Earth Man Page 5

  Danny flushed the toilet and after checking in on the kids, returned to bed where Helen waited for him. They had spent hours making love, enjoying each other for the first time in a while. It was one of those experiences that was more romantic than sex but too rough to be called making love. It was primitive, animalistic and spiritual at the same time. She was still smiling lazily when he flopped back down on the bed. Helen wore only an Ottawa Rough Riders t-shirt while Danny had on the track pants that matched it.

  “I got three different phone calls you know.” Helen said as she sat up on one elbow.

  “Each one started the same way, ‘there’s been an accident’.”

  “I’m sorry,” Danny started to apologize but she placed a hand on his chest and he let her continue.

  “I know it wasn’t your fault. But why are you lying about it? I know you lied to the doctors and the police, it was obvious. You’re not very good at it.”

  “It would have made me sound crazy or sick in the head or something. What else could I tell them? I don’t even know what is going on. ”

  “But you know something is, right. Even I can feel it. It’s changed you.”

  “It feels like everything is changing.”

  “Everything is. But we’ve got each other. It’ll be okay.”

  Danny had no response for that and he kissed her on the chin gently. Helen laid her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat until he fell asleep.

  When Danny woke up an hour later, Helen had slid over and circulation was cut off in his arm, the new arm that he’d just grown back the day before. For a moment he panicked, thinking he’d lost it again. Jumping out of bed he flexed his arm repeatedly, grimacing through the pain as the blood worked itself back into the stiff limb. Realizing he was over-reacting, he let go of his arm. Once it was back to normal he moved Helen’s head back onto her pillow and tucked her under the blanket. Once again he felt the call of nature and he headed back to the bathroom. It took longer this time for him to go, his bladder muscles were still asleep and the rest of him was exhausted from the sex so he gazed out the small open window and tried to relax. The neighbourhood was still dark but there was a smell of dawn coming in. A hint of winter hid inside the cold chilly breeze he felt along the floor. For the third year in a row he made a note to get the holes caulked up in the old house. Just as he began to relieve himself something moved below the window. Danny tried to get a better look but he could not stop the urine flow so he wasn’t able to catch another glimpse of it. Someone had run out of the trees and slipped along the side toward the back, sticking close to the side of house. The row of houses on his street faced a large creek and forest area. It wasn’t huge, but it was big enough for a child to get lost in. Or get lured into. Danny ran to Morgan’s room and opened the door slowly. He felt his throat closing and he could barely breathe; the bed was empty. Danny sprinted across the hall to Ray’s room and opened his door. Ray was awake instantly, rubbing his eyes.

  “What the hell Dad??” Ray said quietly.

  “Morgan’s missing,” was all Danny said before running down the stairs.

  Morgan came walking through the back door just as Danny reached it, forcing him to stop quickly so he wouldn’t run into her.

  “Morgan!” Danny shouted, balancing himself on the wall.

  “Why were you outside? You know you’re not allowed to leave the house, especially at night!”

  Danny swept her up in his arms, holding her tight.

  “Sorry Daddy,” she said, nuzzling against his neck. “There was a man out there. He wanted me to come say hi. He said he’s waiting for you.”

  Danny’s blood froze. As soon as Helen and Raymond appeared at the top of the stairs he sent Morgan up to her mother.

  “What’s up?” Ray asked. The boy was genuinely concerned but Danny did not want him involved. Whoever was waiting for him out there got too close to his kids already.

  “Nothing. I don’t know, stay here. Lock the door.”

  For a moment Danny and Helen stared at each other and then she gave him a gentle nod of her head in approval. Whatever was out there, they both knew he had to face it head on.

  As Danny stepped out into the night air, he knew right away he felt as if he was in a different world. The trees, the yard, even the house was still the same as it had always been. Yet he knew, more importantly he felt the subtlest change in the universe. Closing the door behind him, he headed toward the tree line that marked the end of his yard. After a few minutes of walking deeper into the forest something rustled in the trees ahead of him.

  EARTH MAN. IT’S TIME.

