Apex

by Moon, Adam

  “No shit, Jack. It was some kind of alien aerosol and it put us all to sleep. We’re lucky to be alive.”

  Melanie shook her head adamantly. “My mom thinks I spent last night at Jessica’s house. There’s no way I’m going to tell her the truth. My dad would kick the crap out of me if he knew I was out with you two.”

  Scott added, “You’re right. The first thing a doctor would find in our bloodstreams would be drugs. I can’t let my mom know that about me.”

  Jack shook his head. He should’ve known his friends would take the easy way out. But, in a way, they were right. If a doctor found something strange inside of them, they’d be forced to recount what had happened last night. That could go only one of two ways. Either they’d become tabloid news and have to endure public ridicule, or else they’d be taken seriously and quarantined by the CDC or some shady government agency.

  Melanie said, “Dan and Molly already said they’d deny ever meeting us if we went public, so we’d have too much working against us from the start. I don’t blame them either. They’re probably living outside of town for a reason. They probably don’t want other people in their business. Going public with this would be a nightmare for them.”

  Jack said, “Just promise me you’ll both get checked out if anything odd happens.”

  “Of course,” Scott lied.

  Melanie added, “You worry too much Jack. Let’s get some lunch and then we’ll sleep on it.”

  Jack chuckled. “Are you hung-over from last night?”

  “Actually, I feel really good. I’m just starving and tired.”

  “I’d be hung-over if I drank that much.”

  “I should be too. Maybe the alien spoor defeated my hang-over.”

  “Don’t even joke about alien spoors.”

  Scott said, “I’m going to tell my mom I was at your house last night, Jack. You can tell yours that you were at mine.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Busted

  Jack walked through his door knowing fully that he was in deep trouble. The police car in his driveway could mean just one thing; he was caught.

  He already knew he couldn’t say he’d stayed with Scott last night. His mom wouldn’t look into his story but the sheriff would. The sheriff was useless but because he was perpetually bored, he’d dig deep whenever he thought he was onto something. He was like a dog with a bone when it came to the usually petty crimes that occurred in Ault.

  Jack closed the door quietly and crept down the hallway. He heard his mom talking to the sheriff in the kitchen.

  She said, “That was Scott’s mom on the phone. She said he just walked in. Jack should be home soon. I’m so sorry for wasting your time, Bob.”

  No problem Jenny. I don’t blame you for worrying. Let me know when he gets in, ok?”

  “I will. Right after I beat the stuffing out of him.”

  “Go easy girl. He’s a teenager. They make mistakes. I’m sure you stayed out all night a few times in your younger days too.”

  She said jovially, “Hey, what do you mean by that? I’m not that old.”

  Jack had heard enough. Rather than going in and facing both of them, he crept upstairs and waited for the sheriff to leave.

  He’d have no choice but to tell his mom the truth. But apparently she already knew enough. He could always leave out the part about the alcohol, pot, and alien artifact, but he’d have to fess up about staying out all night with his friends. She already knew that part anyway.

  He slowly closed his bedroom door and sat down on his bed. Despite the fact that his heart was pounding holes in his chest, fatigue crept into his limbs and took over. Before he knew it, he was pulling his covers over his legs. He slipped into a comatose sleep.

  In and Out

  His eyes opened lazily. His mom was screaming. He couldn’t focus on anything. He closed his eyes and blocked out the screams.

  His eyes opened again but the bright light bulbs caused him physical pain so he reflexively slammed them shut again. He heard weeping beside him. He turned his head towards the noise and saw his mom’s silhouette stand up and rush over to him. Her features sharpened before his fogged up eyes.

  She was staring into his face; the look on hers was hard to decipher. He’d never seen her look at him that way before. It was a pleading look full of fear.

  He shut his eyes and his mind slid away.

  He opened them again. I was dark now. The air smelled funny and it was silent.

  A male voice said, “I’m Doctor Henshaw, Jack. Take your time. Don’t rush this.”

  Jack shuffled his butt backwards on the bed and sat up as the lights came on.

  The doctor was around fifty with receding silver hair and big black caterpillar eyebrows. He had a kindly look to him that should have instantly put Jack at ease, had the situation been ordinary.

  Jack said, “Where the hell am I? Where’s my mom?”

  “She can’t come here just yet. This is a restricted area. We’ll get to that later. How do you feel?”

  “Sleepy, I guess.”

  The doctor laughed. “You’ve been sleeping fitfully for five days. We thought we’d lost you a couple of times. Try and stay awake for a spell before you go back to sleep, ok?”

  Jack said incredulously, “I slept for five days straight? Am I sick?”

  “We don’t know. But strange things have happened all around you ever since you fell asleep. Your muscle mass has increased on its own. Your heart rate was clocked at over seven hundred beats a minute. Your arm twitched and you punched a hole through a solid oak dresser without sustaining injury.”

  “Huh?”

  “It’s all true. Something is happening to you and it has us all stumped.”

  Jack asked, “Have you run tests?”

