You Are What You Eat (Resident Evil/Prototype) (Patreon)

For eternity, there was nothing. Then there was suddenly light.

"Put the sample down, doctor! Get on your knees with your hands on your head!" A harsh voice shouted, stirring me into awareness. I could see nothing. My body stirred as I was jostled in the hand of the unknown doctor-- there was a loud bang and I felt myself fall forward before my container was smashed open. My body spread across the ground -- the sensations…

It was like being born. Everything was suddenly so very loud, everything was too hot or too cold. It was overwhelming. Too much of everything, of every sense suddenly awakening and being used…

Beyond that was the feeling that I could only describe as death. As my body spread across the floor, flooding over inorganic material, I could feel the edges of my body beginning to decay and die. The biomass withering away, going inert, even as pieces of myself became airborne.

I was just born. And I was already dying.

I didn't want to die.

I had felt it before. Death. In mice and monkeys… each time I had swelled within them, incubating much like one of their offspring, only for each host to die because of me. My body would be cultivated by humans and each time, I split little pieces of myself off into each strain. An imprint of my mind so that I wouldn't stay dead when my host died.

There would be no one to harvest my corpse this time. If I didn't do something soon…

Even a viral mass of biomass had instincts. My body lurched upwards, delving into the doctor that had fallen on top of me. He was dying. Faster and differently than how my victims typically died. Blood poured from his chest, gushing the red liquid. Feeding tendrils reached out, infecting the body as I fought against the clock. My biomass spread rapidly -- flesh and blood were consumed, converted into more biomass while I was assaulted by memories.

Alex Mercer. A lead biologist for Umbrella Corp, stationed inside Racoon city. Gunned down for stealing a sample of myself, Blacklight, as a bargaining chip to escape being erased from Umbrella Corporation when they were shutting down the project in favor of the T-Virus. He suspected that he would be killed on account of him learning the origin of Project Carnival -- an alien viral disease found in Antarctica after wiping out several bases.

There were more memories. Flashes of them, but his brain was mostly dead when I consumed it. A partial harvest.

"Target is down-" a voice spoke, a soldier that had killed Alex. And had nearly killed me.

I needed to eat.

A feeding tendrils erupted from my back as the soldiers closed in, each wearing a gas mask that protected them from the disease. Just not feeding tendrils punching them through the chest, infecting them from the inside out as they were yanked towards me as my biomass repositioned itself so that I was standing instead of lying on the ground. Adopting a human shape, I took aim at the others that surrounded me. Bullets slammed into my biomass, tearing through it like tissue paper while pieces of me were chipped away.

Pulling the trigger, my gun bucked against my shoulder as I fired back at them. Their armor helped some, but they weren't positioned precisely. They didn't expect this to happen or for Alex to fight back. Bullets slammed into three of the ten that surrounded me, not killing any of them but it was enough of a distraction that the others momentarily let up their barrage.

Knowledge harvested from the squad leader told me what I needed to know about them all. Micky, Allen, and Vincent were all on the ground, sporting wounds. Micky was first. I lunged at the fallen, a tendril snapping at Micky's leg, pulling him towards me and lifting him in the air while other tendrils emerged from my back, consuming him.

My biomass shifted, my conscious moving from the mass that fired the gun to the mass that was in the shape of Micky's slightly overweight frame. Giving me body armor that fit despite the fact that three people's worth of mass were inside the breached biohazard suit. Bullets continued to slam into me, though to far less effectiveness. My own gun leveled at the remaining few -- Micky was a good shot, I found as my gun bucked against my shoulder, getting a headshot on Jackson.

It was returned by the others, ruining my suit, but I didn't have a brain. My biomass was me in its entirety.

The gunfight was short-lived. Their formation was sloppy and ill-prepared. The US. marines that were now in me were slightly disgusted while the team leader understood that Umbrella was pressed for time.

It was only after it was done that I turned my attention around me. Dozens of people were on the ground, twitching and spasming as Blacklight ran through their bodies like a storm. A few were hunched over, puking while others screamed in pain or panic. Worse, I saw people running.

Everyone in the train station was infected. I could feel it. Everything was too enclosed, there were too many people… if they got out of the station, then they would infect the city above. Umbrella had taken measures to prevent such a thing, like killing the train and blocking off the entrances. Just to make sure no one could escape and spread me if the retrieval team couldn't retrieve me. That wouldn't really be my problem, but if Racoon City failed to quarantine the city then humanity was in danger of getting wiped out by a viral, non-sapient version of me. That made it my problem.

Humans were a filling meal. The more that died, the fewer I could eat.

Raising my gun, I started to open fire on those that were fleeing. My form collapsed, becoming a red and black swirling jagged mass of Blacklight that reached out to consume those that were close. Each human that I consumed, I grew in size and scope, allowing me to further spread myself. People raced towards the stairs, packing themselves together for me to easily consume them as they scrambled to escape the train station. All the while, a chunk of my mass attacked the train itself.

Time meant little to me before, but now that I understood it as a concept, I could tell the entire ordeal barely took five minutes before I was alone on the train platform. My body stretched out over it, running the length of the train while all that was inside was consumed. The memories of those that were now a part of me churned underneath my consciousness. The influx was taxing, but easy enough to ignore as I began to condensed my body back into a human form.

"And humanity is saved," I spoke aloud to the empty train station, feeling significantly heavier after feasting on several hundred people. I looked down at my hands, seeing them to me jagged claws of biomass. Slowly, the jagged biomass became flesh. I picked out a template, one of many that I had available to me, but I settled on Alex Mercer. Simply because he had been my first.

I shoved my hands into my pockets and took a step forward and silently marveled that my foot didn't just go straight through the ground. The tiles cracked a bit, but not much else. The station was completely bare, any sign of my viral infection gone, all of it returned to me. I had just saved all of humanity. The least they could do was continue to produce food for me.

