Dave Freedman - Natural Selection

Jason glanced up at the sky. “What do you mean?”

“I mean this thing has powerful instincts to hide. That jogger disappeared at night, and we found his body on a very foggy day. I don’t think that was an accident.”

“You’re saying it will only come out at night or when there’s fog?”

“Fog sure would be a great place to hide, don’t ya think?”

Jason looked up at the sun, scanning all around it very carefully. He had to admit there wasn’t a cloud up there. And not a trace of fog, either.

THE BLACK eyes didn’t move. They were looking at the sun too.

The creature had been watching the sun since the very early morning, when it first appeared on the horizon. Indeed, it had been watching the sun for days. At the mouth of the cave, the predator was completely exposed, but it didn’t care. There was nothing here to see it on this lifeless mass of rock, just a few dozen seagulls gliding overhead. It continued to watch the sun.

“LOOK AT how much darker it is….” Jason walked to the edge of the porch and glanced up at the sky. “Getting pretty close to twilight…” He eyed the trees beyond the campground. “I wonder if it will come out.”

Monique, Lisa, and Phil didn’t respond. Darryl shook his head. “I doubt it.”

He eyed a pair of playful squirrels near a picnic table. “I don’t think that thing’s anywhere near here.”

“You sure about that?” Someone said from behind them.

They all turned to Craig, entering the porch quickly, with a rifle and a very tense face. “We just got a reading.”

Jason looked up at the darkening skies. “Is that right?”

Craig wasn’t in the mood for small talk. “Saddle up. I want to end this fast.”

“ IDON’T care what this damn thing says; it’s not out there.”

Inside the cabin, the team focused on one of two monitors set up on the hearth, watching as a speeding dot zipped across a radar sweep, reached the edge of the screen, then continued as a second, then third sweep popped up.

Craig shook his head at Darryl. “Something’s sure as hell out there. All right. Let’s go. Everybody. Guns loaded.”

Jason nodded with conviction.

As they walked out the door, the speeding dot suddenly moved even faster.

“ALMOST THERE…” Craig walked quickly through the silent forest, leading the others past ferns and trunks. Suddenly he stopped and pointed. “The readings came from those three right there.”

The big white radar guns just sat there on their tripods. Jason noticed they weren’t pointed up, but parallel to the dirt. Had the creature swooped down?

Suddenly there was a violent rustling—from something behind one of the radar guns, moving very fast.

Craig jerked his rifle toward it. So did everyone else.

The sound rapidly grew louder.

Craig eased down on his trigger…. Whatever it was was just about to show itself….

Two tiny fawns, three feet tall and razor thin, bolted out from behind the trees, apparently chasing each other in a playful game. Monique smiled cutely as they started darting in and out of the three tripods.

She lowered her rifle. Craig lowered his, too.

Darryl Hollis just shook his head.

“IT’S NOT out there,” Darryl said the next morning.

“It’s still not out there,” he said again in the afternoon.

“It’s just not out there,” he said yet again the next day.

Jason couldn’t take it anymore. “Are you sure?” he demanded when Darryl repeated the vile phrase again just before sunset.

“Old habits die hard, huh?” Darryl gave him a look. “I’m sure.”

Jason wondered if he was right. He had to admit they hadn’t seen a single cloud. For days, the skies had been nothing but a pristine crystal blue. Jason shook his head. “Sorry, it’s just that I’m seeing Ackerman tomorrow and I was hoping I’d have something more concrete to tell him.” But his frustration aside, Jason suspected Darryl’s assessment was accurate. Craig’s equipment certainly agreed. Over the past few days, the two monitors had revealed nothing but rodents, deer, elk, and an occasional bear. Was it just a coincidence that there hadn’t been a trace of fog?

They cooked a dinner of chicken and steaks on the huge industrial gas grill behind the cabin, ate, then made a big blaze in the fireplace. Everyone lounged around the living room, when Jason looked up from the notebook he’d been jotting in.

“Anybody have a Latin dictionary?”

Craig and Darryl looked at him like he was using controlled substances. Monique just laughed. Jason turned to Phil. “Can I borrow your computer later? I’m sure there’s some Latin Internet site.”

“Sure, but the Net’s not working.”

“You tried it?”

“Yeah, sending an e-mail. Phones are down too. I think it’s all on the same system.”

Lisa stood. “Jason?”

“Yeah?”

“Actually, I think I saw a Latin dictionary in a room back here.”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll show you….” She entered the hallway near the bedrooms, and he followed.

“Where is it?”

She paused then gave him a little look. “Are you busy right now?”

“Sort of. Why?”

“I don’t know.” She glanced into her bedroom. “It’s just… I’m not really doing much.”

“Oh, well, after I check the dictionary, maybe we can talk about what I should say to Ackerman tomorrow.”

“I don’t know if I’m in the mood for talking.”

“Well, maybe there’s a board game we can play or something.”

She looked at him. He wasn’t getting it. “You’ve led a sheltered life, haven’t you, Mr. Aldridge?”

He paused, glancing into the bedroom. Then he noticed what Lisa was wearing. One sexy outfit. Tight low-rider jeans with a black sequined rock-concert T-shirt. “Lisa, my… hard drive hasn’t run in a very long time.”

She cleared her throat, reddening slightly. “Neither has mine. And just so there are no misunderstandings, I’m not just looking for… a quick reboot.”

“You think that’s what I want?”

“I wouldn’t be here embarrassing myself if I thought that.”

“You’re not embarrassing anybody. You want me to see if I can get some… ‘material’ off of Phil’s machine?”

She laughed hard. “You don’t need that, do you?”

He gently touched her hand. “Come on.” They entered the bedroom and closed the door.

AT SIX thirty the next morning, the others were seated around the living room with bowls of cereal when Jason and Lisa entered. It took one look. Everyone knew they were a couple now. “Good morning,” the pair said. “Good morning,” the others replied with small smiles on their faces. No one bothered asking how they’d slept.

“It’s still not out there,” Darryl announced for what felt like the hundredth time.

Jason shook his head. “I’ve got to take the boat to meet Ackerman anyway.”

“You won’t miss a thing.”

“LOOK AT this damn thing.”

Jason shook his head, watching Ackerman’s two-hundred-foot behemoth motor up the coast. With shiny white fiberglass, dark tinted glass, and an arsenal of sophisticated antennas on the third deck, the yacht was the size of a small cruise ship. Jason had arrived early at the desolate docks in Eureka and found nothing else here, just a couple dozen seagulls and a lot of rickety wood.

Sporting a silk Hawaiian shirt with little palm trees all over it, Ackerman looked happy to see him, guiding the master yacht closer from a three-story-high flybridge.

“Ahoy, Jason!”

“Ahoy, Harry!”

Ackerman trotted two floors down to the main deck. “Take the line, will you!”

Jason caught a thick braided rope, tied it up, then hopped aboard. On a vast teak deck, he couldn’t help but look around. A Jacuzzi whirlpool big enough for twelve caught his eye, gurgling quietly near a huge oak table and an electric barbecue the length of a car.