Chapter The Unexpected
There were no better words to describe the turmoil on Earth than panic, chaos and confusion. Businesses had stopped their trading and investing. World powers had lost all order and civility with their citizens. Houses and homes were torn apart with differing opinions about whether the new alien arrivals were hostile or friendly. Cars and trucks stopped on the busy freeways and interstates. Vans and motorcycles obstructed the small highways and exit ramps. The world itself seemed to screech to a blatant halt and gazed idoly up at the massive spaceship suspended over their frightened heads. It was like a dark ominous storm floating at the apex of the firmament. Nation after nation studied the massive exhaust tubes that hung over their cities, towns, and islands.
Many people thought quietly and grimly to themselves, is this the way the world ends? Is this how the human race dies; in one massive abduction by a foreign race and power? Others climbed into their cold, dark, root cellars. Some fled into their unfinished basements or their bomb shelters. Some even ran to the mountains, to the beaches, to the grassy foothills, to get away from the worldwide threat. Most were scared out of their minds, and none were safe. Destruction was imminent for the entire human race.
-The world would go up suddenly in smoke and tears… Or so it seemed-
* * *
Professor Denvil whistled a happy tune to himself as he went about his work preparing everything for the big moment. He walked around the massive machinery and prepped the vaporizer action system to do its job. He activated all the humidifying tubes on the walls by switching them over to high boil. Steam and smoke started screaming through the massive titanium valves at the other end of the room. The critical pressure was beginning to build in the ejection capacitor overhead. It was going to take a lot of gas to destroy this particular planet; everything had to be perfect.
Professor Denvil walked over to the steel table resting beside the wall. It was right by the exit. He opened his briefcase and pulled out the animal mutating formula. He held it up to the bright fluorescent lights on the ceiling and checked its viscosity for any flaws or color change. The strange solution sloshed back and forth as the charged particles gleamed through its glossy surface. Everything looked perfect.
Professor Denvil smiled madly as he brought the container back down. He rested his hand on top of it and broke open the cylindrical seal. He placed the cap on top of the table and carefully sniffed the formula. The pungent odor caused his eyes to water pro-fusely and his face to cringe with disgust. The formula smelled like pure hatred. Quick-silver tears started streaming down his face as he turned and walked slowly over to the receiving tank at the other end.
“I’ll just pour you into the reservoir, close the hatch, and the rest will be history,” mumbled the Professor to himself. He set the formula carefully on the ground by his feet. He gripped the big circular hatch mounted in the wall. He turned the round handle slowly and pulled it open. Once it was open he bent down and grabbed the pungent solution. He was about to stand back up when a sudden burst of pain shot through the back of his skull. He dropped the solution in his hands and collapsed on the ground. His eyes filled with stars and streams of brilliant light and colors. It felt as if the very world beneath him had exploded into a new dimension. He let out a low groan and passed out.
* * *
Evila stood breathing heavily over Professor Denvil’s motionless body. Her pulse was throbbing violently in her veins and in her head. They had arrived as quickly as they could. Finding the vaporizing room was not as easy as it had sounded in her mind. If they had come a minute or so later, it would have proven tragic.
Evila let out a sigh of relief and stepped back a foot. It felt good to have bashed her ex-cloning professor over the head, especially after what he had done to her and Tony. She smiled triumphantly to herself and dropped the long metal pipe resting in her slender hand. It fell and made a loud clanking noise as it hit the steel grated floor and rolled away.
Tony came up from behind her and placed his hands on her shoulders. He looked down at the unconscious man and breathed out a sharp laugh. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen. Evila was like a wild animal. “Wow, you certainly socked him good. I thought for sure he was going to hear you come up from behind. I was getting all nervous and stuff.”
“I know you were,” said Evila as she turned and looked at him. Their eyes met. A playful glow could be seen emitting from her angled features, “I could feel you in my mind and in my guts. You have to work on eliminating that emotion; there is absolutely no time and place for fear. Fear will kill all reason and logic in a creature’s mind. Fear and panic will most definitely result in death and destruction. It is practically the antitheses of survival!”
Tony smiled at this weird philosophical comment. Evila was sounding more and more like a nerd. “I guess you’re right… but what do we do now?” He turned to all the massive machinery in the room. Pipes and gauges were still screaming and turning wildly at there stations. The whole place looked complicated, “Do we have to mess with any of this complicated stuff in here? I hope not!”
