not virus

         “Wake up 6 a.m., homework until 9 a.m., work until 4 p.m., class until 6:30, dinner till seven, and then homework until I pass out from exhaustion.”
         Lillie leaned back in her chair, satisfied with her schedule for the next day. Just as she was beginning to fall into the rhythm of organizing her things she heard a loud, frantic banging on the door. With a sigh she went to open it; as soon as she unlocked the door, the hurricane who called herself Rosa barreled in.
         “I’m so sorry, I forgot my key and then I got stuck —”
         Lillie cut her off. “It’s fine, at least I was awake this time.” As she spoke several of Rosa’s things fell onto the floor. “Listen, I'm in the middle of something right now, and I don’t have time for your mess so we can just talk later okay?” Rosa’s dark eyes welled up as Lillie left her in the doorway picking up her things. Lillie resumed her homework, but she was unable to focus on the minute differences in pharmaceutical drugs used to treat athlete's foot.
         Her mind wandered back to the harsh words she used with Rosa. After twenty minutes of unproductive sulking, Lillie gathered the humility to apologize. This task required virtually no physical effort as the apartment the girls shared was roughly a quarter the size of a standard high school classroom. Curtains separated two, closet-sized, bedrooms from the main room. The mental effort required to apologize, however, was high. Lillie pulled back her curtains to see her roommate sitting on the floor in front of their coffee table, her tiny frame dwarfed by the large, comfortable couch behind her. Something on the other end of her microscope entranced her— as is the norm for biology post grads.
         “Hey, Rosa, I’m sorry.”
         “It’s fine,” her voice dripping with disinterest towards everything that wasn’t in her petri dish.
         “Whatcha got there? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so focused on anything.”
         “I have no clue, do you wanna see?”
         “Uh, okay, sure.” Lillie grabbed a pillow off the couch and sat next to Rosa on the floor. Rosa removed the petri dish she was looking at, the dark blue liquid further muting the soft olive of her skin. A dish containing a dark red liquid took its place under the microscope. The new petri dish contained large round cells stained light red, wriggling and moving against a darker red background.
         “Alright, you see those lil guys? Those are pond scum, pretty cute, right?”
         Lillie did not see the appeal. “Yeah... adorable...”
         “Okay, now watch what happens when I put these other cells in, these are purple-y red so you can see it better.” The first noticeable change once the new cells were introduced was the liquid around the pond scum darkening with the addition of more dye. Then, the purple cells came into view. They were covered in thick flagellum that seemed to come to incredibly sharp points and they moved extremely quickly. When they came into contact with the pond scum one of two things would occur. The purple cells would either swallow the pond scum whole, like very tiny snakes covered in spines, or the cells would point all the flagellum towards the pond scum and burrow inside like a drill. A few moments later, the pond scum would break open and two purple cells would emerge.
         “Okay, what am I looking at?”
         “Like I said, I have no clue. Some sketchy guy gave it to my professor and my professor wanted to test it. So, him being the lazy bastard that he is and me being the kiss up that I am, I offered to do it.”
         “Huh.”
         “It was really strange, too,” Rosa was speaking a mile a minute at this point, “It seemed like my professor knew him. He got all flustered when he walked in and barely managed to say ‘hello.’ I couldn’t tell if he was scared, or embarrassed, or both. The other guy was acting weird, too; he didn't look up from the ground once and when he handed it to my professor, he just said, ‘This will clear your vision, mix with water and ingest once in the morning.’ But again, it was really strange, he didn’t have an accent but he stressed the wrong syllables, like his first language wasn’t English. At first, I thought it was some kind of drug because—” She held up a small bottle labeled, “unknown substance c21,” it was filled nearly to the brim with fine white powder “but obviously not so I’m totally stumped. I mean, yeah its cells but normal cells of any other organism don’t act like this at all, and it’s not a virus so...”
         “The plot thickens?”
         “Yeah. I wish I could get a second pair of eyes on this.”
         “Do you want me to call someone? I know a couple people studying cellular biology.”
         “That would be really nice. Would you?”
