Dave Freedman - Natural Selection

“Impressive, huh?”

They turned, trying to see him in the flickering space. Darryl Hollis was invisible.

“Where are you?” Jason called out.

“Over here. In the middle.”

Lisa pointed. “There.”

They trotted over to him.

Jason looked down at him and smiled. “You did it. My God, you really did it.”

Darryl nodded sadly on the floor. “Monique and Craig deserved it. So did Phil.”

“They all deserved it.”

Lisa noticed Darryl’s soaked shirt and crouched. “Are you OK?”

He leaned back painfully on the rock. “Fine, Soccer Mom.”

She moved in to examine him. “Holy cow, your shoulder. We better get you a doctor.”

“Did Monique get a doctor?” Darryl turned to Jason. “Better start calling you Charlie Darwin from now on, huh?”

Jason shook his head, noticing a pair of explosives and a remote on the rock. “Leftovers?”

“Souvenirs. Take ‘em.”

Jason did, then looked around the vast cavern. “So you really killed it?”

“Body’s over there. Just follow the flares.”

Jason paused. “Will you be all right?”

“Go. You too, Lisa.”

She looked uncomfortable, even sick. “Darryl, I really think you need to see a—”

“I’ll see one later, OK? I just need some rest now.” He exhaled painfully and lay back.

Lisa nodded to Jason, and they followed the flares. Into one tunnel, then the offshoot.

From a distance, they saw it in front of the dead-end wall, something huge and dark, facing away from them. It didn’t move, but as they walked closer, in the sparkling golden light, Lisa wondered if somehow it was still alive. She stopped walking, but Jason continued until he was just a few feet away. He saw the animal wasn’t breathing. It had to be dead, and yet… He reached down to poke it. Then jolted back.

“Jesus!” Lisa jolted, too. “What’s wrong?”

“Its skin’s still warm.”

Lisa stepped backward. “What’s that mean?”

Jason paused. “Nothing. Its blood’s still settling.” Of course. Darryl had just killed it.

Jason poked it again. It didn’t more. He walked to the predator’s front. The eyes were wide open, as cold and black as ever but somehow devoid of life now. He surveyed the rest of it. Darryl’s arrows were sticking out from everywhere —left wing, right wing, the middle, the head, the horns, the face. “You want to see it?”

Lisa looked around in the sputtering light. “No.”

Jason turned back to it and started thinking like a scientist again. Darryl was right. Rigor mortis would set in. He had to do an autopsy, fast—within the next twenty-four hours. Which meant they had to get the body into a lab and… “How are we going to get it out of here?”

“What?”

“How are we going to move this thing?”

“I have no idea. For Christ’s sake, Jason, let’s get Darryl to a doctor first.”

“You think he’ll be OK?”

“I don’t know, but his health’s a little more important than doing a damn autopsy. I’m going to check on him….” She walked away angrily, and Jason followed. She was exactly right. The autopsy could wait.

“My God, Darryl, are you really OK?”

Lisa stood over him again, eyeing the blood-soaked shirt over his missing shoulder.

He looked up at her sadly. There were tears in his eyes, and he tried to smile through them. “I’ll be fine, Soccer Mom.”

Tears formed in Lisa’s eyes too. Darryl Hollis was anything but fine, and she knew it had nothing to do with his shoulder. “I’m so very sorry, Darryl.”

He nodded sadly when… “Can we get a truck up here somehow?!”

Darryl chuckled. “Doesn’t waste any time, does he?”

Lisa shook her head. “No, he doesn’t.”

“You guys are gonna make a great couple, Lisa.”

“Oh, be quiet.”

“He’s in love with you.”

She hesitated. “Did he tell you that?”

“Didn’t need to. Just like you didn’t. The Big Dog sees all, Soccer Mom.”

“We’d have to airlift it up, wouldn’t we?!”

Genuinely amused, Darryl turned. “Airlift what up?!”

“The truck to carry that thing out of here!”

Darryl closed his eyes. “You’re gonna have a lot of fun with him.”

Lisa stomped toward Jason like an angry, chiding mother. “Will you take it easy, for Christ’s sake?”

“What, I want to—”

“You’re anxious—I get that—but can we just bask in the glory of this for like five seconds?”

“I’m a little… overeager?”

“Maybe just a smidge.”

He looked around. “This place really is incredible, isn’t it?” He picked a flare off the rock and peered into another tunnel.

Lisa looked around herself. “Honestly, Jason… it creeps me out a little. If you don’t mind, I’d like to get out of here….” Then she realized he hadn’t heard her. He was in the tunnel.

“Lisa, come over here! Look at this!”

“What is it?”

He walked in farther. “I’ll show you!”

She reluctantly followed. “What?”

He pointed. “Look at that.”

It was dark and not easy to see, something on the middle of the floor, it looked almost like… “What is that?”

Jason walked closer, illuminating it with the flare: a human skeleton, bent at impossible angles, like a marionette tossed aside. “This must be where it was feeding.”

Lisa suddenly felt like she was going to lose her lunch. “Jason, I want to go right now. ”

“Wait.” He walked farther in. “Look at that.”

It was near the wall on the right side. Another skeleton, eight feet long with a large triangular head. Jason recognized the type of animal it belonged to right away. Not long ago, they’d seen a much smaller version. “I think that’s a bear.”

Standing alone and growing increasingly nervous, Lisa walked forward, joining him.

Jason raised the flare, scanning the rest of the dimly lit space. “Look, there are more, looks like a couple dozen.”

Lisa swallowed nervously. “Please, Jason. I really want to go now. Come on….” She started to walk away, but he grabbed her hand tightly.

“ What the hell is that?”

It was near one of the bear skeletons. Something small. Something moving.

Jason moved his flare toward it. It went perfectly still, trying not to be seen.

But Jason saw it. He saw it very clearly. He suddenly couldn’t speak.

“What is it?” Lisa tried to see it, but he’d lowered his flare.

“Jason?” She put a hand on his shoulder. “Jesus, you’re shaking. What the hell is it?”

Numb, he raised the flare.

It was larger than a seagull, probably twenty pounds. A living animal. A newborn. Perhaps the first of its kind to have been born on land. A small stealth-shaped ray. Lying on the rock near the bear skeleton, it had been teething on the bone. It was perfectly frozen now, apparently frightened.

Lisa just stared at it, trying to understand. “So that thing… had a baby?”

Jason looked around nervously. “It couldn’t have.”

“Why?”

“I just checked. The one Darryl killed was a male.”

“Then that means—”

“There’s a female around here.”

“How could that be?”

Jason’s head shifted rapidly, looking everywhere. “A pregnant female must have followed the first one out of the water. And if there’s one, there should be a bunch. From everything we know, this order of animal spawns in large groups, so—” His head froze. “Jesus.” Five more of the tiny animals were lying near the far wall. He looked around nervously. “We better get out of here. We better get out of here right now. ”

They turned and sprinted out.