THE CREATURE CHAPTERS:
CHAPTER I:
ORIGIN
BY JACOB SCOGGINS
CHAPTER 1
May 21, 2011
Daniel quickly walked up the steps to the lab entrance. At the door, he typed the pass code into the keypad. It was a code only a small handful of people knew. The electronic door opened automatically leading into a small square room with one door at the other side. Inside, on racks against the wall were several protective suits. He put one on and proceeded to the other door. It was marked with a contamination symbol. Here he typed in another pass code.
The door opened into a small hall. There was a third door at the other end. It opened as he approached it. On the other side was the lab. Scientific equipment lined the walls. There were many people in the room. Everyone wore the same type of suit Daniel wore. One of them noticed Daniel and approached him excitedly.
“Dr. Steen! I’m glad you’re here, we found something.” He exclaimed.
He took Daniel across the room to an area with several people crowded around it taking notes and making observations.
“People! Make some room!” Daniel told them.
They moved aside so he could get a better look. In front of him was a table with a microscope on it. He looked through it. He had never seen anything like what he was now looking at.
“What is this thing?” He inquired.
“We aren’t sure.” One of the scientists explained, “We believe it to be some kind of virus.”
“Impossible, it has the characteristics of an animal!”
Daniel exclaimed. He looked again into the microscope. The thing looked like a small insect.
“Exactly. Some of the scientists think it might even be an entirely new class of organism.” Another whispered.
“Where exactly did you find this thing?” Questioned Daniel.
“Some men went on an expedition into some regions of wilderness in South America that had not been explored before.” One of them began, “We had no contact with them for a month. We were getting worried. A short while later they were found.”
“They had a strange illness,” another continued, “The top doctors in the country couldn’t heal them. They all died. In autopsy however, creatures like this were found in the bloodstream.”
“I see.” Daniel murmured. Whatever the creature was, it was lethal, and it was his responsibility.
He had to find the source of the strange organism.
“We have to find out were this thing originated from.” He explained.
“How?” one inquired.
“We go to South America.”
CHAPTER 2
May 23,2011
Daniel’s machete chopped through the branches in front of him. He had landed in Brazil the day before.
His mission was to find the location where the strange organism originated. He and his team had almost made it to the locale at which they had lost contact with the explorers whom first had contact with the organism. It would only be a matter of searching until they found something, he supposed.
“We are at the explorers last known location, Dr. Steen,” the guide announced.
It was a small village with lots of men, women and children walking about their daily routine. Before they moved on, Daniel asked some of the people questions in hopes of finding out what the explorers’ next destination had been. Finally, one of the people answered by pointing southeast, meaning they had ventured even deeper into the forest.
Daniel called his team together so they could set out again. Over the next five days they ran into several more villages as they went deeper into the Amazon jungle. Eventually they ceased to find any villages at all. Daniel was positive that they were on the right track. After two weeks of walking day after day, some of the men started complaining that they weren’t finding anything, and they worried that the strange creatures would kill them like the explorers. But Daniel wouldn’t listen. They trudged onward. Finally, they found something. In the ground was a crater, about fifty feet across and ten feet deep. Nothing surrounded it but tall trees, bushes and grass. Daniel scooped up some of the soil from the crater and put it under the microscope the team had brought with them. His suspicions were correct. The soil was filled with the little organisms.
“This is the place,” he announced. Then he started thinking. He had now discovered their place of origin, a crater. Craters come from small meteorites that crash into earth from space. One, about ten feet across, could have made this crater and nobody would really notice. But, if the organisms were from whatever made the crater, then most likely, they were from… space.
This could prove life existed in other places than earth, he thought to himself. It would bring new doorways and options that science had never seen before! He got out his cell phone to call the lab. He dialed the number and waited for someone to answer. Finally someone did.
“Who is speaking!?” came a voice from the phone.
“Dr. Daniel Steen.” Daniel answered.
“Dr. Steen! I can’t believe I got a hold of you, I have horrible news, I went to the lab this morning, everyone was dead, and the specimens of the mystery organism are gone.”
CHAPTER 3
June 9, 2011
A lot of things went through Daniels mind as his plane landed back in North America. He didn’t know what could have happened. Had someone stolen the specimens? Did they infect someone? He needed answers. Two hours later he was at the lab (which was now lined with police tape.) He stepped inside and watched as crime scene analysts looked for evidence.
