Yorid

"Yorid has finished his Mocks!! Yorid is Freeeeee!!"

Sorry that I haven't been uploading any chapters lately, had A Lot of school work after my my Mocks that I had to do. Worth like 20 % of my grade.

This chapter has been in the works for a while, and I kept revisiting it but I didn't have the time ore willpower to finish it. Now it is done and there will definitely be grammar and spelling errors, so let me know if you spot any.

Prion diseases, one of my biggest fears in life alongside rabies, mental diseases and neurodegeneration like Alzheimer's. The thought of losing what made me, me… it makes me shiver just thinking about it. 

The fear of losing my ‘soul’ to put it bluntly, made me research into different diseases, viruses and prion diseases. What I found unnerved me. I guess what many people don’t realise is that basically everything in this world has evolved to survive, and they Will do whatever it takes to survive. Why? Because it works, over and over again.

Basically all life is somehow linked, and that life can and Will affect you. From minor thing like pollen that causes allergies, to brain eating Amoebas in US lakes (Oh Fuck). Everything exists and they can all affect your brain in some way, from causing you to sneeze, to eating your literal BRAIN!

What makes humans the superior species of our period isn’t brawn or reproductive power that other species have, it's our brain. The most used tool of any homosapien alive, and we could lose it all due to one animal bite or from a piece of contaminated meat.

*Cough* Back on topic. I’ll just give you a summary on prion diseases with key points as a list, just to make it that much easier to understand why I hate the disease. {^AN - This is how I explain something to someone, so if it seems weird… blame it on my brain :) ^}

• Names of some prion diseases: Mad Cow Disease (BSE), Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)
• Effects: Change in behaviour e.g.. increased aggression, loss of fear, loss of basic instincts (eating, sleeping etc). Disjointed motor functions. And literal holes in the brain
• Infection latency: Disease will show symptoms around a year after infection.
• Infection Spread: Half the US.
• Transmission: saliva, urination, defecation (Basically every body fluid). Very persistent so will stay in the environment for years. Requires temperatures over 1000 C to destroy infectivity.
• 100 % Mortality rate
• {^AN - Videos if you want. Animation. News.^}

Yep, if that shit doesn’t terrify you then I don’t know what could. It is the epitome of a silent killer, just one lick of infected soil, BOOM, you're dead!

AND I am now in the country with the highest records of Prion Diseases and has a FUCKING BRAIN EATING AMOEBA!!

…

*Inhale~*

…

*Exhale~*

…

Looking at the corpse of the Stag, I started to look it over. Something wasn’t right. Observing closer I could see the ribs pushing through the skin. It looked emaciated, like it hadn’t eaten in months. But I saw him a few days ago and his muscles rippled with strength and vitality.

CWD takes months to cause a Deer to become that gaunt, not days. Its behaviour was also weird, I mean they do lose their marbles and go against their survival insects, but I don’t ever remember seeing videos showing it to this degree. ‘Maybe they got Banned’, I reasoned.

Walking closer I noticed Olivia was also observing the Stags body much like I was. She eyed the cadaver with curiosity born from seeing something new, rather than my scientific intrigue.

‘Does that mean she has never seen this before?’ I questioned. 

That gave me a theory, this is a new outbreak that recently moved into the area. That could mean that this Stag is one of the Patient Zeros. Meaning I might not have eaten Prion meat yet, ‘Woohoo’!

Stepping next to the Stag, I crouched down to get a better look at the wounds. Some were big others small, it was easy to tell where each wound came from. A gash on the thigh caused by a sharp rock. Scratches along the body caused by thorns and brambles. However there was a problem. 

‘Why the fuck does that look like a burn?’. 

That's right, along the animal's midriff there was a hole or I guess a scar? It was a melted mess of flesh and hide but it looked pink and inflamed like a newly healed wound. It covered a bit over a quarter of the Stags stomach, and looked like it had been expanding. It looked like a massive cancerous growth that stayed stuck to the skin.

“Fuck that's weird” I said out loud, before I quickly covering my mouth. Turning toward Olivia, I was relieved that she had wandered off slightly, her attention span being short helped me this time. She now had her focus on some dainty pink flowers on the other side of the clearing.

‘Shit, I swore not to swear in front of Olivia’. I admonished myself. If you hadn’t noticed, Olivia is extremely pure and I didn’t want to corrupt that purity… yet.

Swivelling back to the corpse, I anylised it further. Dotted across the animal's body were similar holes and scars, somehow I hadn’t noticed them when the Stag was alive but I swear there weren’t any when I first saw it on that first hunt.

‘What is going on here?’ I pondered. This didn’t look like any prion disease that I looked into before. It could be a new variant of CWD or it could be a different disease native to this planet. I am currently on a different planet so that would mean different evolutions happened in the past. 

