[SoylentOrange]

Mary let out a deep breath, allowing herself to catch up after being in a rush since waking up. She recalled the strange dream, the odd images and sensations returning vividly to her. She shuddered at the sensation of people- all of them transformed into The Flesh like Katie had been- moving around inside of her, like an ant hill where all the tunnels and chambers were made out of her guts. She had felt happy and content, she recalled, but intellectually she couldn't abide by it. There had to be some way, some other way to keep herself alive while avoiding a worldwide biological disaster. The "unity" The Body described was a sham, a lie; bending others to her will the way she had inadvertantly done to Katie was the mental equivalent of rape.
Mary looked at the mat of tentacles, the start of what The Body had called its "Lair". She walked over to it and put a foot down on it, a shiver creeping up between her shoulderblades as the odd double-sensation registered in her mind. She looked at the mat of tentacles, noticing that a few of them had pooled under and twined themselves around one of Katie's living-room chairs.
"Oh geeze," Mary said as she went over to the chair, "If these things start to eat Katie's furniture I'll never hear the end of it..." Mary bent down to pull the leg free of the tentacles, and was surprised when they moved away from her approaching hand, scurrying into a little lump at the edge of the mat. Mary arched an eyebrow at this newest development, 'pushing' with both hands and seeing the tentacle mat react to her command.
"Hmm..." Mary mused, a hand on her hip and the other under her chin as she straightened up. She held her hands out in front of her, like a conductor at an orchestra. She pulled towards herself, and the tentacles slid towards her, coming down off the walls. She pushed back, and they retreated, sliding up the walls until hardly any tentacles remained on the floor. She brought her hands together, and the tentacles gathered in a pile on the floor. She raised her cupped ands, and they rose into a narrow column, a writing, wobbly pillar nearly as tall as she was. She pulled forward quickly, and they crashed to the ground, flowing past her feet like a slipper ocean wave. Mary lost her balance momentariy as she felt one of the tentacles slide under her bare feet, waving her arms and making the tentacles reverse direction. As Mary regained her balance, an idea came to her, and couldn't keep from grinning in spite of herself. She pulled the tentacles around her feet and ankles, wrapping them tightly around her feet until she had formed a kind of tentacle-boot around each foot. She then pulled the rest of the tentacles underneath her, gatherin them beneath her feet until she was lifted entirely off the ground, floating on a puddle of tentacle.
"Okay then," Mary said, arms out at her sides to keep her balance, "Mush!"
Mary wheeled her arms as the tentacles slid across the floor, her 'boots' acting like a pair of roller skates. Mary managed to regain her balance without falling, the tentacles slowing to a stop without her further guidance. She turned around, the tentacle-boots sliding around to accomodate her, and she pushed again, this time managing her balance much better. After a little practice, Mary was able to slide back and forth with ease, skating around the apartment as easily as walking.

"We are pleased to see you communing with your lair," The Body said, the sudden interruption causing Mary to abruptly halt the tentacles and pitch forward.
"What do you want?" Mary huffed as she rose to her feet, the tentacles retreating back to their corner and re-forming the mat.
"We must feed and grow," The Body said.
"Okay, okay, there's still plenty of food-" Mary started.
"No!" The Body said. "It is insufficient. "While your food is nourishing, The Flesh cannot grow without the seeds of others. We require the knowledge of new meat."
Mary gulped. The Body apparently had an appetite for something living, and Mary knew well enough that if she didn't provide it, The Body would just take over and do it himself.
"What kind of new 'meat'?" Mary asked.
"It matters not, so long as it will help to enhance the brilliance of our majesty."
Mary thought a little bit, looking around the room. Above one of the pots of milk, she saw a buzzing fly, and an idea struck her. "Does the kind of meat matter?"
"No," The Body replied. "All life will come to know the glory of The Flesh eventually- order matters not."
"Then I think I know a great place for you," Mary said, putting on her shoes and heading for the door.