While this was happening, he slipped over to the table the specimens had been on. There was some broken glass and a few drops of some kind of liquid. Without attracting attention to himself he slipped some glass and a bit of the liquid into a plastic bag and left the scene. He drove to his apartment. It was like a miniature lab. There were microscopes, test tubes and dissecting tool on various tables. He took the glass broken and put it under the microscope. There was some blood and tissue on it, but nothing amazing.
He then looked at the liquid. He was interested in this. It was the same type of liquid that was in the tank with the specimens. How did it get on the table?
They were sealed in the container with a password safe lock. Then he thought of it. The glass and liquid.
He had it. The container was broken! The creatures had been released and they killed the scientists! But, they should have been wearing protective suits. The organisms wouldn’t have hurt them much less kill them. Unless, thought Daniel. He had a new theory. If he was right it would explain everything. It would also throw the city into mass panic. Suddenly,
Daniel’s radio flashed on.
“This is an important news broadcast! The city is in mass panic! Strange creatures are terrorizing the people! No one knows where they have come from. The SWAT teams are out right now searching for the creatures. For your own safety, we ask that you stay indoors. Goodnight.”
Daniel’s theory was correct. The creatures had grown over time. They had gotten too big for their case, had broken out, and killed the scientists.
Daniel decided it was his responsibility to stop the creatures. He would have to go into the city to capture one. Then he could find their weakness and defeat the rest. The trouble would be catching one in the first place. He went to the back of the apartment and into his closet. He got out a small black case. Inside lay a Smith & Wesson pistol. It was his only firearm. It was alien hunting time.
CHAPTER 4
June 10, 2011
“One went in that building!” the SWAT captain yelled. The things were everywhere. Inside buildings, in dumpsters, in the park! He had his hands full. He looked to his left and saw a young man approaching the scene. Daniel almost didn’t notice the captain.
“Hey you!” the captain called in Daniels direction. Daniel looked up. Upon seeing that he’d been spotted Daniel ran away. He couldn’t have the police find out what he was doing. He ran into the park and was concealed by the bushes. He brought out his gun and loaded a tranquilizer dart into it. He heard a rustling in the trees in front of him. He looked up. One of the creatures was right there! He aimed upward and fired. He hit it! But it wasn’t down yet. The creature got down from the tree and started running south. Daniel pursued it.
He followed a trail of blood it left behind. Finally he found it completely paralyzed by the dart which had stuck into its thigh. He now had the chance to get a better look at it. It looked about four and a half feet tall. It resembled a praying mantis except for the fact that it was blue. He pulled out a trash bag he’d brought with him and stuffed the beast into it. He then ran all the way to his house. Once inside, he locked and bolted every door and window and got to work. He injected the mantis like alien with a chemical that would make its paralyzed state last longer. He arranged several syringes on a table. Each contained a different chemical. He knew at least one must be able to hurt it. After two hours and several injections, the alien was unharmed.
It was hopeless. Daniel rose to get a drink of lemonade. As he picked it up however, he slipped in some spilled chemicals. Daniel ended up on the floor, his drink ended up spilling on the specimen’s body. Daniel rose to go get some towels to clean the mess. We he returned, he was shocked.
On the part of the alien the lemonade had touched, the skin had painful looking burn marks on it. It was stained with blood. He examined this for a moment. Then he went to get a pen and paper. He wrote down some scientific formulas and he had his answer. He knew how to stop the creatures. This little adventure to find the organism’s weakness was over, finally they could stop them. It would take time, but he would do it!
EPILOGUE
Over the next few weeks, Daniel helped the SWAT team to develop an aerosol form of the citric acid. They then dispersed it into to city’s air supply.
No traces of the organisms could be found, the city was thought to be safe.
July 7, 2011
Martin Lavanderez was a top notch SWAT officer. He had been greatly involved in case OCC, short for Operation Creature Capture. He was heading home from the SWAT offices. Martin had left work early because of a bad cough he had developed over the afternoon. He hadn’t thought much about the time during the operation when one creature’s claws had grazed his right arm. It had grown sore. He hadn’t thought that cough and scar were connected. If only he had, he might has been able to save himself.
July 14, 2011
At 6 pm, man who called himself by the name Martin was admitted to the local hospital. At 1am,
he died of unknown causes. His dead body was sent to autopsy. Inside his bloodstream, a strange bug-like organism was found. They hadn’t encountered anything like it. Samples of the blood were put into test tubes and mailed off. They arrived at a government research center. They were frozen and stored in Biosafety level 4 containment zones. Then, one of the doctors there made a phone call.
“Hello, I need to speak to Dr. Daniel Steen…”