I mean why would I be in America, this could be an entirely different Planet in an entirely different Solar System, Hell there could even be talking British Slugs on this planet or maybe…

—-

Third POV 

{^AN - I’m going to start adding more POV’s now that the foundations been built.^}

—-

Deep in thought Brace mulled over his situation, pointless thoughts that clouded his judgment leading him to miss one key detail. There was a small twitch of the Stags eyelids, the dead Stag had blinked. 

More than that even, its eyes thought to be at peace after the Stags death now rolled in their sockets. As if trying to see the world. What Brace had stumbled upon was more than he could ever bargain for.

—

Brace POV

—

…Could there be giant Terror Birds in this world, Bird people?

“Ooof” 

2 arms reached around my head as I soon felt something, *Cough* Someone heavy had dropped down onto my back. Flapping my arms to steady myself, I heard the familiar giggle of Olivia behind my head. 

“Do you enjoy trying to give me a heart attack?” I asked jovially.

Turning to face her, I could see the shit eating grin that lined her face. I wasn’t sure if she understood what I said but she probably got my point. And from my experience as a sibling I knew what she was doing. She was challenging me, and how could I let her down? 

Standing up, Olivia dropped off my back ready for me to chase her. ‘Ahh, a competition of speed I see’ I thought, preparing myself mentally for the chase of the century.

Poking the dead Stag with my foot, I placed its body into my Miscellaneous Inventory. As much as I wanted to not take the body, I had to take away a vector that could spread the Disease to other Deer in the area. I mean faster, because it has most likely already spread.

Limbering up, I saw realisation spread on Olivia's face, she knew that I was getting serious. Booking it towards the woods, Olivia managed to reach the edge within a few strides. Bending down into a runners starting position, I counted to 10.

One…

Two…

Three…

Four…

Five…

Six…

Seven…

Eight…

Nine…

Ten…

“That's enough of a head start”, I said to myself. My muscles compressed as I bolted after her.

The Hunt had begun.

Yorid

Sorry if the story isn't progressing that fast, it should in future chapter. This one was just to deepen Braces character slightly and to foreshadow.

This chapter could have come out sooner but I accidently exhausted myself on a 656 word rant about how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of the universe.

Here is the rant if you want to read.

Spoiler

Humans believe that they are on top of the world, the Kings and Queens of the planet we call home. We have conquered the Land, the Sea and the Sky. We destroy any animals we deem as threats and domesticate animals we see value in. We are in total control of everything, right? 

No, we’re not. That is the simple truth of life. Currently we are the dominant species but who says that will be the case forever? We could disappear into the annals of history much like the rest of the species before us. 

There would only need to be one Cataclysmic event that could  wipe out the Human race. Everything that we built in our short time on Earth would crumble to dust after our dissemination. Leaving us to fade into obscurity until the next Sapient species takes over this Earth. 

What could cause our extinction you ask? Well I’ll tell you. Maybe our end is caused by our own mother Earth that birthed our Species from the countless before us. Our Planet has the power to end us, like it has done before: a single Super Volcanic Eruption, an unprecedented Earthquake, a Global Tectonic Shift. 

Our end could be caused by something extra plenary, along with all life on this Rock we call home. A Solar Flare released by our Sun, Sol, could kill us before we noticed. Perhaps our extinction is caused by a Meteor or Rogue Planet sent by the Universe to wipe us out like with the Dinosaurs. Even Aliens could come and domesticate us, much like how we domesticated Wolves eons ago.

Or maybe something we can’t predict will come around. Something we as puny Humans can’t even fathom. A being with the power to control all of reality, a God if you will. I used to not believe they existed but I am living proof that they do. 

‘The Bored Ones’ as they call themselves, implying that there are multiple creatures with the same magnitude of power as each other. Perhaps they could destroy our species with a flick of a finger or tentacle… but maybe that would be too boring to them?

However we as a species probably don’t even need a Cataclysm or good to kill us off, we are already doing a good enough job by ourselves. Afterall, we as a species have always sought out more pleasure, power and control over everything, even our own kind. Look at us, we harm one another for the smallest benefit, be that money or power. 

We try to affect things out of our control, altering the world and the creatures in it. Slowly we are creating our end from minor actions you probably haven't even noticed. Humans are manufacturing their own extinction with the help of something we constantly forget about in modern times, Disease.

As much as we wish to believe that we control the Earth, a simple Virus could appear, toppling our society for close to 2 whole years. Where did the Virus come from? Who knows. Some say it came from someone eating a Bat. Others think it was a lab leek. But in the end there is one simple fact that can be seen. 

We are still animals.

We can’t control Viruses, Bacteria or our own deterioration. In fact we only strengthen them. Every second billions of Viruses and Bacteria propagate, creating new strains that are deadlier or more transmittable. Billions of years of evolution honed to more effectively spread their kind, expedited by human interference.

From humans selectively creating new stains in labs, to spreading Diseases to every corner of our Planet. We are building a foundation to an upcoming Calamity, and we are starting to see the cracks. More severe versions of the common cold are appearing. New variants of Viruses are appearing in every country. New Antibacterial resistant strains of Bacteria are starting to surface. Humanity is creating their Calamity.

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