Animalis

by John Peter Jones

  Although it wasn’t DNA itself, it had a permanent connection, spreading down into two bodies. Jax followed that connection and found himself at Moxie again, and Little Hank. The entity was spread throughout the two creature’s entire existence. It was them, or controlling them, or manifesting itself through them. The thought of clay came to him: maybe the creatures of DNA were like figures of clay, and this entity was like a hand reaching down to move and control the clay. Jax was making wild assumptions. He didn’t understand almost anything that he was seeing.

  “Now, you are like us,” the entity said. “You can make changes.”

  He could make changes? “How?” he wanted to ask, but his thoughts stayed within his own mind. Changes could be made in this strange realm, just like clay. Even he might have been changed. Narasimha had said he was changed. That’s why he was different. That was why his leg had grown back.

  Jax dove through the ocean of information and found himself in the arena. His DNA history linked with the bear’s, and hundreds of spectators. He focused down on the DNA describing his leg, moving back to the moment Misha had pulled back, biting down, holding him to the ground with her foot.

  Before the leg was torn off, he came across a gap in his DNA’s record. It wasn’t a big gap, just a difference between what it was before, and what it was after. Before, his leg would have gushed blood, killing him within minutes of the incident in an explosion of pain. After the gap, his leg had been altered to cut off its blood circulation, and deaden the nerves. Not only that, but the cells would immediately begin rebuilding the leg.

  And the change, the gap in the DNA, had come from something. Maybe Moxie and Little Hank, Jax couldn’t tell; the trail of influence drifted off without leaving a record. It hadn’t come from the pyramid, or anyone using it.

  The machine was incredible. Jax wanted to know more.

  He brought his focus through time to the moment the machine had been conceived by Dr. Ivanovich. From the present, Jax followed the life of the pyramid’s DNA back to its formation. He was surprised to see Moxie and Little Hank beside the pyramid the entire journey.

  Before the machine had been loaded onto the rat Animalis plane, it had been locked underground in the frozen tundra of Russia. Moxie and Little Hank had been its sentries, keeping humans away from the device for nearly one hundred years.

  Jax followed the path of its existence back to the very beginning. He could see Dr. Ivanovich injecting DNA that had been taken from the two ferret creatures. That was the moment of its birth. But Jax could see all of the doctor’s work coming from tiny gaps in his own DNA. He had been affected by the entity, or entities.

  Jax moved to when the machine had first been used. He could feel the body within the pyramid: Dr. Ivanovich. He sat, legs crossed, hands resting at his knees, in a meditation position. His breath was coming under control and slowing down. His heart slowing. Then there was a spark, and the story only existed in the thoughts that had been in the doctor’s mind as he traveled through the strange reality of DNA.

  Jax watched as Ivanovich stretched his consciousness to six potted plants he had prepared on his desk: three identical flowers and three freshly planted seeds of the same type. Jax could see the first plant change under the influence of the doctor’s mental focus; instead of red petals, this flower would be changed to blue. Jax saw the projected future of the plant change. The cells would shift their behavior based on the new instructions given by the DNA. The plant would turn to blue within a matter of a few minutes once Dr. Ivanovich returned to normal reality. Then, within a day, the plant would return to its default red color.

  They moved to the next plant. Jax felt the doctor pulling in traits from other plants. He wanted to see, when time resumed, if this flower could be transformed into an entirely different species of plant: a tomato plant. The projection of the future changed, and the plant deformed, trying to take on the attributes of the new plant. As well, within a day, the plant would return to the red flower it had been, but with damage that would take several more days to mend.

  The third plant’s DNA was given instructions to change into a bird. The projection ended in the plant’s death, cells tearing apart before another structure had taken their place. It would die within an hour, incapacitated by the quick deterioration taking place within it.

  The doctor repeated the process on the seeds.

  The first seed projected a natural life as a blue-colored flower.

