All I could see was blood.

  The fluid was literally coating my eyes despite attempts to blink it away. It filled my nose, was dripping into my mouth, and felt like it had coated every single inch of my oversized body. I didn't even have hands so I just knew that it was going to get caught in all my crevices and seams to leave me haunted by the smell for months! At least I wasn't wearing anything at the moment to get stained, I'd have been pissed trying to wash that out of my hat.

  Finally I blinked the blood out of my eyes and looked over myself, only to see nothing but gray. No signs of the sticky clinging red anywhere, not even on my tail or face. Had my electricity boiled it all away? Then I remembered that my vision was monochromatic now. I could barely tell the blood coating me from my own natural coloration!

  I laughed long and loudly at that realization, and only laughed louder as I realized I'd already been coated in blood even before this! Those boars, the plants, hundreds of scorpions, the boss, the jackal-snakes, that oversized gar, they'd all splattered me with their life blood and I hadn't even noticed! No wonder Saul smelled blood! I had been absolutely coated in it the past two days and hadn't noticed because it was no longer that bright recognizable color! By God, I must have been an absolute fright to see emerging from the dust, still coated with fresh blood and stained with older dried blood. I'm shocked anyone with a lick of sense would have approached me the way I doubtlessly looked.

  I would have fled in fear at the sight of me.

  –You have taken 3 Impact Damage–

  Ah, that's right. I still had a badly injured ganger sitting in my lap looking up at me with an expression of pants wetting terror as he kicked desperately at my metal hide. He was completely and utterly at my mercy, a single swift stab and he'd be dead too. It's not like he was particularly deserving of mercy, it would be one less evil staining the world, one less threat to me and mine. Not to mention it would leave me eight hundred experience points richer.

  With a jerk I shoved my head forwards.

  Gripping the flailing rhino firmly in my mouth, I lifted him free and casually tossed him like a dirty rag at his cowering compatriots with contemptuous ease. I watched as the heavy animal bounced and rolled once before stopping with a pained moan.

  "How, disappointing." I sneered, all the wild joy now gone from my voice. "Do y'all plan to keep fighting, or will you do the smart thing for once." I watched as the rhino, Hugo the system had named him, slowly and painfully rise. "A reminder to anyone who hasn't been told, but if you build up too many strikes I'll just kill you. You're currently sitting at three strikes Hugo," the man flinched, trembling hard enough for me to feel, "You've seen what happens when you go past that."

  Rumi and Shaniqua finally arrived. The pair slid to a stop showing off their own natural weapons to the gathered gangers. A loud rumbling scrape heralded the damaged wall of cars being pushed aside by the giant bug who advanced behind his two armed monkeys with his own arms crossed. The gathered gangers seemed to realize that were now surrounded, outnumbered, and out qualitied.

  I flashed an amused smile, "I'd recommend running wouldn't you?"

  "You haven't seen the last of us you maldito puta madre," Hugo snarled with bravado he clearly wasn't feeling based on his thundering heart, "Tango Blast will remember this, no one fucks with Tango!"

  With his bit said the great hairy lump began to limp away, keeping a wary eye on both me and Rumi as the smaller gang members huddled around him like frightened ducklings. We all watched them go in silence until he vanished among the houses and then slowly passed beyond the range of my tremorsense.

  Which just left the gigantic bug looking at us like a judgmental bouncer and his two trembling guards. The silence between us continued to build for a couple of minutes, with Rumi and Shaniqua beginning to shuffle their feet in an uncomfortable little dance. Finally the pillbug grunted with a sort of amused annoyance, "You really should have killed the rest of those kids while you had the chance."

  "Yes," I agreed with a slight shudder, "From a purely logical perspective I should have. There's even some fairly solid moral arguments for just killing them all and being done with it. However, if I just killed everyone for a first offense or for cheering on a crime, I'll quickly become far more caked in blood than anyone I'm putting down. Well, in the metaphorical sense. I'm already pretty well caked." I gave myself a big rattling shake trying to shake off some of the blood without much success. Oh, I'm literally standing in a massive pool of blood from the body. "I don't suppose you'd mind if I try and wash this off do you?"

  The big centipede man gestured with his massive monkey arms towards the water under the bridge as he continued, "Mercy like that is commendable, but it's also a fact that we can't afford many luxuries these days. In case you haven't noticed, we are a bit cut off and surrounded."