  “There are some tests that we’d love to run but we can’t. We tried to draw blood. Your skin is pliable but it doesn’t give. We couldn’t get a syringe in you, no matter how hard we tried or where on your body we tried it. X-rays haven’t worked either and an MRI is out of the question because we can’t inject you. So we’re forced to observe and hope for the best.”

  Jack cracked his neck and rubbed his dry eyes. This was all so surreal that he barely believed it. “So where am I?”

  “You’re in Denver. We have you and your friends quarantined in a small building designed for things of this nature.”

  In a sick way, Jack was relieved his friends were here with him. Sure, it was selfish, but it was nice knowing he wasn’t going through this alone. “Can I leave if I want?”

  “I’m not going to lie to you, son. You’re stuck here until we know what’s going on with you.”

  Jack almost asked about the middle aged couple, Dan and Molly, but if the doctor didn’t already know about them, then he didn’t want to put him on to their trail. “How are Scott and Melanie doing?”

  “They’re doing better than you. Scott woke up a couple days ago and Melanie woke yesterday. You’re all exhibiting the same symptoms, but that’s a good sign for you because they seem healthy now that they’re up and about.”

  “Can I see them?”

  “Not yet. Take it easy. I don’t want you overexerting yourself so soon after regaining consciousness. I’ll send someone in with some lunch right away.” With that, the doctor left the room.

  The audible click of a latch being shoved into place on the other side of the door sent chills down Jack’s spine.

  Test

  Jack wondered what that alien mist had done to him. Was it a contagion that would kill everyone he came into contact with? Was he a sort of Typhoid Mary? Was the contagion a precursor to an impending alien invasion, meant to weaken humanity before the assault?

  Or was he a delusional teenager? There was a very real possibility that that sphere wasn’t alien in origin. Maybe it was something top-secret that had fallen from a military jet. Or maybe someone had laced their weed with acid? That would explain the bizarre sequence of events that immediately transp
ired afterwards. But it didn’t explain a mass hallucination encountered by not only him and his friends, but also the couple that had not smoked their weed with them. And it didn’t explain what was happening with his body now.

  When Dr. Henshaw came bursting through the door excitedly, Jack nearly screamed. But the look on the doctor’s face confused him. The doctor was both excited and worried. He came at Jack with a heavy steel bar and Jack flinched, ready to be clubbed to death.

  But the doctor touched him on the shoulder gently and said, “No son, this is for you. I want you to bend it.”

  Jack felt like a fool for curling up defensively. It made him look like a coward. But the ramifications of what the doctor had just said helped him get over his embarrassment. Could he bend a steel bar that thick? Why would the doctor suddenly think he could?

  He reached out for it, ready to tense against its weight, but it felt as light as a feather in his hand. “This isn’t metal, is it? It’s too light.”

  “That bar is pure steel and I’d bet it weighs fifty or sixty pounds. Bend it.”

  Jack furrowed his brow and grabbed hold of the other end of the bar with his other hand. It bent too easily. “What’s the point of this?”

  “You just bent something that can’t be bent by man.”

  “No I didn’t. It’s not steel and it wasn’t hard to bend it.”

  “That’s what your friend Melanie said right after she bent it into a pretzel. I had to have her bend it back for me so I could test Scott and you.”

  Jack didn’t exactly understand what the doc was getting at. “Scott did it too?”

  “Yep. Like it was made of silicone. Now that I know you are all changing in the same ways, I want to test you some more. Get some sleep. I’ll come up with some more challenging tests. We’ll begin tomorrow morning.”

  Jack bent the steel rod back like it was made of melting wax and held it out for the doctor to take. The doctor wrapped a towel around his hand and took it. By way of an explanation, he said, “This bar has been manipulated so much by you three that it’s scalding hot to the touch.”

  “It didn’t feel hot to me.”

  “I know that. Your pain threshold will be tested tomorrow too.” As he exited the room, he said, “I can’t wait to see if your reflexes are improved.”

  Lunch

  An orderly brought him a bowl of oatmeal and a banana with a cup of hot coffee. He refused to answer any of Jack’s questions except to say he didn’t care that Jack hated oatmeal, bananas and coffee because that was all he was getting. Jack was pretty sure prisoners had better choices for lunch than that. Jack also noticed that his eating utensils were all made of plastic, maybe so he didn’t use them as weapons, or maybe so he couldn’t use them to commit suicide or murder.

  He let his legs drop to the side of the bed and gingerly put his weight on them. He was startled to see the musculature bulging in his thighs. He was in just his boxers and a t-shirt but he wasn’t cold, even though the walls and floor were made of concrete. He flexed his bicep and stared in awe as it swelled before his eyes.

  He walked to the nearest wall and put an ear against it to try and see if he could hear Scott or Melanie on the other side.

  If he had heightened strength and toughened skin then he assumed he’d have heightened hearing too, but alas, he heard nothing.

