BIODS.
Copyright 2016 A. Sumner
Revision 1.2
Email:
[email protected] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012792912665
Chapter 1
Sir Aidan the defender was a heroic knight of great skill. Dressed in gleaming armour astride his valiant steed, he finally emerged from the dense forest. It had been one of those days when every stupid creature imaginable wanted to attack. Not one of them ever stood a chance against his massive sword and enchantments. They just annoyed him. He knew that once across the river he would be in more peaceful lands. As he approached the river he saw a figure in the bushes ahead. A bowman was taking aim at a pink haired elf girl sitting at the waters edge. She was holding a fishing pole, oblivious to her attacker. The magical girl appeared low in combat skills and unprepared to defend herself. Aidan hated people that ambushed the weak, especially when peacefully fishing. It was far from honourable in his opinion. He carefully approached from behind avoiding line of sight. Casting a spell to increase his power he charged just as the arrow was about to be released. With one mighty swing he slaughtered the ambusher. The little elf girl must have noticed the commotion and ran to him cheering and clapping. He bowed after accepting her praise and took his leave. His eyes were stinging, so he figured it was time to find an inn and sleep. It had been a long day of exploring dungeons and defending the weak.
In the real world however, Aidan was no heroic knight. In his high school years he was more often referred to with terms such as loner, dreamer, nerd, looser, dork or otaku. He couldn’t really deny it. After all it was the truth. Though his parents never said much directly, he knew he was a frustration and disappointment to them. Aidan had grown up feeling unwanted, stupid and useless. He had always felt in the road and not good enough, so he never had any self confidence. He never figured out why he was always so socially awkward or felt so worthless. All he ever wanted to be, was somebody else. Anybody would do, because everybody else seemed normal to him. Aidan wondered why had always felt so unnatural and awkward. He watched the other kids with envy as everything just seemed easy for them. Their lives flowed naturally without concious effort.
Aidan hated being alone, but staying isolated felt somehow safer now. His only relief from his self-loathing came from escaping into anime or online games. It was a socially damaging addiction, but at least he was escaping the trauma of trying to fit in with the real world. Instead he was in a world where he seemed to be understood and appreciated. Whether helping noobs or just veging out watching anime, it was all good. It took him away from being his self hating real self. He often pondered if he didn’t fit into the real or whether the world didn’t fit him. He often chatted with like souls online and soon began to realise he wasn’t the only one out there. He got a little comfort from knowing he wasn’t the only weird one at least.
Rubbing his eyes he pushed his chair back from the computer desk and rolled onto the lounge just behind him. He looked around the small living room. It was cramped and messy, but still more than a young single bloke needed. He gazed at the pictures that plastered the walls of the little house. The walls were covered with posters of anime superheroes in stoic poses, however more numerous were the pictures of pretty girls in maid uniforms, girls with cat ears and tails, or winged beauties being they angelic, demonic or some other part human creature. Then of course were the many images of girls in highly impractical and very revealing armour displaying a ridiculous amount of impossibly large cleavage. They usually wielded glowing weapons twice their body size. The bookshelf was stacked with manga books and a few figurines of similar nature.
This wasn’t how a man in his early twenties should be living he thought. He was so desperately lonely it hurt. Even if he met a girl by some miracle he couldn’t afford to spoil her. He didn’t even have a real job. He lived on social benefits, subsidised by contract computer programming or web page design when such jobs came up. Occasionally he rented out the old caravan near the shed to backpackers or seasonal fruit pickers for cash in the hand.
When he could no longer stand his parents pushing him to be “normal” and their lack of understanding any more, his grandparents had intervened by offering him free use of an old caravan on the block they had just bought to build their little beach front retirement home. It was a large coastal block full of trees, just a few minutes from town. It had rough national park land to the north and a beautiful beach just a short walk down to the east. The old caravan park was just beyond the tree line to the south. When the caravan park next door had started to fail financially, Aidan’s grandfather purchased the large northern strip from his old fishing buddy who owned it at the time. The caravan park was closed now and on the market. His grandfather purchased a little kit home and erected a large shed to store his tools during construction and planned it would eventually become his workshop and refuge.
