This Savage Land: Intermission Two

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In the middle of Central Park, Phase Two is put into motion



Access to the Central Park Zoo was easy enough. As a major donor, Peggy Van Talbot had the privilege of before-hours visits, and as a professor of zoology and standing chair of the New York Wildlife Preservation Fund, she made constant donations to the Zoo, enough to give her basically carte blanche to utilize the facilities at any time.

Which made it incredibly simple to bring in the rest of her confederates to begin Phase Two of Jonas's grand plan. When he had gathered them together ten years ago, it had seemed like yet another millionaire's pitch for a strange attempt at pop-science. Fossil cloning, resurrected paleobotanical specimens, it had seemed like a pipe dream. Until they had produced the first of many once-extinct ferns, and Peggy realized that the dream was a reality.

Over the years, they had all come to realize they shared a deeper bond than their conservationist leanings. Each of them knew in their hearts that the Earth - their Mother - was dying. Dying as surely as any cancer patient, and that the greed and avarice of human progress was that cancer.

"Just as with any cancer," Jonas had said, "There needs to be surgery. The body must be restored to its pristine state." The Conservatory was only the first step, their "seed garden". Once Phase Two was complete, the people of Earth would see the error of their ways and learn to respect the savagery of Mother Earth's firstborn.

It was Sol who had brought Eddie Wyndham into the fold. Eddie was a mutant, Sol had explained, with the ability to affect an animal's genetic code, evolving it into a more intelligent form or radically devolving it into something primitive. Something pure, Peggy preferred to think of it.

The first time she saw Eddie's ability transform a common pigeon into a vicious Utahraptor, she knew that this mutant was the key to their cause. His power would be the beginning, the way to repopulate the planet the way it should be.

So they had brought Eddie into their confidence, and he was the one that had given the group a name. The Evolutionaries, he had dubbed them. Jonas had liked the idea, although Carol and Phil had thought it immature and puerile. Nevertheless, the Evolutionaries were going to prove to the world that progress had its price, and it was a price that Mother Earth was no longer willing to pay. Pollution caused the extinction of millions of species every year. Overcrowding was choking the planet's very life. Abominations like genetically-grown antibiotics were causing the spread of new strains of bacteria, and atomic testing... well, there hadn't been any "mutant problem" before that, was there?

The roars from the cages behind her were a symphony to her ears. Eddie was well ahead of schedule. With the aid of a little "pharmaceutical enhancement" that Sol had provided, Eddie's power could transform an animal with a mere touch.

The Central Park Zoo held over four hundred different animal species.

And the Evolutionaries were well ahead of schedule.

Phase Two had begun.