Organism X Ch. 11

1

"So, this thing used to be a leech?" Jessie Vitelli asked, feeling slightly ill.

In front of her, locked away in a glass terrarium, was a large, ribbon-like worm covered in green slime. The creature was contained with one of the normal worms - if you could call an alien, parasitic creature normal. Jessie kept looking from the generic parasite to the leech and back again. The leech was smaller than its cousin, but also seemed to be faster. Every few minutes, it would zip around the perimeter of the glass box at a startling pace.

"Yup!" Professor Pierce said cheerfully as she dragged a big whiteboard across the floor of the lab.

"What made it not a leech?"

"Well, you know, you start injecting weird fluids into things, they become giant and try to attack you. Shit happens," the Professor answered.

Was this woman for real? Wasn't she supposed to be the head of the biology department? Jessie couldn't see it.

"At least we know how to make more test subjects," Molly Dubois answered. "Though it is too bad you guys couldn't bring back the worm you were looking for."

"Yeah, sure, if you say so," Jessie answered.

The whole gang was reunited now, with all six of them gathered in the lab along with the Professor and her assistant, Molly. While Jessie still didn't know what to think of the two new additions, she had to admit it was nice being in a big group again. Even with two other people, she felt vulnerable roaming the campus.

Professor Pierce positioned her whiteboard in the corner of the room and turned to address the group. She was a pretty gal with long, black hair kept straight and a pale yet beautiful face. She wore a maroon turtleneck that hugged her body well, revealing a decent figure. A perfect target for one of the infected girls, Jessie thought.

Then again, all of them were perfect targets. They were young and pretty. Given this fact, Jessie did not like being in the same room with not one, but two worms. The potential for something to go wrong seemed far too high.

"Alright folks," Professor Pierce said. "We have two samples. With proper precautions, we might be able to make more. That's one half of this puzzle. We're missing the second piece. If we had one of the infected, assuming that this is what's happening, we could perform a biopsy. We don't have one, so I need you guys to help me."

All six girls went pale and stared at Professor Pierce in horror. She couldn't possibly mean to infect one of them and perform experiments, right? Was this bitch insane?

Professor Pierce squinted at the group, clearly puzzled at the reaction.

"What's the matter?" She asked.

Molly answered sheepishly.

"You're not going to infect one of them, are you?"

Professor Pierce burst out in a hearty laugh that went on for far too long and shook her head.

"Jesus Christ, of course not. I need your help figuring this out. God, relax guys!"

She really isn't taking this seriously, Jessie thought. She's going to be pulling those worms out and trying to slice them open and she has no clue what they're capable of.

"Look," the Professor continued. "All of you have had run-ins with women you claim are infected with this parasite. What we need to do now is gather information based on your experiments. What we're going to try and do is create a profile for an infected person. What are physiological changes? What are mental changes? Are there any tell-tale signs of infection? That sort of thing. Got it?"

The six of them nodded.

"So, who's first?"

For a few seconds, no one spoke. Jessie could feel her chest tightening as she knew she would have to be the first. Finally, she stuck her finger in the air and answered.

"When my roommate got infected, she trailed this slime all over our room. It smelled awful. Way too sweet. She also tried to kiss me, twice. I think the worms are spread through sexual contact."

Professor Pierce jotted down the notes on the whiteboard at a frantic pace. Her writing was chicken scratch, but apparently it made sense to her.

"Interesting. Very interesting. Now can males be infected, or just women?"

"Well, there was that one guy that attacked us," Haley said. "Then again, I don't know if he was turned or just mind controlled."

Professor Pierce raised an eyebrow at Haley.

"Mind controlled? I think you're mistaken."

"She's not," Melissa Takizawa muttered. "Trust me."

The room fell silent for a while. Melissa seemed to be nothing but a human storm cloud to Jessie. Granted, she hadn't met the girl until after her entire life had been fucked up before her eyes.

"Come on," Professor Pierce said. "Mind control is a thing in the movies. Are you sure he wasn't infected?"

"I can't be sure," Haley said. "But he didn't try to turn us. He just attacked us."

"Maybe he was drunk?" The Professor asked.

"Maybe, but I doubt it. He didn't smell like alcohol," Haley answered.

"I've got one," Eliza said. "The infected girls grow big knockers."

The room burst into giggles.

