HELLO EVERONE. Thanks for the favorite(s), review(s), and follow(s), here is chapter 3. Clementine is Mitch's niece in this write and he is very close to her as his sister, her mother died and her dad got remarried. Mitch does have an Ex-wife but they don't have any kids. I made it where women are allowed in the Navy SEAL's but only seventeen women out of twenty-thousand that applied have qualified so far (the standards that need to be met are not lowered for the woman which is why the number is so few) and yes my OC is/was one of them. Also since I am unsure of the ages for the character's here are the ages I put them at. Abraham 35, Mitch 32, Jackson 28, Chloe 27, Jamie and Jupiter 27.
CHAPTER THREE
I waited at the airport anxiously watching each person that came through the gates, looking for Jamie. As soon as I saw her I immediately made a B line towards her, taking note that she seemed to be with another female and three guys who seemed to be encircling her sort of as though to protect her from some unseen danger.
"Jam!" I called out using my nickname for her just in case there was something going on that I didn't know about. Instantly Jamie came running towards me and I caught her in a tight hug keeping an eye on the four-other people that she had been with and who were now walking towards us.
"Jupiter!" Jamie said happily as she pulled back, "The groupies?" I asked using a slight nod of my head,
"Oh these are my friends. Chloe, Jackson, Abraham and Mitch. Um let's go somewhere else to talk okay?" She said looking around trying to be sneaky but I knew something was wrong.
"Sure, you have somewhere in mind?" I asked as we walked out of the airport not getting any luggage letting me know that they were all traveling very light. Like I did on certain occasions when I had to be somewhere in a hurry.
I rented out two SUV's and Jamie and Mitch rode in one with me while the other three rode in the other one. As I followed the directions that Chloe had programed into the SUV's navigation system Jamie told me about everything that had been going on in her life since I had left five months ago with Mitch voicing up from the backseat with his charming sarcasm and scientific knowledge. I was surprised and shocked a little at everything especially about her killing the FBI agent Ben something but I was proud of her to and made sure to tell her that. We pulled up at the Mammifere Research Facility and down into the laboratory where Mitch would be checking the bear out.
"So how do we tell if he's been infected by the Mother cell?" I asked Mitch as I watched him crouch down beside the bear, leaning onto the concrete wall about ten feet away from the hibernating bear.
"Hand me that trey of test tube's over there, will you?" Mitch asked Jamie pointing vaguely behind him before he answered me, "I'm gonna take a blood panel and hope that some foreign elements show up. If they do, I'll compare their chemical structure with the Mother Cell. If they match we've got our answer." Mitch said.
"So basically your looking for a fingerprint, chemically speaking?" I said watching him as Jamie handed him the test tubes.
"Look at you getting all sciency." Mitch said somewhat surprised as he looked towards me, I smirked at him, "Advantage of having hot physics and chemistry teacher's." I replied. Mitch raised an eyebrow but gave a chuckle as he handed something to Jamie and told her,
"Ten drops each into each of those test tubes. And as a backup I'll take a DNA sample, it takes a little longer but might as well while were here right?" Mitch said not really asking me but I shrugged in answer any way. I was the newest member to the little group and I knew I didn't have a full grasp on everything yet so who was I to say what to do?
"Would you mind taking a swab from our friends mouth there?" Mitch asked holding a cotton swab out in my direction. I pushed off from the wall and took the swab,
"Sure thing Doc." I replied flippantly as I walked over to the bear and began to lean across the table when the monitor of the bear's heart rate began to speed up. Staying where I was I looked up, "I think Cotton Eyed Joe here is waking up." I said looking towards Mitch, I heard Jamie snicker at my name for the bear as Mitch replied unconcerned,
"Oh that's okay." I pursed my lips and crossed my arms while raising an eyebrow, "Care to explain that a little more sugar?" I questioned in a tone of voice that made it known that was really a question.
Mitch rolled his eyes but explained, "Even in hibernation a bear's heart rate will increase when a predator gets to close. It's kind of like nature's silent alarm. Apparently your quite predatory …or maybe it's just your smell." Mitch said as I leaned down halfway through his explanation and rubbed the bear's tongue with the cotton swab. I was standing back up when he finished his little snarky comment and pursed my lips pretending to be deep in thought,
"Yeah I did have to ride here with a bag of trash in my backseat." I shot back at him as I held the cotton swab with the bear's saliva on the one end towards him. I saw his lips twitch upwards at my comeback even as he pointed me in another direction, "Put that in one of the little baggies over there." He said. I nodded and did as he asked when I felt my phone vibrate in my jean's pocket. I heard Mitch mutter something under his breath as I stepped outside of the laboratory to check my phone.
