Earth Man

by Richard Paul Evans

  Danny and Dr. Glass had agreed to meet at the small, unmarked Chem-X building, which Dr. Glass had given him the address to only the night before. Everything had been very secretive and Danny had found the whole situation incredibly frustrating but he felt obligated. He`d already started spending their money; it was inevitable that he would at some point have to earn it. The doctor believed Danny should spend time with the creature they had in captivity and Danny had agreed. Although his new powers hadn`t shown him anything about the aliens yet, he believed it was worth a shot to try. He had no clue how else to track the alien that was on the loose, so he thought it best to start with the one imprisoned and work out from there. Danny had no idea as he flew into San Diego that both of monsters were already inside the Chem-X building. As he got closer he could see a giant white plastic bubble covering the spot where the building was and he was forced to land in a nearby street. There were crowds of people gathered and a couple had seen him drop in, but he ignored them. With his helmet on, they couldn`t recognize him anyway.

  It appeared as if the Center for Disease Control had sealed off the building, but Danny wasn`t sure because there were people running in and out from beneath the plastic cover. It was a bubble, but there were wide double doors in the front and everyone from firemen to office workers were being shuffled in and out. The police were trying to evacuate the building while the CDC people were trying to quarantine the area, with military men shouting at everyone trying to assert their authority. Danny slipped past them easily, moving in quickly as a stretcher was hauled out. The woman on the stretcher appeared to be in a state of shock; her eyes and mouth were frozen open and her body seemed to shake with terror. Danny managed to reach the front door of the building but six soldiers rushed across the parking lot with their guns aimed at him.

  “HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!” the Captain shouted.

  United States Marines, Danny recognized their uniforms. Danny’s strange helmet made them nervous and suddenly wished he’d picked something more pleasant.

  “Get on the ground! Face down, now!” one of the other soldiers shouted.

  Danny stepped back away from the door and raised his hands. The animal abilities were still with him, he could pick them out and use them as needed and he found a familiar scent in the crowd. He scanned the chaotic crowd until he spotted Dr. Glass and he waved frantically to him. Wearing black wasn’t the right thing to do, he realized and he humorously thought to himself that perhaps it was time to get a set of colourful spandex costumes instead .

  The soldiers were slowly circling him and shouting questions about credentials and who he was but the Doctor ran to them and they lowered their weapons.

  “Lower your guns please! He is an employee of Chem-X! He works for us! Let him through!” Dr. Glass shouted.

  “Sorry, but no one is allowed in this building until we have further orders. The whole block has been locked down.”

  Danny saw the Captain turn to address Dr. Glass and as he did so the other soldiers lowered their weapons slightly. Danny waited until only one of them was still watching him and he slipped quickly and easily through the door into the small corporate building.

  Obviously something had gone wrong and Danny now realized how out of hand everything had gotten so quickly. There were homes nearby; the facility was hidden in a heavily populated area. Although the building was only eight stories, the size of the quarantine and the massive plastic cover they`d put over it was going to attract a lot of media attention. Danny wasn’t sure where to begin. Then he remembered his cell phone and taking it out, he quickly called Dr. Glass. He wasn`t sure the soldiers weren`t going to storm in any minute so he headed for the staircase across the hall, passed the elevators.

  “What the hell happened?” Danny shouted into his phone.

  “Look, the Attorney General and the head of the FBI are coming to speak with me. I don’t know how much longer I’m going to be able to talk. DHS has come down on us, Danny, along with a line-up of other government bureaucrats. They’ve discovered what I was hiding something here, something dangerous, and they came to shut us down. It’s going to get ugly, I’m afraid. I’ll probably lose my job.” Dr. Glass said matter-of-factly.

  “What is going ON, Doctor Glass? Inside here? Why are they sealing it up?” Danny asked angrily. “Did it escape? Is it loose in here somewhere?”

  “Danny,” Dr. Glass said calmly, “They are both in there. Two of them. You need to kill them both.”

  Danny had already walked up two flights of stairs and he stopped dead in his tracks. The stairwell was small and clean and he tried to look up to see if he could see anything, any sign of what danger might be waiting up there.

  “What the hell have you people done.” Danny said into the phone.

  “There’s no time for that now, Mr. Boyle. You need to handle this. It was what we chose you for. It is what we paid you for. Homeland Security is going to arrest me; the least you could do is prove me correct in believing in you. Only you understand the danger these things pose to life on this planet.”

  “Don’t worry,” Danny said angrily, “today is not the day the human race dies.”

  Danny didn’t know what to say after that so he turned his phone off and placed it back in his pocket. He winced slightly as it chimed as it powered down, the noise seemed to echo through the entire stairwell. Then the power went off and Danny was left in the dark.

