FLASH FICTION:-- HORROR, SCI-FI, HUMOUR, CRIME, SLICE OF LIFE, ETC.

Friday 13 July 2012

Pigmentation

I wasn't too concerned when the first blotches appeared on my skin, a small cluster just below my right armpit. As the weeks passed the cluster grew until it covered the whole side of my body, and upwards towards my shoulder.

Several visits to the Doctor, and a variety of creams and balms had absolutely no effect on the skin problem, week upon week the invasion continued.

“Who the hell wants to go out with a freakin' leopard man?” My now ex-girlfriend had laughed at me as she walked away.

The following months saw me visiting a succession of consultants, skin specialists, scientists, until eventually I was admitted to the Military Sciences Unit for tests and observation.

That was where I learned the rest of it.

No-one told me anything directly, I just put the pieces together from overheard snatches of conversation and surreptitious peeks at momentarily abandoned medical clipboards.

The coloration was occurring on a genetic level, my skin pigmentation was somehow altering of its own volition. And the doctors had no answers as to why.

I was not the only one to be stricken with this curse, across the world the average was approximately one in fifty thousand people, and although I never saw any of them, there were another seventeen patients somewhere in this facility, all with identical symptoms to mine.

All of the reported cases were evenly divided between male and female, and all within the age group of fifteen to twenty two years old.

I had been in the Unit for several months now, and the whole of my body had been affected. The blotches, which ranged in size and shape, were varied in colour, just now they ranged from light caramel to dark chocolate, the skin between them a rich shade of ochre. Some days they seemed to alter, to reflect my surroundings. One day after strolling round the gardens for a while I noticed the blotches had taken on shades of greens and browns, and lately theses changes seemed to take effect more quickly than before.

There wasn't a day went by that I didn't rant at the doctors, at the world, at God, for my predicament. Why the hell had I had this damned curse forced upon me?

The answer was on its way.

* * * * * *

When civilisation fell, it fell hard, it fell fast, it fell all the way, and to all intents and purposes it fell permanently.

I hunt naked now. The useless encumbrance of clothes long since discarded.

The Pinkies are easy to spot, easy to catch, easy to kill... and easy to eat.

After the collapse it had soon dawned on me just what my curse was for.

A blessing in disguise, so to speak.

Camouflage.



©2012 Stephen. J. Green.

34 comments:

  1. Wow, what a concept Steve, to morph into a chameleon "just in time". Excellent intriguing story!

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    1. Thanks Deanna, in this guy's case, his cloud definitely did have a silver lining. :-)

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  2. Oooh, interesting, Dad! I do love a good apocalypse scenario!

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    1. Hiya Lou. Yup, there's nothing like a good old fashioned apocalypse for bringing people together, even if it's with a view to eating each other. Bwuhahahahahaha!

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  3. Great story! Quite chilling at the end. I'm left wondering though ... was this evolution or conspiracy!?

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    1. Thanks Natalie, I'm not sure myself, but something or someONE has a gameplan in play to ensure the survival of the species.

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  4. “A blessing in disguise”, clever.

    Nice idea, and quite the interesting apocalypse. One sown by its own uncaring doctors.

    Ironically, “röda hund” (rubella) is currently in the Swedish news and directly translates as red dog; when the spots first show up here, it made me think of that.

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    1. Thanks Aidan, I do like a little play on words whenever possible.

      My own interpretation was that the doctors had no idea what the skin condition was, they too will have perished when civilization turned on itself.

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  5. Excellent story, Steve! So he was one of the lucky ones, huh?

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    1. Thanks Chuck, yeah, he was one of those blessed with the means of survival, and certainly far luckier than the "Pinkies".

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  6. Wow that was excellent, intriguing concept that only a few should be chosen to survive with the aid of camouflage or was that just a mistake? Now I can't stop thinking about it ^__^

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    1. Thanks Helen. I don't think it was a mistake, the age range and gender parity would suggest a purposefully targeted few people

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  7. What a creative twist, great story! Thanks for visiting my Friday Flash.

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    1. Hi Carolyn, and welcome to The Twisted Quill.

      Thank you for the lovely comment. I thoroughly enjoyed your own story, as you can see from this one, I am quite fond of apocalyptic scenarios. :-)

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  8. Mmm would love to be a chameleon human. Imagine the fun you could have! Would make a great movie I think.

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    1. Hi Craig, yeah, just look at the mischief "Hollow Man" got up to, not a true parallel I know, but similar. :-)

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  9. Thought that might be where the blotches were going, but then I read a lot of superhero comics... Really liked this, and the 'postscript' was a great, sinister twist to the tale.

    Having read a few other comments, I wonder if it wasn't some kind of spontaneous evolution, nature trying to find a survival trait before the whole species fell, and if that's the case, whether there aren't other mutant strains out there, other breeds, other predators...

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    1. Thanks John.

      I'm going to leave it to the reader to decide where they think the root cause is, evolution? Conspiracy? Alien intervention? I didn't really go any deeper into the storyline other than what you read here.

      I'm chewing over the idea of writing a part2 for next week, if I can decide on a worthwhile direction to take it in. :-)

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  10. Ok, I do not want to be a 'pinkie'. In my mind he's all scaley like a kind of reptile man which is sure to give me nightmares.

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    1. Hi Justin, you definitely don't want to be a "Pinkie" cos Pinkies get eaten.

      I don't think these hunters would be scaly though, still smooth-skinned but blotchy.

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  11. Great concept Steve, very imaginitive. Very much enjoyed the story.

    I liked the horror element and the idea of a selected group of people by some unknown power becoming these predator chameleons in a apocalyptic world.

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    1. Thanks Cindy, apocalyptic scenarios are very much to my liking too. :-)

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  12. I got there just before the reveal. I wonder if the military hospital he ended up in is related to a military medical experiment he had unwittingly participated in?

    Great concept.

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    1. Thanks Marc, as I replied to John Xero, I didn't go deep enough into it to decide who or what was the cause, so I'll just leave it to the reader to decide. (Spoilsport aren't I?) Heheh!!

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  13. This was great, Steve. Given the comics-themed flashes over the last week or so, I was expecting him to become a superhero, or maybe his "new kind" would have become a league of superheroes. But this works!

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    1. Thanks Larry, sorry but no humour in this one, I wrote this one with the "Apocalyptic Quill", I'll have to get the "Funny Quill" strutting its stuff again, won't I? (Chortle!!)

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  14. Nice! I certainly didn't see that one coming. Great job, Steve!

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    1. Thanks Danni, it's nice when the twist works. :-)

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  15. Nice. Didn't see it coming!!

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  16. Nature finds a way... I wonder how long the ex-girlfriend lasted in the new wilderness. I liked how things built up in the first section, and the little shift in tone for the epilogue.

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    1. Hi Katherine, and thank you.

      Nature usually does find a way, doesn't it?

      As for his ex, maybe he invited her round for dinner? Bwuhahahahahaha!

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  17. Part leopard part chameleon? Niiiice.

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    1. Hi Icy, yeah, a bit more chameleon than leopard though. :-)

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