Chapter 1 Why not dream of the living dead? : Act 1 of 3

Act 1 Wakeup samurai.

I steered, my body heavy, yet as I took in the air around me, my lungs started to squeeze, to that of an apple, and then I took my first breath. as it forced itself to pump the rich, yet heavy air, in and out of me. . . then my heart started pounding, slowly and unsteady at first. But then it grew strong, fast, and stayed at a predictable pace, my bodies blood was flowing again, As I opened, my eyes.

Sigh. . . wow, that was a hard descent, where am I? I looked around and saw a dark city with little lights sprinkled alone or in clusters. I was on the roof edge of a highrise, the access door barricaded. Hmm. . . city, nearly abandoned from the looks of the lights, or just experiencing a blackout. The doors block, should keep it that way for now.

Who am I? I looked at myself. my clothes are a mess, dirty, probably haven't been washed in days. Rips, tears, and holes, I think I made some of it myself. My body's condition is poor, dehydrated, hungry, muscle degradation, sleep deprived, addicted to. . . caffein? Scarred, some infected wounds that had closed, others not, poisoned blood. . . overall, not bad, for someone who's been dead. for most of the night.

I then reached for the weight on my back pocket, and felt a wallet. I opened it, and poured everything out. it had a few paper currency, coins, different types of cards and a few IDs. I looked at them.

Let's see, After looking at everything I now know, I'm using the corpse of mister Anderson Stark. Head engineer for South New Tokyo city's, Nuclear Hydro station. 51 years old, single. poor guy, well he might be one of those deviants, that goes from one girl to another. Hmm, the newest ID is 2050 so I guess it should be around that year. He has a lot of club cards and some of the cards and IDs is use to unlock electrical and mechanical locks. 

Well, that's all I can get from this guy's stuff. How about his remnants? I sat up, rather than, the laying down, I was doing. as my body struggled to come back to life. I relaxed myself, as I sat and closed my eyes looking into my new mortal fleshy vessel.

And then after a moment of inner peace, I opened my eyes. I was now standing in a clear shallow pond, that only reached my knees, glowing bubbles floated, some started to turn faint as moments passed but it was slow.

Let's see. I picked one, it glowed blue, I crushed the memory, and then it played. I was now in a bar, younger, in my mid 20s, a girlfriend of mine just broke up with me. I felt sad about it, but I feel like I understood why she did, what she did. I was too distant with her, only focusing on my work, or having sex with her when I'm at home. and I didn't talk to her much, or at all, when I was at work.

The memory ended after I had my 3rd glass and an attractive girl came by and distracted me. . . Damn, I was right, and he is a very sad mortal. I was back at the shallow pool, there were dozens of these memory fragments. Which isn't good, a normal mindscape, should have hundreds of thousands of these when alive, and hundreds when dead. whatever killed him, forced his soul to take more memories than needed, before returning to the cycle.

Well I only needed some memories, so I took everything that Anderson's soul left. The dark shallow pool, brightly shined, one last time, as all the floating crystalline balls shattered. bathing the water and me in a kaleidoscope of colors, and then I blinked back into my current reality.

Hahaha! Died a hero's death! Wonderfully done Anderson Stark! Thank you for your flesh. I would honor your legacy! Memories flooded me, the most interesting one was that of this evening, this mortal had lived.

He was with a group, they were ambushed by other survivors, or in this case raiders. They ran away, when their fight attracted a horde of flesh, eating monsters. They were cornered, and most of them were injured, but he cared the most for a young girl, she had her ankle sprained.

With that he made a sacrifice, using a belt with bells tape on it and firecrackers. And shotgun on hand, He ran away from his group and then baited both the raiders, and the infected away from his group.

At the end of his exploit, he barricaded the roof of this 40 something story building. He was unlucky, an infected took a piece of him, as he ran. so in the end he waited for the infection to claim him on this roof.

Hmm. So it's only been a month? really? And this realm is already this devastated? I looked down at the city again, still mostly dark, now that I looked closer some of the lights I was seeing were just buildings on fire.

Atleast the stars were still as beautiful as I remember them. I looked up, and as I admired them, I closed my eyes. as I felt for my soul and I found it, but rather than a flaming ball, made of everything that I was. It was nothing but a hole.

With that hole found, I pulled my psionic energy from it, energy so powerful. That it equals 10 billion, hydrogen nukes igniting, at the same time, every second it was opened. But then, I suppressed that flow, until it was only enough energy to power 21st century earth for a few hours. 

Then I let that energy flow through my new vessel, turning my psionic energy into that of bio energy healing me and improving my poor vessel, making it something usable. I started outwards, first my wounds knitted, not even leaving scars. And the scars themselves faded, turning my skin smooth, unblemished by time, nor battle. Not even the imperfections, of my vessel's genetics remained.

Next I went deeper, my flesh I deaged, as I saw a lifetime of biological and physical damage mounting. forcing the cells, to multiply imperfectly, creating selfish, poor, mutated, copies. I asked them to destroy themselves. I settled on what I believed to be this vessel's prime age, and placed a genetic lock.

