The Core

The virus was unpredictable, stealing through cities and megatropolises without rhyme or reason. Scientists had no hope of keeping up. They couldn’t even discern how the virus was being transmitted from host to host, let alone where it came from or how to cure it. The pandemic was in full swing by the dawn of the second day.

What was even stranger, was that the virus seemed to have no purpose, other than to physically alter the shape of host body cells. With no outward symptoms apart from the geometric shapes adhering themselves to the cells, scientists weren’t willing to make any guesses. It was sheer luck that they had discovered the virus at all, simply calling it HV-1X —Host Virus: first of its kind, X being an unknown quantity.

At the 72 hour mark, the virus progressed from internal to external, leaving patterns all over the host’s skin. Was it merely random, or was this some kind of message? Would the virus continue to progress and mutate, transforming us into some new kind of life form? Humanity’s best scientists had failed thus far to provide any answers. Maybe there wouldn’t be anyone left to find out. HV-1X may have been the last chapter of human history — or the beginning of something wholly alien.