The forest stretched out ahead of her in an arched tunnel of entwined bows over head, it was old, ancient in fact and it had been waiting for her. Waiting for a very long time, and now it had her.

Two ravens, ink black, swooped down and landed on the quilt of autumn leaves. The closest looked at her with one shiny black bead of an eye, then spun around with a hop, so the other eye also got a looked at her, then it cawed twice. The second raven waved its head up and down and squawked once, and then the ravens waltzed in the leaves pecking the orange floor, flicking leaves aside and pecking some more.

Leaves fell in spirals adding to carpet. The weather was dry, autumn was at it's end, and each step had the same satisfying crunch as powdered snow, which was yet to come.

A leaf collided with her shoulder on the way down. Instinctively Charlie reached up to brush herself only to discover it was covered in newly hatched insects. Hundreds of them, ticking her with their sharp stabbing pin legs, and they moved so fast, and went everywhere at once.

Some of them crawled around the bicep and into her arm pit, getting stuck in the stubble. They tickled terribly. If they had not been insects she would've laughed, but she did not laugh. In her mind they where not tickling her, they where eating into her.

She lifted her arm to sweep them away and have a closer look. There were more than before, much much more. They were manufacturing themselves by the million, and basically covered the tip of her stump. She slapped and wipe herself repeatedly, and did rescued a decent patch of skin. But they kept on coming, and swarmed to recover the lost territory. They flowed in like dirty oil on a china plate, and her colour was swallowed by the migrating colony.

The ants then started to interlock their legs, to knit themselves into a hexagonal patterned lace, which covered her shoulder like a sock, alive with their accumulated intelligence, and continued weaving and growing as the ants multiplied.

At the shoulder the lave cuff divided into columns, each thread edging ahead autonomously. Stray units would despatched to investigate the terrain.

A few reconnaissance ants crawled into her nose, and she sneezed to get rid of them. Others went for the ears and one managed to burrowed into the inner ear, she could hear it scratching around inside her.

Charlie started to claw at random patches of skin. On her face, she scratched long raw welts down her face, all the way from her fringe right down to the collar bones. She scratched over and over and raked her face with her bitten off nails. She slapped herself, but that did not help, and then the ants entered her panties.

Charlie yanked her buckle, unziped and thrust her jeans down to her knees, and the underwear too, the nipping and biting made her shout out aloud, and she pulled her shirt off bundled it up brushed between her legs, but still the came, and her shaven public deltas was black with ants.

Charlie screamed and screamed and bent down to remove her shoes, her jeans and free her entrapped her legs locked together by denim. But she couldn't, so she pressed a toe against the heel and managed to pull one foot free, but in the process she fell and all the ants in the forest headed her way, and the ravens jumped with broad wings and cruel claws and teared into her bare skin, and still the ants came. Charlie was thrashing on the floor when the colony found her clitoris, the delicate knot of a billion nerve endings and the colony decided to eat it.

Charlie was screaming in agony as the swarm pried her vulva open and marched into her vagina, pinching and nipping and tearing with their sharp mandibles.

At the same time they breeched the mouth, and the little black needless poured in, so dense that she chocked and spat, but still they came on until she was wheezing and gasping for air. Charlie was drawing in ants and gave up she went limp on the autumn leaves and woke up with a dry mouth and tears running down her cheeks.

The moment her eyes opened she jumped upright and threw the bed clothes aside and patted her self. She was sweating but still dressed in the same night vest and cotton panties. She spread her knees and felt between her legs and she was very wet and sensitive.

(simplify nightmare)

Charlie stood up and looked at the bed, pulled the duvet back and then flapped it and let if fall, her sheet had a sweat shadow, she scratched her stump and pulled her panties forward look down and then let them snap closed.

She fetched a tall glass set it in the sink, watched it fill then drank it down in consecutive gulps letting it spill out and down her her neck, then she refilled and looked around the cabin, and sipped the water slowly. She had to set the glass down to scratch her stump again. She lifted it and scratched in her arm pit too. The itch was real a rash had manifest on the underside of her amputated arm. She scratched her arm pit again.

Charlie drank another mouth full of water, the abandoned the glass half full, returned to the bed and stripped it with hard tugs and chucked the under sheet in the sink.

Next she pulled her t-shirt and panties off and set then beside the sink and put on a different t-shirt then took out two new pairs of panties from a draw, they where both still sealed in plastic, one was XS and the other M.

She opened the packet marked extra small, turned the garment inside out pushed her fingers into the pouch in the gusset then spread her thighs, and used it to wipe herself thoroughly then folded the panties neatly and returned them to the same plastic bag. Next, with one arm, she folded her t-shirt into a square and slid that into a different plastic bag, a freezer bag with a zip seal, pressed the air out and zipped locked it. Finally she opened the medium sized panties put them on and took that bag along with the sealed clothing to the utility chamber and returned with a folded bed sheet and throw.

Charlie flicked the sheet over the mattress and clipped the elasticated edge over each corner and smoothed it flat, flicked the bed throw into place and climbed in.