The forest behind Katie and Mary's building was a place Mary often looked at but seldom ventured into; From where they lived, it was nnothing but forest for a good twenty miles north, no developments or even roads for miles in every direction. Much of the area was like that- civilization dropped into a sea of trees like a cookie-cutter of asphalt and metal. Mary jogged into the forest, weaving between trees until she could only just see her apartment complex between the pine needles. Mary held her arm up over her head, lengthening it into a tentacle until she could coil it up behind her back. With a mental nudge she felt the tentacle-arm sweat, not normal sweat but a thick, sticky glue. After figuring that she'd properly constructed the appendage, she whipped it forward, the long, loose limb unfurling through the air and landing with a thud against the forest floor. Mary curled the appendage back up, leaves and roots and insects being rolled up with it, held fast to the flesht tube by the sticky, slimy sweat. Mary felt her arm tingle, and knew that was The Body taking over, absording and processing the DNA of whatever living thing she had picked up.
"These are small, but adequate," The Body said. "We require more tastes in order to fuly gain the knowledge of their flesh."
And so Mary repeated the strange gathering, each time sticking a swatch of undergrowth to her arm and reeling it in for The Body to pick and choose what it wanted from it.
"Are you about done?" Mary asked after the sixth repetition.
"Yes, this should do," The Body said as it finished absorbing the stuck objects into itself. "We have learned much, and now must think on it."

As Mary returned to her apartment, she came across her landlord, who was walking away from Mary's door.
"Mary?" she asked as she came up the walkway. "Mary Carver?"
"Yes?" Mary returned, already getting an anxious feeling.
"Did you have a repairman come by yesterday? Marcus?"
"No, not at all," Mary lied. "We asked for one, because we've both got a hole in our roof, but no one's showed up yet." Mary paused, trying to put together how she would have normally acted in response to such a situation. As hard as it seemed to be to believe, her life was perfectly ordinary a mere two days ago. "Why, was he supposed to? It's gonna start getting into the rainy season soon..."
"Your apartment was on his schedule yesterday," the landlord said, putting her hands on her hips. "But you and everyone else except the two jobs in Buildning D has said he never showed up."
"Huh," Mary said, feigning peplexion.
"And he didn't just go home, either," She continued. "His family's been calling me since last night asking where he is, and I don't have anything to tell them."
"Really..." Mary said, her throat tightening. She had a good idea of where the conversation was going, but didn't want to admit it to herself. "Please don't say the police are getting involved, please don't say the police..." Mary throught to herself.
"They said if they don't hear from him by tonight they're calling the police and filing a missing persons report."
Dammit.
"Well, geeze," Mary said, hoping the fear creeping into her features would be construed as concern. "I hope they find him."
"Yeah," The landlord said, tossing her arms in exasperation. "If you see him, let me know, okay?"
"Sure thing," may nodded as they parted ways, Mary heading quickly into Katie's apartment, slamming and locking the door behind her.

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap..." Mary repeated as she sat against the door, sliding down to the floor with a hand over her face.
"What is the cause of this distress?" The Body asked, causing Mary to roll here eyes.
"Great," she thought to herself, "Like this wasn't bad enough."
Mary sighed. "The police are getting involved. They're going to come looking for that man you ate."
"He has become part of the glory of The Flesh," The Body said.
"Yes, I know that, but if the police know that we're going to be in a lot of trouble."
"What are police? Is it a kind of predator?"
"Yes," Mary said, wrapping her arms around her knees. "They are the first level of predator you should be really worried about."
"And they are coming here?" The body asked. Mary could feel her skin hardening, like The Body was preparing for a fight.
"No, no! Not right now, at least," Mary replied, trying to counteract The Body's changes with her own. "But they might."
"What must we do?" The Body asked. "We would have you tell us how to avoid these predators."
"Your best bet right now is to jst act natural," Mary said. "We left no evidence of the repairman ever being here, so if we cooperate there shouldn't be any problems. I hope."
"Act submissive and docile, and the predators... will not attack? Such strange predators on this planet."
"Don't I know it," Mary said as she stood up, wandering over to the kitchen table. "Now, what to do with these...?" She mused aloud as she looked at the pots full of Katie's milk.