Geoff made the most of the others taking up the conversation to have some more food. He looked up at Eddie and said, "If we can't get in touch with the precinct, you're the ranker here, Sir. What you say goes."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:28, Fri 01 May 2009.

Eddie nodded slowly, pensive: "I guess it does."

He was troubled by the news, bt also by the ease with which the others seemed to be taking supernatural powers for granted... Well, most of the others, at least: the doctor looked as if he'd just eaten a lemon. And a bad lemon, at that.

Jane emptied her plate (in some prodigious and inexplicable way, she seemed able to keep up with Geoff in that department) and took a sip of water: "Well, now that we know how to eliminate those things, I think we should kill as many of them as possible. Is kill even the right word anyway? they are already dead..."

"Kill is the right word, yes." Now that the conversation was again on a familiar, rational ground, the doctor was much more at ease.

"As I was trying to explain," He continued, with a reproachful look at Allan, "There is nothing supernatural about this. The parasites that animate the corpses are a perfectly natural life form. It is our anthropocentric nature that-" He stopped, looking at Xynthia, who had gone white all of a sudden.

"Are you not feeling well?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:20, Fri 01 May 2009.

Xynthia shook her head: "Just a little nausea. It will pass."

She took another sip of wine, and continued: "But please Mrs. S, don't take this the wrong way: it's really not your fault. Actually, this is the best lunch I've had in a while. I'm just a bit tired, I guess."

Concern was etched into Allan's face as he quickly turned toward his wife. Gently taking her hand in his, he said, "It's been an emotionally wrenching day. Perhaps you just need to lie down for a bit."
This message was last edited by unknown at 18:47, Fri 01 May 2009.

Xynthia smiled thinly at her husband, and kissed the hand holding hers, then brought her other one up to rub her forehead, as if trying to fight an impending headache: "Maybe you are right."

She looked over at their host: "Doc, mind if I borrow your couch for a while?"

The makeup on her forehead, not evident at first sight, was now smudged, revealing what looked like a colorful tattoo underneath. The patter wasn't really clear, but it felt.. Wrong, somehow. The doctor was sort of entranced at the sight, and simply nodded.

Xynthia excused herself as she stood up and made for the living room.

Allan stood, taking his wife's arm, so he could help her to the couch.

With her husband on her side, Xynthia lay down on the couch. She closed her eyes and sighed: "It's getting worse, you know. I think she's decided to give me another gift. I don't know how long this can go on before..."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:31, Fri 01 May 2009.

Nephi opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something to the Doctor, then took another look at Hector's face and had another mouthful of water instead.

Monica gave the Dr. a curious look. "You're saying that the dead bodies have been taken over by some parasite? How do you know that?"

the doctor glared at Monica: "Kids nowadays don't pay any attention anymore... We have seen this before. There were even studies on the parasite to understand the exact mechanisms that it used, for its medical potenial was extraordinary: just to give you an example, during the original outbreak the reanimated corpse of a paraplegic man was able to walk on its own legs."

Monica simply smirked in Stanislaw's direction. "Yeah Doc, I caught the biology lesson. What I'm asking is, how the hell do you know all this super secret classified stuff?"
This message was last edited by unknown at 17:17, Sat 02 May 2009.

"Well, I thought it was clear: I was in the research group that was conducting those studies." He replied simply. "I had a disagreement with our military oversight, but I kept in touch with the other scientists. When finally a civilian team was created and the studies on the medical benefits restarted, I thought my son could pick up from where I had left..."

   "I'm guessing" said Hector after giving this some thought, "that these 'experiments' took place in town somewhere, and that has something to do with this little outbreak of ours?"

The doctor grimaced: "The laboratory is not far from the city, and many researchers prefer to commute, but the safety procedures are extremely strict. But a parallel strain evolving here with no relationship with the original is even more implausible."

Nephi thought for a moment, then spoke "Here's something else to think about - do we hole up somewhere safe, try to figure out a way to stop the 'infection' or whatever it is, or do we try to get out of town before the military drops a nuke or two on us?"

"Doctor Szczedrzykowicz," Geoff said quietly, "if you had the facilities would you be able to try to do anything about this? I know it's a tall order as it looks like a fully equipped military lab couldn't control it. However, if there's even the remotest possibility that you and your son could help here, I feel we should try it. The question is, if you do feel it's feasible, where do we take you?"

Geoff looked at the others, "If we assume that all that has happened to us is true, and that we're not all delusional, we also have to accept that we've been brought together for a purpose. I believe we may have been brought together to aid the good doctor in finding a cure to this, or at least a way to help people."

He paused a moment, "I know that sounds insane, but let's face it, we're not the people we were this morning, we've all had "gifts" of some sort. If that's the case, we need to make the best of those gifts."

Allan knelt down next to his wife and spoke in a soft voice. "You're stronger than you know, Xynthia." He ran his hand through her hair, gently caressing the side of her face. "We both know it's going to get harder, but I am here to help you. I will never leave you. Together we will get through this."

Xynthia pulled her husband close and hugged him with all her strength: "I don't know what I would do without you..."

She held him like that for maybe a minute, then she relaxed back and chuckled: "Wow, look at that!" She said wiping her tears: "My eyes are leaking... Think I should call a plumber?" She laughed, then smiled at him, serene and happy again.

Once again, the doctor ignored the supernatural talk (he was getting very good at that) and replied in a measured tone: "I am sure the problem will be dealt with, and without resorting to nuclear warheads. The parasite is sensitive to some chemicals, particularly some salts of silver, that can be safely, if expensively, used to clean relatively large areas."

"I'm guessing by this little fortress of solitude the Doc has here, that the possibility of an uncontrolled outbreak has crossed his mind once or twice." Monica looked at Dr. S. "Which means you guys never came up with anything like a cure or a vaccine, right?"

"Nonsense!" Replied the doctor forcefully.

"I simply protected my house against thieves and vandals, like any responsible person. And why would we need a cure?" The doctor went back to his lecture tone: "This is not a pathogen we are talking about: in the context of a healthy immune system, the parasite simply cannot survive more than a few minutes."

"And... If the immune system is unhealthy?" Asked Karen in a subdued tone.

The doctor did a double-take: "Beg your pardon?"

"You said that, in the context of a healthy immune system, the parasite cannot survive." Repeated Karen. "What happens if the immune system is unhealthy?"

"Well, um... The case never really presented itself, and we didn't actually experiment on living people, so all I can offer is an educated guess. I suppose the parasite might cause some kind of pathology, feeding on healthy cells, or possibly become dormant, waiting for the host to die."

"Is it possible that a variant of the original strain could develop that is able to infect healthy people? Like when bacteria develop a resistance to antibiotics?"

Doc S thought about it for a moment: "I... Suppose it might be possible, yes."

Karen pushed on: "What would the effects of such an infection be?"

The doctor scoffed: "Young lady, that wouldn't even be an educated guess, but pure science fiction!"

"Please... Just your opinion as an expert."

The man sighed: "Well, I suppose, if the parasite fed on healthy cells, it might be able to emulate them even better, and possibly even outperform them. But really, this is a shot in the dark."

"Why this preoccupation with an unhealthy immune system?" Monica looked at Karen like she was studying her. "Is there somethin' you need to share with the rest of the class, Karen? Are you sick?"

Karen shook her head: "I was just thinking about how this thing could have escaped... What if a sick researcher got accidentally exposed?"

"That is unlikely." Replied the doctor: "There safety measures to prevent this, it is almost impossible to get accidentally exposed to the parasite. Furthermore, in the unlikely event of exposure, a cycle of silver salts would be administered that would kill the parasite."