by Devon Hughes
“Right. K-group. And that’s what Pete heard the scientists talking about. K-group is the key to everything. Bruce believed that if K-group had survived, he could’ve found the solution a long time ago.”
“Right, but you’re not Bruce,” Francine cut in. “No offense, but I don’t think having the key means much if you’re not a scientific genius.”
Marcus saw where Leesa was going with this, though. “Pete is,” he said, looking at his brother. “Didn’t you always want to save animals from extinction? Now’s your chance. You can start with the human race.” He pulled Bruce’s notebook out of his bag. “It’s all in there.”
Pete wanted to be done with this, that was clear, but the idea of saving humanity was pretty appealing. He took the notebook from Marcus’s hand and sat on one of the lab stools, hunching over the pages. They waited as he read.
After a minute, he sat up straighter. “They spliced the gene,” Pete said excitedly. “Vulpes pongo chiroptera is different because they spliced the gene with chimpanzee DNA.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means the fox-bat is not just a mutant, like the other animals. She was created from scratch in a test tube using pongo brain cells. It means she’s part primate.” The kids were still looking at him blankly. “It means she’s compatible with humans! I just don’t understand why Bruce never tried splicing again. I mean, he tried everything else.”
Looking at Francine’s scaly skin, that much was clear.
“He thought K-group was the ultimate failed experiment,” Joni pointed out. “If he thought they had all died early on, that wouldn’t bode well for humans.”
“So what do you need to do?” Marcus asked, leaning close to Pete. “Can you make the right serum?”
“I think so. The equations are pretty straightforward. I just need some Vulpes pongo chiroptera DNA to mix with a harmless virus that we can give to humans. Since it’s H-compatible, it should just deliver the genes we want—the ones that are resistant to the sun and pollution—and leave everything else the same.”
“Meaning people will still look like people,” Francine said, flicking her forked tongue. She turned around and ran back into H-Ward. They could hear glass clinking as she rummaged through the wall of test tubes. After a minute, she slithered back out, shaking her head. “The K-group blood samples aren’t here.”
“The only other place it would be is in Bruce’s office.” Pete sighed. “And there’s no way I can get in there, at least not any time soon. With everything that’s happened, I’m sure NuFormz is on lockdown.”
The fox-bat screeched and started flapping her wings. The Underdog barked, and the rabbit-panther thumped her hind leg—it seemed like they were all having some kind of argument. But one more loud screech from the fox-bat silenced the group.
“What about if you took another sample?” Francine said.
The group looked at her questioningly.
“Kozmo says that no one should have to live in a box. That no one should be hidden away underground. That everyone should get to breathe fresh air and feel the sun on their faces—even humans,” the lizard-girl explained. “She says you can take her blood sample. Just be gentle.”
60
MOST DAYS NOW, THE ROUTINE WAS THE SAME. AFTER school with Ms. Hoiles, Mayor Eris—Eva—would send her private auto-hele to take the kids across the river to the Greenplains.
“Your ride’s parked on the beach,” Leesa’s mom said, walking through the door to their apartment. Ms. Khan was a private consultant for the mayor now, advising on ethical public policy, so she usually just caught the auto-hele down from the sky office to ground level. They still lived in the same apartment in the Drain, but they were saving up, little by little. It was a lot easier now that her mom didn’t have to work nights and wasn’t so exhausted all the time.
“Great. Let’s go, Marcus!” Leesa shut the math textbook and jumped up.
“Homework done?” Ms. Khan asked them.
Marcus nodded. “Leesa just taught me fractions using Unnaturals stats.” Ms. Khan raised a questioning eyebrow. “The Mighty is three-fourths zebra. That means he’s 25 percent bull.”
“And you’re only 25 percent spoiled sky kid,” Leesa said with a smirk. “Let’s go!”
When they landed on the west bank in the Greenplains, Antonio and Francine were there to meet them, like always. But while the tiger-boy and lizard-girl could walk freely in the open air, Leesa and Marcus stayed inside the auto-hele. Its glass sphere detached from the chopper so they could roll along behind their friends, safely protected from the atmosphere.
“Bubble girl,” Marcus said, nudging Leesa.
“Hmm?”
“You called me bubble boy when we first met because I was so afraid of getting hurt. Remember? Well, I guess now you’re a bubble girl,” he teased.
That would change pretty soon, though. Bruce and Pete had taken INVINSIFY through extensive standard lab work. Now that they knew they had the right ingredients, there was no need to test on animals. When they’d finally started the human trials, Bruce had been the first to volunteer. But Mayor Eris insisted she’d try it first—that her citizens couldn’t trust her if she wouldn’t take the risks for herself.
“The worst that can happen is that I end up like my daughter. And then we’ll be a happy little lizard family,” she’d joked.
Francine did seem pretty happy. She laughed and leaned into Antonio as they strolled through the forest of the Greenplains in front of the hele-bubble. They chatted with the animals they passed—both mutant kids could understand animal dialects.
