Radioactive Evolution

by Richard Hummel

  Oh crap!

  It looked like the rest of the rabbit horde that attacked the Daggers. Though, they all looked alike, so it was hard to tell. If this was the same group, more than twenty of the puff balls had survived their earlier battle and Scarlet’s appetite.

  He fingered his pistol, debating if he should risk waking Scarlet. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the light glow indicating she was still going through the transformation process.

  No time like the present to test my new abilities.

  Jared rushed them.

  As if controlled by a hive mind, they all faced him at the same time and leapt.

  “Two can play that game!”

  Jared jumped to meet them, grabbing one in midair and launching a fist into another’s face with a sickening crunch. He was a whirlwind of destruction, and these creatures never stood a chance. At this point he didn’t care if he got blood and fur on him. He was already coated in the gore and needed a good scrub anyway. Rabbit after rabbit fell at his feet dead. In the heat of battle Jared didn’t know how long he fought, but it seemed like only an instant before there was nothing left to punch or kick.

  Fist-pumping in victory, he turned back to the building.

  Jared grunted as something heavy booted him in the back, lifting him off his feet.

  He landed ten feet away, only his increased agility allowing him to get his feet under him before landing. “What was that?”

  On instinct, Jared rolled to the right and a pair of feet the size of his torso touched down like a whisper. Jared’s eyes widened in shock and he sprang away, running twenty yards in the opposite direction. He spun around, ready to face off against whatever hit him, but when he turned around, he saw nothing.

  “What was that?”

  Glancing up, he saw a giant cloud of fur about to land on top of him. Jumping back in the nick of time, it landed right in front of him, soft as a feather, only a slight disturbance of the wind evidence of its passing. He came face to face with a rabbit that stood as tall as him, and just as big around.

  “Not another boss,” Jared groaned. “What’s up with all these things having ridiculously oversized leaders? This isn’t a game! It’s real life!” He tried to rationalize the scene before him, but the situation was just too absurd, and it was everything he could do just to avoid the giant rabbit.

  This thing was much faster and stronger than its smaller counterparts.

  No wonder they waited when I charged them, thought Jared. These things are more intelligent than I gave them credit for.

  He could end the fight right now with a well-placed phase round but decided to test himself instead. The little guys were a piece of cake to dispatch, but this guy would be tough.

  “All right, you long-haired, buck-toothed, floppy-eared hairball, let’s go!” The taunt worked, and it leapt into the air at him. It jumped thirty feet into the air, intent on dropping directly onto his head. In a move that surprised even himself, Jared contorted his body to deliver a spinning side kick squarely into the thing’s side. However, the agile rabbit flipped in the air, landing nimbly on its feet only to launch at him yet again.

  How am I supposed to hurt this thing with all that fur? wondered Jared. The kick didn’t even phase it. The only portions not covered in several feet of fur were its legs and face. Both of those represented the only dangerous parts of the rabbit and he didn’t like the idea of trying to kick a face sporting foot-long incisors.

  While he thought up a plan, Jared barely dodged the rabbit’s lightning fast attacks. Exasperated, he almost pulled his pistol and ended the fight. Then he caught sight of a piece of rebar ending in a chunk of concrete, and an evil smile touched his lips . His defensive maneuvers took on a purpose. Each roll and somersault brought him closer to his desired weapon until he was able to grasp the cold iron bar. Before his strength increases, there’s no way he could’ve used the rubble as a weapon. The end attached to concrete weighed at least fifty pounds.

  Perfect! Jared though, hefting the makeshift weapon onto his shoulder. He poured on a burst of speed to put some distance between the two of them. Finding a solid spot to make a stand, he whirled and stepped into a batter’s stance. The evil smile he wore now covered his entire face as Jared prepared to smash a home run.

  He didn’t have to wait long, as the creature leapt. If not for the very real fact that this rabbit was trying to eat him, the scene would’ve been comical. A six-foot-tall-and-wide cotton ball flew through the air at him, its beady little eyes reflecting the moon, and its mouth opened in preparation to plunge its teeth into him. It was like the ultimate nightmare for a kid as they envisioned their favorite fluffy stuffed animal coming to life and attacking them, only here it was ten times the size.

  Jared wound up and swung the rebar with all his strength. A whistling sound was the only warning the rabbit had before fifty pounds of rock and metal rocketed into its fat face.

  “Oh no,” Jared whispered, a split second before impact.

  His movement already committed, there was nothing he could do but watch as the chunk of concrete smashed into the large blood sack about to burst open. A wave of blood gushed over him as the concrete pulverized the rabbit in a puff of exploding fur. If the blood wasn’t enough, the rabbit’s fur coated his body, sticking to everything. His eyes shut to prevent blood and fur entering them, Jared didn’t see the brief flash of light as he absorbed the nanites from his most recent kill.

  “Yuck!” yelled Jared. He pawed at his face, sputtering and spitting the blood and bits of fur from his mouth.

  While pawing at this face, Jared heard a rumbling from the building behind him and whirled around to face it. Jared looked up just in time to see the wall nearest him bulge and crash to the ground, a ten-foot tall dragon standing in its place.

