The Hike (part 4)

[Jaypat]

Chapter Links

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - Epilog



There were only five of us left now. I turned my flashlight on the four remaining kids. Becker and the twins looked as sickened as I was, but Moorcroft looked excited, like he had enjoyed the show.

“He killed him,” said Jacob/Josh in shock. “He fucking ripped him in half.”

“If that’s what the change does to you, I think I’ll pass,” said his brother.

I had to figure Gezbecky had been taking shit for a long time. I can only imagine Sodderberg had born the brunt of years of humiliation—not that it was any excuse for murdering him.

“Why do they all do that?” asked Becker.

“Do what?” I asked.

“Just take off into the woods. Where are they going?”

I shook my head.

“We’ll all know soon enough,” said Moorcroft. I was liking this kid less and less.

“Come on, guys,” I said, trying to take our minds off Gezbecky and Sodderberg. “It’s not over yet. There’s still hope.”

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” said Moorcroft, making gagging motion.

I regarded Gezbecky’s pack where it lay on the ground and wondered if there was anything in it we might need. I decided to take his flashlight. It was lying on the ground next to his shredded uniform pants, right where he dropped it. It was still on.

I took a compass reading and led the guys on toward the Forest edge. No one was talking any more, but oddly enough we all stuck pretty close together. After seeing what had happened to Sodderberg, I guess no one wanted to be alone.

It wasn’t long before the sky began to brighten and we heard the birds singing. Dawn was coming. We had entered an area of the forest where the trees were thinner. Not much farther and we would be out.

“Yes!” shouted Moorcroft. “It’s about time!” For a second I thought he had spotted the road, then I realized it was Moorcroft shouting. I felt a stab of dread. There was only one reason why he would be that excited. He started dancing around like a maniac until he noticed us staring at him. Then he turned toward us, grinned, and flexed his arm. His pipe cleaner arms now had respectable biceps that hadn’t been there before.

“Check me out! I’ve got muscles!” he said, laughing with excitement. “Time to get huge!” Suddenly his whole body went rigged. A tremor swept through him; it almost a seemed like a spasm. But he seemed to be loving every second. Under his clothes we could see his arms and legs grow thicker, his biceps swelled up and then bulged, his thighs grew heavier and longer as he put on over a foot of height. His pecs began to balloon out, and his back broadened completely filling up his shirt. And then the fit seemed to pass. His body loosened up and then he stood there checking himself out.

He looked like a completely different guy. He had the neck of a linebacker. Huge traps bulged up leading down to cannon ball sized shoulders, still couched in a shirt that was nearly stretched to its limits. Each button and seam was straining, struggling to contain the bulging muscles that now completely covered Moorcroft’s body. His boots were gone, blown apart by his mammoth feet. He was at least a foot and a half taller and his pant legs had ridden up and torn, exposing his rock hard calves.

“This is so awesome,” he laughed. He did a double bicep pose. His pipe cleaner arms were gone, swallowed up by layer upon layer of powerful sinew, all piling up into small mountains on his upper arms. I could tell he was trying to blow out his sleeves. I could hear some snapping threads, but he wasn’t quite big enough to pull it off.

“How can you not want this?” asked Moorcroft. “I’m so fucking strong!” He picked up a fallen branch, which was about eight inches in diameter, and snapped it in two, just with his hands.

“Dude,” said Becker, “You’re losing your humanity. Look at yourself. You’re already breaking stuff up.”

“And I’ll break up a lot more before I’m done! Humanity?” he snorted. “If you think human beings don’t destroy things, then you haven’t been keeping up with current events. There are really only two kinds of people—”

Moorcroft walked right up to me. He was now over a foot taller than me and many times my match in strength.

“You can get pushed around or you can do the pushing.” Moorcroft shoved me. I flew back about twenty feet and into some bushes. “And I’m going to be the king fuckin’ pusher!

“Look at me,” he shouted flexing his huge biceps for us. “Look at the power in these arms. I could take on all of you at once, kick your asses and not even break a sweat. I’m already huge and I’m just going to get bigger and stronger. I can already feel it starting to happen. Yeah, bigger, I’m gonna get bigger.”

And then Moorcroft started shaking again. As his body began to swell, he began making guttural noises, almost animalistic grunts of pleasure. The look on his face was a savage joy. He flexed his muscles again and this time colossal biceps erupted out of his sleeves. “Yeah!” he shouted. Bowling ball pecs blew out his shirt front turning the buttons into mini projectiles. “That’s what I’m talking about!” His lats grew wider, thick and powerful. He spread them, shredding his shirt back and reducing it to rags. “More!” he cried, “Bigger!” As he grew taller, he continued to flex. Each time he did his muscles seemed to become more massive and he would blow apart different sections of his uniform. I caught sight of his abs, an eight pack with deep ridges and valleys that seemed to be getting even more gargantuan as each second passed.