  "All the more reason to offer people a chance to redeem themselves so long as they haven't yet committed an unforgivable act." I refuted as I slithered into the shallower waters and started rubbing myself against the sand and muck to try and get the blood off, "We need friends and allies in times like this as much as we need fewer enemies. That's the main thrust of the reason I came up here in the first place."

  "Perhaps we don't want to be friends with those what let the people who attacked us walk free with a slap on wrist," the bug man rumbled.

  "I'd hardly call killing one man and crippling another a slap on the wrist," I paused to plunge my face into the water and rub it against the mud, "Besides, can you afford not to? Refusing allies because of a minor disagreement over criminal justice sounds like a hell of a luxury to me." That seemed to briefly bring a smile to the man's face, though he was quick to smother it. "Especially seeing as you seem to be the only person in your group both willing and capable to put up an effective resistance."

  One of the two pike monkeys looked ready to protest before Rumi cut in with a bright cheery shout, "Come on Gruncle Donald, you don't have to try and debate everyone who darkens your door."

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "It is the god given right of everyone who reaches my age to argue with whoever I please about whatever we like!" the giant bug groused in a way that sounded almost ritualistic, joy suffusing his stance. "You wouldn't happen to be my little Rumrum now would you? Get over here and give this old bug a hug!"

  Rumi happily canter over to the man to give the giant bug an awkward equine hug that he returned happily, actually managing to lift the massive horse briefly as the two nuzzled each other. They both broke into a flurry of happy comments about 'how big you're getting' and 'probably half as strong as you always claimed you were back in the day' and other heartwarming sillinesses. It brought a smile to my face and made it a bit easier to ignore the dead body sprawled in the roundabout or the fact the water around me was opaque with mud and blood.

  "Shaniqua," I called as softly as I could to hopefully not interrupt the reunion, "would you kindly go see if you can find wherever Saul is cowering and bring him over here?"

  "Fred, Phineas," 'Gruncle Donald' said, snapping his fingers at the two pike apes. That lucky old fart! "Go get a broom and a mop to help our guests clean up. They seem like decent enough sorts, for modern brats anyways." The pair murmured reluctant sounding 'yes sir's before loping deeper into the compound. The old bug turned towards me and extended a hand my way saying, "Drill Sergeant Donald Mayweather, US Marines, Retired."

  I brought myself into the best 'attention' stance I could manage as a snake in a lake and saluted the man, "Joe Parker, civilian, unemployed. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance sir."

  "Pretty good salute for a civvie," Donald chuckled returning the salute, "At ease kiddo."

  I relaxed the stance with a smile, "Military family on both ends with lots of military friends and a bit of ROTC in school, I can fake discipline well enough for a couple minutes."

  "I'll say," he shifted Rumi to his side, still happily stroking the woman's head. She tolerated it and stayed quiet despite clearly wanting to talk with the older man. "You were pretty sloppy in that fight, but given a couple months of drilling I could probably turn you into a proper soldier."

  "If either of us had time for that I might take you up on that," I laughed, "I don't suppose you have any friends at the Sheppard Air Force base do you?"

  "Nah, never mingled much with the fly boys. They had me in charge of making sure the ground pounders and wetbacks could shoot straight and follow orders. Why?"

  "I found what I'm pretty sure is several tons of weapons that were meant for that base," I admitted, "I was hoping to trade some of those weapons to whoever is left at that base in exchange for some trainers and engineers to help turn the stadiums into a proper fort. I'd be willing to offer you a couple of the autocannons and ammo if you could set up an introduction for my folks and help mediate the exchange."

  Donald was quiet, I could literally see him visually inspecting his defenses and calculating how massively they'd be improved by a couple heavy weapon hardpoints. He nodded, "Yeah, that seems like a fair exchange. I'll see if I can't get some boys to recon a path up that way before the week's done. You got anything else you're looking to do up this way?"

  "Depends on what you're willing to do," I shrugged as the monkeys returned with a mop and broom, "I was just looking to let Rumi check in here and see if anyone wanted to come back with us after warning them about those thugs we just saw off. Looks like you've got a really good set up here so I doubt we'll have many takers, but any other trade or agreements we come to will be icing on the cake. We currently have more food than we know what to do with, some mystery seeds, and a few tons of silk on top of anything else we can dig up from the city."

