Chapter Sixteen
The Bears
As Abe, Chloe, Jackson, and I start to head toward some of the tunnels we were going to in order to begin our search for the bears, Abe's phone begins to go off.
"It's Mitch."
Jackson glances up in the rearview mirror.
"Put it on speaker."
"Am I the only one who finds it odd that Mitch called Abe before anyone else?"
I can see a smile grin come across Jackson's face. Somehow he got stuck driving and I got put in the back seat with Abe. Not that I don't enjoy Abe, but I don't really care for Chloe trying to get closer to Jackson, especially since he saved her life back in Africa. Abe just shakes his head before answering the call.
"Hey, Mitch."
"Hi, the bear wakes up and smashed its way out of the lab. But I injected it with a…"
The phone skips over the last few words Mitch says as we go throw a wooded area. Jackson leans to his right slightly, why we have a left-handed driver in a country with predominantly right-handed driver cars, I don't know.
"You injected it with what?"
"A microchip… with an RFID tracker."
I turn toward Abe, giving the phone a rather odd look.
"What? Why do you have a Micro with an RFID tracker."
"In case anyone had any plans to release it back into the wild. Don't ask questions, just be grateful."
Jackson shakes his head and recenters himself behind the wheel.
"Okay, where is he now?"
"Same as five minutes ago. He's running through the woods, alongside the highway. It looks like he's heading towards the, uhh. Meudon Forest."
Chloe chuckles softly, correcting Mitch's pronunciation.
"The Meudon Foret?"
"Yeah, that's what I said."
"The Meudon Forest is south, but according to the people from the bio-lab, that bear lived west, in Les Hauts-de-Seine."
Jackson shakes his head.
"So, if he's not headed home, he's headed towards the other bears."
Mitch calls out over the phone, sounding a little confused by what he is about to say.
"Listen, you know how we talked about the bears changing? Well, I think they've developed some kind of… endoskeleton."
"What do you mean?"
"A hard shell, like a hard shell underneath its skin."
"You have got to be kidding."
"Sadly, no."
I chuckle.
"Well, at least you know funny isn't your color. And it's probably a good thing we are heading there already. I don't know if that luck coincidence or a curse."
When we arrive at the Meudon Forest, Jean-Michel is there with a handful of other park rangers and workers. As we approach him, I can see that they have managed to trank one of the bears and have in a cage.
"So, is one of you going to tell me what's going on here?"
Chloe straightens herself as she speaks to him.
"What do you mean?"
"That bear has some kind of super thick skin. It took three tranquilizer darts to bring it down. Is this some kind of next-gen weapon that your agency is experimenting with?"
I scoff softly stepping up next to Chloe.
"No. Even if it were, we wouldn't put innocent people in harm's way to test it."
"Park Service is going to need to cordon off the woods and do a grid search while we look for the other bears, If they're here, we'll find them."
Jean-Michel looks back to the bear and then back to us, as Abe steps up beside Chloe and me.
"Okay, we'll help you look."
"Sure."
Jean-Michel looks around the small area.
"Where's your friend?"
The three of us look around and realize that Jackson is gone. I sigh softly.
"Where did he run off to now?"
Abe shrugs his shoulders.
"Jackson?"
We hear Jackson call back to us, from a couple dozen yards away.
"Over here!"
Abe and I start walking toward the sound of Jackson's voice, before long we can hear the sound of Chloe and Jean-Michel following close behind us. When Abe and I can finally see Jackson, we notice that he is standing over a man's body.
"Jackson?"
Jackson doesn't move, he just stays crouching beside the man. Abe walks up and places the back of his hand against the side of man's neck.
"Ice cold. He's been dead for at least a few days."
Jackson nods, still quiet, before standing and walking over to a clearing of the edge of the woods, walking to the crest of a small hill, point down to the area below, while turning to Jean-Michel.
"What is this place?"
Jean-Michel walks over to Jackson, looking down at the area.
"It's Fort de Chatillon."
I almost rush over to the two of them look down and the area as well.
"You mean the fort that was built in the 1870s from the Prussian war?"