She stared at the ceiling then exposed her stump and had another look and tucked it under the covers.

"Make an appointment to see doctor Stien as soon as possible", she said to room.

"Dr. Stien has three half hour slots available today, ten thirty, two fifteen ..." said the room.

"The first one", Charlie interrupted.

"Ten thirty booked. Would you like to leave a message?"

"Tell him I slipped and I fell and tell him there is something wrong, in a bad way."

"Message recorded, would you like to ..."

"No! For fuck sakes, just confirm it and fuck off!"

"Your booking has been confirmed, with a non-refundable 17% deposit for cancellation."

"Turn off the lights"

The room faded to black.

"Oh god I hope it's okay,"

"I'm sorry I can't help you with that", the room said.

She woke to the sound of birds chirping. The cabin had been transformed into a sub tropical rain forest. The tress and long eared leaves undulated and rustled and sunlight streamed through the humid haze in glowing rods while the kettle growled as it reached boil point.

"Stop" she Charlie and the false forest scene vanished, replaced with the four un-luminsted walls of the berth cabin. The kittle clicked and beeped three times.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"The time now is nine thirty" said the room.

Charlie rolled over, sat up and looked at her stump. The rash on the underside was worse, she gently rolled it in her palm, and pressed the tip of the stump gently and flinched. She stood up and scratched her groin, she looked down and scratched again, but harder and checked by pulling the panties forward. Her public area looked like a shaving rash gone horribly wrong, very similar to under her arm. She frowned and rubbed it with her finger tips.

"Ah fuck", she said and headed to the kettle scratching through her underwear, poured hot water into a thermo-mug and added a puck shaped capsule to the water, it bobbed around as the gelatin melted, and released an oily coffee black concentrate. Charlie in haled the vapour deeply. Then pinched the thermos between her legs screwed its lid on, gave it a shake and she headed for the cockpit.

She sat and looked out at real life, just as she had done the day before. It was still raining, but less than the day before, the sky was grey and the light was diffused and glared, making Charlie squint as she drank her coffee and watched the world parallax past her.

The road was straight and stayed straight all the way the horizon. Bridges would form and glide toward her and over and change the sound was they went. Some of the bridges where deep, like small tunnel, and in those people lived on the flanks. Children would look up and wave, or crank their arm up and down, and Charlie would blow her horn all the way through. Truckers where mean that did not give a child that satisfaction.

(this occurs in the blink of an eye lid)

Charlie would look at the villages of squalor, made of patched parts of other vehicles or cardboard or pallet's or what ever was available on the day. The children where destitute but managed to turn a cart into a Lamborghini or a box into a castle. Very seldom did Charlie see dogs or cats in these places. These places where hungry places.

She looked at the arm lying between the dashboard and windshield, then turned around to check the digital clock face on the main monitor of the pilot seat, then picked the arm up and carried it inside. The arms control panel was open and the full system test she had begun last night was still running on a loop, gathering data for analysis. She put the arm down and got rid of the coffee cup in the sink.

The room started ringing.

Hi doctor, thanks for seeing me she said.

Charlie, wow it has been ages? How are you? a man asked.

She looked at it.

She picked up the plastic boot and sniffed it then looked at her stump, it looked itchy with little welts on the shoulder and smaller clusters wrapping into the pit.

She sighed, "ah god i really do feel like this now", then threw the boot on the dashboard and returned to the bedroom to finish making the bed.

hello doctor

oh hi charlie, its been a while has it not?

yeah, did you get my message

i did, i did yes, so whats up, is the ole hand job giving you a bit of grief then?

yeah, i am worried about.

right, right, right. so you had a fall did ya? and what you hit the end did ya?

um, well no, i was wearig the arm and it kinda banged into the bone, i fell and then it youknow bashed in the boot.

ouch. that would have been, yeah, not a good feeling at all. and that was when yeserday and today it is not good?

yeah, i is real sore and there is a rashand i think one of the electrodes got pulled, so.

okay, well let not worry, lets have a look see before we you know get, i mean before anything. so, eah can you show me?

Sure, one sec. This is my dashboard phone but i thin it has a, ah yes there, one sec please doctor.

Charlie turned the camera on, and the dash monitor reflected her on the screen with the doctor on the screen with herself as a smaller inlay.

She stepped back readed her hand behind her nect and pulled her t-shirt over her head and off.

Oh my God, i didnt realize you where, um not wearinf anthing, i, um,that was a bit um, you know um, like unexpected, do you, i mean do you want to put a bra on, or um someting?

A bra?

sure, yes, a bra is good.

Doctor i dont have bras anymore, bras and show laces dont work well with one arm, so no i dont need to put a bra on.

right, right, yes, um okay, we can do this, um could you maybe come closer or or or you know tilt the camera, so you now.

Charlie frowned and nodded and adjusted the camera and moved her chair in closer so that her breasts where not visible on the screen.

That great htank you, so sorry about that but, you know anyone could walk in and you know how people are with that kind of thing in the work place. so. yes.

Charlie pursed her lips and nodded.

