Natural Selection

by Dave Freedman

They all watched the phone. It rang and rang. After a moment, it stopped. Then immediately started again.

  Craig turned. “He’s got nothing, Jason. I can smell it; he doesn’t have a damn thing.”

  “He’s got a body.”

  “A body you cut the brain out of.”

  A pause. “That’s true. And I really had to slice and dice it. And then it was frozen for a long time. In that condition . . . that body wouldn’t be enough for the Species Council. Not nearly enough.” Jason glanced at the in-box, still dinging. “My God. You’re right. He doesn’t have anything.”

  Craig suddenly started. “Did you hear something?”

  “No, nothing . . .”

  They all spun around. . . .

  Darryl and Monique were standing there. Somehow they’d snuck in without anyone hearing. It was odd, but Jason thought they somehow looked . . . different, both wearing all-khaki outfits, with long-sleeved shirts that had big orange patches on the right shoulders. They looked like real hunters on a safari, something out of a magazine. But there was something else different about them, Jason noticed. It was their faces. Tense yet calm. Scared yet confident. Jason had never seen such faces before in his life. “What’s up, Darryl?”

  “It’s out there.”

  CHAPTER 70

  “FIRED? Effective immediately?” Darryl sank into a couch and his shoulders slumped.

  “What are you doing, Darryl?” Jason hadn’t expected this reaction.

  “So we’re not getting paid anymore?”

  “Well . . . no.”

  “I’m out.”

  “What? You can’t be out. You’re the only experienced hunter here. Plus”—Jason glanced at Lisa—“you’re going to be in charge from now on. Not me. Everything’s going to be your call.”

  “Well, my call is I’m not hunting anything.”

  “Why are y—”

  “You think I’m gonna risk my life—risk my wife’s life—and do it for free?”

  “So the money made you do it? Is that how it is, Darryl?”

  “That’s exactly how it is. Sorry to disappoint you, Jason, but babies cost money. Food costs money. Clothes, cribs, strained peas, new homes . . . it all costs lots and lots of money!”

  Jason started pacing. “Let’s talk about money, then. Do you realize that if what we think is out there actually is, we’ll get more money than God.”

  “Sure we will.”

  “Darryl, we will. Book deals, paid appearances, the DVD series . . . Everything Ackerman planned to do and more. If money’s your objective, you will have it.”

  Darryl shook his head morosely. He didn’t buy it.

  “He’s right, Darryl.”

  Darryl Hollis slowly turned to his wife. “Seriously?”

  “I never thought about it but the financial rewards of something like this . . . they’ll be gargantuan. The six of us right here in this room could be millionaires overnight.”

  “But don’t do this for the money.” Jason looked around the room. “Not one of us should do it for that.”

  Darryl shook his head cynically. “Then why the hell should we do it? To feel good about ourselves?”

  “To feel great about ourselves, Darryl. Like Monique said, we are on the verge of discovering a new order here. Something that’s never existed in the known history of this planet. The natural selection process literally coming to life in front of our eyes. Forget money, forget Ackerman, forget all the sacrifices we’ve made. This is something that could put our names in the history books.”

  “Or get us killed,” Lisa said soberly.

  Darryl didn’t seem to hear that. He turned to his wife proudly. “I always wanted to be in the history books.”

  Monique smiled, seeing her husband like this. “Me too, Darryl. Me too.”

  “Are you in?” Jason asked.

  The couple shared a look. Yes, they were in. But then Darryl turned to Craig. “But only if you are, brother. If not . . .” He eyed his wife.

  “We walk away right now,” Monique finished.

  Craig nodded at that, quietly touched. “I’m in.”

  Lisa nodded. “Me too.”

  “Me too, guys.”

  They all turned to Phil Martino.

  “If you’ll have me.”

  Craig shook his head. “Absolutely not.”

  “We should let him come.”

  Craig turned to Jason. “What? You’re actually gonna stick up for this scumbag after everything he did?”

  “No, Craig. I’ll never stick up for him again.” This seemed to wound Phil, and Jason continued, calmly venomous. “I’m thinking about the alternatives, like what he’d do if he didn’t come with us . . . where he’d go, who he might find a way to talk to. This way, we can keep an eye on him.”