“No, we don’t have to mess with the humidifying tubes. Professor Denvil here did everything for us. All we have to do is put the catalyst, and my formula, into the reservoir tank and close the hatch tightly. The ejection capacitor should expel my solution onto Earth through the primary vents outside the ship. Everything is working out okay.” Evila looked over to Tony “Give me the formulas.”
“Here you go,” he handed over the cylindrical tubs with the weird solutions in them. Evila had given them to him before she knocked out the professor. She grabbed one of the cylinders and opened it up carefully. She walked over to the open hatch and poured it into the open reservoir. When she was done she dropped the container and took the next one from Tony. She poured it into the hatch and then closed it quickly.
“We have to be very careful with this stuff.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because it targets those with the GOG gene in their systems. If I had gotten any of that solution on me it might have mutated me. That would be a bad thing!”
“It’s a good thing you didn’t,” said Tony with a smile.
Evila smiled back. “I know.” She turned the hatch clockwise and locked it into place. They waited anxiously as the catalyst and formula were fed into the capacitor above them. The long room began to shake and rumble in protest as the minutes passed. The wall began to vibrate and sing out as if in pain.
“What’s happening?” asked Tony over the new sound. “Why is it acting like this?”
Evila stepped away from the wall. Her eyes moved frantically around the room. She studied all the pipes and valves. “I am not sure what’s going on. I have never used the vaporizing machine before. I have studied it but not firsthand like this. I think it might be expanding the formula. I think it’s making more of it.”
The giant capacitor above them started to groan and vibrate savagely. Tony stared at it uneasily. Suddenly he didn’t want to be in the same room as the machine, “Are you sure that’s what it’s doing? It sounds like this place is going to blow up.”
“I don’t know if that’s what it’s doing. It was just an educated guess. It shouldn’t blow up; at least I hope not!” said Evila.
The sound of hot metal expanding and contracting began to fill the cabin. The combined sounds were almost deafening.
“I don’t think it’s supposed to be doing this,” Tony said.
Evila looked up at the tank. She frowned. “It’s not releasing the pressure… it should be expelling my formula onto the Earth.”
“How do you release the pressure?” asked Tony frantically.
Evila bit her bottom lip with frustration. “I don’t know,” she lifted a hand and rubbed the bottom of her chin and thought. After a second she turned to Tony, “There has to be a release switch or a button somewhere in here.”
“Yeah, but where?” asked Tony. “This place looks like the inside of the Hoover Dam. It could take ages to find it.”
Evila groaned and looked around the room. She was going to give a suggestion when there came a sudden voice from behind. It sounded muffled and crackly, as if someone was speaking to them through a door or a wall. Evila and Tony turned and looked over at Professor Denvil’s unconscious frame. The noise was coming from under his unconscious body. They walked over and rolled him on his side. Instantly, they spotted the origin of the sound.
It was his circular space communicator. A voice was speaking now, “Hello! Hello! Hello! Professor Denvil, are you there? Are you ready? Can I press the button now? Where are you?”
Tony looked at Evila and whispered, “That sounds like the Dean.”
Evila shook her head and listened as the communicator lit up again. “Hello, Professor, are you even there? Come in, what the heck are you doing down there? It shouldn’t take this long. The crowd is getting impatient. They want to see the end of the humans right now, and so do I!”
Evila picked up the circular communicator and held it up to her pointed ear. Her thoughts were racing at the speed of light. She covered the receiver with one of her hands and looked over to Tony. “He’s the one with the button, he’s the one that is going to release my formula onto the Earth.”
“Wow, how ironic,” said Tony, “the very man who wants to stop this from happening is going to make it happen.”
Evila held out the communicator and softly said, “Tell him it’s ready to go. Tell him he can push the button.”
Tony looked at the thing with shock. His eyes got wider. “I can’t do that! He’ll know it’s me. We’ll be screwed!”
“No he won’t, not if you do it quickly and in a slightly deeper voice,” said Evila. “Professor Denvil has a deep voice”
“You do it.”
Evila rolled her eyes. Tony was sounding like a child. “I can’t do it. He’ll know it’s me. I have a feminine voice, and that’s something I can’t hide. You have a better chance at deceiving him then I do.”
Tony could tell she was right. He grabbed the communicator and cleared his throat. He held it up to his mouth.
* * *
Dean Redder was leaning heavily against the silicon podium. He stared at the planet Earth on the projection screen with excited anticipation. In the background the student body was still chanting their grim message of death.
Come on! Come on! Come on! thought the Dean impatiently. Where are you, Denvil? You had better not ruin this moment for me; I’ll kill you if you do! He looked down at his space communicator then over to the red button on top of the podium. He was itching all over to push it and end everything.
