Radioactive Evolution

by Richard Hummel

  Nothing will survive that. Then again, the creatures on the outside might survive if those closer absorb the explosion.

  Enthralled as he was, Jared hadn’t paid attention to the rapid progression of the concussive wave until he realized it was about to crest the surface of the water.

  Hold on, Scarlet, this could get rocky!

  As fast as Scarlet was, she couldn’t outrun the pressure wave that exploded from the water. She was high enough it caused no serious harm, but it shoved her upward violently, her wings snapping taught as the updraft propelled her higher.

  The pressure from the rapid ascent forced Jared into a hunched position atop Scarlet’s back, and he fell to one side, scrambling for a handhold.

  Scarlet, help!

  Jared!

  He lost his grip and plummeted to the water below. Scarlet could do nothing to help him as the pressure wave lifted her higher into the air.

  Jared still had Hyper-Cognition activated, but it didn’t allow him to move his body any faster. He had plenty of time to process everything, and there was nothing he could do but prepare for impact in the water.

  Before hitting the surface, he turned off his ability, his mind screaming in agony, which quickly faded to a minor nuisance as his body smashed into the water. A fresh wave of fire rolled up his side from the impact, but the only thing on his mind was, Did we kill it?

  The moment he resurfaced, he pinwheeled his arms and kicked his legs as fast and hard as he could. He made a beeline for the beach, which thankfully wasn’t very far.

  Scarlet, let me know if anything comes after me!

  I think these creatures have much more important things to worry about at the moment. That bomb was impressive. Anything not destroyed in the initial blast is swimming around erratically.

  Regardless of Scarlet’s reassuring words, Jared pushed all of his will into strength and speed as he splashed his way to the shore. With fifty yards yet to go, Jared saw a glow in the water and felt the telltale sign of nanite infusion.

  Oh no.

  Hurry, Jared!

  He pushed with all he had, causing Maximum Strength to trigger. He shot forward in the water, but not fast enough as the nanites swarmed into him, the torrent burning through his body. Just as the burn ramped to an unbearable level, his feet touched the bottom of the lake, and he launched himself from the water, leaving a glowing trail of nanites in his wake.

  He fell onto the sand and lay there panting as his whole body burned from yet another massive influx of nanites. Scarlet landed beside him and nuzzled his side.

  Are you okay? asked Scarlet, concern thick in her voice.

  “I’ll—be—fine,” Jared said, in between massive gulps of air. “Get some—of the nanites.” He weakly pointed to the water.

  Scarlet trundled forward to absorb them. He watched as the glow increased in brightness, and the rush of nanites shimmered over Scarlet’s body. The entire lake took on a faint glow as the nanite activity increased.

  Jared...

  Scarlet? Jared asked, propping himself up on his elbow. What is it?

  Help! The pained cry made his exhaustion disappear, and he rushed to help. The torrent of nanites buffeted her body like a raging inferno, and her mouth opened in a silent rictus.

  “No! Scarlet!”

  Panic set in as Jared wracked his brain for a solution. Seeing no other way to help, he jumped in front of her, activated Maximum Strength, crouched, and drove his body into her, the impact throwing her back a few steps. He felt a sharp slicing pain lance up his right leg, and a pop resounded from his shoulder.

  The pain threatened to overwhelm him, and the edges of his vision faded to black, but an overriding fear for Scarlet blasted past the pain.

  Ignoring the agony, he limped forward and placed a hand on Scarlet’s side where she’d collapsed to the ground, her body convulsing with waves of iridescent color pulsing over her. The last remnants of nanites pulsed over her body as they finished assimilating.

  “Are you okay?” Jared looked over her body, searching for any other injuries and probing along their bond to make sure there wasn’t anything else wrong.

  I think so. That hurt so much, and I could not shut out the pain like usual, Scarlet said, her voice sounding labored.

  Jared sympathized with her. The whole absorption process sucked, and his whole body felt raw. Add to that the injury to his shoulder and leg, not to mention the past few weeks, and he was in rough shape.

  Jared examined his injuries to see just how bad they were. He’d dislocated his shoulder and torn some ligaments in his leg. Every slight shift felt like a knife jab. He couldn’t do much for his leg aside from ensuring any spare nanites went into regenerating his injuries. His shoulder on the other hand, he could pop back into place and help expedite the healing. Removing his belt, Jared folded it and placed it into his mouth. Bracing his shoulder on the ground he yanked his arm forward.

  Jared bellowed through clenched teeth, hearing an audible pop as the bone settled back in place, the pain subsiding. It still felt tender to the touch, and he knew it’d take time for his regeneration to heal it.

  Next, he examined the torn ligament, and quickly realized it would take a while to heal from this injury. “Scarlet, I’m going to need help walking away from here. I think the combination of using Maximum Muscle to swim to shore and then to knock you out of the water was too much for my body. I tore some ligaments.”

  Jared lay on his side, stabilizing his leg, while looking around for anything he could use as a splint.

  “Let me know when you can get moving. I don’t have anything with me to stabilize this leg, and I’m not much use in this condition.”