Muscles and fats I combined, turning them into nanofibers twisted like rope, layered, used a peak bio-engineered human form, from my home realm as a template. and condensed it to not look or feel like the super soldiers from that human colony called Holy terra.

As I sculpted my fatty muscles, I focused on making it as enduring as possible, and very compatible with introduced bio-changes, and mutations. Next I worked on my frame, which was the bones. I should have started with this, good thing my whole vessel hasn't collapsed yet. This makes me remember that old adage. An empire built, with a disunified people. would crumble in crisis. 

I continued with my work. The human frame has evolved, to be the foundation of the body, to give it shape and movement, a factory for cells, and a good enough protective layer for the organs and of course mineral storage. I only need it as a tough frame, and to structure my body. So I restructured it, first hardening them. Then turning the hollow parts solid.

The molecular structure. I changed it into a hexagonally dense, repeating, organic, heavy calcium structure. And ended with other modifications to make it compatible with my vessel. At the end I turned my bones into an organic alloy, that I call, calcified steel.

The shape also changed, as I turned every piece of bone, into interconnected pieces of lamella plates. Then I restructured them like legos, inside my vessel. I started with the torso, encasing every organ inside an internal cuirass, I left space for the extra organs I would need.

I kept going. The main joints, I kept them in the same place. only changing those on my spine, feet and hands. Adding more joints, or removing them and knitting bones together when needed. At the end I was wearing a full set of armor inside my vessel, with a lot of space inside that armor

My fatty muscles, wrapped firmly on my new armored skeletal system, as I breathed out the air bubbles inside my body, creating an internal vacuum. After that I cleansed myself, of any kind of biological pathogen not symbiotic to my host, both inside and outside, eradicating them via the energy I've been radiating.

It's sad, that I don't have any access to my micro symbiotic bio flora, and fauna, inside my real body. If only I had one of them, I would not have needed to flesh sculpt, my new vessel to such a degree. but I banished, those thoughts from my mind, and continued my work. I next worked on my circulatory system, which feels redundant as I already made my fatty muscles be able to circulate blood inside my internal system.

This gave me pause, and I thought of what other use I can give it. In the end, I wasn't able to think of anything specialized, for it to do. so I added it to my muscle system, but upgraded its ability to expel harmful substances from my vessel, through my skin rather than respiratory system, and I kept its responsibility as the major subways for connecting organs.

The next system I worked on was my nervous system, which I expanded intensively, but added firm locks on, to not overload my biological data processing. My main focus was on my senses, and the addition of auxiliary sub-brains, which I made 6 of, two major ones on my lower and upper back, and 4 minor ones spread over my limbs. The major ones would help with data processing and the minor ones help with movement.

After I finished, with my nervous system. I lastly worked on my organs, I started with my brain. Now that I've made auxiliary brains, I can work on my main brain, without worrying of turning my vessel brain dead, and unresponsive.

I first condensed, what I have left of a brain. It was in awful shape, even with the healing. granted, this body was dead for hours, I can't blame it for the intensive damage it has. But, I can repair and improve it. After I condensed it, to a third of its original size, I felt my thoughts clear, and some host memories more vibrant.

A good start. Then with my energy, I added more mass, and shaped it to a new organ. I connected this organ to my brain, and nervous system, and as I did, I can finally sense the vibrant psionic essence of this world and not just my own.

This gave me a smile, but I quickly condensed my senses, until it became a second skin. As much, as it is gratifying, to fully experience the world around you. it would have overloaded and killed a human, even if that human can only sense psionic essence a mile away. But with this incomplete vessel, It could have been more than 3.

One of my major sub-brains, was aching from the exertion of filtering so much data. after only the few seconds, that took me from reigning in my senses. After stabilizing the psionic sense organ. I added a general energy sense organ to my main brain and placed a lock on it, to one of my sub-brains, connected to my nervous system organs. 

Lastly I expanded my main brain, sectioning it off and giving each section a focus. Which is memory, information analyst, and Data development. After I was satisfied with this I connected the new parts to the brain core.

After which I felt better, Ideas flowed not like glass pieces, but like lego pieces. memories became like pages on a search engine, easily accessible whenever I needed them, both consciously and unconsciously. And each piece of memory and idea became something I understood, and can when I want to arrange and rearrange.

Alright, that's the most important organ. Let's finish this. And I did, I worked on the other organs by improving them to their natural peak. A strong heart, incapable of stopping as long as it has energy. A multilayer digestive organ, capable of digesting minerals, any kind of biomass, and gases using symbiotic micro life and very acidic compounds. 

Very thick blood, that flows continuously, in each internal system. Lungs that can filter dangerous chemicals, inhale needed chemicals, and exhale useless chemicals. And sense organs connected to the modified nervous system.

I don't know how long my vessel's evolution took me, but when I opened my eyes, the ruins of the apocalypse greeted me, and I smiled. Alright let's see what this world has to offer.