Evolution of Angels

by Nathan Wall

  “—There's no need to heap more blood on my failures.” Sanderson put his hand on Jarrod's shoulder and lightly patted him. “I'm sorry, but I thought you should know the truth. You were flagged as a match, but you wouldn't be a horse I'd bet on. Join your friends. You're still an incredible soldier and Hershiser could use you for this mission. I'm sure of it.”

  “I guess it’s better late than never to know the truth.” Jarrod nodded, walking out of the room. “Thanks... I guess.”

  Elliot stood from his seat in the observation room, reading Jarrod's file. He looked down at Sanderson and then over to his psychic guards.

  “Can you tell me why he is lying?” he asked. Both guards looked at each other and held their fingers to their temples. They attempted to breach Sanderson's mind, but someone else kept them out.

  “No matter.” Elliot opened the file, analyzing Jarrod’s percentage match. A match that was only possible if Sanderson had succeeded where he insisted he once failed. After all, there is only one way for Sanderson to give up on a Double-Helix program he so adamantly fought to keep going. “Sanderson, you dirty little liar.”

  * * *

  Jarrod jogged through the hangar with a bag strapped to his back. All around him men braced for the flight to fight against the unknown, loading weapons, drones, and double-checking their gear for what everyone thought for sure to be a large battle. He spotted his friends and they nodded with smiles, welcoming his return back to their ranks. An exchange of words wasn't needed as Jarrod put his gear next to theirs and examined which weapon he would like to use.

  “I overslept.” He smiled, looking at Travis and Christian. “Won't happen again.”

  “Oh great. I didn't think it would be much of a mission without your loud, obnoxious, self-loving, blabbering mouth along for the ride.” Christian looked down at his gun and snapped the chamber back.

  “I love you too. We don’t have to hide...” Jarrod looked Christian up and down, nodded sarcastically, and laughed.

  Sanderson entered the docking bay and stood next to Lian. They exchanged vacant stares before eyeing Jarrod.

  “Someone was trying to probe you earlier,” Lian said, crossing her arms. She tried again to see inside Jarrod’s mind, but couldn't figure out which echoes she was hearing were his. So she stopped trying. “When you were lying to him, that is.”

  “The greater good,” Sanderson replied, leaning against the wall.

  “So that whole speech about others making your decisions…” She walked away from him. “I guess it's ok, even if it's a lie, if it's all for the greater good?”

  “Who was it?” He grabbed her by the arm, turning her around.

  “Don't act like you don't know.” She yanked her arm from his grasp.

  “Does he know?”

  “I didn't read his mind, so I can't say.” Lian left him standing there alone.

  Sanderson looked around, his heartbeat quickening, and scratched his arms nervously. He started forward briefly and then hesitated, turning to walk the way he came.

  “Mr. Ryan,” Elliot called out, heading toward Jarrod with Hershiser closely behind. “May we inquire what it is you're doing?”

  “What?” Jarrod lifted his eyes up but continued to pack his gear. “I'm prepping for the mission.”

  “Sorry, but the squad has been set.” Hershiser shook his head, standing next to Jarrod. He motioned for men to remove Jarrod's gear. “You haven’t been fully briefed. You'll have to wait behind.”

  “Come on, it's not like the three of us really have a firm grasp of the situation.” Travis pointed at Christian and Austin.

  “Well, perhaps this time we can make an exception...” Hershiser nodded before being interrupted.

  “I certainly know the feeling of comradery you fellows have, believe me.” Elliot lifted his hands and rubbed Christian and Austin on the shoulders. He leaned forward, looking at Jarrod. “But regulations are regulations. Mr. Ryan will be able to watch everything with us in the situation room. I promise.”

  “You're seriously going to deny another willing gun?” Jarrod tilted his head, rolling his eyes. Sighing as he stepped away, he stuck his hands in his pockets and looked at his friends. “I guess… good luck, guys. I'll be watching and waiting for you to return.”

  “You'll get your chance to help out soon enough.” Elliot smiled, creepily rubbing Austin on the back before walking away.

  “Mind if I stay with them while they get ready?” Jarrod asked, turning to Hershiser.