  "We're pretty good on the food front as far as plants go," Donald nodded as he gestured for the monkeys to begin scrubbing me down. Good lord that felt divine! "We've got these trees that grow these odd mixes between tangerines and apples the size of cantaloupes that seem to regrow their fruit in a little under a day. We were actually about to try replanting them closer to the wall when we were attacked. We are pretty short on food for our more carnivorous people though."

  "We've actually got the opposite issue," I smiled, struggling to stay awake as I luxuriated in the feeling of the broom's bristles digging under my carapace plates, "A ton of meat, not many fruits or veggies. We've got the bodies of some giant pigs and can point you to where we left the rest of their bodies. We can trade for some of that fruit and its seeds or saplings and maybe do an occasional trade of our mutual surpluses of each type of food."

  We continued back and forth as both Shaniqua and Saul eventually returned and we all haggled over weapons, supplies, and even people with useful skills both system based and traditional. In the end we agreed to a mutual defense treaty and an exchange of food. We'd also be bringing back a plumber and electrician to see what they could manage with the stadium with us in exchange for a trailer and a couple hundred pounds of silk and some of our first run of leather. Rumi would be staying for a couple days to catch up with friends and neighbors, effectively acting as an ambassador for us, but promised to return before too long.

  I was a bit surprised when the professionals turned out to be a newt built like a bulldog and a shockingly humanoid looking robot rolling out on treads. By which I mean that I loudly demanded, "Is that a fucking robot?" I swear the damned machine preened even as Donald started laughing.

  "That's just Melvin. He's one of our three 'tech bugs'. They do great work and have been godsends. I just wish they weren't wasting so much time working on their various 'mechs'."

  The six foot tall robot stopped in front of me and a hatch opened revealing a tarantula sized fluffy spider sitting in a web of sparking wires and webbing. He waved one of his little legs up at me and pulled a microphone over to his face. A shrill little voice absolutely oozing with joy echoed from some speakers in the machine's chest, "Hey there big guy! Thanks for helping us out with those bullies earlier! This thing isn't quite ready for live combat trials yet, we're still working on designing weapons for it!"

  I have never been so jealous of anyone in my entire life. I end up as a giant metal snake and this little puke gets to fight kaijus using his own homemade giant robot? There was no justice in this world.

  "Oh my goodness you're such a cute little thing!" Shaniqua cooed, leaning close to look at the tiny man, "Can I pet you?"

  "Uh, probably best not to," the little spider bastard mumbled bashfully, "There's a lot of current running through me and these wires. I'd hate to accidentally hurt a cute little bunny like you."

  As everyone was busy being fascinated by the little spider and his robot, much to the visible annoyance of the newt, Donald took the opportunity to pull me to the side. "Do you have anyone you're going to be able to confide in over the next couple days?"

  "A good friend made it through the Event and I'm getting fairly close with a couple more," I admitted before realizing what he was getting at, "This is about him, isn't it." I gestured to the large, now cool corpse that everyone was pointedly ignoring.

  Donald nodded grimly, "It might take a day or two to fully hit, but the first man you kill leaves a mark on you that is hard to handle. I know it will be hard, but confide in those you're close to and don't be afraid to cry if you need to. It helps a bit, makes it a little easier to come to terms with. I'd also confide in God, even if you aren't religious. You aren't any less of a man for struggling with this, some of the hardest men I ever knew broke down bawling dealing with their first kill. The only people who weren't bothered by it were the real psychos."

  I nodded grimly at that. Just what I needed.

  Joe - The main character of the story. Currently a giant metal snake with a massive sword at the end of his tail. Seems to have gathered an eclectic scattering of skills from expecting civilization to fall, if perhaps not in this fashion. Is currently shamefully nude.

  Damian - A former pot head working warehouses in the middle of trying to go straight and clean himself up when he was turned into a four foot tall velociraptor with bug eyes and cat ears. Hails from Mississippi and has a wife and kids out there. One of the first people encountered in the new world and has recently evolved into a beyond black stealth based evolution. Is wearing an oversized T-shirt an bowie knife.

  Matilda - An old widower married to a military husband who use to be an army nurse who was living alone when she was turned into three foot long fluffy moth that spit spider silk. A long time local who has expressed a hatred of feeling helpless and was found by Damian. Has doubled in size from her evolution and now summons miniature versions of herself. Currently wearing a long striped scarf.

