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General Davies squatted on the floor next to one of the refrigerated cabinets. The power was still off, the genetics lab lit by flashlight only. A puddle had formed around his boots, seeping from the edges of the open cabinet. On the floor a few feet away lay a Gila Monster, almost twice the size of a normal one, pock-marked with a dozen bullet holes, leaking what appeared to be greenish-yellow blood. Whatever it was, it smelled horrible.

Reaching up and behind him, he felt someone hand him two rubber gloves. Slipping those on, he reached into the cabinet and withdrew the twisted glass and melted plastic. What he'd at first assumed was water, was in fact what had once been the genetic DNA codes of at least thirty animal species.

After losing Morgan and Campbell, he'd dispatched the soldiers to help the security guards in reclaiming the science labs. It had taken an hour and three dozen men and women - the best trained on the planet - to find and kill all the escaped animals. Carnage had left three floors of the building streaked with blood.

If he believed in destiny, he would have thought this was some kind of karmic payback for the Embassy attack. As he didn't believe in destiny, he had instead brushed aside the uneasiness and moved forward toward finding those responsible and eliminating the threat.

The threat to all of their survival. As evidenced here.

He studied the glass and plastic closely, reading what he could of the labels. Ectecephala. Elach-. ...hiptereicus. He had no idea what he was looking at.

Looking back at the Gila Monster, he shook his head. They'd' found the lizard chewing slowly into and through this cabinet, eating, he only assumed, whatever it could just because it could. Davies refused to believe Oz and his father. The animals were not targeting humans and human technology. That was a foolish idea. "Hippies," he mumbled to himself.

There were two other cabinets already similarly destroyed. The entire bottom halves and test tube trays twisted and warped with acid.

"Venom," one of the soldiers nearing next to the Gila Monster said aloud, handing a swab off to another one. General Davies didn't care. Acid or venom, its effect was the same.

"Sir," Davies looked up as a Private entered the room, saluting him brusquely.

"Yes?" He stood slowly, balancing as he did, one knee cracking softly.

"We've found Morgan."

At last, good news. "Where?"

"He's just re-entered the stairwell from the garage. Has begun his descent to the lobby.

"And?" At that, the Private paused. He froze. He saw confusion, and a lot of fear, in the young man's eyes. General Davies continued, "Campbell?"

"No sign of her yet." The Private almost sighed with the words, glad to have an answer.

"Well, then, we'll have to settle for the pathologist. Get him and bring him here."

With a snap of his heels and another salute, the Private disappeared back into the hallway.


"He's running, sir!" The Captain striding alongside Davies shouted the update. He held a radio tight to his ear, trying desperately to make out the Private's words. Apparently, catching one middle-aged Veterinarian was proving a bit too tricky for the General's "elite" forces. In fact, as he thought about it, the whole day had gone from bad to worse because of two civilians. Civilians! Against the United States military. It was a damn shame!

"Where to?" Davies demanded as he grabbed the door to the stairwell and threw it back. One hinge broke off as it bounced against the cinderblock wall.

The Captain stopped at the threshold, relaying the question to the Private on the other end. "Where?" A static burst erupted from the radio and the Captain grimaced. He caught the General's eye. Davies lifted an eyebrow in question.

"Back to the upper lot of the garage."

"What the hell is he up to?" And with those words, the General climbed the stairs rapidly, the melted plastic and glass still in his hand. He was going to put an end to this day once and for all.


Mitch stood in front of the jeep, waiting. He debated about praying, then decided against it. God had rarely, if ever, been on his side. And already once today, he had his prayers answered. It was best not to irritate the divine. Instead, he offered a quick cosmic note to Jamie. She had better be waiting for him.

The door across the lot banged open, spewing forth - he was glad to note - General Davies, then a dozen more soldiers. Every soldier had his weapon raised, trained on him. The General led the little army straight toward him. Fingering the trigger he had in his pocket, Mitch waited until they were all within ten feet of him, spread out in a half-circle around him and the jeep.

"Stop right there," he shouted with much more bravado than he actually felt. He withdrew the bomb's trigger, holding it up high, finger poised over it, his palm open so they could all see what he had.

The soldiers froze. Davies smirked and took another step closer. "What do you think you are doing?"

"What does it look like?" Mitch responded to the General's smugness with his own snark.

"Where did you find a bomb?"

"Cracker Jack box."

The General cracked a smirk. "So, what? You're going to blow me up?"

"Thought about it."

"Gave up on your ridiculous search for a cure?" Mitch smirked back at him, saying nothing. "Decided violence was the only way?" General Davies took another step closer. "Going to kill to save the animals?"

"I'd back up if I were you." Waggling the trigger in his palm, Mitch cocked his head at it, his eyes never straying from Davies.

"Think you can save the animals and humanity?" The General's voice rose. Mitch heard the anger rising. Anger made men irritational - in thought and action. The game they played was getting serious.

"Why not?" He downplayed Davies' anger, adding more salt to his tone.

"Us versus them. The animals or humanity. It is too late to save us both."

Mitch shook his head.

"You failed once, professor. You had your chance!"

"So did you! We're not the only ones who failed!" Mitch felt his own anger rising. Testosterone was a tricky thing.

Davies paused, tilted his head and gave Mitch a considering glance. How much of the science did he know? What had he understood of Robert Oz's project? Mitch asked himself.

"This?" Davies extended the hand he had hidden behind his back. Mitch had thought it was a gun. It wasn't. Squinting at the strange item, Mitch at first couldn't figure out what he was being threatened with.

It wasn't a threat, per se. Finally piecing it together, the wad of red plastic and glinting fragments, Mitch laughed. He wondered what animal did it. Considering the mutations across the animal kingdom, it really could have been any of them.

"We were already doomed."

General Davies shook with rage at Mitch's flippant dismissal of the ruined test tubes

"You just destroyed humanity!"