Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1)(101)
Elise took a few more snapshots of the ground beneath her as she wandered up the mountain. Interestingly, the vegetation grew thicker the higher she climbed. The signs of the Earth Plague receded here as well. Elise made a few notes, put a few more samples in tubes, and slipped them into her netherstore container. She continued to climb.
She was making real progress in her research. Some of her testing had produced promising results, though she was still a long way from a full cure. The Earth Plague was a surprisingly simple virus that could have been headed off before it mutated and spread. She was confident that, if the Nutris Platform hadn’t blown up and sunk into the sea, they could have nipped it in the bud and created a cure, probably mass-producing it for the rest of the planet within a year or two.
The only problem was replication. Even with a working cure, it had to be cheap to produce, since present Earth wasn’t exactly full of resources. Her lab didn’t have the equipment to replicate and send the cure out all over the world. With the level of degradation already present on the planet, a cure could take months to propagate across the globe. By that time, the plague would have mutated a dozen times over. No, whatever cure they developed, Elise needed a delivery system that cured the entire planet all at once, or at least in a relatively short span of time. Hopefully, James could retrieve something from the past or Grace could use that big brain of hers for an invention that would address this issue.
Yes, with Grace’s help, they were making some progress, though more of their time was spent keeping the lights on in the lab than she liked. Grace had spent the first week designing and rigging a working elevator, much to the excitement of every person who had to work in the Farming Towers. Now, the Mother of Time was almost as popular as Elise. In hindsight, it was time well spent.
There wasn’t much of a path up here; whatever traces of civilization that had once remained in this area were long gone. Still, she trudged through the increasingly thick underbrush, eager to see what was near the top. So far, she’d found a direct correlation between the air quality, carbon readings, and height of the vegetation. It meant that the plague’s ability to prosper depended on …
Something in the trees to her left rustled. Elise froze midstep and waited, slowly moving her arm to shoulder level and pointing at the leaves shaking back and forth. The rustling moved to her left, as if cutting off her retreat. She heard the brush to her right shake as well. Elise spun to her right, her arms swiveling back and forth from the two sources of noise.
“Beam level max. No, level two,” she thought to her wrist beam. That wouldn’t kill a living creature, but would still be strong enough to knock out a charging elephant.
The rustling sounds in the brush continued, and maybe it was her overactive imagination, but they now seemed to be all over the place. She was surrounded! Her arms began to quiver from the adrenaline pumping through her body. She felt her heart rate rocket up until it seemed like each beat shook her entire body.
“Keep it together, girl,” she muttered. “Remember your training.”
Something squealed behind her, a high-pitched yipping sound that was distinctly inhuman. That made Elise feel better, if only a smidgen.
“Focus, by Gaia, stupid girl,” she said.
The rustling sounds were getting closer. Or maybe it was because they were closing in on her. Whatever the thing was, it could come at her from any direction at any moment. Elise considered making a break for it, but thought better of it. After all, the odds of her outrunning this thing were low, and all that would probably happen from fleeing would be exposing her back and leaving herself completely defenseless. No, she was going to make a stand and give herself a chance.
The seconds slowed and ticked by as she waited to see the predator stalking her. Her arms were tiring, and she was breathing so hard she wasn’t sure her aim would be straight even if the thing was standing in front of her. Then it appeared.
A lizard-like creature stepped out of the jungle and stuck its tongue out at her. It made the same squealing sound as its forked tongue flicked the air in front of it. It rambled to the right as if drunk and then flicked the air again. Elise’s arm followed its path as it went back and forth, ready to shoot if it took another step closer.
As a biologist, she was fascinated by the creature. Its body was like a snake’s, allowing it to stand tall and reach high, the way a giraffe would. Its torso and legs were almost human, and she had missed it at first, but there were two nearly vestigial arms. Their eyes locked and for a second, she saw intelligence in those eyes, recognition of sorts.
To her right, another one of these creatures came out, this one larger, with an even longer body. Elise jumped back and aimed at this new threat, only to see it give her a look almost of disdain as it walked by her. The second creature walked next to the first and their tongues flicked at each other. Then the two walked away from her. The first creature looked back at her one last time before the pair disappeared back into the jungle.
Elise found herself holding her breath a few seconds longer, her fingers tingling from the strain of the adrenaline and from holding her aim for so long. She still detested violence, but this was the new reality of her world now. Her heart wouldn’t stop slamming into her rib cage. She sunk to the ground and took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down.
Elise had seen more than her share of creatures since she arrived in this time period, most nonexistent in the past. The ruins of Boston were a hive of different species, and strangely, many of them were like these two creatures, with several human-like features. She didn’t know how that came to be, either from biological manipulation or natural progression, but seeing strange creatures like this unnerved her less and less.