The Keras Genome

by Kurtis Eckstein

  The pilot, as if to answer his question, spoke under his breath then. “Holy shit.”

  Noah looked towards the front to see the huge crater off in the distance. Its size really was impressive. The bowl was about a half mile in diameter.

  As they flew closer, Noah saw that the edge of the destruction appeared to be only yards away from the road where he had been forty-five minutes ago. The street was covered in military vehicles, including dump trucks, as well as semitrucks carrying large backhoes on flatbed trailers. The primary focus appeared to be on what looked like two massive piles of black rocks. It was the remnants of the creatures that had killed Mitch and Laura.

  He could also see the destroyed blue car already in the back of a tow truck. People were everywhere, running around like tiny ants.

  As they began to cross over the commotion, Noah noticed movement inside of the crater. Looking closely, he gasped. It was another one of those giant monsters! It leapt out of the crater into the middle of the soldiers below, knocking over trucks and cars like they were nothing. This one was smaller than the others had been, and it looked different too. It crawled on all six legs instead of walking upright like a praying mantis. From this distance it looked unreal, like he was watching a giant black tarantula destroy toy trucks in some kid’s sandbox, with ants scattered in every direction.

  A truck exploded then, and the pilot noticed the commotion below. “What in the hell is that ?!”

  Remembering that the other insects had somehow destroyed a helicopter midair, Noah spoke urgently to the pilot. “If something happens to me, you make sure Madison gets to the hospital okay?” She was Noah’s only priority, and he would do whatever it took to keep her safe, including sacrificing himself if necessary. He wasn’t sure how the monster might destroy the helicopter, but he was willing to jump in front of whatever it might throw their way. Looking down at the ground far below, he couldn’t image surviving a fall this far no matter how durable he had become.

  The pilot looked back at Noah, hearing the urgency in his voice and seeing that he was unhooking his harness. “Shit! Are you suicidal? What are you doing?”

  “Just keep your eyes on that thing .”

  As if responding to Noah, the monster turned its body to face towards them and flattened itself against the ground. Noah jaw dropped – he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. It was going to jump .

  Like a missile, the insect shot up from the ground heading straight for the helicopter. Noah could tell it was going to reach them. This was his only chance. He had to protect Madison no matter the cost.

  Ripping off his headgear, he bolted out of the helicopter, suddenly painfully aware that there was nothing between him and the ground several thousand feet below him. Freefalling, the giant insect barreled at him like a bullet. Noah realized he wouldn’t actually be able to stop something this large. The only chance he had of preventing it from destroying the helicopter was to reduce its size.

  As his camouflage clothes flapped violently in the wind, Noah held up a hand and shot out a crimson tendril. It pierced effortlessly into the hard body, as the monster continued flying past him, heading straight for the helicopter above. Noah used the momentum to swing himself around the backside of the insect and throw himself back towards the helicopter. All the while, red dots appeared on the black body, ready to slice it to pieces.

  Noah reached the helicopter just before the insect did, grabbing a handle with a tendril of blood from his free hand. He then immediately began slicing the monster into chunks, the red dots rapidly rotating. As he pulled himself into the aircraft, he retracted his blood in a microsecond. Turning to Madison, he covered her with his body just as the helicopter was bombarded with thousands of black rock-sized pieces of the monster’s body.

  Alarms sounded as the chopper abruptly begun spinning from the force of impact. The pilot was urgently trying to regain control while Noah held tightly to Madison’s seat to keep himself from being thrown out again. He had already taunted death twice today. He didn’t want to try a third time.

  Just when he thought they might not make it, the pilot finally began regaining control and the spinning subsided. Noah took the opportunity to get back into his seat and strapped in. Putting his headgear on, he realized the pilot had been nonstop cursing. For a solid minute, there was nothing but an endless string of every bad word the guy knew.

