Moss

For a contest on the end of the world.

 

 

 

            Randy casually walked into the study and eyed his father suspiciously. He’d studied himself tirelessly to make sure every loose thread was trimmed from his shirt. He’d had just enough dental paint to whiten his visible teeth. When finally satisfied about his appearance, he was ready for the first game of the night. If he couldn’t get to first base with dad then there was no way he was going to score with Becky later.

“Dad, I’m taking Becky to the video pod and I need some cash.”

“Oh really,”  Seth replied semi-sarcastically and with a grin. “How do you propose to do that?”

“Aww come-on dad. Do we have to do this today? Can’t I just get some support here without a lecture and inquisition?”

            From the den Martha yells, “Honey, could you please not think and just give Randy 1,500 bucks for gas and the movie?”

“It’s not gas,” Seth yelled back, “And don’t you let this boy think what those jokers are doing is ok either.  We’re all going to die.”

“DAD! Please,” interrupted Randy, “ Do you mind if I can get laid at least once before I’m 20 or we all die from whatever you’ve come up with today, whichever comes first?”

“I just care about you Randy,” Seth said with some compassion, “I’ve kept you safe as long as I could. Your skin is barely translucent. Look at yourself. No one can really see through you and you’ve only lost 12 teeth and you’re nearly 20 years old. If you could just hold on for another 5 years then you can be the Section Leader of our entire community pod.”

Randy’s frustration erupted but he delivered it as anger. “Dad, don’t you continue to punish me for this world that you guys delivered to us. You guys screwed it up, not me. I asked if we could not do this today. Can I just get some cash and maybe, just maybe, I can have a good night with a girl who has clean papers?”

“Randy….”

“That’s ok dad. Forget it. It’s not worth it. I’ll take the tram.”

“NO!” Seth yelled him back. “You cannot be serious Randy. Don’t play with me like that. That thing goes into the plant to pick up drillers. Why would you be ok with that?”

“Honey??” Martha chimes in once more from the den, mockingly,” Were you able to keep your mouth shut and just give Randy some cash?” Seth pulls out a 2000 unit cash card, hands it to Randy without another word and heads to the den.

“Thanks dad. I love you,” Randy said as he fled from the split-level luxury bio dome.

 

Seth entered the den and stopped in front of Martha, blocking her view of whatever novel she was reading on the wall at that moment. “What is wrong with you? Why do you take his side and fight me, considering what we need to be doing?”

“What’s wrong with me,” she said as if interested,  “ is that I’m married to you. I’d like to be ignorant sometimes too. We cannot stop them from building and running those plants, and Randy deserves something better than the way we keep him sheltered. Let him get out Seth. He’s not happy.”

“Well maybe I can do something about it. I was looking at….”

“No Seth. Not another night of your evaluations and ranting. I won’t have it. Let’s just have some fun,” she said as she stood up and let her robe slide from her body.

 

 

Seth had a plan. Somewhere between the first 30 minutes that he was with his wife that night in the den, progressing through the kitchen, and up the stairs to the upper level on all fours an hour later, Seth developed a plan to stop Keyro 13 from succeeding. With the mindset of a tainted genius Seth would transform the trillion dollar international project into a worthless venture.

Becky was clearly smitten by the charming Randy. She held onto her act for as long as she could, but her eyes never lied. It was rare for two people to be seen together who both had escaped the drastic physical effects of a radioactive world, even in the pods. Science may have provided a means for humanity to survive, but the evolutionary leap was robbing humanity of its exoskeletons and coverings. Who really believed the fear mongers that predicted humans were regressing into intelligent liquid forms? The hope of the future rested in those respected young adults who still resembled the humanity that the world has always known, physically.

Seth had hope for his sons’ future as well. He knew immediate action was necessary in order to prevent a hastening deterioration. The new Keyro plant had just been taken off prototype status and brought online earlier today. Those so-called scientists had manipulated genetic structure of common green moss in order to produce rapid growth and a more concentrated methane. Methane was to be our new unlimited natural energy source, which was also supposed to be environmentally harmless. Beyond the smell, methane and its by-products are able to pass through the atmospheric shields still remaining, and enter space with no ill effects.

Seth was going to change a variable in the plant. He hopped aboard the new tram, in car 3 of 18, holding a makeshift medical bag that he’d found in a glorified costume shop. His plans was to stop the tram as it entered into the plant to pick up the digger workers, create a small chaotic situation, and then as the rescue team arrived, escape into the plant. He’d pose as a member of a rescue team member helping a sickened worker.

