Earthbound Chapter 12: Symbiosis

One year ago. London, United Kingdom.

“The outside world has completely been overtaken. The only survivors were those smart enough to flee to a military base or create a bunker, as I have. My name is Cory Heights, brilliant scientist and conspiracy theorist.

“The virus spread rapidly. The bloody thing wiped out all of London almost immediately. I have been studying it for quite some time now… Either I am not as good of a scientist as I thought I was, or this thing is incurable… I’m going to go with the former.

“Though my skills may be crap, I have discovered some things. And I have learned how to accelerate its evolution… It seems that with each variant, the rodents act a little more… psychotic. And yet, along with this, there are typically one or two… exceptions.

“There always seems to be a rodent that doesn’t lose brain functionality. In fact, it seems to gain functionality. I’m starting to think that this virus may not be a virus…

“These exceptions that always seem to pop up are those rodents who seem to keep the functionality of their brain: they go about their business as usual, rather than falling in with the madness of the rest of the cannibalistic infected. That, of course, is not all. I have observed that some of the rodents gain control over the others. With the Alpha variant, it was used for basic control. Using its ability of control to keep from being eaten by the others. Though the two sentient rodents decayed and died out rapidly. I have been incapable of recreating the two sentient rodents in the Alpha variant, which makes me wonder if the variant has a human host, or if the variant has died out completely.

“As the virus mutated, the sentient rodent seemed to have more brain functionality. More control over the others. I continued with my experimentation, and by the Zeta variant, the rodents were commanding the others to complete more complex tasks. Feeding them, building things… It was quite the sight. The virus was also not eating away at the host as rapidly. It took a longer period of time for the host to die. It was around this time that I realized that I, indeed, was accelerating the process of the virus’ mutation. While working with the Zeta variant, I was incapable of obtaining a new sentient rodent. It was like the virus was looking for a better host than the simple mind of a rodent… But the Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon variants, I did not reach this problem with. So, yes, I am quite the scientist. I am very, very pleased with myself.

“Could the acceleration of the virus be because I have so well contained it? Kept the rodents at close quarters, allowing the virus to adapt and learn more rapidly than it is outside? Or is it the experiments I am conducting on the mice that is pushing it over the edge? Surely the outside world would be going at this quick of a rate if it were just the close quarters of the rodents… Unless new variants can only be passed on to the living…

“I continued my experiments, and the virus continued to mutate. It is around this time that I realized what was happening: the virus was adapting to the hosts so that it could achieve symbiosis. It was a parasite! The virus isn’t a virus at all! It’s a parasite!

“Having discovered this, I continued my experimentation until I thought I was getting closer to the end. Around the Sigma variant, the rodents gained the capability to give commands telepathically. The hive mind had been present since the Iota variant, but it was the Sigma variant that really began to change everything. Creatures were still not lasting very long, but life span had increased. Months instead of days…

“Where I sit now, I believe I have discovered about as much about this parasite as I can without joining myself to it. It is a parasite trying to obtain symbiosis with our world. Where it comes from, I am not sure… I have also discovered what causes the sentience. Or, at the very least, it is true from my observations here. I began testing the blood of each living rodent to see what variant each had, and whenever a new variant popped up, the first of the rodents I marked that died would become sentient. It would become the host. At least, while there were no creatures with greater minds and abilities with the variant.

“Each variant has more power and control than the last. It is as if the parasite is trying to weed out the weaker versions of itself and… conquer.

“This is why I have burned the rodents with the Omega variant. It is also why I am now finishing the recording of all my research. I now have a syringe in my hand with the Omega variant. I am going to inject it into myself, then swallow this cyanide capsule in my other hand. If everything goes according to plan, I should become completely symbiotic with the parasite, and I will have control over the entirety of the parasite. Then I can create utopia by infecting the remainder of the world with my superior virus. I have come to the conclusion that there is no cure. Only acceptance. This is the new way of living!”

Cory put down his recording device. “This better work…” he mumbled to himself, sticking the needle beneath his skin. After his injection, he popped the cyanide capsule into his mouth and swallowed. “Total control and complete power, here I come.”

Present day.

“Gaining control over the parasite was difficult,” Cory spoke into his recording device, “but I now know everything. The rush of information nearly destroyed me. The hive mind is so much more than I thought it was… Though I do not possess complete understanding of everything, I can tap into the thoughts, memories, understandings, and the vast collective knowledge of all those with every variation of the virus… with the exception of those whose brain has completely gone to mush…

“I know of every other sentient of every variant. I can see through their eyes. With the exception of one… Someone named Margo Jessup. It took me a year to learn and master my powers. The crushing weight of the hive mind and the will of the parasite itself—something you must fight incessantly—was almost too much for my mind to handle. But the voices in my head whisper to me. They tell me to find her.

“I used Phil to try to get to her, controlling him from here, but that was ruined before I could do anything with it… Though, truthfully, I was going to use him to kill the remaining living in the base…

“The voices, though… The battle between succumbing to the parasite and maintaining my control is so hard… Taxing, really. But, for now, I have control. I am currently on a plane headed for the base. I have a crew of pilots flying me there. Not too much longer, and I will land on a runway not far from the base. I will kill Margo, or convince her to join me in creating Utopia.”

