Andrew Mackay - Pink Symphony

“Shaaaantaaa…”

“Shanta? What are you saying? You’re delirious—”

Jelly screeched up at the ceiling and threw her hind legs forward. One of her infinity claws pierced through Wool’s inner-suit by her abdomen, tearing the skin.

Wool pressed her elbow on Jelly’s upturned stomach and reached for a syringe on the medician’s bedside unit. She pushed the radio out of the way and avoided looking at the picture of Jamie Anderson on the wall next to the window.

She lifted the device in her fingers and caught a glimpse of the horizon stretching over Pink Symphony. “Wow.” A large planet hung in the whitened sky. Its three rings moved, slowly, in all directions, like a fairground ride.

Jelly attempted to wriggle free from Wool’s pin down.

“Stop it, Jelly. You want the syringe, do you?”

Jelly calmed down the moment her eyes clapped on the needle. Her legs kicked against Wool’s thighs. She dropped the syringe and fanned her palm on the crazy cat’s head.

“Mwaaah!” Jelly sunk her fangs in the webbing between Wool’s fingers. Under any other circumstances, her actions might have been considered playful. Wool quickly dismissed that notion as she looked into Jelly’s eyes.

Blood-red with orange clouds formed around her pupils.

“Jesus, what’s happened to you?”

“ROOWAARR!” Jelly shrieked at the top of her lungs.

Wool pushed herself away in fright and looked down at the tear in her inner-suit. He elbow caught the power cable attached to the radio , knocking the device to the floor.

A glob of blood peeled through Wool’s inner-suit. She slid the side of her index finger under the cut and lifted it to her face for inspection.

“Oh… you made me bleed—”

BWUCK !

Jelly spat out a pink fur ball. She rolled onto her front and settled into the prone position, poised to attack. Her tail slapped left and right as she sized up her new opponent.

“Jelly, what are y-you d-doing—”

BWUCK-BWUCK-BWUCK !

Jelly’s chest distended, violently. She dug her infinity claws into the foam mattress, puncturing its surface.

“Waaaaaaah!” Jelly’s behind lifted into the air like a possessed demon – the start of an event Wool wouldn’t forget in a hurry.

“Oh, God…”

Jelly’s titanium infinity claws sprung out from her paws. Each digital pad blew open, squeezing out a pink substance across her shedding fur.

“Grrraaaooowww…” Jelly’s broken screeches bounced off the walls and slammed into Wool’s ears.

WHUMP .

Her stomach distended and blew outward, coughing lumps of fur to the bed.

“J-Jelly?” Wool took a step forward, careful not to get too near what was surely some sort of infectious disease.

The cat whined and shook her head, trying to make the pain subside. The more she fought, the worse it became.

Her skin on her arms turned a yellowy white and forced the flesh underneath to blow across to her body.

The stench was overwhelming.

Wool knew she should have sedated Jelly when she had the chance. There was no going back, now.

Jelly’s behind ballooned out, pushing most of her fur away. The bone in her hind legs cracked forward, causing her a considerable amount of pain. A sickening sound of contorting flesh breaking into new positions within her limbs. Jelly’s intense squeals warbled the acrylic windows back and forth.

“Holy Mary, mother of God,” Wool crossed her body with her index finger as she watched Jelly convulse and change before her eyes. “God have mercy.”

Jelly’s spine arched onto itself, exposing her shoulder bone through the skin. Strands of fur pushed away from her body.

A final wail of death thundered through the room as her entire body shuddered like a furious cocktail mixer. Her mouth opened out and forward. Jelly’s skull pulled back and up, forcing the back of her head to raise thee inches.

The zygomatic bone above her top row of teeth crunched into an oblong and out under her nose. One by one, her teeth fell out. A new set pushed through her gums, including a pair of incisors.

“Shaaaan…” Jelly snorted, fixed to the bed by her infinity claws. Her chin broke away under her bottom row of teeth. A new skeletal structure pushed through in its place.

Her whiskers fizzed away like a perverse light show.

Jelly’s entire body thundered on the spot. Her abdomen shunted whatever was left of her former self across the bed in gory segments. Bones transformed and cracked out into new formations.

Fine, dark hair – much like her whiskers – sprouted from the top of her head and fell down her back.

Wool covered her eyes and turned awa. Close to a nervous breakdown, she knew what was coming next. Having seen the twelve-legged creatures at a distance – coupled with what she knew of the battle in Pink Symphony – the next stage would prove to be a body apocalypse.

Wool fanned her fingers out over one eye, catching only the briefest glimpses of the horror.

A fur-less cat, dying and effectively melting in a demonic puddle of its own effluence.

“I’m s-so sorry, Jelly,” Wool burst out crying and made for the door, “Let’s finish this.”

“Mwaaoorgh…” Jelly howled, her face blasting her turmoil around the room from the splattered bed.

Wool pulled the door shut and dropped to her knees in a state of helpless delirium.

“No, please, God. No,” she spluttered in floods of tears, “Please.”

She knocked the back of her head against the wall in an attempt to block out Jelly’s deathly howls from within Medix. Something had to be done.

Her hand slipped around her belt and gripped her Rez-9. A mercy killing was necessary. The second time, now, she’d be attempting to put Jelly out of her misery. Images of having placed a cyanide capsule in Jelly’s mouth slammed into her brain.

Wool rolled up the sleeve on her left forearm. She thumbed the ink out into three dots. “This is… Wool,” she tried to clear the upset from her voice, “Tripp, are you there?”

No response.

“Tripp, please,” Wool sniffed and tilted the side of her gun to ensure it was loaded. The strip light indicated a full magazine. “Tripp?”

“Yes, Wool. I read you.”

“She’s sick, Tripp. Really sick…”

“Where are you?”

“Outside Medix,” Wool blurted and wiped the tears from her eyes. “It’s over for her. I need you to come here.”

“Dying?”

Wool couldn’t help herself. She cried into her forearm like a madwoman. “She’s all over the p-place, Tripp. I…”

“—Wool, stay right where you are. Don’t do anything.”

“She’s in s-so much pain, I need to—”

“Wool. No!” Tripp’s voice blared through the tiny pin pricks in her wrist, “For God’s sake, don’t do anything. Stay where you are.”

Wool picked herself up from the floor and took a deep breath. She gripped her gun and deliberated the consequences of the action she was about to take.

It was now or never…

The opened utility door revealed a variety of synthetic limbs. One of them had been selected by Bonnie. Much like the others, a titanium-based extensions was the order of the day.

Only, this one was equipped for war as well as balance.

“The Cortex K-12,” Tripp attached the magnetic thigh plate to Bonnie’s stump, “Interesting choice.”

“It really belongs in Weapons and Armory,” Bonnie looked down at Tripp and noticed something behind his ear. It resembled a black squiggle. Despite her enhanced vision she elected to look away and braced herself for the forthcoming jolt of pain.

The magnet on her stump sucked the silver plate on the false limb into place with a heavy ‘schwump’ sound.