Apex (3 page)

Jack wondered what that alien mist had done to him. Was it a contagion that would kill everyone he came into contact with? Was he a sort of Typhoid Mary? Was the contagion a precursor to an impending alien invasion, meant to weaken humanity before the assault?

Or was he a delusional teenager?
There was a very real possibility that that sphere wasn’t alien in origin. Maybe it was something top-secret that had fallen from a military jet. Or maybe someone had laced their weed with acid? That would explain the bizarre sequence of events that immediately transpired afterwards. But it didn’t explain a mass hallucination encountered by not only him and his friends, but also the couple that had not smoked their weed with them. And it didn’t explain what was happening with his body now.

When Dr. Henshaw came bursting through the door excitedly, Jack nearly screamed. But the look on the doctor’s face confused him. The doctor was both excited and worried. He came at Jack with a
heavy steel bar and Jack flinched, ready to be clubbed to death.

But the doctor touched him on the shoulder gently and said, “No son, this is for you. I want you to bend it.”

Jack felt like a fool for curling up defensively. It made him look like a coward. But the ramifications of what the doctor had just said helped him get over his embarrassment. Could he bend a steel bar that thick? Why would the doctor suddenly think he could?

He reached out for it, ready to tense against its weight, but it felt as light as a feather in his hand. “This isn’t metal, is it? It’s too light.”

“That bar is pure steel and I’d bet it weighs fifty or sixty pounds. Bend it.”

Jack furrowed his brow and grabbed hold of the other end of the bar with his other hand. It bent too easily. “What’s the point of this?”

“You just bent something that can’t be bent by man.”

“No I didn’t. It’s not steel and it wasn’t hard to bend it.”

“That’s what your friend Melanie said right after she bent it into a pretzel. I had to have her bend it back for me so I could test Scott and you.”

Jack didn’t exactly understand what the doc was getting at. “Scott did it too?”

“Yep. Like it was made of silicone. Now that I know you are all changing in the same ways, I want to test you some more. Get some sleep. I’ll come up with some more challenging tests. We’ll begin tomorrow morning.”

Jack bent the steel rod back like it was made of melting wax and held it out for the doctor to take. The doctor wrapped a towel around his hand and took it. By way of an explanation, he said, “This bar has been manipulated so much by you three that
it’s scalding hot to the touch.”

“It didn’t feel hot to me.”

“I know that. Your pain threshold will be tested tomorrow too.” As he exited the room, he said, “I can’t wait to see if your reflexes are improved.”

Lunch

An orderly brought him a bowl of oatmeal and a banana with a cup of hot coffee. He refused to answer any of Jack’s questions except to say he didn’t care that Jack hated oatmeal, bananas and coffee because that was all he was getting. Jack was pretty sure prisoners had better choices for lunch than that. Jack also noticed that his eating utensils were all made of plastic, maybe so he didn’t use them as weapons, or maybe so he couldn’t use them to commit suicide or murder.

He let his legs drop to the side of the bed and gingerly put his weight on them. He was startled to see the musculature bulging in his thighs. He was in just his boxers and a t-shirt but he wasn’t cold, even though the walls and floor were made of concrete. He flexed his bicep and stared in awe as it swelled before his eyes.

He walked to the nearest wall and put an ear against it to try and see if he could hear Scott or Melanie on the other side.

If he had heightened strength and toughened skin then he assumed he’d have heightened hearing too, but alas, he heard nothing.

He sat back on his bed and worried. He worried that he’d never get out of the quarantined cell he was in. He worried he’d never see his mom again. He worried about his current predicament. What if he was so unique that he was deemed a threat to national security? What would the government decide to do with
him and his friends if they thought they couldn’t control or trust them? A worse thought crossed his mind: What if the government could d nothing to stop him? He was strong and his skin couldn’t be broken. Did that mean he was indestructible? Normally the idea of being unstoppable would have thrilled his seventeen year old mind, but there was something about the notion that terrified him, now that it was a very real possibility.

A different orderly knocked on the door before entering. This one was a woman in her mid twenties and she was cute. Normally Jack tensed around beautiful women but he was oddly emboldened. Maybe he was over his hang-ups. Or more likely,
that alien mist had changed more than just his exterior.

Before he could act on his newfound courage, she had already scooped up his bowl and cup and then left the room.

Alien Invader Ship,

Half a Light-year from Alpha
Centauri

The Grey commander, Davok, relaxed in his chair. He was a big guy, twice as wide and a whole head taller than most Greys. His size alone was enough to intimidate his crew members. “Be ready to wake the troops from stasis soon.”

His second in command
, Fillo, said, “They’re still being rejuvenated in their pods. I request we let them recover fully before we wake them up.”

“Understood. How many spare pods do we have now?” That was double-speak for,
how many troops have we lost?

“We have seven thousand empty. We lost many soldiers during our last engagement.”

Davok shook his head. “I want you to send a message to command. Our intel is flawed. The last planet we faced should have been easy but those people were warriors. I thought they were a class C civilization but they fought like a class B.”

“I’ll make sure command understands our frustrations. This next planet is a class D so we should be able to get in and out with few if any casualties.”

“If things keep working against us like this, I’d rather just use a planet buster than risk my men.”

Fillo sighed.
“A planet buster would do us no good though, sir. We need the planet intact.”

“If you say so. But how many potential colony planets do we really need?”

“That’s not for us to decide. High command said they want as many options as possible.”

