EVO Universe 1: The First

by Kipjo Ewers

  Dustin let off a sarcastic laugh shaking his head in disbelief.

  It left the Sheriff a bit confused and irritated, “I miss the joke somewhere?”

  Mark explained his partner’s outburst, “We believe the woman involved in this is our escape fugitive from Mountain View. We’re going to need a copy of that footage if that’s okay. ”

  The Sherriff nodded, “Well off the record I think she deserves a medal; I've got a file thicker than a bible on that bastard and how badly he terrorized that poor woman inside. Chances are if this woman didn't show up, I'd have to notify someone tonight that their child is dead. And would you believe it…she’s finally pressing charges against him.”

  “Is she okay to speak with us?” asked Mark respecting that this was partially the Sheriff’s investigation as well.

  “She's pretty banged up, but coherent.” The Sherriff motioned, “You can talk to her for a couple of minutes before they take her and her son down to county for an examination.”

  “Her son?” Mark asked not knowing a child was involved.

  The Sheriff sneered in disgust looking at the ambulance Craig Martin was in, “Poor little feller was right there while that son of a bitch was beating his mother to a near bloody pulp.”

  “Question, you guys were called for the domestic dispute right?” Mark asked a little put off, “What happened? Why’d it take so long to get here?”

  “Believe it or not we weren't called for any domestic dispute,” the Sheriff said quite disappointed, “We got the call of a home invasion when someone heard the crash on the balcony and saw this "superwoman" holding that jackass by the throat threatening to drop him.”

  Armitage and Mercer’s look of disgust mirrored the Sheriff’s as they glanced at each other. They thanked him before heading into the house.

  “She goes from robbing a Goodwill store to stomping out a wife beater.” Dustin muttered, “This chick is all over the place.”

  “You want to check upstairs with the team,” Mark asked getting down to business, “Or interview the wife?”

  “You do the interview,” Dustin drew a breath in an attempt to contain his anger, “If I see her I might head outside and make sure someone doesn’t make it to the hospital alive.”

  Dustin headed upstairs to meet up with the FBI and Houston forensic teams to survey the damage as Mark walked into the living room.

  Instantly he wished he had switched places with Dustin. Seeing a woman sitting on her couch covered in a blanket with a left eye the size of a golf ball and a possible broken nose holding tightly onto her son with visible trauma in his eyes gave him the itch to kill someone. He had to bury that deep, put on his kid gloves, and professional hat putting personal feelings aside to obtain the answers he needed.

  “Mrs. Martin...my name is Special Agent Mark Armitage from the FBI,” once again he followed up with the textbook apology, “I'm very sorry about what happened to you. I was wondering if you were well enough to answer some questions for me.”

  Tammy slowly nodded as Armitage pulled up a seat on a nearby ottoman to meet her eye level instead of towering over her, trying to make her more comfortable than she already was.

  He pulled out an old-fashioned notepad and pen from his jacket to take some notes, “Can you tell me in your own words what happened?”

  “My…husband came home tonight,” she recounted, “He works this big insurance company, and found out it was in serious financial trouble…possible bankruptcy like that other insurance company that was on the news.”

  “AIG?” he asked joining in the conversation to make her feel even more at ease.

  She nodded as she continued her story, “He started freaking out about how he could possibly lose his job…blamed me for just spending his money.”

  She held her son tighter as she began to tear up, “He called me a dumb cow because I wasn’t like his other friends’ wives who held corporate jobs, and could help pay for their day to day life. I…I said...but you wanted me to stay home, that I could have gotten a job…and then he got angry…called me a stupid bitch, and said if I thought changing bed pans could pay for this lifestyle…and then he threw his bottle of beer against the wall and hit me. I ran upstairs crying and he chased me…I tried to shut the door to the bedroom, but he was stronger than me and he barreled through the door knocking me down…then he got on top of me grabbing me by my throat, and he just hit me over , and over, and over again….”

  The moment still fresh in her mind drew tears from her, “Our son came into the room crying, and he didn’t even stop…”

  Armitage gave her a minute to compose herself as he pulled out a handkerchief from his jacket handing it to her.

  She dried her good eye and found the strength to continue her story, “And then she just came out of nowhere…and she stopped him…she saved my life...”

  Little Ethan then chimed in meekly, “Super lady…made daddy…stop hurting…mommy…”

  Mark cracked a smile and bent lower to meet him eye level, “Did she?”