It was a coded message from Xander letting me know that everything was fine now and telling me that he was ready to pay his debt however and whenever I needed it. After reading it I immediately attached a virus to it and deleted it from my phone before re-entering the lab just as Jamie and Mitch were getting ready to leave.
"Everything ok?" Jamie asked me looking a bit hesitant, she knew I could get a phone call and then be gone for days even months at a time and I wouldn't be able to tell her why. I smiled, "Yeah. I'm sticking with you guy's until we find the cure. I need my Big Mac's and I would rather the Beef not eat me." I said causing Jamie and Mitch to chuckle in agreement with my statement. Jamie called Chloe who gave us instructions to her home where we would be staying and after making sure it was okay for me to stay over as well I drove us over there.
After we talked I decided to go grocery shopping and Mitch volunteered to come with me since Jamie wanted to take a shower and the others weren't at Chloe's yet. It was growing dark when Mitch and I finished grocery shopping and got back to Chloe's, after Mitch and I took everything into the kitchen I went to the small outdoor patio Chloe had to have a smoke. Half way through my cigarette Jamie joined me, leaning on the railing as she stared out at the lights of Pairs. After a moment of peaceful silence, I glanced at her sideways as I took a final deep drag before letting it out in a single breath and dropped the stub onto the patio concrete floor before grinding it out with the tip of my boot.
"You know when I came to your apartment five months I had something I wanted to tell you before an acquaintance called me away." I said watching her from the corner of my eye.
"Yeah and what was that? That you wouldn't be there when I needed you most?" Jamie asked harshly as she turned towards me. I wanted to immediately confront her head on but I knew that she was probably dealing with the guilt of taking a human life.
"I wanted to tell you I resigned. I'm no longer in the Navy and I don't plan on leaving you again. I'm with you now, no more me being gone for months at a time, I promise." I said making sure to add my promise at the end so she would know that I was serious. I never made a promise that I didn't think I could keep and she knew that. At that moment Abraham came out onto the patio as well so I went inside to help make dinner and get to know the other members better.
I finished cooking and set the table but felt exhausted and I knew that my bullet wound dressing needed changed so after I forced down several bites I excused myself and went out to the SUV to grab my duffel bag before heading to the bathroom to get a shower and change my wrapping. After my shower and changing my dressing putting some more antibiotic gel on it I pulled on my over-sized long-sleeve PJ's and collapsed exhausted onto the couch in the living-room while the others ate their supper. When I woke up, the next morning I felt someone watching me and continued to fake being asleep until I heard Jamie's voice warning someone, "I wouldn't get that close to her while she's sleeping."
"I just want to see how she'll react-" Mitch cut off his sentence abruptly as his voice gave away his position and using my advantage of surprise I shot up off the couch grabbing his stretched forward hand with the feather duster and had him pressed face first down into the couch with both of his arms behind his back and my knee pressed into spine.
"See how'll I'll react to what?" I whispered into his ear causing him to twitch a bit at my closeness.
"Jupe coffee's ready." Jamie said and immediately I vaulted myself over the couch and quickly crossed into the kitchen taking the coffee cup she was holding out towards me. I held it close to my nose and breathed in its heavenly smell before taking a sip.
"Sorry about last night I was a little tired." I told her as I leaned back onto the counter.
"Me to." Jamie said and I knew she meant about her attitude on the patio the night before, I smiled at her letting her know all was forgiven without words and we enjoyed our coffee while Jamie told be about their plan for the day.
"Do you want me to do anything?" I asked after she explained the plan to me,
"You could let me examine your cut." Mitch said his arms crossed as he walked towards us, I felt my forehead wrinkle in confusion as to how he knew and then remembered that I had left the old wrapping in the garbage which was a small can with no lid.
"Oh that." I replied seeing the knowing look on Jamie's face and knowing denial wouldn't get me anywhere as she must have seen the bloody wrappings as well. Jackson, Abraham and Chloe walked into the kitchen just then they appeared to have just woken up as they all headed towards the coffee pot immediately.
"It's already been looked over by a doctor." I said as I took another sip of my coffee. I saw the look on Jamie's face,
"You're not going to let this go are you?" I asked resignedly. Jamie raised an eyebrow and I took another sip of my coffee before setting it down onto the counter top behind me with a sigh and turning towards Mitch.
"Well Doc where do ya wanna do this?" I asked.
"Here's fine." Mitch replied pointing to one of the several stools that were around the island in the center of Chloe's kitchen. I sat down on the stool and pulled my long-sleeve off I heard a surprised intake of breath at the sight of my back which besides the two small knife scars, it also had the scars from an angry lioness's claws. Starting in the center of my left shoulder blade and dragging over and down to stop three inches above my pants line on my right side. I had gotten a tattoo artist to make it look like the scars were bleeding the effect was pretty neat and always made people do a double take.
