high against you that you can no longer function. Now that’s not hyperbole because we got cornered in a Gemstone Mine by a four headed Hydra. We came to steal gems while the miners were gone. We knew there was a Hydra in Tor Valley and the miners leave when it’s not hibernating. Go figure, the Hydra found out about us and the long story short is that Joe and I are the only survivors of that thing’s attack. And now it’s camping outside the mine like a patient hunter.

Joe screamed again. “How is it that I can’t pick anything up!?”

I watched as he tried to grab the chest of gemstones, his hands passing through it like the chest wasn’t there. Now we dragged that thing from its storage place to this spot earlier yesterday. So, I know it’s no illusion or hallucination. Somehow, Joe wasn’t able to pick up anything. The chest, shovels, pickaxes, if it was manmade, he couldn’t interact with it. Simple as that. Watching him try caused me to feel like I was losing my mind.

“Joe, forget the gems for now, we gotta find a way out of here.” I said as calmly as I could. Now I'm not the reassuring type, and he gave me this look like he knew I darn well had no idea how to that myself. At the same time, he stood up straight and stopped to just breathe. I’d call that progress of a sort.

“What do you know that I don’t?” Joe asked. Well, actually he demanded.

“What you mean?” I asked back. Does he mean the Hydra or the Mines? I had no idea and was still in shock myself.

“The Hydra, its toxin. You said it before everyone else that if we saw that thing to find cover and not breathe. I sprinted through that blue mist crap that came off its body. I never heard the legend of these things, so teach me something here old timer.” He elaborated and leaned up against the mine wall with his arms crossed and a solemn look on his face.

Figures, kids these days, ignorant bunch as ever. Joe was younger than me by a good thirty years, but I'm still in my fifties darn it. Plenty of life left to live. But it's no sweat off my back to tell him. “They call it Hydra’s Wake. It’s a toxin that the Hydra uses as a hunting mechanism. It disorients its prey, eats up what it can while its prey doesn’t seem to notice its about to get munched on. Now if the legends are true, this stuff affects humans by making them ghosts. You lose the ability to interact with our world and you end up getting eaten or you fall into an endless coma. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of anyone surviving it though. The legends come from stories of people who aren’t affected by the toxin talking to those who are. It’s all fantastical stuff. The fact we can’t pick up this chest fits what I’ve heard.”

The more I spoke the more I saw Joe losing hope so I kept the details simple as I could. Felt like it was best to omit some of the more gruesome details of the legends. That said, I'll admit I can’t hardly believe what I saw myself.

“Turning other things into a ghost is not a natural thing that animals do to prey.” Joe replied.

“Well this one does.” I said back to him. Aside from regenerating heads, that's one thing I thought was famous about the Hydras in our world. Like it or not, this was what became our reality. Slowly vanishing from our world. That toxin is nasty stuff. You either get eaten by the Hydra, or you merely fade off like you don’t exist. No one before had ever escaped that I could recall, and I know I aint the most clever or sharp tool in the shed. That won’t stop me from using what little smarts is in this here noggin though.

We both stood in that mineshaft silently for a few minutes. Then he turned his head like he noticed something. I looked and at first didn’t notice anything different. That’s when the electric lights in the mineshaft shut off. Before either of us could speak they came back on. There were these silhouettes of people showing up on the walls around us.

“What the?” Joe started to speak when an ear splitting woman’s scream came. The scream came from all directions as if the silhouettes caused it.

That horrifying scream left my ears ringing and head throbbing for I can’t remember how long. But when it ended the silhouettes were all pointing in one direction deeper into the mine.

“God, that hurt my head.” I stammered out like I was suddenly a drunk oaf. My head was pounding so badly I couldn’t tell if I was even speaking right.

“What do we do?” Joe asked as he looked up and down the shaft, the walls were lined with the shadows for as far as the eye could see.

“As far as I’m concerned, that leads deeper into the mine. Let’s follow them, it’s going away from that Hydra.” I replied when my head hurt a little less and I could start to hear myself think again.

Joe nodded and led the way. We walked really slow as we followed their direction down every bend and corner. Felt like we walked ten miles before we saw a T junction with signs. One of them said exit. “They helped us?” Joe asked me.

“Looks to me that way.” I replied. I tell ya what, the relief that I felt at seeing that sign was sublime. We got to the exit and sure enough, it led us to an exit that did not have a Hydra camping in front of. Before us was the grand splendor of Tor Valley. And there was a path back to the mining camp.

“Well, let’s get back to camp. Get our heads some rest and in the morning figure out how we’re gonna run away.” I suggested. When I looked over to where Joe was, he had vanished on me. Not a trace of him anywhere to be found. Then I hear a scraping on the ground and see something being written in the dirt. Like someone was dragging their finger through it.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? Joe wrote. Had to be him, I was sure of it.

I CAN’T SEE YOU. I wrote beneath it.

I NOTICED. I SEE YOU FINE. He wrote back.

I shook my head. “What the hell kind of freak show is going on?”

THE TOXIN DOES THIS? He wrote.

“You can hear me?” I asked.

YES.

This must be why those legends sound like fantasy. I stood there thinking to myself.

WE NEED TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS. He wrote before I said anything. WE HAVE TO FIX US.

And that was the last time I heard from my buddy Joe.