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I killed the woman...I had to. Otherwise she would have killed me instead and I don't want to die that easily. But it was the truth, you couldn't grave a liquefied body, we already threw it inside the giant decomposing bin for energy. Which was going to save a few others at the survivors' block.
"Daniel! What is up with you and killing?!" A female colleague of mine shouted as she fell into a road of trauma from it. "This is the fourth time in a week!" A more masculine tone added to the chaos of noise. "Are you insane?! You just fired without a hesitation!" And it went around like a ripple, as voices went into my ears as my tired eyes looked down at the woman lying still on the ground.
"Keep your mouths shut...I did you all a favour." I replied without looking at anyone of them as I moved my steps away from the counter and directly walked towards the survivors' block. "If you worked without complaining, we could have cleared a long schedule and work on our own daily task for once. Did anyone of you think of it that way?" I asked while picking up an aid box and pulled open the lid of the box. Using a few alcohol pads, I cleaned the places of the gun the woman's blood had splattered to and put it at my suit's holster.
Behind me, I heard my colleagues try to get into my mind and bring out my thoughts, but how do they plan on being in any friendly terms with me, who kills when they are a risk? I don't even know where I had picked up that mindset, but it was never my parents' fault for it. Before reaching this community of survivors and medics, I had been staying alive with the help of a mere crowbar.
I had to fight those growing monsters, to keep away from them, just to survive and reach a checkpoint of my life. Thanks to bumping into a few other survivors, I was able to continue living and I am still standing. The first few years until I became a teenager, it all went well, until I entered my twenties. My sudden urge to spill infected blood, turned the community grounds red in the matter of a few days. I couldn't explain anything as to why I became so, violent.
In my mind, I would be screaming after staining my black gloves red, but no one ever noticed this, and no one ever was willing to ask this. Later, I dived into the subject of psychology as a way to find out what was really wrong with me. Multiple mental illness I had read about, and not a single could tell why I was so blood-thirsty. Even when I had complained about myself to our boss, he disregarded it as a standard way of growing out of my younger mind and just trying to live between this world. I guess he had spoken the truth.
Now I honestly see it best to spill the truth for this fungus to the future generation if anyone wants to pursue the case I was forced to drop. Well the first thing you would need to know is how soul-ripping painful it is to even the most strongest person on Earth. It will slowly grow inside your cells until it breaks out of your skin and rips it apart, changes your bodily structure and eventually kills you, all while the spikes formed through your muscles and finally punture through your organs with no one's notice.
Once a human has interacted with this fungus, they will take about a week to show symptoms. And the symptoms would be simple forgetfulness and a little bit of drowsyness, while this fungus fails to contaminate during this phase, it is still a spoken fact to stay away from the infected person as much as possible. It is for the opposing person's safety this rule was established and to stop the remaining population from dying due to likely 'false alarms'. It has happened so many times until now that people say this two words are now the contagious fungus itself.
The second phase of this virus is when the person starts to act weird, with daily tasks becoming absolutely difficult to carry out. They will be forgetting the faces of their close relatives and friends while also acting like a rabid animal, aggressive to plants for some reasons. They suffer high fever, almost enough to boil an egg on top of their foreheads and their coughs are rather oddly sounding. Then there is the most visible of them all, scarring or the appearance of spikes that look like ice had frozen against that specific area of the human skin.
Within the first fourteen days, the human can move their muscles to the most unbelievable angles and the most absurd postures seen from the human population. I know I can't describe the way they bend to a new proximity, but I can say this that even cats or the most flexible animal would be terrified with the way they move. They can bend their legs all the way back and still walk properly while facing front, while some of them walk like ghosts in the dark alleys in the middle of the night, spooking every survivors if any were to come nearby the camp base.
Now that this has been stated, here is the breakdown for what this fungus truely is or it's origins. For the foundation of this explanation, it was first discovered on insects in the wilderness, which came across this fungus and immediately froze to death at it ate through its brains and slowly took over the insects body. Usually, during this state, the fungus turns the dead body into a small crystallized chrysalis, where it stays stuck in place while trying to find a new victim at its place. And now, thanks of a few dumb tourists who thought this was frozen solid rubber, we have a world breaking apocalypse.
***
For some who need quick access to this few provided information, here is a breakdown to what had been written:
Symptoms:
The Quiet Week: Initial infection starts with subtle drowsiness and forgetfulness. It's deceptive, but it's the only warning you get.
