The Great Exotic Food Critique

"Today seems to be good." Are8 commented as he eyed the thundering sky, for the last few years his life has been flowing on a consistent path without much excitement. He stayed till the end just to procure more profits from this job which was not that much in the eyes of his teammates, but who would have thought that someone who they had previously discarded would come to his doorsteps with a giant surprise with him.

A surprise that may birth avarice in the hearts of his own superior teammates. His heart was fluttering with ecstasy while his mind was calculating the potential money he can earn from such a unique specimen.

"Men!! Load up the boxes, we are leaving today." Announced Are8 to the few men who were supervising the mining work. This announcement caused the men below to shout in jubilation as they picked up their pace, and excavated the last piece of "dirt" that had attracted them here.

At the present, Are8 was at a different facility deep in the forest and closer to the mountain ranges. These mountains have already gone through various geological survey during the early establishment of this country, but those surveys never showed up any profitable results, which caused the country of Ecoid to abandon this project.

But who would have thought that these mountains were really hiding something, something attracting enough to lure vultures in.

"In at most a month this country will overpower the resistance and take over this area again." Are8 predicted calculating the ability of the current puppet leadership in the resistance and the country government.

"It would be funny when they find this place." Mused Are8 as he watched the clouds part-up a bit, from which a cargo ship descended slowly on the ground close to the stored up resource. The stealth panels retracted in as the cargo door of the ship opened up.

Are8 jumped from his camp landing on the ground with little to no effort.

"Welcome my friend." Are8 greeted loudly as an old woman got stepped out of the ship, followed by two huge hooded figures. The woman's face still contained hints of her past beauty while she walked up to Are8 with a brooding smile on her face.

"Shut-up kid!! Just tell me what is that important that may even interest me?" Old Minet disregarded Are8's greeting with contempt, she was not buying Are8's friendly approach. She had known Are8 from his early days in this job, she knew the true nature of this man. A cynic and scoundrel like him were most dangerous in these sort of business.

Are8 didn't didn't concerned much over Minet's response, he just went on with the topic." While the mineral is being loaded up, why don't we converse a bit in my cabin?" Are8 suggested while he gestured toward the 2 bodyguards of Minet to not follow them.

Minet understood that the thing or "specimen" this scoundrel told her over tele-comm may just be a real deal, she agreed to are8 as she followed him inside the cabin. Her bodyguards didn't stop they also followed her inside the cabin contrary to Are8's request.

"Don't worry, they will not cause any trouble." Minet just spoke this as she looked at a bound-up figure with a deformed body, one hand of the man was thin as a branch while the other hand was used to inject nutrients in, so as to keep this man alive.

"I have done at least 3 test; this man really has the ability to maintain his memory even if his head gets exploded". Are8 commented in complacent manner, while sounding as much pompous as one can. He also didn't forget to turn his head and look over the bodyguards to see if they had any reaction, the result of that there were signs of activity by them but Are8 still didn't put his guard down.

"Transmit me the sessions record." The women browsed through all various video feeds on her palm droid, in them most of the time it was Gaur being questioned by Are8, other time there was scenes in which Gaur's mind was blown up with small scale IED's, causing them to flows out of his orifices while keeping his skull intact.

Then there were another rounds of questions followed by another small explosion in Gaur's mind. In all of them, one can feel the distress and terror he felt whenever questions were asked. The questionnaires were always same, but after the first, he had trouble answering them in fear of experiencing his brain turn into mush again and again.

Though this forced Are8 to mend some sense into Gaur.

"This man seems fascinating, his ability of regeneration is a lot weaker than the normal regenerators at his stage, but able to maintain his memory even after going thorough complete annihilation is unheard of." The old woman Minet also understood, though this ability seemed complex and unique. This ability wouldn't be able to exist without a regeneration ability, or it wouldn't come into attention if they a person doesn't resurrect back from dead.

"3billion G's "

"Done."

With just few words, the fate of a small man was decided, his life was already not his own nor was he awake to notice how easily he was sold.

Are8 didn't wait any further after the deal was done, as the cargo ship took off, Are8 with 4 of his men also left this place in a hurry.

*****

In a lively office floor, a jubilant atmosphere was going on, today was the birthday of one of the employee and the colleges of this man who got one year close to his death were happily celebrating this occasion.

In between this occasion, the man of the day, the birthday man was smiling with his hands over 2 of his friend's shoulders as they tried to lift him up and give him a ride of the whole office. But due to the weight of this man, another friend was needed to shoulder the burden.

"No need for this guys…." Gaur suggested as he feared heights to a huge degree, but as if following his que, of his friend tumbled after colliding with a desk, throwing Gaur in the air.

Gaur prepared himself for pain and broken ribs, but that didn't come. Instead he was thrown into a hole of mud, his surrounding changed like an illusion as the office space was replaced by the dark sky and a dead forest.

"What…what is happening?" Gaur scrutinized his body which had turned emaciated and feeble filled with scars but he was still able to get up and look around. His body still functioned normally albeit of all the degeneration his body faced.

