Chapter - 8 Decisions

Jack had returned to his camp a few hours ago. He sat staring at the two slabs of meat he'd cut from the colossal snake. He had a problem on his hands. 'Should I take the evolution or not? I could literally end up green and scaly…' The idea of being changed like that didn't sit well with him. Jack liked being human but knew that if he didn't take every opportunity to get stronger, he wouldn't survive here.

'I doubt that they'd dump us right in the middle of the danger zone. That means the bear and snake should be far from the most dangerous things out here.' Jack contemplated his choices. On one hand, he didn't know what the evolution would do to him, and on the other he knew if he ran into anything even half the strength of those two monsters, he wouldn't have a chance of running away.

Jack let his new instinct make the decision for him. The compulsion to eat the snake won out in the end. Jack stood up and prepared a place to cook it. He took the flint and magnesium from their holders in the sheath of his knife and scraped some of the silvery metal into a small pile on a flat rock. Gathering some small, dry twigs, Jack lit the small silvery pile with a couple strikes of the flint rod. He quickly kindled the flames with the wood and twigs he'd gathered a few minutes before. Jack took out his metal vial and poured some water into it. He then used the vial to deposit water onto the small pile of magnesium. The fire flared and started to catch the bigger sticks on fire.

Jack knew how unique magnesium was. It burnt at such a high temperature it could cause molecular fission and turn water into its components, hydrogen, and oxygen. Those two components feed the flames and cause the reaction to grow even hotter. That's one of the biggest reasons magnesium bars are necessary in a survival kit. It allows you to burn any wood even after a heavy rain.

About half an hour later when the fire was big enough, Jack impaled the two slabs he'd borrowed from the bear and set them to cook near the fire.

While he waited for the meat to cook, Jack returned to his tent to figure out how to put together his only real weapon. After separating the pieces, he put them in order. The blade appeared to be in two pieces while there was a loose guard and handle. It didn't appear that there were any screws or latching mechanisms.

Curious, Jack put the two blade segments together. When he let go, the pieces stuck. 'No way! That's so cool! Is it some kind of super carbon polymer with a repeating molecular chain? Is that how the pieces hook together like that?' Giving the blade an experimental flex, it held. To his surprise, it didn't even bend. 'Wow, that's insane. At least I don't have to worry about it breaking.'

Jack assembled the rest of the parts and they all fit together exactly like the two blade halves did. 'Yeah, probably polymer chains.' Jack had always been a science nerd. He didn't want to do anything in that line of work, but science fascinated him. He tried to learn everything he could about whatever subject could catch his attention. The basics of astronomy, chemistry, physics, biology, etc. Although his knowledge wasn't extensive, it was something that he enjoyed.

As the fascination passed, Jack left the tent again with the pitch blade katana in hand. Standing in what he thought was a half decent sword pose, he gave the sword a few experimental swings. 'It's not as heavy as I thought. I guess what matters is if its sharp.' Approaching the roasting snake meat, Jack saw that the outer layer nearest to the fire was already cooked. 'Guess I should smother the fire and let the rest cook gradually since I have to engage in a second round of voluntary torture.'

Jack sliced off a thin sliver of cooked meat and ate it in one bite. It was softer than he'd expected, and the katana was even sharper than he could hope. Jack retuned to his tent one last time before his next evolution. He waited for the notification asking him if he wanted to use the new DNA. Anticipation for the pain he knew was coming caused Jack to be more tense than he'd ever been before. He waited. And waited. At this point, he was sure there was something wrong. It had easily been over an hour and a half. The meat outside had already finished cooking and the coals of his scattered fire were dying out.

Jack rose from his feet just when the red flashing light lit on his right wrist. 'Finally! I was really starting to think it wouldn't work.' He tapped on the red light and the familiar screen popped into vision before him.

"Beneficial genetic material detected. Would you like to integrate new material?"

Jack looked at the screen with only two options. He had to build up his courage for this one. Tearing open three nutrient pack, Jack downed them. He remembered how hungry he was the last time he did this.

He tried to drive the memory of the recent pain from his mind. "Ok, phew… Let's do this Jack.' Reaching for the yes button, Jack froze just before selecting yes and took his hand back. Wringing his hands, he REALLY didn't want to experience this again. Taking a few deep breaths to pump himself up, Jack went for it and clicked yes.

Waiting for the excruciating pain to start, he tensed his whole body. About ten seconds passed when it happened. The pain began, but this time it wasn't as bad. The alternating waves of hot and cold were painful, but nowhere near as much as before. Jack even managed to remain sitting upright. Minutes passed like that with Jack sitting still in his tent, perspiration building on his skin and just like that, the pain began fading.

'Well that wasn't so ba- ' "GAAH!"

Jack barely managed to hold in a scream as flames hotter than ever and ice colder than anything he'd felt before seared his skin. That wasn't the worse of it though. He could feel a pressure building in his head. He'd had migraines before, and this wasn't one of them. Imagine every headache and migraine you've ever had and imagine them happening all at once. Jack felt like his brain was bleeding. He was past the point of head splitting pain. Once again, the overwhelming pain finally caused him to pass into unconsciousness.

Jack woke with a splitting headache. "Oh my god… I swear I'm going to kill whoever designed this stuff." Groaning, he held his head while also looking for any noticeable differences. His skin seemed normal, which was one of his biggest concerns. He sat there for a while waiting for the headache to pass before getting up to see what changes there were.

Unlike the last time, Jack didn't feel as well after this evolution. Sure, he felt physically better, but the headache ruined any good feelings he had about it.

As the headache faded to a manageable level, Jack slowly got up and went outside to see if he could find any noticeable changes. The night sky filled with stars greeted him, marginally improving his mood. "What a beautiful night" Jack distractedly muttered to himself.