Aidan loved the shed. It was another place for him to be a dreamer when he felt inspired to tinkered with his electronics. It still housed his grandfathers old tools and the rusty old fishing ute. Now it also housed Aidan’s boxes of wires, electronics and gadgets. Sometimes he was certain that one day if he stayed focused long enough he could build himself a humanoid robot companion. Of course being a desperately lonely young man answerable to nobody, it would probably be an anatomically correct female. He imagined it wearing a revealing French maid outfit and calling him master. In fact he had already purchased the maid outfit from a bargain bin during a shop’s closing sale just in case. Without much money to invest in such projects he rarely passed up a bargain on something that might be useful one day. He also never threw away anything that just might come in handy. Thus Aidan had a lot of boxes full of odd junk and bits and pieces. Aidan was pretty good at writing the artificial intelligence (AI) programs to run such a robot, and wasn’t too bad at fiddling with the servo control boards and such. When it came to expensive parts, or even just completing anything however, he failed and returned to his anime or games.
Aidan’s grandfather had died of a heart attack six months ago and his grandmother hadn’t decided yet whether to sell up or not. She had gone to live with his aunt over an hour away, and wasn’t in any rush. That left Aidan alone on the large block with uninterrupted use of it. His grandmother had suggested that he may as well move from the caravan to the house now, and look after things. She knew she wasn’t coming back because her health was starting to fail, so she left Aidan to care for the property.
This was a beautiful area to live. Aidan was surrounded by trees and nature. Often the eastern grey Kangaroos came down to feed in front of the little house in the early morning. Of an afternoon brightly coloured rosellas and lorikeets often landed in the surrounding trees to feed. The beach was only a few minutes easy walk away down the slope from his front patio. From the patio he could see from the light house on the cliff to the north east to most of the way down to the section of beach in front of town. “This is paradise. I should be happy, so why aren’t I happy?” he muttered as he fell asleep.
The next morning he found that the cupboards and fridge were bare. He couldn’t survive without his regular supply of cola and snacks, so decided to take his crappy little car into town. Once restocked with junk food and soft drink, he would get into some serious gaming. That seemed like a good plan for the day so he eagerly grabbed the keys and jumped into the poor little little car parked near the back door.
Having finally finished the shopping he decided to spoil himself by grabbing a burger and stopping at the main beach for a while. It was a nice sunny day as summer wasn’t far off. With any luck he hoped he might catch a glimpse of some bikini babes, not that he would ever dare try talking to one anyway. He wasn’t ugly or fat, but he
was a loser with no confidence. Aidan was average in looks, with average height, average brown eyes and average sandy brown coloured hair. He didn’t look overly fit, so he believed he had little to impress the girls with. He parked his little car just across from the main beach and crossed over the road to enjoy his food. Finding an empty bench overlooking the most popular swimming area he sat and enjoyed his burger. It was a good old style burger that dripped it’s juices from his elbows. When he looked at the ground between his thongs he could see drips of fat, beetroot and egg yolk. Proof it was good. He enjoyed it immensely. The beach was quiet apart from a few surfers, the occasional jogger and the odd sunbather out of clear vision. There wasn’t much to see bikini-wise, but that was OK. It wasn’t his only motivation to come here. He relaxed soaking up the sun’s energy and loving the smell of the sea breeze. Closing his eyes he stretched his arms and leaned back taking a depth breath. Aidan thought this setting was perfect. He listened to the gentle sound of the waves until a sound disturbed him. He sat up in curiosity. Aidan was sure he’d heard someone crying.
Looking around he noticed the figure of a woman in a modest one piece swimsuit with a towel wrapped around her. She was sitting on the next bench down. The figure was crouched over with her face buried in her hands. Aidan could hear her weeping uncontrollably. He wondered what to do. His heart pained to see the sight. His first instinct was to approach and ask if she needed help. Another part of him warned he would probably be abused for not minding his own business. After long moments of debating with himself he finally mustered his courage and approached the crying stranger. He stayed a good distance back so as not to make either of them uncomfortable. “Are you ok?” he asked with concern. The woman froze at the sound of his voice. She kept her face down so he couldn’t see her features for all the damp golden hair hiding her face. Eventually she replied “I don’t know..... My bag was stolen while I was swimming.”
