Radioactive Evolution

by Richard Hummel

  We will be fine, said Scarlet, picking up on his emotions.

  There was no use second-guessing himself now. They’d set things in motion and he intended to see it through. Jared grabbed both of his phase pistols and waited.

  The sounds from the hangar abruptly cut off with one of the dogs issuing a mournful whimper. The victor from the duel limped out of the hangar, looking severely injured from the fight. The dog sniffed the air, turned around, and trotted back into the hangar. After a short pause, Jared heard a sharp squelching crunch echo from the hangar. Bile rose in the back of his throat, imagining the dog ripping into its companion. He did his best to block out the noise, but it still sent a shiver down his spine.

  “That’s disgust—” Jared started, when the ground shook violently, cutting off his words.

  Scarlet, get ready!

  Jared heard the dog stop eating and start to whimper.

  As suddenly as it began, the ground stopped moving and everything went silent for one long moment.

  Then a deafening crack split the air as slabs of concrete exploded upward in a shower of debris.

  Although Jared couldn’t see the dog, he heard a yelp and its claws scrambling across the floor as it tried to escape. Bracing himself for the worm’s appearance, Jared leveled his phase pistols in the direction of the hangar.

  The dog bolted from the building, tail between its legs, and right on its heels, the worm.

  A giant—massive—Godzilla-sized worm.

  Now that he had a chance to observe it when not running for his life, he realized just how big it actually was, and he feared he’d made a mistake trying to take this thing on.

  Jared had to give the dog credit. Even injured it was fast, but it quickly realized it had no place to go except to jump from the cliff. As the form barreled after its runaway meal, Jared grew concerned. At twenty feet he still didn’t see the third segment.

  Scarlet, I don’t—aha, there it is! Go, go, go!

  Just as in Scarlet’s vision, the first two segments of its body were thirty feet in length, the brown band marking their target immediately after.

  Jared steeled his nerves, took aim, and rapidly squeezed the triggers on his phase pistols. He was careful with each shot, making them count. One after the other, the phase rounds sizzled into the worm’s side, tiny burn marks marring its thick flesh. Surprisingly, the phase rounds did little damage to its skin, but it definitely served its intended purpose to distract the worm and lure it further out of the hangar.

  It paused in its pursuit of the dog and hesitated, torn between the two targets. Eventually, it chose Jared for whatever reason. Perhaps he was a larger meal, or an easier target. Regardless, Jared needed it to exit the hangar just a few more feet to give Scarlet a perfect opportunity.

  Jared sprinted toward the edge of the cliff and stopped right on the edge. The worm paused again, as if re-evaluating its chosen morsel.

  I’ve got get this thing to commit.

  He redoubled the pace of his shots on the worm, hoping to enrage it. At first it seemed to no avail, and then it lunged.

  Scarlet, attack!

  The worm moved a few more feet out of the tunnel, fully exposing the segment that housed its brain. Scarlet dove through the air, sucked in a breath of air and attacked.

  Blue flames erupted from her mouth, sizzling into the side of the worm.

  It recoiled from the fire with an ear-piercing screech. The ground trembling while its body thrashed about in the tunnels below.

  It was impossible for him to get off a clean shot at the creature while he stumbled about, but it looked like he might not need to do much more as the hangar collapsed on top of the writhing body.

  A large steel beam disconnected from the joist, swung toward the ground, and fell straight down, puncturing the body of the worm and pinning it in place.

  Scarlet, hit it again! It’s pinned!

  Scarlet whipped her head around, making an impossible flip in midair. The move cost her a bit of momentum and she dropped below the lip of the plateau before she regained the altitude and roared in for another pass.

  Hurry Scarlet! I don’t think this will hold much longer.

  As if on cue, the steel beam started to wobble.

  Scarlet’s next assault served to enrage the creature beyond any rational thought. All self-preservation fled, as the worm ripped itself free, nearly cutting its own body in half.

  Surprisingly, both sides appeared fully functional as it continued the mad rampage to reach Scarlet.

  She was much too fast in the air and managed to fly well beyond its reach.

  After Scarlet’s attack, it completely forgot about Jared and allowed him to retrieve his rifle. He hoped the ballistic rounds would pierce its hide and allow Scarlet to spew flames into the open wound.

  Carefully lining up his shots to make them count, Jared rapidly pulled the trigger until the small clip clicked empty.

  Where the phase rounds only aggravated the worm, the rifle punched holes straight into its side.

  Shrieking in rage, it whirled around to face him, and Jared prepared to leap over the ledge if it attacked. Instead of lunging at him directly, the other side of it emerged from the ground not ten feet away, spraying him with dirt and rocks. Squeezing his eyes shut, he blindly leapt from the edge, bracing himself for the impact against the wall. Only he didn’t hit the wall, and the rope pulled taut as soon as he reached the lip of the cliff, pinning him against the ledge.

  Glancing behind him, Jared realized the second half of the worm’s body lay across his anchor rope and wouldn’t budge no matter how hard he pulled.

  “No!” Jared shouted, as the worm reared up to slam on top of him.

  Just then, Scarlet dove back for a second attack and breathed flames directly into the wounds his rifled had drilled into the worm’s side.