"What?" Eliza said. "It's true! Lindsay Maycomb could barely fill out a b-cup before she got infected. Now she's practically ripping her shirts open! I'm telling you, getting infected makes you bigger."

", now that you mention it, Leah seemed bigger too. Same with Megan and Emily. Their bodies were definitely changed."

Professor Pierce scribbled more notes.

"Bodily changes. Swelling of the breasts," She muttered.

"Also, can we revisit the mind control stuff?" Eliza asked. "There's definitely something to it. That chick Leah, she hypnotized me in class at one point. I looked into her eyes and felt so drowsy. Also, Lindsay Maycomb can make you ridiculously horny with just a touch. Like, so horny it hurts."

"Yeah, it's a fucking nightmare," Melissa said under her breath.

Professor Pierce pursed her lips. Clearly, such fanciful notions upset her big science brain. Jesus lady, Jessie thought, have an open mind. This shit is happening.

"Fine. I'll put cognitive influence down," the Professor said. "But I'm skeptical. What else is there?"

"Well, they seem to work in a group. They showed some teamwork when we were in Carter dormitory. It's kind of like a hive or a coven."

"Big if true," Professor Pierce said, scribbling the notes down.

At that moment, the door to the lab flew open and a slender, pale skinned girl walked in. She had a round, cherubic face with a small, sharp nose and piercing gray eyes. The girl took one look at the group and shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh, hi Professor Pierce, Hi Molly, Hi, um, everyone else. Is there a class in here? I'm scheduled to work on my Senior Project for this time slot."

Professor Pierce froze and looked at the girl like a deer in the headlights.

"No, Sarah. Your time slot is at five."

Pierce pulled her phone out and made a grimace.

"And it is five. God-fucking-damnit."

Sarah looked painfully uncomfortable. Clearly, this one was not good with conflict.

"I can reschedule if need be. It isn't a problem."

The dark circles under Sarah's eyes and the lines on her face showed that this was a problem.

"No, it's fine. I'm sorry, Sarah. Just give us five minutes?"

"Sure thing," Sarah answered. The girl glanced over at the whiteboard and began to read the elements aloud. "Swelling boobs? Hive mind? What's this?"

The girl giggled loudly, her voice resonant and melodic. It was surprising to hear coming from such a small waif of a girl.

"We're brainstorming a science fiction story!" Haley said quickly.

"Oh fun!" Sarah said. "But why do you have 'swelling boobs' on there?"

"It's an erotic story," Eliza said, turning beet red after the words left her mouth.

"Okay. That's, um, interesting. No shame. There is no kink shaming in this department!"

Sarah looked over to the terrarium and her face turned more serious.

"What are those?"

"They're Chinese!" Molly exclaimed.

"Chinese flatworms," Professor Pierce added quickly. "They are giant Chinese Flatworms."

"One of them isn't flat," Sarah said.

"That's because it's a mutant. It's a mutant, giant, Chinese flatworm," Professor Pierce said. "Listen, could you come back in five minutes? The lab is a mess and we've got to clean up. Sound good? Okay, bye!"

Professor Pierce practically pushed the poor girl out of the lab. Once she had the door closed, she locked it and turned back to the group.

"That was too close for comfort," she said. "Let's keep this on the down low. Sound good?"

The rest of the group nodded.

They locked the terrarium with the two worms in a closet and tossed the corpse of the third in a biohazardous waste bin. Haley took a picture of the whiteboard on her phone for safekeeping and the rest of the girls helped tidy up.

When they were finished, Professor Pierce opened the door and ushered Sarah in. Sarah smiled and waved goodbye to the group as she got to work, blissfully unaware of what was lurking close by in the locked closet.

"Who wants dinner?" Pierce asked.

In that moment, Jessie remembered that food was a thing. Her belly ached with intense hunger. It had been hours since she had anything to eat and now it was catching up to her. The rest of the girls looked the same.

"We'll talk more at the dining hall. Also, can one of you guys swipe me in?" The Professor asked.

I swear, Jessie thought, she's more of a college student than any of us.

2

Melissa Takizawa stepped into the single-person bathroom on the bottom floor of the campus center and locked the door behind her. She didn't really need to use the bathroom, but she did need to get space.

Melissa stepped up the faucet and ran the cold water. It felt calming to run her hands through the cool stream. Ever since the night before, since her encounter with the infected girls, she had been burning up.

