Animalis

by John Peter Jones

  “Now?” Jax said. “Today? But—” What was there for Jax to say? That he was just starting to imagine that he could have a relationship with Grimshaw, that maybe he didn’t have to help fight the Animalis anymore? He looked at Hank and tried to make words come out, some explanation for why he couldn’t help anymore, a plea that Hank, and the captain, and the world would understand that he couldn’t be a tool for the useless violence anymore.

  He could see his reflection in Hank’s eyes, and in it, he looked foolish. The time had come to go back to saving the world, helping end the war, pretending there was such a thing as a hero.

  “Jax,” Grimshaw interrupted.

  She had stood with her arms folded ever since Hank had come in. The Herbal Air shopkeeper had brought Hank to the ACTS building a few moments before, and now Hank was standing at the door to Jax’s room, waiting for him to come.

  “Have you told Hank about your leg?” Grimshaw said.

  “What?” Hank looked at Jax. “That you lost it?”

  Jax nodded. “Well, it’s going to be hard to believe. I don’t understand what’s happening to it.” Jax pulled up his right pant leg, revealing the new foot. He lifted his leg and started to pull off the sock.

  Hank stared at the leg. “What happened?”

  Jax finished pulling the sock off and the pink foot hung bare. Hank cringed at the sight of it.

  “Is that your foot?” he asked. He looked … mad. “I thought you lost it, Jax.”

  Jax wiggled the toes. “I did. I don’t know what’s happened to it. But it … it’s growing back.” He started to pull the sock back on.

  Hank looked at Grimshaw with a skeptical expression on his face. She nodded.

  “Well …” Hank stepped back from it, staring into space for a moment. He shook his head. “We don’t have time to talk about this. Can you come? You know I can’t do this without you.”

  That was all Hank was going to say about the leg? Jax had expected some kind of awe from him, marveling at the novelty of it. He was acting panicked and disheveled.

  Jax stepped down, slowly putting his weight on the new foot. It tingled against the ground, but the sensitivity had gone away. It felt solid and held his weight. He was almost normal.

  He wasn’t ready to leave Grimshaw, but he could never use that as an excuse. He had a duty to Hank, and the army, and humanity. Even if he wasn’t sure either side deserved to win.

  “Are you sure you want to go?” Grimshaw asked.

  Jax looked at her, and back to Hank. Did he have a choice? He had signed the contract for the United States Army. He had to go. And it was vital that they stopped the Animalis militants from using the pyramid. Hank was in command, and Jax had to follow orders.

  Did she want him to stay? With her? This was a strange world she had pulled him into, risking their lives to give Animalis a chance to live in peace, but he was starting to like it.

  No one would praise him for being a hero the way he had always pictured as a child. But he had already realized that dream was a myth. As long as he was forced to kill, he would never be able to see himself as a hero.

  Hank held out the clothes. “We should go now. I don’t know how much time we have.”

  Jax looked at Grimshaw, not sure what to say. Would this be good-bye? She had been with him through the hardest time of his life.

  He slowly reached to take the clothes away from Hank.

  “Don’t think I’m going to leave the two of you alone,” Grimshaw said. “Me and Hodge will be watching you. We’re your unofficial backup.” Her voice was firm.

  Hank opened his mouth, but Grimshaw held up a hand.

  “Don’t argue with me. Let’s go,” she said.

  ——

  Their automated taxi dropped Grimshaw, Hodge, and the two little ferret animals off at the Atticus. Then, on the way to the pyramid, Hank told Jax what he had been doing during the time Jax had been at ACTS. Living in the Atticus, tracking down surveillance footage of the plane Jax had come in on, hacking private networks for more footage, he had found the pyramid. He watched it being sent from building to building where Animalis and people took turns looking at it.

  “And today, I read an article that made it click,” Hank said. “I know how to use the machine.” His eyes looked at something in front of him for a moment, then he looked expectantly at Jax. “Oh,” he said after another moment. “No retina monitor. Well, the article was about repairing damaged cells with your brain.”