  “No, of course not.” He nodded. “I'm sorry, we'd love to have you, but you know...”

  “Yeah, I got it.” Jarrod shrugged, smiling at his friends. “Don't do anything that I wouldn't do. Because if I don't think I can pull it off, then you certainly can't.”

  As Elliot walked out of the docking bay, he was approached by Sanderson. The two men stood silently for a good minute before talking.

  “I thought we needed to use every vital resource at our disposal to bring the star home?” Sanderson placed a Rosado cigar between his lips and lit it. Slowly dragging the smoke in, then releasing it through his nose, he continued. “Sending a gifted soldier like him to his room when he's so willing to get shot at for our cause doesn't make a whole lot of sense.”

  “No, it really doesn't.” Elliot quickly glanced at his psychic guards and let them know their services weren't needed. “Talented indeed.”

  “What do you say we forget about regulations this one time and let the kid go fight with his friends?” Sanderson leaned his right shoulder against the wall and tilted forward, speaking softly. Holding the cigar between his left index and middle fingers, he waved it around in an exaggerated motion. “I might be starting to see things your way.”

  “Really? My way, are you?” Elliot nodded, looking at Jarrod before turning his focus back toward Sanderson. “He does make a good team with his friends, doesn't he? How much are you seeing things my way?”

  “I've been reading up on your new theories and serums.” He handed Elliot a folder with a few sheets of paper in it. “My initial assessment may have been a bit... off. I'm still a bit uneasy with using the Edward debacle as a launching pad, but your theories make for good ones.”

  “I feel like there's a catch coming up.” Elliot took the folder and stuck it under his right arm. “Are we totally giving up your process?”

  “I think it's time to move on, don't you?” Sanderson put the cigar back to his lips and talked out of the side of his mouth. “Imagine how well this train could move if we all just pulled in the same direction. No? It doesn't take a psychic to see I've been fighting a losing battle this last year.”

  “Look at you, Sanderson. Captain change-of-heart.” Elliot stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder. “But it doesn't take a psychic to see you're full of shit either. You're too stubborn to simply drop what you want for the greater good. Always have been. And, despite your pleasantly smelling blend of tobacco, I know you're still lying.”

  “I'm afraid I don't know what you're—”

  “—You can cut it.” Elliot slowly put his fingers to Sanderson lips, before caressing his cheek with the back side of his hand. “Mr. Ryan is staying put. You and I are both in agreement that a skill set such as his needs to be put to full use... for the greater good, of course.”

  “But my recommendation on your new process—”

  “—Is greatly appreciated.” Elliot walked away. “But we can both agree that Jarrod was born for something else. Consider it a goodbye gift to the Double-Helix.”

  Sanderson crushed his cigar with his hand and threw it to the ground. He looked at Jarrod—who was waving his friends—off and stomped out the flames from the burning tobacco.

  * * *

  Six hybrid aircrafts swarmed through the lower trails of the Noshaq mountains. Austin looked below, gripping his new weapon tightly. He admired the cascading lush tree line of various greens turn to snow and ice along the jagged mountain side.

  The aircraf
ts were incredibly quiet for how quickly they moved through the sky. The agility of the aircrafts was on display several times as the pilots made heart-stopping turns through the narrowest of openings in the mountains.

  The wristband on Austin's left arm vibrated with a blinking yellow dot, indicating that disembarkment was imminent. The aircraft let out a quick rumble as the propellers on the wings transitioned from a forward motion to a vertical angle in order to hold its place in the air. The two side doors slid open and the men jumped out, running from the steep drop off in the cliff toward the side of the mountain wall. Austin stopped for split second, gaping at the steep five-hundred foot incline.

  Hershiser slid four metallic briefcases along the ground. He typed what looked like random keys on his wrist pad. The briefcases split open and reformed into hovering droids with cameras and searchlights mounted on top of them. They looked like miniature flying saucers with four wings.

  “Drones are online,” he said, communicating back to base. He waved the aircrafts off, indicating everyone had made it safely away.

  “OK, now that's awesome.” Travis’ jaw dropped before transitioning into a smile.

