Dave Freedman - Natural Selection

“Then forget the National Guard. What about the SEALs, the police, the FBI?”

“The FBI?” Craig was genuinely amused, “What are they gonna do? Flash their badges and tell that thing to come out with its hands up? And what makes you think the FBI or anybody else would even believe us, Lisa? Do you realize what we’d sound like? Even if the phones did work, if we made that call… forget the National Guard, they’d be more likely to send the National Enquirer. ”

“We’d have to show it to them.”

“How would we do that exactly?”

“Well… we’d have to take them out there.”

“You think that thing’s gonna pose for a picture?”

“Craig’s right,” Jason said. “No one would believe us, and with all of the back-and-forth explaining, it could take months to convince them.”

“Which we don’t have.” Darryl eyed Lisa soberly. “That thing’s out there now. If we wait just days, it could go anywhere.”

Lisa stood, glaring at Jason. “Then stay and fight it. I’ve had enough.” She walked out.

“IF YOU’RE leaving, so am I.”

Alone on her bed, Lisa looked up. Jason was standing at the doorway. “Jason, I don’t want you to leave. I know how important this is to you.”

He entered. “If you’re leaving, so am I.”

“That’s ridiculous, you’ve been waiting your whole life for something like this.”

He got in her face, softly. “If you’re leaving, so am I.”

“You’d do that for me?”

“Uh-huh.”

She exhaled. “Then I want to stay.”

“You’d do that for me ?”

“As long as you don’t get us killed.”

“ You and I will be fine. Remember?”

She paused. “That’s something I’ll never forget.”

He sat, and they hugged on the little bed.

“JASON, BRACE yourself. Phil might actually know how we can kill this thing.”

Jason paused as he and Lisa entered the living room. Darryl was serious. “How?”

On the easy chair, Phil leaned forward. “We need to get it out of the forest, right?”

Jason eyed him hatefully. “That’s Darryl’s call.”

Darryl nodded. “We do. Out of the forest, shooting it becomes a whole different ball game. Tell him your idea, Phil.”

Phil turned. “How do you think this thing likes heat, Jason?”

“Heat? Physical heat?”

“Yes.”

“It probably hates it. Cold as it is in the depths… It might not have evolved to deal with it.” He paused, his revulsion for Phil Martino buried by his curiosity. “What’s your idea?”

“To smoke it out. Literally.”

“How would we do that?”

“With a prescribed burn. What the rangers were planning to do here anyway.”

Jason’s eyes narrowed. “Hmm. How would that work, exactly?”

“ FIRST, I’LL show you what a prescribed burn is….” As Darryl, Jason, and Lisa watched, Phil removed the black mesh screen in front of the fireplace. “Now, all fires, whether they’re in a fireplace, a forest, whatever, need what we call ‘start-up fuel’ to ignite.”

He pointed to what was inside the fireplace, logs on top of kindling and crumpled newspaper. “Here, the start-up fuel is the newspaper and kindling. We burn the paper first, which in turn burns the kindling, which in turn burns the logs. All together, that gives us a big blaze. Simple, right? But what would happen if we removed the paper and kindling and just tried to light the logs directly? It would never burn, right? The match would burn out, and we wouldn’t get anything close to a fire.” He looked around the room. “Everybody follow?”

There were nods.

“Just like in a fireplace, forest fires start burning after the forest’s version of kindling—dried grass, dead shrubs, fallen branches—burns first. Then the trees start burning. But. If that kindling’s already been burned, then a major fire can’t even get the chance to start. That’s what a prescribed burn is, literally ‘prescribing’ a series of small fires so big, out-of-control ones don’t burn later. To put this in perspective, a lot of national and state parks started doing prescribed burns after the big Yellowstone blazes in ‘88.”

Lisa nodded. “Pretty cool.”

Phil returned the mesh screen. “And pretty easy. They’ve been doing prescribed burns at this park for years, so they were prepped for another one anyway.”

“How do you know that?” Jason asked.

“I found some of their old files. It’s basically ready to go.”

“You know how to oversee these burns?”

“I’ve done it before.”

“We won’t burn the entire forest down? You’re absolutely sure of that?”

Craig cleared his throat. “Jason, it looks safe to me. According to their records, there’s actually not that much fuel out there. Coincidentally, the part of the forest where this thing’s been repeatedly returning to has fantastic natural fire barriers.”

Phil pointed to a map. “Look. Ocean to the west, a double-lane paved road to the south, and the creek to the north and east. Basically, it’s a prescribed burn’s dream.”

“You really think it’s safe, Craig?” Jason asked tenuously.

A confident nod.

“And this makes sense to you, Darryl?”

“Perfect sense. We gotta get that thing outta the woods, and this seems like a great way to do that.”

Jason reluctantly turned to Phil. “When would we do it?”

“First thing in the morning’s best, when there’s lots of cold air to help contain the fire.”

Jason’s eyes shifted, mindful of whom he was talking to. “What are the other risks?”

“We’ll get some high, superficial flames from the rhododendrons, but nothing lasting, nothing really dangerous. We should be fine.”

“We won’t need to put it out somehow?”

“The beauty of these types of fires is that they pretty much burn themselves out. They just run out of fuel. We’ll need to check for burning embers and things….” Embers could burn for days if not properly extinguished. “But that’s about it. Other than that, there shouldn’t be any problems.”

Jason turned to Darryl. “Say we do this. And say it actually works. If we drive that thing out of the trees, it could go anywhere, right?”

“We’d have to shepherd it.”

“How would we do that?”

“With the helicopters. Craig and I already went over it. With all of the noise and electrical activity they generate they should scare the hell out of that thing. If it does pop out of the treetops, we’ll have it.”

“Where would we shepherd it to exactly?”

“Where it won’t have anywhere to hide. Over the ocean.”

Jason hesitated. “What if it decides to go for a swim?”

“Then it drowns. Its gills have long since dried out.”

“That’s right, they have. Hmm.” Jason went over all of it in his head. At least on paper, it worked. He turned to Phil, despising him, distrusting him, and yet… “When do you want to do this?”

“Like I said, the air will be nice and cool first thing in the morning.”

Jason nodded. “First thing in the morning, then.”

“ IT’S EXACTLY where we thought it would be.” Craig nodded confidently to Jason as a blinking dot shot across the radar sweep.

“Good.” Jason stood. “I’ll go see where Darryl is.” Jason marched outside and reached the parking lot just as Darryl hopped out of the Vertol. “You set it up?”

Darryl nodded. “It’s ready to go.” He’d just removed the Expedition ’s seldom-used deck-mounted harpoon gun, then anchored it to the floor of the mammoth Vertol. Jason peered in at the weapon. Though technically a harpoon gun, it looked like something off a battleship: a six-foot-tall piece of curved steel the size of a harp that fired harpoons with speeds just shy of guided missiles. Darryl would use it when the moment was right.