Chapter Text
Hey!! Ik this is late as hell, but to make it up to you, I decided to make a chapter that finally explains the virus a bit! <3
Alec stared down at the desk in front of him, at it’s contents. A stack of papers, medical files in a dusty, yellow folder, and next to it a small device, one he couldn’t remember the name of, but he recognized its purpose, recording and playing audio. He went to the folder first, opening it, and reading the first page of it’s contents.
“March 2nd, 2022:
The following is a log of audio tapes maintained by myself, Dr Emilia Brown, in regards to a patient that has, thus far, had a very unique case. On February 24th, the patient visited her primary doctor regarding a strange illness. The patient, Lill Richards, reported experiencing the following symptoms:
-extreme thirst
-intense pain in the throat and chest
-nausea
-difficulty breathing
-extreme paranoia
-loss of sleep
-chest pain
-Itchiness of skin, particularly the hands and area beneath the eyes
According to the patient, she had been experiencing those symptoms for roughly two weeks before seeking a medical professional. Her primary doctor urged her to visit a hospital or emergency room immediately. After she had been admitted the following morning, her condition only grew worse. The patient began having panic attacks and difficulty consuming solid foods. I haven’t been a doctor for very long, only four years now, but this case is particularly unusual to me. From this day forward, I will be logging the patient’s condition regularly, and monitoring her closely.”
Alec’s interest piqued, he turned away from the papers, and to the small and dated black box next to them, pressing a button on it’s top, he jumped in surprise when actual audio came out.
“March 3rd, seventh day of hospital visit:
Currently, it is 9:30 in the morning, I am standing outside of the patients room and I am about to enter for an interview with her, which will be recorded on here, I am now going to enter the room.”
Alec’s eyebrow raised, the creaking of a door, and light footsteps echoing in the thick static.
“Good morning, Miss Richards.”
“Oh, please, just call me Lill!”
“Right, my apologies, Lill.”
The doctor let out a deep breath, the sounds of papers shuffling was audible.
“So, Lill, for the sake of this interview, would you mind telling me again when and why these symptoms began?”
“Oh, of course.”
The woman, Lill, cleared her throat.
“So, a few weeks ago, I was walking through a forest, trying to get my mind off things. I was just walking down the path when I tripped over something, it was some vines that had blossoms growing on them, but they were.. strange. The vines were dark, completely black. And the blossoms were this bright blue color, I’d never seen anything like it. When I fell, one of the thorns on the vines scratched up my arm a bit.”
“The patient is gesturing to a wound on her right arm, which is currently covered by bandages.”
“Do you.. need to say everything I do out loud?”
“Well, these are audio logs, not video recordings, every detail needs to be as clear as possible, for future analysis.”
“But.. who’s going to be analyzing this?”
There were a few bests of silence, and there was light scratching as someone jotted something down on a sheet of paper.
“Can you…… tell me more about this wound?”
“It was strange, that’s for sure. The pain from the cut wasn’t normal, usually when I get a cut like that it stings a bit but it isn’t that alarming. But, with this one.. the pain was terrible, excruciating, then I got all these symptoms, and it…. Oh, it was just awful.”
“I see, and, are the medication we’ve given you helping with these symptoms at all?”
“A bit, but it still hurts, hard to breathe too.”
There was more scratching as the doctor wrote something else down.
“And on a scale of one to ten, how bad would you say the pain is?”
“I’d put it at a-“
There was loud coughing, almost blending in with the static crackling of the low quality recording, be it caused by time or just by whatever product this woman used being trash.
“At-“
There was shuffling, and the coughing grew louder, almost violent now.
“Lill? Lill, are you alright?”
There was a wet splat through the coughing, earning a sharp gasp from the doctor.
“What the hell is… Shit! Shit! Lill?!”
There was loud beeping, and more shuffling, then, with a loud bang, the noise grew slightly more distant, the device likely having fell to the floor, then there were footsteps, and the audio cut for a moment. Rather than it continuing with the familiar voice of Lill or her doctor, the distant sound of various people mumbling to one another could be heard.
“Dear god..”
“What even is that?!”
“It tested as blood, but..”
“That can’t be blood, why is it black?! Nothing like this ever happened before, and what she threw up.. a flower! How does that even happen?! This makes no sense!”
“We don’t know, okay! We have to do more tests, what do the scans say?”
There was shuffling, then another gasp.
“Jesus Christ.…”
“What- what are those?! We need to tell someone about this, this isn’t normal! This could be some mutation, some disease, higher ups need to be informed!”
“I know, and they will be, but-“
There was a pause.
“Hey, are you recording this?”
“I-“
“You can’t record something like this, give me that!”