  The creature convulsed, freeing the rope enough to let him drop over the edge.

  Get out of there, Scarlet!

  I think that last attack did it.

  Scarlet’s statement rang true when Jared heard a loud pop followed by a forceful sucking.

  The next instant a stream of translucent goo and chunks of slimy ashen flesh sailed over the cliff’s edge.

  Thankfully, he was close enough to the wall to avoid it. Immediately following the explosion of gore, he heard two loud thumps accompanied by a tremor that reverberated through the ground and caused him to jostle against the cliff wall. He quickly grabbed the ledge in case the rope came loose. Jared was about to peek over the edge when Scarlet shouted at him.

  Grab the wall!

  Jared felt the rope give way, and relief flooded through him that he’d had the foresight to secure a handhold. Without Scarlet nearby to catch him, the fall would be an instant death.

  The only sound he heard was the pop and sizzle of the worm’s slimy skin, and Jared wondered if the whole death throes thing was just a myth.

  Scarlet, I—

  Stay there, she interrupted him.

  He’d been about to send her a rebuttal when the ground vibrated beneath his hands. Just to be safe, he climbed down another fifteen feet and wedged himself into an alcove. The rumbling grew louder as the quaking intensified.

  The convulsing worm must have been demolishing anything in its path.

  He heard buildings crumbling to the ground, great crashing noises from the earth ripping apart, and sickly wet slapping as the body of the worm flailed about.

  Several minutes later everything went silent. Jared’s fingers ached from the strain of holding himself in place while the earth bounced up and down.

  Is it safe to come up?

  Yes, the creature appears dead.

  Jared climbed back up the cliff and opened his mouth in surprise at the sight.

  Flat.

  The single word popped in
to his head and was the only descriptor that fit the current reality of the area. Not a single building remained standing, mini craters bore evidence of the creature’s underground passages, and the little hill behind what used to be the hangar looked like a bomb had blasted it apart, a great chasm splitting the middle. From his vantage, the chasm descended deep into the earth, the worm’s body weaving in out and out of large holes.

  His first thought was that they’d been idiots to go up against this creature. It rivaled Scarlet’s mother in size. That size alone made this thing deadly.

  Next time I get a hare-brained idea like this, please try and talk me out of it. Frankly, I’m very surprised we survived, let alone killed it. I mean, look at that thing! How the heck are we supposed to absorb the nanites from it anyway? It’s like a mile long! Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but seriously, how are we supposed to absorb them? Do you think we can just touch any part of it?

  The holes are big enough for you to enter.

  You can’t seriously mean— Jared cut off his next words as Scarlet thumped down next to him. He wasn’t claustrophobic, but walking into the lair of a mile-long worm was insanity.

  While he deliberated his next move, Scarlet walked over to the upper part of the worm cloven from the rest of its body and sunk her teeth into its flesh.

  Jared looked at her aghast. “Ugh. Really, Scarlet? That’s just...I can’t,” Jared said, fighting back gags as he walked several paces away from her. “How can you possibly eat that thing?”

  I need to regain my strength. The dogs I ate earlier helped, but it was not sufficient. I will eat my fill and absorb nanites at the same time. You should get moving; we do not know how long the nanites are viable once the host is dead.

  Sighing, Jared walked over to the other side of the worm. A terrible, pungent smell curled his nose hairs, sending waves of nausea rolling through him. He doubled over, holding his sides. With his nose plugged, Jared breathed in huge gulps of air to keep from retching.

  Before dropping into the hole, he wanted to try absorbing the nanites from here. If there was a way to do it without going underground, he’d take that option, even if he missed a small portion of them. The other side of the creature was still visible over by the cliff’s edge where he’d jumped off, so they could at least absorb from both ends.

  Tentatively, Jared reached his hand out to touch the worm. Squeezing his eyes shut, he pressed his bare hand into the slimy flesh, his insides recoiling from the sensation. It was cold, wet, and gooey. He snatched his hand away in disgust, shaking the thick mucus from his fingers. He glanced over his shoulder at Scarlet only to see her chomping away, a large chunk of the worm missing.

  The sight was enough to push him over the edge. An uncontrollable urge to vomit made him heave. His stomach tried squeezing out of his mouth, but all that came up was stomach acid, further increasing his disgust. Jared’s breathing came in shallow gasps. Forcing air through his diaphragm helped the turmoil in his stomach and warded off the urge to expel his insides.

  “I don’t know how you’re eating this thing,” Jared forced out through clinched death. His every word tasted bitter from the bile. “It’s horrendous.”

  I already told you my reasoning. Besides, it really has no taste. As long as you can overcome the texture, it is not unpleasant.

  Baring her teeth at him, Jared saw bits of its flesh in her mouth, and he quickly turned away. Shuddering, Jared tried to rid the images from his head.

  Recovered, he pressed his hand to the worm’s flesh again. At first nothing happened, and then he saw the familiar glow and swirl of the nanites leaving the worm and entering his body. Only, this time, it wasn’t just a small flash of light like with the rabbit.

  The glow grew rapidly, becoming a raging torrent of multi-colored lights shooting into his body. His skin crawled from the sensation, and in no time at all, it began to get uncomfortably hot.

