Evolved

The softness of the mattress beneath me was countered by the violence that followed. Sleep had consumed me to the point I had no idea if flying through the air was part of the dream still or if I was caught up in something worse.

The moment my head hit the floor I knew I was not dreaming, and the hands that held me down were not my imagination. He wrenched my arms behind my back, and I heard each click of the zip ties cinching over my wrists.

Fight! My brain screamed, but I was too confused to do anything. They left me laying on my stomach, my face pressed against the hard wood floor beside my bed. Under the bed, I saw several dust bunnies, and despite the situation, all I could think of was that I needed to clean under the bed.

“You sure this is the guy? He does not seem like much.”

“We will know soon enough.” A softer voice said, and it had a thick southern accent that many find soothing. In my situation, I found it sinister and if I could focus my brain long enough I would have recognized it as a threat. “If you can understand me, I suggest you hold very still because I would hate to slip up.”

A thick needle dipped into my eyesight, and some survival instinct was finally kicking in. I felt the sting of the needle and dared not move; the pain was equal parts horrendous and curious. Faster than should be possible I was compartmentalizing and processing everything. I could not concentrate because of the dizzying effect of the way my brain processed all these stimuli.

The needle was pulled out, and I assumed he pulled some bone marrow. There was no basis for that knowledge, but it was true nonetheless. Another voice was behind me somewhere and sounded far away like I listening to a TV in the other room.

“Test it. The drug will wear off soon. It could get messy if we are wrong, not that he should remember anything. Best not take any chances.” The female voice said. She sounded cheery, like a newscaster.

At that moment I knew whatever test they were running, it was going to come back positive. These bastards were going to take me, and that could not end well. I tried to look around and noticed math symbols, angles, and points of pressure. It was like I saw the wireframe of a video game. This vision was my dashboard or my Heads Up Display (HUD), and it calculated my best chance of escape.

No! This is not real. I thought to myself and tried to shake my head. That provided more details and calculations as the movement showed how befuddled my brain felt. I even knew that the guy holding me down had a bad knee because my mind calculated how much pressure he was applying and where.

“Finally! It is him, let's-“ The quiet voice was cut off. I was already in motion and bucked upward throwing the guy on top of me off. I rolled over, and as the large man got to his feet and came at me, my mind was already working all the angles. The man was quick, but not fast enough for my new state of awareness. My heel struck perfectly, and the guard’s knee went with a sickening crunch. If I was in control, I am pretty sure the sound would have left me retching.

I swung my arms up over my butt and legs and leaped as I saw the guy with the needle pulling out some gun. It looked like it held syringes. A tranquilizer gun! Before he could shoot it, my shoulder hit him in the gut.

“Ooof.” The man said, but tumbled back on my bed and recovered quickly. “Get him. Alive!” He said calmly and reached for the tranquilizer gun again.

The woman I had heard earlier was trying to grab me, but I ducked her hands and swung my bound arms down like a sledgehammer at the base of her neck. Part of me knew it was not a lethal blow, but it would take her out of the fight.

“What the hell?” Another guard said. “Thought you said he was some lazy college student?”

I fell backward onto the guy trying to get his gun and slammed my head back. All the angles were there just for the taking, and this angle gave me the best point of attack to the bastard’s nose. It crunched, and I heard the man cursing, his hands were going for his face. I knew this all by the way his body move under me.

Bouncing up quickly, I charged the last guard. The guard saw me coming a mile away, but the thing is, I wanted him to see it. The way his body tensed and his foot planted I could tell, probably before he did, that he was going to throw a left hook at my face.

Whatever was going on inside my head, it made all this seem trivial and lacked challenge. A thousand outcomes and I saw them all in my mind's eye. I ducked down under his hook, and my fist came up under his guard and struck him in the throat. I did not tempt fate and try to fight him, and instead, I opened my door and fled out to the hall of my dorm yelling.

“HELP! Call the police!” I shouted, again and again, taking any turns in the hallway I could to prevent getting a dart in my backside. I saw a fire alarm latch and pulled it, but did not stay still. The mind kept telling me that waiting was a bad move.

Jumping in the elevator, I hit the second floor and close door button at the same time. Somehow I knew this was an elevator hack that would take me straight to the second floor without stopping. Wish I would have known about that when I was running late for class. I ran out onto the second floor towards the back set of stairs and went down to the basement floor. The basement had the public laundry, but it also had an underground tunnel over to the other dorm buildings. With any luck, those pursuing me would not know it was there. A lot of students did not even know about them.

The hallway was empty, even with the fire alarm blaring. I crossed into the west tower and ducked into their laundry room. I leaned against the wall and slid down behind a machine trying to catch my breath. These dorms were the worst possible place to find a hiding student. I closed my eyes blocking out the calculations, and whatever augmented reality crap it was showing me. I just wanted it out of my head and was afraid nothing was going to be normal again.

“Hiding will not help you.” A female voice said, and as I opened my eyes, I saw her sitting on the machine next to my hiding place. Her hair was dyed pink and pulled back into a ponytail. She wore a pair of ripped jeans and a t-shirt that said ‘Bows are for girls!’ It had a picture of a female archer off to the side of the text.