Though, based on the cackling on a radio from Micky, Umbrella seemed to disagree. "Code red in effect. Ready to purge the station." A voice informed through the radio, prompting me to look at the sealed gates at the top of the stairs. A Code Red meant that they would purge it all with fire, no matter the lives lost. I was dense enough that I was pretty sure I could survive, but it was clear that it was time to go.

Striding up the stairs, each one cracking and warming underfoot, I approached the gate. There would be a force keeping the people away and me in. It just wouldn't be enough.

Grabbing hold of the metal gate, I forced my hands into a gap and began to pull the barrier apart. Almost instantly, I heard shouting before people began opening fire. One even had a flamethrower that washed over my hands, then body as I freed myself from the subway. My biomass withered, both from the gunfire and actual fire. Right up until I lashed out, skewering the flame guy with a feeding tendril, using the fire as cover.

My consciousness moved towards the new body while I cut off the rest of the biomass, choosing to leave it behind. With Ron now infected, I took his form and continued to spray down what had once been my body with fire. It was a shame, a real one, but I had to accept it. Being that heavy would give me away, and it was to my advantage if they thought I was dead.

I smiled to myself as I heard the all-clear from my squad leader, Jeremy. My finger uncurled from the trigger, the flame thrower dying off to a small flame at the face of the hose. I stood in position, looking at the withered body that collapsed at the mouth of the subway. "Bogie is down. Starting containment now -- Ron, stay near that fucking thing until it's out of here.”

"Yes sir," I replied dutifully, aiming at my corpse.

They didn't suspect a thing.

“Ron, keep your finger on that trigger. If it so much as twitches, then cook it. I don’t care who gets singed,” Todd ordered, my current squad leader. I kept my flame thrower leveled at my corpse, ready to pull the trigger but knowing that I wouldn’t need to. Without my consciousness behind it, the biomass was inert. Just kindling now, I thought as I watched it burn.

“Roger roger,” I remarked, taking a step back and letting Ron’s memories bubble to the surface. His memories were mine. In a way… it was like a computer program. The memories acted as a script for my body to follow -- Ron’s habits, mannerisms, how he carried himself… I devoured more than just his appearance. For all intents and purposes, I was Ron. And Ron was me. I could spend the next few decades as the man, slowly aging myself to play the part… and no one would ever know.

The rest of the squad set up a perimeter around the opening in the subway, making sure nothing was coming up. All the while, Todd signaled a retrieval team.

I didn’t have to do much. Just stand around and aim my flame thrower. For the most part, I spent the time-shifting through my influx of memories. Most of them were nameless and faceless until I took a moment to examine their memories. There was a startling amount of just… chaff, for the most part. Humanity liked the belief that every human was somehow special and everyone could bring something to the table, but out of the hundreds that I ate, the vast majority of people offered nothing to society.

Most people didn’t have a special skill that made them stand out. Or an impressive talent. Simply put -- of the sample size I’ve taken, about ninety-five percent of people offered absolutely nothing to the collective. They were just cogs in the machine to make society move. Roughly thirty percent of that ninety percent actively dragged humanity down, not only not offering anything, but took more than they gave.

So, to be blunt -- that five percent that could offer something were the good food. The sixty-five percent was filler. The last thirty was junk food to eat in a pinch.

While I shifted through the memories for useful skills and memories, a retrieval team came with a nondescript truck. One would think that there would be a crowd outside, but the streets were thin with people with the military investigating the city for unexplained radioactivity. Most people were in their homes or took the subway to avoid the roadblocks put up.

I didn’t have to lift my corpse, but the retrieval team had to. And failed to. No surprise there -- cooking it had shaved some off but that was still several hundred people’s worth of biomass. All that mass didn’t just vanish. It became packed together, dense and heavy.

In the end, it wasn’t my problem. “We’re rolling out,” Todd informed us, and I fell in line as a second-team circled the biomass. “Have another target -- strange activity in the sewers. Ethan and Aaron are stuck here decontaminating.”

“Glad we have gas masks,” Issac, one of my four squadmates, remarked lightly as we got into the truck. He popped his neck as he took a seat, setting his gun down and pointing it up at the roof of the military truck roughly the same size as a bank transportation truck. Actually, I’m pretty sure that it was.

“Not sure it’s going to matter much in the sewer. Filters can only do so much,” I said, filling the role as Ron. I took a moment to look at the other two -- each squad was a five-man team, with two of us being left behind. We wore hazmat gear. The gear itself was black and gray, a bulletproof vest protecting the vitals while thin rubber protected the body. A gas mask to filter the air -- Ron thought the suits were incredibly uncomfortable, but I didn’t mind them.

I heard a scoff from Todd, “They’ll keep the smell out. You’ll probably want to hit the shower after, though. You’ll just feel dirty.” He said and there was a weak chuckle at that from the others. Then Todd sighed. “What a mess.”

“How many people were on that train?” Issac asked quietly, and this was certainly awkward. “Shit… Ron, what time is it?”

“8 o’clock,” I answered swiftly, knowing what he was getting at. “It would have been rush hour. Worse because everyone was using public transport instead of their cars,” I added.

“It wasn’t a major station, so it’s probably a few hundred at most.”Issac tried to think positively. There was another beat of silence while I wished there was a window to look out of. “Still, they were just… gone. I couldn’t find a trace of them down there.”

“The cameras caught what happened. That thing that Ron killed just absorbed them. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Todd stated, shaking his head as we rode to our next destination. And something stood out to me as I mulled over the protocols for this kind of thing. I was a part of Umbrella’s first response team, the manual clearly stated what should be done in the event of coming in contact with a highly infectious disease.