         “Sure thing! I’m just as curious as you are honestly.”
         “Thank you.”
         Lillie pulled out her phone, scrolled through her contacts and tapped on one reading “Basil Xiang, biology” as the dial tone played she put the phone on speaker and gave Rosa a weak smile. Talking on the phone was never something she looked forward to; Rosa nodded in encouragement. There was a click on the phone.
         “Hello?”
         “Hey Basil, it’s Lillie, been awhile, huh?”
         “It really has, what's shakin'?”
         “Well, my roommate Rosa found something very strange and wanted a second opinion on it. Do you think you could take a look?”
         “Alright, can I ask for more details?” Lillie motioned for Rosa to speak. She explained; her language was somewhat unscientific, on account of her excitement, but Basil was interested nonetheless. They scheduled to meet tomorrow night.
         Lillie and Rosa both sighed of relief. With that out of the way, the two went back to their work, and soon, to sleep.
         The next day passed without any particular moment standing out. The monotony blended into a fatigued daze. The door opened and slammed. Something large and heavy fell to the floor. The sounds forced Lillie back to consciousness. Rosa yelled, “That weird guy came back today!”
         Lillie replied groggily “What, really?”
         “Yeah.”
         “What did he say?”
         “He asked my professor had taken his ‘medicine’ he said yes just to get him to leave, I think.”
         “He couldn’t have taken it, though.”
         “I know. The guy didn’t leave right away either, he stood less than a foot away from Dr. Lemmons and just squinted at him for a solid four minutes.”
         “Your professor’s name is ‘lemons’?”
         “Yeah. It has two 'm's.”
         Lillie blinked. “Okay, by the way, Basil should be here in about two hours. If I were you, I’d get all my nerd stuff ready.”
         The stylish black coffee table transformed into a lab. Expensive, delicate equipment was haphazardly plugged into outlets on every side of the room. Rosa’s notes were neatly stacked by her side on the floor and her laptop sat on the table above. The rest of the space was absolutely covered in petri dishes, many stacked three or four high. They were full of liquids of varying color and consistency, each one meticulously marked with the concentration of cells, the dye used, and the other organisms present, if there were any.
         “How did you have time to do all this?” Lillie questioned.
         “That guy creeped out Dr. Lemmons so bad he had a couple undergrads help me collect data. Did I tell you he even called me by my first name?”
         “You’re talking about the same professor, right? The one who calls eighty percent of the postgrads ‘you’ and the other twenty just the first letter of their last name?”
         “That’s the one.”
         “You are gonna do so well on your dissertation if he’s on the board.”
         “Don’t get my hopes up! I barely even know my topic at this point.”
         “Well, why not this?” She gestured to the table.
         Rosa nodded. “If I can get something out of these things, that’d be a Godsend.”
         “Since they are technically a new discovery, don’t you get naming rights?”
         “Huh, I never thought about it... yeah I do. Do you want to help me come up with a name?”
         “Okay. so I was thinking because they’re kind of evil and they’ve got weird tentacle things, how about Ursula?”
         “No, absolutely not. I refuse to name what is essentially my child after a Disney villain.”
         “Alright, so no Ursula and Oogie Boogie is out by default... hmm... how about—”
         “Oogie Boogie are you serious?”
         “Yeah like ‘Oogius Boogius.’”
         “Weirdo.”
         “How about Mr. Whiskers?”
         “Come on Lillie be serious.”
         “Fine. If you don’t like my amazing names you come up with one.”
         “Uhh okay,” Rosa pulled out her phone and quickly typed something, after scrolling for a few seconds she looked up and said, “Peinaleos multalae.”
         “What does that mean?”
         “Hungry many arms.”
         “Oh come on, where’s the drama?”
         “Okay, fine. What do you suggest?”
         Lillie turned to her laptop, mumbling to herself as she searched. Rosa began to think that Lillie forgot about her when she turned and exclaimed, “Thirodium plithocirris!”
         Rosa mimicked a spelling bee contestant, “Definition please?”
         “Many armed horror beast.”
         “I kind of like it. Alright, there’s my working title. Thank you.”
