Evolver: Apex Predator

by Jon S. Lewis

  Where, as the lights snapped on, Jackson saw an almost exact replica of his father's lab. "He was a little paranoid," Laurie said. "He built this about ten years ago; or so he said. He never told me why."

  She didn't look at him as she went to the back of the lab. He stayed near the stairs and watched her walk down the line of tables and equipment toward the back of the lab, touching a beaker here, a table top there. She hadn't really given him any answers yet.

  "As far as I know, now you're the only other person who knows about this place," she said, still not looking at him. "The only real difference between this lab and the one at EnviroTech is this chamber here." She pointed to a round, glassed-in column that was probably fifteen feet in diameter and maybe ten feet tall. There was a small bank of computers that also had what Jackson thought to be a centrifuge and a padded slab that moved up and down so that the person strapped to it could look anyone standing next to him in the eye.

  "What's this?"

  "This," Laurie said, "is where we planned to inject your father with the plasmids that would confirm his theories." She watched his reaction.

  "Whoa," Jackson said, slowly reaching out to touch the glass.

  Laurie went to a computer behind him. " Take off your shirt and get up on the slab, will you?"

  "What’s the rush?” He took a step backward.

  She faced him, exasperated. "The modified DNA needs to be 'set' and the only way to do that is for you to get into the chamber and let me do what needs to be done."

  "Or?"

  "Or you'll be dead in a matter of hours," Laurie said. "And what good are you then? Your mom will have lost your father and her son in the span of one evening so you have a choice, but decide quickly."

  *

  "Will it hurt?" Jackson was strapped onto the table and Laurie looked at him and smiled.

  "Probably, I don't know. It didn't seem to make much difference to the rats or the dog," she said. She turned to leave the chamber, stopped and faced Jackson. "Look -- this was a contingency plan. If something went wrong, your dad thought you'd be able to handle the injection. I knew you were coming to the lab tonight and your dad had me waiting in the parking lot. When I heard the alarms go off, I came looking for you."

  "He was that paranoid?"

  "Yeah," she said and left the chamber, sealing the door behind her. He looked down at the electrodes stuck to his chest, at the IV in his arm and flexed his fingers. He could see a monitor that was counting down to zero. He got nervous and started talking to himself.

  "It's all gonna be okay," he said. "It's gonna be okay. Breathe. It's like running for distance: just breathe. Relax. Relax. Relax." He kept talking to himself, varying the inflections but it didn't seem to help. He couldn’t stop himself from trembling.

  The lights dimmed and the countdown finished as a flurry of beeps, whirrs and dings sounded. Jackson closed his eyes and remembered the smell of his mother's curry, heard his father's voice tell him that this was important despite the risks, saw his high school coach yelling to "kick it" and waving his arms as the runners made the last quarter mile. When he opened his eyes again, he was determined, resolute. The noise in the chamber was louder, deafening. The IV tube filled with a yellow liquid.

  The serum hit his bloodstream like acid racing through his veins. He screamed and tried to break the straps keeping him on the table and screamed again, this time with rage at being held down. Laurie watched everything, impassive, uncaring. Jackson slammed his head back against the vinyl headrest and did it again, shouting incoherently. His heart rate shot up and his fist clenched and unclenched, his toes grabbed at the edge of the table. He struggled, whipping his body back and forth as much as he could, but he was held tight.

  He began to panic when a klaxon sounded its ARRO-GAH warning and gas entered the chamber. His breathing quickened, he could feel his heart pounding out of his chest. He turned his head and saw Laurie watching him with grim determination. "I won't pass out, I won't pass out," he said to himself over and over. The gas filled the room.

  He thought he could see Laurie moving from one computer station to another though she was only a dim shadow through the gas. Another alarm went off, loud and repetitive, jabbing through his ears and into his brain. He closed his eyes and screamed again.

  When he opened them again, the gas was clearing and he could see Laurie watching him, giving him a thumbs-up. She didn't see the huge thing looming behind her, or its enormous mandibles opening and closing as its red eyes watched her.

