Zombie Zero Read Free Page A

proceed.”
    “Of course,” the doctor retorted, giving the sergeant one more disgusted glance before going on. “I have always been curious about this inactive code. I have long had a theory that this is not the first time that a race has developed genetic material that is a blueprint for change. Environmental and social pressure may cause it to appear, although the cause of the phenomenon is irrelevant if the code cannot be activated. The change must be studied if we are to determine the direction that nature is trying to take us.”
    The sergeant looked from the scientist to the general, his face a frowning mask of confusion. The general frowned inwardly; he rested his hand on the butt of the pistol holstered at his side.
    “Did you say change?” The general spoke cautiously.
    “Yes!” Ryan nodded effusively. “Change, as in physical transformation. I am saying that a physical transformation is locked inside of our genetic coding.”
    “That’s impossible,” the sergeant blurted.
    “Tell that to a caterpillar,” the general said. “Or a wild boar. Or a grasshopper.”
    Ryan nodded again. “They may believe you; but come back in two weeks and try to convince the butterfly, or the domesticated pig, or the locust. They would laugh in your face, if they could. Physical transformation is not just possible; it is inevitable. It generally takes generations, but not always. Look at the wild boar, misnamed as it may be, since a boar is a male; how could a species survive without females? Heh, heh. Anyhow, it is again common knowledge that there is no difference between a domesticated pig and a wild boar, at least genetically. Physically, they are profoundly different animals; but that difference is due entirely to their environment. Take a wild boar from the wild and its tusks will disappear; it’s skin will go from rough to smooth. The coarse hair that covers its body will be almost entirely shed, and what little remains will be light and soft. It’s attitude will change, and the aggressive wild boar will literally become a docile farm animal within a couple of weeks.”
    “The reverse is true as well,” the general added. “Send a domesticated pig into the woods, and it will grow tusks and hair and armor-like skin.”
    “That is actually where my theory began,” Ryan mused.
    The general looked at his watch, heard his belly grumble, and nodded for him to go on. His hand still rested lightly on his sidearm, and he was turned so neither the sergeant nor the scientist could see.
    “According to what we know of the past,” Ryan explained, “neanderthal and modern man lived at the same time, in the same areas. Science would have us think that we interacted, that we warred with each other until modern man wiped out the entire species somehow. My theory entertains another possibility, one that better explains how neanderthals went from being everywhere on Earth to being nowhere on Earth in such a startlingly short period of time.”
    “They became us,” the general breathed, his hunger forgotten.
    “Precisely!” Ryan beamed. “What if neanderthals began to cultivate crops and raise farm animals only to find that it changed more than just their lifestyle? What if neanderthals were the wild boar to our pig, and in the process of domesticating themselves they became us? What if the reason many of us have neanderthal DNA is not because we occasionally bred with them, but because we used to be them?”
    “That’s a lot of ‘what-ifs’,” the sergeant commented.
    “That’s what science is, you fool,” Ryan sneered. “Most of what you believe about the world is some agreed-upon ‘what-if’; what you call facts, we call theories. Science as a whole is much more interested in appearing right than in actually being correct. Every generation that comes up through the ranks sees the fallacy in the thinking of the previous generation. Any attempt to correct this thinking is quickly shut down, and the young