  The second projection showed a fully functional tomato plant. If nourished, it could bear fruit, reproduce, and even form new hybrids with other plants.

  The third plant grew as an abomination. Never fully functional as either a flower or a bird. It would die within a few days.

  Dr. Ivanovich left the machine and watched the projections come to fruition. After the plants’ alterations had run their course, the doctor continued his experiments, and eventually created the Animalis.

  Jax returned to the awareness around his body. Could he do the same?

  He focused in on himself, on the instructions that dictated his eye color. It took some trial and error, but as he touched pieces of the DNA, he could see his eyes shifting from brown to yellow, orange, red, purple, blue. He stopped on blue, and watched the projected change take place in his eyes. They would shift in a matter of minutes, and remain blue for a little less than twenty-four hours.

  He shifted the DNA back, and the projected change vanished.

  He could do it: change the world in whatever way he wanted. But what would he do? What was he supposed to do? Jax wasn’t ready for this moment; no one was here to guide his action. The question echoed through his mind: “What will he do?”

  He searched for Hurley. She was frozen in time in the atmosphere, Hodge and Little Hank at her side. Jax could see her spreading out before him, her possible future, and her accumulation of past experience. She would make it to the surface of the Earth, and she would look for him. It made him happier than he had expected, to feel her love for him. He felt her flutters of joy when she had been with him at ACTS. Her rage was his rage when Hank had tortured the Animalis hyena. Her anxiety that someone would hurt Hodge. There was an innocence and purity in Hodge that she knew was better than her, and more honest than her. If he was hurt, there could be no justification for it. Jax saw the fear she felt when she allowed herself to want to be with Jax. Unsure if he would see her as lovable, desirable, beautiful, or good.

  In Jax, she saw a young man, full of potential, just like Jax saw, ready to change the world. Not knowing the depth that would come from living a long life as she had. A long life. If Jax had had full control over his body, he would have staggered at what he found hidden in the history of Hurley’s DNA. She had lived for seventy-five years. Twice as long as his own mother had lived, longer than his grandmother. And yet, her body was still vibrant with healthy tissue. She had done what she could to remain in her youth: vitamins, stringent control over her diet, and having skin treatments every five years. Nothing unusual for the majority of the population. But even she didn’t know the real reason her body had defied the deterioration of age. Jax followed the connecting ripples of cause that had affected her. Tiny fragments of DNA had been influenced, shifted by something, like his leg had been. The trail faded off without a record from the mysterious entities.

  Someone had changed her. Jax widened his view of the DNA, taking in thousands of lives over a hundred years, and saw the lines that connected to her strangeness from across time and space. They spread out, being pulled by a kind of momentum that was building in the communal being of life. The movement was a swelling, like a wave starting to form. His own leg had been caught in it.

  The changes in her were anonymous, just like Jax’s leg had been. But he could almost make out a pattern in the changes spread through history. Changes, leading to more changes, building in importance. It was like a movement flowing through life itself. Something big was coming in the future. It looked like the entities were preparing to t
ransform the balance of coexistence within the sphere of life. She had been saved to come into contact with his own life, but the reason eluded him. Was it for this moment? So that he would be here, to use the machine? To do what? The question came back: “What will he do?”

  Was he supposed to do what Hank and Captain Hernandez wanted? End the war? Destroy the Animalis?

  His body compressed with the resonance of the answer that the focus of life gave to his thoughts. Jax could feel his real, physical body contorting with the agony of it. He could feel all of the suffering contained in those few words: destroy the Animalis. The sorrow of genocide from the past locked in the memory of the DNA felt overwhelming. Jax was sucked down in it, incapacitated, drowning in the pain. There was a whole eternity of suffering. But it wasn’t the physical pain that stood out, and would stay with him forever; it was the betrayal each individual—animal, Animalis, and human—had felt. A hand that could extend love and mercy, had lashed out instead. Where friendship could have been, should have been, there was cold, indifferent cruelty. Fear, mistrust, and separation were the result.

