Genus: Evolving

Michael’s search for survivors brought him to the largest hospital in the region. The hospital was eerie, being completely empty in the darkness of night. His calls down the hallways proved fruitless for anyone else.

The light from his firearm led his way down the hallways, reading the directories toward the research equipment he expected to be here in the Pathology Department.

The main electricity was down, but a backup generator was able to still power one lousy computer, and to its accompanying microscope. That was good enough for him. He put his bag on the counter and found a box of blank slides.

He quickly prepared slides. One slide was from the mangled bullet he picked up at the beach after their first encounter. Another sample was from the “sting” on Tony’s leg. The most risky sample was a bit of tissue from “the savior” – he snuck in while the group of worshippers were sleeping.

He glanced at them through the microscope, looking at the image being projected onto the computer. Seeing the samples light up on the screen reminded him of the first course in college where he made his own slides.

The samples from the creature’s body proved two things, it was a jellyfish, and the species was the same. The cell type was Cnidocyte, with a typical matrix scientists refer to as “jelly,” or the reason the jellyfish earned their namesake. The matrix was common in the Cndaria phylum. Nothing about it was unique enough to understand anything new about the globster.

From the beach slide, to the carcass slide, he did notice some differences; more of the cells were in mitosis later – but that wasn’t anything he could “ah-ha” at. He didn’t have the knowledge to look at different codons and see what proteins were different.

There wasn’t a Molecular department in this building, so this facility lacked the equipment to sequence the samples. To be fair, he had no idea how that was performed, and he highly doubted there were any staff members still hanging around running PCR.

He would have to think of something else. He continued to look at the slides and the cell structure.

“What…” he noticed something he overlooked. He was more tired than he thought.

The cellular structure was different – the cell began developing an animal cell-like structure.

“You’re copying other cell types?” Michael asked the slides. “That would explain how you’re developing new characteristics. Well, at least show that’s what you’re doing. I still don’t have any idea how.”

That made absolutely zero sense.

He laid his head down on the table. He was tired, he hadn’t eaten anything other than what was in the vending machines for several days. Now he was making up science-y answers.

He closed his eyes for a moment…

* * *

He opened his eyes after “a moment” two hours later.

Luckily, the generator hadn’t stopped on him just yet. But looking at the slides again yielded nothing beyond seeing what a change in shape of cells, forming structure expected in animal cells.

“God, I hate riddles,” Michael hissed. He was tired of not understanding what was happening.

He rubbed his eyes, stretched and opened Dr. Frosts’ autopsy report from the first confirmed globster victim.

Patient was a 42 year old white male…

…appeared in good health. No signs of disease….

Upon EMS arrival, the patient was non-responsive with no pulse…

Nothing helpful in the Eternal Exam. “Been there, saw that…”

“Clinicopathologic Correlation,” he read aloud. “Such dry reading…”

He skimmed for information that he needed. He’d not really read over it yet, the graphs and precise lab result reports were much more helpful, at least up to this point.

Toxicology came back normal…

Brainstem malformation… cerebellum abnormal…

Clinical signs of Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome… no alleles present…

Michael knew marine life, and was becoming better versed with jellyfish, but something about this human disease sounded familiar. He thumbed through the file again, coming across a photo of an amino acid extracted from Tony’s brain tissue.

“Ah, a sequence of the proteins from the sample…” Michael was irritated with himself, “Could have noticed that earlier…”

The alpha helix was normal, but the beta helix was straight. Something had caused the helix to fold incorrectly.

That reminded him a lot of a condition he heard a lot about when he was growing up. He checked the computer again, turning off the microscope screen and looking at a traditional desktop. To his genuine thrilled surprise, the internet was working and Dr Google was available.

He began his search with “Protein folding.”

The results were gibberish to him. He switched to Google Scholar for precise results.

“Mad Cow Disease,” was the associated search. Or, he could look up “Gerstmann-Straussler-Scheinker Syndrome” from Dr. Frost’s autopsy report.

He found many sources citing NexGen. Multiple pages referred to it, and many more cited it as a source.

Finally, finally, his search yielded useful results.

“NexGen opens an ocean research facility off the coast of Alaska, where the Prion research potentially can treat conditions of degenerative disorders…”

If anyone was still there, or if any research was left behind, he might at the very least get in the right direction of figuring out what was behind the invasion.

Heading down the hallways, Michael began his search for the parking garage. He needed to search for a new ride if he was going to be traveling to Alaska. Walking was so last year.