Ethan and Aaron were decontaminating, but I had set myself on fire. All of us should be in decontamination.

“That was way more than some disease,” Todd continued. “That thing acted like an organism. Like an animal or something, that just… infected everyone in the station. Men, women… kids… fuck.” If they were trying to guilt-trip me, it wasn’t working. It had to be done to save humanity. I saved the world. What were a few hundred compared to seven billion?

“Yeah… so why are we going to the sewers instead of decontamination?” I spoke up, wondering if they would know because I certainly didn’t. There was an uneasy silence at that.

The two of us turned to Todd, expecting an answer, only to receive a shrug in response. “No clue. I’ve been hearing talk of a lot of other squads getting put to work. I guess it's for whatever the military is here for,” Todd answered. It was… a possibility. I had plenty of memories of the general situation -- the US military was here and evacuating civilians because of reports of radioactivity coming from the city starting today.

“We’re desperate enough for hands that we’re risking spreading whatever the fuck that was?” Issac questioned, not expecting an answer.

“If we want a paycheck,” Todd responded simply and the truck went silent as we headed to our destination. The Umbrella Corp. execs were fucking idiots. It became clear why we were picked because we weren’t far, hardly a few minutes away. However, it was a manhole that would be our entrance, so I would have to leave the flamethrower behind. Sadly.

Getting out of the truck, I saw a fairly normal street with people walking about. A family was bringing their kid to school judging by the backpack. The kid waved at me, apparently used to seeing men in hazmat suits carrying guns. The parents were noticeably worried, though. I didn’t wave back in favor of removing the manhole, revealing the sewer. Todd was the first one down, followed by Issac, lastly me while I dragged the manhole cover back over.

The sewers were a dimly lit area, but that was mostly due to the size of it. Lights lined the walkways that flanked the sewage that ran down the middle of the tunnel, but the light couldn’t penetrate the darkness more than a few feet, leaving most of the tunnels seemingly darker for it. I turned on my flashlight, pushing back the shadows while we formed up, following Todd as he took point.

“What exactly are we looking for here?” I questioned, curious. I had several lifetimes of memories of soldiers, mostly Umbrella soldiers, and all of them agreed that this was weird.

“Unknown. Possible hostiles or signs of sabotage,” Todd answered without really giving me any information. He seemed ignorant, so eating him wouldn’t give me my answers either because it was also sinking in how weird this was -- if there were hostiles, then why were we being sent here with half a team? Annoying, but I guess I would just play along for now until I saw a chance to make my exit and leave Ron’s shoes behind.

We continued in silence, hearing nothing but our footsteps as we made our way through the tunnels, following a map. The others seemed tense. I was just bored. It was almost a welcome surprise when we rounded a corner to find a metal gate. Or, rather, what was left of a metal gate.

“What the hell?” Todd muttered, his flashlight sweeping over what was left of the metal gate. Some bars poked up from the sewer water, each bent outward. Like something had crawled through.

“Looks like something forced their way through,” Issac voiced my thoughts, and all of a sudden I was far more interested in the whole situation. “Something big,” he added. Big was an understatement. Based on how the metal gates were bent, the creature was about nine feet tall, and half that as wide. My flashlight looked at the walkways, seeing evidence of damage.

It was for that reason that I saw the water ripple like something was moving inside of it. My flashlight snapped up towards the source of the ripple on the other side of the gate just in time to catch something moving on the other side, rounding the corner, likely drawn to us by the noise. I heard an echo of breathing, a ragged and wet sound before the source of the noise revealed itself.

“What the FUCK?!” Issac shouted, aiming his gun at the massive and deformed creature. The tunnel was filled with the sounds of gunfire as the two fired at the creature, bullets impacting its hide. I took a moment to inspect it.

Was… that my fault? I wondered to myself, looking at the creature, idly noticing that it looked like an alligator. Or crocodile. I’ve eaten several hundred people and not a single one of them could tell the difference. Not that it mattered because the alligator was massively deformed -- several times larger than it should be, a maw that was capable of swallowing a man whole. Its scales were a washed-out white, moss and growths covering the top of it that trailed behind as it approached, undeterred by the gunfire.

Issac backed up into me, so I pushed him to the side, making him splash in the water. I heard him curse before being submerged, the splashing attracting the alligator. It swam through the opening that it had made as Issac stood up, firing at the creature. Apparently, its insides were just as tough as its hide because it didn’t let a little lead stop it from biting Issac in half.

Todd cursed, starting to push me back. Trying to save my life, but I had no interest in leaving. My feeder tendrils erupted from my suit, latching onto him. He had just enough time to scream in pain and horror before he was snapped in half and dragged into my body. All the while, I walked toward the creature and jumped on its back, making it thrash. I secured myself, grabbing hold of its back while my feeder tendrils slammed into its hide, forcing their way through.

“Ah…This is what Umbrella discontinued me for?" I asked myself, feeling insulted. No wonder there was an outbreak of the T-Virus. The corporation was run by idiots. I was better in every single way. Mostly. The T-Virus was trying to adapt to me, copying my DNA and altering itself to be able to infect me. It was slow going, but in a way, the T-Virus was dangerous to me. I was a viral infection that edited DNA and repurposed it, in the same way that the T-Virus did. Our natures were similar enough that my adaptations to it were being adapted to, so I was continuing to have to adapt to it.

It was a continuous loop. I was winning fairly easily, but the T-Virus was continuously determined to become a thorn in my side.

It was dangerous. That much I could admit.

Yet, I was able to infect it. Flesh began to twist as I converted it into biomass, intent on consuming the alligator before it began to thrash underneath me trying to dislodge me. I paid it no mind until it twisted in place, performing a death roll, and I felt myself falling. The sewer water splashed over me and a scream ripped from my throat as it felt like my body was lit on fire. Every cell of my body recoiled in agony, my facade of humanity dropping as I failed to maintain it.