Jean-Michel looks at me a little shocked by my knowledge about Fort de Chatillon.
"Yes, they tore most of it down 40 years ago."
Jackson begins walking down the small ramp-like path, stopping when he gets to one of the turns and studies something on the ground. Abe calls out to him as we get closer to him.
"What is it, Rafiki?"
"Bear scat. Multiple tracks. Must be three of them."
Chloe turns to Jean-Michel, who has a rather confused look on his face. She smirks and translates that scat means poop, speaking to Jean-Michel in French. Jean-Michel scoffs slightly
"Delightful."
We continue making our way down to the entrances of the tunnel that would have been used during the war when the fort was is used. Jackson and I walk over to a large hole in one of the gates. I look over some of the bars that look like they've been chewed and forced up. Jackson stands a few feet behind me.
"Abe, look at this. Does that hole look big enough for a bear to get in?"
"Oh. Yeah, considering it's about four times the size of Kat, I'd say that bear could walk into it standing up."
I give Abe a rather fake and sarcastic laugh, before stepping into the hole and deeper into the tunnel.
"Ha ha ha."
Jackson and Abe follow shortly after.
"Hey, wait for us."
We look around the first room we go into, seeing that the tunnels go off the three directions. As we look around we hear Jean-Michel protesting outside.
"Guys, I mapped this place for the city. It's a maze in there. You'll get lost. Do you at least have a gun for me?"
Jackson had pulled three tranq guns out of his bag, handing one to Abe and one to myself. Chloe had been checking over her handgun, before stepping through the hole in the gate.
"No."
Before long Jean-Michel steps through it as well, not wanting to be left alone. As we walk through the tunnels Abe begins to hum a lullaby to himself. Jackson stops almost dead in his tracks looking over his shoulder to Abe.
"Really?"
"What? It comforts me."
"Oh leave Abe alone, Jackson. Abe may look big and scary, but he's a teddy bear."
I walk past Jackson and slightly pat his back, before his starts forward again.
"And don't you forget it, Uzuri."
I chuckle softly as we continue down the tunnels and before long we begin to hear a snarling noise. Of course, Jackson rushes up next to me.
"Shh.."
We all stop and listen as the snarling continues. Jean-Michel, who is at the back of the group with Chloe, calls out softly.
"What is that?"
Jackson and I glance back at him, answering simultaneously.
"The bears."
Abe steps up past us, continue down the tunnel.
"They're snoring."
Chloe pulls out her phone.
"There's no signal."
We continue forward, slowly and quietly. When we come into the next room we can see two bears sleeping in the open area. Jackson takes a deep breath.
"There's only two of them."
I look over to him.
"Where's the third?"
We continue forward through the next few rooms, before finding the third bear asleep. Jean-Michel begins to get panicked.
"Okay, guys. That's three. Can we go now and alert Wildlife Services?"
Jackson nods and turns, stepping toward Jean-Michel to lead the group out with Chloe and leaving Abe and me at the back.
"Yeah, let's go."
Once we get back to the room the two other bears had been in, I stop and look around. The group stops as well, as Abe places a hand on my back.
"What is it?"
"This is where the bears were sleeping."
"Are you certain?"
Abe nods, stepping to the middle of the room.
"She's right. I remember the debris right there in that corner."
I take a deep breath, getting very nervous.
"Okay, let's get out of here. Come on."
As the group turns to leave we hear a loud growl. Turning back the way we had come to see a bear on its back legs. Jackson takes a few large, but slow steps, placing himself in front of me.
"Just stand your ground. All right? Don't run away, but don't let it think you're a threat."
The bears roar loudly. As it does Jean-Michel turns and runs, I turn and see nothing, but his blue and white plaid shirt disappearing into the tunnels.
"The other bears."
"We gotta stop him."
Jackson, Chloe, and I take a few steps back before turning and quickly walking away. Sadly, this meant leaving Abe, who was in between the group and the bear."