         “No problem!” She grinned. “I should be thanking you, it’s not every day I get to tentatively name an organism.”
         “You’re right, I revoke my ‘thank you’ and replace it with a 'you’re welcome.’”
         “Touche.” They chuckled.
         After some time, Basil arrived. Brief, excited hellos were exchanged and they all sat around the makeshift lab. Basil and Rosa hit it off at once, falling deep into a conversation that Lillie couldn’t understand. She was content with the proximity of other humans, watching them work with fascination.
         Hours dragged on, the quiet, happy lull, pierced. Blood. Basil’s hand was bleeding. Both girls jumped up to search for a first aid kit, both came up empty. Basil laughed. “I’m okay, don’t worry.”
         Their1 pallor betrayed their feigned calm. The three minutes it took for Lille to find a clean rag were an eternity. Basil accepted the rag graciously and made a lame effort at cleaning the copious amount of blood. Rosa guided them to the sink and helped them clean up while Lillie rushed to a corner store. The blood washed off immediately but a syrupy red substance clung to Basil’s hand. Rosa turned up the hot water and it slowly melted off leaving the skin underneath stained an alarming shade of red. “I’m sorry, this will hurt.” She poured rubbing alcohol into the wound; Basil winced. The rag they had used before was soaked so she found an old white t-shirt and dressed the wound with care. When the majority of the bleeding had stopped and some color returned to Basil’s face Rosa asked, “How did that even happen? I didn’t see what cut you.”
         “I was preparing a solution and the dish had a crack in it. It started disintegrating in my hands so I grabbed it to stop it from falling.”
         “I’m sorry, do you feel okay? Besides the bleeding.”
         “Yeah I’m alright, we can keep going if you want.”
         “No no, I want to make sure you’re okay. Can I see the cut again? You might need stitches.” Basil presented their hand and closed their eyes to avoid feeling queasy. A jagged gash ran across their right palm, below their thumb the cut was deepest, almost to the bone. It was clear that an artery was cut, evident by the rapid blood loss. As she examined the cut for any remaining glass particles the blood trickled out to the beat of Basil’s heart. Yep, definitely an artery she thought. She wrapped the wound again. “Can you move your thumb?”
         Basil strained slightly, their expression pained. “Yeah, a little it hurts a lot, though.”
         “I’m sorry to say, I think you need stitches. Of course, Lillie would know for certain but this is definitely not a paper cut.”
         “Damn.”
         “You should stay here for the night. Tomorrow I’ll take you the lab nurse.”
         “Thank you.”
         Rosa set up the couch so Basil could sleep comfortably. Lillie returned with compression bandages, a foul, but healthy smelling green juice, and a pack of tofu.
         “Okay Lillie, I understand you’re trying to help but what are you trying to help with here? Is it a big-ass cut or an unhealthy diet?”
         Lillie spoke to Basil, ignoring her. “You need vitamins and protein after you lose a significant amount of blood. I’d say you lost about two cups of blood which puts you at risk for stage II hypovolemia. Drink this.” She offered the green juice. “Rosa, can you dress the wound with those bandages while I make them something to eat? Be sure it’s really tight. You might be able to get out of stitches if you’re lucky.” She prepared the tofu at the tiny stove in the corner and chopped green onions on the table beside it.
         Within minutes there was a plate of warm tofu, steaming jasmine rice, and blanched greens in Basil’s hands. “Thank you.” They croaked. Lillie poured them a glass of orange juice.
         “No problem, hey Rosa are you hungry? We have extra food.”
         “Yes!”
         Lillie put together a plate for herself and Rosa. The three ate around the coffee table, kept conversation light-hearted, cleaned up, and went to bed.
         The next morning Rosa went to wake Basil and they looked bad, very bad.

END OF PART ONE

 
         Basil was covered in green mold colored bruises. Their eyelids, fingernails, wrists, ears, and nose were particularly pigmented. Their normally pale ocher skin now had a sickly sage hue.
         Rosa shook Basil awake, they groaned “Okay I'm awake.”
