The Next Step

“Jerry Culhannick.” He sat at his desk playing solitaire when his boss Harmon Newsome called his name.  It was quitting time for Chrissakes, but he answered just in case it was good news. 

“Yo!” He hit the hallway on the move, nearly knocking over some of his colleagues trying to make an early exit from Crystal Image Studios.

“Ah, you are in trouble now.” Carl Obleck snickered as he passed him in the hall.  Carl was among the herd trying to make an early escape.

“Shush.” Jerry shook his head. 

“Jerry, have a seat.” Mr. Newsome pointed to an empty chair.  There was a strange man sitting in the other chair holding a briefcase and wearing dark sunglasses. “Jerry, I’ve got a hot one for you. Is Carl still in his cubicle?”

“I doubt it.” Jerry smiled.

“I’m gonna lock that back door one day.” He fumed a bit and then turned to the strange man sitting next to Jerry, “This is Jerry Culhannick.”

“Good to meet you, Mr. Culhannick.” The stranger extended a mysterious hand which Jerry shook tentatively. 

“You are going to Ebsen Island in the morning.” Mr. Newsome straightened his tie.

“What for?  I thought that was a restricted area.” Jerry glanced at his boss and then the mysterious man sitting next to him.

“It is.” The stranger said in an official voice, “My name is Dr. Abbalong and I work at the facility on the island.  We have reached a stage in our research where we are ready to take the next step.” 

“The next step?” Jerry eyed the doctor.

“In human evolution.” He did not stumble on his words, but it made a chill run up Jerry’s spine. The research on Ebson Island was top secret.  No one really knew what Noble Research Inc. was working on their private  island.

“You will take Carl with you as your cameraman.” Mr. Newman ordered, “You are going to do a documentary on the research Noble Research is doing out there.” 

“Why me?” He asked, swallowing hard. 

“Because you are the best team I have on my staff.” He glared at Jerry.

“You will see things that the world has yet to see.” Dr. Abbalong nodded. 

“That’s what I’m afraid of.” Jerry confessed.

“It’s not that bad.” Dr. Abbalong smiled, but it was not a comforting smile as far as Jerry was concerned. 

“We will tell you what you can and cannot film.” Dr. Abbalong.

“What about freedom of press?  Transparency of information?” Jerry asked.

“We control access.  That must be clear and understood.” Dr. Abbalong’s voice became very serious, making Jerry wish he hadn’t been so flippant. 

Sitting on the airplane with pontoons, Jerry glanced over at Carl who was holding the camera.  The twin engines made conversation comprehension impossible, but Jerry could see that Carl was not happy to be on board the plane. The updraft from the sea water made the plane bounce like a ball.  Three special agents with ear pieces and dark glasses sat across from Jerry and Carl on the fold out seats.  The seats were uncomfortable as they bounced, but the special agents did not seem to be bothered by it. 

The plane circled Ebson Island which was no more than a mile across, but he could see the runway from his window.  Slowly the plane began to descend, but all Jerry could see was the ocean.  He wondered if the plane would make the runway.

It did not.  Instead the plane landed in the water in the small harbor of the island. Skidding on the rough whitecaps, Jerry would have been jolted out of his seat if he was not wearing his seatbelt. Jerry cursed, but the engines covered his foul language. 

It took several minutes for the plane to be moored to the dock.  The door opened and the bright tropical sun roared in along with a sharp rise in the temperature.

“Why are we here?” Carl complained. 

“To do a documentary.” Jerry shook his head.

The shore crew had to put a portable gangplank to the door so the passengers could get on shore without getting wet.  Carl continued to mumble foul language. A golf cart was waiting on shore once they got off the docks.

“Mr. Culhannick?” A man greeted them.  A woman sat in the passenger’s seat of the cart.

“Yes.” They shook hands.

“I’m Dr. Wai and this is Dr. Trezbecca.” He smiled. “Welcome to Ebson Island.”

“This is my camera man, Carl Obleck.” Jerry let them shake hands, but Carl still did not look pleased to be here. 

“What you are about to see will defy anything you have ever seen before.” Dr. Wai explained as they walked to a quonset hut after a short jaunt in the golf cart. “You will need these.” 

Dr. Wai handed both of them an ID badge with their photos on the laminated card. Jerry had to wonder where they acquired the photos.

“This is Laboratory One where we incubate the genomes.” Dr. Wai ran his own badge through the scanner next to the door and then opened the heavy looking door.  Inside an ultraviolet light was the only light there was.   Jerry squinted as his eyes stung from the bright tropical sun to near darkness in Lab One. There were about two dozen people dressed in white lab coats checking each sample in the cool room. “It is here where the process starts.” 