  I am ready, but...

  Jared looked at Scarlet when she paused. “But? What?” Scarlet looked out over the water before she answered him.

  There is something off about these nanites. It’s as if—I don’t know how to explain it.

  Once again, Jared sent his awareness inside and looked for the nanites they’d recently gained. He found them easily since they’d not fully integrated until after he assigned them. Focusing on a cluster of them, he studied the coding. At first, he felt nothing different, but the more he looked at them, the more he realized Scarlet was right. They were different, but he couldn’t put a finger on it either.

  “It’s almost like they are alive, or almost like they have awareness.”

  All the other nanites he’d absorbed were just machines. They only reacted to his will and command, exactly as a machine should. These new nanites remained dormant, but he could feel as if they wanted something, or had a sense of belonging to them. It was impossible to describe exactly what he felt, but he agreed with Scarlet that they were different.

  Look at one of the nanites you already had and compare to a new one.

  Jared did as he was told but couldn’t see any differences. Part of that was he couldn’t make much sense of his own genome. He could pick out a DNA molecule and even see its makeup, but he couldn’t discern what everything meant, or compare that against bio-machine code that made up the nanites.

  Scarlet lowered her head and touched Jared. An image blossomed in his mind of Scarlet’s DNA and two nanites side by side. Looking at Scarlet’s DNA, Jared marveled at how different it was from his own. He almost understood his own DNA, but Scarlet’s was infinitely more complex, and it weaved a beautiful symmetric pattern around a quadruple helix that made up a DNA molecule.

  Look at them side by side.

  “How can I see what maps to machine code versus your DNA? I’m just not seeing it.”

  Mentally sighing, Scarlet said, This will be much easier after you increase your Telepathy ability. Once we share a thought space, you will understand easier. For now, ignore the DNA and just look at these sections of the nanite code. This is the section of code that bonds with our DNA.
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  Jared scrutinized them and recognized the differences in the code right away. There was another layer of code weaving throughout the nanites.

  “I didn’t think this was possible? You said we can’t absorb nanites from other humans.”

  It…is not human. It is too simple. Or, rather, it is complex, but not in the same way as the human genome.

  “Again, how is that possible? These things bind only to human DNA.”

  I do not know. What if, Scarlet began.

  “Any theory is better than what we currently know.” Jared motioned for her to continue the thought.

  I suppose I do not know these nanites as well as I thought. It should not be possible for this to happen unless there is a creature that is also partly human such that it can integrate and control the nanites using human DNA. It would need to remain in control of the assimilation process and prevent the humans from fully absorbing them, much the same way as my mother did with you.

  “Wait, what? You’re saying the creature controlling all this might be as strong and intelligent as your mother?”

  Annoyed that he’d suggest anything was as strong, Scarlet responded, No. At least, I do not believe so. It used human DNA, or infected humans, to manipulate the nanites. It was smart enough to manipulate them and enslave minds, but from what we saw first-hand, it appears rather primitive. Simple.

  “Is this going to be dangerous for us? These new nanites, that is. I don’t see how it could be, since we killed that thing.”

  No, I believe they are safe for us, and whatever influence exerted by the creature is gone. There is one other thing I must check. Scarlet stepped toward the water, claw outstretched.

  “Scarlet? What are you doing?” An edge of panic laced Jared’s words.

  Do not fear. I will be fine. I was unprepared before, but that is no longer the case.

  Jared watched as she placed a claw into the water, bowing her head as the nanites started streaming toward her again. She stepped back from the water’s edge before it became anything more than a slight glow.

  “What were you doing?” asked Jared.

  I was confirming another theory. The lake is a conduit for the nanites.

  “Conduit? Like a battery? So you’re saying we have a massive source of nanites at our disposal to keep getting stronger? What about other creatures absorbing them?”

  Yes—and I do not think so. The creatures in the water will absorb small amounts, but the tiny portion of modified DNA coding will prevent another creature, a non-bonded creature, from absorbing them.

  “And other humans can’t absorb them if they aren’t bonded! Scarlet, this is amazing! We’ve got a huge military bunker, hundreds of weapons, medical supplies, boosters, and now a huge pool of nanites to absorb.”

  Jared couldn’t believe his luck! They’d set out to hunt creatures and grow stronger but only stopped in this area on a whim. Of course, it wasn’t all rainbows and sunshine, but now they had all they needed to build an army of bonded. It was almost enough to make him forget about his brush with death the past few weeks, or his plummet to the lake just a few moments ago. The possibilities they now had in front of them sent excitement coursing through him.

  We’ve got everything we need! Well, everything except people.

  Jared and Scarlet remained by the water for a time recovering, the pain in Jared’s leg and shoulder aching. Somehow, he managed to pull himself to his perch atop Scarlet. His leg screamed in protest as he swung it over her back. Before doing anything else, Jared made sure all of his body Manipulation nanites had instructions to regenerate. Thankfully, he’d not changed their instructions since his last injuries, and they’d already repaired some of it, the tear in his leg noticeably smaller. He couldn’t afford to be hobbled long since there was no telling when they’d need to outrun the many predators in the world.