  Jerry - An assumed middle manager type who has offered very little about himself and is often referred to as Gerry by Joe. Has been turned into an ice age armadillo called a Glyptodon and is wearing sweat bands around his ankles and a sock over his tail. Has recently evolved into a heavily armored version of himself and frequently questions or back talks Joe.

  Rumi- A young woman going to school to be an architect while living with her large family who was transformed into a massively muscled horse who fled her home searching for her missing family. Has recently evolved into an even more muscular bicorn thinking it was basically a unicorn and been informed otherwise. Currently wearing a tube top around her neck.

  Kyli - A shy and withdrawn librarian who doesn't talk much unless prompted. Also fled her home in a panic when she was turned into a gecko the size of a car and only stopped when she investigated the smell of fire. Has recently evolved into a horned lizard the size of a tow truck and possesses a very useful ability to generate powerful flashes of light. Currently wearing a cloak borrowed from Joe, though it's starting to get a bit small for her.

  Nolan - A man who use to work as security at Wrangler Stadium and lived with his girlfriend in a cheap apartment complex who was turned into an odd mix of a bumble bee and a japanese murder hornet. Has recently evolved into something that looks like a living hornet's nest and focuses on summons in combat. Currently wearing a jacket tied around his neck.

  Rafael - A rather withdrawn man who has offered very little of himself who arrived with Omar. Is currently a man-sized harpy eagle wearing an oversized tank top. His evolution has resulted in his plumage taking on a rather leafy texture.

  William - A college student who was going to school on a football scholarship with a minor in chemistry who was living near Omar when the event happened turning him into a two headed wolf. Each head seems to contain a separate and independent brain, but so far they seem to be getting along with each other fairly well. Has not shown any obvious changes from his evolution and is currently wearing a leather coat.

  Omar - An old friend of Joe's who is a second generation Salvadorian and was living with his family while working on his marketing degree when he was turned into a sasquatch while at work. Currently Joe's top pick as leader for the group, though he doesn't seem to share Joe's confidence in his ability. Is currently wearing a high vis vest and is currently the only member to wield weapons.

  Jack - A professional gunsmith and hobbyist blacksmith who was living in cheap apartments before getting turned into a giant yellow jacket. Has spent points to give himself a much more human body and expressed frustration at being left behind to work his profession. Currently shamefully naked.

  Shaniqua - A former mother of unclear profession who was living in a cheap apartment when she was turned into a man-sized six legged rabbit. Has since evolved into a four armed rabbit-centaur wearing a sweater who focuses on high speed attacks. She has not spoken to Joe much so much about her remains a mystery.

  Michelle - A friendly and peppy woman of who Joe knows little about. She was turned into an emu with powerful kicks and has since evolved into a larger more dangerous emo with teeth and wing claws. Currently wearing a legwarmer after her second one was destroyed trying to free Joe from the rainbow evolution goo.

  Jeremy - The son of a minor cattle baron who was living in the city for some reason when he was turned into a hyena with a rather corrosive bite. Has recently evolved into something that looks similar to his old form but is apparently raising the dead now. Is currently wearing a ball cap.

  Daphne - A small mysterious bat woman who was caught sneaking around the stadium who claims to have suffered frequent harrowing attacks before stumbling across the stadium crew. She has recently been accused of being a member of the Foritos branch of the Tango Blast gang.

  Dustin Lerburg - A well spoken English professor who has been turned into a deer with chime-esque antlers. He claimed to have been conscripted unwillingly by Tango Blast with other and accused Daphne of being a member.

  Saul - A former hippy and solar panel salesman who has been turned into an aardvark. He was captured and enslaved by Tango Blast but freed by Joe's intervention. Joe has a very low opinion of the man as they disagree on many policies.

  Anthony - A young doctor in training turned vet after the stress of working with people became to much for him. Is now a small chicken with a serpentine tail who was recently freed from slavery by Joe.

  Warsame? - A goat who does not appear to speak English or any other language known by the group. Appears to be very dumb.

  George 'Bones' Cruz - A corpse.

  Donald Mayweather - A veteran marine Drill Sergeant who is currently the acting leader of the Veranda and Rumi's 'Gruncle'. Currently a giant bug with gorilla arms busy trying to get the mostly upper class citizens into fighting shape.