After The End

Melvatox-B

When we get back to the plane Abe and Dariela rush out and meet us in the cargo bay. "What is there?" Dariela points to the trailer.

I chuckle as I walk around the truck, "You really wanna see?"

Jackson sighs as he opens the door to show the two of them Abendegos. Abe and Dariela look shocked, confused, and fearful all at the same time. "He's chained, shouldn't be able to get free."

"How does this thing fit in your sister's plan?" Dariela turns to Jackson and I.

Jackson leans against one of the other trucks. "Plan. She has a plan beyond just unleashing pain and terror?"

I take a deep breath and shake my head, "The people holding him were waiting for Mr. Duncan. We think he might be Abigail's partner in this, somehow." As I make this comment we hear what sounds like metal sliding out of metal and the growling we had been talking over stops. "What happened?" I look over to Jackson.

Slowly, and I mean painfully slowly, Jackson steps to the door of the trailer, I think we are all half expecting it to fly open. When Jackson opens the door and glances inside, the growling and banging resumes and Jackson quickly slams the door and we all scream, jumping back, "So definitely not chained anymore."

Abe takes a deep breath, "I need to study this Abendegos."

I chuckle, "Do we have any tranquilizers on board? Like, dinosaur tranquilizers?"

Dariela nods, "Oh yeah."

"I'll go prepare a sedative." Abe comments as he walks up the ramps. After sharing a few glances, the rest of us follow him into the lab, where Abe looks through a few cabinets, "We need to dissolve this into a solution and then we should be ready to sedate your friend Abendegos."

"Great." Jackson nods, "Abe, how are you holding up with Isaac and everything?"

Abe sighs, "not well. But I've gotten good at distracting myself. Keeping myself busy. You know, before they took Isaac away, I was working on a synthetic reproductive hormone, based on the NLRP2 protein and stem cells harvested from animal's cerebrospinal fluid."

I chuckle softly, "Animal stem cells."

"That makes sense, they weren't affected by the TX-gas." Jackson nods.

"Exactly," Abe continues, "but none of the animal samples I tested yielded any positive results. But these hybrids are different. They display a hyper-growth property. I believe their stem cells could be the key. So hopefully Clem's baby will be able to provide the missing piece."

I shake my head, "Hold on, Clem's what?"

Abe looks to me then to Jackson, "We are getting a new little member of the family. One I think we all know the significance of."

Jackson shakes his head, "So, Clem and her being pregnant, how does that factor into all of this? The child has a unique protein."

Abe chuckles, "Unlike anything I've ever seen. It displays even greater potential than the NLRP2 protein at synthesizing the reproductive hormone that we need. I'm going to call it the CLM-protein. After Clementine."

I chuckle and sit one of the desks, "All right, so Clem's baby, plus hybrid stem cells, could solve the sterility problem?"

Abe nods, "that's the idea at least. We just need a cerebrospinal fluid sample from Abendegos to prove it."

Jackson shrugs, "How hard could that be?"

Abe sighs, "Well, here we go."

As Abe heads out to give Abendegos the sedative, I hope off the desk and head to the kitchen, not having had anything to eat today. As I do, Jackson follows. As I being cutting an apple I look up to him, "So, how do you do it? Control the animals. The lions in Portland, that Noah's Ark back there?"