  A large bush between two thick trees blocked his view but Danny knew there was something on the other side, he could hear it moving. The voice seemed to linger in his mind longer the closer he got to whatever it was that was waiting for him.

  COME.

  As he pushed through the bush the world seemed to resist. Reality warped before his hand like plastic, sending out rippling waves as he passed over some invisible threshold. He felt as if he was gliding over the soft grass, everything around him had a far away feeling to it.

  As he looked back over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of the passing ripple effect, something big moved in the trees ahead of him. It pushed out from behind a wall of green very slowly, very dramatically. All Danny could do was watch in awe as the forest seemed to part for whatever it was coming toward him. The hooves appeared first, stepping out of the wilderness like two massive white pillars. The horns followed, so thick and dark Danny thought at first it wore a crown of massive tree branches. The giant male deer stood before him and the forest seemed to bloom at its touch. A rainbow of coloured plants sprouted out of the depressions left by its hooves and as they grew the pedals spread and opened like tiny hungry mouths. The trees around the deer seemed to swell and rattle their leaves in pride at its passing, their branches parting and reaching toward the sky. It took Danny a moment to realize that this was not just any deer; even though it had dramatically changed Danny easily recognized it. Both of them had experienced something strange and frightening, their mutual fear and trauma linked them together. This was the deer that Phil had shot. Even worse, Danny himself had shot the deer’s companion. He’d promised himself that he would never kill another creature as long as he lived and he hoped the deer could sense his guilt and shame. The bullet scar was still visible on the deer’s neck where it had been shot. It wasn’t Danny that had shot him, it was Phil but that didn’t make Danny any more comfortable, considering he’d shot and killed the deer’s friend.

  “I’m sorry. . .” Danny started to apologize but the deer trotted toward him and he lost his nerve.

  It was over six feet high, not including the horns and ten feet long. Its muscles were huge and it exuded power with every step. The antlers were large and thick and the tips looked as sharp as daggers. Yet the deer seemed peaceful, almost friendly. As he reached out a hand it pressed its large wet nose against his palm. After everything that had happened, after all that Phil and Danny had put the deer through, the deer still forgave him. The event in the forest had brought them together and now the deer was there to support him, he could sense it.

  “How did you get so damn big, boy?” Danny said.

  The deer suddenly turned and hopped a few paces away. It turned its head and looked at him, waving its antlers forward. As soon as Danny took a step forward, it dashed a few feet away. Once again it waved its antlers forward, pointing them toward an open field. It was trying to get him to follow it, so he picked up the pace and jogged over. The deer then began to trot and Danny chased after it. It soon became apparent that the deer wanted to run.

  Danny felt energized and wide awake even though it was the middle of the night. It was the same energy he’d felt in the hospital, fighting the monster with abilities taken from the nearby insects. Something in his brain was attuning itself to the speed and power of the massive deer. The life force of the animal radiated outwards, flowing throug
h Danny like ocean tides. He could feel the strength and power of its heart beating, his own heart quickening to match the rhythm.

  They began to run together side by side, tearing through the trees recklessly. Faster and faster they went until the trees seemed to blur past. Danny had no problem reacting to the branches and bushes thrown in his way, he was reacting faster than humanly possible, ducking and leaping with superhuman skill. The red energy burned through his skin leaving ephemeral traces of red behind him. As he caught glimpses of the deer he could see its antlers had changed as well, glowing with neon red energy. They were bonded as one, sharing their natural life field while drawing on the life force of the very planet itself. Everything was alive and vibrant, the trees and grass seemed to shout their green and brown color from the darkness. A joy unlike anything he’d ever felt filled him up and he began to laugh and cheer as he ran. The deer felt it as well; he could tell from the way it was playfully leaping in front of him that it was happy too.

  They ran over a hundred miles before they even came to a road. The deer leaped across easily but Danny was moving so fast he did not see the truck coming down the road in front of him. There was only a moment to react before he collided with the side of the truck so he did what the deer had taught him to do, he jumped. The big Mack truck seemed to move in slow motion as he left the ground, legs and arms flailing like a professional long jumper. The driver didn’t even have a chance to catch a glimpse of Danny before he hit the ground on the opposite side. In the blink of an eye he was gone again, a red streak the only sign of his passing.