  Jax didn’t know they were trying to figure out how to make the machine work. Why would they need to? He was about to say something when Hank held his hands out to demonstrate something. With his left hand, he started moving it up and down in a wave motion, while his right hand held still.

  “So, say this hand is the cell that needs repaired.” He indicated his stationary right hand. “And this hand is the wavelength of your brain.” He waved his left hand. “Now if the brainwaves fall into the same frequency as the cell here,” he said, moving the left hand to form a line with the right hand, “then the thoughts can dictate instructions to the cell. Normally the wavelength moves up or down, meaning higher frequency and lower frequency, depending on the amount of cerebral activity going on.

  “If you’re in a panic, filled with adrenaline, or stressed with a test, then you’re going to be way up here.” He lifted the wave up. “When you’re sleeping …” He dropped the hand down low. “… it gets really low. I think the pyramid is like this cell here. It’s almost like a lock: when you get your brainwaves into the right frequency, your brain becomes the key, and you can open it up.”

  He folded his arms and sat back in his seat again. “I don’t know what they’ve been doing with it. While I was watching, there were a couple Animalis, and people, that went inside it. Nothing seemed to happen. There was that lioness, Narasimha—she came just a few days ago and the pyramid was put into another truck. And it’s just sitting there. I don’t know what they’re waiting for, but it isn’t guarded.”

  “And what kind of building is it in? How are we going to get in?” Jax asked, focusing in on what mattered: finishing the mission.

  “It’s not in a building.” Hank tapped his laser tool against his leg. He hadn’t stopped moving and twitching since he had gotten into the car. “And I found some tutorials for how to get one of those trucks to start without a key. With a laser tool, it should be pretty easy.”

  “And we drive it to the Atticus? Is there storage on the Atticus?” Jax asked. He was growing uneasy about the mission.

  “No. There’s not quite enough room for it on the Atticus. But we don’t need to jump it, not yet. I rented a storage garage to keep it in, and we can rent a truck to transfer the pyramid into before we go there.”

  The uneasiness finally had a name in Jax’s mind. “Why are we alone in this mission? Won’t the captain send another unit?”

  The speed of the tapping increased, and Hank’s legs began to shimmy back and forth subtly. “This might be our only chance,” he said. “I’ve been here, alone, for almost two months, tracking this thing down because the captain wasn’t willing to divide his resources. He needs proof. But we’ve got to get it first. As soon as the captain finds out we’ve found you, he’s going to pull us back, and we’ll lose our chance to get the machine.”

  “What? The captain doesn’t even know we’re going after it right now?” Jax asked. “Come on, Hank! We can’t do that. We’re going to get killed. Or worse, sent back to the arena.”

  “No!” Hank shouted.

  Jax shrank back from the angry outburst.

  Hank lowered his voice: “I’m not going to let it go. And I’m going to use it, at least once. Don’t think I’m being selfish, either. We’re doing this for you, too, Jax. They have to pay.” His green irises tunneled into Jax’s eyes.

  “I …” Jax hesitated. Why am I fighting against him again? Hank needs me. “We’re going to use it?”

  Hank’s stare grew less intense. “If we g
et an opportunity … once we get it out of their hands.”

  The car came to a stop. Outside, the sky looked dim, covered in heavy clouds, rimmed with red and orange, hinting at the sunset hidden behind them.

  “You look good, Jax. I can’t believe you were in the arena,” Hank said. “They never posted video of your fight—but then, with an escape like that, I’m sure they don’t want anyone seeing it.”

  They stepped out of the taxi and into the chilly air. Beside them stood the remains of a crumpled, partially demolished building. Old bricks still formed a short wall along the sidewalk, and beams and other structures stuck out into the sky.

  The city block was divided in half, with a shipping access road between the ruined building and the warehouse where the truck was parked. Down the skinny road, to the right, would be the shipping bays.

  “How is it walking with your new foot?” Hank asked, his voice joining the rumble of machinery and combustion engines spread throughout the city.