  Ever since he’d snuck through the door he’d sensed the Growth within the building and even in the dark there was a sense of them all around. Danny wasn’t even sure which animal he borrowed abilities from, but the darkness did not impede him, even in pitch black his eyes were able to adjust. The two alien entities seemed to pulse with hostility somewhere above him, almost as if they were boils ready to burst. Their hunger tainted the air within the place, leaving a stench that Danny knew he’d never forget. Danny could sense the animals on the top floor as well; they seemed to react to him as soon as reached the penthouse floor.

  Even with the main power supply off the steel door to the main laboratory was locked so Danny decided to break it down. He kicked the bottom corner of the door until it bent, the steel toe of his boots denting from the blows. He’d gotten so strong that the metal seemed to bend like aluminum and as soon as the corner began to bend he grabbed a hold and peeled it back. The force of him pulling on the door snapped the security lock and the door flew open. The noise had been minimal and Danny was proud of himself, he wiped off his hands and entered the secret room.

  There was light in the office area from the windows; although they were covered in white plastic for privacy they still lit up the cubicles with a white glow. Danny could hear the cries and screeches of the animals in the laboratories farther deeper inside in a side chamber. The personal items on the desks of the Chem-X employees seemed bizarre when just next door animals were being tortured and experimented on. Danny wanted to avoid the animals at all costs, he could feel their pain but he did not think he could handle seeing it. The fear, horror, pain and suffering that emitted out of the room the animals were locked up was like a thorn in his side that he was forced to ignore. There was nothing he could now to help them; he could tell the animals were doomed without even seeing them. Chem-X had experimented on all of them and none of them would ever return to the natural world again.

  Discarded documents covered the dark blue rug and half-eaten lunches still sat in the lunch room. The contrast of light coming in from outside and the shadows within made the whole place seem creepier somehow and he hurried past the computers and desks toward the darkness at the heart of the building. There was another pair of doors on his right that were locked and Danny knew the suffering animals were inside. He borrowed their abilities and continued walking on; there was nothing he could do for them now. Holding aliens prisoner was one thing, but what Chem-X had done to the living animals behind those doors turned his stomach. It was repulsive that anyone could allow such cruelty and Danny regretted ever having met
with them. Raymond was right; they were just another big evil corporation. It made him glad to know the government had finally stepped in and he hoped they’d shut them down. If they were put out of business he wouldn’t have to return the money they’d paid him, money that now seemed tainted.

  Coming to the last laboratory, Danny knew the two aliens were inside waiting for him. As he was about to push open the door he heard a chiming noise and realized it was coming from a phone somewhere. Looking around, he remembered he had his phone with him and although it was not his ring tone, he pulled it out anyway. The phone was blinking and a call was coming through. Somehow the phone had been turned back on and across the front it read: CALLER CANNOT BE IDENTIFIED.

  “Hello?” Danny said.

  “Danny Boyle?” the voice asked. It was a man, roughly the same age as Danny, perhaps younger.

  “Yes. Who is this?” Danny said, walking away from the lab doors. He tried to whisper as quietly as he could.

  “This is Ian McDaniel, I’m with the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. Glass has been arrested, Mr. Boyle. We need you to come out of there right now.”

  The man had a thick accent, one that Danny recognized but had not heard in a very long time; it was the thick brogue of a Scotsman.

  “Sorry. Can’t do that. I’ve got a hot date.” Danny replied.

  “This is no time for humor, Mr. Boyle. Glass has already been charged with obstruction of justice and we’re just getting started here. If you want to be able to walk away from this, you’d better do exactly what I say.”

  “I can’t. I have to do this. Trust me, you aren’t the tough guy in the room today, Mr. McDaniel. And you don’t scare me.”

  “What’s in there, Danny? What the hell was Chem-X hiding in there?” the Scotsman shouted.

  Danny couldn’t think of anything smart or sarcastic to say. How would the government react to the knowledge he had? If he could tell them what he had seen, would anyone even believe it? A dozen feet from him were two aliens who sought nothing less the elimination of the human race. Where did he even begin?

  “Death,” Danny finally said.

  Removing his phone battery, Danny placed the pieces back in his pocket and headed for the room where the monsters dwelled. The darkness and the buzzing sound of the emergency lights made the whole scene much more ominous than it should have been and it made Danny smile. He wondered what would happen if Helen tried to call him but he had to keep his phone off, the last thing he needed was another distraction. He wasn’t even an American citizen and he wasn’t too sure they could even handle the Growth, even with their impressive military power. Telling them anything would only complicate his life even more. It did give him a sense of satisfaction to know Dr. Glass was under arrest. Hopefully they’d find the laboratory eventually and really stick it to him, he thought.

  As he stepped through the doors he could feel his heart pounding in his chest. The sudden darkness of the room forced him to use his abilities to see and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust. Filtering through different animal abilities he could suddenly see the bright red heat of the monsters moving in the center. The animals in the laboratory farther back stopped their cries and howls as if they knew something monumental was about to happen. Even in their pain and misery they knew something worse was near, something that Danny was ready to fight for them, protect them from. They lent him their abilities and he felt as confident as he could. Nothing would ever be the same for him or the planet Earth ever again. He stood in some form of observation room but to get to the creatures he would have to pass through two more swinging doors. The entire world seemed to be holding its breath. Nothing would ever be the same for Danny, or his family, or the people of Earth. This was the moment he’d been chosen for.

