7 Chapter 7 Higher IQ (2/2)

(GENETIC MATERIAL ACQUIRED.ANALYZING.)

Grinning, he revved the engine, and shot into the sky.He was going to head somewhere that didn't have quite so many creatures.Somewhere less boring, to await the day the ship returned to take him back home.

(ANALYSIS COMPLETE.AVAILABLE EVOLUTION OPTIONS: INCREASED INTELLIGENCE, FLAT CHEWING TEETH, SOFT FLEXIBLE SKIN, WARM-BLOODED, G-TOLERANCE, SINGLE MINDED, AND UNFAZEABLE.)

”Give me the increased intelligence, warm blooded, G-tolerance, and unfazeable.”

(EVOLUTION INITIATED.)

Spying the flying rug in the distance, he laughed.There was no way it could fly as fast as this bike.No sooner had the thought entered his mind, then the bike began to sputter.Looking down at the fuel gauge, his eyes widened in alarm.It was empty.What kind of fuel would a bike like this take?And how in the hell did he run out already?Guiding it down towards the ground, it suddenly died, and plummeted.

Screaming, despite himself, he tried to aim for a tree.Maybe he could catch a branch?The tree that he aimed for looked to have lots of leaves, but as he got closer, he screamed again.It was the tree with the vines that could kill.

Grabbing the bike, he tried to redirect his fall, by kicking off from it, but it really did nothing.The television lied!

As the tree grew larger, an arm reached out and grabbed him out of the air.He lost his breath as the arm tightened around him, swinging him around, and setting him gently down on a branch.Breathing hard, he found himself looking into the face of the long legged, twig armed creature.It really reminded him of a stick bug, only much, much bigger.

Swallowing, he nodded in thanks again, and went to climb down, but stopped.The bike had landed in the very middle of the vine tree and exploded. The root monster howled as it burned.Vines were whipping everywhere, and creatures great and small were fleeing.As the stick giant climbed higher, he followed, unable to look away.

The tree had a large tuber root under the crazy twisting roots that had the mouth filled with thorn teeth.He had seen the teeth before, but never saw the tuber.It ripped up the ground trying to put out the fire, but the fuel refused to be quenched.

A hand, from the stick giant, swung down and tapped his PED.Looking back up to it, he saw it lean down and study it for a moment, then turned and looked at him.Pulling out the device he had just stolen off the hunter, he handed it over, and the giant wasted no time placing it on its own wrist.

Could this be another person, thought to have died, but actually, had merely lost his device?The implications ran through his mind.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE.)

If he had to evolve to survive the year, what was keeping them from saying he had died?They couldn't do a DNA scan to find him.There wasn't a human around to gather genetic material from, to swap back.If anything happened to his PED, they could easily claim he was gone.Or even worse, the realization hit him, they could claim an alien creature ended up with his device, and take it from him, leaving him here.

Watching the stick giant reach out and snatch one of his scales off, he stifled an angry grunt.It hurt about as bad as someone pulling out a hair.However, there wasn't a port on the device it was wearing.Dustin couldn't tell if it was angry or sad when it started moving away from him.

Turning to view the burning tree below, he saw that it was dead.Was there enough animal in it for him to get a genetic sample?Being able to paralyze or kill with a single touch was very enticing, so he began to climb down.