'I must question who I am, for who am I to question when I do not know what or who I am' - Tolza the AngryThere comes a time when evolution moults so fast that it leaves bits of dead skin all over the place to feed the cockcroaches that walk in it's tread...
A small bunch of monkeys had decided that evolution just wasn't happening fast enough and therefore devised a way to speed it up. It involved peeling away the scalp, then cutting and removing the top half of the cranium to reveal the brain, and finally sewing the flaps of the scalp back without the bone. The radical operation allowed the brain of a young monkey to grow beyond the size limitations of the skull. This created a soft part on top of the head which was thus protected with a metal helmet.
This operation was performed on all the young who lived in the megatropolis that sprawled a large area within the rainforest. Scientists had isolated a compound found in a rare species of tropical fungi that stimulated brain growth. They also discovered that the brain, beyond a certain size, would in ratio to mass, decrease rapidly in efficiency and function. This was overcome by injecting a microbial parasite into the cerebral cortex of the host which targeted specific receptors that sped up the brain's processes.
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Jim-Ma-Ha-Jan yelled a tight raspy hiss, he was asleep and couldn't wake. Paralysed, he endured the remainder of his nightmare in which some strange looking beings had abducted him, strapped him down to a shiny platform, and proceeded to chop his head off with a blunt axe. THUP! The last swing of the axe came down as he suddenly sat up in bed, sweaty and shivering. Shakily, his hands inspected his neck, and when the concept occurred to him that it was only a dream, he relaxed and took a deep breath.
Jim-Ma-Ha-Jan, or Jim Jan as many of the villagers called him was also the mayor. He had been elected as leader for being the strongest alpha male monkey within the tribe. This small community lived as close to the sea as the trees would take them; their houses were constructed off the ground, perched in the higher branches and foliage; safe from predators, or most of them anyway.
Ever since Jim Jan was a youngster, the elders had shared stories about a civilization of monkeys that lived inland. These monkeys did not live in trees, so they were nick named ground-walkies. He heard that the ground-walkies had opted to pursue a life that involved making and collecting 'things'. The pursuit of things had caused many of them to become hideously deformed, their bodies mutated and their minds inflicted with madness.
Up until recently, the ground-walkies had not been a threat to Jim Jan's village, but now it seems that some were not intent with living in the megatropolis because of crowding and wanted to move away from it to live in the tranquility of the coasts. In order to make way for construction, soldiers had been sent to force out the primitives, but the soldiers had scarcely any experience in jungle combat. The combination of being ill equipped with survival skills had considerably weakened the mens' morale and strength; by the time they got to the village outpost, the soldiers had been easily overcome and captured by the natives.
The sun was beginning to crawl over the horizon, casting long shadows from the trees, and causing the waves in the sea to shimmer. The villagers had locked the captain in a hut, his men were in a caged pit filled with muddy water. It was going to be a long day for Jim Jan who had taken it upon himself to interrogate the captives from the night before. With a few guys from enforcement, he made his way to the makeshift prison where the captain was shackled.
The captain of the ground-walkies army was a tall creature, I said creature because he barely resembled a monkey or any other known life form. His legs were bald and spindly from lack of use; before they removed him, he had been attached to a seat with motorized wheels. A large belly with tubes connected to the device attached to his head. Eyes, the size of plates, stared blackly into the light when they opened the door of the dark space. They dragged him out to the village square and tied him to a tree stump.
Villagers were already awake, Jin Jam could see faces peer through the windows, too afraid to come out but curious enough to linger at a safe distance. He looked back at the creature on the ground and grimaced with disgust.
'What shall we do with him?' asked one of the guards.
Jim Jam continued to stare at the vile being, he did not even look at the guard to reply, 'Remove the attachment from his head, I want to see what's underneath.'
The guards proceeded to handle the device, forcing the captive's head backwards as they tried to figure out a way to detach it. The creature made a noise, a series of meaningless grunts and howls; they kicked him hard, and he stopped. There were some knobs on the side of the helmet, and the guards proceeded to loosen them. Finally, the device was removed with a loud hiss and a pop.
They stared at the strange pattern that presented itself on the head of the creature. It was a maze-like texture that protruded through from beneath the skin, and when they prodded it, the captive would twitch. There was a thin black tube that still attached the head to the helmet. Jim Jan grabbed the tube and tugged it, it wouldn't move, but when he pulled it, it would lift the skin into a tent; he pulled it up and asked the guard to cut the skin with his knife. It came away easily, they tossed the patch of skin that was attached to the tube. They were gazing at the creature's brain which glistened in the brightening morning day light. 'I'm going to consult the village shaman.' said Jim Jan.
A small crowd had gathered to watch the shaman poke sticks into the stranger's head as he twitched and shouted. The shaman had ordered some villagers to boil a pot of water and put some rocks in it. He wrapped a towel around the creatures head so that it formed a crown shaped vessel, and proceeded to carefully drop the hot rocks in it. The smell of burning flesh could be smelt as the brain sizzled from the heat; a couple of guards held the victim as he entered a seizure. A few moments later he died.
The shaman reported to Jim Jan who waited patiently at the edge of the spectacle, 'It seems that the parasite that resides in the creature's head controls the body. By killing the parasite, I have also unfortunately killed the host.' The shaman handed Jim Jan the brain which he had prised from the captives skull, 'Here is the parasite.'
-to be continued...
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