According to one wild theory of evolution, the crab is the ultimate physical
form. Every species that is destined to survive will eventually transform
into some kind of crab. Of course, being intelligent humans, we have always
dismissed such bizarre arguments, which have no basis in scientific fact.
This truth didn’t stop us all from turning into crabs, it just wasn’t due to
evolution. Our first hint that an alien race was upon us was subtler than we
would have assumed. We saw no great ships appear in the sky. No portal from
another world opened up on the ocean floor, or in a secret underground
military base. It began as faint images in the wind, as if the air were
opaque, and blocking beings on the other side until moved. The images grew
clearer, and were joined by whispers. It was obvious that something existed
beyond our normal range of perception, and was finally coming to light. The
world’s governments tried to step in, but there was nothing they could do.
The beings were spread out all over the globe, and could not yet interact
with us, so there was no way to contain them, or even prepare to. Some areas
were denser than others, so we huddled around the safe zones—mostly
deserts—only to discover this to be a fruitless endeavor. The aliens could
move, of course, because why wouldn’t they? After a few months of
watching...waiting, the first Karkinel proved itself to be physically
present when it took hold of a child, and ran away with it. That kid was
never seen again, and that’s when the military went to work. They handed
weapons to everyone they could, and gave us permission to shoot any crabbo
on sight. Many human deaths resulted from this mandate. If the Karkinel
wasn’t completely corporeal, the bullets could pass right through it, and
land in someone innocent. This period of limbo did not last long, but it was
the first of many failures.
Once the rest of the aliens had arrived, the war began. They tried to take
people, while the people fought back with everything they had. It was the
greatest threat our species had ever encountered, and we weren’t going down
easy. Even so, it was an impossible dream. Whenever one crabbo was killed,
another was waiting to take its place. That was when we realized what they
were doing. They weren’t trying to kill us. They were trying to make us like
them. They were infecting us with their crabbiness, and letting a cancerous
disease spread throughout our bodies, turning us into them. The process was
sometimes gradual, but sometimes incredibly rapid. Children, in particular,
took too well to the process. There was every chance that a human fighter
ended up killing a Karkinel who was once that first young boy to be taken.
Now the war shifted. No longer were we using guns and bombs. The only way we
were going to win was if we managed to undo the Karkinel transition, and
restore our brethren to their rightful human state. Barring that, maybe we
could prevent survivors from suffering the same fate. This was yet another
failure. Scientists worked on the problem for years, but were never able to
come up with a vaccine, let alone a cure. This was not surprising since we
had already been trying to cure cancer for decades to no real luck. It is
not without hope, however. We may not be able to stop the carcinization, but
we can do something about how it effects the brain. I’m not sure if you can
understand me yet, but you will be our first test subjects. With this
treatment, your minds will become human again. Your bodies will still look
like crabs, but you’ll think more like us. And you’ll fight...for us.
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