Phew! I meant to update sooner, but it seems that you can't update from a mobile, not even with the desktop option. But here it is!
Don't you love fillers?
A young woman was at the airport, waiting for one of her friends to arrive. She was from the UK, and lived in a fancy house with her parents. Her friend was from the USA, but for a few days she decided to work in the UK and live with them, for some reason.
The place was crowded, and everyone looked busy, but at the same time it looked elegant and clean.
"There you are!" said the girl that just arrived, screaming cheerfully. She was a little taller than the other. "I thought you got lost on a plane or something. Where were you?"
"That's what I should be asking you! I've been looking everywhere, but it was getting late so I decided to wait here."
"Oooh, but maybe you were with a... boy?!" She smirked mockingly, nudging her friend.
"Of course not!" She giggled. "After all, looking for my grandparents isn't exactly what you would call looking for a boyfriend."
They both laughed, and then they walked away chatting to each other and laughing so loudly it was hard to believe nobody yelled at them.
However, a single figure was looking at them, suspiciously. He was a tall man with a grey hood, and he was just standing there in silence. When the girls almost got out of his view, he walked to them and stopped them, taking out his hood quickly. He wondered why he was using it in the first place.
"Hey you, young ladies," he said. "I want to ask you something."
"Uhm, us?" one of them said, turning around. The other followed. "Yeah, what do you need?"
"I need you to taste this." He took out a small bottle out of his pocket. "It's, uhm, it should be a delicious beverage, but I need someone to tell me how it tastes first."
The girls looked at each other, suspiciously. The taller one turned her face to the man and nodded.
"Sure, why not! If it's to help a new beverage, I can do it. Then we can go out and ask for more things instead of just tea, right?" She looked at her friend, who was just staring at them confused.
The man handed her the bottle, to which the girl began gulping. After a while, she stopped.
"Huh?" she exclaimed, raising the bottle to her eyes. "But, mister, I think this is just water."
"It is?" the man said, looking confused. "But I was sure I put a lot of juice this time. Oh, I guess it didn't work. Sorry, we'll fix it next time."
The young girl looked confused.
"Didn't you taste it before?" she asked with a look of unhidden curiosity. Her friend was almost feeling suspicion right now.
"No," he replied quickly. "We can't taste the product; our prejudice would get in the way. Most of the employees think that the beverage is fine and could easily get in the market, but we need people's opinions first," the man said as he's been expecting that question. The girl seemed satisfied with the reply, though her friend was still doubtful. She asked once more:
"Are you sure this isn't just water and that there isn't anything strange about it?"
"You can trust me," he reassured her. "It might take its time before we can fully create a delicious beverage, but in a few years we'll get there, I'm sure of it." The girl wasn't so sure, but she didn't ask any more questions. "If that's all, allow me to leave. Thank you so much for your cooperation, I'm very grateful."
They both replied with a you're welcome, one cheerful, one quiet, and left the scene before the man could turn away.
Let's stop hiding their names for a second; after all, they're already part of the story. The taller girl's name, the one who tasted the water-like beverage, was Caroline. She's really cheerful and easygoing, and has no trouble talking to strangers, something easily deduced by her behavior. Her unnatural ginger hair and informal clothes made huge contrast with the other girl.
Her friend's name was Sharon, and while she was almost as easygoing as Caroline, she knew well not to trust in strangers, especially when they give you something to taste. She was being more formal with her clothes, in contrast to Caroline's colorful image. Caroline asked her when they met at the airport why was she being so formal, if she was just going to meet her grandparents.
"I'm sure they'll do the same." That was her answer.
Finally they caught sight of Sharon's grandparents. Just as she predicted, her grandfather was wearing a tuxedo, black pants and a tie. Her grandmother was wearing an elegant long dress. They looked like they were in a wedding or something.
"They just like being like that" Sharon shrugged. "You know, they are pretty old-school."
At the same time, someone was watching into the distance. It was the man who gave Caroline the water.
"These old people won't do..." he mumbled to himself. "I need younger people, or you can't feed... can you, Neurax?" He glanced at them with a look of hatred. "Bragging about themselves... and thinking they're better than everyone else. Those three are just like everyone else actually, luckily enough they were able to have something to brag about."
Back at his apartment, he sat down in front of his computer, or what looked like twelve computers, as he had various monitors connected.
Each one of them had a black screen, only the first one showed images of the airport he just was in. Many people greeting each other, hugging each other and smiling at the sight of someone else. Looking at them like that, humans didn't look as bad as he thought; however, he knew that on the inside everyone is potentially cruel.
"I might need a name to show myself to them sooner or later," he spoke to the worm he kept inside a transparent cylinder, with a lot of cables connected from various spots of the worm's body to his computers. It was just as he wanted to control it through that.
And in fact, that's what he did. He discovered a way to control the worm by modifying its DNA, its organs and its skin. That way, he could make it withstand the harshest weathers of the countries it wasn't used to.
Now, to control its offspring wasn't as hard as he thought it would be. When he began testing the Alpha Neurax Worm (that's how he decided to call it), he noticed that every evolution had an effect on the other worms.
"We're lucky, aren't we...?"
The worm didn't reply. It can't reply.
"So what do you think would be a good name for when I announce you to the world?" The worm didn't reply. "I was thinking about using your name. After all, I found you, I'm creating you." He stared at the unmoving worm for a few seconds. "You're right," he said at last, as if he heard the worm replying, "that would be confusing as hell. What if I call myself Rax? Uhm... no, that sounds bad."
He sighed, then stood up and looked through the window. The sunlight almost blinded him, mostly because he tended to have the whole apartment away from the heat. The Neurax was found inside a glacier, so it would be reasonable to think that it feels better in cold places. Or at least that's what the man thought.
