[1] Apocalypse: Third Rebirth

Chapter 18: Not an Epidemic

I laughed out loud at Liu Wei and replied, "How much time do you have?"

"All the time in the world," replied Wang Chao looking at me. The serious expression on his face told me that at least he took me seriously.

If he felt that I was being serious, then I could only respond as such.

"It would take days to get you up to date on what you need to know, but I will try to keep the information as condensed as possible to get you off my land, as soon as possible." I smiled, my gaze going between the two men in front of me.

"I am not sure if you have been paying attention to what is going on with Country M right now," I started, trying to figure out how to best do this.

"You mean the epidemic?" Asked Wang Chao, taking another sip of his coffee. Mmmm, coffee, good idea. I picked up my cup and took a big gulp. It had cooled

down a lot, but it was still coffee...

"Sure, let's go with that," I said, "And do you know how our country is reacting to it?"

"They are trying to get everyone vaccinated to prevent a pandemic," replied Liu Wei.

I looked back and for between the two of them, trying to get a read. Were they being serious? Was that all they knew?

"And?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

"And what?" Asked Wang Chao, a brief look of confusion on his face.

"Is that truly what you know?" I asked, somewhat frustrated. Both sides needed to be completely honest with each other if this was going to work.

"I promise you, LuLu, this is all the information on the issue that we have. Things like illnesses, diseases, that sort of thing is not on our radar," said Liu Wei.

I smiled sadly. Maybe that was part of the problem. Like all apocalypses, no one was able to see it coming.

"It's not an epidemic, it's not going to be a pandemic, at most, it can be considered a retrovirus... but even that is a stretch," I said, watching their reactions. When the confusion was still on WeiWei's face I toned it down a notch.

"Country M is known for its military force," I said. "But they themselves felt like they were lacking. Army and Air Forces were great, but their Navy was underperforming. I don't know whose idea it was, and where I am from we have six movies clearly stating why it was going to blow up in everyone's faces, but someone thought of combining the genes and DNA from a few sea creatures with volunteers from the Navy to create a super soldier."

Hopefully they got up to that part. When I saw Liu Wei looking at me in confusion, I sighed. "Seriously?!? Aren't you supposed to be all brains Mr. Assistant to the CEO?"

He laughed at me. "If I was all brains, wouldn't I be the CEO and not just the assistant?"

Ok, he had me there. I looked at Wang Chao and saw that he was on the way to understanding it, but not connecting it to the end of the world.

"Ok, stay with me," I said as I took a deep breath. "In order to strengthen their Navy, Country M took the gene sequences of four aquatic creatures; the hydra, the starfish, the blue shark, and the mako shark, and put it into its volunteers." I looked at both men. "Still good?" I asked. I had noticed Wang Chao stiffening when I said hydra so something must have clicked.

They both nodded their heads but chose to remain silent, so I continued. "Each one of the species chosen was chosen for a particular trait or traits. The hydra is an extremely small, predatory animal that has the ability to never die. Not the most scientific term, but there it is. Thanks to their foxo genes, they have an overabundance of stem cells which makes them impossible to kill. Seriously, cut one in half and you are just producing two. Handy trait for any military I guess."

"The starfish," I continued, wanting to the this over as fast as possible. "Like the hydra can produce asexually, cut off a limb, create two, cut off five limbs create five. I think you get the idea, they can also produce sexually, and, due to a chemical in their genes can scent food in their environment through their skin. Great for them, not so good for us."

"What do you mean, not so good for us?" Asked Liu Wei. I held up a hand, not taking questions at this point. We hadn't even gotten to the end of the world shit yet.

"The blue shark is not as beneficial as the previous two, but they do add a layer of aggression and an impressive set of teeth to the gene milkshake. The mako shark is where it becomes really scary. Mako sharks are highly intelligent, aggressive, fast, and agile. Their biggest downside is that sharks can only see in contrast, not in colors." I looked at Liu Wei to see if he was understanding it.

"I don't get it," he said, "sharks are only found in the water. What's the point of worrying about contrasting colors on land?"

"You're right, sharks are supposed to be in the water," I said, turning my attention to Wang Chao to see if he was understanding what I was saying.

"They are in the water, but their genes are not. Is that what you are trying to say?" He asked, returning my look.

"At last, intelligence," I said smirking at Liu Wei. This issue was heavy enough for me. I would like to add in a lightness where I could.

"So, they injected volunteer soldiers with the genes of four species designed to make them aggressive and able to regenerate," said Wang Chao... understanding the first part, but still not seeing the whole picture.

"Exactly," I confirmed. "But the scientists were smart, they knew that they would need a kill switch to be able to control these men and women. So, they added in a retrovirus that was designed to slowly break down the genes of those infected with it, leaving them prone to sickness and death within ten years."