“When high command says they’re thirsty, and you ask how much water they want, their answer is: All of it.”

“That’s just their way, sir.”

“They’re lucky I enjoy my job because otherwise, I might be forced to question their sanity.”

“We only have two planets left to clear before you’ll have your chance to question them face to face.”

“I know that and that’s why I’m nervous about our faulty intel. The last planet we need to clear will be our toughest test.”

“We’ll plow through them pretty easily. They’re smart but they’re hardly warriors.”

The commander knew he was right, but there was something fishy going on with each successive invasion. Every fight was more brutal than the last and he was sick of losing men. And they’d kept the hardest fight for last.

But he had to stay focused. It did no good worrying about a later conflict. It would only serve to distract them from the battle in front of them. “Let’s just worry about the task at hand. Just get me that intel before we go stumbling blindly into another mess.”

“Yes sir.”

The General

Doctor Henshaw knocked on the steel door and walked into Jack’s room with a uniformed figure in tow. The man behind him had a severe look, with a chiseled face and a steely stare. He was about the doctor’s age but it was obvious that he’d lived through a different kind of life than the meek doctor had.

“This is General Parsons. He came right away after I sent my latest report about your progression.”

The general stepped around the doctor and held a hand out. Jack shook it, noticing that the handshake was dry and firm; a reassuring, manly handshake with no warmth to it.

“Hello Jack. I’m here to
witness your abilities for myself.”

Jack snorted. “I don’t have any real abilities that I know of. All I’ve done is bend a bar. Don’t tell me you flew out here for that?”

“The doctor here tells me that that is just the tip of the iceberg. I’m here to test your limitations.”

“Why?”

“It’s my job.”

“I mean, what do you hope to achieve here?”

“I’ll level with you kid: I’m here to assess what type of threat you might pose. But I’m also here to assess how we might be able to use your abilities.”

“You’re talking like you know I have abilities but I don’t. If I don’t now about them, how can you?”

The general turned to the doctor and asked, “Did you show him the film?”

“I didn’t see the point to it.”

“Show it to him. I need him to understand what he’s working with. I don’t want to spend my time here trying to convince them that they’re special when the film will do it for me.”

Tale of the Tape

The doctor rolled in a television cart. On it was a little crappy TV with a built-in DVD player. He parked it beside Jack and slid in a disc.

Jack wondered just what the hell they were going to show him. What did they know that he didn’t?”

When the film began, it became immediately apparent.

On it was Jack, strapped to a gurney in a well lit hospital. He was thrashing around wildly as nurses tried to get close enough to tend to him.

Then the view took on patches of distorted pixilation and the hairs on Jack’s arm stood up.

On the screen, the prone Jack, unconscious but hardly immobilized, started to shake as though he was seizing. A nurse ran forward but she froze about two feet from the gurney. Then she was thrust backwards by an invisible hand. The other nurses disappeared from view as they helped their fallen coworker.

Jack’s wrist restraints slid away then, the buckles falling to the floor in pieces. Jack sat up abruptly, his chest restraint
s breaking like they were made of wet paper.

His eyes shot open, revealing pupils that were beyond dilated; they encompassed his entire eye sockets. He started to moan
incoherently.

The nurses screamed and ran from the room just in time. A file folder flew across the room first; thrown by an invisible hand. Then a towel whipped into view and disappeared just as quickly. Before long, miscellaneous debris was flying around the hospital room
like it was caught in an invisible tiny tornado. Then all at once, Jack screamed out and the floating objects fell to the floor.

The scream came to an abrupt halt and Jack fell onto his back once more, but his body was rigid. The gurney rocked again but with more violence than before. And then it shot out of view, making a deafening crash sound as it smashed into a wall just out of view of the camera.

Jack looked form the screen to the doctor and then back again. His heart was racing. No wonder they were afraid of him. He’d never felt such dread in his life.

Doctor
Henshaw pointed back to the screen and said, “It’s not over yet.”

Jack looked at the screen but nothing was happening. He was about to ask the doctor what he meant when he heard a door creak open on the TV. He wondered if his comatose body was escaping from the hospital under its own command but
it was just the nurses returning. One of them started to clear all of the thrown around debris. She was shaking uncontrollably, taking quick furtive glances over her shoulder every few seconds. Another nurse joined her. They were whispering but it was impossible to make out what they were saying.

A voice, out of view said, “Come and help me with him.”

One of the nurses in view shook her head and said, “I quit, Nancy.” She ran from view and didn’t return.

The other nurse
quickly finished picking up and said, “What do you want to do?”

“Just help me shove him back over there.”

“I don’t want to touch him.”

“I need your help Candace. Please.”

Candace disappeared from view now.

Jack watched in horror as his body was moved back beneath the camera. The two nurses were pushing him but there was no gurney beneath him any more. He was floating freely four feet from the ground. His eyes were now closed and he appeared to be asleep. Each nurse had him by a leg as they moved him like a hovercraft.

When they were done, Candace said, “I’m going home for the day. This boy is possessed by the devil.”

The other nurse shook her head. “No he isn’t. There’s no such thing.”

“Then explain that,” Candace said as she pointed a finger at Jack’s sleeping, floating body.

The gesture made Jack cringe. If he didn’t know any better, he’d have to agree with her.

Candace left the room at a brisk walk and the other nurse followed her. A minute later she came back into view with a different gurney. She wheeled it beneath Jack’s hovering figure. His body was less than an inch above the gurney now. His body was slowly bobbing up and down, but only ever so slightly.