Barely Human

Chapter 18

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Chapter 18

“Hey, Fred,” Derek says. The rock monster lifts its hand and waves.

“Fred?” I ask. “You named it?”

Derek nods and grins goofily. “Yep. Build him myself too.”

“Impressive,” I say. Now I’ve seen some weird things lately, but this has to be one of the strangest. I mean, a giant rock monster that lives in the woods less than a mile from a group of teenage mutants. What a life. “So what does it do?”

“Watch,” Derek says. He starts walking toward… Fred… and is soon sprinting the remaining few yards. He jumps right before he would have rammed, face first, into the monster’s leg and is suddenly sitting on its shoulder. Derek reaches up and pushed something on the side of its head and before I know what has happened, I am being lifted off of the ground and placed not so gently on Fred’s other shoulder.

I feel a deep rumbling sound below me as we take off at an alarmingly fast pace, especially for a lumbering machine. We are rushed through the forest, in the opposite direction in which we came, breaking through branches and smashing over fallen trees, none of it slowing us down. Before I know it, we break out into a clearing. Only, it’s not.

Sitting before me is a small town. There are people milling about in every direction, all seeming to have a purpose. The majority of the people are dressed in white coats that hang to their knees. Only then do I realize what we are seeing.

“Derek,” I say, “what is this?”

“Their base.”

“What is it doing here? How far are we from the camp? Does anyone else know?” I am shouting out questions leaving no time for answers between.

“It’s been here for a while, we’re about twenty miles from the camp, they do not know we are there, and Ryan and Jason know but no one else,” Derek answers all of my questions smoothly. He turns to me. “And now you know.”

“But why tell me?” I ask. “Why not one of the others?”

“Because you have a connection to them- to the scientists.”

“What- What do you mean?” I stutter. No way has he found out. The only one that knows is Jacob and he swore no to tell anyone. And of course Emma but she is in the same boat I am, if anyone found out then we’d both be in serious trouble.

“Your father,” he says. “He’s one of them. Don’t ask how I know but I do. I have for a while now.”

“Who told you?” I ask.

“No one told me anything. And I won’t judge you for it. You can’t help who your parents are just like I can’t help who mine are,” he pauses to take a breath. “My dad started this whole operation. He convinced a bunch of his geeky scientist friends to join him and told them that evolution was the solution to humanity’s problems. He told them that in order to save the world they needed to create an upgraded group of people who could survive the end of the world. He also planned that. When I was young, he brought me to work and told me his theories. He told me that he was making the world a better place and that he needed my help. So, of course, I agreed. Then he started running all sorts of tests on me. He would lock me in my room for hours, sometimes days, on end. He told me that it was for the good of humanity. And then he disappeared.”