In a couple of minuets he was ten feet tall, another mass of heaving, bulging muscles, a fully primed engine of destruction, and it looked like he couldn’t have been happier. He let out a roar as he flexed his arms at the heavens.

“So, you guys don’t want this?” he shouted down at us as he admired his new monstrously powerful form. His slightest movement caused huge muscles to twist and bulge beneath his skin.

Silently and simultaneously we all shook our heads.

“Have it your way.” With a rapid lurch he shot out at me with his foot. I jumped to the side just in time and he hit a tree stump instead. The thing was reduced to match sticks.

“What the fuck?” I shouted.

“I’m doing you a favor, dude,” bellowed Moorcroft. “You don’t want to be like this? I’ll make sure you never have to be. Just like Sodderberg.” Suddenly he lunged at Becker who threw himself into some bushes just in time. The twins scattered and I jumped away, leaving the towering Moorcroft without a visible victim.
“You can’t hide!” he shouted.

In fact, we could. The sun was only just rising and the dim light and deep shadows of dawn would make us very hard to find.

Moorcroft began busting through the foliage looking for us. But he made so much noise that evading him was easy.

As I lay in my hiding place, keeping as quiet as I could, I began to think about what Moorcroft had said and right now it looked like he might be right. I didn’t want to lose my humanity. What if the only way to preserve what I was, was to die before the change happened? Was it that important? I thought it might be.

But there was a part of me that still held out hope for a cure, that we might somehow get help before it was too late and preserve our humanity that way. As long as the possibility existed I owed it to myself to try. Handing myself over to Moorcroft would just be giving up and every lesson I’d ever learned from my parents, from school, and from the scouts said you never give up.

I could hear Moorcroft approaching. He was getting near. Time to reposition. I quietly circled around some underbrush and shot into the middle of a dense thicket. I was somewhat startled to find myself couching next to one of the twins.

“Which one are you?” I mouthed.

“Jacob,” he mouthed back.

“Where’s your brother?”

He just shrugged.

We each caught our breath as we heard Moorcroft pass right by us.

Suddenly we heard a loud yell. “HEY!” It wasn’t Moorcroft. It had to be either Becker or Josh. From the look on Jacob’s face, I guessed it was Josh. He quickly crawled out of the thicket and I followed right behind him. Keeping low, we looked around for Josh. We spotted him pretty quickly. He was standing right out in the open. We hissed and sputtered until we got his attention then gestured wildly for him to take cover. He just shook his head rapidly and then yelled again. “HEY!” The look on his face was a wild mixture of terror and determination. He was obviously trying to attract Moorcroft, but why? Suddenly I remembered my own suicidal thoughts from earlier. Was he trying to end the nightmare?

Whatever he had in mind, we were about to find out. Moorcroft came crashing out into the open. He looked down at Josh, standing in front of him, oddly defiant. “Ready to die?” asked Moorcroft.

“Not today,” he replied. Josh took a deep breath, and then, without any kind of warning, he exploded out of his clothes. One second he was ordinary Josh and the next he was a ten foot tall muscle-bound behemoth. Scraps of cloth fluttered to the ground like confetti.

“Crap,” I said.

“No,” whispered Jacob.

Josh stood there, gargantuan chest heaving, staring down at his titanic new body. He flexed his mountainous arms a couple of times and grunted with satisfaction. Then he addressed Moorcroft. “Dude, you have to lay off the other guys.”

“Are you going to try and make me?”

Josh paused. Moorcroft was still slightly larger than he was.

“That’s what I thought,” said Moorcroft. “I think I’ll start with your brother. Maybe I’ll stomp on him. After all, having two of you around is really fucking annoying.”

Josh let out a monumental roar and charged Moorcroft. He collided with him midsection and knocked him into a tree. Then the three of them, Josh, Moorcroft, and the tree toppled to the ground with an earth rending crash.

Jacob and I had to stand up to see the rest of the fight, but somehow we weren’t too worried about Moorcroft seeing us. He seemed to have his hands full with Josh.

Josh was straddling Moorcroft, pummeling his head with everything he had. And at Josh’s size that was saying something. But Moorcroft didn’t seem fazed by Josh’s attack. He let him get in ten or twelve good punches and then threw him off, like you might throw off a Chichewa if it had decided to attack you. Josh went flying thirty feet until he hit a tree, exploding the trunk and toppling it over. The impact would have killed me but Josh was already pulling himself to his feet.

Then Moorcroft attacked. He ran over, literally picked up Josh and then threw him to the ground. I swear I felt the earth shake.

Jacob gasped. I had been so involved with watching the fight that I forgot I was standing next to Josh’s brother. I couldn’t even imagine what this must have been like for him. Not only had his brother just become a giant mutant, but he was fighting for his life—and ours.

