20 Snake

The lasts ray of sun faded away and Mark started the fire, just enough for it to produce smoke, then using a t-shirt from his backpack he started to throw the smoke inside the hole.

~cough~

It was a lot of smoke, even Mark's eyes were already trying to leak water, not cry, leak water, because males don't cry.

~cough~

Seeing it was enough smoke, Mark put down the fire and waited by the side of the hole. Any time now and the snake would leave.

Waiting with the forked side of the stick just one inch above the hole, Mark suddenly heard the noise made by the rattle from the snake. 'It's coming!'

Just as Mark thought that, he saw a vulture coming from the hole and pushed his forked stick against it.

~rattle~

The snake tried to escape, but Mark pushed harder, while already aiming his knife at the snake's neck, but just as he was about to hit the snake, it pulled the stick harder, almost making Mark lose it.

Mark quickly pressed his foot against the body of the snake while his forked stick pressed against its neck, and he hacked his knife against it.

~rattle~

Blood gushed from the snake's neck, but it didn't cut deep enough, and Mark hacked his knife again, and again, and again.

~plop~

Mark let himself fall on the floor once he saw the head of the snake rolling on the ground. He was tired of hitting the snake.

"Well, at least I know it's a mutated animal," said Mark aloud, because his knife was not just a kitchen knife, it was a military grade weapon and could cut a normal snake as if it was butter. Having to hack his knife against the snake so many times was proof enough that it was a mutated animal.

With his bloodied left hand, Mark grabbed the snake that was still shaking itself on the ground and inspected it. It was a small snake, smaller than Mark's forearm, and it had greenish scales, 'Seems normal looking from the outside,' thought Mark to himself, he could not see all the details fully because of the lack of light, but what he saw could easily make him believe it was a normal snake.

'If I hadn't hit her so many times, I would probably think it's a normal snake,' thought Mark before throwing the snake inside his backpack. He would inspect her tomorrow, when he had light.

Mark rose from the ground and grabbed the snake's head and threw inside the backpack, and walked back to the trucks for a deserved night of sleep.

...

In the next day, as soon as the sun came out, Mark went about his business, eating his breakfast, washing his body, changing clothes, and then, he looked at the snake.

"Now comes the ugly part once again" said Mark aloud to make himself stop delaying the unavoidable, he hated to clean hunted animals, his mother always did that for him, but since the apocalypse came, he had to do it all the time when he caught something.

Mark put the snake over one of the crates inside the truck, and using it as some sort of table, started to remove the guts of the animal, one by one, with a lot of care.

Just the smell alone made Mark frown. The animal was still fresh to eat, but it was not the same as yesterday.

Just as Mark was removing the snake's stomach, he noticed something weird about it. The stomach of the snake was a bit more red than the other parts of the snake. It was as if that part was better preserved.

'Now that I remember, they said something about a mutated animal part not losing its properties. Maybe it's the same for its freshness', thought Mark, remembering what he read in the files from the researcher, but suddenly something else came to his mind, "But why the stomach? That snake clearly had an ability related to strength or something like that."

Mark put the stomach aside and continued searching for any mutated organs, but after cleaning and skinning, the entire snake found nothing weird apart from the snake's stomach.

Mark glanced at the small stomach, and without delaying, threw it inside his mouth.

He was not sure if cooking a mutated animal part would affect its ability, thus, he ate it raw.

Chewing on that thing, Mark almost wanted to puke, but controlled himself, 'It's just like eating sashimi, yes sashimi, think in sashimi.'

~gulp~

Mark forced himself to gobble the last bits and quickly drank water from his bottle.

"Geez, I hope I get used to this, its disgusting!"

Barely he said that, and the weird feeling caused by the mutation started. First, it was like needles poking his stomach. It was strange but not painful, but then, Mark's stomach really started to annoy him, and after a few seconds, the pain came..

"Argh!" screamed Mark, already falling on with his knees on the ground and holding his abdomen with both hands. The pain was too much for him to handle, and he screamed more, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck! ARGH!!"

Mark fell to the ground and started rolling, but the pain didn't lessen. By now he was already clenching his jaw so hard that was almost breaking his own teeth.

~bleah~

It came without him calling for, and before he could do anything, Mark was already vomiting his own breakfast.

~bleah~

Mark stopped vomiting, and the pain vanished, then he looked at the floor, at his own vomit, and it was all black, as if he had eaten tar.

"The heck! is happening?! Here!" cursed him aloud, while cleaning his mouth.

He kept looking at that black stuff on the ground and could not believe it came from inside him, but just as he was felling happy for not felling pain anymore, an insatiable hunger attacked him.

It was as if Mark had never eaten in his entire life. He quickly grabbed a cereal bar from his backpack and threw inside his mouth.

~bleah~

He vomited again, and it was black, again.

"The fuck?!" Mark was now truly worried.

'Did I get poisoned?'