Cognitive Decline: Victims lose the ability to perform daily tasks and quickly forget the faces of friends and family.
Erratic Aggression: Infected individuals become "rabid" and show a strange, violent hostility toward plants.
Biological Overheating: A fever so intense it could boil an egg on the skin, accompanied by an eerie, distorted cough.
Crystalline Mutations: Visible scarring and the emergence of "ice-like" spikes that puncture through skin, muscle, and organs from the inside out.
Impossible Contortion: By day 14, the fungus overrides human anatomy. Victims can bend their limbs at supernatural angles, walking forward with legs snapped backward, moving in ways that would terrify the most flexible animals.
Origin:
The Wild Catalyst: Originally found in the wilderness, the fungus preyed on insects, consuming their organs and turning their bodies into small, "frozen" crystallized chrysalises.
The Patient Zero Incident: The global outbreak was triggered by tourists who misidentified a dormant fungal chrysalis as "frozen solid rubber." By handling the specimen, they released a world-breaking apocalypse from its static state.
***
Now back to the real world, I honestly don't know how to say this or even describe this anymore, but we had some very interesting incidents as well, like those times when those 'zombies' walked in on our walls and sent it crushing to the ground with bare force. But before that, someone had accidentally sent an infected into the Quarantine and that was the first time that brought in new protocols at once. And whoever was dumb in doing that...I guess I can't blame them like that anymore.
It was quiet the clear day when we had the megaphone ringing like an alarm clock trying to wake up my parents to get them to work. And that sound kind of reminded me of that time I was young and used to sleep with my parents and would wake along with them due to the soft sound of their mobile alarms. I jolted awake thanks to that sound and just wished it wasn't a dream anymore, with the panicking steps outside my room. I was only fourteen or so around that time.
Jumping into my suit, I immediately followed a few of my colleagues to the quarantine, fully equipped in weaponry in case they tried anything. At least back then, I had a fear of dying and didn't want to end up getting infected. The most lucky thing at my position was that the Quarantine block was a little too far from my chamber, making things more worry-free thing during that time. I was in a joyous mood around that time as I waited to get called into the building with full anticipation. But the hour of joy...it was in fact just a dream.
A colleague beside me had fallen backwards with a sharp edge poking out of his face shield, as long as a what could be a sword in history. Because the sharp glass shaped object had poked out from his head on the otherside and blood spewed out in a fountain as I immediately stepped away, with the feeling of vomiting after seeing that sight. Comparing myself now, I have grown a lot of restrain and learnt to watch their suffering. Then another fell backward in front of me, as the man fell to the ground, split in half. I had never seen a man scream without his lungs...until that day.
The head screamed as blood poured out from his throat as he scrambled to stay alive, while laying on the ground as someone came over and shot the head...to lessen the suffering. "All arms! This one has gone completely insane! I need all weapons shooting at him right now! I mean right now!" Our team leader shouted as a few survivors rushed over to watch what was happening, as some guards tried to restrict them from entering, and that time, I started believing people really are dumb, trying to risk their lives for this simple luxury of entertainment...which wasn't even entertaining.
I immediately took out my gun as I watched the zombie fight against the ropes tieing him in place as everyone shot at once, no mercy could be seen as the monster shrieked with tears rolling down their distorted eyes and facial structure thanks to the spikes poking out. Holy darn! What...what happens now?! I felt scared and nervousness creeping against my back, because what the hell do I do back then other then just watch?
The rest of the day, I stayed sitting at my chamber, speechless and recalling the scene back and forth. It was my first time seeing something like this, and I was determined to make it my last. But then, the next day, a second case. Blood splattered against the same ground again, but this time, I didn't hesitate to fight, with the screaming lungless man still live inside my mind. The anger was fueling me, but symphathy was also taking way, because I recalled the crying monster with his last screams of wanting to live, but being forced away because of a darn virus.
My hands got dirt from murder, and I still can't wipe out this guilt that has strapped me out of the hopes of a normal life anymore. That day too, I asked our leader if I could research about this very fungus, and I was granted permission to a few documents. I stayed up all night, trying to find the specific piece of information again and again, and watched the document with widened eyes when I came across the name of this powerful and fatal fungus. My eyes scanned against the name with a repetivive manner.
Ophiocordyceps.