  The room was silent. This made sense. No one trusted Phil Martino anymore.

  Craig still had concerns. “He could literally shoot someone in the back.”

  Jason looked Phil in the eye. “If he tries, I swear to God, I’ll shoot him first.”

  “You will, huh?” Darryl walked over to the window. “If we do this, am I really in charge, Jason? Or was that just BS?”

  Jason glanced at Lisa. “No; you’re really in charge.”

  “Then that’s not how we’re gonna do it. Nobody’s gonna shoot anybody in the back. This thing out there is dangerous, I’m talking kill-us-in-a-heartbeat dangerous, and we’re gonna have to rely on each other—I mean like brothers—to hunt it. So I don’t even want jokes about shooting each other. You got it, Jason?”

  “I got it. Are you saying we’re taking him, then?”

  Darryl turned to Phil. “You pull anything, anything at all, I swear to God I’ll take care of you myself.”

  Phil swallowed nervously. This had come from someone the size of a professional athlete who was an expert with weapons. He turned. “Jason, I’ll do my best to help. I promise.”

  Jason couldn’t even look at Phil Martino anymore.

  Darryl nodded. “You’re in, Phil. We’re all in. When we get out there, we’re literally gonna have to watch one another’s backs. Jason, no second-guessing me. None. That could get somebody killed. You do that just one time, I swear to God I am out.”

  “Understood.”

  Craig noticed the lifeless monitors on the hearth. “Hoss, are you really sure this thing’s out there? Because this equipment’s been—”

  “Craig.” Darryl calmly cut him off, the same look in his eye he’d had in the forest with Monique earlier.

  “Yeah.”

  “It’s time to get scared, brother.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah.”

  Craig slowly stood. And right away, Jason noticed a change in him. His normally sloppy posture was replaced by a ramrod spine, his sometimes glazed eyes suddenly as intense as Jason had ever seen them. Craig Summers even seemed taller. What the hell was “get scared”?

  “What’s ‘get scared’?” Lisa asked.

  Darryl turned. “An expression from our army days. What our platoon said to each other so nobody got sloppy, did something to get killed. Just stupid army stuff, Soccer Mom.”

  Craig hadn’t reacted like it was “stupid army stuff.” Lisa watched as he walked over to Darryl and gave him a quick little hug. “Thanks, man. Be safe. You too, Monique.”

  The three smacked one another on the back, and Jason just watched. He didn’t know if he’d ever appreciate it at the same level, but this was what it was to rely on someone. It’s out there.

  Craig abruptly turned to a monitor. “Did you see that?” He touched the screen and . . . A dot moved fantastically fast across a pair of green sweeps then disappeared.

  Jason leaned down. “Where is that exactly?”

  Craig glanced at a map. “The edge of the forest. Whatever it is, it’s moving toward us.”

  Darryl didn’t care. “Let’s get the stuff. . . .”

  Monique and Craig nodded, and the triumvirate bustled into the hallway, g
rabbed multiple black duffels, then went to the porch. Craig removed four walkie-talkies and shoved them toward Jason, Lisa, Phil, and Monique. “Just in case we get split up. There are only four, so Darryl and I will have to yell. Turn them on and test them.”

  As Jason took his, he noticed Darryl, facing the redwoods, his index finger tapping rapidly against his thigh. Jason stared at the finger. It’s out there.

  The tapping finger froze and Darryl, faced all of them. “We really gonna do this?”

  There were nods all around.

  Darryl liked what he saw. Everyone had on their game faces, not cocky clichéd versions, but real ones, scared and tense. “All right. Let’s saddle up.”

  As Jason grabbed his rifle, Lisa leaned into him and whispered, “I told you the day wasn’t over. Happy birthday, Jason.”

  He smiled a small smile. Happy birthday indeed.

  CHAPTER 71

  “YOU’RE ACTUALLY hunting with that?”

  Despite Darryl Hollis’s proficiency with a bow and arrow, Jason couldn’t believe he actually hunted with them. Shooting at skeet was one thing, but hunting, especially for what they thought was out there . . .