"Are you going to infect everyone? I mean, every person, in every country?" He glanced back at the worm. It didn't reply. "Ah, I see... though infecting them was my idea in the first place." He returned his gaze to the window, and blinked a few times to get used to the warm light of the sun. At the end, he realized that it was too annoying. He closed the curtains, and stared at them just as he was looking at the outside world. "We need you to evolve fast, so you can survive in hotter places." He turned his head to the worm, a look of hatred and disappointment on his face. "You're completely useless right now. Look at us, humans, living, surviving in every kind of climate. And you. You die with a single rise of temperature. What would you be without me?" He didn't wait for a reply. Who was there to reply in the first place? "Frozen. Still on that glacier, without any means to live. You would just cowardly be there, waiting for someone like me to bring you home, isn't that right?"
The worm didn't reply, but one would wonder if it actually wanted to.
The man calmed down. He was about to poke at the worm, just as he did days ago when he wanted it to move. Now he only wanted the Neurax to feel pain. However, when he realized that that would damage the Alpha and make it unable to evolve properly, he held back his anger and continued looking at the curtains for a few hours, in complete silence.
"So, young Caroline, do you miss your life back in the USA?" the old woman asked, after swallowing a mouthful. They were having dinner back at Sharon's house, along with her parents and siblings, her grandparents and her friend, Caroline. With that many people, it's easy to imagine how wealthy they were, if they could support them daily.
"Not so much right now," she admitted, "for some reason, there are a lot of rats. They're like a plague, almost every home has rat poison to keep them away, and rat extermination is being serious business," she explained, a little unsure whether she should have mentioned that while they were eating.
"Ah, I understand," interrupted Sharon's grandfather. "I remember that time when we were plagued with pigeons. I never thought we would need to get rid of them, but they were bringing some ugly diseases at the time."
"Ugly diseases?" Sharon echoed, suddenly looking interested. "But was everyone alright?"
"Yes," he replied, "although it was quite annoying for some people. The good news is that the disease wasn't too lethal, so nobody had to die at that time."
A sigh of relief left Sharon's mouth, and she focused her attention to the meal in front of her.
"I'm sure everyone in your country is alright," he said to Caroline.
"I know, but the rats are appearing in everyone's houses out of nowhere. People with small children are getting worried."
"I understand that, dear," the grandmother said. "But don't worry, they'll leave before next month."
"You're right." Caroline returned to her usual cheerfulness. "And maybe I could return to my country after I quit my job here. They aren't doing so well it seems, and my salary is gradually decreasing."
"Well said. Though we'll miss you, but I hope you can get the best job you can get."
"Neuren, I shall be Neuren for now." After hours of complete silence, the man jumped suddenly, and looked at the Neurax. "It won't be confusing, will it? I think." The man kept talking to the worm, completely sure that it was listening to him. "Now let's see if there's something I should know." Neuren got to his computers, and he opened a browser that showed itself on one of the monitors. He was looking for the news of the day.
The first headline was something about USA.
Never-ending rat plague!
Specialists have concluded that the rats spreading are not a threat at the moment. However, they'll keep investigating this matter further.
As for the authorities, they declared that each family should deal with the issue at home. Rats will be kept alive for scientific experimentation, some will be given to other countries that might need them for research purposes. Hopefully, this will decrease the rat population and keep away all the diseases they might bring.
Rats, huh... while it could be better to help Neurax spread, at the same time it would make the cure easier to find, if they ever research it. And after all, the worm hasn't infected anyone from America yet.
"We'll need a while, but you have to infect more people." He could look at the number of people alive in his monitors. The numbers changed every second, increasing and decreasing due to people dying and being born. In another corner, he could see the number of people infected. So far, it was just one.
Next to that counter was another number, the number two. What does this mean? he thought, staring at it. The letters DNA were written above the number, and while it should provide an answer, it only raised more questions.
In reality, the software he had in front of him had been created by an anonymous person. Probably a scientist, was his first thought. It wasn't created to control the Neurax. In fact it seemed to have been created to control other kinds of pathogens, viruses, bacteria. Maybe it was created as a cure for an incurable disease. But ironically right now it would be used to create the ultimate incurable one.
The point is that Neuren only modified an already created software with the little knowledge he achieved over the years. He then had an easier way to control the disease's symptoms, and the survivability of the Neurax. But for now, he only needed to see how would it spread. And it would take time before the worm infected its second host. "But how will you do that, anyway? Through air, through physical contact, through blood contact? There's no way for you to spread unless they're careless enough to drink from the same glass of water."
It could be easy for the worm to spread, it just needed a little carelessness from its hosts.
Sharon and Caroline where really close friends. However, Sharon was careful enough with her body, so she barely gets any diseases that are worse than a common cold. She never shares utensils, and when she does, she cleans them thoroughly. Some might say that she was a maniac, and that wouldn't be too farfetched.
Neuren couldn't have known that, as he randomly chose people in the airport that could infect someone else. His first option was a couple of young people, but they refused his offer for the water. They probably were right to do so, after all... wasn't that just simple water, infected with thousands, probably millions of the Neurax's offspring?
Caroline was careless. Because, right now, she is the first person to be infected with the future deadly illness that the Neurax would bring. And while it'll take time, it won't be long until it infects its second host.
Neuren stared back at his computer. He wanted the Neurax to evolve right now; however, it seemed that it was unable to at the moment. Probably, it had something to do with the DNA counter. In order to infect more people in that country, it should evolve a drug resistance. Because medicine evolved with new diseases, and the Neurax lived for more than a thousand years. New drugs would make its survival harder, and it wouldn't be so easy to spread in wealthier countries.
"You're useless..." Neuren whispered to the worm. Once again, it didn't reply...
