Enhancement

Putting the matter of the cats to the back of our minds was hard as the whole situation was very odd, they made their way back to the building to get some sleep and prepare for the next day.

After a restless night hearing the incessant yowls and growls of the cats, they woke up early to a brisk autumn morning with fog settled on the grass and steam rising off the lake. It seemed just too good to be true and utterly peaceful detracting from the threat lurking in the tree line, even now we could feel sets of eyes on us as we moved about organising ourselves for the day. Having more time to ourselves we came to the decision to properly explore the Sanctuary as we were now calling it to see what other secrets it was holding; we could notice bushes and other objects around the place that looked very different to what you would normally get in the area.

Dividing the area between ourselves we set out to have a look, heading north I made my way to the bushes close by to examine them and see what they might be. With the space of the park now expanded it took about 5 minutes to make my way there and one I did I was amazed; thick juicy berries hung on every branch seeming like they were about to burst open upon touch. A sweet aroma settled around the area making my mouth water and without thinking I was reaching for the nearest one, pulling back as I was about to touch it, I bent down reaching for a stick. Poking the berry showed nothing untoward happening and if the size, shape and smell was taken out of the equation I wouldn't have worried at all.

Gingerly picking the closest one let me assess it with a closer look, it was about the size of an apple, shaped like a mix between a strawberry and blueberry with the colouring of a mulberry and the smell made me think of the most luxurious dark chocolate. Bringing it closer to my nose had me drooling and swallowing the saliva before I make a fool of myself, I dug my finger into the flesh and proceeded to break a section off. With juice dripping down my arm, I inspected the piece and its colour matched the smell, just incredibly juicy and soft. Just as I was bringing it up to my mouth to take a hesitant bite, I noticed something odd going on with my arm that had the juice coating it; a faint tingling was happening around the areas exposed to the juice and I could feel….more around those sections, while it wasn't a massive difference it definitely stood out being far from normal.

'Maybe I should put off trying the berry/fruit first until we can properly test what is happening.' Opening the sports bag, he placed a few of the fruits into it and left the one that he had torn a segment out of on the ground to see what might happen. Within a few minutes of the fruit being on the ground it had been swarmed by bugs until it was a pulsing, rippling mass of black and in seconds it was gone. 'How peculiar, and the bugs seem to be moving far faster than they normally would', maybe the fruit has an enhancing effect on whoever eats it, I think we need to look at the effect closer'. Running back to the club house David managed to find a jar in the canteen and poking a few holes in the lid he made his way back to the bush and scooped up a particularly large beetle.

'Wow so there's even a heightened perception of its surroundings', noticing the beetle pause when inside and turning around looking like it's inspecting its surroundings. Soon after making a full rotation it…went…wild, with a speed beyond expectation it started to run around and around the jar. Proceeding to increase its pace it started ran up the walls of the jar in a circular motion gradually moving towards the top and with an explosive jump burst right through one of the holes and to it's freedom. "What on earth?..."

Thinking about the situation had me thinking it might be better to leave them as is, for some reason I don't like the idea of putting it back into the jar seeing the length it went to in order to escape. Might just have to come back later to inspect the beetles, seeing that it was happy to be out and was proceeding to move up the base of the berry bush, now it's home. Thinking it would be better to let the other bugs be I proceeded to move around the other bushes seeing if there were any differences, yet they all seemed to be the same one, and proceeded to move away in an easterly direction.

The day continued on and apart from the odd broken down park furniture and decorative metal art pieces nothing else stood out. We made our way back to the club house to bring each other up to speed, and the others had pretty much the same kind of experience that I had, Daniel found some wild vegetables in the south easterly to westerly areas. Though Sarah was out of luck, not much out to the west apart from some muddy ground and clumps of flowers spreading towards the north. Seemed pretty mundane but the whole clearing was odd in of itself so they may require a closer look.

After telling them about my experience with the berries Dan did mention that the area around the vegetables seemed oddly light and fresh, but he just attributed it to the Sanctuary and thinking not much of it really.

Sarah did think that maybe there could be certain properties that might make the mud special and the flowers could have some kind of purpose. But again we would have to investigate further as nothing stood out with a quick look. Coming up with a plan for the next day we thought about heading off and collecting a bit of each resource and see what we could find out. They both headed to their respective areas to collect some samples and I went into the canteen to store some of the berries in the fridge.

After meeting up with both of them we laid all of the samples out on the table and looked at them closer, we had an assortment of vegetables, some tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, lettuce and capsicums. Though they were slightly different, a bit larger and more vibrant than normal, with an inner lustre almost as if they were lit up.

The mud on the other hand had a sense of denseness and firmness which contrasted heavily with the feel, an almost velvety silken feel underhand and no residue remaining after wiping off. The flowers also seemed quite vibrant and healthy despite having been picked nearly fifteen minutes ago, almost as if they were still in the ground, it was very peculiar especially since Sarah hadn't been too careful and just grabbed a handful.