Can ou hold the arm up stright, up straight up, yes thats it, thank you right, good, and come closer pleasse so it can up, perfect hold it steady for a moemnt i need to take a quick snap of that. yup, good good, now turn ninety degrees, no, no thturn the other way, perfect, yes. stop. and another quick poto. done. okay now charlie point it directly at the camera, like a finger, like you are pointing, yes perfect,one more, click yes, and now turn all the way around so i can check the electrodes, looking good yes yes, stop there. okay. a bit closer, nice nice, okay i think we are okay now, you can put your shirt on if you want cahrlie.

I have also got that rash in my groin can i show.

No. no. that is. um. no, i do not need to do that. as you know i am biomechanics, so i think that is, that is not my m realm, as it were, you might want to you know chat to your other doctor, a gynacologist doctor would be your best for that kind of thing typically. us biomechs are are are, how should i put it? not.

Charlie smiled and nodded at the doctor who was looking off screen and fidgeting with his specticles and nodding in sort nervously.

Okay doctor stien i promise i wont show you my cunt

oh. oh. okay, that is very strong. yes, good i appreacte that, yes. um i think looking at these photos i think we can perhaps turn the cameras off again? yes, i think i have everything i need right here Charlie.

Charlie was smiling broadly and nodded and turned her camera off, and the doctors posture relaxed slightly.

Good thank you. yes. well um you are propbaly wondering what is is is you know happening here? Well i can tell you this, But um, before that i need to ask you if you have any vernal diseases? in in in particular from the herpes family, perhaps cold sores? or or shingles? or or um vaginal outbreaks? do you understand?

Yes i do, and no i dont have and STDs, and what the fuck?

When last where you tested?

Well i haven't been tested since i lost the arm.

Yes, yes, i can see your history here, and and and since then ... no sexual encounters? at all? maybe?

Why is this important?

Ah yes, forgive me yes, well there rash in the arm pit and certainly around the dermal electrodes seems to mathc with other infections and specifically infections that irritate nerve activity. and these typically reside in the horn cells, as a virus which flares and manifests after traumatic events, after the body has spent large efforts in defense, which seems to match with the physical trauma of the fall. You would be flooded with adrenaline and very hightened sense of violence.

As for the actual trauma to the bone, it is impossible to say, so i think we need to schedual another call in two days, and if there is no noticable drop in sensitivity we need to gt you in the clinic as soon as possible and have a look. But it might be that the bone has been bruised and that everything is fine.

Nevertheless i am going to write you a perscription of anti-inflamatry perscrition, these are strong and you whould pick them up immediately, we want to keep and eye on that truncation and respond quickly. If if if we need to. um, it is for the better. Also i am going to give you a neurogenertic, this should be taken when you go to bed, only when you go to bed, it is strong and you should read the side effects if it gets uncomfortable, i want you to take these on three day alternatins. three days on, two days off. and so on, until the perscription is complete. This one is to repair nevers and sometimes crearetaes or bridges damage.

I understand that you might be very anxious, considering the historic coplications and i am not saying that is ruled out, but i am saying you are in very good hands, and we will not let you down and it is too early to jump to conclusions. is is is um okay?

Charlie fidgeted with her fingers, the complications intruded on her composition, and she nodded without looking up at the camera.

Charlie, asned the doctor, are we good here?

Charlie was not good, she nodded again and again and coughed and said "ah erhm, (cough)yes, (clears throught_ yes. Yes doctor all good here"

Sure

Yes

Okay, well i will schedule a follow up, and then we we we will um, take it from there. alright?

okay, thank you doctocr.

He tipped his head and smiled and the screen went black, then listed the perscription, and asked Charlie to identify herself, she paid and request immediate delivery, a map appeared and she selected a layby alone her trajectory.

The drone arrived just before the bridge city north of Shelly county. It docked on the roof of the cockpit with a heavy magnetic thump. Charlie opened the sky roof and the belly of the drone dropped, then the propellars shieked but the drone did not launch.

The first bridge arrived and the sunlight was extinguished. Charlie was shock blind. It stayed black but it softened.

The avian light strobed red, then blue, with a sharp constant white light on for every one to detect. A blink of red, then a blink of primary green?? The cockpit was tinted in primary green, then red with periods of darkness.

The ribs of the tunnel where illuminated and heavily vandalised with graffiti.

Charlie closed the hatch, and the sharpness of the propellars became muffled, she left the cockpit and returned to the stomach of her machine where she cut the signature ribbon around the box, emptied it and returned the box to the drone.

Then she sat and waited for the tunnel city to end. She had never stopped in a tunnel. It was completely empty, but she knew the deal here, if you wanted someone deleted this is where you did it.

The orb of bright exit appeared and the propellars spun up to speed.

Charlie shuttered her eyes and they turned red with the sky, then calmed down to a pockmarked black and that is when she opened them, just in time to see tthe drone launch into the drizzle of the sky. It cleared and then vanished in an instance.

Charlie read the delivery notice that came with the delivery there where three items. She read the perceiption pamflet of each one.

she stowed the pills behind the mirror in her bathroom.