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Aberrant: Dead Rising - Chapter 9a: Portents


Dawn OOC

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April 28th 2007

The green comet was first seen in Japan. The remaining Nipponese watched the green-tailed object in the night sky with interest. Slowly, the people of the world became aware of this strange portent. Those with access to astronomy records realized that there had been no record of this comet’s path before. That’s wasn’t a huge issue, or unheard of, but it was surprising. For the first time in a long time, a comet was given a hundred names, as each isolated group applied with own moniker to it. Some chose the name of the first person to see the comet; others saw it as a portent and named it accordingly.

In the Refuge, it was named Annabelle after the wife of the man who first saw it. He meant it in tribute, but some were unsettled that it was named after a dead woman. It seemed a bad omen, not that many said that aloud. The odd color was bad enough, but the name was just that much creepier.

The next morning, Gerald Hoffany came looking for Captain Fox. It was Ger who actually caught up with Morgan, just as he and Jules were finishing breakfast. “Sir, that pastor-man, Hoffany, wants to speak with you. He says it’s important.”

Myf had found herself without an excuse. She’d been putting it off as long as she could, but she was out of excuses. With a sigh, she opened the book.

Quote:
September 12, 2006 – This is a momentous day – I’m moving into the last house I’ll ever own. I’ve got everything ready – the tools, the supplies, the seeds. I’m ready to have a long, quiet retirement with my garden. And maybe some goats. [what follows is a detailed description of what he plans to plant, including a planting diagram]. I can’t wait for spring.

[several days of more talk about gardens and house repairs follow]

November 10, 2006 – I saw something unsettling today. A red fox – the first I’ve seen around here – was laying in the road. I thought it was dead, hit by a car. I grabbed the shovel and went out to get it out of the road and bury it. As I got close, I realized it was alive. It must have been sick, because it just watched me walk toward it. Another car came – I tried to get it to stop, but the driver ignored me. Just before he hit it and killed it, it lifted its head and looked at me. There was an unnerving expression of knowledge those dark eyes.

I’m going to bed early. I don’t feel like working on the walkway anymore.

November 11, 2006 – Had bad dreams about the fox. This time, when it lifted its head, it whispered, “Watch and record.” I can’t get it out of my head. Got some more work done on the walkway, but I’m just not feeling it.

November 12, 2006 – More bad dreams about the fox. I’m tempted to dig it up and burn it. Again, the ‘watch and record’ bit, but there’s more this time – I saw it multiple times, and each time was a new message. All put together, I have: ‘Watch and record, for the One who will lead them into life.” I’m not sure what it means. I’m concerned enough that I’ve got a tumor in my brain, so I’ve made an appointment for the 15th to see the local doctor.

Myf turned the page, eager for the next part, which should be Z-day. But the door of her office burst open, with Dr. Singh in the entrance. “We have a woman in labor,” he gasped, “and it doesn’t look good. I think I need you.”

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The journal was surprisingly not-surreal. She'd been expecting a lot more...oddness. Its mundanity was perversely odd in and of itself. Then the episode with the fox, and the beginning of the author's slow spiral into what seemed like madness. Except...

Hadn't Cassandra mentioned that SHE was the 'one' meant to see this? The implications of that...

Don't be stupid. Cassandra must have read this, and it guided her delusions. I may have strange powers, but I now know that I'm hardly alone in that. There's nothing else I can see that would somehow set me apart. Besides, everything in this journal happened before Z-day, which is the earliest point at which these...phenomena...came about. He's not prophetic, he's just paranoid. Still, it's kind of grotesquely fascinating to read.

And then the Refuge's other doctor burst in with bad news.

Myfwany looked up at Singh, for the briefest instant annoyed at the interruption. Then his words sank in. She was up out of her seat in a flash and following Singh out towards the clinic area.

"What's the complication?" she asked crisply, snagging some rubber surgical gloves off a counter as they passed.

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“The baby is turned,” Dr. Singh said, his voice tense with concern, “and I cannot turn it back. I hope that you can get it done with your smaller hands, or perhaps we just need to risk a c-section.”

