 |
 |
|
|
|
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
 |
|
|
3.07 COMES A HORSEMAN Bugs. Germs. This is the stuff that really creeps me out my Brethren. Throughout time plagues have taken us down, hurled us toward oblivion, made us weak. But did you know how smart those same germs were? How a virus could hide? Mutate? Even learn? They're survivors, predators without equal. The virus has existed for billions of years, humans not even half so long, just a couple of million. So who are we to say we should inherit the Earth? Cade encountered an especially nasty virus when he followed a quatrain into a bio- facility recently, where he was also infected by it. And his journey brought up a whole new creepy layer to the dastardly Gua plan. We always assumed "19 million would die on the first day" from a strike by force. But we never pondered the possibility that we might get hit in a more subtle manner. That's right, the Gua were planning to kill us with the air we breathe. Bleccch. Makes me want to run out and slap on one of those 99 cent dust masks on right away — that or a Level 9 Army/Navy bio-breather. Ebola started in the African forest. Brewing, building, until it reached a critical mass. And then whammo, bammo, we had an epidemic. It can spread through blood, bodily fluids, even animal carriers — like the rats that infest our cities. That's right, you bet your sweet bippy — the virus can getcha anywhere. For a Paranoid, it's about the scariest thing we know. Something dangerous, life threatening, something none of us can see or expect or protect ourselves against. Believe it, the virus was the best and easiest way for the Gua to knock out their first 19 million on Day One. And it would be an ugly, painful and all around gruesome end for humanity. Foster figured out that the Gua's "Revelation" virus was airborne. The Docs he met inside the facility, Kelly and Jagger, didn't want to believe it. When Cade told them about the Gua, the Docs figured Foster was just suffering from viral induced delusional paranoia. We all know how that is, don't we? Cade wanted to test the Docs with salt. 'Course they pulled a "Scully," preferring to question him all the way to the morgue. Cade was stuck inside that facility with the virus, they'd locked the whole place down. And when the doors finally opened in 12 hours the CDC and the Feds were going in. Either way, Cade was caught or dead. And once Vio-Zor opened up we were gonna be infected too. It was the perfect plan, you find a virus that kills humans, not aliens, you design it so it can spread faster, kill faster — society breaks down, the weak are exterminated. The Gua win without ever firing a shot. Fortunately Kelly knew there was a way to contain the virus, and maybe kill it forever. There was a failsafe system built into the facility, a controlled thermite burn meant to sterilize, and eradicate everything at Vio-Zor if such a contagion were ever created. Cade wanted to activate it immediately, before they completely lost their minds. He didn't care if he lived or died, just so that this thing didn't get out to kill the rest of us. The Gua on the inside was Dr. Jagger. He figured he wasn't doing anything so diabolical, after all we made bio weapons to use on our own kind, what was the big deal if he further engineered one to help us do what we'd already set in motion ourselves? Turns out Gua blood was immune to the virus. So Kelly administered the only sample of Jagger's red-stuff to Foster so that he might get out of the facility. But Kelly had to go down with the ship, there wasn't enough antidote for her to save herself. She pulled the switch to initiate the burn. The Gua virus burned up in the flames of hell along with one of its architects, Dr. Kelly. The whole thing was ugly as sin. Uglier even. It got us thinking, in the war ahead it's not enough to worry about heavy artillery and nuclear weapons, not when the smallest microbe can become an engine of death. And we know the Gua would use any means necessary to bring about Armageddon. Dr. Kelly agreed to do research on a potentially lethal bio weapon and the Gua almost turned it against us. As the limits of science and technology expand, let's not forget the danger that's inherent in every step forward. 'Cause just as the genius of Einstein and others helped create the atomic bomb, let's pray our modern geniuses don't inadvertently create the means to our ultimate destruction. It almost happened today. It could happen again. And this is an enemy we don't wanna take ANY risks with.
|
