BBW: Anomaly Points Book 1

The fatigues were not too uncomfortable. I basically hadn’t worn clothes for the last week so I would have to get used to it again. I left the boots off for now. My jandals were more comfortable.

Amanda came up to chat, “So, I remember that Meme a couple of months ago?”

“Memes have a habit of sticking in the mind,” I said.

She laughed.

“You have been busy. I read some of your articles,” I said.

“And yet I haven’t heard from you,” she accused. “You are a major source of inspiration, and you disappeared. Carla has changed, but she didn’t call for my help. It is enough to make a girl suspicious,”

“You are right,” I said, “We have been cheating on you.”

“I don’t mind that,” she said, “but I want to know all the juicy details.”

“Well, there are a few things, but we are hoping this anomaly will help us test some theories.”

“You are not the only one there!” she said.

“Please take your seats,” Commander Lewis said. “Five days ago, local bushmen reported an anomaly about fifty kilometres North west of Yagoonya, Population 25, in the Staaten National Park in Queensland. It is being called the Yagoonya Anomaly. We will be disembarking at Darwin and transferring to smaller planes as the army has established a base camp on a short dirt airstrip south of the anomaly. The whole area is a river delta with the worst of Australian creatures inhabiting it.

“The Australian Army is having particular difficulty with mutated crocodiles, but there are snakes, spiders and everything else. The park has a number of endangered species as well, and there is pressure to destroy this anomaly quickly. The problem is the anomaly has been there for a while undetected. Australian snipers have been trying to pick off the mutated creatures, but some of the crocodiles, in particular, seem to be shrugging off their bullets. Or maybe they are healing. For whatever reason, they are very difficult to kill.

The Army is very interested in our experience with the Waiheke Anomaly, and that is the primary reason we are going. We will provide first-hand experience and advice. The anomaly is in a very difficult place right on the bank of a deeper river channel, and the local crocodile is aggressive and has destroyed army remote-operated equipment.

The area affected is huge, and there have been a number of casualties. The other reason we are going is to try to map out the Essence Sphere for them. Our Enhanced people can sense when entering an Anomaly area. That is why Ensign Jeong, Mr Wilkinson, and Ms Vaa’i are here. They have experience in this.”

“What colour is this Anomaly?” I asked.

Lewis looked at his notes, “It is a blue/green colour, close to turquoise in shade but darker than normal Turquoise. Why is that important?”

“Research shows that the colour of the anomaly denotes the different essence types it produces, which can relate to the types of mutations it causes.”

“And blue/green means what?”

“Not sure yet. Waiheke was almost fluorescent blue, with more water mutations. The Canadians were blue-white, and a lot of ice and snow came from it. The Chennai one was red-brown and earth and blood. The Aussie outback one was yellow and probably fire-related.”

“Mr Wilkinson is correct,” Amanda added her support.

“There will be more updates as we get closer. Enjoy your flight. This will be the most comfortable you will be after we land.”

What a cheery note to finish on.

I pushed Amanda off onto the others. I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night, and I know Carla was tired as well. Buck jumped up into my lap, and I closed my eyes. I wanted to discourage people from talking to me and just listen to what was happening around me.

Lewis came to talk to Carla about her lack of scales, and Amanda was also interested when she found Carla had switched to scales and then back again. Carla did not mention the shark form.

Soph fielded questions about the dogs and her public persona. Both Carla and Soph were asked about the Fish market attack. Soph talked Carla and the dogs up to be the heroes.

A lot of questions were deflected. I was glad I was pretending to be asleep. I did actually doze off for a while.

Darwin was hot. I let everybody else rush around, and we were loaded onto an Australian airforce twin prop and arrived on a dusty, desolate piece of dirt. The dogs were glad to be out and run around. I immediately started getting used to the smells and sounds of the Australian savanna.

The army camp was basic, and we were assigned a tent. They immediately wanted one of us to go with a group and find the edge of the Essence Sphere. I volunteered. Commander Lewis and Ensign Jeong also came, and we loaded into two 4WDs with the local army. We had only driven about 4km when I said to stop.

I could sense it. It was my first strange anomaly, and it was different. It didn’t feel like the waves of Waiheke or the clear bright blue. It was muddy and stagnant, if that makes sense.

“You got to be kidding me,” our driver said. “Here?”

“Here. I am probably more sensitive than the other two. I suggest you wait here, and we walk on.”