  He tried to flee the experiences, and the guilt of having been a part of it, focusing back down on the one twinkle of kindness he could think of: Hurley. Within her mind was the hope he needed to feel. Kindness, trust, faith in those around her. How was she so pure? How could she continue to leave herself so vulnerable in the face of such a callous world? She loved Jax, she loved Hodge, Little Hank, and Moxie. Jax could even see the compassion she had for Hank, even while he had been torturing the Animalis, but how?

  He noticed a rift in her DNA that caught his attention. Jax tried to bring it into focus. It was strange, remnants of pain and regret, but he could tell some sections were out of his reach. Couldn’t he see everything? There was a limit? He had thought the secrets of all DNA were in his control, but not this. He started to form an idea of what had happened, guessing from what came before, and what came after the gaps.

  Chapter 25

  Hurley

  Hurley’s DNA displayed her life to Jax. From an early age, the Animalis stood out in her mind.

  “The census from last year was unaware of the groups of Animalis living in northern Mongolia. This could increase the estimated population by tens of thousands,” a news reporter had said.

  “A new study is underway. Researchers are hoping to find the answers to the question: ‘Just how human are the Animalis?’ Many theorize that their brains—like their bodies—are half way between humans and animals,” said another reporter from her memories.

  Conversations from her childhood friends drifted through Jax’s awareness: “If I could have any Animalis? I’d want a dog Animalis. I’d train him to clean my room, go to the bathroom in the toilet, and he would guard our house.”

  But the dream of owning Animalis was quickly quelled. Protective Animalis rights groups held popular sway within the United Nations and laws were passed to prevent ownership and mistreatment. With the world economy doing well in the twenties, the Animalis were welcomed into the work force. When the economy collapsed in the thirties, the Animalis became despised.

  Her father had been in the military, and it was a natural choice for her to follow in his footsteps. She hated the training, the mental games, and the manipulation, but she made it out of boot camp, alive, but hardened.

  Jesus Hernandez was there, joining the military several years after her. He was young and cocky, like Jax had been, ready to save the world. He was younger than her, too, ten years younger. In the present, he had aged far more than she appeared to have. She knew that he was attracted to her, but her attraction to him wasn’t the same. She needed someone to share her fears with, and Hernandez was always willing to listen. Letting the other men in the unit think they were dating helped to quell most of their own ambitions for courting her, but it seemed to fuel a dangerous protectiveness in Hernandez.

  Then the Animalis started attacking humans. Not just the random bitings that had been known to occur, but deliberate, planned assaults on humans. There were discussions about the intent with which the Animalis had been created. If they should be controlled, registered, if their population should be limited. Then she was deployed.

  “What?” the voice of Hernandez echoed to Jax from the DNA memory. “They’re splitting up the unit!” He didn’t have much of a temper, but it was coming out now.

  “I’ll be online most nights,” Hurley tried to reassure him. “That robotics company, Nano Wrimo, might actually have their robot avatars ready for public use within the year, you know. I’ll rent one and come walking with you.”

  He didn’t want to hear it. “I should be coming with you. I’ll put in a request. I don’t care what they have planned for me.”

  He kept it up for the two days leading to her departure. But when the time came, he had never sent in the request, afraid to have discipline come down on him, and he said good-bye.

  They were sending her into the heart of Siberia, where the bulk of the Animalis had built communities. Whole cities of nothing but Animalis. Apparently they were going to be helping reduce excess Animalis population. She didn’t know what it meant, but wanted to imagine it would be a clean euthanasia of an overcrowded animal shelter. But it wasn’t.

  The first mission was frightening: Animalis in an urban environment, talking, playing, curious at the troops forming barricades and buildings for themselves. Jax felt the anxiety she felt; it was not an animal shelter. The Animalis were just as alive as the humans who had come to eliminate them. And it was sickening how willingly the Animalis obeyed. They came to the buildings, Hurley worked at the desk, helping them fill out paperwork before being led, one by one, into another room, never to come back out. One week at the desk, the next week in the room the Animalis were led to.