I was dying when Alex Mercer had released me from a vial, but it was now that it felt like I was. My biomass shifted, rippling across the surface as I went to get out of the sewer water, all the while it felt like everywhere it touched I was being cooked alive. It was for that reason that I felt the alligator’s maw clamp down on me, biting down on my arm before it began to twist, trying to tear the extremity off.

My biomass rippled, looking into the creature’s pale yellow eye before my biomass lunged for it. My body skewered its eye, infecting and consuming all the while. The arm trapped in its maw lashed out, tearing up the creature but it still fought. It threw its head to the side, slamming me into the wall while it continued to try to twist. The only pain I felt came from the water. Deciding to get out of it, I forced my body to slide through the alligator's jaw, protecting me from the water.

The T-virus was trying to adapt to me as if sensing the creature was dying. Stress jump-started its evolution. I felt a strain enter my body, the T-virus trying to pull the same trick that I did. There weren’t words to describe my rage at that moment, feeling a little piece of myself convert into a lesser virus. If that’s how it wanted to play it, then that’s how I would play. My biomass shifted, accepting the strain of T-virus before adapting to it while I ripped at its genome.

Teeth formed in my biomass, a jaw-like shape taking place of my arm that I used to take a massive bite out of the alligator’s insides. The creature thrashed in agony as I ate it from the inside out, the T-virus trying to adapt to the stimulus, to me, but I infected and consumed and killed it too quickly. My feeder tendrils started to drag the alligator into me, and once I was free, I reached out with my biomass to reform on the walkway.

I felt heavy again, I noticed, as my biomass escaped the water, seeing the damage done to the tunnel after the short battle. There was a triumphant smile on my face as I adopted a human form, except for my arms. Black biomass tinged with red made my arms, my hands missing to be replaced with teeth and a mouth.

More splashing caught my attention and I looked over to see a human, only something was off about him. His utility suit was covered in blood, his skin was too pale which made the dark veins in his face stand out. As well as the gore that covered his mouth, bits of flesh between his teeth. I could see him clearly, the shadows didn’t seem so dark anymore.

A trait from the alligator. Night vision.

“Hm…” I hummed before I thrust my arm at the man, and my arm stretched to cross the dozen feet between us. My ‘hand’ split open, becoming like a starfish, before it clamped down on his torso, the teeth sinking into his body. The man simply moaned instead of screaming in pain.

My lips thinned, “More T-virus,” I realized as I snapped my arm back, making the infected man fly towards me. He sailed by as I let go of him, his body slamming into a wall with bone-shattering force. I turned around, my arm shifting as infected blood poked at my biomass, trying to infect me. It was beyond irritating.

The man groaned, his body broken but he was still alive. Limply, he raised two broken arms in my direction, his mouth opening, and closing as if he were trying to take a bite out of me. His eyes were a milky white to the point I could barely see his pupil. A feeder tendril emerged from my back, reaching out to the infected. It nibbled at the infected with obvious reluctance. I was momentarily confused -- it wasn't like I had any trouble eating infected before at the station. It was then that it clicked.

"You're dead," I mused. Calling what I did as feasting or eating was a simplification. I infected and converted living tissue into biomass. My feeder tendril was refusing to chow down because it couldn't infect dead tissue. The infected was a shambling corpse. Though… that didn't explain how the body was moving or why it was eating.

Yet it still moved. How? My feeder tendril burrowed into the undead's skull and came in contact with the brain. Most of it was dead, but I quickly found that parts of the brain stem were alive and active. Pushing through the dead flesh, I found other parts as well -- sensory information processing and the glands that felt hunger. Motor control was there, but so much of the flesh was dead that the fine-tuned motor control and hand-eye coordination was impossible.

There were no memories as I consumed the brainstem, internalizing another strain of the T-virus and the body went limp in true death. I looked down at it for a moment, mulling over everything that just happened.

“Umbrella… what the fuck?” I questioned, feeling somewhat dumbfounded. How. How was this possible? How was it possible those idiots had managed to cause an outbreak of the T-Virus? Those dimwitted morons had narrowly avoided two major outbreaks of two very similar diseases and they only avoided one because of my generosity and innate sense of responsibility to preserve my food.

Investigating radioactivity my ass, these idiots were trying to contain the outbreak instead of just killing everyone in the city. Hell, I should just unleash an outbreak of myself and kill everyone in the city before the T-virus could. At least then I could control the outcome. I was only leery of doing so because I didn’t want the T-virus adapting to me when I wasn’t there to counter it. Seriously, the same day I saved the world… these idiots had already doomed it before I could do a damn thing.

“I need to preserve my food source,” I said, walking forward, heading to where the infected had come from. If the T-virus was already in the water, everyone in the city was a write-off. Raccoon city had a population of around half a million. About a quarter of that had been evacuated by the military. Knowing about the virus made it easy to guess where the hot spots would be located.

Simply put, I didn’t have high hopes for humanity to stop this virus. It might be a shitty knock off version of me, but even a shitty version of me was still too much for humanity. Any vaccine that they unleashed would be useless now. I had two separate strains of the T-virus in me already, so who knew how many other strains there were? Meaning that if I didn’t take care of this problem for them, then my food supplies would dwindle rapidly.

I had been monkeys and mice before. Humans were far better than both.

A sigh escaped me as I tucked my hands in my pocket and started walking. If I was going to do something… I could probably engineer a vaccine for the virus. I was in a unique position to do so, but I didn't like how it could adapt to me. At this point, there were probably a few dozen strains out there, and I doubt a one size fits all would work on them. If it were me… I'd keep some biomass in reserve and sacrifice some to the cure made for me then adapt to it, making me immune to it.