         “Are you okay? You look like hell.”
         They stretched and yawned, “I'm kinda sore, but I feel fine mostly.” They caught a glimpse of their unmarred hand. “What the..?”
Rosa woke Lillie and dragged her to the couch. Despite her vast knowledge of diseases, infections, and reactions of the human body, Basil's symptoms were a disturbing mystery.
         “Wow, that is not a color skin should be. Do you feel any different?”
         “Not really, just sore and tired”
         “Okay, time to speak to a certified medical professional. Let's go.”
         The trio got ready and boarded a bus headed to the science department, making strained, meaningless conversation throughout their commute.
         Rosa went back to her lab, hoping the odd stranger would return, while Basil and Lillie went to the nurse's office. The office was standard and uninspiring, it was clean, and lit with offensive fluorescent lights. The smell of disinfectants mingled with dust giving it an oppressive slow and musty air. The nurse who took care of Basil was also slow and musty. She instructed them on how to care for the wound should they choose not to get stitches, repeating things unnecessarily and going off on tangents without any input. She didn't seem to notice or care about Basil's green complexion and any attempt to bring it up was interrupted. Lillie's phone buzzed. She excused herself to answer it. On the other end of the line a manic Rosa babbled, the poor service made her impossible to understand.
         “Rosa, I'm sorry but I can't understand you at all. Can you repeat?”
         “Dr. Lemmons was stabbed!”
         “What happened?!”
         “The man came back, he argued with the professor, he kept saying the metamorphosis was too slow. Then he just stopped. He burst out laughing, speaking in a horrible language. Then he took out a knife— ” she was forced to stop by her quiet sobs; this was not what she had hoped for.
         “Okay, listen to me, whatever you do, do not try to remove the knife, apply pressure to stop the bleeding and keep him awake by talking to him. Call an ambulance. I'll grab Basil and be there in five minutes. You got this Rosa.”
         Lillie rushed back into the slow office, yelled something vague about an emergency to the nurse, grabbed Basil by their good arm, and sprint-dragged them to Dr. Lemmons’ lab.
         Rosa was kneeling over the man both hands pressed on his chest above the knife lodged in his ribs. By placement alone, it was clear his outcome would be grim. If the rapid blood loss didn't kill him, he would either succumb to a punctured lung or he would suffocate on his own blood. When Basil came into his view, his gaze sharpened. He spoke in a raspy, agonized voice, “You have been implanted, yes?”
         Basil gave him a puzzled look.
         “The stuff he gave me, it's in your body.”
         Basil nodded.
         “Him and I used to share similar... world views, it seems that the cult has not loosened its grip on him yet.”
         Rosa spoke, her voice shaky, “What's going to happen to Basil?”
         “There isn't much hope for the transformation to stop, but your best bet is to go to the tunnels where him and... the others reside. He may know a way to reverse or stop the effects.”
         “Where do we find him?”
         He gave them directions to an abandoned bomb shelter and explained that there were many near it, after they were abandoned the cult had created a vast underground network. His strength was fading fast he, was exerting more and more force just to keep breathing. Before anyone could stop him he grabbed the knife and yanked it, almost fainting from the pain. “Can I have a little help..?” He knew he was going to die very soon but there was one last thing he could do for the unfortunate trio.
After a few moments of hesitation Basil rested their hands on the hilt of the knife on top of the professor's hands. They pulled, the knife came free with an awful squelch.
         “This may help...” he pushed the knife into Basil's hands. All the vitality was drained from his body, his eyes rolled back in his head and he became like a rag doll. The three all made some sign to pay respects to the now expired professor. Without a word Basil offered the knife to Rosa, she accepted, clinging onto it like a scared child would a security blanket. The sound of sirens in the distance urged the trio out of the lab and toward the bunkers.
         The claustrophobia in the tunnels was despotic. The air was hot and damp causing constant pressure on their chests. The moisture in the air caused their flashlights to be dim.
         The hot and humid environment sped Basil's transformation. An hour after they had entered the tunnels their skin was completely green, damp, their body slightly puffy, and their movements gained a wobbly quality.