I saw Mitch's eyes wonder my body and smirked before snapping my fingers, "Eyes up Doc maybe I'll let you give me a full look over later if your good…or if you're really bad." I said.
"Jupiter!" Jamie said causing me to laugh and the others chuckled as well as the tension broke in the room and Mitch un-wrapped my left bicep.
"This looks pretty recent." Mitch said as he looked it over, I saw Jamie cross her arms and give me the 'spill' look. Deciding to play it safe with a very doctored half-truth I told her, "I got this because a skunk got the drop on me and a redneck hunter had terrible aim." Thankfully no one pushed it and soon they left for Raiden Global while Mitch headed to the lab. I stayed at Chloe's as I wasn't needed and decided to get my nails and hair done after all there might be an animal apocalypse coming I might not be able to do it again, "Maybe another tattoo to." I mused out-loud as I got changed into jeans and a deep green button up quarter-length shirt.
Four hours later my finger nails were professionally done black with little silver crescent moons in the center. And my hair which had been brown and had fallen down to my waist line was now white, mint green and lavender and cut into a layered pixie that gave me bangs that fell over my left eye and was cut up to my hairline on the back of my neck. I also had a very new tattoo of the Om symbol on the underside of my right wrist, "After all it could very well be the end of life as we know it and the beginning of a new way of life." I thought as I traced my fingertips over my new tattoo while I walked back to Chloe's house. When I got there, I made lunch and ate it when Jamie called me to let me know that their plan had worked but the bear had woken up and escaped the lab but not before Mitch had injected it with a tracking chip so Chloe, Abraham and Jackson were going to track the bear while Mitch led them and she was going to check on Mitch. "Want me to do anything?" I asked.
A minute later I had my coat on and one of my guns strapped to my ankle and five knives safely hidden away on my body while I called a cab to take me to the Meudon Forest to meet up with Chloe, Jackson and Abraham to track down the bears. I made sure to give the cab driver proper motivation and following the text Jamie sent me I arrived and got out of the cab just in-time to hear Jackson holler,
"Over here." I followed Chloe, Abraham and the French guy they were with to Jackson and saw the dead guy. Abraham bent down and checked for a pulse before pulling back,
"Ice cold. He's been dead for at least a few days." Abraham said as I walked past checking the ground for any sign that a heavy creature had went that way. I saw some broken twigs and several imprints in the grass,
"This way." I said pointing to the trail the bear or bears had left. We followed the trail to a ridge and saw the remains of a building with a trail leading down the ridge towards it. I continued moving forward as I heard Jackson ask,
"What is this place?" I concentrated on the ground missing out on the first part of what the French guy said only overhearing, "They tore most of it down forty years ago."
Making it down the hill I was about twenty feet ahead of the others, "Hey Jackson, Abraham does that hole look big enough for a bear to get into to you guys?" I asked pointing towards the broken wooden frame of a lattice.
"It sure does." Jackson replied as we continued to walk towards it before stopping right outside of it. Jackson took the backpack off his shoulders and crouched down setting it on the grass as he started unzipping the backpack. I watched him pull out a tranquilizer gun and look at me,
"Do you know how to shoot one of these?" He asked handing the first one to Abraham,
"Didn't Jamie tell you what my chosen profession was for the past nine years?" I asked. I saw the surprise on his face,
"I thought she was joking." He replied handing me the next one.
"Nope." I said as I checked the gun before taking the flashlight he handed me next as well and placing alongside the barrel. Jackson handed Chloe one and took the last one before zipping up his backpack and tossing it back over his shoulders while Abraham and I stepped inside ignoring the French man's protest.
We walked soundlessly as we moved through the tunnels I was upfront with Abraham on my left and Jackson on my right when Abraham started to hum. I felt my lips twitch as Jackson spoke up, "Really Abe?"
"What it comforts me." Abraham said defending himself although he did stop. A low snarling noise echoed throughout the tunnel and Jackson made a shushing noise as we continued moving forwards. When the snarling noise was made again Chloe spoke up, "What is that?"
Jackson and I exchanged glances and moved ahead at a faster clip as Abraham answered her, "The bear's, their snoring." Several feet further I held up my clenched fist in a signal for the other three to stop as Jackson and I surveyed the scene in front of us. Determining that the bears were sleeping I motioned for them come forward as I kept my tranquilizer gun trained on one of them and Jackson doing the same to the other.
"There's no signal I can't call this in." Chloe whispered to Jackson, "The third one's not here." I whispered as I checked out the rest of the room where the two were sleeping. We all began to move forwards and I spotted the third one putting my flashlight on it so the others saw it as well.
