Atomic Mage by Garrett Carter (short books for teens txt) 📕

king-sized bed had been one, making the frame had been easy as pulling a stone block from the ground.

The mattress though had taken an hour of his time, getting the rock to soft enough for him to sleep on had been a challenge.

The sheets and comforter had been relatively easy in comparison.

Cade had just duplicated the material of his shredded cotton undershirt sans bloodstains to make the sheets, blanket, and pillows.

Converting a few trees' worths of raw matter to make them had been a game-changer for his survival needs.

Cade found he could change the makeup of matter into anything he had an original "copy" of.

The amount of the material needed to duplicate the original varying widely with size and complexity though.

The second had been a result of Cade playing around with the idea of controlling the vibrations in the atoms of the rocks around him.

He had carved out a decent sized refrigerator out of the rock of his home and lowered the vibrations of the whole internal structure.

His initial design had stayed cool for a bit then warmed back up slowly while he prematurely congratulated himself.

The discovery of a literal mountain-sized deposit of mystery metal had Cade giddy with thoughts of free power for all if he could get his idea to work.

Trial and error and a few hours had allowed Cade to devise a way of tying his power to the super dense but light metal he had discovered while trying out a way to make nuclear fission.

The 20 pound two foot cubed block of the metal that was his final successful trial was being stored under his sink and powered a few of his "appliances" like his stove which worked pretty much the opposite of the fridge.

The light streaming in from his kitchen window reminded Cade that a new day had dawned and the growling of his stomach reminded him he hadn't eaten anything except for a few grapes since he woke up on this new world.

After getting up and going to the bathroom to relieve himself he collected his ratty clothes and made his way to the river shore to catch his first real meal.

Stepping out of his front door he made his way along the gravel and debris strewn beach to grab some water and hopefully catch some breakfast from the river.

Walking over to the bank he glanced around, seeing nothing stalking up that was going to bite his head off.

As he looked into the water, his eyes widened at the vaguely familiar face from his past.

Cades mouth hung open in disbelief, a 25-year-old him looked back at him with the same deer in the headlights look.

68-year-old Cade had a receding hairline and wrinkles on top of his wrinkles, this younger version was almost bald with a day of growth outlining a hairline that had crept its way back to its proper place.

"Well don't that beat all," he said to the young man reflected at him.

As Cade looked at his youthful face the past two days' events and his endurance through them made more sense.

He had kept himself in decent shape throughout his life... first life... anyway in shape or not Cade had been 68 when he died, not a spring chicken by any means.

The scramble up the tree the first night and the lack of effort required even exhausted as he had been, reinforced the notion that he had been de-aged when he got to this new planet.

He laughed as a crazy thought went through his head of him chasing Tony buckass naked around the house when they were working on baby number one.

He had been 25 then and fresh back from his second deployment, he and Tony ready to start the family they had been discussing before he got back.

Cade fondly remembered her telling him to give her his babies as they made love in their bed that first night back.

He chuckled to himself as he felt his pants grow tight as his little monster put his two cents in, yup 25 again alright.

That thought got blown out of his mind along with all thoughts of baby-making as two eyes and a snout popped up not three feet away from him underwater.

"Fuck" was the only thought he could form before he began to turn to run away when the water exploded and he felt a searing pain in his right elbow.

He was knocked off his feet as a 7-foot caiman locked its jaws around his elbow and proceeded to try and drag him underwater.

The weight of the 400-pound lizard slid off Cade's legs as it made to turn and drag his big ass off for an afternoon snack.

He felt his right shoulder dislocate as the giant lizard yanked it and his body back towards the river.

Through the pain in his legs, which he was sure were broken due to the overgrown iguana landing on them, Cade reached out with his power towards the caiman's skull and hoped the area he was choosing was its brain and poured all his ragged focus into boiling it.

The caiman jerked to a stop thrashed its head around once then proceeded to death roll Cades arm right off his shoulder.

"YOU MOTHER FUCKING WALKING HANDBAG BRING THAT BACK IT DOESNT BELONG TO YOU!!"

Screaming expletives as he tried to drag himself to the thrashing lizard, Cade found himself less disoriented as his stupid healing power saved his life in just as many days, snapping his legs back into their proper position and staunching the flood of arterial spray coming out of his mutilated shoulder after a few gorey sprays.