Earth Man Read Online Free PDF

away from the man.
    The smell grew stronger and Danny recoiled from it, the stench was repugnant and inhuman. As the homeless man crawled out from under the table Danny saw the man’s dirty hands were purple, swollen and misshapen. The fingers looked ready to burst and the tips were black.
    “ Somethin’ bit me. I jus’ wanted some help. You a doctor?” the man asked. Holding up his hands, Danny recoiled in horror. The skin was sloughing off of them, revealing large black pincers that unfolded like deadly scissors.
    “ Help me!”
    The man lunged at him but Danny leaped away, faster than he ’d ever moved before. As the homeless man landed head first on the floor his flesh make a sickly tearing noise as his face split in half. The skin separated as an alien-like visage pushed through the old human one and blinked its black eyes. When it turned on all fours to face Danny, the homeless man had come to resemble some kind of insect-like creature. The moans coming from its throat turned to clicking noises from its ant-like mandibles that jutted out from the place where it once had a mouth. It moved on all fours at lightning speed but luckily Danny was faster than it was.
    For a split second t ime seemed to slow down; in the corner of the basement a tiny spider weaved its web, unaware of the monster or the human who seemed to be watching it. Danny reached out with his mind, reaching into the spider and replicated its abilities. It all happened so fast that Danny did not even know consciously what was going on. The alien scurried across the floor toward him and Danny leapt, using the abilities of the spider to cling to the ceiling. Tiny scapulae made of red energy formed on the ends of Danny’s fingers and allowed him to stick to the roof, dangling above the former human that now hosted the Third.  The alien creature was blending the insect and human DNA into various combinations, using the flesh as it saw fit. It scrambled around underneath Danny for a minute, its newly grown antennae twitching in the air, until it remembered its human form and stood up. Danny swung away, landing near the entrance to the morgue. The Third followed him quickly, chasing him into the room of plastic curtains. Danny slipped on the floor, pulling down a plastic cover as he fell that wrapped itself around him. By the time he’d freed himself the alien hybrid was standing over him.
    “ INSECTS. ANIMALS. THAT IS ALL. THAT IS ALL THIS WORLD IS,” the creature hissed with a human tongue.
    “ WET STICKY CREATURES CRAMMED INTO EVERY ORIFICE OF YOUR WORLD. EASY FOR US. EASY FOR US TO CONSUME.”
    It lashed out with its left mandible, no longer even an arm, t earing through the plastic tarp and slashing Danny’s shirt with the sharp spikes formed on its carapace. The creature seemed to grow bigger, swelling and thickening at the same time. Danny did his best to duck behind the plastic as the creature swung at him. The alien’s human skin was quickly turning black and Danny knew there was no way he could ever help the man inside. The homeless man was nothing more than a cocoon for something otherworldly to grow in. The last thing Danny wanted was for it to touch him, or worse, infect him in some way.
    Danny felt a strange new strength surging through him again and he kicked the Third with both feet, sending it flying back into the wall. Landing like a cat he quickly scanned the room. The only way out was the emergency staircase behind him or the morgue entrance behind the monster. He was reluctant to flee back up the stairs; if it followed him to a more heavily populated area of the hospital many people would be at risk. His family was up there, he wanted to keep it as far away from them as possible. Whatever had drawn him to the monster, whatever was giving him these strange adaptive abilities wanted him to stand and fight. He believed he could destroy it, he believed he had to. There was no one else that could.
    Danny ’s heart was in the right