  When the cursing finally subsided, and they were safely headed back towards downtown, the guy looked back at Noah. “You’re straight up insane. I don’t care what crazy shit you can do, that was just plain suicidal.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “And, if I’m being completely honest, that was the most badass thing I’ve ever seen. You saved all our lives.”

  Noah just nodded in response. He couldn’t believe what he had just done either. His hands were shaking, not because of the monster, but because he couldn’t rid himself of the feeling of freefalling without a parachute – the fear of having nothing but air between him and the ground for thousands of feet. It was amazing what the kind of love he had for Madison could make a person do.

  The pilot continued. “Shit man, I don’t know what the hell that was, but you tore through it like paper. I owe you one.”

  Noah didn’t respond this time. He was looking over at Madison again, beginning to forget his own fears as he became concerned again that she still hadn’t woken up, even after all that had just happened. What was wrong with her? Was she in a coma? Would she ever recover?

  They were entering the city’s airspace as the pilot spoke again. “Hey, how old is she?”

  Noah realized he wasn’t sure. He knew she had just had a birthday, so she must have just turned seventeen. Otherwise, he imagined she would be in the grade above him.

  “Umm…seventeen.”

  “Okay, when we get there, just tell them she’s the sister of one of our guys. She was visiting or something. We bring military personnel to this hospital all the time, during training sessions, for things like heat stroke and stress fractures. But she’s too young to be enlisted, so you need a cover story.”

  Noah nodded in agreement. “I’ll just say she was visiting and passed out, hitting her head on the floor.”

  “Right, and we normally leave someone at the hospital with our guys, so it won’t be weird with you staying with her. If anyone asks, just tell them you were assigned to stay until family picks her up.”

  Noah was glad the pilot was more willing to helping him out now. He hadn’t really thought about what he would tell people when he stayed at the hospital with her. Looking down at the city below, he saw that they were descending towards the helipad on top of a roof. They were already at the hospital.

  The pilot spoke again. “Hey, you’re fine if I leave after I drop you off, right?”

  “Yeah, just don’t tell anyone. Go home to your family.”

  The guy seemed to relax a little knowing that he would be free of his obligation soon. They were getting close to landing, when he turned to give a few more tips. “Hey, just so you know, they might get the civilian police involved.”

  “Why?” Noah wondered .

  “I mean, I don’t know for sure, but they have to report certain situations, like gunshot wounds.”

  Noah abruptly looked at Madison again. Had he missed something? Had she been shot? He didn’t see any blood. He questioned the pilot. “Is she shot?”

  “Oh. No, I mean I didn’t see anything. I’m just saying there are certain situations where they have to file a report with the police. I don’t know all their rules. I’m just saying it’s a possibility.”

  “Okay. Thanks for the heads up.”

  As they landed, a man and woman appeared at a doorway with a stretcher. It seemed like they were waiting for the pilot to complete the landing before they came to retrieve their new patient. From their scrubs, it looked like the man was a nurse and the woman was a doctor.

  Once settled firmly on the helipad, the pilot quickly looked back at Noah a
gain and gave him one last tip. “Also, don’t let them find out you aren’t actually military. It’s illegal to impersonate one of us.”

  “Right. Thanks.” Noah was focused on the two medical staff bringing the stretcher towards the helicopter. He unbuckled Madison’s limp body from the harness and helped them get her on the stretcher.

  The woman did the questioning. “What happened?”

  “She just passed out at the base. Fell and hit her head pretty hard. She hasn't woken up since.”

  Speaking to the male nurse, the doctor said. “Probably a concussion on our hands.” Then to Noah she asked, “Is she military? ”

  “No, civilian.” Noah remembered to try to sound like he belonged in the military. “She was just visiting her brother. We were told to fly her here.”

  The doctor nodded in response. “Okay, we’ll take it from here.”