“You okay?” I asked tentatively.

He flashed me a look that was so fierce I had to take a step back. “I’m going to kill that bastard,” he said and after what I’d already seen today, I had no doubt he meant it.

Moorcroft was looking down at Josh’s prostrate form. He raised his foot preparing to stomp on his opponent but Josh was not finished yet. He rolled over, grabbed Moorcroft’s foot and pushed up with all his might. Moorcroft lost his balance and toppled over backwards. Josh was on him again like a flash. This time, however, he grabbed a huge section of trunk from the tree he knocked over; and using it like a club, began to beat Moorcroft with it. Josh was wailing on him so hard that chucks of wood were flying off the club. But suddenly one of Moorcroft’s massive hands reached up and grabbed the trunk-club. Moorcroft squeezed the trunk and it shattered into splinters. He sat up. I couldn’t believe it. After taking a beating like that, he only had a couple of cuts and bruises. That kind of power was unbelievable. How could you not go mad with it?

Moorcroft didn’t even bother standing up. He wound up and nailed Josh in the stomach. The giant twin went flying up into the air. He crashed into the tree tops, breaking them off like match sticks, and then came tumbling down to the ground.

Jacob let out a yell. At this point, I spotted Becker. He was peering out from behind a tree about fifty feet away from us. After all we’d been through; I couldn’t believe he still had his guitar strapped to his back. I guess it meant a lot to him. And I have to say how relieved I was that he still looked normal.

The ground shook as Josh came charging back at Moorcroft. But the other behemoth was ready for him. Without missing a beat, he swung at Josh and sent him end over end flipping into the trees.

Jacob started toward his brother but I grabbed his arm. “Don’t be stupid,” I said. “What can you do?” My words must have had some effect because he stayed where he was.

Josh did not immediately come charging out and I began to wonder if he was okay. The last hit he took didn’t look too devastating—at least not for him. Moorcroft must have been wondering the same thing. He began striding forward moving toward the clump of trees that Josh had disappeared behind. Moorcroft didn’t simply walk through the trees, he hit them with his wrecking ball fists and sent them crashing to the ground. When he got to the other side we heard him bellowing, “Where are you loser? What’d you do, run away? I was just starting to have fun.” Then suddenly he turned toward us. “At least you left me some playmates.”

I thought about running but he’d have caught us in three strides. Hiding wouldn’t work. He was looking right at us and the sun had risen considerably in the last several minutes, dissolving most of the shadows. We were as good as dead.

Suddenly Jacob let out a primal yell and charged the colossus. Moorcroft saw him coming and laughed. He caught Jacob up in one hand and lifted him up. “Well, well, what do you know? I've got the little one.” Then I saw Josh sneaking up behind him. He was carrying one of the trees Moorcroft had knocked over. He had stripped it of most of its branches and was wielding it like a baseball bat.

Jacob was trying to peel Moorcroft’s fingers from around his body but he’d have had just as much luck trying to move the Earth.

“You’re pathetic,” laughed Moorcroft. “You haven’t got a chance. The slightest pressure from my forefinger will crush your tiny chest and you’ll die.” Moorcroft was so intent on terrorizing Jacob, he didn’t notice Josh coming up behind him. “I could crush the life right out of you right now and barely even notice.” Suddenly Josh swung. Moorcroft turned just in time to see the tree impact his face. His head snapped to the side in an unnatural angle and he collapsed to the ground, dropping Jacob as he fell.

Moorcroft lay on the ground twitching. His eyes were open and he was still breathing but he was out for the count. I couldn’t imagine his neck wasn’t broken.

Jacob looked up at his brother. “You took your time.”

“Hey, I had to trim the tree.”

“You and your fucking lame ass excuses,” he laughed.

I started walking over to them and I saw Becker step out at the same moment.

“You guys might want to stand back,” called Josh.

“What? Why?”

“I’m not sure how this will go. It might be dangerous.”

I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but Becker and I stopped in our tracks anyway.

“What’s going on?” asked Jacob.

“I’ve got to go,” replied Josh.

“Where?”

“If you don’t know, I can’t explain.”

Jacob seemed shocked. Then he lowered his head. “I don’t understand you,” said Jacob. “I guess it’s because we’re not twins anymore.”

Josh shrugged his massive shoulders. There was now a pretty big difference between them. There was still a resemblance in their facial features but other than that… Jacob was still a normal kid. Josh was a colossus. It was almost like some mutant before and after picture.

“I want to go with you,” said Jacob.

“You could, but you'd have to change first.”

“What? You want me to…? How?”

“You can do it. It’s inside you. It’s inside all of us,” he said throwing us a side glance. It made shivers go up my spine. “You can make it happen. I figured out how to do it while we were hiding from Moorcroft.”

“What do I do?” asked Jacob.

“First, you have to want it? Do you want it?”