“Wait, wait, wait!”
Footsteps, then the audio cut again, silence interrupted by a deep sigh.
“March tenth, fourteenth day of hospital visit:
“This morning, the patient went under surgery to have the organisms growing in her body both removed and tested. The doctors found many vine like objects wrapping themselves around the patient’s organs, the organs have maintained their regular appearance for some reason but the blood and the plants within her body were all black. Bright blue blossoms were also found growing on these objects inside of her.… how that’s even possible is unknown to us. Higher ups were told, they informed government personal, but, we haven’t heard anything back.”
There was another deep sigh.
“God help us.”
“March fourteenth, eighteenth day of hospital visit:
“Lill, how are you feeling after the surgery?”
There were a few beats of silence, then a shuffle.
“How am I feeling? How am I feeling?! How do you think I feel?! It hurts, everything in my body hurts! I can hardly even breathe, and I keep throwing up those horrible flowers! What is wrong with me?!”
“We are trying to figure that out, but we don’t know, your case is quite… unique, we’ve never seen one like it before-“
“This is a HOSPITAL! For Christ’s sake, you should know these things! YOU SHOULD KNOW HOW TO FIX ME!”
“Lill, I need you to calm down-“
“CALM?! How can I possibly be calm?! Look at me! Look at what I’m turning into!”
“The patient is extending her hand, gesturing to small vines growing from beneath her fingernails.…This is.. extremely abnormal, may I?”
“Fine, but make it quick! You better know how to deal with this!”
“I am holding the patient’s hand within my own, her fingernails themselves seem normal, but on her ring and index fingers, small black vines are growing from beneath the fingernails, causing the fingertips to look very irritated. The vines are a bit hard to see, almost resembling string or yarn. They are delicate to the touch, and smooth. This.. how is this even possible?”
“You’re the doctor, shouldn’t you know that?!”
There was a long, tense silence.
“I need to call someone.”
The audio cut again, there was no date being stated this time, however, just creaking and pained moans.
“Lill? Lill, are you in there?”
A man asked, knocking on a door.
“Lill, we know you barricaded your door, we know you’re scared, but you’ll be alright, we’re here to help you, just let us in.”
Silence.
“We’re coming in now!”
The man called out, there was a brief struggle to open the door, then, there were screams, and a loud thud echoed.
“Holy shit, what is that?!”
“Get it off of me, get it-“
The man’s words were cut of by an agonized shriek, paired with a wet crunch.
“OH GOD, OH GOD, GET HER BACK IN HER ROOM, GET HER BACK IN!”
There was more shrieking, footsteps, and a loud struggle, the audio cut again.
There was a long silence, interrupted by a light sob.
“Lill, she.. that wasn’t her, that couldn’t have possibly….”
She trailed, and sniffling could be heard.
“He’s dead, doctor Ramirez, he’s dead now, she tore his stomach open and.. tried to eat his organs..”
Her voice cracked, another sob escaping her.
“She was different, her body was covered in these vines, and blossoms, and her eyes, Jesus Christ, her eyes!”
The doctor took a shaky breath, there was shuffling, and a small thud.
“I mean, she was acting weird before, she was polite at first but as time went on she just got so angry and aggressive, but it was never anything as bad as this… I know what I need to do. Her room is sealed off, barricaded, it even has caution tape! She’s being isolated but.. I have to check on her. I can’t just leave her in there.”
The audio cut.
There were hollow crunches, and pained moans as a door creaked open, silence spanned a few moments.
“Lill….?”
A hollow groan came in response, before a prayer was mumbled.
“Our… f-father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done-“
There was a loud, unearthly shriek from inside the room, earning another loud sob from the doctor.
“On Earth as it is in heaven! Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our-“
There was another shriek, this time from the doctor, loud footsteps approached, and the audio cut again.
“I expected her to be in bad condition, I expected her to maybe even be dead, but.. I didn’t expect.. THIS!”
There was a shaky breath, and then a tired groan.
“It was her in there, but she was.. different. So much different. Her eyes were gone, just vines and blossoms growing from the empty sockets, from everywhere on her body! Her hands were just enveloped, everything bellow her elbow looked like a bush! Her hair was gone, there were blossoms everywhere in the room, and her blood…. it was black, it was jet black, like a liquid void just there on the floor, I could barely even see her because she was just covered in so much of that blood!”
A weak sob echoed through the static.