Aidan felt pity for the girl and said compassionately “That must suck. What colour was it? Maybe they dumped it after they took what they wanted. I don’t mind having a quick look around.” The girl sounded hopeful as she replied “Really? Thanks. It was a pink and white sports bag.” She looked up at him so he could finally see her face. Though she covered her left eye with her hand, Aidan was stunned to see how beautiful she was. The eye he could see was a brilliant emerald green. Her long damp and tangled hair was the colour of yellow gold in the patches that had dried. He couldn’t help but to step back and breath in the visage. He wasn’t so nervous when he thought it was just some person needing help, but now he saw the person was a gorgeous girl who looked almost his age. She looked him in the eye forcing a smile “Thanks heaps, but only if you really don’t mind. I know it’s probably gone, but it had my wallet, my phone, medications and well.....everything was in it. If it’s not a bother I’d appreciate some help. I couldn’t see it anywhere.” “No worries. I’m free all day.” Aidan stammered with a grin. He dashed off and spent the next half hour searching anywhere he could think of where a thief might dump the bag after looting it. Finally he decided to give up and return to the bench where the girl was. She was gone. He sat down exhausted. He figured that maybe she had found it and went home.
Aidan pulled out his phone and decided to check the time, not that it mattered. “No luck either?” a voice asked. He looked up and saw the girl coming back. She sat at the far end of the bench avoiding getting too close. “No luck sorry.” he answered. The girl looked at him, still covering an eye with her hand. “Thank you so much anyway. I didn’t really have my hopes up. It’s just that everything was in that bag and I don’t know anyone here. I’m not sure what to do now.” She noticed him putting his phone away. “I don’t suppose I could bother you with one more really big favour?” Aidan noticed her eyeing the phone and handed it to her with a smile. “Thanks again.” she said and added “The name’s Emma by the way.” Aidan smiled as friendlily as he could. “Aidan.” he replied. He offered her a quick handshake, but she just looked at his hand nervously. Feeling awkward he started to retrieve his hand, but she grabbed it at the last moment and shook it quickly. He felt an odd tingling sensation at her touch. Odd girl he thought. She seemed to have something against people being too close to her or touching her. It showed on her face. He guessed that maybe she had some personal issues, or maybe she was just that repulsed by him. She seemed rather tense and anxious to him.
Aidan walked away for a few minutes to give Emma some privacy on the phone. He made sure to be out of earshot, but not out of sight of his phone. Aidan pondered what to do next. She had no money and wasn’t from around here. He figured the police would organise something, but he fantasised with a stupid grin that she would just have to come home with him. Perhaps then she would fall for him and treat him as her knight in shinning armour. In reality he knew she would never do that. He snapped himself out of his daydream. Real life wasn’t like a manga or anime where the hot girl ends up falling for the poor dorky guy.
Eventually the girl put the phone down on the bench beside her and began crying into her hands once more. He felt that she really needed a hug, but there was no way he would risk upsetting her by offering that. She seemed even more stand-offish than him. Besides that he was a coward when it came such things. He came back and gingerly reached for the phone, sliding it towards himself with outstretched finger tips. He was trying to keep a respectful distance from the girl. “Did you call the police?” he asked. Emma nodded. “I’m from Brisbane. I don’t know anyone around here. “ Clenching her fists she cursed “Why does this crap have to happen on a Sunday when the banks are shut?“ She continued more calmly. “The cops were nice enough to organised a room for me at the pub, but..........” she paused wondering how to explain her problem. “I kind of have some issues. I get really uncomfortable around...... people, crowds, noise, pubs and stuff.” Aidan could appreciate that being the same himself and said “Yeah same here. That’s why I love living just out of town. No people, no crowds. Just me and the trees.” He smiled trying to lighten her mood. She looked him in the face anxiously. He could tell she wanted to ask him something but wasn’t game. No way he thought. He took a deep breath and said “Look I wasn’t gonna offer in case you thought it was creepy or something, cause I’m a strange bloke you’ve never met and all. You see I live on a small property just a few minutes north of town. There’s a caravan I don’t use any more so it’s just sitting there. It’s small but it’s quiet, clean and secure. You’re welcome to it if you want. So you know, whatever. Not forcing you. Your choice.”