  The three Double-Helix Agents, Kirk, Reznor, and Lewis, each emerged from the shadows. Light sprung from their hands. Their skin glowed as the aurascales spread over their bodies, melding together. In mere seconds, their armor manifested over their skin. Glistening silver plates grew from the fluidly moving aurascales, each with their own unique blend of purple.

  At a loss for what to do, Austin and his friends followed Hershiser’s lead. They headed up a small path, following a digital trail left behind by the drones. The narrow, steep walkway was littered with loose rocks and pebbles, making it difficult to gain traction.

  The drones zoomed around, feverishly scanning the area, unable to come up with anything. Austin reached the top of the long climb, turning to offer his hand to help others up, when he noticed an odd figure making a zigzag ascent in the distance. Barely able to see the shadowy figure, it looked as though its arms and legs were twice as long as a normal person's. They jetted out in odd angles while it moved back and forth up the side of the mountain.

  Austin put the butt of his gun into the crook of his shoulder, adjusting the scope to get a clearer picture of what he was seeing. As the object came into focus, its jaw dropped a good two feet, exposing jagged teeth. Before he could pull the trigger, he was slung backwards away from the ledge. A large spiked-club slammed into the ground where he knelt.

  Austin hit the back of his head on the ground. His vision went blurry for a few seconds. When it came back into focus, a large behemoth of a man towered over him. He was unable to make out the details of the figure. The full moon behind the colossal man cast a shadow twenty feet long on the ground. The giant had incredibly large muscles that tried bursting their way out of his skin. The large figure leaned forward. The shadows fled from his face revealing one eye in the center of the forehead and massive teeth protruding from behind the lips in every direction. The Cyclops let out a terrible scream. Saliva in his mouth strung together from tooth to tooth like spider webs. Lilac energy blasts rained down from Austin's left, hitting the Cyclops square in the side of the head, disorienting him.

  Lewis, in his full battle suit, charged in and laid a shoulder tackle in at the feet of the Cyclops, taking out the legs. The giant to fell forward. Austin rolled to his right just as the behemoth crashed on the ground. Kirk joined the fruckus, jumping in to help subdue the Cyclops.

  Austin stood, but was snatched from behind and dragged down the side of the mountain to the next landing below. Suddenly, whatever had him, launched him thirty yards, causing him to skip across the ground like a smooth stone on a calm lake. His right tibia snapped, poking through the flesh at an awkward angle. Austin removed his backup firearm and shot five times in rapid succession.

  The elongated skinny figure hurled himself across the ground, running on all fours toward Austin. When he got closer, he stood on his hind legs and grabbed Austin around the biceps. He picked Austin up, slowly bringing him closer to his face. The skinny man’s jaw unhinged, dropping two feet, allowing Austin to see deep inside the throat.

  “Dodge this.” Austin tilted his wrist up, aiming the sidearm at the jaw of the skinny man, and pulled the trigger three times. The shots tore through jaw and flesh, allowing Austin to be released from the man's grasp. He hit the ground, rolled to his side, and emptied the clip into the torso of the skinny man until the scraggily figure fell off the side of the cliff. Austin let out a long sigh, resting his forehead on the ground.

  Suddenly, a bright pink light swirled through the surrounding area. A jarring chill cut through his veins. It felt like his skin was being peeled back, and then his muscles, and finally his bones. The light vanished and he was reassembled piece by piece. His heart rate spiked out of control. Austin closed his eyes and rolled on his back in an effort to stabilize his breathing. He opened his eyes and the glow of the moon was gone, replaced by low hanging thick clouds which ran furiously across the night sky.

  His palms sifted through the lush grass. To left left, sounds of slowly moving waves along the shoreline caught his attention. The sweet smell of the trees and grass opening up for the pending rain sat eerily in his stomach. He looked behind to the footsteps of a thick large forest where even the faint light that did exist couldn't reach.

  “Help me,” the screams of men echoed through the forest, down the slight hill, and out over the large lake. A few energy blasts crackled in the distance, steadily getting louder until the faint glows of the shots made their way from behind the heavy tree line.