“Bloody strewth, mate, that means it is about a 25km radius.”

The three of us got out.

“Control and absorb is the one, right?” Commander Lewis checked.

“It works, but I find making my essence into waves to repel the foreign essence is a better way,” I replied, and then I talked them through it. That is what I was doing.

“When did you discover that? We destroyed the anomaly.” Lewis said.

“It was when I was helping Carla change form. Amanda was there at the time. It fell apart at the end, but it was still better- better at repelling essence, not better at helping Carla. I'm doing it now, and it is working well.”

We were about five hundred metres further in when Jeong said she felt it. I marked the satellite position, and then the commander felt it another three hundred meters in. A 25km Radius. That is an area of 2,000km² as well as 25km in the air and 25km in the ground.

They stayed there practising, and I took the satellite position to the vans. They reported it back to the base. They started making plans to relocate the base to Yagoonya, about 50 km away.

We returned to base camp, and I got a handle on the local situation. The army had several people going through the transformation right now, and some had already died. They had been evacuated to Darwin, with Cairns available for the overflow. Amanda and her Australian counterpart were holding lectures on what to do to minimise the risk of dying if you were caught in the zone and provided information about mutations.

The Were-dog and Soph were obvious reminders of survivors and mutations, and everybody took it seriously.

I wandered outside of camp and just tried to get a sense of the bush and Identify the smells and sounds. Channel my inner Buck. Why don’t I just go and get Buck and go for a walk? I slap a mossie on my arm. Shit mutated mosquitoes. Mutated flies. Shit, I hate Australia.

I am a Kiwi. I don’t know where snakes will hide. I am used to spiders not being poisonous. Now we have all this and mutations. Shit, the irony. I can probably fend off any mutations with my essence. It is a normal snake that will kill me. I arranged for the locals to introduce us to the Australian bush so that we are at least somewhat aware. We went for a walk, and common things were pointed out to us. I am sure they were thinking we were idiot Kiwis. New Zealand is a safe place. Most places are safer than Australia.

What we also got was basic firearms training for a couple of hours. Safety, care, and maintenance and then we fired army rifles and pistols. It was quick and basic but gave us more confidence in using weapons if we had to. Carla was the best shot.

I took Buck for a walk, and we explored the area close to the base camp, getting used to the area some more. Now I know where to look, and I can identify smells and things.

Our next task is to go into the zone with cameras and record as much wildlife as possible, especially the mutations. More people dropped into mutation comas daily because they didn’t know where the boundary was. Now, people can keep out. They have drones flying through the zone, but animals hide from drones. We also are there to monitor the rate of growth of the anomaly.

If they can’t get ground explosives close to the anomaly, the Australian Air Force will have to bombard it from the air from further than twenty five kilometres away. That will cause massive destruction and there is no guarantee of hitting it enough times in the right spot.

Lewis said some of their personnel who have survived are willing to come and learn from us and will be arriving in two days. Until then we are on our own.

During my first foray into the area, I was stuck with the were-dog and rat-man. Corporal Gibson was actually OK, a bit rough and impulsive, but I can hardly fault that. Petty Officer Blake had been in the Navy for almost ten years. She went for the rat because it was a survivor. She got the fur and the sense of smell. Gibson also had a dog nose, so we identified different smells and explored the area. I showed them how to create waves and how to tell when it might be too much.

We would drive for a while and then get out and record and explore. I was the only one to test the rivers. I would go to the edge, scoop out some water, and sniff. If I thought it was safe enough, I would duck my head under and use my hearing and smell. Crocs were noisy in the water when they moved. When they just floated, they were silent and dangerous. I could identify their scent in the water, but they were only the ones upstream from me.

Australia has a surprising number of water snakes. Fortunately, they were not normally aggressive. There were fish as well. All these crocs needed to eat something. Where we were, it was fresh water, but closer to the anomaly, it was salt water. Salt water crocs are more aggressive than freshwater crocs.

As for the Essence, the marshy, swampy, muddy sense persisted, and I filtered it out easily. As I got used to it more, I felt more of a decay or rot sense. I haven’t checked if the mutations match what I am sensing. It is the dark aspect I am clashing with, as our anomaly was bright. The blue/ green colour is okay I tried absorbing it a bit, and it wasn’t pleasant, but my essence converted it. That was a risk. I am not going to tell the others.

I really don’t see how the Australians are going to deal with this. A small nuke might be the only way. Dealing with it is not my problem.