Aidan crossed his fingers behind his back. Just knowing someone was around would be nice, especially an attractive girl like this. He knew she would never accept, but nothing ventured nothing gained he thought. It wasn’t like he had anything to loose at this point. Emma looked torn with indecision. She eyed him up and down appraisingly. As the idea hit him Aidan hurriedly added “We can drop in at the cop shop on the way and tell them where it is, just in case your bag turns up.” Perhaps that might help her feel safer he thought. Emma nodded and replied “Thank you so much. I really hate being such a nuisance, but i can’t sleep on the beach and no way would I stay at a pub. You must be eager to get home after all the time you wasted on me. As long as you’re sure I won’t be a bother I’d love to come. I can fix you up in the morning when the bank opens. Ok?” Aidan was stunned with disbelief. “Don’t worry about it.” he said “The van’s just sitting there. May as well use it.” He was excited at the prospect of company, even if it was just a stranger over in the van near the shed. Just knowing someone was around was great.
As he lead the way to the car he wondered why he didn’t notice before now what a perfectly proportioned figure Emma had. He was concerned how she still covered the one eye and he didn’t want to pry, but when they approached the car he finally asked “Is there something in your eye? Do we need to stop at the hospital on the way? I’m not trying to pry or anything, just concerned.” Emma stopped and s
tood in silence. “No it’s all good. Thanks anyway.” She spoke softly as if deeply ashamed “You see the bag that was stolen also had my.......” Emma looked as if she was about to burst into tears again. Slowly she pulled her hand away from her left eye. There was a long horrible scar running from her brow down, across the closed eyelid and half way across her cheek. She continued to explain “I took my prosthetic eye out before I went swimming, so I wouldn’t loose it. It was in my bag with everything else. I know it’s disgusting.” she explained. Aidan felt about two inches tall. “I am really, really sorry I asked.” he said . “I just thought you might need to see a doctor or something. Really I feel like such a scum bag now. I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
Emma covered the eye again. “Nah it’s cool she said. I’m sorry it’s so gross. I know how hideous it is, so I try to hide it. Don’t want to make people puke. Maybe I should just try staying at the pub.” Emma started to walk away slowly with her head down. Opening the car door Aidan quickly reached inside the glove box and pulled out a pair of dark sunglasses that he never wore. He caught up to Emma and offered them to her asking “Would these help you feel less self concious?” She accepted them gratefully. This time her smile seemed more genuine and she seemed to be relaxing a little. Perhaps because the always inevitable eye discussion was over, or perhaps it was the sunglasses. “It’s just a scar. It doesn’t change anything.” Aidan said trying to sound casual. In truth it was a hideous scar that turned his stomach, but he wanted to be polite. She had no doubt been humiliated about it enough in her life and he wasn’t about to add to that. She was still a person in need of help. He understood that something like that would obviously have damaged her self esteem and confidence. It was no wonder she seemed so self-concious. Aidan motioned to the passenger seat politely and Emma thanked him before sitting. He was just about to close the door when Emma suddenly screamed in terror and jumped halfway back out the door grabbing him around the waist. She pointed at the cars’s gear stick. “Oops.” Aidan murmured remembering the large redback spider encased in resign on the end of the gear stick. He apologised to Emma sincerely saying “Sorry I forgot about the gear knob. I never have passengers, especially girls.” Emma laughed as she climbed back in saying “No I’m sorry. I think my nerves are just on edge at the moment. I didn’t mean to jump like that sorry.”
