The Sickness

By Chad Cooper

15 June 2008 1650 hours
Dr. Upton Lewis
Sandoval, Ecuador

For those of you who are unaware, there has been an outbreak of a disease here in Ecuador for which there is no precedent. This disease has baffled doctors and scientists alike. We have fortunately been able to isolate it to try and find its cause. For now, no direct cause has been linked.

We were able to isolate it through a corpse delivered to us from the morgue by a confused mortician who found no apparent cause of death in the corpse. Everything looked to be in tact. The person was just dead.

We have agreed to study this corpse. We agreed once the mortician died in much the same way. Both corpses reside in our laboratory. For our own safety, we are wearing detoxification suits. Since we received the second corpse, at least three hundred people have died with no trace of why.

The symptoms seem to establish themselves quickly and suddenly and end just as suddenly in death. They include severe vomiting, sleeplessness, lowered body temperature resulting in cold sweats and uncontrollable shivering, and violent coughing.

As head experimentation officer at Better Life Technologies, I’ve decided to devote fully myself and six of my top colleagues to finding a cure. These gifted men are Dr. Richard Beck, Dr. Todd Parcival, Dr. Terrance Lynch, Dr. Tom Perry, Dr. Wayne Marcy, and Dr. Jack White. These are all extremely intelligent men, and we will start immediately. We will not stop until the mission is accomplished, no matter the cost.

17 June 2008 1130 hours

It has been two days since we began investigating this unnamed disease, and already six thousand more people have died. The president of Ecuador has declared a state of emergency and has instituted a draft for us. We have several dead bodies, but we need live bodies to put the disease in, so we can observe its intricacies. We’ve extracted the disease from most of our corpses, of which there are now twelve, but isolating it has not produced a cause or a cure.

The disease seems to react to light, multiplying at an exhausting rate. What in the light causes that multiplication, we still don’t know. At first we figured it was something else, but in the dark, much of the disease died off. That’s all we know for now.

20 June 2008 1821 hours

36,000 people have died in the past seventy-two hours, but we’ve hit a roadblock in our studies. We can’t learn anything more from dead bodies.

Luckily the first batch of draftees arrived today. None of them looked eager.

There were ten of them. There was supposed to be twelve, but the other two died en route. We put seven of them in isolation, and the other three were injected with the disease.

We strapped down Subject 1 in complete light, Subject 2 in complete darkness, and Subject 3 in a mixture of a half an hour in light followed by half an hour in darkness. Then we repeat the process.

Subject 1 died within two hours. Subject 2 is showing fewer and fewer symptoms as time goes by. Subject 3 has shown no change. In the light, the symptoms worsen, but in the darkness, they regress. We will keep an eye on these two all night. We also are interested in what might happen to Subject 1’s body is left in the light, if we do not extract the disease from the body.

21 June 2008 1553 hours

We lost Dr. Parcival today. Other than that, it was a very good day, extremely productive. When we came in, we went straight to Subject 1. It was incredible. His skin had almost completely dissipated. The inner workings of his body were just about completely exposed. His musculoskeletal system seemed to be completely in tact, although his nerves, veins, and arteries seemed to be pinched, so his respiratory system would be completely useless.

This means that the disease is related to the skin. We had originally extracted the disease from the saliva and the bile of the corpses, so our thinking was that perhaps there was still some in the skin of the corpses. We went straight to the drawers and found that the corpses had not actually decomposed at all. We took them out and did a thorough investigation of each corpse. The strangest thing turned up. There were no traces of the disease in any of the corpses. In addition, there were strong signs of asphyxiation in every one. There was not such beforehand.

We moved Subject 1 into a drawer. We also injected Subject 4 and put him in the light. When Subject 4 died, we immediately moved him to a drawer. Then we put Dr. Marcy in charge of checking up on the bodies once an hour.

Subject 2 is showing no symptoms. We are currently testing his saliva for the disease.

We decided to run a test. Subject 5 was injected directly into his bloodstream. Subject 6 was given it in a liquid form. Subject 7 had it rubbed on his chest and neck.

Immediately, Subject 7 began to scream. His exposed skin was bubbling. Within ten minutes, the afflicted skin was gone. We are testing his saliva now too.

Subjects 5 and 6 are both dead. We are keeping them out to run more tests.

21 June 2008 2100 hours

The tests are finished. No trace of the disease in either Subject 2 or 7, although 7’s wound has not healed at all. He most likely would not have lived, so we injected him. Then we sedated him. He died instantly. We’re not sure why.

23 June 2008 1853 hours

Subject 3 finally died today. We will continue to mix the light and the darkness to study the body.

We have learned that the disease starts as an air toxin, and it is ingested orally. From there it is turned into a tasteless liquid form when mixed with saliva, which causes the afflicted to swallow it, mistakenly thinking his mouth is watering. It then goes to the stomach, where it mixes with the bile, which causes the vomiting. From there, it is absorbed into the bloodstream, which affects the temperature. Some stays in the stomach and lines the esophagus, which causes the coughing, which puts the toxin into the air.

The now-poisoned blood flows into the heart and stops it. This all takes place within two hours. Its origins are unclear, but at least we know what it does. We are not sure, however, at what point it is absorbed into the skin, but we agree it is post-mortem.

What we still do not understand is why the process halts in darkness. It also seems to accelerate in heat and decelerate in colder temperatures, which is puzzling considering the lowered body temperatures. When combined with other chemicals, the disease is instantly fatal, as we learned with Subjects 7 and 8. We gave 8 cough medication. He died instantly.

We learned the process through Subject 9. We placed him unprotected in a room with an infected person to see what would happen. As it turns out, we were right to wear detox suits.

And finally, an update from Dr. Marcy:

“Dr. Lewis,
Subject 1 shows no discernible change, but Subject 4 has almost no trace of the disease anymore. Will continue to keep an eye on them.”

25 June 2008 1830 hours

Now that we know more, we need to know how widespread the disease has become. We sent Subject 10 out, telling him that he was free to go. We had installed a camera in the shirt we gave him. We dropped him in the capital.

The most incredible thing happened. He immediately began coughing. Within half an hour, he was dead. The entire feed lasted 12 hours. We never saw another person. These 12 hours took place throughout the entire day.

The nation of Ecuador is no longer salvageable. We must start from scratch. We have instructed the president to bomb the whole country. He has promised to do so within a half an hour. He is a good man, and his loyalty to the company is strong. I shudder to think what would have happened if we had not created him, if we had let the last president live.

25 June 2008 1930 hours

It has been done. Ecuador is no more. The United States have already expressed outrage at this so-called genocide, but there was no other choice. They do not know about the disease.

We will continue to do our research here beneath the jungle.

26 June 2008 0546 hours

I arrived this morning to find something incredible. I went to check on Dr. Marcy to see if any progress had been made.

I entered the lab to find Dr. Marcy and Subject 4 dead on the floor. Their throats looked to be chewed out. Their chests had been ripped open, and their hearts were gone. We tested the saliva. Neither one has the disease. Furthermore, Subject 4 was alive when his throat was eaten.

We checked the drawers and, finding nothing, the whole underground bunker. We dare not venture out of the bunker. It would be pointless suicide. We already know what we need to know.

Subject 1 is gone.