Closing her eyes, Melissa imagined herself near a trickling stream. It was a visualization technique she used to use as a kid whenever her parents were fighting. Now, once again, this mental space gave her refuge. There was a cool breeze tickling her cheeks and the rustle of leaves in the wind. The air smelled of juniper and honey suckle.

Melissa felt her body relax as she sank into the fantasy world. Her body still felt hot, especially between her legs, but the sensations were muted in this mental space. Finally, Melissa could just be.

And then the air shifted. The gentle peace of Melissa's fantasy turned into something more sinister.

Suddenly, a voice Melissa recognized spoke inside her mind.

"Well this is nice."

Melissa gasped and opened her eyes. She was alone in the room, but she could still hear the voice of the redhead from the night prior.

"You're at the campus center. You're with all your friends. And with a professor. Oh, this is all so useful! Thank you!"

"Get out of my fucking head!" Melissa cried.

"No can do! We're linked now, apparently!"

"No, no, no, no, no!" Melissa whimpered.

This had to be a nightmare. If she pinched herself hard enough, she would wake up. She'd be back in her bed, feeling a little groggy but otherwise okay. She'd be getting breakfast in an hour with Bethany and Eliza.

"Oh, Melissa, we're going to have a lot of fun with this! I can finish what I started with you."

"Get out!" Melissa screamed.

There was no reply.

3

Jessie sat down across from Penny, watching the girl dig into a mountainous plate of food. Penny took small, rapid bites like a chipmunk, her cheeks bulging outward as she shoveled the food in. Jessie watched, unable to figure out whether this was adorable or repulsive.

The pair were the only ones yet seated and that made Jessie nervous. In such a crowded building, it was far too easy for one of them to get nabbed.

"So, Jessie," Penny said, her mouth half full. "I have a question."

"Fire away."

"What do we do about classes?"

Classes seemed so trivial considering all that had happened. The school was being taken over by alien sex demons - who had time for classes? But the more Jessie thought about it, the more it bothered her. They couldn't hide out forever, could they? What if this whole thing blew over and they were all left with failing grades? No more college. No more future. It could be bad.

"I don't know," Jessie answered.

"Well I've been thinking. We can't keep skipping, but maybe we can create a buddy system? We can see if any of us have classes in the same location and go from there."

"But what happens if someone is the odd woman out? What if they have classes on the other side of campus? I guess they're screwed."

"Well, hopefully that won't happen. I'm an English major. So is Eliza. I think Haley might be too. Professor Pierce and Molly will both be in the bio department. I'm not sure about Melissa or Bethany. And you are--"

"Music," Jessie said.

"Oh."

The music hall was on the other side of campus, close to the river. It was the most isolated academic building on campus and required nearly a half mile walk from Jessie's dorm.

"I guess I'll just fail," Jessie said.

"As a college professor, I never like to hear that," Professor Pierce said, sitting next to Jessie.

"What other choice do I have? Unless we have another music major here. Besides, people have other classes too. Especially you freshies," Jessie said, pointing at Penny. "We're going to have to skip more often than not."

Professor Pierce wrinkled her face and stroked her chin before raising an eyebrow.

"Don't you think you're overreacting a little? Let's assume that these parasites are actually infecting these girls."

"They are," Jessie answered.

"Yes. Yes. That's what you guys have told me. I need more than anecdotal evidence to make a judgment either way. Regardless, there can't be that many infected girls on campus, right? Besides, you would be in public for classes. It seems pretty low risk."

Penny nodded her head vigorously, a bit of ketchup drizzling from the edge of her mouth.

"Yeah, maybe you're right. We just have to be careful."

"Hold your horses, Penny. These girls have weird powers too. Hypnotism, mind control, god only knows what else. Even if you're careful, you don't know what they're capable of. Besides, they know we know. We have a target on our backs."

"Oh yes," Professor Pierce smirked. "These powers. I'll believe that when I see it."

Jessie was getting tired of this woman's bullshit. If she didn't want to believe them, that was fine. But she didn't have to be a condescending bitch about it,

"Look lady, you can believe whatever you want. Just know that if they've seen you with us, they'll be gunning for you too. I'm telling you right now, there's more to them than just those worms. Ignore it at your own peril."

Professor Pierce frowned.