They first made a quick stop at the police station to update them of the situation. That done they began the journey home. On the way Emma explained that she had been on a bus trip from Brisbane to Sydney. She had taken some time off from her fashion and design studies to visit an old girl friend for a couple of weeks. Because of some young men hassling her on the bus she arranged to disembark in town and catch another bus passing through in a few hours. To fill in time she went for a swim and that was when she was robbed. Then she had missed the next bus with all the turmoil. Aidan only half listened. He was still feeling shock and disbelief that the gorgeous girl wasn’t just in his car, but coming home with him. It was too unbelievable.
Soon they turned off the main road and onto the gravel driveway leading up to Aidan’s grandparent’s property. It was a little bumpy as they passed through the narrow band of trees that obscured vision of the house from the road. Aidan parked behind the house and quickly ran inside to retrieve the caravan key. Walking Emma to the van parked beside the shed he opened the door and gave her the key telling her that if she needed anything, he was just in the little house. She thanked him again and explained how even though she was so tense around people, it was nice to know that someone wasn’t too far away. With that she dissappeared inside. Aidan returned his kitchen and unpacked the groceries. Luckily the frozen things were at least still cold. He smiled just knowing there was another human not far away even if he couldn’t see or hear them.
For the rest of the day Aidan returned to being an online magical knight, dispatching enemies and assisting groups to take down the evil overlord wizard reigning terror on some silly imaginary land he couldn’t even pronounce. He couldn’t really immerse him in it like he normally did. Images of the attractive one eyed girl with the scarred face distracted him. Such a shame he thought. She could have been a real stunner if not for that hideous deformation. He wondered why he was so attracted to her despite that scar though. It wasn’t just her looks. It was the way she sounded, the way she moved, the strange aura she seemed to have. He couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but something about her had his mind entranced. He felt an odd connection.
As darkness fell outside he began to get hungry. He popped a frozen lasagne tray in the microwave and popped some toast in the toaster. He recalled that Emma had lost everything so she was probably hungry too. He grabbed out a second plate. He only ever ate half of these meals on a piece of toast anyway. Checking through his cupboard he grabbed a spare bottle of cola, a bag of BBQ chips and two cups of instant noodles. He placed them in a shopping bag before also remembering she had only the swimmers she wore. He needed clothes. The only women's clothes he had was the French maid outfit that he had found in that bargain bin. He grinned stupidly when he imagined her wearing the outfit with a pirates eye patch for a second. No, he thought. He scowled to himself ashamed for his stupid little cosplay fantasy. Real people weren’t like that. Aidan knew he shouldn’t think that way. It just happened. He hoped that Emma didn’t discover his occasionally pervy side. He continued looking for clothes. Digging through cupboards he finally found a plain grey tracksuit that was still fairly new, and a pair of white T-shirts his aunt had given him, but he hated anything with a round neck, so he had never worn them. He shoved these into another bag and sat it near the door with the snack bag. When the microwave beeped he covered one of the plates with foil and grabbed the shopping bags as he left to deliver the goods.
As Aidan stood at the caravan door trying to figure out how he was going to knock with his hands full, the van door opened just a crack and Emma screamed in terror slamming the door again. “Sorry he yelled, I just thought you might be hungry.......you know after loosing your wallet and stuff.” A minute later she opened the door wearing the bed quilt wrapped around her. Her hair was a mess and she was wearing the sunglasses again. “Did you see anything?” she asked urgently. Aidan was lost for a moment uncertain what she meant. “Like what?” he asked. Sounding calmer she replied “Don’t worry. Not important. Sorry I was so jumpy yet again.” She opened the door and eagerly took the plate thanking him with eyes firmly fixed on the food. She was obviously starving he thought. Aidan held forth the bags of supplies. ”I don’t want to seem presumptuous or anything, but I thought these might be useful. If you don’t want them, it’s fine ok.” Emma put the plate down and took the bags with her free hand. Glancing inside she looked overjoyed and thanked him repeatedly. “I’ll pay you back in the morning, ok.” she said. “No worries” Aidan replied with a smile before returning to the house. Scar or not, she was still a beautiful girl with a perfect figure. He wondered if he would have shown her as much kindness if she was totally fat and ugly. He carefully and honestly thought about that. Whilst he was socially uncomfortable and avoided people, he always felt great empathy for those in need. He decided he still would have offered help taking just a little pride in himself. He had after all offered assistance before realising how attractive she was.
