October 15, 2024
"What is up, guys? Today, we are dealing with a literal monster," Leo whispered into his phone, the front-facing camera shaking slightly.
In the corner of the viewfinder, tucked between the baseboard and the carpet, sat a spider.
It wasn't a giant huntsman or a radioactive nightmare; it was just a common, dusty-brown house spider. But to Leo, it was a trespasser.
"Okay, going in for the kill," Leo narrated, his voice dropping to a dramatic bass. He gripped his heavy, rubber-soled sneaker like a club.
CRACK.
The shoe slammed into the baseboard with enough force to rattle the nearby bookshelf. Leo held it there for a beat, a grimace of victory on his face. "Got him. First try."
He lifted the shoe slowly, expecting to see a smudge of exoskeleton. Instead, the spider sat there, perfectly still, looking remarkably un-smashed. It took a single step to the left, almost like it was stretching.
"Wait, what?" Leo adjusted the camera. "You guys saw that, right? I hit it dead on. This is why I'm recording; the first time I smashed it, it had the same results."
He didn't hesitate this time. He brought the shoe down again—WHAM—and this time, he didn't just hit it; he leaned his entire body weight onto the sneaker, grinding it into the floor. He could hear the plastic of the shoe creak.
"There is no way," he panted, pulling the shoe back.
The spider was still there. It hadn't flattened. It hadn't even lost a leg. It just stood in the center of the indented carpet, its many eyes seemingly staring directly into the camera lens. It looked less like an insect and more like a pebble made of indestructible carbon fiber.
"Okay, this is actually terrifying," Leo said, his bravado fading into genuine nerves. "Is this a super-spider? Is this a government drone? I'm hitting it with everything I've got!"
He rained down three more blows in rapid succession. THUD. THUD. THUD. Each strike was harder than the last, yet every time the shoe rose, the spider remained, mocking him with its continued existence. It was as if the laws of physics had decided to take a break in this specific corner of the room.
Leo's adrenaline shifted from aggression to curiosity. "Maybe I should just catch it. If I can't kill it, I need to study it."
He set the shoe down and reached for a clear plastic Tupperware container on his desk. He moved slowly, keeping the camera focused on the invincible target.
"Okay, nice and easy," he muttered. "I'm just gonna pop the lid over you, and we're gonna go for a little ride to the lab..."
As the rim of the container hovered an inch above the floor, the spider finally moved. It didn't scuttle; it blurred. In a fraction of a second, the brown speck sprinted across the carpet, darted behind the leg of the heavy mahogany desk, and vanished into a gap in the floorboards.
Leo stood there, holding the empty container, staring at the blank screen of his phone.
"Uh... guys?" he whispered to his followers. "I think I'm moving out tomorrow."
The video paused, and the person watching was President Grant.
He sat in the blue light of a monitor, replaying the clip for the tenth time. He watched the heavy sneaker crush the floor, watched the shoe rise, and watched the spider—unfazed—simply adjust its stance.
"It's not just the spider, Mr. President," an advisor whispered, sliding a tablet across the resolute desk. "Look at these."
The President scrolled through a curated feed of terrifying, verified footage.
A video of a crow being struck by a speeding car. The bird didn't shatter; the car's headlight did. The crow simply shook its feathers and flew away, its wings making a metallic clinking sound.
Time-lapse footage of common English Ivy growing through solid concrete—not through cracks, but dissolving the stone like acid to make its own path.
A deep-sea submersible in the Mariana Trench recording a jellyfish that was emitting a radio frequency so strong it jammed the sub's sonar.
"It's a global biological shift," the National Science Advisor explained, her voice trembling.
"We don't have a name for it just yet. It's as if every species on Earth just received a software update. Their cellular structures are reinforcing. Their reflexes are hitting the theoretical limits of physics and much more. From what we can tell, there are probably an infinite number of evolution paths for each species. A guy came in the other day covered by a hard exoskeleton made of chitin."
President Grant looked back at Leo's video. The spider wasn't just surviving; it was waiting.
"The food chain just flipped. That spider in the video? It didn't hide because it was scared. It hid because it realized it didn't need to run anymore. It's learning our patterns."
The President looked out the window at the Rose Garden. In the moonlight, he could see the squirrels. They weren't scurrying for nuts anymore. They were moving with more thought in each step.
"Why are humans getting affected less as a whole compared to these living things in the wild?" President Grant asked.
"We can't be sure just yet, but we have our guesses."
"What are they?"
.....
November 23, 2024.
During all this, the Lowells family continued with their normal lives. There may be thousands of incidents of abnormal animals and things, but there are billions of people.
With billions of people and only thousands of abnormal animals noticed, it shows that only a small percentage of animals had changed so far.School started back up for Ryan, while Daymon already graduated earlier this year. He's just out and about with his friends.
Drake continued to work, while Malisa is a stay-at-home mom.
They all believe it definitely has something to do with E.K.D, but they don't think these people in the videos are shapeshifting aliens.
There's no real reason to think that, other than they just believe it to not be the case.
Sadly, during this month, Drake failed to get in contact with his parents. Every call went straight to voicemail.
This made him worry enough to consider driving down there.
"A lot of phone towers have been going down lately, so that's probably why the call isn't going through," Malisa said as she hugged him from behind to comfort him.
"Yeah, I know, but it doesn't make me less worried. Plus, I think the fact that phone towers are randomly going down lately is a bad sign for something," Drake replied.
"Not to mention, everything you hear on the internet is only half the truth. The government has been taking down things they don't want the public to see just yet. There is mandatory blood testing; it's obviously something going on. Maybe all the videos are real, maybe..."
"You are just guessing that, relax a little. You've been really stressed lately," Malisa replied, interrupting his line of thought.
"Yeah, you're right, thanks, baby," Drake said as he turned around to give her a kiss.
"I can help you relieve some stress," Malisa said seductively.
"Just let me check up and call my side of the family real quick. It's been a couple of months."
Just as Malisa was about to call, Drake's phone rang, catching her attention. She didn't put too much thought into it and began to look for her mom's phone contact.
Before she could finish calling, loud crying could be heard after Drake answered the call. She instantly recognized the voice.
"Stop crying, calm down, it's hard to understand what you are saying," Drake said in a calm, worried tone.
"Marcus, my boyfriend. I think... I think something happened to him. Something is happening all around the city. People are dying, and... and I can hear people screaming occasionally from inside my, my house." Zahra squeezed out the words through her sobs.
"What? What is going on? Did you call the police?"
"Yes, I called the police, but no one is answering, the line is, is busy. Can... can you come and pick me up? I'm scared, something bad is happening. He told me don't leave the house, I think... I think Marcus is in danger, I can't conta........"
"Beep."
"Zahra."
"Zahra, Zahra, hello. Can you hear me?" Drake looked at the phone and realized the call ended. He tried calling back, but he couldn't connect to the phone; it went straight to voicemail.
The room was quiet enough to hear the whole conversation, and when the call was over, Drake and Malisa just looked at each other.