Evolver: Apex Predator Read online

  Evolver

  Apex Predator

  By Jason Arnett

  Created by Shannon Eric Denton, Phil Hester, and Jon S. Lewis

  Evolver: Apex Predator

  An Actionopolis Book

  Published by Komikwerks, LLC

  1 Ruth Street

  Worcester, MA 01602

  Evolver: Apex Predator (c) 2010 by Actionopolis, LLC. All right reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

  Cover illustration by Armand Villavert, Jr,

  This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination, or if real, used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Jackson Savage was nervous about seeing his father for the first time in nearly three months. Instead of fidgeting and staring out the window, he watched a video on his smartphone. He was so absorbed in the video he didn’t notice everyone else got off at the Park & Ride lot.

  The tectonic plates under the earth had shifted and settled, moving pieces of Antarctica away from its home, the narrator said in Jackson's earbuds. The narrator told Jackson about the machrauchenia as they grazed, comparing them to modern day cows. When one of the camel-like creatures sensed something the music rose, then faded when the grazer put its long snout back into the grass. The herd moved forward slowly.

  An unearthly screech tore across the scene and staccato notes crescendoed. An enormous flightless bird with three accomplices charged over the tall grass toward the herd, screaming their intent to kill and feed. Spooked, the herd ran at right angles away from the approaching killers. These terror birds, the narrator's serious voice said, are as fearsome as their cousins velociraptor and the tyrannosaurs, are the apex predators of this time.

  Jackson was so absorbed in the video he barely registered the bus driver announcing, "Clinton and Inverness, ladies and gentlemen. Next stop Clinton and Inverness." He didn't hear the little ding of the bell that signaled someone wanted to get out there.

  In the video, a terror bird caught one of the slower machrauchenia in its hook-shaped beak, its powerful jaws tearing through flesh and bone. It twisted and flipped the mammal, smashing it into the ground. The other birds raced toward the rest of the herd.

  The herd turned again and the slowest of the terror birds didn’t make the angle. It fell sprawling with a shriek then struggled to regain its feet, confused. The bird spotted the herd and prepared to give chase.

  The narrator interrupted the chaos. Smilodon have migrated across the new isthmus up north and found good hunting in the grasslands. It faced the surprised terror bird, roaring as loud as it could and flashing its long, sharp fangs. The bird circled to its left, responding in kind with its own cry. The smilodon stepped forward, ready to spring, then dodged to its right as her opponent snapped at her.

  The terror bird never saw the second smilodon leap on its back and dig its claws in as it was dragged down. The two big cats pinned the monster and the lead smilodon sank her enormous front teeth into the neck of the terror bird. The two cats were joined by the rest of the pack and they all ate their fill.

  Smilodon outlasted the terror birds until the next apex predator came along, the narrator said with an air of authority. Despite surviving numerous climatic changes and upheavals, the big cats and their large prey were hunted into extinction at the end of the ice age by humans. The dramatic music came up as the narrator went on about what would be seen in the next episode of the series and Jackson noticed that the bus was starting to leave his stop.

  "Wait," Jackson said and leapt to his feet, rushing to the door in the middle of the bus which lurched to a stop again.

  "Almost missed it," the driver said, his voice icy.

  Jackson smiled, gave him a thumbs-up and disembarked the bus.

  *

  It was chilly, even for October and he walked around a brick wall that complimented trees and the well manicured lawn that surrounded the EnviroTech campus. His cell phone rang and he fished it out of his pants pocket and flipped it open. "Hi, Mom. No, it's good. I'm on my way to dinner with Dad. Sorry. Great workout with the team and studying for my organic chem test on Tuesday."

  The young man turned a corner to his left and saw a black sedan pull out of the driveway ahead of him. "No, I won't let anyone tell me --- Mom, that was middle school. I was thirteen.”

  He looked up at the night sky, exasperated. “I've booked the flight to come see you over winter break. No, you don't sound like a mother hen. Can I call you back tomorrow? Okay,” he said, nodding. “Okay. I love you. Talk to you tomorrow."

  He closed his phone and approached the guardhouse. "Hey, Dave," he said, waving at the guard. "How's it going?"

  "Jackson," the smiling guard said, drawing out the ‘n’ as long as he could. "Slow so far. Months since we saw you. How's college?"

  Jackson nodded as he pulled an ID card from his wallet, then handed it through the glass. "The girls are pretty," he said. "I'm here to break Dad out for dinner."

  Dave tapped the card on a small black box and Jackson Savage's info popped up onto a monitor. He frowned. "He didn't put you on his calendar, Jacks." He slid his finger across the screen. "Yeah, you're not here. I'm not supposed to let you in."

  A second guard arrived on a nearly silent golf cart. "Hey, Jackson," Joey, the second guard, said from the other side of the gate, drawing the cart to a full stop. "You here for your dad?"

  "Hi, Joey," Jackson said with a wave. "Yeah, he didn't put me on the calendar again."

  "Not supposed to let him on the campus, let alone into the labs," Dave said, sitting back. "But it's Jackson, so ---" he shrugged.