Half an hour later Aidan’s thoughts were disturbed by a loud boom followed by a huge splash coming from the direction of the beach. He felt a slight tremor under his feet. Racing to the door he couldn’t see anything, even though the moon shone brightly. He thought that maybe there had been a rock slide on the cliffs overlooking the ocean at the north end of the beach. They weren’t far and occasionally large chunks did come loose. He shrugged and decided it might be a good time to go for a walk along the beach to think anyway.
Barefoot, Aidan walked down to the water’s edge. He could see evidence of a fresh minor rock fall from the rocky headland. It was nothing exciting so he sat in the sand thinking of how he could eve
r impress the strange girl in the caravan without seeming creepy. She seemed to have no confidence at all and avoided people the same as he did. There was something about her though. Even though her face was disfigured, he found her so appealing. Aidan normally avoided the touch of everybody. It felt so foreign and unnatural. Her touch however when they shook hands excited him and didn’t feel so foreign. It felt natural, which was odd to him.
Staring at the waves Aidan caught a glimpse of moonlight reflected off something white. It was large and just past the breakers. Perhaps a lost surfboard or part of an upturned boat. It turned as a wave forming to break rolled over it. It now appeared to be, round and had a black section like a hatch. Now it looked more like the cockpit of sailplane or something. Cold water or not Aidan was worried and started running out to it. As he got close to the object he could only touch bottom between waves. It wasn’t much further so he swam the last twenty metres. The object rolled occasionally as waves past over it. He could see tear marks in the white section and was now certain it was the front section of a sailplane. Less of it could be seen now. Whatever it was it was slowly sinking. He couldn’t see anything through the hatch, nor could he see a handle to release it, so he pushed, pulled and struggled until he eventually got it into the shallows. Now it was touching bottom it was more stable. Feeling around again for a hatch release he eventually found it and slid the dark hatch backward.
Aidan was stunned with disbelief at what he saw next. The pilot was still laying motionless inside. It was a girl with very long white hair wearing a white flight suit of some kind. She was soaking wet and looked small, pale and very pretty. Aidan also noted she had oddly pointy ears. He didn’t have time to think about that now though. He fumbled with the harness holding the pilot in and lifted her out. She was lighter than he expected. Laying her on the sand he rolled her onto her side and checked for signs of life. Her pulse was weak and her breathing was shallow. Her slender little body seemed unharmed. There was no obvious signs of bleeding or broken limbs. He did find a small device at the top of her neck that looked like a socket. It appeared to be implanted so he left it alone. She appeared to be a girl in her late teens, around five foot two inches in height.
When he checked her eyes he thought they seemed just a little large. He wasn’t sure but continued to check her pupils. Her eyes were a brilliant sparkling blue. He fell back as the girl began to blink. She started to mutter something in a strange language. It was a gentle voice with an almost melodic tone to it. Soon she drifted out of conciousness again. Aidan’s adrenaline started to fade as he looked at the girl again. She was an absolute beauty, but her ears and that thing on her neck made him start to wonder if she was actually human, or even real. He was sure that girls didn’t usually go sailplaning at night dressed in cosplay outfits. He touched the tip of her ear. It felt real. She must be human he thought, but she did have some odd features. Then there was the pod he had pushed in from the ocean. Looking at it now, it wasn’t just the cockpit area of a torn apart sail plane. It was the entire craft. Apart from the tears in the lower body, it seemed intact rather than a broken away section of something larger.
He wondered what to do. If he called any emergency services they would check her out thoroughly, and if she wasn’t human who knows what fate might befall her. Aidan had seen more than enough alien dissection pictures on the internet and scenes from sci-fi movies to be willing to risk that. Finally he decided to help her as best he could no matter who or what she was. That meant not placing her at further risk from other people. He picked her up and carried her to the house. On the way he thought again how beautiful the girl was, and chuckled as he muttered to himself “Two hot girls in one day. Well they do say it never rains but it pours.”