“Let me see,” Myf said, and followed him out to the clinic proper. For the next three hours, she worked to save mother and child, succeeding only in saving the mother. When she saw the baby, she decided that this little one was not meant to be; it was malformed enough that she doubted it would have lived long. She didn’t let the mother see it; no point in further trauma.

She felt drained as she went back to her office. The book was where she left it, but Myf knew that she probably needed to make some kind of notation about the baby. She’d been tracking such things, hoping that it records would give her insights into the environmental factors affecting the people here. But she found herself picking up the book again, turning to the next entry and starting again.

Quote:
November 13, 2006 – Something is wrong; the news stations are going crazy and the National Guard has been called. It’s something about a disease that’s spreading rapidly. I’m not sure what it is or what the symptoms are; no one is providing details.

I’m thinking of the Fox again.

I went into town, but the sheriff’s office was blocking the road. They promised to bring me supplies if the barricade didn’t lift soon, not that I don’t have a ton of food stored. I could tell they were spooked but trying to hide it.

When I go home, the TV was saying that people were dying and they still didn’t know what was wrong. At least I was able to get a list of symptoms: fever, grayish skin and trouble breathing.

This all feels so final, like I’m trapped in an end-times movie. I’m trying not to think like that. Won’t help. Time for dinner and to see what else I can learn from the news.

Addendum – I had planned to eat, watch TV and sleep, but someone had other plans. A young woman appeared in my bathroom; I’m not sure how she got there, only that I heard a strange noise just before she exited. She’s a waif of a thing, with blonde hair and strange purple eyes. She was incoherent and babbling. I think she’s on drugs.

I called the sheriff; he told me to keep her there if I didn’t feel that she was dangerous. He’d send someone out when he could spare them. He sounded scared, haggard.

I don’t think anyone is coming to take her. I fed her and listened to her babble – crazy things about lights and kings and great, dead worms. Not a pip of it made sense. I finally got her to sleep on my guest bed; poor thing just started to sob not long after I left her there. I don’t know what’s wrong with her, but I feel for her. She’s clearly suffering from some affliction of the mind.

I went to bed, only to be driven from it by nightmares. I dreamed about the Fox, and it spoke to me with the girl’s voice. I had other unsettling dreams, but they faded.

The world has gone mad or I have. I’m not sure which is better.

Myf turned to read the next page, but her eyelids were drooping. Yawning, she put the book down and crawled into bed, asleep the moment she closed her eyes.

She dreamed of talking foxes and a beam of light shining down on the top of a mountain.

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It takes Myfwany a few seconds to realize where she is when she opens her eyes. For a moment she feels like she's still in the mountain, transfixed by the light...then she realizes that the sun is just angling in onto her face through her window. She's awake in Fox's Refuge, and it's a new day.

By the time she's done taking a quick, water-conserving shower, she's forgotten all about the dream. Her breakfast is bigger than usual. She speculates that using her powers is somehow linked to her increase in appetite, and makes a mental note to visit the crop fields and see if she can coax a bigger yield.

Then there's the morning appointments. Some checkups, a few minor injuries...nothing too bad. By the time she decides to get some lunch Myf is still going strong. That's when she picks up the journal again and starts reading in between bites of macaroni salad.

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Fox wasn't sure he really wanted to talk to the sometimes troublesome preacher but if it was important then it was important. "Sure Ger, ask him to meet me at HQ. I was heading there to catch up on some things that needed to be attended to anyway. Might as well squeeze him in."

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Gerald met Fox at HQ without hesitation, and was there within minutes. "Captain, thank you for seeing me." The man was clearly shaken, out of breath and with a red, sweaty face behind his beard. "I..." he paused and cleared his throat, and then said, "I don't know what to think, so I'm just going to say it. The crops, the ones just planted... they aren't growing. It's not just the non-staples I planted, but the things out in your fields. I just went out there and checked. They should have germinated by now.”

With shaking hands, he showed Fox some dirty seeds. “These should be sprouting by now. The fact that they haven’t is… a very, very bad sign for our food supplies.”

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Originally Posted By: SalmonMax
That's when she picks up the journal again and starts reading in between bites of macaroni salad.

Quote:
November 14, 2006 – Talking with the girl reveals little. She writes a poorly as she speaks; with great effort she managed to tell me that she is called Cassandra and that the voices speak to her. She said she lived in a box and has a broken tongue. I’m not sure what that means, really, though I can guess the latter means that she can’t talk properly, which I rather guessed.

