Dave Freedman - Natural Selection

Jason looked up at the animal, wondering if it was as smart as Bandar Vishakeratne had said. It will know more about you than you do about it. Was the creature actually capable of recognizing that the bow and arrow were weapons? Or was it totally oblivious—and moments from being killed?

The black orbs watched Darryl closely, focused on his slowly rising arrow. Then they shifted ever so slightly, to the arrow head. Then back to Darryl again.

As he continued, Darryl Hollis watched the eyes watch him and felt queasy. Never before had an animal watched him so closely. He actually sensed it wasn’t just “watching” him at all but studying him, even trying to understand what he was doing. But it hadn’t flown away. It was exposed, and if it continued to glide as it had been, he’d soon have a shot—and an easy one at that. Then the giant eyes shifted, focusing on Jason. That’s right, Darryl thought, look at him.

Darryl continued to raise the arrow into position. I got it, he thought, his weapon almost vertical now, a millisecond from firing.

The animal banked, darting behind a grove of redwood staffs.

“Wow,” Jason said quietly. That was no accident. The creature had not only figured out what a bow and arrow were, it had applied the knowledge and taken cover.

But it hadn’t disappeared. Why? Why had it shown itself in the first place? Jason watched as the gliding form darted in and out of the columns of wood, an obstacle course in the air. Mesmerized, he realized the creature wasn’t repeating the same flight pattern twice and he tried to guess where it would go next. Left or right? Down or up? It flew straight, gliding into a clearing beneath the fog.

Then he heard it. They all did. Very faintly, a low rumbling noise, like distant thunder.

Craig had never heard an animal make such a sound before. So deep, rolling over itself like an idling truck engine. “What the hell is that?”

Jason looked up at it. “I think it might be… a warning.”

The sound grew slightly louder, then faded and stopped. The animal pumped its wings and disappeared into the fog.

The six didn’t move. They stood perfectly still, staring at the white mist, waiting for it to return. But it didn’t return. The trees, the ferns… the entire forest was silent. They stood and stood. There was nothing up there now, just fog. The predator was gone.

After ten minutes, Darryl lowered his weapon—cautiously. “I don’t like this; something doesn’t feel ri—”

And then it happened.

The creature swooped out of the mist and let out a shattering roar. The volume was phenomenal. Craig and Jason literally fell backward. Phil, Monique, and Lisa cowered. Darryl shivered slightly and covered his ears.

Then, like a switch, it stopped. The creature swooped back into the mist and didn’t return. The six of them just looked at one another, stunned.

Craig turned to Jason. “A warning, huh?”

“Territoriality,” Darryl said.

Jason turned. “Territoriality. My God, you’re right.”

The animal had just staked its claim.

“ HOW DO we know there aren’t more of those things out there?”

It was night, and they were seated in the cabin’s living room.

“We don’t know.” Next to Lisa on a couch, Jason shrugged at Darryl. “And now that I think about it, I don’t know if we’ll ever know, not for sure anyway.”

Monique turned to her husband. “I seriously doubt if there’s more than one of them.”

“Why?”

“Because if there were even two of those things out there, we’d have a lot more than a single dead jogger on our hands.”

Darryl stood. “Well, that’s good. Because just killing one isn’t gonna be easy.”

“Six of us versus one of it?” Craig nodded from the hearth. “I’ll bet on us.”

Darryl began pacing. “This thing can fly, for Christ’s sake. It’s gonna be hard as hell to kill.”

“I don’t think we should kill it at all.”

Darryl stopped pacing. “You don’t, huh?”

Jason shook his head. “No. At least not yet.”

And that was more accurate. The predator had killed a human being, so it had to be killed itself. But as a scientist, Jason wanted to study it as well. He suddenly realized everyone in the room was staring at him like he was crazy. He stood. “Guys, don’t you realize what that animal out there means? No one in the history of mankind has ever seen anything like it. We can’t just go out there and kill it.” He scanned the faces. “Can we?”

No one replied; they just sat awkwardly.

Jason focused on Lisa. “Do you think we should just go out there and kill it?”

“Honestly, Jason, I do. I understand the argument you’re making. I think we all understand that argument. But given what’s happened…” She paused, thinking it through. “It killed a human being, so it has to die too—no question.”

“ No question? I agree it has to die eventually but…”

“But what?” Darryl shrugged theatrically. “What do you want to do, Jason? Let it fly around out there? Set up some sort of… laboratory and turn Leonard State Park into your own personal ‘wild kingdom’?”

Jason didn’t answer. It was a good point. He’d agonized over it already. If they actually found one of the predators, how exactly would they study it?

He sat next to Lisa. “We can catch it.”

“We can?” Darryl eyed him coldly. “How are we gonna do that?”

“We have tranquilizers and things, don’t we?” Jason had used tranquilizers only four times. While he’d had problems on every occasion, he assumed someone like Darryl was far more experienced.

But Darryl just shook his head. “No, we don’t have ‘tranquilizers and things.’ At least not on us. Maybe we can call for some, but…” He flipped open his cell. “Oh yeah, no phone service at the moment. So we’d have to go get them ourselves. What do ya think that thing would do while we’re gone? Wait for us to come back? Or do ya think it might go exploring?”

Jason didn’t answer. It was another good point.

“But for the sake of argument, say we can get tranquilizers. You’ve used them before, right? But you had problems? Well, lemme tell ya, that’s because they’re dicey. Not just for you. For everybody. Monique and I have used them a fair amount, and there’s always this little problem of getting the dosage right.”

Jason nodded. He knew this could be very difficult.

Darryl turned to his wife. “Remember Bill Crower, Monique?”

A sad nod. “Of course.”

“Old friend of ours who used to do a lot of work in the Bering Sea, with polar bears, penguins, and all that. One day Bill and a colleague had to do some testing on a walrus. So they went into the Arctic Ocean and found one sleeping on an iceberg. Pretty big walrus, too, about five thousand pounds. Now, walruses are generally very heavy sleepers, so they snuck up on it, and it didn’t even see them coming. They shot it up and the tranquilizers worked like a charm. Knocked it right out.

“But then it turned out the tranquilizers didn’t last as long as they thought. Only they didn’t find that out until they were on top of it. Bill took a tusk through the chest, and died right there on that iceberg. His colleague got a crushed spine. So I’m not trying to be dramatic here, but from personal anecdotes like that one, you could say that tranquilizers scare the hell out of me, Jason. In other words, I’m not comfortable using them. Period.”

Jason nodded. “I get your point. We have to be careful, but there’s still a way, right?”

“It’s called trial and error. If you wanna play trial and error with that thing out there, go ahead, but I’m not getting within a million miles of that.”