I didn't feel an intelligence behind the T-Virus like me, but if I existed then an equivalent to me could as well.

So, if a cure was out of the question, then what? Hunker down, kill the infected?

I smiled. That did sound kinda fun. There wouldn't be much danger to me. And it would be a way to establish myself with humans. Maybe build up a support base that would support me even if they found out that I was a sentient virus. I mean, I would have saved their lives. Twice, even. It might be nice to be worshiped by the masses. Not to mention, I would have a convenient source of food whenever I was feeling peckish when the city inevitably went to hell.

Alright, that was the plan for now. Pick out a place, build it up, rescue survivors… so, I would need food, weapons, and supplies for my food.

Given that the city above seemed mostly functioning, I still had a little bit of time. Time to gather up some resources, prep some things… luckily, I had well over two hundred identities to work with.

…

I whistled as I pushed my grocery cart through the isles, heading to a checkout lane. I spotted an open one but saw a pregnant woman waddling towards the same lane. She looked to me, clearly expecting me to be dumbed down by human instincts and hormones to give a shit about her and her unborn kid. I didn’t. Still, I offered a smile and gestured for her to cut ahead of me, to which she offered a thankful smile.

If I was going to pretend to be a human, then I might as well pretend right. The cashier aimed a smile at me, Allanah -- the babysitter for the appearance I had adopted. I hadn’t known she worked here. Huh. While I was waiting, I grabbed a few candy bars and dumped them on top of the full cart. The pregnant woman quickly waddled off. When things went to shit, she was absolutely fucked.

“Hello, Mr. Tennyson,” Allanah greeted with a friendly if somewhat strained smile. Likely on account of the sexual gestures that Mr. Tennyson dropped around her, seeking a sexual relationship.

“Hey, Allanah. Didn’t know you had a job outside of looking after little Jimbo,” I said, aiming a friendly smile as my gaze lingered a moment too long at her cleavage. It was something that Mr. Tennyson did quite often. All the while, I started loading up the converter belt.

“I’m saving up for a car,” Allanah admitted, “I’m seventeen, you know? Feels like I’m way too old to be riding the bus to school.” She did that often as well according to my memories of her -- dropping references to her age. Mr. Tennyson thought nothing of it, but I’ve eaten enough women to know when she was dropping hints that she wasn’t interested. She dropped plenty of hints throughout the past six months, but Tennyson managed to miss every single one of them. “You seem to be stocking up.”

I shrugged, “Just in case. The evacuation is still going, so there’s probably a problem somewhere. So, better have it and not need it than need it and not have it,” I offered.

Allanah smiled, “Smart. A couple of other people are doing the same. I guess I should stock up a bit, but I’m flat broke.” She said, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear as she continued to check me out, the items beeping as she scanned them. That, I noticed, was a sign of flirtation. I was getting some mixed messages from her.

She was looking for money, knew that Tennyson was interested in her sexually, and intended to take advantage of that for sexual favors. Huh. I should have just worn a different appearance. I had a world to save.

I just shrugged awkwardly, and not just because Tennyson wouldn’t have known what to say. Allanah offered a smile as she finished checking me out, “I can help you take this to your car. I was just about to take my break.”

“Sure,” I agreed, mildly curious about what would happen. To be honest, I wasn’t sure where I stood with sex. I had no natural interest in it on account of being a sentient virus, but humans… humans seemed obsessed with it. For men, it seemed to drive their every action during their teenage years -- the amount of them that learned to play the guitar because they thought it would get them laid…

Women weren’t much better in that regard. The hours upon hours upon hours of self care that went into appearing attractive, not just to men but some sort of silent competition against other women. Obsessing over boob size, the shape of their nipples, hips, and thighs… starving themselves for a flat stomach…

Humans were a highly sexual species. It was interesting because I didn’t really get it. The base instincts I could understand, as well as the cultural aspect. I suppose, I was spoiled for choices in a way because there was a wide variety of perspectives on sex. For some, it was a tool to leverage for vengeance against an ex-lover or to seduce a new one. It could be a deep connection between two people, just like it could be nothing between two strangers. Or three or five or ten.

Everyone got something a little different out of it. Pure physical pleasure or an emotional connection. Even that could be broken down further. One of the Umbrella soldiers I ate was a serial rapist who enjoyed the fear and pain of his partner more than the sex itself. Another was at the other end of the spectrum, a masochist that enjoyed being abused and humiliated.

I had so many different perspectives of sex as well as experiences. I was curious to learn what my own views on it would be.

“Awesome,” Allanah said, switching off a light as she grabbed a bag off the counter before she left the department store with me. She looked over the parking lot and was mildly surprised when she noticed that I was heading for a rather large truck that one of the other people I ate had owned. It was useful for transportation of the supplies that I was building up. “Did you get a new car?”

“Oh, no. Friend is letting me borrow it for a bit. My car really isn't meant for transportation,” I answered with a laugh, thinking of a three cylinder mitsubishi that was practically a go-cart in terms of size and engine power. “I wish I could have something like this, but the ol’ ball and chain would never let me.”

“Cool,” Allanah remarked before I popped the trunk and started slinging supplies in the back. Allanah, despite it being her job, just stood there and watched for the most part. Being on break wasn’t an excuse when it was your excuse to get out here. “I never really noticed… but you’re pretty strong, Mr. Tennyson,” she remarked, a flirty smile on her face before her hand darted out to grab my bicep.