  Danny lost all sense of time and distance; the power inside him distorted his senses and his internal clock. Caught up in the moment, he had no idea how far he’d run when the deer finally stopped to let him catch his breath. He doubled over, laughing with joy, trying to breath between fits of laughter and exhaustion. The deer hopped around him playfully, its endurance far greater than his. Rubbing the deer’s neck, he could not help but be in awe of its massive size. As he leaned against it, finally catching his breath, he felt it tense up. The deer turned its head from side to side as it sniffed the air. Danny could feel it too. Something was coming, something powerful. The deer nuzzled his palm to say goodbye, or perhaps good luck, and then bounded off into the woods. As it went, the light went with it and the forest suddenly darkened. The energy he’d felt earlier seemed to evaporate away, leaving only an empty, cold spot within him.

  VILDE CHAYA WE HAVE COME.

  The ground began to rumble and the trees parted as four massive giant aliens surrounded him. They came from all directions and stood close to twenty five feet. As they pushed through the trees the forest seemed to push back, hooking into their white skin. The outer shell of the creatures tore easily, but they did not bleed. Fur and feathers sprouted out of the rips in the outer flesh, horns and ears and animal eyes burst from beneath the white outer shell. The skin peeled away from them like clothes being casually shed so that when the four of them reached the clearing they were alien no longer. Their bodies had become amalgams of earthy creatures, mismatched heads and limbs that looked preposterous and monstrous at the same. The largest of them had the body of a bear with an ape-like face, huge curved horns like a ram with a matching goatee that was ten feet long. It had bear paws with chubby little fingers and leaned on a huge oak staff. The second was a female with a walrus like face, tusks and whiskers and all. Her body was covered in gray feathers with rows of white that gave her a striped look and instead of arms she had large wings that flapped uncontrollably. The feathers covered her dog-like legs and stopped short of the gray paws that tore up the dirt as she walked. The third had the head of a bald eagle but a muscular body like an upright bull, with hoofs instead of hands and large ape-like feet. The creatures feathered head was white but its body was a dark brown. It clapped its hooves together and Danny could not help but jump at the sound. The last of the creatures was smaller than the rest and while it had the face of a goat its body was scaly and golden like a fish. Its hands and feet were soft and round like a kitten, fluffy with yellow fur. Danny watched it clean itself like a cat as it walked toward him, smearing slobber and spit across its golden scales.

  NOW WE AM BECOME QUATZACOATL, BUILDER OF WORLDS. NOW WE ARE HERE.

  This time the voice was not in Danny’s head, it came out of the ape-like face of the biggest and oldest of the creatures.

  “What are you?” Danny asked quietly.

  The creatures looked at each other but did not respond.

  YOU ARE THE VISHNU JESUS. WE ARE HERE TO GUIDE YOU. YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.

  “Chosen for what? What do you want from me?”

  YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN TO SAVE YOUR WORLD, YOUR KIND.

  This time it was the female that spoke, her voice only slightly higher pitch than the others.

  “From those things, right? But how?” Danny pleaded.

  WE HAVE GIVEN YOU GREAT POWER. GREAT RESPONSIBILITY.

  “I don’t want it. Why me? Why do I have to do this?”

  WHY NOT?

  This time it was the small one that spoke but when Danny looked at it the creature turned away shyly. Its voice had a child-like quality to it and he spoke faster than the others.

  Something was not right. As much as Danny believed what he was seeing, something told him it was wrong. The first time they had appeared to him on a ship as aliens, now all of a sudden they were creatures of nature. It was almost as if they were changing to please him. Or he was changing them. He also found it strange that he had no fear of the creatures at all; they seemed familiar and somehow even comforting.

  “What if I say no? What if I walk away right now?” Danny said.

  The creatures began to gnash their teeth and claws, stomping on the ground so hard that Danny almost lost his balance. He had figured it out, even though he didn’t quite realize it, he knew what was wrong.

  “Nothing you say makes sense. Not really. Who are you? What are you? Where are from?”

  HERE. WE ARE FROM INSIDE.

