FOR THOSE WHO DIDN'T READ THE STORY SUMMARY, READ THE STORY SUMMARY! THIS ENTIRE STORY IS JUST REWRITES/DELETED SCENES FOR THE ACTUAL STORY, WHICH YOU CAN FIND ON MY PROFILE. I WOULDN'T HAVE BOTHERED PUTTING THIS HERE, BUT I'VE ALREADY HAD FIVE PEOPLE ALREADY COME COMPLAINING TO ME ABOUT NOT FINISHING THESE STORIES, ETC, ETC, ONLY FOR THEM TO GO '...oh' AFTER I POINTED THEM TO THE STORY SUMMARY. SO PLEASE READ IT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN A STORY SUMMARY MIGHT ACTUALLY GIVE YOU IMPORTANT STORY INFORMATION!

It's not often that you go to bed, only to wake up in a completely unknown place. I hadn't even opened my eyes yet and I can already tell something's wrong. For one, I went to bed last night laying on a nice soft mattress. Now I've got hard rock digging into my back.

What's going on? I keep myself from making any tells that I'm awake just in case. Taking stock of myself, I note that I'm not tied up or anything, nor can I hear anyone. It sounds like I'm alone. Well, if this is a kidnapping, I'm not too impressed with the kidnappers at this point.

Cracking my eyes open slowly, I note that I'm in a dark cave. There's an opening to my left, but nothing to my right. Seems more like a hollowed out den than a cave really. Slowly, I sit up, trying to stay as quiet as possible in case there's anyone outside. If they're my abductees, I would do well to stay quiet.

Tiptoeing, I make my way to the entrance of the hollow and peer outside. No one's around. Nothing but trees. I appear to be in some sort of forest. Now why would someone go to the trouble of transporting me from my apartment in Florida all the way to the middle of nowhere? For that matter, how'd they keep me asleep the entire time?

Stepping out into the sunlight, suddenly a shiver travels down my spine, and then the oddest thing happens. Words scroll across my vision slowly enough to read it.

Overmind Lvl 1

Health 100/100

Mana 100/100

Abilities:

Spawn Hatchery (50 mana) – Grows a Zerg Hatchery at your current location (12 hours)

To activate, place hand on the ground and think the words 'spawn hatchery'

Mana required for evolution: 500,000

What… the hell… was that? The words alone were ridiculous enough, but for some reason, I can't shake the feeling that whatever just happened wasn't just my imagination. From the information displayed, I can infer one thing; I'm supposedly an Overmind now.

What a load of bullshit! That doesn't even make sense! I don't look even remotely like some overgrown giant mutant brain the size of a large building!

Still, I can't shake the feeling that what just happened wasn't just my imagination. Well, there's obviously one way to prove it.

Slowly, I bend down to the ground and place my hand on it. Just entertaining the idea that this'll work seems ludicrous, but here it goes.

'Spawn hatchery'.

More words scroll across my vision.

Not enough room.

Sweatdropping, I stand back up. Evidently I'm going to need to find a clearing or something if I'm going to pull this off. Only one small problem with that. I have no idea where I am, let alone where there might be a clearing around here!

Ok, putting this supposed Overmind business to the side, first things first, I need to get to a vantage point and look around. Maybe I'll spot a town. The hollow I just left is situated in the base of a small mound, but it doesn't even crest the top of the trees.

Sighing, I choose a tree that looks like it might not be too much trouble to climb, and start climbing it. It takes all of my willpower to ignore the height and keep my muscles from freezing.

Making it to the top, I look around. Trees. Nothing but trees all the way around. I really am in the middle of freaking no where! In that case, I need to look towards survival. I spot a river over to my left. I can just barely make it out. I wish I knew truly what direction it lies in, but the sun is directly overhead and I can't remember any other ways to tell direction other than the stars, and even that might not work out too well for me, since I never was very good at astronomy.

More to my interest is the very reason I was able to spot the river in the first place. It winds along the edge of a fairly decent size clearing. A meadow, if I miss my guess. That'll be a convenient place to head towards to test out this summon hatchery thing.

Climbing back down, I walk back into the hollow to double check if there was anything in there that I might find useful. There's nothing. All I have are the clothes on my back. I notice something odd though. The only foot prints in the dirt coating the cave floor are mine. If someone brought me here, they sure went to seriously long lengths to make sure I'd have absolutely no way of hunting them down. I contemplated the idea that they scattered the dirt over the area to mask their footprints, but there aren't any tells for that either. None that I can spot anyway. I'm not Mr. Uber Tracker or anything like that.

Sighing, I head back out and head in the direction I'd noted the river was. I hadn't even gone very far before I could hear it lapping against the sides along the bank. Following the sound, I made it to the river. At this point, I'm thirsty. I don't want to risk catching anything since I can't be certain the river doesn't have anything in it, but I don't exactly have the means to boil the water either.

Praying that I wouldn't get sick, I scooped out a few handfuls, inspecting each one for any floaters as best I could, then drank it till I wasn't thirsty anymore.

Examining the water though, I noted something else very strange. I don't have my glasses, yet I can see clearer than I ever have before. I can literally count the leaves on the tree on the other side of the river if I wanted to. I can't even do that with my glasses!

How is that even possible? Either my kidnappers also went to the trouble of giving my lasek surgery while I was out, which suggested that I'd been put under rather than asleep this whole time… or this Overmind business is a bit more legit than I'd thought. The fact that my Dad got Lasek, so I know you have to be awake to get lasek surgery isn't helping matters.

Putting the matter from my mind for the moment, I turned and followed the river towards the direction where I'd seen the clearing. It didn't take too long to reach. After all the tree I'd climbed wasn't much taller than any of the other trees, so the fact that I could even see the clearing at all meant it'd either be freaking huge, fairly close, or both.