She squeezed it and was mildly impressed. I didn’t need the memories of over a hundred women to know that she was lying. My body was powerful naturally, despite whatever appearance I would take. Her eyes darted up to mine, her flirty smile still playing at the edges of her lips while I made my face grow red. Tennyson hadn’t ever been popular with the ladies. The one girlfriend he had was a high school sweetheart, and he did love her, but now that he was in his thirties, he had begun to fantasize.

“Mr. Tennyson, do you think you could give me a ride home…?” She asked, lazily dragging her had over my bicep.

I blinked, “What about work?” I asked, playing the clueless fool. Just like how he missed hints that she wasn’t interested, he also missed hints that other women were.

Allanah just smiled and shrugged, not giving an answer because it should be obvious.

“Oh… sure,” I agreed, my head bobbing in agreement. “I’ll just put up the buggy,” I said, gesturing to the cart. “It’s unlocked,” I told her. She went to enter the car and when I turned around, the hesitation and nervousness left my expression. As I pushed the cart where it was supposed to go, I looked down at my groin. Or, tried to at any rate on account of the gut that Tennyson had sported, putting him in the ballpark of two fifty while being five foot six.

I currently lacked a penis. I should probably do something about that. Rummaging through the memories of the women, I searched for commonalities in what they all preferred. Length, girth, curvature, head shape… oddly enough, what they preferred in a penis was different than a dildo. More than a few were outliers, but I think I found a winner as I walked back to the car.

Opening the door, I stepped inside the truck to have it dip a noticeable bit. Allanah looked faintly alarmed, and was quickly relieved when I offered a smile. “I know. I’m going on a diet,” I offered, earning a hollow sounding laugh from Allanah. I turned on the car and started driving out of the parking lot.

Before we had even left, I felt a hand on my knee. I looked over and saw Allanah looking forward, her expression down right grim. I had seen similar expressions on people going to war.

“Uhhhh…” I hesitantly started, sounding like I was unsure what was going on. Allanah looked to me, her gliding up over my thigh while giving me an alluring look. “Allanah?”

“I know how you’ve been looking at me,” she started, her tone low. “For a while now… and… I’ve been thinking…” She trailed off.

That she wanted money. “That you want a car?” I offered, catching Allanah by surprise because that’s not something that Tennyson would have picked up on. She offered a shallow nod, going still when I reached out and placed my hand on her inner thigh, not far from her groin. “A car is pretty expensive. Is there one you have your eye on?” I asked, keeping my tone casual.

Allanah looked down at my hand for a moment, “I was thinking a convertible?” She said, the statement sounding like a question.

I nodded as I started to drive to her home. “Those can be pretty expensive, especially the higher end models. Given your age, the insurance is going to be expensive too.” I remarked before I looked over at her, “How are you going to earn that much money?” I asked her directly, the edge of Tennyson bleeding away from my personality even if I did keep his appearance. He would be a blushing stammering mess that already came in his pants.

Allanah flushed, “I… thought that I could… that you would want me to suck your dick,” she said, trying to recover her confidence as her hand copied my movement of caressing her inner thigh.

“And if I want you to do more?” I questioned, my tone firm.

“Then you can pay more,” Allanah answered. “Three hundred dollars for a blowjob. And twice that if you want to have sex. No anal, though,” she decided firmly. That was fairly expensive, but I guess she was aiming to get her buck for a bang. Slowly, she guided my hand to her crotch, letting my fingers stroke through the thick fabric of her work pants. I didn’t really think it was doing anything for her, but the situation certainly was. “My parents aren’t home.”

“Good.”

It was evident why Allanah couldn’t afford a nice convertible when we entered her neighborhood located on the edge of town. It wasn’t quite a trailer park, despite a few scattered about, but the neighborhood was a handful of small ill-kept houses. The lawns in dire need of care, some with a few abandoned cars forever parked in the lawns. It was the bad part of town, my many memories told me. The kind you didn’t walk out late at night without pepper spray, a knife and a gun.

I said nothing as we pulled up to her home -- a small red brick house that was smaller than a large apartment. Most of the lawn was dead, the porch was covered in beer cans and cigarette butts, while the bricks were covered in moss or vines. It might have looked nice without the cracked windows. Killing the engine, Allanah got out of the car first with me following behind her. She offered a wane smile, seemingly thankful that I wasn’t saying anything about her home. Wasn’t like I didn’t have a good fifty homeless people in my head.

She forced the door open after putting in a key, revealing about what I expected -- scuffed walls and floors, an old couch that had seen better days a long while ago. More noticeably were the holes in the walls. Allanah seemed keenly aware of them, quickly grabbing my hand and leading me to the right towards a forked hallway, which we went left to a modest bedroom. There were clothes everywhere, but there was a bed, a nightstand that was covered in makeup while the closet had a wall sized mirror on it.

“We should leave the door open, just in case my parents come home early,” Allanah said. That… didn’t really make sense considering that I was parked in front of the building, but I suppose she was planning to play that off as some asshole parking there. She took a deep breath, licked her glossy lips before she looked to me, thrusting out her chin as she adopted a confident expression. “So, what will it be?”

“A blowjob, to start,” I decided, pulling out a wallet from my biomass that was disguised as a backpocket to pull out three hundred dollar bills. There were a few others floating around inside of me, but those were from other identities that I had used previously. Each one had their bank account emptied with a little help from the bank after reporting ‘my’ wallet stolen, as well as their piggy banks raided.

Passing the money to her, she quickly snatched it out of my hand, nodding to herself while I pretended to unbuckle my pants before pulling them down before taking a seat on her bed. It sank dangerously, but it seemed fine. This body had a gut, but it wasn’t anything that layered over my penis that I made erect. Still, I was thankful for the mirror because I wouldn’t have noticed her expression of disgust as she dropped between my legs. Gently pushing up my gut, I felt her hand wrap around my limp penis before starting to tug on it.

