Project Boussh: Not Exactly Heroic
by Brad Corletti

"Do I know you?" Brad croaked at the intruder.

The man blinked.  "Huh?"

"Yeah, I'm asking you, Carmack. You look kinda familiar."

The giant ant - Ooryl - turned its head to face the new arrival. "He
appears to be suffering nothing more than some side effects. Including
amnesia."

"I... see," the intruder said. "Interesting."

"No, it's not," Brad retorted. "It's annoying as hell."

"I'm Nick," Nick said, as though that explained everything.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Nick," Brad said drowsily. "Are you
imaginary, too?"

Nick glanced at Ooryl. "That's another side effect," Ooryl commented.
It opened its mouthparts wide in a Gand smile.

"No, I'm quite real," Nick asserted. "I'm from AFW."

"Nice try, but you were talking to the ant."

Nick laughed. "Fine then. I'm imaginary. Would you like some imaginary
breakfast?"

Brad smiled. "I think I could handle that."

Nick nodded. "Right. Toast or cereal?"

Brad closed his eyes for a moment. "Toast."

Nick turned and left through the door. He came back moments later with
a plate of toast, which Brad began hungrily devouring. Seeing all was
well, Nick then returned to the other room.

He saw Josh sitting at the small 'kitchen' table preparing his own
breakfast. Josh had dark circles under his eyes, which were scrunched
up against the glare of morning.

"Sleep well?" Nick asked. Josh simply shook his head, apparently deep
in his own thoughts. "Brad's up. Ooryl says he's only suffering some
minor side-effects from the head injury you gave him."

Josh spitted him with a glare.

"One of the side effects is amnesia." Nick waited for that one to sink
in.

Josh's eyes opened a little at the news. "What?" he asked.

"Amnesia. He's forgotten everything."

"Everything?"

"Well, he thinks Ooryl's a hallucination. I think that's a pretty good
indicator."

Josh nodded. "So what are we going to do with him?"

They heard a muffled cry of "Shit!" from the other room, followed by
the unmistakable sound of a stomach emptying itself of its contents -
the wrong way.

Nick smiled ruefully. "What indeed?"