I fed her again, and at least she’s calm now. She also gave up talking to me after she realized that I wasn’t getting what she was saying. Then things got weird.

With startling suddenness, she began to speak again. She told me that she is the Oracle and I am to be the Watcher. I guess it was no mistake that she appeared her, to her own mind. I don’t buy any of what she said, though I admit to be distressed when she pointed at the window sill and showed me that my mini-rose’s petal had turned black. The flower didn’t die; the petals went from a soft pink to a velvet black. I’ve never seen anything like it, but every time I look at my poor flower, I am reminded that it is real.

And what I’m hearing over the radio and television make the plant seem normal. They are saying that the dead are rising as zombies, and that we must take off their head or burn them to destroy them. The world is truly mad, and I feel lost.
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It was with a troubled feeling that Myfwany put the journal down to absorb that latest fragment. Cassandra an oracle, she could almost see...though it was still unnerving. But what was a 'watcher?' Watch what? And for what purpose? And what was the deal with the flower? Did Cassandra cause that? Or had she just shown it to him? What was the significance of it?

Life turns to death, maybe. Like the fox. Or maybe it's related to the supers, or zombies. I mean, a plant changing colors like that...it could indicate something in the environment, causing changes to the plant's genetics. Flower turns black; human being becomes invulnerable. Or super strong. Or gets sick, dies, and becomes a zombie.

No. She was reaching. Looking for reasons when there was no evidence that there really was a reason. Seeking patterns when there might not actually be one. The textbook definition of paranoia.

Myfwany sighed and looked at the journal again. She was in a vulnerable state of mind. The best idea was to just leave it be. But she couldn't do that. What if there was something in there, some detail, that turned out to be important after all?

She checked her appointments, poked her head out to make sure the clinic was doing okay...then picked the journal up again and resumed reading.

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The Reverend could see that Fox was visibly taking a grip on his temper and his calm exterior was entirely forced. "Mr. Hoffany if you'll accompany me I think we need to have our doctor look at those seeds asap. If you are right and I don't doubt you are, then yeah, we're going to have to do a lot more scavenging before winter."

He led the way quickly to where Mwfwany had set up shop. He barely waited for her reply before hurrying into her office with the preacher in tow. "We've got a big problem Doc. I know you aren't a agriculture biologist, or whatever they're called, but I need you to take a look at this. Mr. Hoffany here just brought these seeds in from the fields... they aren't growing."

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Originally Posted By: SalmonMax
She checked her appointments, poked her head out to make sure the clinic was doing okay...then picked the journal up again and resumed reading.
On the afternoon schedule was James' thrice weekly check up appointment to see how his eyes are going. Or as James mentally put it, his "white rat" appointment. The Docs got to "uh" and "ah" over the medical miracle that was his slowly regenerating eyes. He got reassurance that he wasn't doing anything stupid to slow down their regrowth. Somehow it didn't seem like a fair trade.

James didn't take it as a testimony of confidence that they'd taken to bandage his eyes so he couldn't touch them they would stay clean and he wouldn't try to use them before they were ready.
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Myfwany stifled a reflexive stab of irritation at the interruption. Her first reaction was confusion at why he was bringing this to her...then she realized. Right. Her power.

She marked her place in the journal and set it aside. Then she leaned forward to peer at the seed. Her vision had increased in acuity lately, to a startling degree. The seed looked fine.

"Is it happening to all the planted crops, or just some?" she asked. Then as she concentrated, she added, "And what about wild seeds? Are they sprouting?"

To her eyes, lines of gleaming light appeared in a tapestry that defined everything around her. From the thick, powerful webs that were Fox and the Reverend, to the tiny but vital network of floating spores and bacteria, this 'energy' was not just life but its connections, its ecology. She still had no idea what it was 'made of,' but perhaps it would help her see what was wrong with this seed.

(OOC Lifesense on)

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James noticed (heard? smelled?) Fox and the Rev Gerald storm past and it didn't sound good for someone. Half expecting that the 'someone' in question would be him and/or V, James followed them in to defend himself and instead heard the news.