  “It’s uncomfortable, but it’s working,” Jax said.

  “You really lost it?” Hank asked.

  Jax had no interest in talking about it—not right now. They had to be focused, watching and listening for anyone that might catch them. Hank, though, looked and sounded nervous. Maybe he was talking to distract himself from what lay ahead? If the plan went wrong this time, could either of them hope to make it out alive?

  “They might not have posted a video of it, but I bet they recorded it and have it somewhere in their files,” Jax said. “I’d like to see it myself if they do.”

  As they came to the edge of the alley where the trucks were parked, Jax started to feel the skin on his arms start to tingle. His stomach began to churn as well. It felt like he was being drawn to the pyramid again, being pulled toward it.

  He didn’t have time to ask Hank about the feeling now. Jax wasn’t sure if it was just fear of the pyramid roiling his insides, or if there really was a force pulling at him. Either way, he was determined to ignore it and finish the mission.

  They turned down the alley. Footsteps echoed off the walls of the buildings. They could see the trucks parked in the loading bays now. Lights on the side of the building had turned on, beacons for the darkness that was coming.

  “Do you see that one?” Hank said. “The third one down. Not from the end, from where we are. I’ll have to check the license plate, but I’m pretty sure that’s the truck we want.”

  “Alright,” Jax said.

  About fifteen yards separated the alley from where the trucks were parked. Once they started crossing that distance, they would draw the attention of anyone watching. They’d have to be fast and direct.

  “This doesn’t seem suspicious to you?” Jax asked. “They just left it here, out in the open?”

  Hank kept walking, pulling his chin down into the collar of his coat. “We’re not aborting yet. Get ready.”

  They walked into the loading bay. Jax went for the door to the cab and tried pulling it open. He was surprised to find that the door wasn’t locked. He was about to climb in when he heard the sound of another door opening, and then felt the truck shake.

  Jax whipped around, expecting an ambush, but he saw no one—not even Hank. Feeling his heart rate increase, Jax moved to the back of the truck to look for him.

  “Hank?” he whispered.

  The back door of the truck had been opened and Hank was standing in front of it, looking in. Jax looked up and down the loading area, expecting to see Animalis coming for them at any moment. When he looked back at Hank, he felt his stomach drop. Hank was beginning to climb into the back of the truck, where the plain, metal pyramid stood from floor to ceiling.

  Hank was going to get them both killed. They had to leave—NOW.

  “Stop!” Jax hissed.

  Hank jerked to a stop, hanging on the edge of the cargo truck.

  “What are you doing?” Jax took a step closer to him.

  “I can do it. I just need a minute,” Hank said. His breathing was fast and loud. “Help me up.” He turned his head back to look at Jax, scowling. “Come on!”

  “You don’t need to do anything! We have to get out of here, Hank.” Jax checked the area around them again. He grabbed the door to the truck to begin closing it. “Let’s go.”

  “Leave me back here while you drive.” Hank took his foot off the truck and moved to stop the door from closing. “I have to see inside it. I want to know how it works. To see if it can undo what it did before, and make the world right again.” His hand held the door.

  “You’re the only one that knows how to drive a vehicle like this—and you know where we’re going,” Jax said. The look in Hank’s eyes wasn’t fear, like Jax had thought; it was hatred. “We have to go!”

  Hank blinked, and shook his head. “Right, we have to get it out of here.” The hatred was gone, leaving his face pale with fear. He let go of the door and Jax closed it.

  They quickly went back to the front of the truck and climbed in. They didn’t even have to hot-wire it; the keys were still in the ignition. The truck rumbled to life. A horrendous grinding noise came from the front of the truck, and it jerked forward.

  “Aw, got it. Sorry. Ah, what’s wrong with this thing?” Hank held the wheel in front of him with his left hand, and with his right hand, he was trying to shove a stick with a black ball on it, which extended out of the floor of the truck. There was another grinding noise, but at least they were moving.