“I don’t know if I ever really want to try INVINSIFY,” Marcus said. “But it would be pretty cool to talk to Castor.” They’d learned the eagle-dog’s name from Antonio, and they all watched as it soared and dove above them in the clouds, the wind whipping through its shepherd dog fur.
“There’s Enza,” Antonio called, pointing at the grizzly-tiger lounging on a sunny rock. “And Jazlyn.” They watched as the rabbit-panther ran laps on the dirt track circling the field of wildflowers. “And Moss says you should come see Samken in the high-wire performance they’re working on for talent show—the octo-elephant will be juggling tomatoes with his tentacled trunks as he balances. Moss swears it’s the best act he’s ever coached.”
Leesa rolled her eyes. Antonio was at peak annoyingness when he was translating for the animals, but still, it was nice to have her friend back. His hard edges had softened, and he was acting a lot less defensive these days. He didn’t even seem to mind that he looked like half a tiger and half a boy. She suspected that had a lot to do with Francine.
“I think I just learned how to purr,” Antonio announced.
“Really?” Marcus said. “Let’s hear it.”
“Francine, I think you’re purrrfectly purrrty.”
Leesa groaned at the corny joke, but Francine was cracking up. She looked at Antonio like he was the most special person she’d ever met. It was clear he felt the same way.
“She really has beautiful eyes. And did you see how she can camouflage her skin to fit in anywhere? So cool!”
Leesa was glad Antonio was spending so much time with Francine. He didn’t even seem to mind when Marcus held Leesa’s hand when they all strolled through the Greenplains together. That happened a lot more often lately. Marcus reached for her hand now, and Leesa smiled, giving it a squeeze. He didn’t seem to mind her callused palms and chipped nails, and she totally didn’t care that his hands got clammy. What she cared about was that little thrill when they first touched, and the way he looked at her shyly, like he was still nervous she wouldn’t like him or something.
“I wonder how Joni’s book is coming,” Marcus said. Joni had been working on a book about the Unnaturals. She was already promoting it on her channel to the Moniacs.
“I don’t know how she’ll fit everything that’s happened in there,” Leesa said. “But one thing’s for sure: it’s one crazy story.”
; 61
“TELL US A STORY, GRANDDOG!”
Old Gray stretched his stiff limbs and looked down at the new generation of pups: the bulldog triplets and the tough boxer teen who would one day be an alpha, the runty little shepherd dog and his loyal big brother, Castor. Their triangular ears stood tall and twitched with anticipation as they looked up at the ancient hound dog. Gray took a deep breath, thinking back to a time when he had been no bigger than these puppies sitting before him now.
There is no story. There is just the truth.
Look around you. Everything you see, and far beyond, all of it was once green. Where you see buildings, thousand-year-old trees once stood. Above, where those aircar cables hang? That was once the crisscross of leafy vines. That cracked asphalt that scalds your paws? It was once rich earth, protected by a blanket of grass. And our kind did not look into glass windows to find our skinny reflections; we saw our faces mirrored in fresh streams—not one of them toxic.
It was a paradise.
Then the men came. They pulled up every plant. They drove off every animal. They paved over each patch of dirt. They built towers higher than the tallest tree trunks. They pumped smoke from factory chimneys, driving away the clouds. They replaced all that was green with shades of gray—steel and iron and concrete.
But with time, mutations occur. Nature begins to adapt. If you don’t adapt, you don’t stand a chance in this world. And if you don’t have friends by your side, alerting you to danger and sharing their good food, it’s a very lonely world, indeed.
So stick together, little ones. Stay close to your littermates, and help each other adapt. Make the world greener through your dreams. Build your own paradise.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thank you to my wonderful publishing team at Katherine Tegen Books, especially my editor, Melissa Miller, for her enthusiasm, smart suggestions, and shark love; Claudia Gabel, for first introducing Castor and friends to the world; and Kelsey Horton, for all her behind-the-scenes magic.
Thanks to my agent, Kirby Kim, whose gently firm nudging got me through the tough patches.
Thanks to my husband, Adlai, for his endless love and support, even when I’m a sleep-deprived grump.
And to Bertie, again, for giving me hilarious glimpses into the canine mind.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo by Eric Acquaye
DEVON HUGHES is the author of the Unnaturals series. She has always been inspired by the frontiers of nature and science. An animal lover since childhood, Devon enjoys imagining our everchanging relationship with animals and how it will look in the future. Like some of her characters, Devon lives in a city next to a river, with a view of distant trees that always seem to beckon her to another adventure. Though Devon did grow up with a beloved pet named Pookie, she is actually terrified of spiders.
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CREDITS
Cover art © 2017 by Owen Richardson
Series logo © 2015 by Nate Piekos
Cover design by Katie Fitch
COPYRIGHT
Katherine Tegen Books is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
UNNATURALS #2: ESCAPE FROM LION’S HEAD. Text copyright © 2017 by HarperCollins Publishers. Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Owen Richardson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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ISBN 978-0-06-225757-4
EPub Edition © March 2017 ISBN 9780062257598
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