This wasn't good. James mentally congratulated himself on having private catches but didn't say anything.

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The seeds were little green balls of life, almost trembling with the desire to sprout and grow. Myf had never looked at seeds like this before, so she wasn't sure that this was how they should look, but they looked right.

"The weeds are going just fine," Hoffany said, his voice disgusted. "All the sprouts I've found are weeds."

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Fox was relieved and stymied at the same time. He frowned, "Doc. I know you are busy, but how bout we walk out and take a look at one of the fields? If the seeds are fine then something must be preventing them from sprouting."

Seeing James in the doorway he added, "You can come along as well if you want James."

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"Morgan, these seeds...they're not dead. I can see that much." She looks up from the seeds on her desk. "I don't know what seeds look like though this power, but I think I'd be able to tell if something was wrong with them. I don't think there is. All I can think of is that something might be wrong with the soil."

She scooped the seeds up and got to her feet, nodding at James.

"Lets go take a look. Speaking of which, James, how are you doing? You're still getting around all right with other senses now?"

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As they walked out to the fields Fox took the opportunity to ask, "So Doc, are you going to be working with that Jon fellow on the question of what has caused the zombs and everything else?" He hoped her answer would be yes. He didn't think much of Jon, but if they could come up with a solution or even just an explanation, he rest easier. It was hard to face an enemy when you didn't know what that enemy was or where their next attack would come from. He had a sick feeling that the Rev had just notified him of that next attack. If they couldn't grow food it would mean the eventual end of the human race. They could last for years on the food that still existed, but it would be years knowing death was rapidly approaching.

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Originally Posted By: SalmonMax
"Morgan, these seeds...they're not dead. I can see that much." She looks up from the seeds on her desk. "I don't know what seeds look like though this power, but I think I'd be able to tell if something was wrong with them. I don't think there is. All I can think of is that something might be wrong with the soil."
The implications weren't lost on James. At best they might have to move, at worst there might not be a future. James said, "Please tell me we don't have a farmer and we're just doing something stupid."

Quote:
"Lets go take a look. Speaking of which, James, how are you doing? You're still getting around all right with other senses now?"
James replied with grim, forced humor as he walked with the others. "Getting around? Yeah. But this is like having a hook for a hand. If you ever figure out a way to magic back limbs and the like with your healing power put me first in line."
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"I don't know, Morgan," Myf said, a little uncomfortably. "Jon's...an issue. And he seems to know it, because he's made himself very scarce since Dallas. I still am very committed to researching the cause and cure of the 'zombie' condition though, with or without his help. I'm in a better position to do so now than I've ever been before."

"Which is note," she quickly warned, "to say that I'll succeed. You have the makings of a decent settlement here, though...well, that's not my business I guess...I'm just saying that medically, this place is still backwater. Fine for day to day survival and even some preventative care, but there's still a big list of stuff I'd want to do medical research. Starting with a lot of help."

The doctor gave Fox a tired smile. "But we'll work with what we have."

She listened to James and nodded. "When we're done out here I'll take another look and see. First lets deal with this."

By that time they'd arrived at the fields, which were just rows of raised dirt. Meticulously weeded, they were stretches where nothing seemed to grow.

Myfwany took the seed she was still carrying and put it in the ground, then focused her eyes on that strange point 'beyond' light, where it seemed like everything should be blurry, but instead her other vision became clear. Soil, she knew, should be teeming with life. Not just seeds, but worms, and perhaps most importantly, bacteria that helped plants grow and gain nutrients from the soil. She leaned down close to the broken earth and looked deep.

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The soil was beautiful and green, shivering with the potential of life as much as life itself. Myf could see the signs of life throbbing in the soil, as well as the beings living in the soil.

Moving to the edge of the field, she examined how the weeds interacted. The green threads went from plant to soil to plant again in a complicated weaving dance that was as beautiful as it was complex. After a bit of work, Myf found a weed seed that was just starting to sprout, and she bent down to study it. The green of the seed and the green of the soil were locked together; there was no other word for the way that the green lines joined so tightly that she couldn't seen where one ended and another began.

Turning back to the seed she'd sat on the soil, Myf watched the green lines do nothing. They were there and were vibrant, but they didn't interact, at all.