Immediately the French guy spoke up keeping his voice hushed thankfully, "Okay that's three can we go now and alert Wildlife Services?" I kept my tranq gun trained on the third bear while waiting for Chloe, who Jamie had told me was the team leader to make the decision.
"Okay let's go." Chloe whispered backing away. I turned away from the bear last as we moved back the way we had come, the French guy happily rushing to be first. I bit my lower lip to hold back my laughter when Chloe said, "When we were living together I was always the one who killed the spiders."
I moved silently behind them until I recognized the now empty room where the bears had been sleeping. Apparently, Abraham recognized it to as we spoke at the same time, "Where are the bears?"
"What do you mean?" Jackson asked. I gave Abraham a nod and he spoke up, "This is where the bears were sleeping." Jackson and Chloe came to a stop,
"Are you sure?" Jackson asked scanning the room, "Yes I recognize the debris in that corner." Abraham replied using his flashlight to show what he was talking about.
"Tell your friend to stop!" I told Chloe urgently as he was already a good twenty feet in front of us and since he wasn't armed and there was many tunnels that connected to the one we were using he was open game. She opened her mouth either to ask my why, tell me off or do what I said but it was lost as the third bear roared from behind us. Immediately I turned towards it training my tranq gun on it, Jackson rattled off some advice from behind me which I stopped by saying, "I'm fine get the French dude he's open game!"
I saw Abraham come up on the other side of the tunnel out of the corner of my eye. "I will stay with her, go get him." Abraham said to Jackson and Chloe who I heard their retreating footsteps. The bear started to run towards us and I took a knee aiming for the neck, I hit it but it bounced off the bear like it was hardened rubber.
"Are these bears suppose too have a mutation?" I asked Abraham as I reloaded my tranq gun before training it back on the rapidly approaching bear.
"Mitch said it seemed to have grown a sort of body armor." Abraham replied firing off two which bounced off the bear harmlessly as well.
"Body armor…body armor…try aiming for the back legs!" I said before I moved forward and into a side tunnel calling to the bear so Abraham would have a clear shot at its hindquarters. It was about seven feet from me when I heard Abraham shoot and the bear turned its attentions towards Abraham I brought up my tranq gun and shot its hindquarters as it moved past me and it rocked before falling with a groan.
I stepped out and walked around it with as much distance as I could get between me and it as I moved towards Abraham and we exchanged smiles of comradery as we turned and ran in the direction the other three had went meeting Jackson half way.
"Any sign of the third one?" I asked Jackson as we passed the bear he had put to sleep.
"Not yet." Jackson replied. I nodded and kept a careful eye out on the tunnels behind us while Abraham and Jackson helped the French guy out of the tunnels with Chloe walking in front of them.
When we got out Chloe immediately called it in and after she explained things and had a short talk with the French guy who's name I still didn't know nor bothered to ask we all left. Since I had taken a cab to get there I rode with Chloe, Jackson and Abraham back to the lab where Mitch and Jamie were waiting. I saw Jamie look me over for any injury before Mitch had us sit down and began to do some show and tell.
"This is the DNA profile from the bear from the lab, and this is the same bears DNA six years ago when he was first tagged." He said showing us the two different DNA profiles.
"It's changed. Was it the Mother Cell?" Jamie asked.
"Yes and no." Mitch replied.
"What does that mean?" Jackson asked. Mitch launched into an explanation which I didn't really pay attention to until be began to list off things that they had seen,
"The bear's endoskeletons, the bats flying abnormally high, the lions communicating over long distances-" Mitch was cut of by Jackson who spoke up, "They all make their species more capable of survival. Stronger, better."
"What I think is that just like our ancestors developed apposable thumbs, I think the Mother Cell is just accelerating these mutations in the animal kingdom which we would probably see occur naturally but not for at least another several generations, a couple of hundred years from now. Depending on how long it takes us to screw up the planet." Mitch said.
"But we're seeing it now because of the Mother Cell." Jamie said.
Mitch nodded and spoke again, "But here's the good news-," I cut him off then,
"If the Mother Cell can make a naturally occurring situation worse maybe it can do the opposite." Mitch nodded, "Yeah."
Abraham finally spoke up then, "But what's the opposite?" We all remained quiet thinking that over, as we went back to Chloe's house where she left having to meet with the guy who put the team together.
The next day Chloe told me that they were being sent to Pender Island in Massachusetts. It got quiet and I looked up from my coffee to see them all looking at me, "Is something on my face?" I asked clueless as to why I was the focus of their sudden interest.
"We had a meeting last night and we have come to the decision that if you would like to join us and be a member of our group we would welcome you." Chloe said. I smiled,
"Heck yeah. Let me pack my bag." I said getting up from the table when Jamie smiled and set my duffel bag down in front of me, "Already packed." I laughed, "Then after you." I said gesturing towards the front door.