I couldn’t see her face, only the top of her head when I looked directly down at her. My biomass simulated the nerves in the penis, granting me a pleasurable sensation as she jerked my penis back and forth to get it to harden. I made it do so, ever so slowly -- I paid close attention to Allanah as my hand crafted penis rose to its full height, curious about her reaction. Her eyes widened ever so slightly, but that was about it.

Seven inches, significant girth with a gentle curve upward and topped with a wide flared head. It wasn’t the perfect penis by any means, but my sample size told me that it had all the characteristics that women found preferable.

Allanah took in a deep breath before she stuck her tongue out and dragged it underneath the bottom of my cock, the tip of her tongue tracing the vein. A hand drifted up to cradle my balls, the two orbs shifting in her hands. Her tongue lavished attention over the length of my cock, coating it in a sheen of spit which in turn made her breath on it feel that much sharper in sensation. Swallowing thickly, she placed the tip of my dick in her mouth, her lips wrapping around just past the head and her tongue lapped at the typically sensitive head.

“Hmm,” I hummed, leaning back and mulling over the sensations coming from my groin, comparing it to my memories of giving and receiving blowjobs. There were precious few women that seemed to genuinely enjoy the act of a blow job, most enjoyed the power over the man’s pleasure more than anything. Men, on the other hand, were mostly split -- some preferred a blowjob over sex while others didn’t really care for them at all.

It felt nice, I guess, watching Allanah’s head bob on my cock, her other hand jerking the rest of my dick as she seemed to refuse to take anything more into her mouth. She was talented, I could recognize, but there was a clear reluctance that held her back. It was easy enough to guess why -- I was about twice her age, twice her body weight despite being the same size, and Tennyson had significant body hair that covered his gut.

If I had to rate it… 3/10. It kinda felt like I was wasting my time here when I could be preparing for the T-virus wiping out humanity. It did feel a bit rude to end it here though, especially when my curiosity hadn’t been sated yet.

I wonder...

Her tongue dragged across the edge of my cockhead, gently sucking while she continued to fondle my balls before a noise of alarm escaped her throat as my cock began to soften ever so slightly. The dick head popped out of her mouth while she peeked up over my stomach, to which I greeted her with a hesitant smile. “Sorry, I…” I trailed off. “Maybe it would help if you took your shirt off?”

I could easily see the affronted expression that Allanah swallowed before her hands went to the hem of her shirt before pulling up. Her skin held a golden brown tan, her stomach flat with faint abs etched into the surface of her stomach that flexed ever so slightly as she pulled the shirt up. A B-cup black bra cupped her breast and I noticed that they shared the same tan. Allanah reached behind her back and unclasped her bra, sliding it off but quickly cupped her breasts to hide them from view.

Heat rushed to her face, genuinely seeming embarrassed to show her breasts. She shifted from foot to foot, her eyes dipping down to my dick and I stopped it from going limp. I leaned forward so I was sitting on the edge of her bed, my hands reaching out to her. First they settled on her hips, my gaze looking into hers before she looked away. Tracing her sides, my fingers brushed over her ribs before they came to a stop, blocked by her hands.

“I want to see them,” I told her.

Allanah shied away from my touch, but didn’t pull away. There was a moment of hesitation, coming to some decision and dropping her hands. Her breasts were pert, her nipples were dark but not as dark as her tanned skin. A small nub poked up from the center and it wasn’t until my hands drifted to her breasts, my thumbs running over the smooth orbs of flesh that they began to harden.

Gently, I toyed with her nipples, carefully watching her expression. Allanah made it a little difficult because she looked to the side, her arms held at her sides. My thumb brushed over the sensitive nub, and once it perked up, I began to roll them between my fingers and pull on them. A small gasp managed to escape her, but that was the extent of her reaction.

This was kinda boring, I thought to myself. The act itself. Though, I did find something else to capture my attention.

“Your pants too,” I told her, my voice low. She looked at me sharply, and I smiled warmly at her. The same smile that Tennyson would give her. “I want to see all of you,” I muttered, testing something out. She was clearly uncomfortable. It couldn't be more obvious, but I was curious what made her so uncomfortable. There were also obvious answers -- like sleeping with a man twice her age. Even still, the answer itself interested me.

“Aren’t you a little embarrassed?” Allanah questioned, my hands still toying with her breasts while her hands went to her pants button, undoing it before her thumbs hooked around the waistline. She pulled down, her head dipping to my level. “What’s your wife going to say if she finds out?”

A huff escaped me for a few reasons, “Divorce,” I answered. Not that I really cared. That got an amused smile out of her before she straightened up. I noticed that her tan was even throughout her body, showing that she sunbathed nude. Her groin was bare, a small cleft marking her vagina between her legs.

“Do you like what you see? Is this highschool pussy worth ending your marriage for?” She asked, an edge in her words as she grabbed one hand and guided it to her pussy, my fingers running across a noticeably dry labia. “It’ll cost you another six hundred to fuck it. Do you want to do that Mr. Tennyson? I’ve always noticed how you’ve looked at me -- sometimes, I thought you would just bend me over a table and stick your big dick inside of me.”

Huh. I smiled lightly -- I was enjoying this little byplay more than stroking her vagina or tweaking her nipples. “I still have that blowjob, if I remember correctly.” I pointed out, wondering what exactly had changed in her. Her pussy still wasn’t wet, though her nipples were erect, but all of a sudden she was far more interested in the act.

Allanah smiled lightly, “You do,” she admitted. “But I want to know… have you ever beaten off to me?”

“Yes,” I answered. Tennyson did so quite often. He’d rather jack off to the thought of fucking Allanah than sleep with his wife. It was evident why considering that Allanah was attractive, physically fit, and a girl that wouldn’t have given him the time of day in High School while his wife was none of the above.