  CHAPTER THREE

  "Laurie!"

  Jackson strained against the straps that held him again, to no avail. The gas continued to clear and he could see the monster that she couldn't: it towered over her, its eyes glowed red over sharp-looking mandibles. It stood on four legs and had a long abdomen, like some kind of mantis shaped creature. The thing swung one of its heavy claws at Laurie, knocking her aside like a rag doll.

  "NO!" Jackson pulled as hard as he could, still held to the slab. Like a wet noodle, she hit the far wall and slid to the floor. She looked dead.

  Jackson heaved and struggled; his heart thudded against his ribs, muscles tensed in his shoulders and forearms and veins popped out on his hands, his neck. He felt the strap across his chest begin to give way on the right side and he kept working back and forth.

  The alarms were still going off when the creature's claw smashed hard against the glass chamber, an awful crunching sound that cut through the din. Cracks like spider-webs appeared but the glass held. Mandibles clacked, the gas was gone, yellow and red lights were spinning around the chamber and a strap broke.

  Shouting in triumph, Jackson pulled his right hand free and began working at the buckles at his waist and then his ankles. A second blow from the creature heaved the glass inward as it reared back for a final blow. Jackson pulled free and fell to the floor when the chamber exploded over him in a hail of jagged shards.

  Something was happening. Pain shot through him as bones lengthened and skin stretched. He watched with horror as coarse fur sprouted with alarming speed and screamed with agony while his shoulders and chest widened, his nose morphed into a snout. In seconds he wasn't Jackson anymore, he was different: more powerful, more aware. His yell turned into a roar.

  He could smell Laurie's perfume, her hairspray as though she were next to him. He was overwhelmed by the countless scents that he took in with every breath but he had to focus. He could smell the chemical signature of the monster, its bristly legs clicking on the floor as it came at him.

  A huge claw came around in a long, slow arc as Jackson rose to full height, roaring. He ducked and raked five-inch long razor sharp claws across the creature's neck. A dark, viscous liquid leaked from the wound and it fell back through the glass, hissing but still standing.

  Jackson followed the thing with an ear-shattering roar tearing his claws into the monster's soft underbelly. The creature lurched and fell away from Jackson. He stood over the fallen creature and sniffed as he flexed his paws. There was something different, something human. He sniffed again.

  "Jackson?"

  Laurie's voice was weak and he lumbered over to where she lay. "Oh my..." she said when she looked at him. He cocked his head and looked at her. Her scent had turned from fear to excitement.

  Laurie sat upright, pulling her knees to her chest. She looked past the furry beast in front of her, at the shattered glass chamber, then met his gaze and smiled. "It worked,” she said, “It worked!"

  He took a step back and then leaned forward about to roar at her when Jackson remembered he was human under all the fur and muscle. He looked at his paws and sniffed at the one that had the creature's blood on it. He sneezed and wiped the paw on his belly. Laurie was smiling at him. "Good," she said. "You're still you in there."

  He watched her get to her feet and begin to inspect him. "Wait," she said and went to the insect-thing, looked at it, winced. She turned quickly to the lab table behind her and grabbed a syringe. She had two vial
s of the thing's blood when she walked back to Jackson. "Thanks," she said looking up at him, "for, uh, you know, that. Can you change back to yourself?"

  He closed his eyes. Soom. The word darted across his mind and was gone. He tried to see himself, but instead saw a large crowd of blue people with tails and long, boneless arms that had mouths on the palms of their hands and something like kelp for hair; he saw a red plain spread before him with strange, grazing animals and a long, winding blue river. He shook his head and then saw his mother making dinner; his father tapping at his tablet computer and walking around in circles at home, then in the lab, dying. "That's it," Laurie said, sounding far away and small.

  He found memories of running a half marathon; remembered swimming faster than anyone else at tryouts; cooking with his mother; dancing with the homecoming queen. He opened his eyes and looked down: he had his own hands, pink skin and all, his own feet and no clothes. "Um," he said trying to cover himself.