Before we can catch Jean-Michel we hear a scream and a growl. When we to Jean-Michel he is in the corner of one of the open rooms. Chloe and I rush to his side, while Jackson focuses on the bear at the entrance of the room. Jackson tries to keep the bear away from the three of us, as it snarls and growls. He shoots the bear in the chest with the dart gun, but it just bounces off. Once the bear is back down on this feet it turns to Jean-Michel, Chloe, and I, setting its sights on the three of us. Jackson quickly reloads the gun and shots the bear in the backside, before quickly reloading and doing it again. Thankfully, the bear goes down. Once it's down Jackson looks over to the three of us.
"You okay?"
Chloe takes a deep breath, trying to calm down.
"Yes."
Upon hearing her answer Jackson runs back toward Abe and the other bear. As he does I stand and do the same, after showing Chloe where to apply pressure to Jean-Michel's wound. When I get to the boys, Jackson is waving his hands around, backing up into a corner.
"Hey! Hey, Bear! Look right over here! Come to get me, buddy! So my friends can shoot you in the back! Right over here! Hey, Mr. Bear!"
The bear roars as it nears Jackson, Abe and I shot at the bears, taking it down before it can swipe at Jackson. Abe looks at the two of us.
"Nicely down."
"Anytime."
Jackson nods his head, but as he steps forward his legs turn into the Jell-O. I step forward to provide what help I can in holding him up.
"You're adrenalin wearing off?"
Jackson nods.
"Yeah, but I'm okay."
"Let's get out of here."
Jackson and Abe nod in agreement before the three of us make our way out of the tunnels. Help Jean-Michel up and out as well. Once we get there Chloe calls for the wildlife services and emergency services. It doesn't take long for them to get to the site and take over Jean-Michel's care, which I had been attempting with the lack of supplies we had on hand. A first-aid kit is in no way equipt to take care of a bear's claw mark for a long period of time. Of course, they wish to check the rest of us out too. Thankfully, no one else is seriously injured.
Once we are cleared and we make sure that Jean-Michel is going to be okay, we make our way back to the lab that Mitch had been working out of. Obviously, after what we went through, we are covered in dirt, and Chloe and I also have a fair amount of blood on us. Jamie runs up to us as we walk into the lab concerned.
"Oh my god, are you guys okay."
Jackson nods.
"Of course, just took on three weaponized bears."
Jamie looks over to Chloe and me.
"Why are Chloe and Kat covered in blood."
Chloe and I look down and then to each other, not really noticing the sheer amount until now.
"It's not ours."
"No, one of the French investigation team decided to go with us and got injured. But he's fine now."
We all gathered around a small computer monitor that Mitch had set up. Abe, Jackson, and I sit on the rather low step table that, I'm sure, the bear had been placed on, as Mitch begins to explain what's going on.
"This is the DNA profile of our bear from the lab. And this is the same bear's DNA six years ago when it was first tagged."
I lean forward, noticing a major difference in the two strands.
"It changed."
"Mm-hmm."
"Because of the mother cell?"
"Uh, yes and no."
Jamie looks between Mitch and me.
"What does that mean?"
Mitch sighs.
"Think of it this way. None of the earth's creatures are born perfect right? We all have genetic anomalies. Be it a birthmark, double jointed wrists, webbed toes. But the anomalies that become the norm are the one that is adaptive. That is more useful for survival. Like opposable thumbs."
Chloe shakes her head.
"What does it have to do with animals?"
I clear my throat, continuing Mitch's thought.
"The traits we've seen… the bear's endoskeleton, the bats flying abnormally high, lions seemingly communication over long distances. They all make their species more capable of survival. Stronger, better."
"And what I think… just like our ancestors developed opposable thumbs, I think the Mother Cell is just accelerating these mutations in the animal kingdom that we would see occur naturally, but not for another… several generations."
"Maybe a couple hundred years from now, depending on how long it takes us to screw up the planet."
"But we're seeing it now because of the Mother Cell. But here's the good news… if the Mother Cell can make a naturally occurring situation worse… maybe it can do the opposite."
Jackson shakes his head.
"But what's the opposite? The Mother Cell can cure the animals?"
"Yes, I believe so. It'll take me awhile to figure out how, but it should be possible."