The boy who leaped in the year 2050

TBWL#23: Ophiocordyceps

"There are wounds that are never visible on the body, but deeper and more painful than anything that bleeds. What can I do about the tension between the desire to deny horrible truths and the desire to publish them as the central dialectic of trauma? I am one of those people who do not want to sleep because of the fear of nightmares. dream that I have in my dream, or an unsatisfactory reality that awaits me when I wake up?"

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CALIXTO's Point of view.

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I ran away and fell into a deep hole, then I realized I was in a different place. It's dark, there is a girl chased by five nightwalkers...

Why are these past traumas coming back to me? I tried to move my hand but my finger won't even lift. I tried to make a noise, but my voice wouldn't come out. The woman screamed while holding her bitten neck. She collapsed on the ground; we blinked our eyes while watching the devouring woman. Her flesh was revealed as the zombie started tearing off her skin.

 I felt dizzy, it is as if I am being dragged to the underworld. "H-help." I turned my back and saw a familiar woman. "A-anya..." 

Her decayed-looking eyes are looking at me. She had open wounds and was poorly dressed in ripped clothes. What is this smell?... perhaps, rotating flesh and sulfuric smell. It is hard to distinguish blood from the color of her skin. 

She's alive? As far as I can recall, she died back then. 

"You guys let me die... I am going to eat you." Anya extended her arm as if she's reaching for me to strangle me.

"Stop!" I screamed. My eyes snapped open; My exhausted body has covered with cold sweat. My body is trembling, and my heart is pounding. I looked around the area. I am being suspicious as the paranoia of horror may have followed me here. I got up cautiously, shivering, rubbed my head and eyes, and tried to fully awaken. I was reminded of the life that rotten away whereas, we are all busy defending ourselves. We could not save them back then... we had no choice.

I run my fingers on my head. I thought I had moved on from that dark past. I thought I had gone crazy; hearing those screams makes my ear bleed.  

This trauma of seeing them die before my eyes is like sadists who refused to bury. To be equally brave is the desire to denounce atrocities, the belief that denial does not work. Popular wisdom is full of ghosts who refuse to rest in their graves until their stories travel. Remembering catastrophic events and speaking the truth is a prerequisite for restoring public order and healing the victims. 

 What is this feeling? The conflict between the desire to deny terrible truths and the desire to publish them is the central dialectic of trauma. I thought as a survivor, I can begin recovering from my fear, yet often secrecy prevails, and the story of the traumatic event that occurs is not verbal but a symptom, and eats me. It chases me and scares me, this psychological pain is draining my blood and body, this mental exhaustion is incomparable to the pain I feel while fighting these zombies.

I heard footsteps coming in my direction, then I saw Lore standing ten steps away from me. "Romer and Jiro want to have a word with you," says Lore. 

We've been a bit awkward since that day. I can't blame her for maintaining distance from me. It's better for us not to have an attachment because I could not promise a better future with her. I am going to risk my life for this research. 

"I heard you want a word with me." I stepped in. My eyes caught a newly-born beast that craves human flesh, a terrible thing that aimlessly wandered around looking for its food.

Looking at him reminds me of my nightmare. I bet, all the memories of Kael as a human being had sealed in his mind. His human instinct and life end today because right now, he is nothing but a stupid daywalker.

"We had observed how he turned into a zombie. Three hours had passed since he got bitten and locked here. His wounds are slowly healing. However, his eyes are starting to dilute. Also, his skin started to lose color, and his veins are slowly revealing themselves."

"It is exactly the same as that child's sign."

"Using the machine, we run a successful monitor on his body. From the bite, saliva had entered his body. A fungus bacteria started to eat out other cells and tissues. The vaccine is indeed the reason why the wound easily heals; it accelerates the white blood cell to close to repair the cell. However, after the preparation of the cell, the white blood cell is dispersed and eaten by the fungus."

"Meaning to say, the process of becoming a zombie is faster to those unvaccinated?"

"Indeed, since Vaccines contain weakened or inactive parts of a particular organism (antigen) that triggers an immune response within the body. Newer vaccines contain the blueprint for producing antigens rather than the antigen itself. Regardless of whether the vaccine is made up of the antigen itself or the blueprint so that the body will produce the antigen, this weakened version will not cause the disease in the person receiving the vaccine, but it will prompt their immune system to respond much as it would have on its first reaction to the actual pathogen. Unvaccinated has weakened the immune system, the fungus moves faster."

A pathogen is a bacterium, virus, parasite, or fungus that can cause disease within the body. Each pathogen is made up of several subparts, usually unique to that specific pathogen and the disease it causes. The subpart of a pathogen that causes the formation of antibodies is called an antigen. The antibodies produced in response to the pathogen's antigen are an important part of the immune system. You can consider antibodies as the soldiers in your body's defense system. Each antibody, or soldier, in our system, is trained to recognize one specific antigen. We have thousands of different antibodies in our bodies. When the human body is exposed to an antigen for the first time, it takes time for the immune system to respond and produce antibodies specific to that antigen. 

In the meantime, the person is susceptible to becoming ill. 

Once the antigen-specific antibodies are produced, they work with the rest of the immune system to destroy the pathogen and stop the disease. Antibodies to one pathogen generally don't protect against another pathogen except when two pathogens are very similar to each other, like cousins. Once the body produces antibodies in its primary response to an antigen, it also creates antibody-producing memory cells, which remain alive even after the pathogen is defeated by the antibodies. If the body is exposed to the same pathogen more than once, the antibody response is much faster and more effective than the first time around because the memory cells are ready to pump out antibodies against that antigen.

This means that if the person is exposed to the dangerous pathogen in the future, their immune system will be able to respond immediately, protecting against disease. 

This parasitic fungus is strong, thus the vaccine failed to eradicate it. This parasitic fungus gives in to their attackers and 'loses their minds.' These species of fungus “target” and infect various insects through their spores. After an infection takes place, the parasitic fungus takes control of the mind, altering its behavior to make the propagation of fungal spores more likely.

"The fungus, I believe it was called Ophiocordyceps “feed”, it usually feeds on the insects they attach to, growing into and out of their bodies until the insects die. One of these species, Ophiocordyceps unilateralis sensu lato, specifically infects and controls," says Jiro. I see, he really had great knowledge about this. 

"I didn't know that they could prey on the human body. It seems the adverse effect of Ophiocordyceps is the death of the human body and starvation once they turn into undead bodies."

It might really be the case...

"Do you think it is possible to create a vaccine that would fight this hazardous fungus?" I asked. I wonder if it's possible to be immune to zombie bites. If that's possible, then the only thing that will endanger our lives is becoming their feast.

"That's interesting," Romer and Jiro replied in chorus.

Is it possible?