“We informed the government, they know about this, they know about all of this, they’ve seen pictures of the patient, and they know she infected some of the hospital staff, they know this is a full on virus! They paid us.. they paid us all to keep quiet. They took Lill away, cleaned up her room, and paid us not to breathe a word about the situation. Their covering it up, this is a dangerous and deadly disease and we have no cure, anyone who’s been in contact with hospital staff or released patients may be infected, but they want to keep it secret! And maybe I just wanted to forget what’s happened, maybe I just wanted to go back to my normal life, but.. I took the money, okay? I accepted it. And.. maybe I could have moved on with my life if….. this morning, I had a coughing fit while I was getting ready for work, and I threw up, I threw up blood! Black blood! It stained everything! Stained my wall, my mirror, my sink, and at the end of it.. in the sink, there was a little blue blossom sitting in the liquid.”
The sobbing grew louder, desperate and uncontrollable.
“Dear god, what have we done to deserve this?!”
The audio cut again, nothing played from the device again.
Alec frowned, and picked up the folder, a voice interrupted him before he could take a look at it’s contents.
“What’s all that?”
Alec looked down to see Fiore peering down at the desk’s contents, eyes focusing between the recording device, and the yellow folder.
“Some very useful information…”
Alec trailed, only half focused on the girl as he looked back down at the folder.
“Wow, that’s real specific.”
Fiore said with a roll of her eyes, before her gaze shifted to the folder as well, expression turning from annoyance to curiosity.
“What’s in there?”
“We’re about to find out.”
With that, Alec tossed the folder open, inside were medical files upon medical files, as well as a few photos held together by a plastic blue paper clip. His eyes grazed over each word with impressive speed, flipping from page to page too quickly for Fiore to fully make out what they said.
“Slow down, Jesus, I want to look too!”
Fiore complained, giving Alec a pointed look.
“Sorry..”
He muttered, handing the stack of papers to Fiore while he examined the photographs, flipping through each one.
“This… this changes everything, Fiore!”
Alec exclaimed with enthusiasm, looking down to the girl, who raised an eyebrow.
“How so? It’s just some hospital files.”
“Yes, but of all the places we visited before, this recording of a person becoming infected is the oldest, so far the oldest information we’ve come across dates to late February and early March of 2022 so far, that must be when the virus itself originated!”
“You didn’t already notice that? It was really obvious.”
“Well- of course I noticed, but I tried not to assume, but the evidence is just overwhelming at this point!”
“Fair enough.. I guess.”
Fiore shrugged, tossing her backpack on the table, before taking a seat on it herself, pulling out an old notebook they’d stolen to keep track of information for the last two or so years.
“I’m assuming you want to go over everything again, maybe add some notes?”
Alec, nodded, and with a sigh, Fiore opened the notebook to its most recent page, reading aloud.
“Found a-“
“Wait, go back to the pages about the virus, it’s side effects, I want to be sure there’s nothing we missed or got wrong now that we have this new information.”
“Do we seriously STILL need to do that every time?”
“Yes, we do. Now go back.”
Fiore groaned in dissatisfaction, but obeyed.
“Fine!”
“First page:
First variant of infection: ‘abstract trees’. This variant is the most common out of all known variants thus far, symptoms have so far shown to be:
-black blood
-thirst
-nausea and vomiting
-itchiness and delicacy of skin
-enhanced hearing
-bleeding from eyes nose and mouth
-rapid weight and hair loss.
Typically, infected individuals of the ‘abstract tree variant’ experience growth of black branches accompanied by blue leaves coming out of their bodies, most commonly the stomach, mouth, nose, or eyes. Infected of the ‘abstract tree variant have also, thus far, been the tallest and thinnest out of all variations, with enhanced speed, strength, and hearing, but loss of eyesight and coordination.
Second variant of infection: ‘imperfect blooms’
Thus far, this variant had been shown to be extremely common among children or the elderly, young to middle aged adults rarely falling victim to this specific variant, but the reason as to why is something we are yet to discover. Symptoms so far have been shown to be:
-black blood
-high fever
-difficulty breathing and/or speaking
-pain in the lungs
-coughing fits
-intense sore throat
-vomiting of blue flowers
This variant is strikingly similar to the fictional ‘Hanahaki disease’ with infected individuals coughing up flowers much like ‘Hanahaki disease’. Infected individuals show extreme body change, entire limbs sometimes being so engulfed in flowers and vines, they themselves resemble entire trees or bushes. This variant has been noted to be uniquely painful, whereas the the first variant simply tears growth straight out of one’s skin, this variant shows thorned vines wrapping themselves around organs, slowly crushing them from the inside, causing extreme internal bleeding. They have also been noted to have the most agility, bring the fastest and most coordinated, out of each known variant.
