The Dying of the Light (Book 1): End by Jason Kristopher Page A
Authors: Jason Kristopher
Tags: Horror
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survived, despite every conceivable likelihood that he would end up as one of them. We know that bitten people turn into zombies. There is no cure, and there is no stopping or delaying it; there is merely an excruciating death and the knowledge that you will turn on your friends, your family and your neighbors.
“What you’ve all got on the desk in front of you is the sum total of what we know right now about the walkers. How to kill them, how to destroy the corpses, what to do and what not to do.” He picked up one of the thick binders.
“This has been compiled over the last 130 years, and is invaluable. Mr. Blake has volunteered to teach us what he knows to add to this, and how to deal with these things on a more personal level. We’ve never before had the chance to learn from a civilian survivor. He offers us a unique perspective and you will all pay attention to what he teaches you .
“Now, I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet. AEGIS isn’t just about killing zombies; an equally important part of our mission is to find out how to stop them from being created in the first place, as well as give us new tech to fight them and/or protect us better. We have a group of scientists working hard on that, and I’d like you to meet their head researcher, Dr. Mary Adamsdóttir.”
We took our cue from Maxwell and took our feet as he stood and extended a hand towards the tall and skinny woman that stood up and moved to the lectern.
“Thank you, colonel,” she said, taking up the remote and plunging us into darkness again. “Please, take your seats. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our enemy.”
A complicated medical drawing of some sort appeared on the screen, and I knew I wasn’t the only one left wondering what I was looking at.
“On the left, you see a normal protein. On the right, a ‘misfolded’ protein, called a prion,” she said. “It can’t be seen with a microscope. It’s not a virus, but it does lead to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Crutzfeld-Jakob Disease…”
“Bovine spongi-what?” asked a soldier in the back.
Dr. Adamsdóttir turned and looked out at the soldiers. “Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.” Seeing the blank stares on all of the faces looking at her, she chuckled and took off her glasses. “Sorry. I sometimes forget that not everyone I talk to is a geneticist or biological environmentalist, or… never mind. To answer your question, BSE. More commonly known as ‘Mad Cow’ disease.”
The comprehension was instant. “Thanks, doc,” said the soldier, and Mary turned back to the screen.
“BSE — Mad Cow — and CJD are just two variants of the several diseases that we’ve linked to these prions. You all know how easy it is to catch ‘Mad Cow’ — all you have to do is eat the infected beef.”
“I thought zombies — sorry, walkers — were caused by a virus or something,” I said, looking on with interest. “If prions are spread by eating infected meat, wouldn’t someone have to eat a walker to become one themselves?”
“Normally, yes, but this infection is like nothing we’ve ever seen before.” She hit a button on the remote, and the screen displayed a new slide — this one of the rapid deterioration of cells. “This shows the speed at which this prion causes reanimation. You can see clearly here with the marked samples that normal function ceases around eight to twelve hours after infection, with complete reanimation occurring in roughly double that, 16 to 24.”
The lights came back up, and she began pacing the stage. “There are many, many things we don’t know about this prion. Hell, prions weren’t even theorized until the early 80’s. At that point, we were still trying to isolate the virus that caused the spread, never realizing it wasn’t a virus at all.”
“So where does it come from?” asked another soldier.
The doctor threw up her hands and shrugged. “Your guess
“What you’ve all got on the desk in front of you is the sum total of what we know right now about the walkers. How to kill them, how to destroy the corpses, what to do and what not to do.” He picked up one of the thick binders.
“This has been compiled over the last 130 years, and is invaluable. Mr. Blake has volunteered to teach us what he knows to add to this, and how to deal with these things on a more personal level. We’ve never before had the chance to learn from a civilian survivor. He offers us a unique perspective and you will all pay attention to what he teaches you .
“Now, I’ve got someone I’d like you to meet. AEGIS isn’t just about killing zombies; an equally important part of our mission is to find out how to stop them from being created in the first place, as well as give us new tech to fight them and/or protect us better. We have a group of scientists working hard on that, and I’d like you to meet their head researcher, Dr. Mary Adamsdóttir.”
We took our cue from Maxwell and took our feet as he stood and extended a hand towards the tall and skinny woman that stood up and moved to the lectern.
“Thank you, colonel,” she said, taking up the remote and plunging us into darkness again. “Please, take your seats. This, ladies and gentlemen, is our enemy.”
A complicated medical drawing of some sort appeared on the screen, and I knew I wasn’t the only one left wondering what I was looking at.
“On the left, you see a normal protein. On the right, a ‘misfolded’ protein, called a prion,” she said. “It can’t be seen with a microscope. It’s not a virus, but it does lead to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, Crutzfeld-Jakob Disease…”
“Bovine spongi-what?” asked a soldier in the back.
Dr. Adamsdóttir turned and looked out at the soldiers. “Bovine spongiform encephalopathy.” Seeing the blank stares on all of the faces looking at her, she chuckled and took off her glasses. “Sorry. I sometimes forget that not everyone I talk to is a geneticist or biological environmentalist, or… never mind. To answer your question, BSE. More commonly known as ‘Mad Cow’ disease.”
The comprehension was instant. “Thanks, doc,” said the soldier, and Mary turned back to the screen.
“BSE — Mad Cow — and CJD are just two variants of the several diseases that we’ve linked to these prions. You all know how easy it is to catch ‘Mad Cow’ — all you have to do is eat the infected beef.”
“I thought zombies — sorry, walkers — were caused by a virus or something,” I said, looking on with interest. “If prions are spread by eating infected meat, wouldn’t someone have to eat a walker to become one themselves?”
“Normally, yes, but this infection is like nothing we’ve ever seen before.” She hit a button on the remote, and the screen displayed a new slide — this one of the rapid deterioration of cells. “This shows the speed at which this prion causes reanimation. You can see clearly here with the marked samples that normal function ceases around eight to twelve hours after infection, with complete reanimation occurring in roughly double that, 16 to 24.”
The lights came back up, and she began pacing the stage. “There are many, many things we don’t know about this prion. Hell, prions weren’t even theorized until the early 80’s. At that point, we were still trying to isolate the virus that caused the spread, never realizing it wasn’t a virus at all.”
“So where does it come from?” asked another soldier.
The doctor threw up her hands and shrugged. “Your guess
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