  “Yes…” the little boy slowly nodded.

  Mark remembered he had to finish his investigation as he sat back up to question his mother, “Mrs. Martin, did this woman say anything to you?”

  Tammy thought about it for a minute, “Other than for me to wake up from this hell I was in for my son…she knew my name…I remember her calling me by my name.”

  “Do you remember a Sophia Matheson that used to live here?” Mark gestured to next door.

  “Yes, right next door; she was very nice to me,” she said mustering up a bright smile out of nowhere despite her pain and obvious appearance, “But this woman was much larger…Sophia was like my height…and…wasn’t she executed; this week…for what she did to her husband?”

  Mark threw on his textbook fake smile figuring it was best not to draw her into the madness, “Uh…yes, she was…listen you need to go get checked out…here’s my card…if you can think of anything, or need anything…please give me a call.”

  Tammy nodded taking the card, “Thank you Special Agent.”

  Mark gently rubbed the little boy’s head, “Take care of mommy Ethan.”

  The little boy waved goodbye as the paramedics escorted Tammy and him out to the other waiting ambulance to take them to the hospital. Mark drew a sigh more lost than ever; he then headed upstairs to see if Dustin came up with anything. Sure enough upstairs looked worse from the inside than the balcony looked from street level.

  “What do we have?” he said again thinking in the back of his mind he needed to come up with a new way to asked that question.

  Dustin drew a sigh to the obvious, “World War III in stereo…blood samples…possibly from both the wife and husband. I have to say I like her work…I know a couple pedophiles and serial rapists I’d love for her to meet.”

  Mark confirmed what they already knew, “Dennison came home alright.”

  “So she just dropped by her old stomping grounds, and happened onto this mess?” Dustin concluded.

  “We need to get a team next door,” Marks formulated, “See what she either found or was looking for.”

  “I’m waiting for when we find some actual clues as opposed to chasing our tails. This path of destruction makes no sense to me,” an irritated Dustin said to his partner.

  Out of nowhere, an old woman’s voice screeched from outside, “Excuse me! Excuse me!”

  Armitage and Mercer looked at each other wondering what the hell now, as they headed to the balcony to see one of the Sherriff’s deputies attempting to calm down an irate elderly woman.

  “Ma’am I’m going to have to ask you to please calm down and step back,” ordered the deputy.

  “I just want to know when this will be over?!” she yelled back, “This is upsetting my cats! I pay my taxes to live in a nice respectable neighborhood!”

  “Ma’am…” a now frustrated deputy tried to explain to her the situation.

  Mark finally having enough decided to step in f
rom his perch, “Hey! You! Yeah you!”

  The older woman adjusted her glasses looking up at Mark who pointed to her, getting her attention as well as everyone else outside.

  Mark came to the edge of the broken balcony as if to leap down on top of her if he could, “My name is Special Agent in Charge Mark Armitage from the FBI; did you call the Sheriff’s department to stop the asshole that lives here from almost beating his wife to death in front of his kid?!”

  “No…I did not…,”she began to stutter.

  Mark cut her off before she could say anything else, “Then take your brittle ass back to your stupid fucking cats before I lock you up for obstructing a Federal Investigation!! Then I’ll shoot your cats! Don’t talk! Go!”

  The stunned old woman scurried back to her house close to tears.

  Mark surveyed the street of onlookers daring someone to say something, “Anyone else got anything to say?!”

  The old lion seeing that he was unchallenged, marched back into the bedroom as everyone save for Mercer who had stopped to hear him tear into an old woman scattered back to their work on the investigation.

  Dustin walked up to him with a bit of sarcastic advice, “You really need to work on your people skills.”

  “I hate people,” Mark bluntly said.

  “Even me?” Dustin knit his brows pretending to be hurt.

  “Especially you,” Mark said without even looking as his partner.

  He walked off heading back downstairs before Mercer could respond to him face to face for the obvious ribbing.

  “You’re gonna remember you said that,” Dustin muttered, “When you’re …crying at my funeral…like a bitch…you…”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  With less than five hours of sleep after the incident at the Martin’s home, and then casing Sophia Dennison’s old home looking for clues, only to come up with a couple of fresh fingerprints indicating that she was there, but nothing much else; Armitage and Mercer decided to take a break from hunting her. Obviously she was in Houston and not going anywhere for some reason, so they focused their efforts on finding out what exactly was she, and if she had any possible weaknesses. They now stood within the Federal Bureau of Investigation Houston office’s Forensics Department headed by Doctor Senji Kumamoto.