Thinking about the situation we thought it would be a good idea to sleep on it and come back in the morning with a fresh set of eyes and maybe we would find out something new. Proceeding to our makeshift beds we quickly fell asleep exhausted after the day of new discoveries and exploration and I probably had one of the best night sleeps I had had in a while.

Waking up to another gorgeous morning we made our way to the sample table to discover bugs covering the mud. Looking closer they had a shine to them that they didn't have before, it vaguely resembled the beetles at the berry bush but seemed firmer or more solid somehow. The vegetables and flowers hadn't been touched which I took as odd due to how quick the bugs went after the berry when I placed it on the ground, 'maybe the skin needs to be broken for the bugs to realise it can be eaten. With that thought crossing my mind I made my way outside to the berry bush and found the beetles from yesterday completely fine, if anything they were even larger and if anything, quicker.

'Well at least we know they aren't poisonous '. My arm seems absolutely fine as well, the juice not having done anything notable. Making my way back to the club rooms I let the other guys know about the outcome of the beetles that had eaten the berries, "So I think that it is all good to eat, the beetles while bigger and faster seemed fine, I thought yesterday that it might have an enhancing effect and this kind of confirms that."

Moving into the canteen we proceeded to cut up and divide the berries and vegetables and came to the consensus that one of us would each try one and wait to see what the reaction to it may be. Though as soon as the skin was pierced we could hear the bugs outside banging on the screen door to the canteen trying to get in, noticing the ones already inside were coming for the fruits and vegetables with a vengeance.

"So who's going to go first? We need to be quick before the bugs get them", Sarah asked.

"I'll go" I said as I reached for the slice of berry smelling the rich chocolaty fragrance, bringing it up to my mouth and eating it I was hit by an almost over whelming taste of chocolate. The smooth velvety consistency of the berry blew my mind as I felt a rush of energy surge through my body; being lost in the feeling I missed the reactions of my friends who looked in shock as my body started shaking and quivering, goosebumps popping out and my hair standing on end. I rode the wave of pleasure and excitement as I could feel my own cells being injected with an absurd amount of energy.

"WOW!!".

"So...that looked like it tasted pretty good" Daniel said with a smirk.

"It was certainly something" I remarked.

It felt like I had just eaten a 10-course meal, yet bursting with an excessive amount of energy and needing to do something with it. Looking around the room and seeing what I could test it with, I looked up at the ceiling 5 metres overhead, bending down I jumped straight up shooting off my position like a rocket making it over a metre off the ground, landing softly and firmly on my feet. Jaw dropping, I looking at my friends and they were completely stunned.

"Um.... so that happened"

"Bloody hell mate what was that? you jumped over a metre with no effort, you ok?" Daniel asked shocked by what he just witnessed.

"Yeah I feel fine, nothing wrong at all, I wonder what would have happened if I ate the whole thing?", 'Though on second thought it might not be a great idea if the amount of energy I got from part of one felt like my limit'. Thinking about the potential long-term effects we came up with the plan that we would each try a different sample and wait to see how it could affect us post-initial rush. Placing the rest of the fruit in an air tight container and in the fridge it was Daniel's turn to try the vegetables, picking the tomato we packed away the rest for later and waited to see what happened.

Daniel picked up the piece and brought it up to his mouth, having a big sniff he seemed more awake and placed it in his mouth. His eyes shot open his hair stood on end; he didn't have any shaking of his body but he did look like he had just had 10 hours of sleep.

"Wow….. that was an experience", watching him come out of his trance, "that was the best rush I've ever had, kind of like the lake but somehow more...ah… refreshing, yeah that's it refreshing. Feels like a brisk cold morning without the cold, or like someone has just dumped a bucket of ice on my head and I've been shocked awake, really odd but soooooooo good."

"Oooo my turn, my turn" Sarah said jumping around in excitement.

Reaching down she picked up one of the blue flowers and brought it to her mouth eating it straight away, we could see her looking so excited and eagerly waiting for the same kind of rush we had....and it didn't come, we were starting to think that there wasn't anything up with the flowers and they were just for looks when Sarah went wide eyed.

"Holy shit!!!",

"what happened?" Daniel asked,

"I can see everything, like everything. The individual threads on the banners, the wires on the screen door, the wings on the flies, it's amazing!".

Watching her go around telling us all about the things she could see, we tried to spot them as well but we had no chance or at least I didn't, some of the closer things Daniel could spot but I just chalked that up to his natural talent.

"So lets look at the facts guy's, we have a collection of food/ingredients that cause changes to our bodies; depending on if they are permanent or temporary we still need to find out. Though it seems like nothing in the Sanctuary is normal and we need to learn about them and how to get the best use out of them."