  Oh no! Noah thought. He had to stay with her. He was thankful they had planned a story ahead of time. “Actually, I was told to stay with her. She’s a minor – seventeen. I’m to stay by her side until family comes to pick her up.” When the doctor didn’t immediately agree, Noah added, “Just as I would do for one of our guys.”

  After another second, she nodded. “Okay, let’s go then.”

  Noah followed them into the hospital, hoping and praying that Madison would be okay.

  Chapter 9: Hospital

  They had immediately taken Madison to get a scan of her head. The doctor suspected she had a concussion. Noah knew that probably wasn’t the reason why she was unconscious, but he had no way to hint at that fact. He certainly couldn’t explain what really happened, so he hoped they would find something wrong with her on their own.

  He had initially been told to wait outside the testing room. Inside they had striped her of her clothes, putting a hospital gown on instead, and then dropped her belongings off with Noah just outside the door, including the ring he had gotten her. He felt extremely awkward holding Madison’s lingerie among her shirt and pants – he was not at all familiar with her physically.

  They had only been good friends up until a couple of days ago, and he had no memories of anything that might have happened Saturday night. By her reaction from him changing earlier, he doubted they had ever done anything other than kissed. For all he knew, the kiss earlier may have been their first kiss. Noah decided to just stuff everything in her huge purse and focus on the sounds in the testing room, trying not to think too much .

  After the scan, he followed them to a room reserved for the military. He was surprised they had the resources for a separate area just for them. It was a large room with three beds in it, all empty. A huge window on the far wall gave a breathtaking view of the city. The testing room had been on the bottom level, but this room was on the seventh floor.

  Noah waited against a wall in the room while a female nurse started an IV in Madison’s arm. She was young, probably not much older than the pilot had been – maybe twenty-five. She spoke to Noah while she worked.

  “So, what happened?”

  Noah recounted the story they had come up with. “She just passed out at the base and hit her head in the fall. No idea why she passed out.”

  The nurse paused for a moment before continuing, as if she was considering whether or not she should say what was on her mind. “She has some weird bruising.”

  Noah was immediately concerned. “She does?”

  The nurse looked at Noah then. Was he too concerned for their story? After a brief pause, she finally continued. “Yeah, come here and see.”

  Noah walked up tentatively. He wondered what kind of bruising she had. Had he caused it? Without exposing Madison, the nurse pulled down her gown just far enough so he could see the area under her collar bones. She had two small bruises on her chest that were very serious looking. Their purple color was so dark that it almost looked black.

  Noah tried not to react, aware that the nurse was watching him carefully. He decided to play dumb. “That looks really serious. Any idea what would cause that?” Noah knew exactly what had caused it – two thirty caliber bullets that had left marks like she had been shot with a paintball gun at point-blank.

  The nurse covered up the bruises, and then continued her work. She was drawing blood from Madison, filling up four tubes. Noah wondered what they were testing for. The nurse spoke again, not looking at him. “Well, the head and chest scans came back normal. No concussion or broken ribs.” She paused for a second, realizing she needed to explain herself. “We once had a police officer come in who had been shot in the chest. His bullet-proof vest saved his life, but he had a few broken ribs and some nasty bruising. Looked very similar to this.”

  Great , Noah thought. Would they call the cops thinking she had been shot?

  The nurse continued, “We have to file a report anytime we even suspect a gun was involved in an incident. However…” She paused again, filling the last tube of blood. “…since she came from the military base, the doctor wants to contact them first. Plus, her bones look fine.”

  Noah tried to remain calm. “Were they able to get ahold of them?”

  The nurse began gather up her stuff. “No, the secretary tried calling, but no one answered.”

  Realizing it would be in his best interest to try to ease their minds, he tried to give a logical explanation. “Well, that’s not too surprising. A large meteor hit the ground just near the base. I think they have everyone helping with the cleanup. The…err…road leading to the base was damaged.” Noah knew the road was fine, but he needed a reason why they would send everyone there. That got her attention.

  “Oh?! Is that what that explosion was?”