  As he pushed open the two swinging doors he saw the First sealed within a cracked clear plastic cell, the same kind Chem-X had kept the Third in after he’d beaten it. There was the same type of incineration device attached to the front of it, a large red button on the front with a warning sticker. The outside of the box was covered in blood, dirt and filth and the Second had tried desperately to crack it open. Danny saw the Second leaning against it, its body human shaped once again. While the First had the same tubular, wormlike shape, the Second seemed almost thin and wiry compared to the Third. Only the Second’s head and neck was still human pink, the rest of its body was made of the black stuff it seemed to be composed of. There was little human tissue left, just black alien skin that shimmered like greasy obsidian. It pressed its naked, hairless body against the cell, slamming its fist against the plastic over and over. The First responded to it, its large bulbous body quivering as it leaned against the inside of its cell. They were communicating with each other somehow, Danny could tell, but how they were doing it he didn’t know. It was as if they both heard a song he could not hear, moving together as they tried to break the First loose. The creatures looked pathetic but Danny wasn’t quite sure they even understood sorrow or loss, but he couldn’t ignore the fact that the two aliens seemed to desperately want to be together. All his pity faded as he walked closer and saw the dead bodies scattered around the laboratory. At least two lab workers and a security guard or police officer had been butchered and dismembered, their parts scattered around the room. The Second had tortured them, killing them slowly when they could not open the prison for it. Danny could not even tell what race or gender the victims had been, there was nothing left but bloody pieces.

  “LET HER OUT!” the alien suddenly screamed at him, its face twisting in rage.

  The Second kept its eyes on Danny but it did not attack. It had exhausted itself pounding on the tough plastic and while it had damaged the plexiglass, the Second was beginning to realize it might not be able to free the First itself. Not knowing what else to do, Danny approached it slowly, with his hands up as if it were a wild animal. He had no intention of letting the First out, but if he could get close enough to hit the button, he could destroy it completely. Of course then the Second would attack him in a murderous rage, but Danny figured he would worry about that when the time came.

  Although he did his best to hide his intentions, Danny was terrible at subterfuge and the creature shuffled closer to him, studying him as if he were the alien. Slowly, step by step, he approached the clear plastic cell; the worm-like First seemed to be moving in response. The monkeys down the hall began to scream and Danny could hear a warning in their panicked cries. Stepping around the alien he moved closer, closer, inching towards the big red button on the side of the glass. The Second circled around Danny, gazing at his helmet with an odd curiosity, unable to see the human face hidden behind the black visor.

  “Free her!” the creature hissed, rushing toward him. It stopped inches from him and swung its arms wildly.

  “Her?” Danny asked. He took another step closer.

  “We are of one mind, her and I. One hive. One form. One life. We are the Growth.”

  The Second slammed itself against the plastic so hard Danny jumped.

  “The new mother. The new father.” It said, barely fazed by the impact.

  Its black body quivered and shifted as it began to caress the plastic wall. The First made a strange cooing sound inside, a sickly kind of gurgling that came from somewhere inside its body.

  Danny was amazed by how different the two creatures were, not just from each other but from the one he’d faced before.

  “Who are you?” Danny asked.

  “I am the Second of the Growth, leader class infiltration drone. Free the First! Free her now!”

  The Second had mutated into its own type of monster, different than the other two. It seemed that there were pieces of the living things still inside it, those that it consumed were assimilated into the Growth but it was not a clean process. Pieces of humanity still remained within the creature, making it even more dangerous than Danny had previously thought. They were not mindless, they were just insane.

  There was something even s
tranger about the First, something Danny had sensed right away the first time he’d seen it. All of the aliens were obvious foreign and strange, but the First had become something else, something that bothered him at a primal level. It revolted him, more than even the others and although it posed no threat, he felt an overwhelming desire to destroy it. It did not seem to be made of any human flesh, just the same black alien skin that the others had, but shaped into a worm-like, or perhaps plant-like form. It had no means of moving around, no appendages or orifices, it simply stood erect and swayed while making an unbearable cooing noise. It made no sense to Danny, because he’d seen their home world, he knew what they looked like in their original forms. Something on Earth had made the First the way it was and Danny did not want to know how or why. The thing inside the cell had to be destroyed, Danny knew that and he was beginning to sweat as he got closer. Some primal mammalian instinct told him the thing in the cell was the true danger, more than the one next to him, all the thoughts of all the animals in the surrounding area seemed to scream a warning into his head. The leather suit suddenly seemed too tight, too claustrophobic for him but he kept inching closer. The button was only a few feet from him but the Second kept moving around him like an over-eager dog. The Second was clearly berserk and extremely dangerous but the First was pure inhuman horror.