Cataclysmic Evolution - 14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

Barron woke up again. The process was more gradual than before. His breathing sped up. He could move. He curled his fingers into fists, then spread them back out.

Weird. There was… skin between his fingers. He waved them and the tank fluid rippled. Bluish tissue ran down the outside of his hand. And his arm too! Barron lifted his arm. It fanned out like a wedge and was attached from just above his wrist to his armpit. Barron reached for it. It gave under his fingers, thin, slick.

And it glowed. His arms were limned in a faint shimmering light. He couldn’t tell what color it was, just… sparkly.

The sensation of his fingers on it sent a shivery quiver up the nerves of his arm. Barron arched his back and shuddered. He grunted around the mouthpiece. Okay. No touching.

He triggered the alarm on the tube, but didn’t hear anything. Where was the alarm? He thrashed in the fluid. He could move, but he felt drunk, uncoordinated.

Tap. The sound on the tank echoed through the fluid. “Barron,” Dr. Samuels whispered.

Barron jerked his head up. “Mmm.” He gestured toward the tube, blinking rapidly.

“I know, I shut off the alarm. We have to get you out of there.”

We? Barron blinked twice. The guards were gone, but he could see two shadowy figures behind the doctor. The lights were low. It must still be nighttime.

“You must remain silent when we pull you out. Stay calm, okay?” She spread her fingers on the tank.

What was with her thing insisting he stay calm? She was a doctor. She was supposed to have a good bedside manner, right? Who in their right mind thought telling a person to stay calm would make them anything but calm?

Revi came out of the shadows. “Hey, it’s us. I promised I wouldn’t leave you alone, remember?” Barron blinked twice, firmly. He slid forward, pressing both hands against the tank.

The fluid level began to drop. Barron started to slip to his knees, but Revi reached in and grabbed his arm. Creed grabbed his other arm.

They lifted him up the rim of the tank. Barron squinted. The world was wavy and fuzzy, like a he had a film across his eyes. Barron blinked several times, and it went away. Dr. Samuels grabbed the mouthpiece. She pressed a button on the end, and it retracted. It slid up Barron’s neck until the flat disk sealed around his lips popped off.

Barron panted. “What’s going on?”

“Shhh. We’ll explain, just wait.”

It was so hot outside of the tank. Barron was dizzy. He couldn’t climb out on his own. Creed and Revi got him out. Revi propped him up from the front, holding his hips, while Creed got him a thin robe.

“Let’s get out of here.” Revi looked up at Barron. “Just stay with me, okay?”

Dr. Samuels led the way. Creed and Revi held Barron around the waist and at the wrist, avoiding the weird skin that had somehow curled up into a thin tube along his arm. He stumbled between them. His skin was so sensitive, every tiny thing on the floor dug into the soles of his feet.

Barron jerked back when the door to medical slammed open. “Someone’s coming!” William hissed.

“Who’s coming?”

“It doesn’t matter. If anyone sees us, we’re screwed,” Dr. Samuels said grimly. “We have to run.”

They burst out of the door in a knot. Thavin waved from the edge of the partially finished…

Wait. The habitat was complete.

Creed dropped his arm. “You guys get back to your bunks,” Revi told him and William. “You can’t be caught up in this right now.” Dr. Samuels grabbed his other arm. What the hell? Barron did his best to run, but questions ran through his mind as his uncoordinated limbs fought him.

“Stop!” Shouts behind them spurred everyone to run faster.

“To the water,” Dr. Samuels panted. “It’s his only hope.”

Barron gasped for air, heaving, trying to get enough oxygen to keep running. Darkness began to creep in at the sides of his vision.

“He’s not going to make it.” Revi squeezed Barron’s wrist.

“He will. We’re almost there.”

Boots crunched on the gravel as they were pursued down toward the edge of the ocean. Barron’s feet took a beating but the cool, waterlogged sand soothed them as soon as they stumbled onto the rim of beach along the pounding waves.

“We will shoot if you try to enter the water!”

“Go. I’ll hold them off.”

Dr. Samuels held her arms out, sheltering them as she turned to face the pursuers behind them. “I’m the only trauma doctor the colony has. Are you really going to shoot me to get to these boys?”

Revi ripped off the robe. “In, in, go in the water.”

He was so hot and the water looked so good. Barron looked at Revi, hesitating.

“Come on!” He waded into the water and a shot rang out.

“No!” Barron shouted. He jumped forward and caught Revi. A dark wound on Revi’s shoulder was already bleeding through his shirt. Blood dripped into the water. Barron slapped a hand over the wound, pressing down. “Dr. Samuels! Get him out.” Revi couldn’t stay in the water. The thing might get him.

Shouts broke out on the beach. The shots stopped, but the damage was done.

Dr. Samuels darted a look over her shoulder. “I can’t. It’s too late, Barron. Go. Swim. Keep pressure on the wound.” She pointed up the beach. “Don’t go that way. Go toward the suns.”

“Revi!” a man shouted from the beach. “Son, wait!”