  “Hey, wall!” Jax wanted to reach for the wheel. Hank looked up and saw the wall of the next building coming toward them.

  “I’ve got it. Is there anyone following us?” Hank spun the wheel and the truck started to turn.

  Jax looked in the little mirror that hung on the side of his door. He had to move forward to get the reflection of what was behind them.

  “I can’t see anyone.”

  Now they were in the alley. A few dozen yards and they’d be out on the street.

  “Lion!” Hank shouted.

  The lioness stepped in front of the opening to the alley. The fur on her head, shaking in the breeze, had turned golden-red from the light of the setting sun. Her arms were relaxed, hanging by her sides.

  “Can we go faster?” Jax said. “Or if she doesn’t get out of the way, run her over!”

  It was definitely Narasimha; Jax could see the short tail. She seemed so calm, watching them come at her. Then he noticed that she held something in her hand. She lifted it up and started to squeeze her finger on the trigger—but it wasn’t a gun.

  Jax’s unconscious mind had put it together before the trigger was fully compressed. He arched his back, thrusting his hips up and away from the seat.

  Hank, though, convulsed in muscular spasms, as electricity shot up through the seat. The wheel spun as Hank threw his arms wildly, out of control. The low wall of the demolished building was in front of them.

  Holding his body away from the seat, Jax kicked Hank’s door open and pushed the two of them out into the alleyway. The truck smashed into the bricks, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

  The pain of the impact was hidden beneath the adrenaline shooting through Jax’s veins. The truck engine ground to a stop. Through the confusion and pain, Jax managed to put together a coherent thought: How could we be so stupid again? She had been waiting for them to come. The truck must have been rigged with shock wires that held the same incapacitating force as shock sticks.

  Jax pushed himself to his feet. Narasimha was coming, but she was still a dozen yards away. More Animalis were joining her, coming from around the front of the warehouse.

  They had to get away. Jax had to get them away. He couldn’t go back to the arena, and couldn’t let Hank be taken to that evil place.

  Jax lifted Hank’s torso up off the ground, and pulled him onto his back. He turned around, but more Animalis were coming out of the shipping bay. He looked back at the truck. Where it had hit the wall, the bricks had collapsed down onto the front of the truck,
opening up into the jungle of metal and plastic of the demolished building.

  Jax held onto Hank tightly and ran at the truck, leaping off the tire and launching up onto the loose bricks. His foot skidded, and he lost his balance. The two of them landed hard on the bricks.

  He rolled over and stood up again. The Animalis were running at them now, holding out long shock sticks. Hank let out a light moan as Jax pulled him back up.

  The buzz of a shock stick was close, coming from right behind Jax. He held onto Hank and dodged to the right. The stick let out a crack as it struck the bricks. Jax scooped a brick up with his foot and kicked it down at the Animalis dog.

  Hank started to pull away from Jax’s grip, and then Jax saw what was happening: another Animalis—a leopard—on the other side of the truck was pulling at Hank’s leg.

  “No!” Jax yelled. He hefted another brick up and threw it down at the leopard. Hank slipped out of Jax’s grasp and fell off the truck.

  Jax couldn’t leave him. The dog was reaching with the shock stick again from the other side, and the leopard was standing over Hank. Jax dove off the truck at the leopard. The shock stick was ready, and it caught Jax in the side.

  His eyes were still open; he could see Hank lying in the rubble next to him. His ears were ringing, and the rest of his body was frozen in electric spasms. Below him, the leopard struggled out from under him.

  “I hoped you’d come,” someone said.

  Jax couldn’t move his head to see who it was, but he recognized the growl of Narasimha’s voice. He knew he had muscles in his jaw and in his tongue and lips. But they were lost from his mind, consumed in the electric flames that gripped his body. Move, he commanded himself, get up.

  “Was it you in the pyramid? I saw how you jumped from the arena. And I thought, humans have never jumped like that. Even the Animalis don’t jump like that. It isn’t part of us—not in the … DNA.”