“Mr. Obleck, you may use your camera if you wish.” Dr. Trezbecca waved her hand over the first table where two laboratory technicians were bent over the sample. “I have a script.”

She handed Jerry a piece of paper which was hard to read in the dim lighting of the laboratory. 

“Script?” He shrugged.

“Yes, we must make sure our security on this project is not compromised. Her face barely moved as she spoke.    

“I guess I can’t wing it then.” He shrugged again, but everyone in earshot stopped what they were doing and looked at him as if he had just landed from another planet. Jerry did as he was instructed as Carl ran the video camera. There was a lot of technical language that he needed help with, but after a couple of takes, he was happy with his efforts.  Carl scowled as they left Laboratory One.

“Can I speak freely?” He asked, putting the camera down on a table outside where the sun beat down on them.

“Yeah, sure.” Jerry felt the sun now. 

“Does this place give you the creeps?” He asked, looking one way and then the next.

“How so?”

“I was filming human tissue.  It just look like some random stuff in some petri dish, but I could see motion.” Carl sat at the picnic table next to his camera.

“Motion?” 

“It was moving.  I saw it through the lens.” Carl was shaken.  Jerry had never seen him so jumpy even when they were in a war zone in Afghanistan.

“Sure.  The solution is liquid.”

“No Jer, it was moving on its own.  Do you want to see it?” He patted his camera. 

“It’s okay.” Jerry shook Carl off.

Dr Trezbecca seemed to materialize from thin air, “Are you ready to go to Laboratory Two?” 

“Lead the way, doctor.” 

She began a brisk walk as Jerry glanced at Carl and he looked back at Jerry.  

Unlike the previous laboratory, Laboratory Two was well lit under a large number of fluorescent lighting. There was much more activity in this place since there were twice as many technicians in white coats hovering over specimens.  Instead of a small hut, Laboratory Two was a two story warehouse.

“It’s like a bee hive in here.” Carl noted as he brought the camera up.

“Do not take video until you are cleared to do so.” Dr. Trezbecca instructed him and then handed Jerry a piece of paper, “You read this when we run the video.” 

“I wonder what they are trying to hide?” Carl whispered to Jerry.

“Doctor, we have pulses in both Bay One and Two.” A man wearing a lab coat reported.

“Excellent.” Dr. Trezbecca smiled for the first time, “Our results are better than I expected.”

“Is that good?” Jerry asked.

“Of course.  We are preparing the next step of human evolution.” She nodded. Walking over to a table where five technicians were busy working, the doctor peered into a microscope.  A smile slid across her face. “You may send these over to Laboratory Three.  They are ready.” 

“Very good, doctor.” A woman technician affirmed.

“Are you two ready to record history?” She asked. 

“Sure, sure.” Jerry held up the piece of paper she had given him. “Carl, are you ready?”

“For what?” He mumbled. “I’m sorry, Jer, but this whole place has given me the creeps.  Don’t you feel it?”

“Not really.” Jerry moved his mouth to get ready to start recording. 

“I will hold this specimen.” Dr. Trezbecca replied as she picked up the small petri dish. 

Jerry read the script about how in Laboratory Two, the miracle of life was being recreated.  That was the word printed on the page, “recreated.” Carl nearly vomited when he read that word.  Of all the words, that one word seemed to grab at him the most. In his association with Jerry Culhannick, Carl knew Jerry had a fairly large ego when it came to camera time.  Together they had made over a hundred documentaries Crystal Images in which Jerry presented an unflinching presence to the camera.  They had gone into war zones and reported on combat conditions.  They had gone into the bowels of the earth to see some of the wonders buried in the rocks.  They had traveled to over a hundred countries and all fifty states in search of interesting topics, but here Carl was getting an uneasy feeling about what they were witnessing.  No one bothered to tell them what the purpose of the research was, reminding Carl of when they had explored alchemy and the person explaining the process was very secretive about some of the things he was doing.  

“Shall we go to Laboratory Three?”  Dr. Trezbecca asked when Jerry had finished. 

“Sure, let’s get this done, shall we.” Jerry was feeling pretty good about the way things were going which made the doctor smile.

“In Lab Three, there are things you should know.” One of the technicians cornered Carl as Jerry left with the doctor.

“Like what?” Carl looked at the technician, a young Asian American man who spoke with a slight accent.

“It is where they give birth to the specimens.” He said as his eyes scanned the room. 

“What do you mean give birth?” Carl asked.

“What does it sound like?” The man became spooked and left in a hurry before someone discovered him talking to the man with the camera. 

He walked over to the last building in the compound with a big “III” painted in red on the side.  What made him pause was the playground equipment behind a chain link fence. 