Jacob paused for a minute. “Yeah, I want us to be twins again.”

“Okay, now you need to feel it,” Josh said to his brother, “I know you can. It’s that tingling.”

“I feel it,” said Jacob.

I knew what he was talking about because I could feel it, too, all throughout my hands and feet.

“Let it fill you,” said Josh.

“I don’t understand,” replied Josh.

“Just imagine the sensation filling your entire body, and then use your will to make it happen.”

Jacob closed his eyes. I thought about calling out, begging him to stop, but I knew it would do no good. They were brothers and I didn’t think I had any argument that would turn someone against his brother.

“It’s working,” Jacob cried out.

“Feel it in every muscle, every bone, every fiber.”

“It feels awesome.”

“You’re feeling the power, Jacob. Feel it flood your body with strength, strength it can’t contain so it must expand. Make it force your body to grow.”

“Yes. YES! I FEEL IT!” Suddenly Jacob began getting taller, inch by inch he was stretching upward.

“Good. Do you feel it in your chest? It’s there. Feel it saturate your muscles. They are full of it now, so much power they can’t help but grow. You can feel it, can’t you? Feel your pectorals swell with it; feel them become large and powerful.”

“UHHHH!” blurted Jacob as his shirt front was torn open by his expanding chest, heaving and bulking up with striated muscle. He stood there, breathing hard, looking down at his new mass, a wild, savage look on his face. “I FEEL AMAZING!” he roared.

“It’s just the beginning, Jacob,” said Josh. Now feel your arms, make them pulsate with strength. Feel them grow rock hard.”

“I’m getting stronger!” Jacob raised his arms in front of him and stared at them as they began to rapidly thicken; his biceps and triceps bulged up huge.

“That’s good, Jacob, now make yourself bigger.”

He flexed his arms and shouted, “URRRRRGGGGHHH” as his biceps ripped out of his sleeves, rippling as they swelled to enormous proportions while his forearms blew up and monstrous shoulders exploded out of his shirt. He flexed and admired his massive new upper arms, easily 25 inches with double peaks. “I’M HUGE!” he shouted.

“Good,” said Josh. “But we’re not done yet. Your back is next. Feel that strength fill it, forcing it to expand.

“ARGHHHHH!” he roared as I heard a ripping noise coming from behind Jacob. The back of his shirt was obviously shredding. I could see his lats growing out from behind him, slowly spreading out until they pushed his mammoth arms out away from his steadily growing body.

As Jacob shrugged off the remaining scraps of his shirt, I caught sight of his abs. Apparently they hadn’t needed coaching to form in to a bulging, rock solid eight pack.

“Now your legs, bro, they want to be monstrously powerful pillars of steel. Help them get there. Feel them change, feel them being overwhelmed by muscle.”

“Ghaaaaaaa!” Jacob screamed as monstrous thighs and calves blew up and destroyed his pants.

“That’s it, bro. Now just keep feeding your body with the power. Feed it and feel it get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger…”

Every time Josh would say “Bigger” Jacob would swell up even taller and wider, immense muscles erupting out all over his body. In moments he was standing eye to eye with his bother, a twin once more. The sight of the two of them standing there, gigantic, identical towers of muscle, was both frightening and wondrous. I found myself wondering how it would feel to be that huge and have that much power. The seductive nature of the change began to pull at me.

Josh turned to us. “Now you know how it’s done,” he said. “You can join us anytime you want.” It was like he was reading my mind. I wondered if they now had that power, too. I considered using Josh’s method right then and there to become huge, but then I reminded myself that these two guys were no longer strictly human, and as big as they were, they were going to have a very hard time living out there in the world, and that was enough to dispel my envy.

Josh turned back to his brother. “Do you know where we’re going now?” he asked. Jacob nodded. He turned, looked at Becker and me and shook his head. “I don’t know how you guys can stand to be so small,” he said and then the two of them turned and vanished into the forest.

[gogothen]

wow that was good
i liked that ending with the twins
so is that the end ?

[gb123]

That was good, shame you didn't go into detail about their manhood though, especially considering them being twins and all.. *coughs*

[Jaypat]

It's not quite finished yet.

I was going more for horror and action elements. They just seemed well suited to a muscle growth story and I hadn't noticed too many other writers taking advantage of them.

But as always, the growth's the thing.

[chocomus]

Originally Posted by Jaypat

[COLOR=#000000]?Why do they all do that?? asked Becker.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#000000]?Do what?? I asked.[/COLOR]

[COLOR=#000000]?Just take off into the woods. Where are they going??[/COLOR]

That's exactly what I want to know. What I need to know. Ok, I'll try to grow so that the answer will come to my head. ?????????eeeeeeeeee!!!!! Nothing! I'll guess i'll have to wait to the next part to know it. This story is soooo cool I don't really mind waiting.