Not long after he recorded this, the plane set down on a dirt runway that Cory had the infected near Phil’s base build. He began the trek to the base where a group of infected had knelt down on top of each other to make a human staircase over the wall. As soon as He stepped over the edge and onto the walkway, he turned to see a furious Margo rushing at him like a madman. She growled like an animal and had a crazy look in her eyes. “I knew you would break! The crushing pressure of the hive mind and the will of the parasite got to you, eh?” Cory said cockily as she approached.

Margo came to a halt in front of him. Shaking her head, she put her hands to her temples. “Get OUT of my head!” she cried.

Cory chuckled. “You look very… Alive. Well, your head doesn’t seem to be on quite right, but you don’t look dead or decaying,” he said. He furrowed his eyebrows in thought, then looked back at Margo. “You’re stronger than I gave credit, Margo… Not as strong as me, but strong enough… Join me. I can give you endless power, matched only by myself. Be my queen. Create Utopia with me.”

“No. You’re wrong. You think you’re so powerful, but we both feel the presence of another,” Margo said, closing her eyes tightly to keep all of her concentration on forcing Cory out of her head. She did not want to go stampeding around again. She also did not want to know what Cory could do if he gained control of another living undead, as she was.

“You can feel Goodwell too?” Cory asked. “I guess that makes sense. I was not certain if that was a universal thing or not. He goes by Charon. Yes, I can feel him… You truly are more powerful than I suspected. Charon is an anomaly. He’s wea—”

“He’s strong. You can’t get to him. I can feel that much.” Blood dripped from her nose. She couldn’t move to wipe it because any wavering in her will would aid in Cory’s attempts.“You’re scared of him.”

Cory’s voice seemed to multiply into hundreds of demonic voices as he screamed, “I am not scared of him!!!” His voice returned to normal when he continued. “He is a minor threat. A mosquito. With the two of us in charge together, we can destroy him. All I want, Margo, is Utopia. And we can create it! We can make the world peaceful once more!”

“Bull! If you truly wanted Utopia, you wouldn’t be murdering all of these innocent lives!” she yelled, running out of breath. “You wouldn’t be controlling Phil as if he were some freaking puppet, a pawn in your plans—”

“But he was!” Cory yelled back, cutting Margo off as she had done not long before. “It was a necessary evil. A means to an end. Once I am through, everyone will be under my control! I am the champion! The king! Once under my control, I can finally bring about Utopia!”

“Why do you have to kill all the other sentient zombies to carry out this plan? It sounds like you wish for total control, not a Utopia. Everything would be perfect. For you.”

“Not every! I wish for you beside me, Margo. We can rule together! I am killing the others to hold back an uprising. Someone who wishes to ruin my Utopian society. Charon is on that list. I have seen his thoughts…”

“Has he seen yours?”

“No! My Omega variant keeps that from ever happening. And, to answer what you are about to ask, no, I do not plan to keep the people fully under my control. I can make them sentient with my mind.”

Margo opened her eyes. Looking into his eyes, she could see his fear. “We both know you’re lying. We both know that this power is a constant battle of wills. You don’t think you truly have the Omega variant, do you? I can… hear it. I know it. You know you messed up,” she said, smiling and taking a step forward as Cory began to lose grip on her. “And with you here, I am now beginning to understand this a little more. It’s… a parasite?”

Cory reached behind his back and pulled out a small flamethrower. “You have two options, Jessup. Join me or die.”

*****

Clint put his hand out to stop those behind him. “Guys, look,” he said.

The infected continued to run from the facility. They gathered around a point in the wall where two figures stood. On the left was a man none of them recognized, and on the right was a struggling Margo, clearly in pain and struggling against some invisible force.

“What’s going on?” Lizzie asked.

“It looks like some sort of stand-off,” Jules said, readjusting himself under Dale’s weight. “But the one on the left doesn’t look very dead.”

“Margo never really looked that dead, either,” Clint replied. “It’s just the break in her neck, really, which seems to be repairing itself rapidly now that I think of it…”

“What do you think they are doing?” Lizzie asked.

“I think that that man is another one of the sentient zombies…”

“Margo was telling me something about being a brain to the virus or something along those lines,” Jules added. “Maybe she was slightly wrong. She definitely seemed to understand something she couldn’t possibly understand, though.”

“All I know is that there is a swarm of zombies around them, and we need to get the heck out of here,” Dale said. “I know how horrible it is to abandon a friend and all that jazz, but we should probably let them duke it out and escape while we have the chance.”

“But where do we go?” Lizzie asked. “I can’t work on a cure in the middle of nowhere. And I only have so much equipment with me…”

“We’ll worry about big picture stuff later,” Clint said. “For now, we need to keep our focus on escaping.”

“There’s a humvee over there,” Jules said, pointing.

“It’s worth a shot…”

****

“So what will it be?” Cory said, his horde of zombies completely encapsulating the duo. “I can make them climb up here without even thinking about it. You have no escape!” He pulled his weapon up further, aiming it directly at Margo’s chest. “Are you for me? Or are you against me?”

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