  Suddenly an arrow rocketed through the air violently. Before Jason knew what had happened, it rushed past his nose and plunged into a steel trash drum behind him. He didn’t have time to react, much less be frightened. He turned to the drum.

  “Jesus.” The arrow hadn’t just pierced the steel, it had ripped a tearing hole through its front and back sides, then settled on the dirt.

  Darryl gave him a look. “You think it will do, brother?”

  Jason looked at the drum. “Yeah.”

  “Enough small talk. Let’s get to it.”

  Everyone started moving. To blend in with the forest, they were all wearing the same all-khaki outfits—shirt, pants, and work boots. Like pros, Jason, Phil, and Lisa loaded and locked their rifles. Craig and Monique did the same.

  Darryl’s process was slightly more complicated. From a duffel filled with racks of standard twenty-eight-inch aluminum arrows, he removed four dozen projectiles. Rather than carry his arrows in a cumbersome holder, Darryl wore a specially designed, formfitting vest made of thin down. The garment’s key feature was a rear pouch the size of a wastepaper basket, its bottom lined with nonadhesive clay that arrowheads could be jabbed into to prevent movement.

  As Darryl finished loading up, Monique and Craig carefully checked the rookies’ work, making sure safeties were on and that everything else looked right.

  Then Monique smacked a magazine into her own weapon. “Ready, Darryl?”

  Darryl Hollis didn’t respond at first. He turned to the trees. He didn’t know what they were looking for exactly. He refused to believe it was the new order until he saw it with his own two eyes. But whatever it was, he could feel it, he could feel it like a butterfly feels a gentle current of wind. Craig and Monique occasionally made fun of his Indian mysticism, but Darryl Hollis had never found it amusing. It was one of the few things he didn’t have a sense of humor about. They could go to hell if they didn’t believe in him. But that was just his ego talking, and he knew it. None of it mattered now. A very dangerous animal was lurking in the redwoods, an animal that had killed someone and would certainly try to kill him, too.

  But Darryl Hollis had no plans on dying. He gave the looming trees a dirty, almost sneering, look. He hadn’t been on a real hunt in years, but all the feelings were rushing back now. Wild animals were dangerous. The notion of “kill or be killed” was a joke for humans, but for animals it was a part of daily life. You had to remember that when you hunted them. But there were no doubts in Darryl’s mind. As sure as the sun rose in the morning, whatever the unseen animal was, he was going to kill it. He turned to his wife, and their eyes locked. The look they shared was not one of love. It was a look that said, Get your fucking game face on and be careful. He eyed Lisa and Craig the same way. He gave special glares to Jason and Phil. No petty garbage, not an ounce. There were nods all around. Then Darryl turned back to the trees. “Yeah, Monique. We’re ready.”

  NO WIND at all. That was good. Darryl Hollis wouldn’t have to worry about being upwind of whatever was out there. But it was bad, too. Without wind, there’d be pure silence. The team would be easy to hear and would have to move especially quietly.

  As the six of them walked into the woods, Jason noticed Monique and Craig, their eyes moving very slowly, as if they were studying every single pine needle, their heads continually turning—behind, left, right—their rifles always leading the way. Army training, he guessed.

  After twenty minutes, Darryl felt a slight temperature drop. He looked up and saw that the fog had thickened. It had gotten quiet, too. No chirping birds. No trickling streams. Nothing. They were getting closer. He glanced behind him. The group’s shape was all wrong. That had to change immediately. He halted.

  “OK, we’re gonna get into a hunting circle now. The idea’s that between us, our vision covers three hundred and sixty degrees, so everybody’s relying on everybody else. So, Jason, go stand over there and face out. Monique, you go there. Lisa, there. Craig and Phil, right there.”

  They quickly formed a circle.

  “What’s critical here is that whatever happens, everyone faces their assigned directions. Phil, you should be facing out.”

  Phil turned, and as he did, Darryl trotted into a shrub behind him. Then Darryl shook the plant wildly and screamed.

  Phil spun around, his eyes on the shrub. It was surprisingly frightening.