  "Cool," Laurie said. She waved a hand at him. "Come on, we'll get you some clothes and a shower. You stink of musk."

  "What have you done to me? What am I?"

  She went to a tall metal cabinet and pulled out a blue and red bundle of cloth, threw it at him. "You'll need this," she said and turned back into the cabinet. Jackson covered himself while she dug in the bottom of the cabinet. "And these," she said and turned around with a pair of bracelets and a pair of boots.

  "The boots okay," Jackson said, feeling more like himself, "but not the jewelry. Uh-uh." He shook his head.

  "They’re not jewelry. There's a lot I don't know, but I know you need these,” she said. "Moletronics in the plasmids will respond to embedded circuits in the suit that are controlled by these wrist gauntlets." Laurie looked at him expectantly, then said, "At least, in theory. We still need the phages."

  The next thing they heard was the stomp of heavy boots on the floor above them. Lots of boots and heading for the stairs.

  "Get dressed," Laurie said sharply.

  Jackson stepped into the legs of the suit and put it on in a hurry, pulling the tunic over his head. The hard plastic disks on the shoulders were uncomfortable, but he didn't think too hard about them: he could hear the door at the top of the stairs being rattled and he moved more quickly. The boots were a little big, but the bracelets clasped snugly at his wrists. His body tingled. When he looked around the lab, Laurie was nowhere to be seen.

  "Where are you?" The fear working its way up his spine made him sound more desperate than he wanted to. There was a loud bang from the stairs at the far end of the lab and he heard Laurie behind him.

  "This way, quickly!"

  Jackson turned and saw Laurie inside the cabinet where she'd pulled the suit and boots from, shouldering a heavy-looking black backpack. He shook off his surprise, ran over and climbed in with her. "Now what?"

  Laurie closed the door as the heavy boots crashed down the stairs in the otherwise silent lab. In darkness, she put a hand over his mouth and whispered "Quiet," in his ear, then led him through the back of the cabinet and into a tunnel with rough rock walls and a dirt floor.

  She patted him twice on the shoulder then left him. Jackson heard a very slight click where he thought the back of the cabinet should be and when she patted him on the shoulder again he jumped but didn't let out a sound. Her breath was warm on his cheek when she whispered again, "That won't last long. We have to move quickly. Hold my hand and do as I say, okay?"

  Jackson nodded, a small gesture that rubbed his cheek against hers in the coolness of the tunnel.

  She took his hand and the lead and they walked fast through the darkness, though Jackson could see pretty well. The only sound was their feet padding on the dirt and their breathing. The disks on his chest and shoulder glowed a pale yellow then orange and that was enough light to let them walk at a good pace. Nearly running, taking winding turns with some speed, it was hard to tell how far they went. Laurie stopped them after they’d rounded a big corner.

  "Nearly there," she said breathing hard. She leaned against the wall, then crouched down and put her hands on her knees. "I'm way out of shape."

  Jackson smiled, though she didn’t see it. "I can carry you if it's not too much farther," he said.

  "No," she said, drawing out the sound with a little laugh. "No. Come on."

  She grabbed his hand again and led him around another turn where the tunnel rose sharply upward. Jackson bumped his head once, twice, before Laurie told him to get down on all fours so they could crawl the rest of the way out.

  *

  The tunnel ended in a forest thick with trees and underbrush.

  "There," Laurie said, pointing toward the house. Four black vans were in the driveway, and a dozen men with rifles were searched the yard, swinging white beams back and forth in crisscrossing patterns.

  "Those aren't police," Jackson said. "Any idea who they are?"

  "Nope," Laurie said. "Except that they want the secrets locked in your DNA now." She tapped his chest.

  Finally, an answer.

  He considered all this, looked down at the house again and then at Laurie. "What do we do, then?"

  "We need help," she said then shrugged. "You ready for a long walk?"