  “You saw an explosion?” Noah knew a lot of dust had been stirred up, but he didn’t think it had caused a visual explosion. Had they seen the escort helicopter being destroyed? Could they even see that from here?

  The nurse continued. “No, we just heard a loud noise that sounded like an explosion. It was so loud it shook the building.”

  “Oh. Yeah, that was a meteor. The crater is like a half-mile wide.”

  She looked at him in disbelief. “That’s crazy!”

  Noah realized building rapport with her was helping the situation, and he was successfully steering the conversation away from the bruising. “Yeah, I was able to see it from the air on the way over here. It was pretty insane.”

  “Jealous!” She smirked at him then. “I bet I’ll be able to see it on the news at least. I just can’t believe it happened so close to here. It’s scary to think about.”

  “Yeah…” Noah trailed off. He hadn’t thought about the news. How much of what was going on was pubic knowledge? There were literally two-story tall monsters falling from the sky…and a regular high school student who had killed at least three – no, four of them. Noah remembered the pile of black rocks that had been in the warehouse when he had woken up .

  Without hesitation, the nurse grabbed a remote for a TV that was on the wall across from the bed. She turned it on and flipped to the local station. Sure enough, there was an image of the crater far away in the distance. The news caster was in a helicopter, but they weren’t getting any closer. The reporter was explaining the situation.

  “No word from the military base yet on the state of affairs. We have tried to get permission to enter their restricted airspace, but we have been unable to get confirmation. As you can see, the crater is quite large. According to our experts, the meteor could have been anywhere between fifty and a hundred feet across depending on the speed of impact. Most meteors burn up in the atmosphere, so they suspect this one must have been extremely large in order to be that size when it hit.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing.” The nurse turned to head out the door. “I’ll let the secretary know she may need to wait on the phone call, since everyone is at the meteor site. Let me know if she wakes up. I think the doctor is ordering a neurological scan of her brain – the scan they already did was for the physical part to check for swelling – so the
y may be up in a while.”

  Noah nodded in response, glad he had bought them some time. He pulled up a chair next to Madison’s bed, sitting between the bed and window so he could face the doorway. Holding her hand, he looked at her angelic face. She was so beautiful laying there, having the appearance of being peacefully asleep. He hoped she was going to be okay .

  Suddenly the TV made a weird noise as the words ‘Breaking News’ flashed on the screen. The anchors in the news room were scrambling to collect themselves.

  “There appears to have been a malfunction at the trial nuclear powerplant forty miles north of downtown. It happened just ten minutes ago, as reported by local witnesses. The blast could be seen miles away, resembling a small nuclear bomb. Currently there are no reported causalities. The facility was purposefully built away from any major population areas in the event of failure, but there will likely be causalities among the plant personnel.”

  Noah suddenly felt Madison’s hand squeeze his. Looking back at her, she had her eyes open looking intently at him. He quickly grabbed the remote with his free hand and muted the TV.

  “Hey, how are you feeling?” He asked concerned.

  She nodded as she tried to sit up. “I’m okay. Where are we?” She looked around the room trying to get her bearings.

  “The hospital.”

  She looked at him abruptly, appearing to remember the events of the day. “How did we get here?” She asked urgently. She was looking at Noah’s military clothes as she spoke.

  He wanted to make sure her head was okay, before he explained. “Do you remember everything that happened before you passed out?”

  She put her hand over her chest where the bruising was in response to his question. Whispering, she spoke. “That guy shot me…I think.” Looking into Noah’s eyes she asked, “How am I alive?”

  He leaned in closer to explain. “I used my…umm…blood to protect you. You passed out afterwards and have been out cold ever since. We got a helicopter ride here. I told the doctor you were visiting your brother and just passed out.” Noah decided to leave out the part where they almost died midair from a massive insect-looking behemoth. He knew Madison didn’t care for insects and wouldn’t appreciate the imagery.