text: He screamed. The man fell and feebly scrambled on all fours through shallow muddy water, backing away from the approaching creature. He never should have come here. *"Nooo!"* His face contorted with terror, and fatigue sapped the strength from his bones. He collapsed knowing this was it. From the murky green fog it came, 'The Monster' had finally come for him. Closer and closer it sloshed, cloaked by a thick shadow of flies that produced a low sickening buzz, filling his ears with the revolting sound of some hellish chorus. The insects bit at him and tore at his face, covering every inch of exposed skin. At last, through the swarm he saw clearly the man-shaped rusted metal body of a feral Automaton towering over him. Its chest bore the marking 'M-0N-ST-3R'. Its skeletal metal frame decaying, encrusted in dark blood, masticated flesh clung to it like ragged clothes. The stench of rotting meat assaulted his nose with the foul pungency of weeks old death. Mushrooms, tall and ominous, crimson capped and secreting streaks of an inky tar-like liquid covered its body and had completely replaced the head altogether. Whatever sense of hope left in him fled as the monster knelt down and reached forth with a skeletal metal hand, taking him by the neck. An icy fear coursed through his body like cold lightning, freezing his soul, yet through choked tears he managed to utter, *"Why?"*. Suddenly, the creature stopped and spoke. *"I am eating you."* it replied, emotionless, even for the lifeless voice of a machine, *"To become human."* With rusty joints groaning it stood, lifting him into the air. He flailed in vain as he gasped for breath, feet kicking weakly at the machine, barely making a clang against its iron skin. For a harrowing moment it froze and held him there, then the monster continued, *"The master has gone where I cannot follow. I must become human. I need a soul to follow the master."* A hatch on its shoulders opened up, spewing a cloud of spores and choking fumes, and its mushroom head lifted back. The metallic belly of the beast, a maw of whirling gears blackened with gore and flies stood gaping, hungering for blood. He'd heard its horrid grind before, echoing through the mist, seemingly coming from no where and everywhere at once with no discernable distance or direction. In this malignant fog all sounds seemed distant and muted except for this *one* that traveled unhindered by time or space. He knew what was about to happen. It leaned forward and he screamed as it pulled him closer and flies swarmed into his mouth, tearing at him from the inside. Someone listening would have vividly heard his cry cut short by the squelching of wet flesh and bone grinding to a pulp. But there was no one else. He'd been the only one left as the others had fallen already. When exhaustion pulled them down, the monster caught up every time. Gore dripped from the machine like rain as it stood, silently hating itself, hating its failure. It had nourished its body how humans do, but still its fleshed died, rotting in its core and sloughing off its body. It sought to achieve the same qualities as humans, emulating as many as it could, like 'hearts', 'nerves', and 'guts'. Still, it was driven away by angry mobs, damaged and despised everywhere it went, yet people still called *it* the 'monster'. It had everything humans had, except a soul. Its master must be quite upset at such tardiness.