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"This is really...really...weird," Myfwany said as she studied the soil, then went over to the weeds. "I guess it's because I'm not seeing the science of what's happening. All I can say is that the weeds have a sort of...connection to the soil and the things in the soil that promote life. There's plenty of it. The soil's really just bursting with life. The seeds too. All of them."

"But these planted seeds are for some reason not...letting it in, or reaching out, or making those connections. It's like the seed husks are completely solid, not letting any food or water from outside in."

She looks over at the Reverend. "Where did the seeds come from? The previous crop? Or did we find them or trade for them?"

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"Scavengers have found them in seed stores and dealers," Gerald said, his voice tense with nerves. "We traded for them, or they were found by people working for the Refuge. There's more where they came from, lots more. We could try another batch."

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Myf shook her head.

"No. Not just yet. People are going to be nervous enough just with what they've seen so far. If we start replanting and replanting...if they start thinking there really might not be any food..." She let that go without finishing.

"Give me a second here."

The doctor closed her eyes, but it was all right. She wasn't looking through them anyway. Beyond the world that reflected light showed her, there was another world. The world where 'light' was radiated by living things. It was into this world that she looked, and into this world that she reached out with subtle streams of power.

She could see the power now too, much as she'd seen how Pumpkin's 'dog' was made. Golden filaments streamed out of her, combing restlessly through the soil and curling around each seed where it lay in its tomb of earth. Wordlessly she called to the seeds. Soundlessly she spoke to the soil. She pressed them to push against the barriers between them and join together; adding themselves to the symphony of green that was the planet all around them.

(Using Nature Mastery to try to get the seeds to sprout. Not pushing them to grow unnaturally past the point they'd normally be at this stage, had nothing gone wrong.)

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Originally Posted By: Dawn, OOC
"Scavengers have found them in seed stores and dealers," Gerald said, his voice tense with nerves. "We traded for them, or they were found by people working for the Refuge. There's more where they came from, lots more. We could try another batch."
James asked quietly, "Please tell me no one here has any idea what we're doing and this is our fault somehow. Too much of something or not enough water or whatever."

After James managed to kill a cactus from lack of water he had given up on gardening.
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It was a reluctant process. Myf could force it, but she could tell that it didn't want to happen. It took a while for her to have the 'conversation', which was more an exchange of feelings held via pheromones. It was mentally tiring, talking to something with such an alien way of communicating. She cajoled the seeds to defy their natures and sprout, but they were sure she was killing them and moved slowly. Finally, she saw the green of the seed and the green of the soil mix, and she knew that they would grow, at least in this area. Unfortunately, she couldn't cover the whole field, or all the fields at once. This was going to be a long task.

Most disturbing was the feelings she'd gotten from the seeds; they hadn't wanted to grow. They didn't recognize the dirt as a growing medium anymore. Myf knew that she could force it, and once the process was started, it should continue. But if this was more widespread than the Refuge, it would be bad.

Gerald shot James an irritated look. "I was a farmer before the zombies," he told the other man, "and we have several other farmers who are working on this too. Whatever this is, it was none of our doing. Perhaps God tests us." He didn't sound happy or convinced.

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"It's the seeds," Myfwany says at length. Around the group, green shoots began to poke out of the ground, though just a little.

"They're healthy, but...it's like they don't 'trust' the earth. Once I got them to reach out, they were fine, but it's like..."

She grimaced, hating the imprecision of it all. "It's like they're afraid to come out of their shells. Afraid the dirt won't support them. Afraid they'll die."

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Originally Posted By: Dawn, OOC
Gerald shot James an irritated look. "I was a farmer before the zombies," he told the other man, "and we have several other farmers who are working on this too. Whatever this is, it was none of our doing. Perhaps God tests us." He didn't sound happy or convinced.
James didn't pick up on the look but he recognized the tone, sighed, and said, "I was afraid of that. So we have a problem other than ignorance."

James considered, *Out of several hundred randomly chosen people, what were the odds that we'd have several farmers? Before Z-day they were only like 1% or so of the general pop. No, odds were pretty high. This wasn't random, most of the survivors came from small town and not downtown Fort Wayne.*

This was rapidly leading to memories James didn't want to revisit so he said, "If I could see I'd go hopping around and see how widespread this is." James turned to Gerald and continued, "You know what to look for, if you want to drive around I'm up for playing shotgun bodyguard."
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"James, before you go anywhere, I want to check your eyes and see how they're doing," Myfwany said quickly, glancing over at him.

