Evolutionary

Ch 7. - The Village

Liz had driven them to her motel; it wasn't more than six blocks away. Fortunately for them, it had a gas service in its plaza. They cautiously peered inside the convenience store and looted their gas canisters, filling them with gas and carting them back to Liz's motel room. Still torn by Tim's death, she worked in silence. She finally walked inside and sat on the couch, holding her palms to her eyes.

Carlson felt bad for her, and thought of ways he could help, however he came to the conclusion that perhaps it's best not to do anything at all.

James wandered into the room and turned on the television. He flipped through every channel getting nothing but static.

"Bull..." He muttered as the white fuzz appeared before his eyes one click of the button after the next, the hiss taunting him.

Carlson could tell he was becoming angry. "Let it go James, I doubt you'll get anything."

He groaned and walked over to a nearby window and moved the drapes out of the way. He stood on his tip-toes, attempting to pear through the razor grass that was growing below them.

"How long do you think we're going to stay here?" James asked.

"I don't know." Carlson sighed. "Not very long if Ihave any say in it. I do need to get into the city after all."

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They stayed in the motel for three days. Carlson became increasingly agitated each day he lost.

"I'm tired of waiting; we're not too far away from my lab. It's near the outskirts of downtown; you can practically see it from here!" Carlson yelled. "Besides, we have that truck. We could be there in less than two hours."

"I don't care, we're safe here." Liz shrugged. She pointed at him, waving her finger as she walked towards him. "And that's what matters. I'm not losing anyone else. What the hell could be so important at your 'lab' anyways?"

"I don't think you understand exactly how important it is, Liz."

"Oh! So now I'm stupid?"

"No, no." He sighed. "There must have been something wrong with the solution, because I sure as hell don't know how this could have happened. In all the trials they only grew, no signs of any other change. Let alone evolving. If I could look at my samples with my lab equipment I might be able to fix it but until them I'm just as lost as you."

Liz was confused; she didn't quite understand everything Carlson spoke about. But she managed to get some of it, relying on distant past science classes. And she did know about the dousing, everybody did.

"What do you mean, trials, evolving?"

He figured he would just explain it from the beginning. "I'm, or was rather, the lead scientist who developed that mist the E.P.A. sprayed. In all my years of research and testing this I made sure it was fool proof. It only made the plants grow at a faster rate. Even when the virus method was implemented, not a single gene was changed that caused any side effects. I have to get to Bionetics, and find out what went wrong with it."

"So this is your fault then."

"No, of course not, I've been developing it for almost ten years now."