  From his vantage on the dragon’s back, Jared looked out at the water, deceptively peaceful until he flipped to Heat Sight and saw the mass of movement just below the surface, and an increasingly large number swimming toward the shore. They moved at random and didn’t really have a sense of purpose other than to escape the water.

  “Scarlet, I think we’re about to have company.”

  Scarlet lifted her head and looked out over the water.

  “Can you fly yet?”

  Yes, I can fly. Are you ready?

  Jared ensured that he had all of his gear with him, which wasn’t much, since he’d left most of it back in the barn.

  “Yep, let’s go.”

  Scarlet bunched her legs under her and vaulted into the air, her body jerking more than normal as she gained altitude and hovered over the lake.

  Concerned, Jared asked, “You sure you’re okay? That seemed like it was a bit difficult for you.”

  I am still a bit winded from the influx of nanites, but I am fine.

  “All right just let me know if you need to set down and we’ll head back. I’d like to observe these creatures for a bit if you are okay. Maybe we’ll get some insight about what held them captive.”

  Jared watched as the creatures made their way toward land. Every type of creature imaginable tumbled out of the water onto the sand they’d just occupied.

  “Scarlet, let’s make a circuit around the lake, I want to see just how bad this is.”

  Scarlet circled the lake, and everywhere he looked, warm-bodied creatures pulled themselves from the murky water. Although he couldn’t see a lot of details with Heat Sight, he saw humanoid bodies, bipedal creatures of all shapes and sizes, and even creatures that had no legs or arms swimming for shore. Jared switched back to normal vision to observe some of the creatures already on land and heading away from the lake.

  “Scarlet, can you drop lower please? I want to get a good look at these things.”

  Scarlet descended, and Jared examined all the beasts that came out of the water.

  “Holy crap. What—Scarlet, how is this—what is going on here?”

  I...I do not know.

  The first thing Jared saw were naked humans waddling out of the water on unsteady feet. Their skin was a sickly white blue color, and their bodies showed signs of mutation. They had webbed feet and hands and what looked like gills on their necks. Judging by their lack of coordination, it’d been a long time since they’d walked on dry land.

  When Jared and Scarlet flew over, no one looked up. They plodded forward with no clear direction in mind. Some of them stopped on the sand and heaved, great hacking coughs wracking their bodies in spasms.

  The hacking repeated itself like an echo all down the coastline as creatures struggled to breathe out of the water. It confused Jared, since most of the things exiting the water were land dwellers and should have no difficulty breathing. Aside from the coughing, no other sounds reached his ears. None of the creatures growled, yipped, or mewled. It was deathly silent, the occasional retching the only noise to slice through the silence.

  The scene disturbed him deeply, raising his hackles. It seemed as though they were in a state of shock, stupefied, and didn’t remember how to act anymore. Many of the animals emerging from the lake looked like genetically altered amalgamations of many species.

  “It looks like most of these creatures went through some transformation that allowed them to survive down there,” Jared said, his thoughts taking voice. “I wonder if they’d attack us?”

  The silence ended abruptly as a commotion several hundred yards down the coastline drew his attention. When they reached the other side, Jared exhaled sharply.

  “Whoa.”

  The sight made Jared crinkle his nose in disgust. Dozens of different species reverted to their natural predisposition, attacking anything in their path. The ghastly spectacle below stained the sand crimson, their blood creating ribbons of red streaming down the beach.

  Immediately below him, a group of
crocodiles twenty feet long with massive rows of sharp teeth squared off against several dozen creatures that resembled giant badgers. The badger-like creatures nimbly bounced around with massive tails ending in two sharp points. Fangs, protruding from their long snouts, sank into the crocodiles’ thick hide.

  “What the heck are those?” Jared wondered.

  They look like beavers or badgers, but modified?

  “They look like nightmares,” Jared said, disgust obvious in his words.

  “I don’t think it’s a natural mutation. I mean, look at those things. It’s like someone spliced three different animals together to create them! They all look like science experi—” As he said it, a lightbulb went off in Jared’s head. “Scarlet, maybe these are science experiments. We know there is a huge military bunker below. It stands to reason they might have a lab down there too.”

  It is possible and makes the most sense looking at these things. They did not mutate naturally.

  “Let’s make another circuit of the lake and check out some of those neighboring ones.” Jared pointed in the distance. “I want to see if they’re connected.”

  Battles raged up and down the entire coast as creatures vied for dominance. Their blood decorated the sands in a macabre display of red gore as it spurted violently from severed limbs and decapitated bodies.

  “Scarlet, what did we unleash?” Jared shook his head, concern etched across his face. “Maybe whatever controlled these things was doing the world a favor?”

  Jared sat on Scarlet’s back watching the horrors emerge from the water and fear gripped his mind, suffocating rational though. They’d fought rats, lizards, rabbits, and a giant worm, but there were thousands, if not tens of thousands of mutated creatures crawling for the shoreline.