  He sat back on his bed and worried. He worried that he’d never get out of the quarantined cell he was in. He worried he’d never see his mom again. He worried about his current predicament. What if he was so unique that he was deemed a threat to national security? What would the government decide to do with him and his friends if they thought they couldn’t control or trust them? A worse thought crossed his mind: What if the government could d nothing to stop him? He was strong and his skin couldn’t be broken. Did that mean he was indestructible? Normally the idea of being unstoppable would have thrilled his seventeen year old mind, but there was something about the notion that terrified him, now that it was a very real possibility.

  A different orderly knocked on the door before entering. This one was a woman in her mid twenties and she was cute. Normally Jack tensed around beautiful women but he was oddly emboldened. Maybe he was over his hang-ups. Or more likely, that alien mist had changed more than just his exterior.

  Before he could act on his newfound courage, she had already scooped up his bowl and cup and then left the room.

  Alien Invader Ship,

  Half a Light-year from Alpha Centauri

  The Grey commander, Davok, relaxed in his chair. He was a big guy, twice as wide and a whole head taller than most Greys. His size alone was enough to intimidate his crew members. “Be ready to wake the troops from stasis soon.”

  His second in command, Fillo, said, “They’re still being rejuvenated in their pods. I request we let them recover fully before we wake them up.”

  “Understood. How many spare pods do we have now?” That was double-speak for, how many troops have we lost?

  “We have seven thousand empty. We lost many soldiers during our last engagement.”

  Davok shook his head. “I want you to send a message to command. Our intel is flawed. The last planet we faced should have been easy but those people were warriors. I thought they were a class C civilization but they fought like a class B.”

  “I’ll make sure command understands our frustrations. This next planet is a class D so we should be able to get in and out with few if any casualties.”

  “If things keep working against us like this, I’d rather just use a planet buster than risk my men.”

  Fillo sighed. “A planet buster would do us no good though, sir. We need the planet intact.”

  “If you say so. But how many potential colony planets do we really need?”

  “That’s not for us to decide. High command said they want as many options as possible.”

  “When high command says they’re thirsty, and you ask how much water they want, their answer is: All of it.”

  “That’s just their way, sir.”

  “They’re lucky I enjoy my job because otherwise, I might be forced to question their sanity.”

  “We only have two planets left to clear before you’ll have your chance to question them face to face.”

  “I know that and that’s why I’m nervous about our faulty intel. The last planet we need to clear will be our toughest test.”

  “We’ll plow through them pretty easily. They’re smart but they’re hardly warriors.”

  The commander knew he was right, but there was something fishy going on with each successive invasion. Every fight was more brutal than the last and he was sick of losing men. And they’d kept the hardest fight for last.

  But he had to stay focused. It did no good worrying about a later conflict. It would only serve to distract them from the battle in front of them. “Let’s just worry about the task at hand. Just get me that intel before we go stumbling blindly into another mess.”

  “Yes sir.”

  The General

  Doctor Henshaw knocked on the steel door and walked into Jack’s room with a uniformed figure in tow. The man behind him had a severe look, with a chiseled face and a steely stare. He was about the doctor’s age but it was obvious that he’d lived through a different kind of life than the meek doctor had.

  “This is General Parsons. He came right away after I sent my latest report about your progression.”

  The general stepped around the doctor and held a hand out. Jack shook it, noticing that the handshake was dry and firm; a reassuring, manly handshake with no warmth to it.

  “Hello Jack. I’m here to witness your abilities for myself.”

  Jack snorted. “I don’t have any real abilities that I know of. All I’ve done is bend a bar. Don’t tell me you flew out here for that?”

  “The doctor here tells me that that is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m here to test your limitations.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s my job.”r />
  “I mean, what do you hope to achieve here?”

  “I’ll level with you kid: I’m here to assess what type of threat you might pose. But I’m also here to assess how we might be able to use your abilities.”

  “You’re talking like you know I have abilities but I don’t. If I don’t now about them, how can you?”

  The general turned to the doctor and asked, “Did you show him the film?”

  “I didn’t see the point to it.”

  “Show it to him. I need him to understand what he’s working with. I don’t want to spend my time here trying to convince them that they’re special when the film will do it for me.”

  Tale of the Tape

  The doctor rolled in a television cart. On it was a little crappy TV with a built-in DVD player. He parked it beside Jack and slid in a disc.

  Jack wondered just what the hell they were going to show him. What did they know that he didn’t?”

  When the film began, it became immediately apparent.

  On it was Jack, strapped to a gurney in a well lit hospital. He was thrashing around wildly as nurses tried to get close enough to tend to him.

  Then the view took on patches of distorted pixilation and the hairs on Jack’s arm stood up.

  On the screen, the prone Jack, unconscious but hardly immobilized, started to shake as though he was seizing. A nurse ran forward but she froze about two feet from the gurney. Then she was thrust backwards by an invisible hand. The other nurses disappeared from view as they helped their fallen coworker.

  Jack’s wrist restraints slid away then, the buckles falling to the floor in pieces. Jack sat up abruptly, his chest restraints breaking like they were made of wet paper.

  His eyes shot open, revealing pupils that were beyond dilated; they encompassed his entire eye sockets. He started to moan incoherently.