“Are you one of them?” I asked.

“Nope. I’m one of you, well not you exactly. Not smart like you. I am something of a finder. They will have a tracker embedded in you. If ya let me, I can remove it. Maybe.”

My mind measured her voice pattern, sincerity, eye contact, and who knows what else. I did not quite understand what it was doing, but I knew she was telling the truth. It did indicate she was honest and meant what she said. I held out my hands. “Alright. Cut me free first.”

“Woah, you just totally did a truth reading didn’t ya? Didn’t know you could do that too.” But she came over and pulled a knife out to cut off the zip ties. I sensed more than understood what she did next. Her hand's moved across my body, not touching but sensing. They finally rested against a spot on my back, and I felt the foreign object. It was near my spine, and she clucked her tongue. “Crap.”

“Give me the knife,” I said, and to her credit, she did not question me. I took the blade and reached my hands behind my back. I knew by the angle of my hand and the placement of my other hand where the dangerous places were. I could almost feel my nerves throbbing inside my body, and my brain processed it all, and without hesitation, I cut into my back and lightly dipped the tip of the knife in and popped the capsule-sized object out.

“Wow, you are way cooler than they described you. You are going to blow their minds. Probably literally.”

“And who is this collective you are referring to?” I asked as she crushed the capsule under her heel.

“Those scientist geeks you escaped from are calling us the Evolved. And we are mostly weaker versions compared to you. At least that is what our leader says. I’ll admit to being impressed so far.”

“Who runs that group of jerks that woke me up?” I asked.

“Some rich guy named Riley Welks. The running theory is he was illegally doing gene modifications, and that is where we come in. At least until you came along, or maybe he did, and you were a just a natural evolution. I do not understand all the sciency stuff. So I tune that annoying crap out when they start talking.”

“How do we stop him?”

“Ya cannot kill him if that is what you mean. That would cause all kinds of issues. Not the least of which would expose us. No thank you, we may be different, but we are not superheroes. We do not fly around saving the day. I can find things, just intuitive. Ya might be able to solve problems and build cool stuff, no idea how your brain works, but the point is we are still human. No crazy speed to dodge bullets and the like.”

“Take me to him. You said you find things, let me figure out the rest of it. I will not kill him.” I had no idea why it was important, but I knew if I wanted my life back I had to stop this now. Not that I believed my life was ever going to go back to normal. An idea that was beyond what I was currently able to comprehend was forming in my brain.

“Fine, but for the record, I think ya should meet the rest of the group first.”

“No need. Once done we can go back to our normal lives. The one where I slept in and missed class. Sat around with other classmates and played video games all night eating Cheetos and drinking Coke.”

She snorted, but said, “Sounds fun, I went here last semester. Obvious reasons I had to bail. Not even my family knows where I am.”

“Then let’s go correct this,” I said. I was willing this girl to agree and felt something I could not explain. Like a push, and knew she was going to agree. Did I just force her to do that? I hated this and did not know the rules.

“Follow me. I got a scooter out in the back lot.” She said smiling, and I groaned. The motor scooters were popular around campus, and I always thought they looked ridiculous. Then again, you could not beat a motorized vehicle for less than $800.00.

No one stopped us, and we made it to the lot without incident. I had a feeling those people in my room were still sorting through the people looking to see if I was among the crowd that was milling around in the courtyard.

I hopped on the scooter behind her and felt ridiculous. Of course, she rode around on a hot pink scooter. We drove through town, and she pulled up to an office building as the sun was finally starting to rise above the skyline.

“This is it. Welks is up there.”

“How do we get up there?” I asked.

“That is where I come in.” Another female, this one a brunette that looked like an ordinary person. She was above average looking, but could easily fade into the background if she so chose. I had a feeling she purposefully made herself seem less beautiful and unimportant.

“And you are?” I asked, watching the way her heart beat, her eyes shifted, and just in general mannerisms.

“Sydney did not tell you?” The brunette asked. “You did not know her name, did you? Thought so, yes that is Sydney, and I am called Tams. You are Oscar right?”

“Yes. Are you a mind reader?”

Sydney started giggling. “No silly. She is good at … convincing people to do things. We need her to get in there. Still, think it’s a bad idea.”

“I hope you have a plan when we get you up there. It should work this once because we have never tried to approach Welks and I doubt he believes we know who he is.”

“I do. With Sydney's help.” I said pointing at Sydney. The plan was becoming clearer as I started understanding how my brain worked. I felt like my brain was a computer, and it was processing too much for me to follow along. I felt like I was operating on instinct, like some force of nature.

As an example, I knew there were three men scattered around the walkway up to the building that was security, even if they wore plain clothes and did nothing I could see to make me think that. I knew the lady on the bench waiting for the bus was suffering from cancer and she had a few months to live. I knew a lot now. The most important thing I knew was that we had to stop Welks if we wanted a chance to a normal life. I knew that it was only buying us time, but the Evolved would have an opportunity to grow and protect their people. My people.

