Dave Freedman - Natural Selection

“It’s out there.”

“ 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, grabbed 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.

“ 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…