  “Scarlet,” Jared said, concerned. When she didn’t answer, Jared shouted into her mind, Scarlet!

  The nanites rushed into his body unbelievably fast, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remove his hand from the worm’s body. The heat intensified, sending his body into spasms. The fire consumed him, making his vision go dark around the edges. His mind tried protecting him from the pain by sending his consciousness into oblivion.

  A sharp blow to his side sent him flying ten feet away, abruptly cutting off the flow of molten lava into his body.

  He lay there panting as Scarlet walked over to him and nudged him with her snout, a snout dripping with nasty slime and worm fragments.

  “Ah, come on, Scarlet, seriously? Ew, just...ugh.”

  Jared rolled away from Scarlet, his freshly battered body protesting. He levered himself onto all fours and looked at the worm.

  “Thanks for getting me out of there. I don’t know how much more I could’ve taken. If feels like I was just burned alive. Is that why I was unconscious during your mother’s transition? I remember it being painful, but it only lasted a few seconds before I blacked out.”

  I am unsure. At the time, I was quite preoccupied. Though, if I had to guess, then I believe you are right.

  His breathing returning to normal, Jared stood painfully to his feet. It was then he noticed small flashes of iridescent lights cascading across his skin as the nanites integrated into his body.

  “Maybe you should absorb the rest. I don’t think I can handle any more right now.” Jared held up his hand and watched the shimmering veil of nanites until it stopped.

  “I’m guessing we don’t have to touch multiple parts of this thing to absorb the nanites. They all just came rushing through its body into mine.”

  Scarlet walked over to the dead worm and was about to chomp down when Jared interjected. “Wait. I don’t think I’ll be able to knock you out of the way like that if it becomes too much for you.”

  There is no choice here. We need to get stronger and if enduring pain accelerates our goals, then I will endure the pain.

  With that, Scarlet bit into the exposed flesh, the glow of nanites resuming its flow into the dragon.

  Jared watched in fascination as the nanites rushed into her. The scintillating light intensified and rippled across Scarlet’s body, seeping into her flesh and scales.

  “Are you okay?”

  Yes, the pain is bearable. If I were to absorb all of them, including the ones you already did, it would have hurt me in much the same way. Though I can disconnect my mind from the pain, so it is difficult to know for sure.

  “Based on the number of times I’ve blacked out or nearly blacked out, in the last week, I think I’ll need to learn how to do that sooner rather than later.”

  Once you enhance your mind sufficiently, you will have a greater control over abilities like that. This worm should be a good start down that path.

  The glow of nanites dimmed as the torrent came to an end. Scarlet bowed her head in silence and collapsed right next to the bisected worm to collect herself.

  Jared, look at your status screen.

  Jared hesitated. Did something bad happen? He focused, willing the screen to appear before him.

  “Holy crap! Scarlet, how is this possible? How does one creature have so many nanites?” Jared read the available nanites again, shook his head and read it a third time. “I have ninety-five percent to assign!”

  Scarlet’s status showed she had sixty percent, but given her rapid growth already, that was still a massive amount of enhancements. “How did this thing have so many more nanites than your mother?”

  Jared assumed this thing had more on account of all the nanites he’d already absorbed only being five percent of what coursed through his body.

  I believe they were roughly equal, only my mother passed most of hers to me instead of you. As for how this creature acquired so many, my first thought is that there might be subter
ranean biological life it consumed. These tunnels could extend miles below the surface.

  “Well, dang. This was a huge risk but was well worth the effort. We’d have to kill hundreds, if not thousands of rats to get an equivalent amount.”

  It looks like we gained abilities from this worm too. I need more time to study them, before I understand how they work. One of them allows you to control your body temperature, and the other is some kind of hibernation capability, that allows you to slow down your heart rate.

  Jared stared at his status screen for a few more minutes, contemplating his next moves. As planned, he was definitely going to be sinking most of these nanites into Mind. It was his biggest detriment to getting stronger at the moment. Although he knew which areas to upgrade, he closed the screen without making any selections. Deciding in haste was stupid, and they’d have plenty of time to take care of it later.

  Jared turned to Scarlet and asked, “Are you strong enough to carry me now? I think it’s time we head away from the coast.”

  Yes.

  Jared fetched his gear and leapt onto Scarlet’s back.

  “Let’s fly!”

  Scarlet bounded into the air and banked to the west. The sun had just crested its zenith, and they had half a day to fly as far inland as possible, putting as much distance between the Daggers and any of the coastal cities as possible.

  It’s time for us to disappear and work on getting stronger.

  Jared and Scarlet lazily soared through the sky enjoying the freedom of the open sky. Closing his eyes, he enjoyed the wind whipping through his hair, the smell of fresh, crisp air, free of death and decay.

  Travelling on foot became monotonous while crossing a barren wasteland, but up in the sky, with no fears and worries, and the sun’s warmth a pleasant companion, Jared’s burdens disappeared for a time. They needed no words to communicate, their emotions easily apparent across their bond while physically touching. Scarlet enjoyed the freedom and sensations just as much. If they could fly forever…