  Jax came to the first gap in the DNA’s records. It wasn’t a subtle change, like Jax’s leg had been. There was a small piece of time and space that had been clipped out of the universe, and then sown back together. After the gap, Hurley was different. She had closed off a piece of her emotions. She thought she should feel bad about something—gap—but everyone seemed to think they were doing a great thing. It was important, they were protecting the world, and she was a part of it, playing an important role.

  One of the weeks while Hurley was working at the desk, Hernandez walked in. He was smiling.

  “Hey, firecracker. Did you miss me?” he asked.

  “Jesus!” She ran to him. She needed someone familiar, she needed someone to tell her she was a good person, and she needed an ally. Jax felt the relief of being held in the familiar arms.

  “Hernandez, your first shifts are going to be back in this room.” Another soldier broke up their reunion.

  “Let’s catch up tonight, alright?” Hernandez said.

  “Alright,” she said, smiling.

  The two men started to walk to the other room.

  “Watch it, freak,” the soldier warned one of the Animalis.

  Hernandez laughed. “Ugly aren’t they? Back off, apestoso.” He pushed the mole to the ground with the Spanish insult.

  Jax felt Hurley’s hope pull back. Hernandez hated the Animalis just like everyone else. She wanted to say something; the unspoken words were all a part of the DNA’s memories:

  Leave it alone. It trusts us with its life and we are crushing that trust under our feet. The least we can do is let it enjoy the last few moments of its life. I thought you were kind. I thought you would see the pain we were causing and want to put up a fight with me, refuse our duties together. But I can’t say any of this to you because you’d say I was wrong. You’d push me down, just like that Animalis.

  When they met later, she found she couldn’t open up to him anymore. He thought they were still a couple, and didn’t seem to notice that it was only him speaking when they were together.

  When the Animalis began to suspect that their friends and companions weren’t coming back, they became hostile, refusing the demands they had give
n into before. Hurley and the others were ordered to use deadly force if an Animalis showed signs of defiance. She was sent into the city to escort Animalis that hadn’t come at their appointed times, and then there was another gap. The gaps were not in her memory, but seemed to be whole sections of the universe, clipped out and sown back together.

  The disconnection from her emotions widened, robotically obeying commands. But something was trying to get out from inside her. Jax could feel doubt building, with every gap in the story that he came across, but she held it back. She held onto any justification she could, trying to shield herself from the guilt.

  She broke down in the third city they were ordered to reduce. Standing in the room where the compliant Animalis were being taken to die, she held the syringe in her hand. It was meant for the Animalis, but she, and Jax, caught in the experience, were going to turn the needle on themselves; they were the ones that deserved to feel the deadly prick of it. She couldn’t get away from the military. She couldn’t disobey, or run away, or feel sorry for what she was doing. There was no way for her to escape. The dam she had built, between herself and her feelings of guilt at betraying the trust of the innocent Animalis, broke. Jax passed the last gap.

  Hurley was put through a rehabilitation program and discharged from the military. She had known what she was doing, and had chosen to ignore the voice that had called out from inside her. The deaths of thousands of innocent Animalis weighed on her conscience. There was no way to ask for forgiveness, no way that the debt could be lifted from her shoulders.

  Jax started to feel peace replacing the shame five years later in her life. There was an opportunity to join a group that would be living with and helping Animalis, and she took it. The more she came to understand the Animalis, playing with them, helping to reinforce human mannerisms, the more she found she loved them. And the more she loved them, the more she knew that she never wanted to see another Animalis hurt the way she had hurt them. Jax had already experienced glimpses of the quality that she cherished so much in them: innocence. But seeing it through her eyes revealed the depth of their innocence.