Chapter 9: A Friendly Chat (Mort)

D, Jane, and myself walked into town together. It was a reasonable way, taking an hour or so, but it was a nice day, so I didn't mind the walk.

When we got into the centre of the shopping district it was fairly busy. It seemed to be the evening rush of people hitting the shops after work. This made me a bit nervous, but being with D and Jane reassured me a little. There were one or two people other people about who had been obviously affected by MORFS, and no one seemed to be bothered.

Jane asked, Have you decided whether to call your sister yet?"

"I think I will. If it wasn't for her, I don't know what would have happened to me. So I at least owe her a call to let her know I'm alright. Plus, I miss her, so it'll be good to hear her voice," I replied.

"OK," said D. "Next question, do you want to call first, then shop, or the other way around?"

"I think call first," I said.

We went in search of a pay phone, which didn't take very long. D gave me a stack of coins good for quite a while, then she and Jane went over and sat on a nearby bench to give me some privacy.

I put in some credit, and dialled my sister's number.

After a few short rings she answered. "Hello?" Gwen said. She sounded tired.

"Hi, its er, Mort here," I said, not sure she would recognise my voice.

"Just a second Anne, I'll head outside for better reception.".

I guessed she couldn't talk, so used the ruse to get some privacy. There was a hopeful tone in her voice that banished a lot of the tiredness I had heard before.

After a brief pause, as I heard her moving about, and doors opening and closing, she started talking again. "Oh Mort, is it really you? I've been so worried. How are you? Are you safe? What happened to you?" she rattled off questions, rapid fire.

"Whoa, easy, Gwen. Let me start at the beginning. After what happened, I ran trying to get as far away as I could. I ran mostly at night. hidden in the day, sleeping rough. I eventually calmed down enough to think about what to do, and decided to make for one of the post MORFS centres the doc mentioned.

"It was a rough trip, I had some close calls along the way. I'll spare you the details, but in the end I got to a large enough town. I ran into some trouble. I ended up in a bad part of town, a ... a mob of men surrounded and attacked me. Luckily, a girl rescued me, took me home to her house, and she and her mother took me in. After that, I went to get checked out and then talked to you." I was a little out of breath by the time I got it all out. It struck me then how much had happened to me in a scant few weeks.

"I'm so glad you're OK. I've had nightmares about what happened, and about what could have happened next. I never imagined father would have done what he did," she said grimly, as if looking back sparked her memory "Oh! Your hand! Goodness! How badly did he damage it?"

"it was basically shredded. My left hand is pretty much gone," I told her.

Before I could finish, she broke in angrily, "Oh no! How horrible! Damn them all for doing this to you!"

"Well on the plus side, it appears to be growing back" I finished when she stopped yelling.

"What! How?" Gwen said in an astonished voice.

"Seems MORFS spliced some reptile DNA in, and I gained the ability to regenerate. It's been slowly growing back. In a few weeks, it will hopefully be fully regrown," I replied.

"Oh, that's great news," Gwen sounded very relieved.

"Yeah, it'll be good to have two hands again. Only having the one makes it hard to do things."

"I better go, I don't want mother and father to get suspicious. I'd really like to see you again, but we have to be careful. Father was insane when you escaped. I don't know if it would be safe if he knew where you are."

"Indeed, better to stay hidden," I replied.

"Well, it was great to talk to you. Hopefully we can do it again soon. Bye, now,"

"Bye," I said, and Gwen hung up.

I collected the unused coins, then headed over to where D and Jane were sitting, so we could go shopping.