Bugging me out

"Dammit! And they make starting a fire look so easy in movies!" said Marcus bitterly.

He had been trying to make a bonfire using wooden sticks for the last hour, with no success. At first, he had tried to do so inside the cave, but the air was too damp there for the fire to catch and he had to try it outside.

But even there one problem remained: his chitin covered fingers didn't have a really good grasps on the sticks, which kept on slipping away. It was like trying to do precision work with armoured gloves on, and during the attempts almost all of the sticks had broken.

Sure, he could search around for more of them, but it was late in the afternoon and the sun had started setting. It would be night soon, and Marcus didn't want to repeat the experience of being out in the dark.

"Looks like it'll be another cold night." he sighed while working "Well, at least I managed to get a bed of leaves... I hope that it'll keep me a least a bit warmer than being naked!"

His stomach rumbled. Which wasn't really surprising, considering he hadn't eaten in two days, but nonetheless it was annoying, especially since he still didn't have anything to eat.

"Cold and hungry, and my leg still hurts. Fucking splendid!" he said in a sarcastic tone "What next? It's gonna start rainin... No!" he interrupted himself suddenly "Better not to jinx it. Things are already bad and I don't want them to get any worse!"

He stayed outside until the sun had completely disappeared over the hills, taking all the heat he could before going inside the cave to try to have a good night of sleep.

"Shut up!" Marcus yelled at his belly "Shut up and let me sleep already!"

Since he had lay down to sleep, his stomach had continued rumbling louder and louder, and despite his best efforts he couldn't ignore it. The leaves he was using as blankets were actually doing a good job at keeping the cold at bay, and the bed of straws and leaves he had made was acceptably comfy, but the noises coming from his belly were preventing him from sleeping nonetheless.

He was incredibly hungry. More hungry than he had ever been. Visions of food appeared before his eyes, almost driving him mad, and his stomach was rumbling almost constantly, keeping him awake at night.

"Goddammit it all!" he cursed, clenching his teeth "I am so fucking hungry! Why does this damn leg take it so long to heal? If I could move, I could hunt! And if I could hunt, I could get something to eat! So hurry on and heal, you fucking leg!"

He lied down, trying his best to distract himself from the thoughts of food, but his mind was set on them: visions of raw, succulent, delicious meat flashed before his eyes, haunting his wake and preventing him from falling asleep.

"So... fucking... hungry..." he muttered, starting to gnaw at his finger, before suddenly realizing what he was doing and slapping himself on the face.

"Ouch! Stop it Marcus!" he said to himself "I know you are fucking hungry, but this has to stop! You are getting pathetic!"

He sighed, looking at the cave he was in. It was completely dark, safe for a little speck of star light at the entrance. The air was damp and cold, and though the leaves were actually keeping him warm they were now teeming with unwanted guests, despite his efforts to swat them away from time to time.

Even now, as he was sitting on it, spiders, centipedes and cockroaches were moving besides him, but he was too concentrated on his worries to notice them.

"I should be able to go for another couple of days without food." he estimated "I hope my leg will be healed enough to let me hunt by then. Cause if not, then it's game over. Luckily water is not an issue for now... it taste like mud, but it's better than nothing! And at least, drinking makes me feel less hungry... for a while."

He decided to take another sip of water. He slowly limped to the puddle, taking his bowl with him. His movement were sluggish, his mind feverish: the wounds on the legs had almost completely closed, but some of the pain remained, and being basically starved didn't help the situation a bit. He hoped he didn't catch any infection, cause without antibiotics it would probably kill him, but there wasn't anything he could do about that, so he tried not to think about it.

Finally, as he arrived at the pool, he took a small sip of water.

He didn't notice the small centipede that had slid inside the bowl until he put it in his mouth, and when he felt the insect's frantic movements he bit and swallowed in surprise.

"Gaaack!" he almost threw up, feeling the still moving centipede sliding down his throat.

"Cough! Cough! Fuck!" he coughed, grabbing his throat and chest "Goddammit! I can feel it move inside! Fuck! This is fucking disgusting! Fuck!"

He kept cursing as he felt the insect reach his stomach.

"Fuck! I ate a live centipede! What if it's a poisonous one!?! Dammit I need to throw up right now!"