  “Scarlet?”

  Shocked, Jared wondered, How long did that fight last? Surely not too long. How is Scarlet already done?

  Hearing his voice, Scarlet turned to look at him and guffawed at his appearance.

  And to think I was about to compliment her, Jared thought wryly.

  Jared? she asked, confused. What happened to you?

  Jared just shrugged in embarrassment and said, “The rabbits. They came back.”

  Louder than he’d heard it before, Scarlet wheezed and huffed, collapsing back to the ground as her head bobbed up and down, an uncontrollable bout of laughter wracking her body.

  Jared just stared at her with slitted eyes. He said nothing, but he did push his annoyance along their bond to let her know he was not amused and promised revenge for her teasing.

  Just rabbits, huh?

  Jared looked at Scarlet and shook his head, causing gobs of rabbit fur and guts to splatter on the ground.

  “All right, all right, you win! I won’t tease you about the dang rabbits anymore.” Jared held up his hands and found a rock to sit on.

  Stripping off his nasty clothes, he scrubbed them using the sand. Water was a scarce commodity, so he often resorted to scrubbing his skin and clothes with sand. It sucked, and he always felt chaffed after, but it was better than walking around with blood and guts all over.

  It rarely rained anymore and when it did, there was a fifty-fifty chance it was acidic. He’d learned that lesson the hard way since the first couple times he’d been without shelter, the rain was fine, drinkable even. However, the next rain brought with it some acidic residue. His eyes and skin burned, turning a bright shade of red.

  I could use a good rain about now, mused Jared. It would’ve made this cleanup go much smoother and help him get the last remnants from his gear as well. He hated using sand, since it really diminished the life of everything he wore. He was really only concerned about his weapons and pack though. Everything else was disposable. The pack he wore was a gift from his mother. She’d hand-stitched it for his eighteenth birthday but hadn’t been able t
o give it to him before she got sick. He fingered a ragged seam toward the bottom. It was his attempt to finish the work his mother started. Crude in comparison to her masterful handiwork, but it was the last possession he had from her, and he tried his best to take care of it.

  Shaking his head, Jared calmed himself, the melancholy receding back into the depths of his mind.

  It took him an hour of scrubbing to rid his body and gear of the sticky substance. His skin felt raw to the touch, this being the second time he’d done this today. Thankfully, the nanites would help with the abrasions and take care of any leftover particles he had missed. That was a definite benefit to the technology, their ability to consume waste and convert it into energy. Especially since there was no place for him to bathe regularly.

  Finished wiping his embarrassment away, Jared walked over to Scarlet, admiring her new form.

  “Scarlet, you’re huge.” Jared choked out the last word, failing to stop himself from saying it. “Err, uh, in a good way. What I meant to say was, you’ve grown a lot!” Jared amended, feeling chagrinned at his lack of tact. To Scarlet’s credit, she wasn’t offended by the remark, and in fact it didn’t seem to bother her at all.

  I grew more than expected. The essence granted by my mother has yet to run its full course.

  “Does that mean you’ll grown even more later? Is that how you grew so fast?”

  I believe that is part of it, but also because I can direct the nanites. It is difficult to explain it now, but once you understand yourself and the nanites better, you will learn to partition your mind. Once you do, you will be able to consciously control the nanites even while your mind sleeps.

  “So that’s why it takes me days to do what you just did in hours?”

  It is.

  “Yet another reason for me to sink the rest of my nanites into Mind,” Jared said, a bit annoyed at himself for sinking everything into physical changes. “Well, regardless of how you did it, it’s impressive, Scarlet. You are—you look incredible,” Jared said, and meant every word. She truly did look amazing, and at ten feet tall they were quickly becoming a serious force.

  Thank you, Jared.

  “May I?” Jared asked, his hand paused a few inches from her scales.

  Scarlet nodded, and Jared ran his fingers along her scales.

  “Wow. They’ve hardened a lot, and it looks like they overlap a bit more. Also, the color changed. Is that normal, or something you did?”

  The color of my natural skin will not change, but as the scales grow stronger, they will darken. I believe they are hard enough to withstand sharp objects like claws and teeth at this point.

  Scarlet radiated pride and satisfaction at his praise while he ran his hands along her side.

  Thank you, for everything. My journey has been much easier than if you hadn’t come along.

  You are family now! Jared said through their bond, pushing all of his feelings at Scarlet so she understood how he felt about her, and how thankful he was for her companionship.

  Scarlet expressed gratefulness and said, If not for you, I would be alone, without protection, and without the ability to use these nanites. All my family is in hibernation, and given the way creatures mutated in recent years, it is possible I could have died. Thanks to you, I not only survived, but am stronger and bigger than I ever thought possible in so short a time.

  “We will find your family Scarlet,” Jared promised.

  dragons revere family above all else, and every dragon takes on the responsibility to raise a new hatchling. For a very long time my mother feared what would happen to me after she was gone. You might think she was mad about our bonding, but in the end, it gave her reassurance that I had someone to help and protect me. For that I will ever be thankful.