Barron wasn’t a great swimmer, there was no way he was going to stick around. The doctor thought they weren’t safe, and Revi promised he wouldn’t leave him. Barron wasn’t going to leave Revi either. He waded out farther into the water until he was chest deep.

“Go, Barron,” Revi begged.

He curled an arm under Revi, shuddering when the skin under his arm unfurled. His chest eased and Barron took a deep breath. He pressed his hand against Revi’s wound and used his arms to keep their bodies pressed together.

Then he started swimming.

Leaving Dr. Samuels behind made Barron feel bad, but whatever was going on, she and Revi had wanted him to get away from the habitat. It took a few minutes to figure out how to get a good rhythm going, but the longer Barron was in the water the easier it was.

Revi shivered in his arms, but the water slowed the bleeding. “C-c-cold.” Revi’s teeth chattered.

“I’m sorry. Should we get out?”

“N-no!” Revi jerked. “Stay in the water!”

The million questions Barron needed answered would have to wait. He pushed wet tendrils of Revi’s hair out of his face and started swimming again.

“Can you kick? It might help you stay warmer,” Barron asked him.

Revi began moving his legs, small kicks at first, and then more. The rough fabric of his jeans rubbed against Barron’s bare stomach.

The suns were beginning to rise in front of them. They’d been going down the shore long enough for the full dark to fade to a steely gray. The stars never fully went away as the distant suns rose in a mix of colors. “If the sunset is anything like this, I can’t wait to see it.”

“Better.” Revi panted. He was taking another break, letting Barron tow him.

“Are you doing okay? We need to get you out, Revi. You’re going to get hypothermia or something.” His body should’ve shut down from the cold by then.

“I’m fine. Warming up every minute.”

Barron stopped. They bobbed in the water. “What?” If Revi felt warm then he was hypothermic. “That’s it, you’re getting out.” He didn’t suggest getting out. Barron didn’t want to get yelled at again.

Revi rested his head against Barron’s shoulder. “I’m fine. We can take a break over there, though, if you need to stop. The plants aren’t toxic. If my dad gets a shuttle, he might come looking for us, and we’d be hard to spot there.”

A huge snarl of plants floated in the water to their right. Barron had avoided several smaller patches. It was strange, comparing the lush tangle of plants to the completely barren shore on their other side.

He struck out for the edge. The closer to the plants they got, the warmer the water was. Barron frowned. “Am I imagining it, or does the water feel hot?”

“It does.” Revi sighed. “That feels good. Wonder if these plants are the reason why there’s still water here? Hmm… you know what, I don’t care. It’s nice here.”

“Damn it.” If Barron hadn’t avoided the plants earlier, then Revi could’ve gotten warm. “Can you hold on with your good arm?”

The plants were an odd scarlet hue in a variety of shades. Long stems looped and knotted together, and some hung over into the water like handles.

“Yeah.” Revi grabbed a vine, and Barron let him go. He shook out his arm, the muscles sore from holding Revi so tight.

“I’m going to check your wound, okay?” Barron looked at Revi’s shirt, then shook his head. He ripped the hole wider. It was the best way to see the wound without removing the shirt and exposing even more of Revi’s body.

The flesh around the raw wound was pale, but rather than a hole, there was a furrow taken out of the top of Revi’s shoulder. It wasn’t as bad as he thought. “Thank God.”

He peered closer. “Is that… are you already healing?”

“Probably.” Revi rested his head on his good hand and sighed. “The symbiont is very efficient.”

Barron jerked back. “Symbiont?”

“Yeah. Lucky for me, I have exactly what it needs to flourish. You and the three soldiers that died back in the habitat weren’t so lucky.”

Was he delirious? His lips weren’t blue. Barron touched Revi’s forehead, but he felt okay. Barron frowned. Before, the skin between his fingers had been blue, but now it was a flushed pink. He lifted one arm out of the water.

The weird flap of skin was pink too.

“What in the fuck happened when I was in the tank?” Barron snapped. He couldn’t wait anymore. He had to know.

Revi blinked slowly. “I don’t know everything, exactly. I know what Dr. Samuels told us and what the guys and I could overhear. You’re good at that science and math crap, so maybe it’ll make more sense to you.”

“Just tell me.” Barron wasn’t mad at Revi, but he was so sick of everything—all the drama had to stop.

“Basically, these plants aren’t plants. They’re alive kinda, but only when they’re not yet plants.”

Barron closed his eyes. “That makes no sense.”

Revi frowned. “They have… spore parasites? Yeah, parasites is what they said. They release into the water and are basically living organisms that seek out hosts.” Revi pointed at Barron and then his chest. “We’re hosts.”

“These plants have spores they release that seek out living organisms? That symbiont you mentioned.”

“Yeah!” Revi looked pleased. “I knew you’d get it.”

Little bits of information began to fall into place. “The thing they were worried about—it was the symbiont. Not some of the animals living in the ocean.”

“Exactly. The military guys were freaking out about securing the colonists, the science guys were freaking about study and understanding, and Dr. Samuels was fighting to keep you guys alive. She couldn’t save the three soldiers, but the symbiont didn’t work as fast on you. She was able to keep changing your tank settings just enough to keep you alive.”

