Dave Freedman - Natural Selection

Less than fifty feet away, the predator was flat on the soil, its colossal form gently rising and falling. It was in front of the fallen tree. The tree’s dark coloring closely matched its own and made it very difficult to see, especially with the dark soil. The animal knew that if someone had been inclined to look up, and wasn’t looking right at it, he or she wouldn’t even notice it was there.

Still looking up, Monique ran straight for it…. Running and spinning, running and spinning.

The creature didn’t move.

She saw the approaching mass in her periphery. She planned on climbing over it and simply ran closer.

The eyes shifted, no other body part moving.

She ran closer still, turning away from it.

Suddenly and silently, the great form rose up like a snake. Then it didn’t move. It just held there, its front half in the air, standing slightly more than six feet tall.

As she started to turn, it rumbled.

Monique froze, dropping her walkie-talkie. The sound was astonishingly close.

Facing the wrong way, she turned slightly and saw the Demonray out of the corner of her eye, something huge and white, looming over her. She knew instantly that the creature must have been there all along. But it wasn’t attacking. It was just standing there, coiled and watching her. She could actually feel its eyes.

Ever so slowly, she turned and looked up at it.

The deathly cold eyes looked right back at her.

She didn’t move a muscle. She simply looked at it.

Then, never losing eye contact, she gently repositioned her fingers on the rifle.

Monique moved first. With lightning quickness, she slammed her back against the dirt and fired twice. Two small red holes appeared in the massive underside. The animal didn’t seem to feel them. The head snapped downward with phenomenal quickness. A mouthful of the giant teeth rushed toward Monique, and she closed her eyes, firing three more times.

Suddenly the creature was gone.

Monique jumped to her feet, no idea where it was. Then she saw it flying away rapidly, just above the forest floor. She fired twice.

As if seeing the bullets, the pumping form suddenly darted straight up, climbing vertically along a redwood.

Monique sprinted to the base, aimed, and…

The creature smashed through the canopy above, disappearing into the sky.

Monique frantically scanned the patches of blue, catching little pieces of the Demonray, apparently on a towering trajectory above the trees…. She lost sight of it as it continued higher.

Then, a hundred yards away, something enormous and black plunged down like an elevator. Monique jerked her rifle down. The winged form knifed lower then banked violently above the soil, rocketing straight for her with the speed of a flying roller coaster.

She fired four times.

The body rose before the shots had even been taken. Every bullet missed.

She fired again. A bullet plunged into the creature’s face, a few inches from the right eye. It had no effect. She fired again but missed badly. Her hands were shaking. She fired once more, but again, couldn’t control her hands.

The great body roared closer, a hundred feet away… then fifty feet…

She fired three more times, but again her hands shook. She threw the rifle down, ripped the dagger from her pant leg, and sprinted toward it.

The creature let out a shattering roar.

Monique screamed back, her eyes filled with rage, raising the knife above her head with both hands.

The mouth rushed in, the great teeth rapidly growing larger.

She screamed again, running as hard as she could.

Suddenly her direction was violently reversed. Flying backward and shrieking in pain, she stabbed down on top of the head, four, five, six, seven times. Then the knife slipped from her hands, and she didn’t know where she was. She wiped the blood from her face and wondered if she’d gotten free. She realized her eyes were closed. Why were her eyes closed? She opened them.

She was up to her chest in the creature’s mouth, a doll in the jaws of a curious dog. Feeling down, she realized her legs were gone. Strangely, there was no pain. She looked up at the animal’s eyes. They were so close now, less than a foot away, black, deathly calm, and staring right at her. Why wasn’t it biting down? What was it waiting for?

The Demonray was flat on the soil; she could actually feel it breathing. It seemed to be playing with her, waiting to see if she’d try to escape.

But Monique didn’t try to escape. She simply thought of her husband and the family they’d always wanted.

The creature bit down. Monique Hollis was gone.

THE BODY had been moved by the time the others arrived. All that remained were the walkie-talkie, rifle, and a pool of dark blood on the soil.

“Oh my God,” Lisa said, weeping uncontrollably. She stepped back as Darryl walked closer. He was unable to hold back his tears.

Jason glanced at Craig, eyeing bloodstains with a look that could cut glass.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, Jason noticed the fawn, struggling to get up. He gently lifted it into his arms, eyeing its broken leg. This time he knew he’d have to splint it by himself.

“ MAYBE WE should end this—pack it in.”

Jason’s words hung in the air. They were seated around the living room. Out of respect for Monique Hollis, they’d done nothing at all for the past twenty-four hours. Darryl’s mourning period had been powerful, intense, and was far from over. Seated on the hearth, he still looked numb, gazing down at the shiny wood floor. No one responded, and Jason nodded morosely. “I guess that’s a yes.”

Darryl turned to him, his eyes ice. “No, it’s not.”

“Darryl, we shouldn’t make emotional decisions right now.”

“Do I look emotional to you?”

A pause. “No, actually. You don’t.”

“Monique died for one reason: because that thing outsmarted us. Because we were stupid. Now we’re gonna have to outsmart it. You mark my words, Jason. I’m still gonna kill that thing. So, no, I’m not packing anything in.”

“Neither am I,” Craig said.

Jason turned to him. The Hollises were Craig’s best friends on the entire planet, people he’d literally waged war with. If Darryl wanted to fight, then so did Craig Summers. His eyes were steel. But then they turned quizzical. “Do you want to pack it in, Jason?”

“Monique was my friend, too, Craig.” Even now, Jason’s eyes were a little wet. “No, I don’t.”

Phil cleared his throat. “For what it’s worth, neither do I.”

On a couch next to Jason, Lisa was astounded by what she was hearing. “I don’t believe this. Darryl, your wife is dead.”

“Thanks for the reminder.”

“I’m sorry, it’s just… you’re not reacting to this the way I would. If we really want to kill this thing, let’s call in the National Guard.”

“That would be useless.”

“What are you talking about? They’re professional soldiers.”

“You sure about that, Soccer Mom?”

“Well… yeah.”

Craig shook his head. “They’re not even close to professional soldiers, Lisa. More like accountants and auto mechanics who do weekend drills at the local armory. You get a bunch of those guys running around here… the deaths will really start piling up.”

Darryl nodded. “Not to mention they don’t know a goddamn thing about hunting.”

“They can fire guns; they can help us. Right, Jason?”

Jason paused. “With all due respect, Lisa, I’ll defer to Darryl and Craig’s judgment on this. Just like I said I would. But from what little I know of the National Guard, I’m inclined to agree with them.”