He held up the communicator. “Denvil! If you don’t speak to me this instant I’ll-”
The speaker suddenly cracked. The harsh noise cut the Dean off sharply, “It’s ready to go! Push it! Push it!”
Dean Redder almost fell off the stage at the sudden outburst. The excitement in Professor Denvil’s voice was almost too overwhelming to take in. He had never heard the man sound so urgent and utterly congested all at once. It had happened so quickly that he didn’t even catch the slight variation in his colleague’s vocal patterns. Excitement filled his soul rapidly. He felt like a little boy again.
The Dean placed the communicator back at his hip and turned to the crowd. He held his hands up high above his head and yelled, “It’s ready to go!”
The room boomed with shouts of acclamation and applause. The time had come, the hour was here, and destiny was about to rear its ugly head. Dean Redder walked over to the podium and slammed his fist down on the shiny red button. He turned to the wide screen and watched with unsurpassed joy as the vents all around the world activated and began expelling their harsh chemicals.
* * *
Humans of all ages, of all sexes, of all tongues and nations stood absolutely terrified at the scene unfolding before their very eyes. It was unreal, it was unbelievable and mortifying. Whole cities were covered in seconds by a thick silver mist that was expelled from the vents overhead. Towns were fogged until they dripped with the solution of transformation. Islands were sprayed until their dirt streets flooded with formula. The mist began to expand outward, rapidly covering the planet with its horrible presence. It rushed over farm lands and into the small counties. It climbed the tall mountains and rested in the low valleys. It sunk deep into the seven seas. It sunk deep into the small rivers and lakes. It soaked the Earth in all directions both vertical and horizontal, covering every continent. The sun slowly began to dim and fade until there was nothing left but darkness. The cool mist had prevailed. The whole Earth had been gassed like a building full of termites.
Humans began to breathe in the mist as it sucked into their houses and places of businesses. Church and refugee camps were covered. Many tried to cover their mouths and noses, but it was to no avail. The formula was in everything, and it was everywhere. It was in the drinking water. It was in the food and it was in the soil and dirt. The air began to fill with moans and screams, as people began to mutate and transform into something foreign and strange.
Many called out for help. It felt like hell on Earth.
* * *
Evila looked up at the capacitor tank as it rumbled loudly in the cabin. Trillions of gallons of vaporized formula was being expelled from the ship at a rapid pace. Pretty, Soon everyone would know her success. Soon her people would be freed from the extinction problem that faced them from day to day. It was like a dream come true.
“Should we go now?” asked Tony.
Evila looked over at him. “I can’t go yet, I need to look after the machine. I don’t want the thing breaking down halfway through the process.”
“Okay, we’ll wait”
“No, we will not wait. The moment is ours and I plan to seize it. I want to show this whole academy just who Dean Redder is. I want them to hate him.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
Evila got closer, “Through you.” She put a finger on his chest.
“Me?” Tony looked surprised. “How?”
“I want you to confront him in front of the whole school. I want you to show everyone what a big liar he is. I want you to show the whole student body and faculty that humans are the solution for the future, and we are no longer oppressed by extinction. When they get a load of you and what you have become, they will all believe.”
“How so? Why?”
“You need to going to him.”
“Right now?” asked Tony. “What about you?”
“I’ll be fine down here.” Evila grabbed Tony’s hand and placed the key card in it. “Do you remember the way we got here?”
Tony shook his head yes.
“Good, now follow that way back to the elevator and go to Deck -D-. Once you get to the main floor try to get everyone’s attention. Tell them you used to be human. Tell them everything. Open their eyes to what’s going on!”
“Are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Yes, you need to do this. The truth has to be told!”
“Okay,” said Tony. He gripped the key card firmly in his hands. “But when we’re done with all this business, can we get something to eat?”
Evila laughed. “Yes…now go. We only have a short window here!”
Tony turned and walked over to the exit. He stopped and looked back over to Evila. His hearts were longing for her. He almost didn’t want to go, “Umm… just in case I don’t see you. I want you to know that I love you.”
“You love me?” Evila looked confused. She began to analyze the statement in her head. “What an interesting thing to say.”
Tony felt blood rush to his checks. He left the room quickly without a word. He ran through the hall to the elevator. His mind was racing with conflicted thoughts and feelings. “Man, I am stupid, stupid, stupid. Why did I say such a stupid thing to her? What an awkward time to say such a thing. What is this, a cheesy action movie… man I’m stupid!”