"If you spoke like that to me in one of my classes, I would send you out."

"Yeah? Well it's a good thing I'm not some bio nerd weirdo then. You can't do shit."

Penny watched the two of them go back and forth, her eyes big and wet. The girl's default emotional state seemed to lay somewhere between an anxious twitch and a full-on nervous breakdown and right now, she seemed to be inching towards the latter. Without hesitation, she began to shovel more food into her mouth.

The three of them stewed in tense silence for nearly a minute before Haley and Eliza came over.

"Who died?" Haley asked.

Jessie let out a wry snort.

"Our class schedules, apparently."

Eliza laughed.

"With all this crazy shit, classes are the least of my concern. They'll probably shut down the school when this thing gets too big, anyways. That's what they did with my brother's college when they had a big meningitis outbreak two years ago. This seems worse than that."

"That reminds me," Professor Pierce said. "I'll be notifying school administrators about this as soon as I get a good handle on what's going on. Honestly, you girls should have done that in the first place."

"We tried to call the CDC," Penny said sheepishly.

"Yes, you told me about that. I'm not surprised they didn't respond. To be honest, your story is pretty hard to believe."

Haley suddenly cocked her head to the side.

"You guys were fighting about that," Haley said. "You don't believe us, Professor Pierce. Not fully, at least."

Jessie narrowed her eyes. Was Haley eavesdropping on them? Sure, the tension at the table had been thick enough to cut with a knife, but how did she know they had been fighting over that specific topic?

"Were you listening to us?" Jessie asked.

Haley shook her head. She suddenly looked afraid.

"I just kind of--it's hard to explain. I'm sorry."

Jessie gave the girl a confused look and filed the information away for later. The whole thing made her skin crawl.

Professor Pierce sighed.

"I do believe you guys. Really, I'm on your side. But I'm a scientist and I need evidence."

"You have the worms," Jessie answered.

"Yeah, but that's only half of the equation. If I really want to figure this out, I need to get a good look at one of the infected."

"Oh yeah, like that's possible," Jessie said.

"I don't know. I'm sure they'd be more than willing to volunteer," Eliza said. "But we'd all walk away infected ourselves."

"Hence my frustration," Professor Pierce answered.

"This might be a stupid question," Penny said. "But could you do an animal test? Maybe on a lab rat?"

The rest of the girls broke into laughter. The idea seemed ridiculous. The worms were practically the size of rats themselves. However, Professor Pierce did not laugh. She seemed to mull the question over with increasing interest.

"I think that the fluid these worms secrete might be the answer. It mutated the leech. It probably plays a role in changing those infected by it. I could try a test in that direction. However, it's not exactly ethical. Believe it or not, we can't just scoop up lab rats and do whatever we please with them. Still, it's a move in the right direction."

The rest of them nodded. Jessie had to hand it to the Professor. She was an arrogant priss, but she knew her stuff.

Both Eliza and Haley were now actively looking around the cafeteria, growing increasingly worried.

"Bethany and Melissa are still not here. I'm about to go looking for them," Eliza said. "I don't want to lose them like I lost Lindsay."

Haley nodded.

"Let's give them a few more minutes, then let's go."

"Great," Jessie said. "We can't even eat in peace."

4

"Bethany, I've been texting you nonstop since last night!"

Ellie Thomas was red in the face and mad as hell and Bethany Eastwood was not here for it. The creeping exhaustion that began at midday had finally set-in in full for the young woman and the last thing she needed was her old high school friend spouting off like a firehose filled with drama.

"Sorry Ellie, I haven't really been checking my phone."

Bethany pulled her phone out only to find it was dead.

"Ugh, fine, I'll just tell you," Ellie said.

The little blonde launched into her newest boy fling at a pace Bethany could barely follow. Apparently, they had broken up but now he wanted to get back together. He wanted to meet her tonight. Something, something, not important.

Bethany did her best to pretend to listen but made sure to keep her eyes on Melissa in the dining hall. Her roommate was starting to worry her. The girl was obviously traumatized from whatever happened to her the night prior, but Bethany could not shake the feeling that there was more to it.

Melissa was wandering around the cafeteria aimlessly with nothing on her plate save for a small dollop of mashed potatoes. Her eyes were on the ground and on no less than three occasions, she managed to bump into someone while Bethany was watching. She almost seemed drugged.