Dexter and the Professor decided to sleep in shifts so there was always at least one person working in the lab and they both agreed this project was too important for them to work to collapse. First they had to study the parasite, both in humans and snails, then they had to go through some hectic episodes of sampling from the infected and some samples of the actual broodsac species to study the genetic markers and where they differ. No-one bothered making a cure for snails, so they had to find out what would kill the parasite without killing the host.
-Nights Apart-
"Fuse sent more Infected, which then infected more troops. They got through a quarter of the personnel before they were all contained. It's been two weeks, how's that cure coming along, we really don't have that much time, Dexter," Mandy blandly informed.
"We're still working on curing snails."
Mandy raised an eyebrow "Earth is getting run over by a pseudo zombie infection and you're curing snails?"
"It's part of the process. If we work on curing the snails first, we can find something that works on the KND agents without killing them quicker."
"I don't care about how you do it, I want results. Dismissed."
Well that was as frustrating as always. Dexter had been called into Mandy's office almost as soon as he woke up. Rightfully he felt more tired now than when he'd gotten up.
-Nights Apart-
The walk down the containment area was just as eerie as always, just with more eyes on him. Dexter swore there were more every time he came here, and that was on a regular basis. Fuse kept sending the infected personnel on Moonbase on a weekly basis. Though few in number, they spread the parasite fast, even if the KND got better at dealing with them. The first week more than half of the nearby agents were infected. They were battling for space to keep them all already. Some even had to be put down. Killed in action or killed because there wasn't space. Another containment area was in the works but meanwhile, well... yeah. Time and troops were running out quickly. And Dexter was feeling the pressure. The Professor seemed calm but he was probably feeling it from the start. He never said anything about it.
Those eyes were haunting Dexter's nightmares and daydreams. He was getting tired of having to look at them everyday. Couldn't they just move Ben to the lab? But you can't expect to come up with a cure in two weeks, no matter how much you hope.
Ben was pacing in his cell when Dexter got to it, but as soon as he was noticed, Ben pounced for an attack and flew face first into the force field, giving Dexter a start. After that he pounded the force field with his fists, growling and wailing, his eyes full of killer-intent. He did everything he could to get through, and suddenly stopped, his face going blank, and went back to pacing his cell. His head would turn slightly and then back as if he were trying and not trying to look at Dexter at the same time. This was the first time Ben had tried to attack like the others. The parasite was grabbing hold of him more and more.
He continued to pace and not-look for a full five minutes, during which Dexter didn't move at all, he hardly breathed. He was frightened to say the least. All he could remember were extremely strong hands around his throat, and he moved a hand to the yellowed bruises.
There was a slam and Ben was at the force field again. This time with his hands still and splayed next to his head, he'd bent down to be level with Dexter. Dexter had been too lost in the near-death experience by his own boyfriend's hands to notice he'd stopped pacing. Ben just stared at him sadly. It was an apology. Dexter raised his shaking hands to meet and splay over Ben's as an acceptance. Dexter blinked and Ben was sitting in the far side of his cell, his knees pulled up to his chin and arms wrapped around his legs. He looked so forlorn and tired.
Dexter just stood as he were and stared. He hated seeing Ben like this. Powerless, unable to control himself. Suddenly slammed with a wall of rage, he thought it was high-time to leave.
-Nights Apart-
Dexter heaved out a big sigh in frustration as he watched another snail shrivel up and die. And then another. And another. And more after that.
"Attempt twenty, anti-parasitic poison batch number twenty, subject perished," He recorded. He rubbed at his eyes and his temples. They were getting nowhere. He could feel the vexation surround him like mist, weighing him down. His morning visit to Ben was still on his mind and now jumping to the forefront and he felt the same rage he did then. Fuck this. He was done.
-Nights Apart-
Patric Utonium was working silently and making good headway when he was interrupted by a roar of fury followed by a huge crash from the side of the lab Dexter was working in and several smaller crashes afterwards. He was so startled that he dropped the now clean petri dish he was holding. Luckily it didn't break, as it wasn't a far fall to the desk. He rushed over to find Dexter sitting next to a war zone clutching fist-fulls of his hair. The desk behind him was clean of any equipment. Samples and splashes of dead snails were covering the walls. He took up a moment to take in the scene and crouched in front of Dexter.
"Feel better?" He tried in his best fatherly tone.
"No," came a wail in return. Dexter wasn't crying but his voice sure sounded like it. His hands were shaking. The Professor was sure his knuckles were white under those purple gloves of his.
"Care to tell me what brought this on?"
Dexter sniffed "During my visit with Ben he tried to attack me. He's still fighting the parasite but he's losing, Professor! These days instead of sleeping or laying down he's pacing around and I don't know what to make of it. The experiments are going nowhere, I feel like we keep turning into dead-ends, all the hosts keep dying and I'm just so frustrated!"
The professor inspected him for a second.
"Come with me," He instructed and started making his way to his workstation. He knew Dexter had got up to follow him when he heard glass crunching under boots.
He stopped at the desk and showed Dexter to a tank where a snail was happily sailing up on the side.
"What's this?"
"Batch thirty-three. We found a cure that works on the snails."
Dexter didn't know how to react. He was so fulled with rage and sadness earlier that to suddenly feel surprise and relief was quickly making him feel drained. He just pulled himself together. They weren't out of the woods just yet.
"I'm sorry for my outburst interrupting your work," Dexter said, regaining some professionalism.
The Professor waved off his apology "Think nothing of it."
-Nights Apart-
They tested the batch several times, and with each success Dexter could feel his elation growing. They were so much closer. They just had to change the genetic markers to match fusion parasites and they were done, but that would still require a lot of trail and error. They had tried to infect animals with the fusion version, but it seemed to be human-oriented. It was a painfully precise piece of work. Like in snails it started in the stomach where it stayed until it hatched. The infant parasite would then make it's way into the blood vessels of the stomach lining and follow it until it attaches itself onto the brain-stem and grows and takes control. This whole process can take from hours to a few days. The parasite spreads through detaching parts of itself into blood and saliva, and having the host bite or exchange blood with uninfected victims (just onto the skin is enough) where it goes directly into the bloodstream. And so the pseudo-zombies are made.