  CHAPTER FOUR

  They briefly considered going to Laurie's apartment or Jackson's dorm room for supplies, but decided it might be too dangerous if the people in the black vans were looking for them. They spent the day hiding on the edge of the forest farthest away from the house, eating meager rations from the backpack Laurie had grabbed.

  As the sun went down, they made their way into town and walked across the park and ride lot, hoping that no one would notice them.

  "How far?" Laurie had bags under her eyes.

  "Half a mile to the edge of the campus," Jackson said, "then across the parking lot to the loading dock. Maybe. I'm guessing."

  "You have a plan to get us inside?"

  "Uh," Jackson stopped. "No."

  Laurie smiled. "Relax," she said and opened the backpack.

  "Your father gave me a packet about a year ago with all sorts of information in it, including an EnviroTech ID with my picture and a list of property and bank accounts under the name of Eve Thornhill." She waved the card at him. “That’s how we’ll get in.”

  "He knew something was going to happen," Jackson said. "What was he so paranoid about?" He started walking again, faster.

  "I don't know," Laurie said as she jogged to catch up to him. "But Dr. Thorn might have an idea. He would probably know who else would be interested in your father's work."

  "I only met him a few times. I kind of got the feeling he and Dad were more competitors than friends," Jackson said. Laurie looked at him sideways. He shrugged and didn't say anything else.

  "Let's hope that'll be enough for him to help us, then," she said.

  *

  Dr. Ebenezer Thorn, a man in his sixties with gray hair and a beard in the Van Dyke style was in his own lab on the third floor of EnviroTech, flipping through a folder full of papers when he heard the door behind him unlatch and open.

  He turned: Laurie Langley and Jackson Savage stood just inside the room and the boy was ready to run. "Dr. Thorn," Laurie said. "We need help."

  The older man didn't move except to sit back and put his hands on the arms of his chair. "The police are looking for you, Jackson," he said. "They are under the impression that you had something to do with your father's death."

  Jackson stood tall, tried to look tough. "There was a thing in the lab. A monster. I just happened to be there."

  "I'm sure," Thorn said with a little nod then turned to Laurie. "And you, young lady, the police think you smuggled Jackson off the campus last night."

  Laurie didn't answer. Jackson studied Thorn. Something made him uneasy but it was gone before he could put his finger on it.

  "Well," Thorn said, folding his hands together. "What can I do for you?"

  "How much do you know about my father's work?"

&n
bsp; "Quite a bit more now than I did a week ago and a lot more than you," Thorn said, patting the report in front of him. "He had made advances he was supposed to share with the company and hadn’t yet.”

  Thorn stood. “I see you're wearing the suit, do you have the phage discs?"

  Laurie frowned.

  "We'll have to get those, then," he said, moving slowly and deliberately. "I'm glad you came here, my boy."

  The older man walked around the lab table to a drawer, keeping his eyes on Jackson. "I'd like to get a blood sample, if I could," he said. He reached into the drawer and pulled out a syringe and two small vials.

  "It's okay," Laurie said as Jackson took a step back. She tried to convince him with her eyes.

  "I've had enough of shots and tubes and all of it," Jackson said. He looked from Laurie to Thorn.

  "I understand," Thorn said and set the syringe and vials on a small tray. "Your father and I weren't all that close as friends, but we respected each other. While my loss is nothing compared to yours, I miss him, too."

  Jackson was startled. Maybe he was reading too much into off-hand comments from his father. Maybe the old man wasn't as bad as he thought.

  "If she does it, okay," Jackson said. Thorn handed over the implements and went to another drawer, pulled out a clear vinyl sheet that had half a dozen micro discs on it, each about the size of a nickel and thinner than a credit card, and brought it back to where he'd left the folder. He took the vials of blood from Laurie, who also handed over the vials of blood from the insect creature. Thorn didn't say a word as he put each sample in a separate machine, each of which hummed to life.

  "This will take a little while," he told Jackson as he handed the vinyl sheet to Laurie. "You both look like you could use some rest."