  "I'll take you up," Joey said. "Hop on." The little cart negotiated the blacktop drive past the company sign: EnviroTech Greener for the Future. At the front steps of the building, Joey put a hand on Jackson's forearm. "There's a new guy on the desk, kind of a hard case about rules. Let me talk to him before you come in."

  *

  The new guard gave Jackson a hard look as he walked past the reception desk to the bank of elevators. The boy waved good night to Joey and the new man and regretted it instantly. He stabbed at the up button three times and kept his back to the entrance.

  Riding the elevator up to the fourth level where his father's lab took up half the floor, Jackson remembered the shouting and his father's obvious disappointment at his choice of college. Dr. Benjamin Savage had rarely attended his son's sporting events, barely hid his disapproval of them, but did encourage the boy's natural scientific curiosity and brought him to the lab often. Jackson's last visit here had been to tell his father he was going to the state university on a track scholarship instead of his father's alma mater and it did not go well. They'd barely spoken in the months since and Jackson hoped that dinner outside the lab would help his father see the wisdom of the decision. Jackson was his own man, paying his own way now on his own skills. He wanted his own identity if he chose to pursue science as a career, though comparisons to his father would be inevitable.

  As the elevator door closed behind him with a soft chime, Jackson stopped for a second. It was late, but the building was too quiet. There should have been a hum of air conditioning, the sound of squeaky rubber wheels on the shiny tile floor, a fluttering of some kind here or there, maybe a vacuum. There was nothing. Cautious, Jackson found the door to his father's lab and a sense of dread chilled him. It was unlatched.

  The only light in the lab came from the back of the room so that he could only see shadows and silhouettes. "Dad?" Jackson put down h
is backpack and walked down a line of equipment that couldn't do half of what he imagined it did, some of which never seemed to be working or even used. He called out to his father again.

  Metal instruments clattered to the floor. He tried to see around and through a bank of metal shelves. "Dad --- is that you?" No answer.

  Jackson darted to the back of the room and saw instruments and broken glass and scattered papers as he approached the lighted section of the lab. He found his father laying on the floor, his leg broken and blood pouring from a gash on his forehead. "Dad!" He knelt down and cradled his father's head. "Can you hear me?"

  "I --- I'm sorry," Dad said. Jackson didn't know his father could move so fast until the syringe was deep in his arm.

  Jackson fell backward, screaming. He clutched at his arm, pulled the syringe out and threw the it across the room. The elder Savage was dying and he stared back at Jackson who wondered why his father would do this to him. It didn't make any sense.

  His blood was on fire, the pain overwhelming and his father wasn't moving or even breathing now. He sat up, leaned against a cabinet and tried to catch his breath tried to think. Nothing made sense. The room tilted away at crazy angles.

  There were heavy footsteps that sounded suspiciously like claws on tile. Fear twisted up his spine and bored in at the back of his throat as he saw an impossible creature. Seven feet of walking armor plate on two stubby legs with a long snout, scaly skin, a longish tail and sharp-looking claws instead of hands. It loomed over him, sniffing the air, and took another step. Jackson tried to back up but ran into the door of the cabinet he was leaning against, then tried to move left, away from the creature. It moved with him, coming closer, making strange snuffling sounds. He clawed at the floor and tried to get to his feet but slipped. It was right behind him when it threw a massive arm downward.

  Through the pain, Jackson rolled away shouting and scrambling for cover. The thing's fist slammed into the tile, sending shards into the ceiling. It roared at him. Its heavy tail swung back and forth across the aisle as it slowly followed, smacking into chairs and table legs. It was between him and the door, so Jackson decided to make for the outer wall of the lab, for the windows. He got unsteadily to his feet and took three steps forward.

  The creature's tail caught him in the gut as it smashed through everything between it and Jackson. The boy barely had time to register the pain as he flew backwards over a lab table. He saw his reflection in the window just before he went through it shoulder first, covering his head with both arms. Then he was in empty air four stories up.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Alarms were screaming and red lights flashed inside the building as floodlights came on one after another, like miniature stars around the campus. He lay sprawled in a hedge, gasping for breath, his clothes torn and his gut aching. He brought a hand up to his face and saw what he thought were orange scales, shook his head and they were gone. Looking up at the shattered window, all he could think was "Dad..."

  Jackson rolled out of the hedge, tearing his shirt more. The faint wail of emergency vehicles racing to the EnviroTech campus pulled him to his feet. He stumbled into some shadows. He was still breathing hard, his gut still ached where the monster had hit him.

  One of the banks of floodlights had failed. There was darkness enough for Jackson to stay out of sight from the soon to be arriving security, EMTs and police. He wanted to warn them that there was a monster in there, but his throat was dry, raw and he could barely think let alone speak. Then he heard someone call out to him. "Jackson!" He stopped, finally getting his breathing under control.

  There was someone in the shadows with him between a tree and the wall. "Jackson! It's me --- Laurie!" He peered forward.

  Laurie had been his father's lab assistant for two years. She was pretty, with red hair and glasses. She'd been at the lab that day of the fight between the two Savages.