A hint of clarity struck Gaur suddenly." Stop crying you SHIT!!" An order, the will of heaven thundered with this commandment, the cries of thousand angels reverberated the sky after this order was given out, even the ground trembled in sadness rupturing and dividing into small islands in space.

On one of the island Gaur stood like a statue contemplating the meaning of those words. Those words didn't feel like they came from the heaven themselves, instead he felt the source of that voice within himself.

"Why is crying bad?" He questioned the voice while he placed his palm close to his heart, a small drop of tear streaming down his cheeks. Gaur waited for a reply, a reply that never came.

"Why is crying bad?......... Why was it me?" Gaur cried as fell down on his knees again, a sense of loss and injustice screaming at his heart. "Answer me… Why was it me? Why is it me? Everytime….. everywhere. Why is it always me?"

"WHY IS IT." An absolute silence surrounded the dark space, only the broken islands drifted afar from each other, ignoring Gaurs plea.

"What is it that I did wrong? I have been a model citizen throughout my life, I don't drink, I don't have any illegal hobbies, nor do I go to night clubs…. So why was I selected??.... Why is it my name selected?"

Questions keep coming out from Gaur's mouth, but a reply never came. He felt being mocked by that voice.

"WHy F.U.C.KEr…. WHY? Speak something you SHIT!!!!" Gaur cried as he struck his c.h.e.s.t intensely. He didn't stop though, ignoring the pain he felt, Gaur continued striking himself in the c.h.e.s.t.

"Speak!!... Why ? It would have been fine if I had died that day, so why did you grant me this power? To torture me?" This power, his immortality now was nothing more than a curse for him.

"You will still not speak?" In a fit of anger and torment Gaur started ripping out his flesh from his c.h.e.s.t. He dug inside his flesh using his nails and started to close in towards his heart.

Utter madness, this was all that was left of Gaur anymore.

"I will rip you out, I will attain eternal peace." The world around of him got crestfallen, the might of heavens disappeared and only distress remained a distress that came from the will to live.

But the reply still didn't come.

This indifferent world started to plunge into cold bit by bit as Gaur inched closer to his heart. He has had enough living this life. Only a sweet release may be able to achieve it.

As the wall of flesh that separated his heart came loose, Gaur dug in and opened his rib cage exposing his heart to the broken world.

"I will attain my paradise!!" Gaur grasped his heart while slowly tightening his grip on it.

"No! That is not paradise" A small voice came out of the his grave, 2 thin arms burst open and pulled Gaur's hand away from his c.h.e.s.t. "You were always a weak and selfish human."

Gaur exerted strength in his arm to pull it close to heart, but instead he pulled a dead body out of the ground. This dead body was already decomposed to an extent while the white maggots feasted on its flesh and rolled out of its eyes.

Flabbergasted, Gaur pulled back to get away from the body, but all he achieved was to pull the dead body out completely exposing a body structure Guar was familiar with.

"You!! You came out at last!! Now Speak!!" He shouted while closely watching the rotting body.

Surprisingly, his request was accepted as the rotting head turned towards Gaur and started an eerie laugh, the hoarse laugh broke the cold that was pervading this world as it looked at Gaur with its hollow eyes.

"You/I remain ego-centric through the end, not finding fault within your/my-self."

"Your/my actions have consequences."

"My actions??... what did I do wrong?" Gaur shouted as he clenched his exposed heart again, ready to end his pain.

But this didn't cause the corpse any distress, instead it replied. " Right or wrong doesn't matter, what matter is the consequences of those actions... look!"

The corpse pointed his bony finger at the sky, causing I to rain suddenly. Gaur didn't understand what was happening, he was tightening his grip on his heart coming close to his death.

But he stopped, he stopped as he saw the mud wash over and another body was exposed out of the mud, it's facial features similar to someone Gaur knew previously.

"Mr Dhruv?"

It wasn't the end, soon 2 more bodies were washed out of mud, one was young and the other an experienced old veteran.

"You/I killed them! You/I caused their death." The corpse spoke as he moved closer to Gaur.

"Our actions were responsible for it." As the corpse climbed over till Gaur's face, 3 more bodies resurfaced around them.

"But! We still have to live with these consequences!" Now face-to-face with Gaur, the corpse opened the mouth of Gaur and started to drag his rotted body back inside Gaur.

"Be optimistic, like you/I always used to be." Tranquillity remained on Gaur's face, the broken Islands started merging back together and the rain stopped, the bodies were still here but a serene confidence formed on Gaur's mind.

"Besides! I am Immortal now…. I have lots of time to waste."

Gaur spoke as he woke up from his stupor, still confined but now in a jail cell.

"Hmm, the place changed?" There was a change in gravity around him, it felt a bit higher than his home.

He refocused his mind and started appraising his room, he was still barred but at least he can see some movement outside, his prison or cage was surrounded by huge amount of cargo containers, his own cage would have been considering a cargo container if not for iron bars giving him the outside view.

"Whatever is happening, I don't care anymore. Just wake me up if something comes up." Gaur ordered and fell into sleep, it was not a horrible nightmare anymore.

Instead all he saw was his childhood with his family.

The good parts of his life.

It was that day when Gaur's mind lost a function.

A function that may have cost him his humanity.