He started to put two fingers in his mouth in order to puke, but then he stopped. The taste of the centipede, which he would have once found revolting, was actually not really that bad right now. He licked his lips.

"Well… maybe I could wait… I mean, I've eaten a raw snake and I didn't feel bad at all after that. Maybe this body is actually resistant to food poisoning. And hey, I could use all the food I can get right now…"

After a minute, a weird feeling filled his mind. Like it had happened with the horned snake, he suddenly was receiving info about the centipede. It had indeed been poisonous, but the poison... he couldn't explain it, but it wasn't nearly strong enough to harm him, he was sure of that. Also, he knew about its legs, the conformation of its torso and its eyes....

He shook his head.

What the hell was that sensation?

Anyway, it wasn't an unpleasant one. Rather, it felt... appeasing. Like when you are eating a specific food you were craving for without even knowing it.

Somehow, he was certain that eating that centipede didn't harm him. Quite the opposite, it both fed him and filled that weird need he didn't know he had.

Marcus's stomach rumbled. The tiny appetizer it had received had just stimulated its hunger, and now was craving for more.

The man looked around the cave. It was full of other small animals like the centipede, and he was starving.

Could he really... eat them?

His hunger was now striking him like a hammer, overriding his conscious thoughts that kept telling him that this was absolutely disgusting. With a sudden movement, he caught a spider that had been crawling on the ground near him. The arachnid uselessly tried to bite him, but the chitin armour on his hand was too strong, and he squashed it before putting the still twitching mush in his mouth.

Again, the weird feeling of knowledge about the spider's body filled his mind, and he continued looking around for other preys, a ravenous expression on his eyes.

As if they had felt the sudden danger, the vermins suddenly started getting away from him, but most weren't fast enough.

With his mind gone completely feral, Marcus ponced at them, grabbing every animal he could before stuffing it into his mouth.

First, he caught and eat all the centipedes, millipedes, cockroaches and spiders he could get his hands on. Then, when he couldn't find more, he went towards the puddle in the middle of the cavern and started digging the mud around it, grabbing the worms in it before swallowing them whole, without even bothering to clean them from the dirt.

He kept going at it for a while, his mind filled with information about the things he ate, and his stomach ever demanding for more. He kept going until he couldn't find any other living being in the cavern, and only then he stopped, letting himself fall on the ground while breathing frantically.

Slowly he regained his reason, and with it, came a huge wave of disgust.

He grabbed his mouth with his hands, feeling sick... but the sickness was all in his mind, as physically he was actually feeling much better than before.

"Ugh! Puah!" he grunted and spit "What's wrong with me!?! Did... did I really eat all those... ugh!- he grimaced while he remembered all the disgusting things he had eaten -Ugh! What the fuck was that!?! What the dancing flying holy fuck on a rollercoaster was that!?!"

His mouth was full of the foul taste of his horrible meal... although it didn't feel really that "foul" to him, even if it wasn't even remotely good. Anyway, it only added to his confusion, so he decided to wash it out with some water.

He went to the puddle and took a sip of water with the cup, this time checking it before drinking.

Then he went to his "bed", lying on it in order to rest and sort the mess that were his thoughts.

"Ok... there is something fucking wrong with me!" he thought out loud "There is no way in hell a normal person could eat all those things without puking afterwards... and at least for now I feel... well, not fine but not that bad either. So what the fuck is wrong with me!?!" he looked at his chitin covered hands "What the hell am I, really? I'm not human anymore, I can tell that, but... really, what the hell am I? An insect? A reptile? A fucking alien?"

But no one answered, though Marcus didn't really expected anyone to.

He just sighed, grabbing his leg and resting in a fetal position.

"Well, let's look at the bright side. At least I don't feel that hungry anymore... and with this body, it looks like food poisoning is a non-issue." he sighed "Though I'd wish to know what was that rush of information I received after I ate... those things. I mean, how does the knowledge that a centipede has to shed his cuticle to grow, or that a spider doesn't have muscles to extend its legs but have to pump liquids to push them out, has anything to do with eating them?"

He wondered for a while, but he couldn't find a reason for that. Eventually, he gave up on thinking, and decided to take a nap. Hopefully, having eaten a bit, his leg would heal faster.