         An abandoned bomb shelter in itself is unnerving, the artifacts strewn about brought back the paranoia of the time they were from, these tunnels however where a whole different beast. Periodically, crazed, but decidedly human laughter could be heard, the echoing however, made it impossible to discern which direction it was coming from, even more ominous the low, definitely not human rumbles and shrieks. Vermin populations were very dense, every few minutes one of them felt something brush past their foot or step on something that was not concrete or gravelly soil.
         The tunnels were a complete maze, passageways gradually narrowing to about the circumference of a manhole towards the center, then gradually widening into an old bunker, where there were often several tunnels connecting. Initially, the trio vastly underestimated the expansive nature of the tunnels. It was evident by the fact that after two hours they had still not seen any one place twice. They estimated the network spanned a three mile radius, assuming it was configured circularly.
         Eventually Basil had to stop, their shoes so tight on their swollen feet they could no longer walk. The group stopped in a bunker that seemed safe, before sitting they checked the surroundings for any foreign entities. When they were confident there was no other life nearby they stopped and rested. Lillie helped Basil remove their shoes. Rosa sat against the wall and examined the knife.
         It was a two edged dagger, made from bronze darkened with tarnish, its hilt was bone, yellowed with age the blade and the hilt were inscribed with characters unlike any previous language. The characters rough and angular, dots surrounding and sometimes inside the characters. Her teacher’s blood, now dried, covered the blade. Despite the pain it caused her to look at, she was mesmerised by it. The others called to her that they were ready to go, but she did not notice them. They spoke louder and still, no reaction. Basil tapped her on the shoulder. Rosa looked up at them and let out a shriek, the sound of her own terror finally breaking her trance.
         For an instant, it was not Basil standing next to her. In their place was an unspeakable and unfathomable horror.
         “Hey, its okay, its just me.”
         “I’m sorry, yeah. You just startled me for a second.” They both knew this was a lie, but decided not to discuss it any further. Before they left the bunker they found the water stock and drank. They set out again.
         Two hours had elapsed since their arrival into the caves and once again Basil’s transformation forced them to stop. When they walked their feet dragged slightly behind due to their limbs losing form and their constrictive pants, after checking to make sure the girls wouldn’t be uncomfortable if Basil was pants-less, they found a private spot and attempted to remove them with no luck. They asked Rosa for the knife gently, she offered it, but at the last second she gripped it tightly and glared at Basil.
         “It’s okay. I’ll give it back, I promise.”
         Rosa did not respond, instead she cut along the sides of Basil’s pants. The useless garment fell away revealing green, slick, noodly legs, and, thankfully, undamaged underwear. Basil noticed small pores on their legs now oozing a thick, limpid, pale pink liquid, they assumed it was blood and decided not to mention it.
         Lillie called to the others, she found a strange symbol. Rosa recognized the language from the knife and lead the way, not knowing where she was going but inextricably drawn to it. As they followed the symbols, and Rosa, they approached the inhuman rumbles and shrieks, the pressure increased and the temperature decreased. The humidity was so high a thin layer of fog hovered just above the ground. The increase in pressure was too much for Basil, once again they stopped. They vomited in a corner. What looked like organs could be seen among the masticated toast and eggs. Basil was careful not to let the others see and jogged to catch up.
         As they descended, the trio crossed paths with several small, pale, inhuman monstrosities, they were skittish and averse to light. The isolated danger of an individual monster was dwarfed by the looming terror of their numbers and even that was made minuscule when compared to horror of whatever was making the tremorous noises. Basil and Lillie were vocal about their terror, but Rosa’s blind dash for what lay ahead gave them courage. Finally, the trio arrived in a small cavern. There was about two inches of water covering the stone floor. The man was kneeling in front of a grotesque statue.
         Basil spoke, “Excuse me, sir. I've been informed that you can help me?”
         The man turned to face them. He laughed, it was the same laugh as before, hysterical and without joy. “So you were implanted instead. I knew little Jimmy wouldn't disappoint. A pity what happened to him isn't it?”
