U.G.L.Y (35 page)

As
they
were
moving
through
Salt
Lake
City
on
their
way
to
this
location,
he
found
surveillance
equipment,
telescopes,
and
computers,
along
with
power
supplies
and
some
pretty
cool
solar
recharging
units
from
an
electronics
store
that
was
left
mostly
undamaged
when
the
infection
ran
through
the
city.

In
this
camp,
he
had
wired
surveillance
cameras
up
to
a
main
server
that
could
be
monitored
from
the
radio
room.
A
makeshift
computer
information
center that ran off of car batteries and a small generator they still had.

    
The
patrol
hurriedly
worked
their
way
back
to
the
camp
and
started
preparing
for
their
escape.

“
Doc!!
”
Levitt
yelled
across
the
compound.
“
get
a
mobile
med
kit
together.
E
nough
to
set
up
a
mobile
triage.
”

“Mobile
triage?
Major!
”
Janice
was
leaning
out
of
the
medical
tent
wearing
a
lab
coat
over
her
camouflage
uniform.
Her
surgical
gloved
hands
were
covered
in
blood
from
an
autopsy
she
had
been
carrying
out
on
a
captured
host
.

41
.

-Janice-

Janice
was
in
medical
school
before
being
deployed
to
Seattle
.
She
had
been
a
corpsman
for
ten
years
and
had
applied
for
an
enlisted
to
officer
program
that
sent
her
to
a
military
sponsored
medical
school.
It
was
a
great
opportunity
for
her
to
advance
and
have
the
military
pay
for
her
to
become
a
doctor.
Now
she
was
practicing
her
newly
found
skills
exploring
the
anatomy
of
an
infected
man.
Not
even
a
man,
he
was
a
boy,
no
older
than
17
she
guessed.

    
There
had
been
some
progress
in
determining
the
mechanism
of
the
infection
before
communications were cut off
.
The CDC
had
determined
that
the
Ophiocordyceps unliateralis
fungus
had caused something similar to an allergic reaction
in hosts In the first wave. I
nitially
it
had
caused
mass
hysteria
and
homicidal
responses
towards
other
living
beings.

But
in those that were ill
,
the
fungus
was
unable
to
enter
into
the
bloodstream. This however gave it the time
to
adapt
to
its
new
environment.
The
initial
infection
prevented
reproduction
of
the
fungus
as
it
had
no
way
out
of
the
human
body
and
into
a
new
host.

In
nature
this
same
fungus
attacked
ants
and
caused
a
similar
response
but
once
the
fungus
had
driven
the
ant
to
a
suitable
location,
it
would
grow
stalks
out
of the
hosts head
and
release
its
spores,
to
be
picked
up
by
a
new
host
ant later.

    
In
the
human
adaptation
of
the
fungus
however,
it
could
not
spread
through
killing
the
host
and
growing
stocks
from
the
cranium.
T
he
human
skull
was
too
thick.
Instead
it
released
its
spores
into
the
saliva
glands, a bite would then
allow
it
to
pass
from
host
to
host.

An
infected
host
needed
only
to
bite
another
perspective
host
deep
enough
to
draw
blood
then
the
new
spore would
spread. The infection
was
almost
instantaneous
through
the
blood
stream
and
into
the
brain.
The
fungus
also
kept
the
host
alive
by
instructing
it
when
to
feed.
Somehow
it
tied
itself
into
the
nervous
system
and
could
read
signals
from
the
body.

    
Otherwise
the
infected
were
like
any
other
biological
creature
and
could
die
just
as
easily.
When
the
fungus
got
to
a
certain
point
of
its
life
cycle
it
would
eventually
grow
to
be
larger
than
the
cranial
cavity
could
support
and
would
grow
through
the
sinus
cavity,
the
ocular
cavities,
and
through
the
auditory
canal.
Growing
out
of
the
nose,
eyes,
and
ears
would
render
the
host
unable
to
function
and
it
would
die.

That
is
how
Janice
got
her
science
project,
affectionately
named
Oscar.
T
he
unit
had
come
across
this
host
Stuck in a dumpster behind a convenience store as they
were
driving
through
Montrose
Colorado
on
their
way
to
the
plateau.

     The
convoy
was
scavenging
for
supplies.
They
stopped
in
a
small
market
to
collect
what
we
were
able
to
find.
Coffee,
beef
jerky,
cigarettes,
alcohol.
Very
little
was
left
but
we
did
manage
to
dig
up
some scraps of packaged food.

While checking the pantry area of the small kitchen where they prepared hotdogs and nachos, a loud banging sound
behind
the
store
got our attention
.
When
we
went
to
investigate,
we
found
Oscar
banging against the sides of a closed metal dumpster
.
It
had
become
blinded
by
the
stalks
of
the
fungus
growing
out
of
its eye sockets
.
Somehow it had fallen into the dumpster, maybe while scavenging for food as there were rats all over the trash cans.
Janice
convinced
the
Major
not
to
destroy
it so she could collect and
dissect
it
.
Levitt thought it was clever to refer to it as Oscar the grouch because it was discovered in a trash can. The name stuck.