  A sudden pounding vibration rushed its way through the ground. Austin rolled over onto his stomach and crawled at a painstakingly slow pace toward a fallen tree trunk. He pressed his back against the side of the trunk that faced the lake and clamped down on his leg as hard as he could, trying to stop the throbbing sensation from running its jagged nails up his spine. He noticed the digital compass on his wrist pad was going haywire. However, he was still receiving scattered signals from the other members of the sector squad.

  He reloaded his gun and snapped back the chamber to arm it. He rested his hands on his chest and leaned his head back on a soft, rotting part of the trunk. The fighting seemed to be getting further away as his breathing calmed. Finding it hard to keep his eyes open, Austin let them close for just a second—or so he thought as he was awakened by a deafening explosion.

  The chill of the morning air pierced his lungs as he sat straight up in full daylight. Quite a bit of time had passed. The glowing baby blues and bright pinks of the skyline reflected off the top of the platinum waves. He noticed that a large path about forty feet wide had burned through the tree line that ran up the gradual hill. Two rock creatures formed from the ground, each grabbing hold of a Cyclops’ arm, and tearing them from the side of the giant.

  The rock creatures returned to dust as Oreios, two Double-Helix Agents—one blue and one purple—and a slew of men from Austin's sector squad came walking out from the forest. Austin tried to yell for them, but he was barely able to form a hacking whisper. Unable to lift his hands, he tried to pull the trigger of his gun, but it slid from his grasp.

  Oreios lifted his right hand and the light around the individuals started to morph, mimicking the look of a shimmering mirage. Without warning, the air swallowed them up, and they were gone. Shaking, Austin leaned the side of his face against the log and fell asleep once again.

  * * *

  Hershiser led the way up a gravely trail, following a path the drones signaled to him. He monitored them on his wrist pad, looking back to see Austin and the others following close behind him. He reached the next landing and took up position behind a large protruding rock while the drones sent weird readings back to him.

  “What is that?” he asked, waiting for a reply to come back from the command center.

  The reply entered into his thoughts. We're unsure of the reading. We will pul
l up a closer look with a satellite.

  He noticed Austin pointing his rifle down the slope. As he stood to walk over to the cliff, a giant slowly materialized out of thin air in a beam of pinkish energy.

  The man was easily ten feet tall. He raised a spiked club above his head, ready to pound. Hershiser sprinted and pulled Austin out of the way, making it just in time. He slung Austin back and shot the behemoth several times with an energy gun.

  Another flash of light beamed behind him. He spun around to see two half-man, half-beast individuals charging. Their torsos, heads, and arms were those of body builders, but their legs were those of animals, curved in at the knees and with hooves for feet. Large claws grew out of their fingers and their sneers were full of jagged fangs.

  Hershiser pulled a disc out from his backpack and pressed on the center button. He flung it forward and the disc split in two, lodging onto the torsos of these Satyrs. The first Satyr grabbed hold of Hershiser, flinging him a few feet in the other direction.

  Hershiser regained his balance, quickly standing. He pressed a few buttons on his wrist pad and the center parts of the discs beeped. Within seconds, a little drone swooped in and blasted each of the Satyrs, burning holes into their chests. Hershiser ran forward, past the now-dead assailants, and the discs popped up into the air, reforming into one piece just in time for him to grab hold of it. Lewis and Kirk were successfully subduing the Cyclops, and the sector squad began to put up a perimeter. Dozens more Satyrs and Cyclopes surrounded them, materializing out of the pink light.

  “There's quite a few of these bastards,” Hershiser yelled. “Take them out.”

  Hershiser, we're picking up a strange heat signature in the area. The heat map is going cold. What's going on? asked the voice in his head. Our images are...

  A large wave of pink light washed over the area—the voice in his head fading out. Everyone was dismantled piece by piece before slowly being reassembled. As his skin reattached to his bones and muscles, Hershiser fell to the ground and grabbed at his chest. The world around him seemed to be upside down until it inconspicuously flipped over. He stood and stumbled for a few seconds until Agent Reznor grabbed hold of him.