"As for the seeds...now that I know what to look for, maybe I can sort out the good from the bad now. Where do we keep our stocks? Don't throw the bad ones out either. I want to try them in different kinds of soil...maybe there's something specific about this ground they're reacting to."

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Originally Posted By: SalmonMax
"James, before you go anywhere, I want to check your eyes and see how they're doing," Myfwany said quickly, glancing over at him.
James nodded, this was what he came here for. He replied, "Right now?"
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Morgan thought. "So Myf, if I understand correctly, the regular seeds, the ones already in the ground are fine? Just those that were separated during the z-plague are not growing? Or at least that's your understanding so far? There are lots of fields that were planted last summer that never got harvested all over the country. All of those fields should be growing and spouting now, although they will be full of weeds. I wonder if it would be possible to transplant some of those crops and have them grow here? Another thing to find out would be whether seeds from those plants growing during the Z would grow or be just like these?"

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Myf holds up a hand to forestall James, and answers Fox.

"It's not that simple. The 'weeds' that are still growing have pretty short generation spans, if I understand right. I'm not a big gardener, but grasses, dandelions and so on...they produce seeds pretty often. And our farmer here says they're growing fine."

"But all the seeds you've been planting this season are...troubled. And it seems to be happening to them regardless of where they came from. I can't explain why that's so. I have no idea what's 'really' happening down there. This power is...sometimes hard to interpret. There's either something about these seeds you're trying to plant that makes them afraid of good soil...or something about this soil that makes it scary to these seeds, but not others. I couldn't tell you which though. We need to set up a chemistry set, take some soil samples from several different places, and start cataloging which plants are growing naturally and which aren't."

She shakes her head. "Which is all fine, but it'll take time. The best I can do short term is go around trying to force them to take root. But it's not easy, and I won't be able to get much done per day."

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"My point was the common thread here is that the seeds no growing are the ones that were not in the ground 6 months ago when the Z happened. The stuff that was in the ground at the time is all still producing seeds and growing and the seeds from those things are growing. What I'm suggesting is to harvest some seeds from live growing plants and see if they will grow here." He pointed to the growing weeds, "These are growing in this soil because they were already in the soil and they know they don't have anything to be afraid of, to use your words. Everything we've planted has come from seeds that were raided from stores or farms or whatnot, but weren't in the ground when the plague hit. But you say the seeds and soil both look healthy."

He paused for a second the finished, "I'm no scientist, but that makes me think we looking at something other than just a virus. Maybe it was some kind of cosmic radiation that caused the mutation that caused the Z. Could be that Z isn't a virus at all but something already in us that mutated? Since it happened world wide in less than three days even in the remotest places on the planet that has always made me doubt it was a virus unless it was somehow airborne and spread throughout the upper atmosphere across the globe. Even then it should have taken more that three days to hit everywhere, but it was like it hit the whole planet at the same time. Only way I can figure that is if it was done by intelligent design or if the Earth moved into a region of space that was 'infected' whether with the virus or some radiation that mutated something already in us. what do you think doc?" Morgan wasn't a scientist but his brain had definitely geared up considerably since the Z hit.

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"Well, I've been thinking it's not a virus, or not JUST a virus for awhile now," Myfwany admits. "But I wasn't privy to that kind of information about how it started. I heard vague stories about it having multiple outbreaks more or less at the same time, so people thought it was an attack. But by then...well, it was mostly bedlam, so there wasn't much time to swap stories."

She looks down at the ground.

"I see what you're saying though. The seeds were isolated from whatever changed in the environment, and now they're reacting defensively. The plants that were affected at the same time are fine with it."

After a moment of tapping her lip, Myf looks at Fox. "Lets get some shovels and dig down under the topsoil. The dirt farther down may have been shielded from whatever caused this. Maybe we'll have more luck getting these seeds to grow in it."

She turns to look at James. "James, hold still for a second. I'm going to take a look at you out here, I think. I can leave your bandages on for this much."