“Let’s go.” I walked towards the front door but ignored the three guards. I was relaxed and did not pose a threat they could easily identify. Sydney caught their attention, but she looked like a young girl, and I doubt they saw her as a threat. Hell, I thought she was in high school when I saw her.

The doors slid open, and we approached the access point which consisted of a metal detector and two guards. There was a badge swipe on the way through. It was still early enough that only two people passed through the security.

Tams walked right up to one of the guards and started saying something that did not quite sound like words. A hypnotic suggestion? Did not matter the guy waved us through, and the other guard was not even paying attention.

“How did you do that?” I asked when we were on the elevator. She shook her head and raised her eyes upward. I took the hint and did not pressure her, this point forward any mention of the Evolved would be off limits. There was a good chance that footage of their conversations my surface.

The top floor required a key, but she also produced that and slid it in and turned the key. Then she pushed the button and off we went. I had no idea what to expect, but all the scenarios I could have thought up, my brain could only rely on theories my mind could imagine.

We came out on the floor to see a paraplegic in a wheelchair like some Stephen Hawking mastermind. No, this man was not in the same realm as Stephen Hawking. This man was using his power and influence to buy himself a cure and did not care how many people he hurt to get there.

Assessing the chair and the surrounds, I knew the man lived here. The signs were easy enough to read for even a simpler mind. His breathing suggested we were the last thing he expected to see this morning. The old me, the me that had empathy as a core part of my being could not make myself care about this asshole. In my HUD I saw hundreds of dead Riley’s all over the room in various poses that indicated he died on his own without any interference. It was disturbing, enough that I did not even hear him talking with his robot voice.

I wish this day had never happened because I knew as I did everything else that yes my mind evolved into a greater awareness but I calculated his death as if I was doing basic algebra. There was no sympathy, remorse, or even compassion. I felt like I lacked all those things.

An elbow nudged me. “Say something dummy,” Sydney said.

“Sorry what?”

“What do you want?” The robot voice asked. That just showed how much of a dick this guy was. He could have had a voice actor set up like Alexa or Siri or whatever male version of those there are. To be fair, Siri sounded like a man anyway so it could have worked.

“You to forget we exist.”

“Ha ha ha. That will not happen, Oscar.”

“It will. Tams do your thing, ask him if anyone has his research or notes on us. Or if it’s access is blocked.” I walked behind the chair and found the wireless card that allowed his machine to communicate to the network and pulled it out.

Tams was talking in that weird voice again, but she never appeared to say anything that I seemed to understand. Which I found odd since I processed everything and there was hardly anything I could not understand.

“Haha, what a paranoid delusional bastard,” Tams said. “His whole organization is set up, so no one knows everything, only he does, and it's so locked down with security protocols that know could ever access it.”

“Ok, here is the big plan. Yes, you can hear this Mr. Welks you piece of shit. Tams, you convince him to sit still and empty his mind. Sydney you are going to ‘find’ memories in his brain when you have it let me know. Ok Tams, keep him calm. Sydney search for anything related to Evolved people, and when you have them just nod.”

They did what I told them without questioning me. Tams wanted to ask, I could see it in her eyes, but she remained silent. Sydney put her hand next to the creepy dude's head.

A few minutes later she nodded at me, and I touched her arm, and this is the part I did not quite grasp fully. Sydney's Evolved ability used harmonic waves and my body understood it when she used it on me. Using that I could influence the waves to wipe out the memories. It was like using a high powered magnet on an old school VHS tape. It cleans the film and even allows a person to record over it. My mind knew that harmonic waves could wipe memories, even if I did not understand the math behind it. I could not do it on my own because I do not have the ability to project harmonic waves, I could interfere with hers and control it. The tricky part was keeping him still.

Sydney gasped as she felt her energy change and surge as I influenced her. It changed her evolution in ways that I could only guess with about a 65% accuracy, but time would tell the truth of it.

“They’re… gone.” She said looking pale. “Find anything related to any of us, any Evolved.”

“Found more memories.” She said, and we followed the same process again and again until she pulled up nothing else. Then I had her pull up all his security protocols related to the databases he stored research notes. We wiped those out too.

“Final test. Tams ask him who we are.”

Welks’ eyes started twitching, but his robotic voice not only did not know who we were but demanded we leave at once.

“Yes, sir. We are going, sorry about the confusion. They told us you would talk to us for our school report. Did not mean to bother you.” I said, adding to his confusion, and we left.

In the elevator, we remained silent. The guard was given his key back, and no one stopped us. We left the building and kept going without looking back. Tams finally turned to face me and hugged me.

“Thank you. I do not know what you did, but I know we are safe for now. Sydney, we will talk later, I will tell the others.” Tams left.

“Are you going back to school then?” Sydney and I asked at the same time and laughed. She was different than the girl I met a few hours ago. Maybe not as changed as I was, but we were irrevocably connected. We got lucky this time, but our secret could not stay buried. It was too big and too many people knew.

Had I known that a year later everything would change once again, Sydney and I might not have wasted as much time getting to know each other and going back to school like nothing had ever happened.

Even the smartest person in the world is not omnipotent.