Dave Freedman - Natural Selection

From the backseat, Darryl and Craig peered out at two helicopters, a huge jungle-green, twin-engine Vertol designed to carry thirty men and a smaller bright yellow Sikorsky. Craig nodded. “We fly both.”

“Let’s get going, then.”

Seconds later, the Vertol shot into the sky, Craig at the controls, Darryl at copilot, Jason, the ranger, and Phil on a mounted bench in back. Before Craig could even ask, Meyer pointed. “That way.”

THE EYES snapped open.

Deep in the central cavern, the creature had just been awakened. Not by a sound nor by a smell. By an electrical signal. An extraordinarily powerful one. The animal tuned in the darkness, trying to locate its source. It quickly realized it was from something outside the cave.

It flew toward it.

“DAMN IT! Son of a bitch!”

Darryl and Craig shared a look. Ranger Allen Meyer wasn’t built for a crisis. They’d just searched the entire perimeter of cornstalks at the forest’s edge and hadn’t seen any sign of the jogger. Craig tried to ignore the ranger. It was getting darker every second, and they had to stay cool. “What do we do here, Darryl?”

In the copilot’s seat, Darryl raised binoculars to his face. “Take her up slowly. I might be able to see that one trail from here.”

The chopper began rising. “See anything?”

Darryl shifted the binoculars. “Veer right a little.”

Summers moved the chopper’s levers. “This any better?”

“It’s fine, but these trees really are—” He stopped talking.

“Really are… what?”

Darryl didn’t answer. He just stared through the binoculars.

“Darryl?”

Darryl still didn’t respond. He just removed the binoculars and looked outside with naked eyes.

Craig turned. “Did you see some—” Then he stopped talking too.

Phil looked out, and his mouth fell open.

Then the ranger looked out. “Oh my God.”

What’s everyone looking at? Why’d we stop rising? At the far side of the chopper, Jason couldn’t see anything. He leaned forward. “Guys, are we—”

Then Jason saw what everyone else did. On top of a massive branch was a body in sky-blue mesh shorts, a white T-shirt, and New Balance sneakers.

They’d found the missing jogger.

NO ONE spoke.

Darryl’s eyes darted, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. He didn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe it. “Something else must have done this.”

Craig Summers couldn’t even begin to process it. “You want to get the body down?”

Darryl nodded, and before Jason realized, the chopper repositioned, Darryl climbed out on a ladder, and the body was put in back, wrapped in a black fleece blanket.

Still, no one spoke. They were too stunned.

Then Craig turned. “Darryl… are Monique and Lisa OK?”

“Son of a bitch.” Darryl rapidly removed his cell.

Don’t bother, Allen Meyer thought absently. But then he glanced at the branch and remembered his own wife. Where the hell was Laura? He reached for his walkie-talkie. It wasn’t there. He frantically squirmed, trying to find it. Where was it?!

“Monique?” Darryl had heard her voice, but the call instantly dropped. “Monique, you there? Son of a bitch…” He redialed but got a fast busy. He redialed again. Nothing. He swallowed nervously, looking out at the tree, then turned to Craig. “You think she’s OK?”

Summers was ice. “ She is fine, Darryl. She is on the boat with Lisa.”

Darryl swallowed again. “But she doesn’t know about this. What if she decided to go for a walk or something?”

“Darryl, she is on the boat. She didn’t go anywhere. ”

Darryl hesitated. This was logical and probably true. Then Phil leaned forward, snapping pictures of the bloodied tree branch with boyish enthusiasm. “Boy, these are some amazing shots.”

Darryl suddenly wanted to strangle Phil. But then he noticed the ranger. Allen Meyer had found his walkie-talkie—it was on his lap now—but strangely, he wasn’t using it. “You OK, Ranger?”

“Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure, fine.” It was a rapid-fire reply, clearly meaningless.

Darryl was calm. “Is your wife still checking trails out there?”

Meyer didn’t respond.

“Ranger, you really should try her on that walkie-talkie.”

But Meyer didn’t touch it. It was like he was afraid to. “I haven’t been able to get her all day. She’s out there with our baby.”

Darryl and Jason shared a look. The guy was cracking up. They grabbed for the walkie-talkie at the same time; Darryl got it first.

Jason jutted out his hand. “ Darryl, give me that, please.”

“I can’t press a button as well as you?”

“This is important! Give it to me!”

Darryl shoved it at him angrily. “Same old Jason.”

Jason didn’t care about hurt feelings now. “What’s your wife’s name, Ranger?”

Eyes wet, Meyer turned. “Laura.”

Jason pressed the walkie-talkie’s talk button. “Laura, are you out there?”

He waited for a moment. One second ticked past, then another. There was no response.

“Laura, I’m with your husband. Please pick up.”

He waited again. Just the same soft hissing.

Craig shook his head, eyeing the bloody tree branch. “We better find her. We better find her right now.” He turned back to Jason. “Unless you want to fly the damn helicopter, too.”

Jason was momentarily silent, upset at the situation—and maybe at himself, too. “Let’s just find her, Craig.” He eyed the ever-darkening skies. “As fast as we can.”

AS THE men sped off, they didn’t know they were being studied.

THE BLACK eyes shifted as the hulking machine shot across the sky then dipped down and disappeared. Then the eyes blinked. The creature had just seen its first helicopter.

From its mountaintop perch, the predator turned back to the tree branch where its kill had been. It knew instinctively what had happened. Its food had been stolen.

It began tuning for other prey, but the interference from the now-unseen helicopter was overpowering. Then the interference cut out and it immediately detected something else. In another part of the forest. Two signals, their frequencies identical to the jogger’s. Then, it detected another two signals with the same frequency, in another area still.

The predator looked up at the sky. It wasn’t as dark as it would have liked, but the prey was out there now. It was going to replace its stolen kill immediately.

“ LET’S GO, let’s go, let’s go….”

Craig Summers drummed his fingers impatiently on the chopper’s cyclic lever. They’d landed in the parking lot to split up: some to find the ranger’s wife and the others to check on Monique and Lisa. Summers was by himself now, watching the others outside. What are they doing? He drummed his fingers faster. Craig hadn’t been entirely honest with Darryl earlier. He didn’t think Monique was fine. Not necessarily. With what they’d just seen, he didn’t want to take any chances. It was getting dark fast, and he wanted to go. He pounded his fist. “Come on!”

In the parking lot, Allen Meyer sprinted toward an SUV, Phil stood by himself wondering what was going on, and Jason and Darryl yelled at each other over the thumping noise.

“Just let Phil do it! We need you to come with us, Darryl!”

“Monique’s my damn wife, Jason! And I’m gonna check she’s OK! You know how that is! Not trusting someone else to do something important!”

“Monique is safe on the boat! Sending Phil is just a precau—” He stopped yelling as an SUV sped toward them and slammed to a stop, the ranger at the wheel, tense and ready to get going.