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Morgan nodded eagerly at Myfwany's suggestion. "That's an excellent thought, and it would be a good test. Some kind of particles can go all the way through the Earth, so it may not definitively rule out some kind of Radiation or biological attack. Also, rainwater has had 6 months to filter down through the soil so if it is a something really small it could be through the entire water table by now. It's still a good idea though and could shed some light on possible causes."

"And yeah, being part of a government bunker designed to survive a nuclear war and remain in communication in the event of breakdown of normal channels, yeah, I stayed in communication a bit longer than most and got a little better of a picture of what happened that someone relying just on the tv or radio. The military feeds remained online for nearly a full week and we got reports from all over the world where soldiers were stationed. Aircraft Carriers in the middle of the ocean that hadn't seen port in weeks or even months got hit just like anywhere else. The only thing I don't know about was sub crews. I've been wondering for a while if any sub crew that was isolated and had been living off contained atmosphere contracted the Z, but if they did they never reported, and it never got to me."

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Originally Posted By: SalmonMax
She turns to look at James. "James, hold still for a second. I'm going to take a look at you out here, I think. I can leave your bandages on for this much."
James said, "OK."

He continued, "You're still assuming a lot about the soil. It could just as easily be a local super-zom who prevents things from conceiving. Which by the way would seriously suck for all animal life around here, including us."
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"And no one's assuming anything," Myf adds as she steps closer to James to peer intently at him. "We just want to start collecting some hard data. Figuring out what grows in what soil is just the beginning of that process."

The visible world melted away, and James stood before her as a creature of light, green and golden twining together in patterns of dizzying complexity. The gold light was strongest around his eyes though, and on getting close she could see it rebuilding him, merging with and becoming the green. This was what she'd been missing before. Without being able to see his power, she couldn't coordinate with it. But now...

Carefully she sent her own power into James' body. She didn't fight with his regeneration, but instead assisted it. Sure enough, this time it didn't reject her.

It took only a few moments for Myf and James' power to rebuild the patterns of his eyes. She blinked back to her normal sight and started peeling the tape away from the bandages over his eyes.

"Now, lets see if this is any better. Shut your eyes, then just crack them open a little to get used to the light."

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Originally Posted By: Mr Fox
"I doubt that's an issue James. We'd be like the weeds here, plants already growing in the soil, our seeds would still grow I think."
James replied, "I think my seed doesn't count as 'already planted'. cool But my point is we don't know if this is just this location, just these species, or what. If the zoms are someone's idea of a biological weapon, then they might have done something for our big name crops."

"Or if some law of physics changed, then a big name crop or six might have changed oddly. Z-day might not have been just people, but if we're missing a few other species then we just haven't noticed till now."

"We have an idea, but it's off one data point and we really should get more data."
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Originally Posted By: SalmonMax
Carefully she sent her own power into James' body. She didn't fight with his regeneration, but instead assisted it. Sure enough, this time it didn't reject her.

It took only a few moments for Myf and James' power to rebuild the patterns of his eyes. She blinked back to her normal sight and started peeling the tape away from the bandages over his eyes.
*What's Myf up to? I thought she said we weren't going to change bandages? Guess she changed her mind.*

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax
"Now, lets see if this is any better. Shut your eyes, then just crack them open a little to get used to the light."
It was very, VERY tempting to open them wide... but James had seen (and done) enough stupid things that he followed the doctor's orders. He opened his eyes a crack... and then opened them wide.

"I can see!" alcyourock

James stole a kiss from Myf and then danced around with the next closest person, which happened to be Gerald. Putting Gerald down James then bowed deeply to Myf and said, "Thank you."
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Myf bore James' gratitude with patient acceptance, then snimed and replied, "You're very welcome. I'm glad I could finally help."

She gazed out over the field and said, "It seems to me this crop issue has two distinct problems. One, we need to be sure we can grow food in the future, and two...we'll need these particular crops."

"I can, over the course of a few days, get the crops to root and grow. That will cover the immediate emergency. But we need to investigate the cause of this. We'll need soil samples from different depths. Seeds both from storage and from local plants that are growing normally..." She thinks. "Water too. Groundwater samples. Anything I'm missing?"

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