  The doctor started his findings with the basic theme of this investigation, “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”

  “We’ve been getting a lot of that lately doc,” Mark sighed.

  “To begin with,” Doctor Kumamoto explained, “This blood should have killed the subject a hundred times over. It’s literally saturated with adrenaline…twice the amount of possibly two full grown bull elephants, this partially explains why her heart started again after the lethal injection, and displayed the unbelievable superhuman strength shown in the video footage, however she should have dropped dead from a massive heart attack seconds afterwards.”

  “Was it in the canisters?” Mark asked hoping they were the key to all of this madness.

  “Negative,” Doctor Kumamoto confirmed looking through his notes, “The canisters tested contained the usual sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride used in textbook lethal injections. And she still would have died even if they were mixed; the adrenaline alone should not have saved her from the deadly combination of the pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride.”

  “So how did she produce that much adrenaline,” asked Dustin, “Manage to survive a poisonous combo, go down again to a hail of bullets, and rise again bullet proof and a thousand times stronger than before?”

  “I think what I’m about to show you next will answer all of those questions,” Dr. Kumamoto went to his computer hitting a couple of keystrokes to transfer the data to a wide screen on the wall for all to see.

  “What we’re looking at are two DNA strands,” Dr. Kumamoto pointed to explaining, “The one on the left is a normal human DNA strand double helix, atoms, etc. The one on the right is your subject’s…it has a quadruple Helix…atoms and various other elements, many that I cannot find anywhere on the Periodic table. The nucleotides and chromosomes for the one on the left number in the millions while the one on the right numbers in the trillions maybe ever more. Each one with a possible application; also if we examine the blood itself as you see here comparing it to a regular blood sample.”

  The doctor hits a button showing the actual blood itself under a microscope next to normal blood, “The normal one has white blood cells and platelets. While the quadruple helix one has neither white blood cells nor platelets whatsoever, after examining your subject’s blood closer I found that the blood cells themselves possess the properties that make up white blood cells and platelets. It appears her regular red blood cells are serving a multi-functional role of providing oxygen to the body, protecting it from disease, and repairing the body when needed. ”

  Mercer and Armitage gave each other blank looks trying to figure out what exactly the doctor just said to them.

  “So basically what you’re saying Doc is she’s not human,” Dustin concluded.

  “I would have said that if I didn’t see her blood prior to her going to prison,” stated Dr. Kumamoto, “Ms. Dennison apparently was a regular blood donor. The hospital that employed her sent over a bag of her blood they kept in frozen storage. The one you’re viewing on the left.”

  “So what you’re saying,” Mark asked trying to get a straight answer that he can understand, “Is that she was definitely normal before she went into prison.”

  Doctor Kumamoto nodded, “From what I can determine, yes that is correct.”

  “So how could she be normal,” Mark pointed to Sophia’s regular blood on the screen, “And then become…this while locked up,” motioned to her now altered blood on the screen.

  “My only hypothesis is a form of virus,” Doctor Kumamoto shrugged, “possibly mutation, unfortunately I will not know until I have run further tests. Also, if your next question is if I know of any virus like this, my answer to you is no, I don’t know of any virus on Earth that can do anything like this.”

  “Thanks doc, let us know if you find anything else that would be useful,” Mark stood there shaking his head while looking at the two samples on the screen in disbelief.

  Doctor Kumamoto nodded as he went back to his work, Armitage and Mercer with a handful of files in his grip left to head back upstairs to the main office to figure out their next step with the current information they had gathered.

  Dustin sighed, “Well at least we know the answer to what…just not the how.”

  “We still need some more what, along with how, who and where,” Mark grumbled.

  “By the way,” Dustin quickly changed the subject, “I didn’t know you could lie so well.”

  “What are you talking about?” Mark asked oblivious to what his partner was getting at.

  “At the prison, you met with Dennison’s parents and told them that she somehow was in contact with, and became a part of a terrorist cell that mounted an attack against the prison and broke her out before her execution,” Dustin smirked, “I’m surprised they bought that shit.”

  “What did you want me to tell them Dustin?,” Mark asked defending his position, “That they’re daughter was executed, and then came back to life a superhuman monster, was killed again, and came back an even more powerful superhuman monster that busted out of prison and is now on the loose?”