  "Something... monster," Jackson said in a hoarse whisper pointing up at the fourth floor window. He swallowed. "I think he's dead."

  "I know," Laurie said, not quite putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. She looked over her own shoulder, scanning the darkness and pulled her hand back. "Can you run?"

  "I'll try," he said though none too sure.

  She sprinted ahead of him, dodging the pools of light as the sirens got louder and the flashing red and blue lights were coming from everywhere. He trailed a little behind her around the huge EnviroTech building to a parking lot and Laurie's car.

  *

  "No one's supposed to leave, Miss Langley," Dave said at the gate that Jackson had come through earlier. "We're in lockdown."

  "Dave," Laurie said, leaning out her window and turning on the charm. "Come on, it's me." She smiled at him. Blushing, he told her to have a good night and opened the gate to let her car through. She drove off slow and calm, passing more arriving police cruisers.

  Taking a left down one block, a right two blocks later and the next left she was sure that the car was out of sight of the EnviroTech campus and its cameras, Laurie pulled over, got out and popped her trunk open. Jackson slid out and stretched. "That was close," he said.

  "Not really. Dave's a good guy. I didn't like doing that." She went to the driver's door and said, "Get in."

  "Maybe I should go back,” Jackson said, looking over his shoulder. "My dad's dead; he injected me with --- with…“ He began pacing on the passenger side of the car, not looking at Laurie. She didn’t say anything. ”I don't know what -- there's a monster that looks like an armadillo on two legs. Then YOU show up."

  "Get in," she said with an edge to her voice.

  "No. Something's not right. I don't know what it is, I don't know who you really are, but," Jackson stopped.

  "Get," she said and paused, "in. NOW."

  "Or what?" Jackson threw out his hands, laughing nervously and shook his head.

  "Or you won't get the answers you want," Laurie said and sat down in the driver's seat. She turned the key and revved the engine. Jackson looked around, bit the inside of his cheek and bounced on the balls of his feet. He clawed at the door handle of the little car and tore it open as she shifted into first gear and let down the parking brake.

  "Tell me everything you can remember," Laurie said as she pulled away from the curb.

  He went over events in the lab while she drove through the city streets, heading east then taking a quick right at Iowa Street without really stopping at a red light. Jackson put his hands on the dash, then quickly buckled his seat belt. The four-lane street was not too busy but she zipped between cars like a formula one driver at Monaco.

  "Wait," Laurie said. "You were thrown out a fourth story window?"

  Jackson nodded. "The strangest part," he said slowly, "was that I thought I had scales when I came to. I dunno."

  Laurie nodded and stepped on the accelerator as the light ahead of her turned from green to yellow. It was solid red as she barreled through the intersection and raced past the metroplex on one side and a mall on the other. She shifted into fifth gear and Jackson could see the speedometer was flirting with 60. He put his hand on the dashboard again and pushed his feet hard against an imaginary brake pedal.

  "EnviroTech is a global company. Your dad and Dr. Thorn were consulting with all kinds of planners and thinkers and scientists from around the world working on ways to save the environment from further degradation," Laurie said. "More efficient transmission lines for wind farms, new kinds of batteries, underwater turbines, the kind of stuff that makes good press and actually does some small good. They had a lot of good people doing these good works for them. Over a hundred and fifty just in the building here in town."

  They passed the city limits and Laurie flipped the headlights to high beam. There was no one else ahead or behind them on the highway.

  "But their real project was developing a way for humans to work uninhibited in harsh environments. Dr. Savage and I were working on a series of genetic enhancements, engineering a plasmid that would insert trait
s into the host DNA. The modified DNA would change a human being so that he can work in the ocean, or the desert or above the tree lines on mountains without any kind of protection," Laurie said, spinning the wheel left so that the car crossed the two lanes going north with a squeal of rubber and onto a gravel road with a crushing bump that bounced Jackson's head against the roof. "Your dad had it all worked out. He'd done animal to animal synthesis."

  "But he's a biologist, not a geneticist," Jackson said. "Was, I mean."

  "Your dad was a lot more than either of those things, Jackson." She turned the wheel left again and the car went down a long gravel drive and she brought it to a stop, skidding on the gravel then turned the engine off. " Come inside and let me show you."

  "What? Here?" He looked out at the dark ranch house. "This your place?"

  "Not exactly," she said and pulled the key out of the ignition. "Come on."

  Jackson didn't move. "You sure it's safe?"

  "We weren't followed, if that's what you mean," Laurie said.

  Jackson looked around at the trees, the rising moon, the lights of the city about ten miles away. He shook his head.

  "You’re safe here," Laurie said. She put her hand on his shoulder, this time squeezing it a little, feeling him tremble. "It's okay."

  He nodded slowly.

  *

  Inside, the house was normal as far as Jackson could see. She poured him a glass of water, took one for herself and they sat at the kitchen table. Jackson noticed that the house looked relatively un-lived in, as though it were really just for show. With a second glass of water in hand, and his body back under his control, Laurie guided him down the stairs to the basement.