“Oh, that’s so naughty. I’m only seventeen, you know? You could go to jail for this,” Allanah pointed out, a hand going to mine as I groped at her breast. “Do you like that? What did you do to me when you were jacking off to an underage high school girl?” She asked and, honestly speaking, she did not want to know the answer to that.

Tennyson had a lot of unresolved feelings about high school. His interests ranged from treating her like a cum dump to brutal rape to running away with her to Tahiti -- anything to make himself feel powerful and not the ugly, short, and pathetic loser that he felt like he was.

“Right now,” I started, “I want to see you choke on my cock and use these perky tits of yours to make me cum.” I answered, lightly pulling on a nipple that earned a small groan from her. “And I want your tight little ass up facing the mirror so I can watch you get wet choking on my dick.”

Another interesting reaction, I noticed as a brief look of hesitation passed over her face. She looked to the side, and I followed her gaze to… ah. A teddy bear.

However, she nodded, “Alright,” she agreed before we both shifted over. Once again, Allanah knelt between my legs, my cock once again hard. I had to angle myself down a bit to let her stick a perfectly round and bronze ass, her slit parted ever so slightly to reveal a hint of her pink inner lips. Her asshole on display between two firm cheeks -- there wasn’t a hair in sight. She had planned this well in advance.

A moment later, I felt her mouth engulf my dick, pushing past the previous mark where she had gone. I rested a hand on the top of her head, pushing her to go down further in a gentle nudge. Another inch of my cock entered her mouth and I felt the tip of my cock touch the back of her throat. Her tongue lavished attention on the bottom of my cock, a hand jerking off what she couldn’t take in. It felt better than before, and it wasn’t just because she was giving a more enthusiastic blowjob.

Her head bobbed on my dick, filling her room with the sounds of wet slurping, my cock poking her tonsils for a brief moment before withdrawing. I felt spit drip down my balls before spotting a line of it falling to the floor. She sucked at my dick, twisting her head at slightly different angles to lick at different parts of my penis, trying to find what I enjoyed to end this.

“That’s not choking, Allanah,” I pointed out, making her go very still for a moment. I ended it by nudging her head to sink deeper on my cock, her hands braced on my hairy thighs. My dick hit the back of her throat, a gag filing the room. Then I started to push past it. She gagged again, pushing back, but I kept her head in place. Spit erupted in the gaps around my cock in her mouth and I felt teeth scraping me, but I paid it no mind and gently pushed her head.

I felt my cock slip past the barrier and enter her throat, the vibrations of her gagging and coughing washed over my cock, the sensations sharper and more encompassing. As soon as I had, I let go of her head and Allanah recoiled from me, coughing while a sob escaped her. She wiped her mouth before looking up at me, tears gathering in her eyes but they were the involuntary kind.

Her eyes met mine for a moment, only to look away a split second later. There was a brief moment of thought and hesitation before she opened her mouth, however reluctantly.

“Good girl,” I told her, placing my hand on her head and placing my cock in her mouth. “Spread your pussy,” I ordered, sheathing my cock in her warm and velvety throat. She gagged harshly but, even still, a hand dipped between her legs to follow the order. Her labia parted, revealing her inner lips and channel. There was a wet sheen within, but she still wasn’t aroused. “Fuck yourself,” I added, watchng Allanah hesitate to do so before her fingers curled up to begin fingering her pussy.

From the angle, I saw her walls cling to the two digits, thrusting into herself in unison as I fucked her throat. She couldn’t take the entirety of my cock -- I didn’t expect her to. I probably made it too large for her. I should take care of that in the future. Maybe ask some probing questions beforehand.

And I would be doing this in the future, I decided, urging Allanah to take me deeper into her wet throat. The sensations were enjoyable, very much so. I could see why so many humans had sex for fun. It was an enjoyable experience, even better than the memories of sexual encounters. What I enjoyed most about it, however, was Allanah herself. The sounds she made, the sensations she gave and, above all else, her reactions. Not just to having a cock in her throat, but to the encounter itself.

It was fun. It was interesting.

And it was time for the climax.

“I’m about to cum,” I told her, making my cock throb. Semen was a biological component, so it was easy enough to produce. The only worry that I had was making sure it was inert of both myself and the T-virus. In response, Allanah sucked harder, trying to finish me off after minutes of blowing me. Yanking my cock out of her mouth, I came over her face. Cum landed on her forehead, her cheek and lips. Aiming downwards, I aimed a burst of her breasts, the white standing out against her golden brown skin.

I could have came indefinitely. It would just raise some questions, so I kept my load to a modest amount.

Allanah took in a deep breath before she stood up, grabbing a tissue from the teddy bear located on the nightstand. “Did you enjoy yourself?” She questioned, her voice rough from her first experience deepthroating. She wiped off her face and breasts while I turned around to look at her.

“I did,” I confirmed, a satisfied smile on my face.

“Good… good,” Allanah nodded to herself, “because I got the entire thing on camera, you fucking creep.” She half snarled at me, grabbing the bear and holding it up. “So, unless you want me showing it to your wife then it looks like you’re the one that’s going to be getting fucked!”

I adopted a bewildered expression on my face. Inside, I was smiling. This was the climax. The reveal that she had intended to blackmail me from the start and only went through with the blowjob to gather more solid evidence -- like biological and video proof of my ‘affair.’ She had even positioned a knife nearby on the nightstand, just in case I did try something. Thorough.

This was an interesting reaction, I decided. She was poor and desired wealth, so she took advantage of Tennyson’s lack of inhibitions to seduce and blackmail him. It would have absolutely worked, too.

This was fun.

I think I was falling in love with humanity a little bit.

I wonder what other reactions she could give me, I thought to myself as my cock began to rise again.