“I almost died?” Barron shook his head. “How long was I in the tank?”

“Nearly a week.”

Barron gaped at Revi. “That’s insane.”

He nodded. “Your body needed hydrogen rich water. Cold, hydrogen rich water. Without it, your body kept shutting down.” He pointed at Barron’s arms. “Then you grew those, and it got worse. Dr. Samuels couldn’t keep up with the demands your body had for hydrogen, and the tank couldn’t filter out the massive quantities of carbon dioxide you were putting out.”

“So you guys broke me out of the tank? Why did you have…?”

“The scientists and General Keene wouldn’t stop arguing. They were going to fight over what to do about you until you died.” Revi stared at him. “We weren’t going to let that happen,” he said simply.

Barron swam closer. “And you got in the water, knowing the risk of this parasite getting in you, like it did with the wound in my hand. Knowing it would change you like me. That you might die, like the soldiers.”

“I wasn’t going in a tank. I wasn’t going to die. Dr. Samuels took some of your blood. She had Mejia study it, down to the cells. The parasite invades the cells and becomes a symbiont. It’s changing your body, but it helps you too. Why do you think every living creature on this planet is in the water?”

“There shouldn’t be anything living on Paradise. It’s too far from the sun, Thavin said.”

“Exactly!”

“So this plant has something to do with keeping everything alive?”

“Yep.” Revi smiled. “And it fixed your eyes, too!”

“Yeah, but now I’m a freak.” Barron waved the shimmering flaps under his arms in the water.

Revi let go of the tangle of the plants. “Well, I’m going to be a freak, too. It’s already in me. The water was freezing at first, but now it feels good. I’m already acclimated to the water temperature. It’ll start changing my body soon too—the new tissue in my hands and feet, the stuff under your arms, that clear shit that grows over your eyes underwater… Dr. Samuels said your body was adapting to both breathe and live underwater.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I don’t want to live underwater. We’re humans! Mammals.”

“Whales and dolphins lived in the water on Earth before they went extinct, and they were mammals, too,” Revi pointed out.

“What are we going to eat? Are we going to sleep on the plants? What about the other animals? Is something in this water going to try to eat us?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think they’re vegetarians. From what we figured out, everything in the water revolves around these plants. Dr. Samuels said she was going to try to meet us to take samples. Thavin, William, and Creed are going to sneak food and stuff to a spot we found away from the habitat. There’s one or two scientists who seemed reasonable. Mostly, they want to study you… well, and me now too.”

“Great. We can be lab specimens swimming around and letting them poke and prod us for food.” The plants drifted close enough to shore he could stand up. Barron let go of the floating bundle.

“You’re so negative.” Revi sighed. “Do you have any idea how much planning and work went into getting you out? So you could live? Do you have any idea how I felt when I thought you were going to die?”

Barron swallowed. He relived the moment when Revi was shot, again. “Yeah,” he said hoarsely.

Revi reached him and wrapped his arms around Barron’s neck. He hissed when he moved his injured shoulder, but he didn’t let go. “Then stop. We’re alive. We’re together. Plus, we get to be the first aliens humans have ever met!”

Things were never going to be the same, for either of them, but Barron couldn’t change that. Freaking out about it wouldn’t stop Revi from changing, or make Barron’s body stop glowing like he was some freaky nightlight. “You’re right.” Barron leaned forward and pressed their lips together. Revi was warm, so warm in his arms.

Revi grinned. “Of course I am.” Revi kissed him back. Barron slipped his tongue in Revi’s mouth and got a mouthful of hair.

“Ack. Okay, so maybe your hair might be a little bit long for living in the water.”

“Well, I might cut it for you. Not all the way off though.”

“No, not all the way.” Barron like Revi’s curls.

“Besides, it might make my dad too happy.”

Barron pulled Revi closer. “Can’t have that,” he murmured. He began kissing Revi’s jaw. He’d missed so much, unable to see the look of pleasure on Revi’s face as they touched.

Revi wrapped his legs around Barron’s waist. “My dad’s an asshole, but he was actually on the doctor’s side about letting you out of the tank, you know.”

Barron jerked. “He was?” He figured, from the colonel’s appearance on the beach, that he’d been part of the security team trying to stop it.

“Yeah, well, I might’ve hinted we’d break you out, and I’d go with you if he didn’t convince the general.” Revi shrugged, then hissed. “Ow. He didn’t like the idea.”

“Well, I love it.” Baron pushed the wet hair away from Revi’s face. “I’m glad we’re together. One way or another, we’ll figure everything out. But can we please stop talking about your dad while I’m working my way up to finally getting to see you with your clothes off?”

Revi smirked. “You’re definitely feeling better.”

“The sunrise looks like gold spreading across the sky. We’re alone, on a planet called Paradise, and pretty much guaranteed to be alone out here. What else are we going to do to keep ourselves occupied?”

A grin spread across Revi’s face. “What, indeed?”

The End