         “How can you say that… you were the one who killed him!” Lillie yelled.
         He went on, not acknowledging her, “I'm sorry, I couldn't help you even if I wanted to. You're much too far along.”
         He was right, it was clear most of Basil’s bones had disintegrated and dislodged. Their facial structure completely lost, their skin drooping, slimy and pale green.
         He reached into the pockets of his robe and pulled out a sphere that looked like it contained the night sky. Basil was enchanted, their mouth dropped open in what seemed to be awe, and a single, thick eye stalk poked out. The skin that was once Basil oozed off. An emaciated, small, blueish green monstrosity emerged. Bone fragments stuck out of its hunched back like the spines of a porcupine. One of its two stalk eyes took the orb from the man and deposited it in what was probably the creature’s mouth.
         It's spines flared and it pounced on the man, who was unsurprised and undisturbed, quietly and quickly accepting his fate.
         Lillie took this chance to drag a hypnotized Rosa away. Despite Lillie’s efforts, coaxing the girl would not move her legs. The wet sounds of ripping viscera sent Lillie into a panic. She knew no alternative than to carry her over her shoulder and descended deeper into the maze. The incline was too steep. Keeping her balance was impossible. Lillie tumbled and dropped Rosa a few feet back. To her horror, the monster was fast and close behind, only slightly slowed by its bulging belly dragging on the ground. It almost reached Rosa when, by some miracle, she got back up. Lillie grabbed her hand and they sprinted into a larger cavern, much like the last, shallow water covered the ground, and the fog thicker than the previous. The girls hid behind a large boulder, Rosa fumbling with something shiny. They heard the slow, predatorial footsteps of the monster; Rosa positioned herself so her body was completely covering Lillie’s. She was shaking heavily. Slowly, but just as they knew would happen, Basil— the monster— found them again. Its approach was slow, self assured, and infinitely more menacing than a full speed approach and gnashing... bone, Basil’s bones. Lillie squeezed Rosa’s hand. Thirty feet away. Twenty five. Twenty, it occurred to the girls that these could be among the last moments of their lives. Fifteen, tears streamed down their faces. Ten, Rosa tensed, the creature tensed, stopped and waited. It twitched. Rosa made no move. Then it jumped, moving so fast even if they didn’t blink they still could have missed it. Lillie squeezed her eyes shut. She heard Rosa grunt, then, louder, much louder a horrible, deafening scream. It was coming from something terrible and horrifying, with an almost imperceptible amount of human mixed in. She opened her eyes. The knife was on the floor in front of Rosa, her right forearm broken, cut off almost completely, and hanging by a loose length of skin. The monster backed up slowly, still facing them, oozing that viscous pink liquid from below its neck. Rosa grabbed her dangling hand and pulled. There was the unfortunate sound of ripping flesh, again. Lillie grabbed the knife off the ground and Rosa’s remaining hand, and made one, last run. They went further, down into the caves with so many mysteries, hoping, one they hadn’t found yet could save them, or at least give them a chance to fight, to save themselves.
         They turned a corner and met a cold, hard, stone wall. Rosa completely exhausted stumbled, steadied herself against the wall and evacuated her meager breakfast. The horror slowed, its footsteps echoing loudly. Rosa cried softly. Lillie covered Rosa’s mouth, trying to quiet her and watching the end of the tunnel.
         Something in Lillie broke when she saw the creature’s writhing appendages down the long tunnel. Whatever it was it had shattered into a million pieces, like her friend’s— Basil’s bones. Her hand shook as she gripped the knife. She held Rosa tight.
         “I love you.” She whispered.
         Before Rosa had a chance to respond, Lillie inserted the blade into her temple, giving her an infinitely better death.
         The murderer turned to face the monster, still clinging to her dead friend. She was too broken to fight, to do anything but scream and cry. It probed her with a single eye, a cruel joke. Now it's full? No, so many limbs, grabbed at legs, arms, torso. The awful and much too familiar sound of ripping flesh rang out, a terrible, sickening overture to the symphony of her screams.

Footnotes
1  Basil uses they pronouns