  Jared felt the sincerity of her words.

  For the next several hours, they simply sat next to each other, enjoying one another’s company. The stayed that way until the sun crested the horizon and Jared rose to his feet.

  “Well? Shall we get a move on? I’d guess the other explorers, will set out shortly to make the most of the daylight. You want to do the same thing we did yesterday? You fly overhead, and I’ll hang back a couple miles.”

  Or you could fly with me.

  “Seriously?” Jared tempered his excitement to make sure it wasn’t premature. “Will it tire you out too quickly?”

  Scarlet flared her wings, an impressive twenty-five-foot wingspan, and said, I can manage it for quite some time now.

  “Then, yes! A hundred times yes!”

  Jared couldn’t contain his excitement. When he was a little boy, he’d sit at the drop site in his colony all day waiting for shipments to arrive from the cities. He used to love watching the ships rocket through the sky, wishing that someday he’d get to experience it. Today was that day, and it was all he could do to restrain himself from jumping up and down like that little boy so many years ago.

  Before we go, you should know we gained two abilities from the lizard creatures we killed. Although, I suspect it is just one ability with multiple applications.

  “Wait, what? Why didn’t I get this ability?”

  You also have the abilities, but I was unaware until you touched me a moment ago and I explored your nanites. The two abilities are Heat Sight and Magnified Vision.

  Jared cocked his head to the side, thinking about the abilities, and distractedly said, “How do I activate...whoa.”

  The moment Jared thought about Heat Sight, his vision blurred, and a blinding bright inferno seared into his retinas. Shutting his eyes against the intensity, Jared looked down and slowly opened one eye. Turning away from the sun, he looked to the darkened landscape and saw small flashes of heat in the distance, small creatures darting about. Careful not to look at the sun again, Jared turned to Scarlet and his mouth dropped open in surprise.

  “Scarlet, you—”

  Fire roiled within her body. Her very being radiated heat. At the center of her chest a ball of light spun in circles. It writhed and undulated like a living organism. Jared had no words to describe what he witnessed, but he would never forget it as long as he lived. Unable to stop himself, he placed a hand on the spot directly over the flame in her chest and felt the heat through her skin.

  “Scarlet, is this where your Fire Breathing originates?”

  Yes.

  “It’s beautiful! I can see the glowing flames.”

  Reluctantly, Jared turned away and asked, “Scarlet, how do I turn...ah, got it.”

  Again, the moment Jared thought about turning it off, his eyes switched back to their normal vision.

  Similar to my own vision, the Heat Sight enables you to see thermal wavelengths. I can go into technical details if you wish, but the nanites created yet more cones in your eyes, and developed a muscle called the trigeminal nerve to help interpret the heat spectrum you just witnessed.

  “How do you know all of this? I understand a little of what you just said, but you lost me at trigemini something.”

  The nanites altered your eye structure so that they can relay thermal wavelengths to them and allow you to see heat signatures. I know quite a bit about human anatomy. My mother lived with humans for thousands of years and passed that knowledge to me. Also, the nanite coding is very specific, and I can read their instructions to figure out how they work.

  “I don’t know what I’d do without you to explain all this to me.” Jared shook his head ruefully. “I hope we can return the favor to others in the future.”

  When we wake my brothers, they will assist.

  “Where are they?”

  Far beneath the earth’s surface. I am not yet strong enough to attempt the journey, but when the time is right, you will know.

  “What about the others? The air, water, and earth dragons? Do you know where they are?”

  I… Scarlet paused as she de
lved into her mind. A moment later, she said, I know the general locations, but not like my own family. It would take quite some time to find them.

  “Well, you’ve got my word that I’ll do everything in my power to help you do it.”

  First, we must strengthen ourselves.

  “Speaking of, let’s try out this magnification. Wow!” He’d picked a jumble of rocks in the distance to focus on, and after the vision activated, it looked as though he stood right in front of them. It had to be at least two miles away.

  “This is awesome!”

  He toggled the vision back and forth, taking the opportunity to examine his surroundings. It was an incredible ability.

  “How does this one work?”

  The nanites fuse the lens of your eye with the ciliary muscle. Both control the curvature of the lens over your eyes. When you focus on magnifying your vision, the lens squeezes together which allows you to see further.

  “Can I upgrade them further?”

  No, these abilities only have a single purpose, and assigning nanites to them would be pointless.

  “Gotcha. What if I wanted to make my own abilities?”

  You could, but you must understand your biological functions intimately. It is also likely to consume an exorbitant amount of nanites, rendering it ineffective to use so many free nanites on it.

  Scarlet paused, making sure Jared understood her explanation. He understood everything she’d said, and although a part of him wanted to create a new ability, it made sense to focus his efforts elsewhere.

  Think about it this way. Did you know that squeezing the lens of your eye together could magnify your vision? Did you know that installing cones and rods in your eyes and then instructing nanites to send thermal wavelengths through them allowed you to see the heat spectrum?

  “Point taken. Though I don’t think I’d attempt anything like it for a long time. Still, it’s an interesting idea, especially if there was a particular ability that could make my life easier.”