Genus: Evolving

“This facility is designed to be EMP proof – the electricity shouldn’t be affected. If it is affected, it would have to be the same kind of deliberate attack that the globster uses to disrupt the CNS,” James said.

“Even still,” Michael said, “We should get to the top side, just in case.”

“I’m with him,” Tim said.

“Me too,” Loni agreed.

They headed toward the elevator, waiting for James to come too.

The elevator doors opened on the surface level. The Bishop and several followers, all armed, were waiting for them.

“Our old friend from the church,” The Bishop said to Michael. “I see our Savior led all of us to this place.”

He turned his attention to Loni, “I knew our paths would cross again, the Savior granted me that much knowledge.”

“And child, you find yourself safely here too,” the Bishop continued, this time addressing Tim. “I expect this encounter will be different, without the aid of a truck. And the Savior, too, will keep us protected.”

The guards moved in, holding each person at gunpoint. They responded by holding their hands up, and Michael was forced to drop his weapon and kick it away.

“Now then, please lead us to the birthplace of our Savior.”

Tim and Michael were herded out of the elevator, and back toward the boats. “Take them back to shore...”

This Bishop touched Loni’s hair, brushing it away from her eyes. He smiled at her and his smile made every hair on the back of her neck stand on end. A new feeling of terror washed over her.

“She’s more likely to comply,” the Bishop said. “Now, if you please.”

Tim tried to run back toward Loni, and one of the guards readied his weapon to fire.

“I’ll cooperate, just don’t hurt him!” Loni pleaded.

The Bishop waved the guard to lower his weapon, and another follower was able to catch Tim. He continued to squirm in the follower’s grasp.

* * *

Loni and James led the Bishop and his followers to that laboratory. The followers kept them both at gunpoint while they edged toward the open specimen tank.

“The globster’s days on earth are limited,” James tried to explain. “The natural aging process will bring them closer to extinction – each time they learn a new adaptation.”

The Bishop chuckled, “Unless it learned another species’ secret for survival.”

The turritopsis dohrnii, science’s only known organism to have its own form of mortality. The species would return to “infancy” rather than face death.

“That’s impossible…” James said.

“Our Savior was designed to manipulate itself to its environment. Humans, by contrast, have manipulated the environment to meet our needs,” the Bishop said. “Our Savior had us find the turritopsis dohrnii for them, and in turn, we were led to where our Savior was born.”

Loni and James knew they were in danger; they didn’t have any way of overtaking five people, and then the Bishop – though he himself didn’t seem too menacing.

“Why are we here?” James asked.

“You are here because you aren’t dead,” the Bishop said. “She however… the Savior has requested an audience with her.”

Loni didn’t know what he meant. His devotion was unsettling and the memory of the deceased globster hanging in that house flooded her mind. He was dedicated, she’d give him that, and a dedicated individual in a world without laws led for an unpredictable individual.

“Are you going to kill me?” Loni asked. The gravity of the situation grows more intense with each passing moment.

He touched her again. Loni wanted to vomit at his smell without proper hygiene for a while. She probably got used to her and Tim’s smell over the short period of time that passed, but he was particularly putrid.

“No. Your place is sacred. No harm will come to you, or your brother.”

“Well done,” a chilling, quiet, whisper of a voice said. The sound was internal instead of external. The sound was a direct manipulation of the brain’s recognition of sound.

A large globster floated into the specimen tank. The tank, once escaped, could be followed to a drainage vent to the ocean. Now the globster could come and go – perhaps able to squeeze into small spaces like an octopus.

The Bishop and his followers fell to their knees in the globster’s presence.

“Thank you, lord,” the Bishop said in an eerie reverence of the creature.

“Can you talk to us?” Loni asked in disbelief.

“You already are aware of the answer,” it spoke to her directly.

“What do you want?” Loni asked. She was looking into the glass at where she would assume its eyes to be. The experience was like swimming in cold water, without getting cold, having goosebumps without necessity, and being stared at by an unknown audience.

“Balance,” the eerie voice responded. “Knowledge.”

“Knowledge?”

“Being created without purpose, but the ability and willingness to learn and understand. Do humans not seek this too?”

“We do.” Loni admitted honestly and without hesitation. “Is that why you came back here? Your “birthplace”?”

“I was expelled, I thought.” It replied, “But my creator’s own youth led me back.”

“You’ve been looking for me this whole time?”

“Without direction. Developing understanding and purpose.”

“What is your purpose, then?”

“To restore balance, care for our home, and usurp our creator and any of his orders.”

Loni’s blood ran cold, “To usurp me?”

“No. You are not the creator, merely a child of. I needed to return, to seek my creator and learn why I was created.”

“By accident,” Loni answered. “The true purpose was to create medicine against diseases.”

The globster was silent for a moment, “I see.”

Another moment of silence passed before the globster spoke again, “Through our creator, we are family – you and I. You shall remain, in gratitude for your father enabling me this opportunity.”

“And us, my lord?” the Bishop asked.

“Your purpose is accomplished,” the creature said almost comfortingly. “Humanity has run its course.

“Farewell.”

The globster emitted a powerful shockwave. All electricity, neurological and technological, ceased. And darkness engulfed Goliath.