In this case, the clearing is both. If anything I'd underestimated how large I'd thought it would be. You could probably fit a whole block from my old neiborhood here. Should be big enough for a hatchery then.

Walking over to the middle of the clearing, I put my hand on the ground and once again thought the words, 'Spawn Hatchery'.

Mana 50/100

At the same time I see these words, I feel something push up against my hand. Startled, I remove it, only to see a tiny version of the sac that forms when you spawn a building in the game where my hand was. I stare at it, dumbfounded.

First off, there's a freaking zerg hatchery growing right there. Second, why the hell did the words say there wasn't enough room before if it's going to be this small? Maybe it'll grow bigger? Finally, THERE'S A FREAKING ZERG HATCHERY GROWING RIGHT THERE!

Ok, ok, calm down. There's a zerg hatchery right there. Let's not panic. After all, I'm the Overmind right? That means that no matter what, these things will follow my lead, so I won't have to worry about being slaughtered by the Swarm. And, since they'll be following my lead, I won't have to worry about them mindlessly slaughtering anything and everything else either, right? Right. I'm the Overmind.

I'm the Overmind. Holy crap, this is ridiculous! I stare again at the pulsating sack of growing Zerg Hatchery. Slowly, I reach out a finger and gently poke it. All at once, I can feel a presence coming from within the sac. It's like I can see it within my mind's eye. It's small, and tiny, and very very fragile, and the feelings I'm getting from it… I can feel nothing but pure love, trust, and adoration flowing from this tiny little being, directed at me, all for me! Holy cow, is this what it's like for a father to see his child looking up at him for the first time? What a heady sensation!

With a feeling of wonder and reverence, I stroke the side of the membrane with my finger, and it leans into my touch. This is amazing! Now that I've, noticed for lack of a better term, it's presence and the feelings it's broadcasting, I can't help but notice it now. It doesn't seem to have any real intelligence like I'd expect a human baby to have. It's more like a baby kitten, just a bundle of pure feelings, instinct, and a drive to please its parent, me.

As I stroke the little thing, objectively I notice that it's not slimy like I expected. It feels more leathery and gummy than anything else, like stretched rubber. As the time passes, I notice that it's gotten slightly bigger, and as more time passes, it seems to be getting slowly but steadily bigger. I can hardly believe it's going to take half a day for the thing to grow. By that time it'll be the middle of the night!

With that thought in mind, I slowly get up. I need to make myself a shelter and get some food. Food first though, since I'm getting hungry. Unfortunately, I haven't seen a single animal at all. Though come to think of it, it hardly matters since I have no way of starting a fire to cook meat anyways, and I'm not about to try and rub two sticks together to get a fire going. I'd be better off foraging for edible plants.

Speaking of which, is that a ripe apple I see just laying on the ground? That's strangely convenient. Looking up, I spy apples growing from the branches of the tree I'm under. Picking up the fallen one, I make my way back over to the river to wash it off. Biting into it, I pull the piece from my mouth and examine it and the flesh of the fruit itself for any bugs. It was just lying on the ground after all. I don't see anything though. Shrugging, I finish the apple off, and make my way back to grab another, washing and inspecting it before eating it as well. I finished off about two more before I finally felt sated. I just hope I can find something else besides apples. Push comes to shove I could probably live off of those for a while, but eating nothing but apples doesn't sound healthy.

Now for a shelter. Where should I build it? Perhaps halfway between the apple tree and the river? It would suck if the banks flooded and washed my shelter away during a rain storm after all. I should build it on the edge of the clearing though just in case the hatchery does get as big as I think it will. My first real problem though is what I'll use to build said shelter. I can't exactly build a log cabin without tools after all, and it's not like I need anything that permanent since I can probably just use the hatchery as a shelter once it's grown.

I guess I'll just try and make a make shift Teepee with long sticks and leaves or something. Too bad I'm not in Florida anymore. Palm fronds are excellent since even dead they're still wide, flat, and easy to use as walling. Considering the dryness of the air here though, I strongly doubt I'm anywhere near Florida anymore.

Going out into the forest, I break off many sticks and start to fashion myself a teepee, making sure to clear the sticks of the leaves first, though leaving some of the smaller branches jutting out, hoping to use them to sort of weave the walls together. Surprisingly it worked. With the frame set up, I start pulling down branches and leaving the leaves on. By the time I've finished, my shelter looks more like an igloo made of leaves than a teepee, but with the sticks jammed into the ground, it should be able to stand up to most winds.

By this point, the sun is just about to set, and the hatchery had increased in size to that of a two story house. I'm hungry again, so I pick some apples to eat and drink some more from the river, which I'd been doing a lot of to make sure I don't dehydrate. I may be the Overmind, but the fact that I can still get hungry proves I can still die from thirst if I'm not careful, and working under that hot sun was NOT enjoyable.

With the sun setting and finally full, I pull up the branch full of leaves I'm using as a makeshift door and enter my shelter. I don't have anything in the shelter itself, especially not bedding. I don't fancy the idea of having bugs crawling from the leaves onto me that I might use. The best I can do is pile up a mound of dirt for a pillow with firm thoughts of dunking my head in the river to wash it off tommorrow. Tommorrow… at that point the Hatchery'll be finished, and then I can sleep in there. I just hope it'll be as dry as the sac covering it is. I don't want to sleep in anything slimy.

With that thought, and after the long and hard day I'd had, I drift off to sleep.

-END CHAPTER-

Overmind mana – 50/100

Units:

1 Overmind

Structures:

1 Half grown Hatchery