“What would they need that for?” He wondered, but then he saw that some of the chains had been gnawed through in places..

Walking into the laboratory, Jerry ran to Carl excited or “jazzed” as he used to say, “Carl, you’ve got to see this.” 

Jerry led him to a table where a baby lay wrapped in a blanket.  Carl was startled at the baby’s face.  Despite his small size, the face of the child was just about fully formed. 

“Jer, this isn’t right.” He looked down at the infant in horror. 

“Look at his face.” Jerry pointed to the infant in the glass casing. 

“He has teeth.  All of them.” Carl  saw the baby open his mouth revealing real human teeth already in his mouth. “Isn’t there something wrong here.” 

“It’s the next step.” Jerry shook his head, amazed.

“Is it?  Is it the next step or are we looking at a mutation of what we are destined to become?” Carl felt the baby was looking at him, studying him. “I don’t like what I am seeing.  I can’t believe this doesn’t bother you.” 

“No.  This is what we will become.” Jerry sniffed.

“Has anyone done any preliminary research?  What will these babies become when they grow into adulthood?” Carl could not take his eyes off the baby in the encasement. 

“The infant can speak with a vocabulary of three hundred words which increases exponentially each month.” Jerry was enthralled by what he was seeing in Laboratory Three. “These babies will reach adulthood by age four or five.” 

“Does that sound right to you, does it?” 

“Why not? Our grip on being at the top of the evolutionary tree has been slipping for centuries.  Now we can regain our rightful place again.” 

“Buddy, you are losing your grip here.” Carl looked at Jerry as if he was truly seeing him for the very first time. 

One of the technicians dropped a thick cracker into the encasement.  The infant grasped it and gnawed it until it had been consumed in under a minute.  With teeth that sharp, it was little wonder why the playground chains had been gnawed through in places.  

What would happen if one of these mutants managed to get loose in the laboratory?  They could hurt or maim some of the technicians. 

C’mon buddy, don’t you think it’s time for us to be on our way.  We got some good stuff on film.” He grabbed Jerry by the arm, but Jerry shook him off.

“No, I want to stay here.” He shook his head, “Dr. Trezbecca promised we’d get a up close look at what these children can do.” 

“I don’t want to see.” 

“Why not?” Jerry was annoyed with Carl.

“Because I am afraid.  I am very much afraid.” He shook.

“We are a witness to the next step.  This is what we were supposed to be like,” Jerry watched as one of the technicians took the baby out of the encasement. 

“I don’t want-” Carl began, but Dr. Trezbecca pointed to a small penned in area where the child had been placed.

“I want you to get this.” Dr. Trezbecca said proudly. 

“Sure.” Jerry motioned for Carl to follow him. 

“A lynx!  Jerry, they put a lynx in the pen with the baby.” Carl could not believe what he was seeing through his lens.  The wild animal circled the baby emitting a snarl and a growl.  Slowly the cat moved, baring its teeth and fangs. The baby gurgled.  Just then the cat jumped at the baby teeth and claws out ready to kill him.

Carl let out a yelp as the cat landed on the helpless baby.  There was a cloud of dust in the entanglement.  For a moment no one could see either the wild cat nor the child, but the baby was not crying out in pain.  Instead the wild cat yelped and lay in the dust with a huge wound in its neck spouting an arterial wound.  The lynx took a couple of gasping breaths and expired. 

“Oh my God.” Carl held onto every word as he watched the lynx die. 

“Did you see that, Carl?  Did you see that?” Jerry could barely contain his excitement.  “I can’t wait to show this to Mr.Newsome.  I’ll bet he can’t believe this.”  

“I’m sure he can’t.” Carl swallowed his bile.  All he could see was the blood dripping from the infant’s mouth. 

“Jerry, you sounded so excited about what you two saw while you were on Ebson Island.” Mr. Newsome sat at his desk with his hands folded on the desk in front of him.

“Yeah…you won’t believe your eyes.” Carl could not meet his boss’ eyes as Jerry set up the video on his computer.  The video ran for less than four minutes.  Mr. Newsome sat there with a smile frozen on his face. “Do you want me to play it again?” 

“No thank you, Jerry, I’ve seen enough.” He sighed. Carl looked up at the suspended ceiling.

“Impressive, right?” Jerry closed the laptop.

“Yeah, that was one word for it.” Mr. Newsome shrugged.

“Go ahead and say it boss.  This is a perversion, right?” Carl let some of his pent up anger salt his words.

“Perversion, right, but it is what it is.” Mr. Newsome put his hand to his double chins and pondered what he had seen for a moment.  Then with a summary remark, said, “It was bound to happen after all.  With the infinity of all the possible outcomes, like it or not, someone was bound to take the next step.”