Chapter 10: Evolution
Once the episode in Sacramento was finally over, Alex and the rest of the A-190R squad returned to New York after returning to the base in Sacramento. During the entire trip back home, Alex sat in depression over the grief of his friend. They hadn't been friends for long, but they had already developed a friendship that would forever plague Alex's mind.
"Alex, we're here." said Captain Daze. Alex looked out of the window of the Helicopter and saw the base a few thousand feet below them. Alex smirks and gets up off his seat and turns to Captain Daze.
"Sir, permission to speak freely?" asked Alex. Captain Daze nodded.
"I suppose... this isn't like you Alex." said Captain Daze. Alex ignored him and continued.
"Let me out of the Heli right now." asked Alex. Daze looked at him like he was crazy.
"W-What!"asked Daze. Alex shrugged and waited for his reply as Daze shook his head.
"No, Corporal. I won't have you jump out of a heli without a good reason." he said. Alex nodded and headed for the door. Regardless of the captain's orders, Alex forced open the door and jumped out into the sky.
"ALEX!" yelled the captain as Alex jumped out and waved good bye to everyone on the heli. They watched him as he fell and fell until finally, wings sprouted from his back. When he started flying through the sky, Alex embraced the speed his wings gave him and flew up and next to the helicopter as he waved to them in the windows.
"What the fuck! That Son of a Bitch is flying!" said one of the soldiers. Captain Daze shook his head in amusement and watched as Alex soared through the sky. Once they had touched down back in the base, Alex made a soft, easy landing next to the helicopter.
"Corporal, that was some crazy shit in the sky back there. I should have you relieved of duty for going against direct orders like that." said Captain Daze. Alex nodded.
"Sorry sir. Don't worry, it won't happen again." said Alex.
"Good, because next time it does, I'm throwing you out of my team." he said with a smile. Alex new that he was serious, but in a joking way. Once after being de-briefed from the mission, Alex made a bee-line for the lab to meet up with Allen Nelson. Upon ALex's arrival, Allen greeted him with a small hug and a large smile.
"It's good to see you still in one peace, Alex." said Nelson jollily. Alex nodded and smiled back at Allen.
"Same for you." he said plainly.
"Come, come, I'd like to have a word with you about our agreement." said Allen. Alex nodded and followed after him into a sperate room to discuss things.
"So, how was it? Did you use any new powers?" asked Allen. Alex smirked at him and gave him a thumbs up.
"It was incredible! Things were even better than I expected! I was lighter, faster, and stronger than ever out there, so it was a real rush!" said Alex. Allen laughed again and nodded.
"That's great to hear! I'm glad that the mesitone is working for you." said Allen. Alex nodded and took a seat with Allen across from a table in the room. "So, about that infected I told you about... did you find it and consume it?" asked Allen. Alex nodded. During the fight to the hive back in Sacramento, Alex had found it and consumed it the first chance he got. Since then, he has kept the information under-wraps.
"Yeah, and I don't think you'll like what I found." said Alex. Allen leaned forward, ready to prepare himself for the worst.
"Explain." said Allen seriously.
"When I consumed the infected, I saw it's memories and I learned a few things." said Alex.
"I see."
"For one, the infected are starting to think more strategically. They are actually able to think about how to organize and plan for attacks, which is something that they haven't been able to do before." said Alex.
"What!" said Allen sounding intrigued.
"And that's not the worst of it!" said Alex. "What I saw... was the most unsightly planet I could imagine. I've seen some crazy shit before, but what I saw when I consumed that infected, I don't know, gave me chills. Everything was covered in blood and fire and there was nothing but a real hell on earth. It was... terrible beyond description of any kind."
"So what are you saying? The "End of the World", Alex?" asked Allen.
"From what I saw, it looked like it." said Alex. Allen sighed and messed up his hair by rubbing his hands through this head.
"PARIAH... what are you planning?" asked Allen to himself. There was no response from anyone.
"Sorry, Allen." said Alex. Allen looked up at Alex and smiled at him. Once returning to his normally cheery self, Allen reached for a file in a locked cabinet and showed it to Alex. "What is this?" asked Alex as he looked at the information. It was a bunch of data and diagrams based off of a strand of DNA.
"This is what I had to show you today, Alex." said Allen. Alex looked at him with a little surprise and even some fear.
"This is..."
"A copy of your DNA strand and it's recent mutation to be able to cross over large water bodies." said Allen. "I was doing some studying to try and see what had caused the mutation. But when I found the answer, it wasn't anything I expected."
"You mean...?"
"Yes, Alex. It wasn't a mutation that caused you to change, it was an evolution." said Allen. Alex listened intently to this sensitive information.
"Evolution?" he exclaimed.
"Yes. Your DNA revealed it to me that there was more to your genetic structure than I had anticipated. It turns out that your body was supposed to slowly evolve into something else with new abilities on its own. As a biologist though, I did a crappy job and did the one thing a biologist should never do: forcibly change an organism through mutation or artificial evolution down to the basic genetic level." said Allen.
"You knew this would happen!" yelled Alex in an angry tone.
"Y-Yes..." said Allen. Alex's mood changed as he formed a fist and quickly stood up to object to this.
"How could you! I thought that you were supposed to help me!" asked Alex. Allen looked down at the file and sighed.
"I know... I'm sorry, Alex. But I did have a reason. You were strong Alex, but I needed to make you stronger. I had to force you to evolve when it wasn't yet time so that finding PARIAH would be much easier and faster. I figured that we would find him before... anything bad happens, and that I would be able to synthesize a cure before any kind of harm could be fall you." said Allen. Upon hearing this, Alex understood and sat down again.
"You said you needed to make me stronger... why?" asked Alex. Allen began to explain.
"Blacklight and Redlight aren't too different in terms of genetic structure and biological ability. That means if you were going to evolve, so would the Redlight virus, which is the infected as a whole." said Allen.
"What!"
"I didn't know what kind of evolution or when it would start, but I couldn't take any chances, so I had to force your evolution so that you could keep up with the infected. I'm so... so sorry, Alex." said Allen. Alex could just feel his entire world come crumbling down.
"So then... besides the fact that the enemy is getting stronger and I'm probably screwed over... what else is there?" asked Alex.
"Well... nothing bad has happened yet due to your forced evolution, but let me know if you start to feel like your powers aren't functioning properly or if the mesitone is starting to mess with your head. Any hallucinations might cause you to go clinically insane..." said Allen. Alex knew that there was probably more, but Allen stopped knowing that things were only going to get worse.