As his luck would have it, Randy’s two-seater VW Z-Bug stalled less than a mile away from the video pod after the movie. He and Becky sat in silence for what seemed like eternity as they watched the smoke ease out of the hood. Both knew that they needed to leave the vehicle where it was since it was too late for emergency car service. They needed to get home, or somewhere else considered safe.

“We could always catch the tram back to my house,” Becky offered. Randy looked out at his smoking engine and silently thanked it for quitting on him. He was about to see Becky’s house for the first time. Furthermore, in his favor, a tram station had been installed two blocks from where they sat. Becky and Randy found a nice spot on car 14, just 11 cars away from Randy’s father.

As the tram entered into the plant, Seth eased into the car 3 bathroom and flushed his home made smoke bomb into the toilet. As the water soluble covering melted and the two chemicals he’d kept separate in his two-vial container came together, the smoke alarms would stop the tram and evacuations would begin. Seth flushed the vial container in the toilet and let it drop into the collection tank under the car, then returned to his seat. The tram picked up the first group of workers in the plant just long enough for the vials to begin producing smoke, and as it pulled form the station, smoke was beginning to seep from the bathroom.

What Seth had not counted on was the automatic detachment of cars in an emergency situation. This was a last minute safety feature that he was unaware had been put into final production of the tram cars. The tram separated from the smoking car and all cars after car 3 came to a halt. The smoke producing chemical mixture from car 3’s collection tank was being sucked into the ventilation system, but the same system which prevented methane gas from escaping into the atmosphere in the event of a leak also trapped the chemical mixture inside the plant. Although dissipated, the chemicals remained inside.

Meanwhile in car 3, Seth cursed himself for his failures. He didn’t anticipate the car split and the isolated smoking car. They had worked smarter and faster than he’d thought. He kicked himself with the ‘What was I thinking?” and ditched the plan to contaminate the moss chambers. His car was never evacuated and no chaos ensued.

Once the safety engineer cleared the scene as a prank to stop the tram, and the smoke was from a harmless smoke bomb, normal air circulation resumed and while the tram was being reunited, the chemical mixture reached the moss chambers. 

On contact, the genetically engineered moss grown with plant steroids, or  Brassinosteroids (BRs) and full of carbon,  mixed with the smoke bomb residue, or potassium nitrate (KN02), and methane. Immediately, the moss growth rate skyrocketed and one byproduct not common with plants, carbon dioxide (C02), rapid production took place. However it was only momentarily contained in the growth areas.

The workers successfully reconnected the tram cars and the as the wheels began their measured take-off, all the passengers felt safe and were comforted by the seemingly efficient recovery efforts.  They never saw the moss overtake the growth area and eventually force the chamber doors open. The moss began to cover the entire interior of the moss-producing plant as the cars made their way out. The chemical mixtures reached the life giving air of the cars in just enough time for all of the passengers to have a good whiff before they were expelled from the plant, and just before the weed killer safety system kicked in to destroy the moss.

“Randy, I’ve never felt like this before,” said Becky, whispering into Randy’s ear.

“Me neither Becky,” Randy returned, “Is this what lust feels like?”

“I am not sure. Does it go away?”

“I don’t know. Maybe we should have… you know.”

The tingling intensified, but the two lovers had no idea that the others were feeling some sensations as well. Leaving the train onto a sunny platform, the ultra-violet rays from the sun reacted with the other passengers, penetrating into their translucent bodies just enough to kill the modified white blood cells caused by the incident in the plant. Randy and Becky had solid skin and so the inner transformation continued. The normal function of white blood cells to defend the body against infections was enhanced exponentially, and its agent, Neutrophils, thrived. The six hour gestation period was about the right amount of time that Randy and Becky took to consummate their new friendship as lovers.

There would never be time for the world’s advanced minds to pinpoint the origin of this new airborne moss flu pouring out of Becky and Randy with every breath they took. The flu that kills all bacteria stopped decomposition on the planet and halted the nitrogen cycle. Time was the only constant as every living thing on earth stopped regenerating and growing. It was the day that everything on Earth stood still… and died.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author's Note

I accessed my decade old rudimentary chemistry training to try and create a poignant tale. I hope it works as a short-short story, but it's easily expandable.