Genus: Evolving

Houses were empty.

Schools were empty.

Roads were bare.

The only TVs running were at an electronics store, repeating the same news broadcast over and over again.

Repeat; the military is enforcing a city-wide evacuation of our beachside city. A creature named after any unknown marine creature’s identity – the globster – has become dangerous on our beaches.

Evacuate the area immediately in an orderly fashion. There are military checkpoints….

But Michael, per ongoing instruction from his supervisors, against the orders of the rest of the military, was trying to collect samples left behind from carcasses of animals eaten by, or by the globsters themselves. He was determined to run tests, gain understanding of their origins, and then figure out why they were developing the way they were.

So far, he understood them to be jellyfish. They started out stranded on the beach. But they, unlike traditional jellyfish’s dependency of water movements, developed independent locomotion – on land.

Shortly after original contact, the gelatinous body was replaced with some sort of light exoskeleton. Then, they began to display aggression – lunging toward anyone or anything near them.

Their next big change was hunting. Anything small was their victims, but chickens seemed to be their preferences.

Then they began biting humans, showing a desire to pursue and bite. The bites caused some sort of neurological damage that acted fast. So far, the longest bite survivor lasted twenty minutes.

But Michael would never forget his first encounter; he shot the globster and it healed in front of him.

Movement from an alleyway caught his attention, snapping him out of his thoughts. He heard a door close. With his weapon drawn, he inched toward the noise, toward a dilapidated church abandoned long before this new wave of disaster.

Michael heard voices coming from inside the church. One of the boards covering the windows was split enough to peek through without disturbing the current occupants.

“Brothers and sisters!” an apparent leader was saying, standing at the podium. “Our salvation is among us, cleaning the filth from the earth. These creatures have come here to purge the earth, they have completed the Trinity of creation.”

Michael looked through the cracked board more, glancing around the church. He counted ten members of – whatever this is. The leader was middle aged, gangly, and spoke with a lot of enthusiasm.

Just in front of him was the body of a globster.

“But we must help our savior with this purge,” the leader continued. “Our savior, like the messiah before, is mortal. The mission requires our dedication and our assistance.”

“How… how do you know this?” a follower cautiously asked.

“This one, it spoke to me.” He motioned toward the carcass in front of him, “I could hear its voice as clearly as I hear yours now,”

He was calm in replying to the inquiry, “A wonderful question you have asked, brother.”

He paused, taking a long breath, then he glanced toward the board covered window Michael was using for cover, “You may come in here, Stranger. You are welcome to come in and learn.”

Michael froze, even down to breathing. He was positive he hadn’t made even a slight noise. But he wanted to get close enough to the globster to get a tissue sample. He approached the doorway, and then entered the church quietly, weapon put away.

“Welcome, welcome,” the leader said, urging Michael toward him. “Have our lords spared you as well?”

“Spared me?”

“We each have come far too close to our planet’s newest inhabitant, and yet, we remain.”

“I haven’t been too close to one in a while,” Michael admitted.

The rest of the “congregation” began whispering to each other after Michael answered the question.

“You have listened to me, speaking of our quest to purge the earth, yet you enter without the savior’s blessing…” the leader’s tone changed. Instead of welcoming, he was becoming suspicious and confrontational.

“Why are you here? And armed, no less.”

“I was looking for survivors in this area – it’s my job to make sure everyone evacuates. I heard you talking.”

“I sense that is not all… our savior feels threatened by you…”

“Your savior – is that the carcass behind you? Are you talking about the globster?”

“You’re avoiding me,” the leader was not pulling any punches.

“I’m trying to understand where… the savior… came from.” Michael answered, being as honest as possible. “Would it be possible for me to collect some tissue?

“That, I cannot allow,” the leader said. His followers were drawing and aiming their weapons.

“Sure, sure,” Michael said, taking a small step backward from the leader. “I appreciate my audience with you, and being able to hear a small bit of your sermon. I really must be going.”

“Yes, you must,” the leader replied, again being eerily calm. “The savior pardons you this time, but you will not be so lucky should our paths cross again.”

“Understood,” Michael said.

He left quickly. He probably could have subdued all of them, but - even under the circumstances – he wasn’t going to hurt anyone. If these people became a threat later, then he’d change his approach to them, but for now he would have to sneak into the church at night and steal a small piece of tissue.