Third variant of the infection: ‘glowing fungi’
Thus far, this variant is the most rare of the three, being the one spotted the least over these last two years. Symptoms have been shown to be:
-loss of energy
-hallucinations
-vomiting
-emotional outbursts
-tiredness
This variant of the infection, due to it’s rarity, has little known about it. However, what little we have seen of this variant shows it to be the most gruesome of the three, while proper study on the workings of this variant have not been performed, it is the most visually disturbing, the flesh of infected individuals seeming to decay and fall from their bodies, large black and blue fungi grows from body parts of infected individuals in sizable chunks, often exposing organs and bone.”
“Okay, there, I read it! Happy now?!”
“The next page.”
“Ugh! This is bullshit!”
“Just do it.”
Fiore rolled her eyes, but picked up the notebook again.
“Additional notes:
-infected people, although extremely rarely, are able to mutate in various ways, be it multiple bodies merging into one, or someone possessing features from different variants of the infection, an example being a woman sighed with a form of the first variant that included fungi growing on her wooden parts
-It has been seen there are many ways a person can become infected, be it an open wound caused by an infected going untreated, ingesting or being wounded by an infected plant, or any transfer of bodily fluids such as blood, saliva, or reproductive substances
-one trait that is constant within every variant of the infection is that the final stage ends the same, with the infected person mutates into the organism corresponding with the variant they possess
-Infected are almost entirely nocturnal, why is unknown
-Infection, in some cases, can be stopped, if infected through a wound of a limb, cleaning the wound within at least twenty four hours of infection should fix the issue, if this is not done, ampupating the infected limb should get rid of the issue entirely if it is removed in time
-Animals, strangely, are unable to become infected, they have been observed being wounded by infected people and consuming infected plants, yet they remain in good health.”
Fiore threw the notebook down
“There! I’m not reading any more than that.”
“That’s fine, I just needed to make sure there were no discrepancies.”
“But why did I have to read it?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want you becoming illiterate, even if we don’t need reading and writing now as much as we did before the virus began, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make a habit if keeping it a part of our lives.”
“I’m not stupid Alec! I’m not gonna forget how to read!”
“I’m just being safe is all.”
Fiore rolled her eyes, glancing over at Alec, who continued to shuffle between photos and papers, brows furrowed.
“What is it? I thought you’d be happy finding more information.”
“I am, but..”
Alec sighed, plopping down into a dusty chair.
“Look, Fiore. I want to know how this started, I want to find a cure, that’s our goal here, but this,”
Alec gestured to the papers scattered before him.
“Just isn’t enough. We need more than stalking infected, more than dissecting corpses, and stealing files from abandoned facilities.”
“You’re not suggesting…?”
Fiore trailed, her tone dripping with judgement.
“We know hardly anything about the virus beyond the initial infection and the final stage, we have no idea of its origins, of anything! We need to be more up close, we need living, breathing specimen, a proper lab, we need, to take a more hands on role here if we want to bring an end to all this.”
“Seriously? And just how on Earth would we accomplish something like that? We aren’t scientists, we aren’t anything close to that! And even if we were, it wouldn’t make a difference, if the top minds of the world couldn’t find a cure what are our chances, anyway? Not to mention, it’d take forever to find a lab and put it in the right condition for experimenting, but medicines will be useless, and how would we even get specimens? Capture infected? How would we possibly do that? Be rational here, Alec.”
“I am being rational! If we want to find a cure we need to take these risks. Maybe the only reason they couldn’t develop a cure is because they didn’t know enough. It only took a month, maybe two for things to collapse, we know much more now than they did back then!”
“Still though, what makes you think it’s possible? Society has collapsed entirely, and-“
“Not entirely.”
Fiore raised an eyebrow, deciding to humor Alec.
“Go on.”
“I’ve heard rumors going around, that a few nations are still standing strong, as strong as they could be, anyway. But I heard that Russia and Korea have been an intense quarantine the last two years, they aren’t doing well, but they haven’t fallen apart, and they are looking for a cure. If there’s hope for them, there’s hope for us.”
“And your just believing this? Where’s the evidence? Even if it’s true, how does that help our situation, it only proves me right! If entire nations are barely keeping from collapse, just how well do we fare? Just us two. There’s too many possibilities, Alec, don’t you see that?”
There was a few beats of silence.
“Fiore…”
Alec began, standing with a sigh.
“We need to at least try. I need to try. I don’t want you growing up in a world like this any longer than you have to! You’re a kid! You should be playing in a schoolyard, not fighting for your life every day!”
Alec stepped forward, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Let me do this, if not for the world, then at least for you?”
Fiore was silent for a few moments, considering his words.
“When this idea gets us killed, I’m blaming you.”
Alec smiled.
“I knew you’d come around.”
“Shut up.”