  Darryl walked out. “Now that’s what we don’t want happening. Remember, look in your assigned direction. Because you might think you see or hear or smell or just sense something, say, over there. . . .” He waved to his left. “But if what you think is over there is actually over here . . .” He waved to his right. “Wild animals, especially predators, move very fast, and if just one of us is looking the wrong way, it could strike, and kill all of us. Everybody follow?”

  They nodded.

  Darryl felt for the bow slung over his shoulder, then went to the front of the circle.

  “Everybody’s whose got ‘em, turn on your walkie-talkies, low volume.” He walked forward, scanning everywhere. “And keep your eyes open.”

  DEEPER IN the forest, the hunting circled moved slowly. Only Darryl had noticed it, but the air had continued to chill. And the fog above was thickening. Looking up, Jason saw it rolling into the treetops in delicate waves. It was far too thin to hide in, but perhaps that would change.

  Fifteen minutes later the fog had thickened considerably. Again Jason looked up, and this time noticed the faint shape of an owl, silently gliding through it.

  Forty minutes later the sky was gone. The treetops were gone. Anything above twenty stories was gone. The great redwood trunks stuck out of the mist like toothpicks in ice cream.

  Anything could hide up there now, Jason thought. Then he heard something.

  They all heard it. Straight ahead. Something near the ground, rushing through the shrubbery. Jason turned to Darryl, but the man simply walked forward, like he hadn’t heard a thing.

  There was a loud crashing sound.

  Darryl glanced up calmly. “It’s a deer.”

  Craig didn’t believe that. The sound was rapidly moving toward them, and from his direction. He aimed his rifle at a mass of shrubs. The sound grew louder. He eased down on the trigger. The sound grew louder still. . . . A deer sprinted out then stopped, its big brown eyes staring right at Craig. He lowered his weapon.

  Then the sounds started again—from something behind the deer.

  Darryl didn’t even bother looking this time. “It’s a family.”

  Craig had his doubts, but then eight more deer sprinted past a grove of thick redwood trunks and disappeared.

  They continued forward. And Jason looked up at the fog.

  ABOVE THE treetops, the late-afternoon sun shone down on a squadron of birds, flying in perfect V-formation and heading tow
ard a fog bank. Without hesitation, the birds flew right into the white mist and the sun disappeared. Enshrouded, the tiny fliers continued for several seconds when they felt the slightest of tremors in the air. Instantaneously, the V rose, and the tremor dissipated. They continued when they felt a second, slightly larger tremor. The squadron rose again, and again the tremor dissipated. Then they felt another tremor, only this time it wasn’t a tremor. It was a gargantuan wave. Then a series of gargantuan waves, one crashing on top of the next. Something huge was flying right at them. The birds turned sharply, just as a massive pumping shape sped past below them. It was gone as quickly as it had appeared, and the birds flew on as if nothing had happened.

  DARRYL HOLLIS hesitated. Then stopped. Breaking his own rules, he studied the forest behind him, scanning in every direction.

  Watching him closely, Jason thought he looked a little miffed.

  Then Darryl turned forward and continued walking.

  LESS THAN a minute later, Darryl stopped again.

  “Something’s close . . . I think.”

  Monique and Craig shared a look. Does Darryl know what he’s doing?

  Darryl quickly walked forward, and immediately there was a rustling from the forest ahead of him. Like lightning, he removed an arrow, drew it back, then . . . put it back down.

  “It’s the deer coming back.”

  An entire family sprinted past and Darryl turned to where they’d come from. “Something scared ‘em.” It was on the ground, Darryl was sure of it. “Forget the circle. It’s over here. . . .”

  He trotted toward a huge mass of tightly packed rhododendrons.

  Following, Jason glanced up at the fog. Weren’t they looking for something in the air? Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw the rhododendrons shaking, just fifteen feet away from them. His gaze leveled. Could the creature have landed on the ground?

  Darryl walked closer. As they approached, the plants slowly stopped. They circled around them and—

  Darryl saw it first.

  A massive black bear, nearly ten feet tall, standing on its hind legs and unaware they were watching it.