  “Inside what? Where is here? Right here?”

  YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.

  “Then I quit.”

  THEN WE WILL EAT YOU UP!

  The creature with the bald eagle head snapped its beak at him menacingly and Danny burst out laughing.

  ‘This is all fake, isn’t it? All of this. The aliens, the ship, the voice? You guys, the animorphs, whatever the hell you want to call this? All of this is in my head.’

  Danny had not said the words out loud but still the leader of the creatures responded.

  YES.

  ‘That’s all this has been about? I’m losing my mind. This is just me going nuts. The red light, the noise, everything, it’s all been in my head.’

  Danny threw up his arms and began to spin around like a madman. The three large monsters begin to disappear, merging back into the darkness of the trees. Only the ape-faced elder remained, shoulders slumped by age or sadness or perhaps both.

  YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN DANNY. THE DANGER IS REAL.

  The monster held out a large bear paw and a small black cloud formed on its open palm.

  A THREAT TO EARTH AND ALL LIFE IS HERE.

  Foul, deformed faces took shape in the cloud including the mutating face of the homeless man from the hospital.

  “What is that? What is threat you keep talking about?” Danny said out loud.

  The giant creature began to shrink suddenly, closing its hand so that the cloud vanished. Its horns became smaller, its face and body became more human-like, the bear fur pulled back inside to reveal dark brown flesh. When it was finished it stood only six feet, the same height as Danny.

  IT HAS NO NAME OF ITS OWN. IN YOUR LANGUAGE, IN OUR LANGUAGE, IT WOULD BE CALLED THE CANCER GROWTH. THEY ARE THE DESTROYERS, THE CORRUPTORS.

  It reached out and placed a hand on Danny’s shoulder.

  YOU HAVE NOT GONE MAD. YOU HAVE SIMPLY STEPPED THROUGH A DOORWAY INTO THE BIGGER UNIVERSE. THE TRUE UNIVERSE.

  “Wh
o are you?”

  I AM ALL THINGS.I AM YOU.

  “You don’t look like me.”

  YOU DON’T LOOK LIKE YOU.

  Danny pulled away, recoiling from the creature.

  “Of course, I never realized it before but you’re just plucking words out of my head, aren’t you? All that religious talk, the strange sentences, it’s all just nonsense my brain is throwing back at me, isn’t it? I can feel you in there, scratching at the back of my brain.”

  WE ARE THE SAME DANNY. I AM TRYING TO WARN YOU.

  “Warn me? Of this Growth thing? It’s a little late for that. One of them already CHOPPED MY FUCKING ARM OFF!”

  YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN.

  “By who? Who chose me?”

  THAT WHICH WE HAVE DESIGNATED ‘SHE’ HAS AWAKENED. SHE WHO IS KNOWN AS EARTH WILL SPEAK WITH YOU NOW.

  Suddenly the creature stepped forward and embraced Danny, the horns pressing against his shaggy hair. When it released him, it blinked its black eyes and shook its head.

  “I wish we had been better prepared,” it said.

  It spoke with a human voice for the first time and Danny was shocked into silence. As the creature turned away from him he felt something at the back of his mind. Like a shadow something was hovering behind him, towering over him, so large he could feel the weight of it. Turning his head, the Earth revealed itself to him in all its glory and he collapsed.

  From the moment Danny had stepped out of the car on the day of the hunting trip, his brain had been preparing itself. From the red light in the woods to the wild things he’d just met, all of it was just a warm-up to the images he was now being bombarded with. Information was downloading into his brain at a superhuman speed, the entire history of the living planet called Earth. Not only was ‘she’ sharing her history with him, but she was sharing the history of the universe. It was not the life on the planets that the universe had been created for, it was the planets themselves. The planets were the children of the Big Bang with stars serving as their guardians, nurturing and providing for them as best they could. Their level of sentience was beyond human understanding, they did not ‘think’ or ‘feel’ yet they experienced the universe in as joyful and painful a way as humanity. All of the universe was a nursery for the developing planets, the creatures who lived on their surface did so with all the importance of ticks on a dog.