Some of the ways that we perform our experiments and trials on the chimera virus obviously include testing on live organisms, specifically monkeys. These animals have been shown to exhibit similar symptoms when infected with chimera and thus have been chosen to perform trials on so that a potential cure can be discovered. They are infected either with blood samples containing the virus or with special nano injectors which can inject DNA containing the virus into the cells of these monkeys.
Once the monkeys are infected the next set of trials is to observe them over a period of several days to weeks looking for specific symptoms akin to those observed in humans. Once symptoms start to be observed the specific drugs (currently a combination of those used to treat the specific diseases found in the recombinant form of chimera) are administered to the monkeys and they are then further observed. While some tend to live most others are not affected whatsoever and are still killed off.
Either way blood samples of all the monkeys are taken and are then tested under electron microscopes and other lab paraphernalia to observe what has happened to the infected cells. The data is then recorded as to how the cells are affected and in what ways changes can be made to the drugs being administered. As of now we have yet to achieve any conclusive results.
As the days go by the routine becomes more and more tedious. Yet just as it is becoming more tedious I am also more engrossed and motivated towards reaching my goal. It was difficult enough figuring out what the chimera virus consisted of. The search for a potential cure or vaccine sounds almost impossible, but it is something that has consumed my life. Working in the level four biohazard labs for hours at a time every single day over the last six months has yielded few results.
Myself, along with the rest of my lab, are currently testing a combination of antiviral drugs which have been used separately on all the strains which encompass the chimera virus. Infecting mice with small portions of the chimera strain, and then giving them the combination of drugs is generally the order of the day. But the lack of results signifies that something new must be discovered, if we are ever to cure or prevent the scourge that is chimera...
Upon my thorough research of the chimera virus I think it is safe to say that this is definitely the most complex and fascinating disease ever known to man. It is so complicated that I myself do not yet fully understand it. Symptoms of the virus range on a wide scale unlike anything that has ever been seen. They include a runny nose, sore throat, coughing, soreness, headaches, high fever, hemorrhaging, brain damage, small amounts of pustules around the body, and most notably the mental derangement of those infected to the point where they become self-cannibalistic. Chimera spreads through bodily fluids, aerosol droplets, and even through the air on occasion and has devastating effects on the respiratory and nervous systems.
I was quick to realize that this was a virus which had definitely been engineered and recombined in some sort of way. It included components of several viruses, such as rhinovirus (the common cold). The symptoms related to high fever, headaches, hemorrhaging, and so forth strongly resembled that of a viral hemorrhagic fever and indeed this was so as further research on the disease showed that it contained portions of the Ebola virus.
The most curious find in the strain of chimera that I was studying was that it included nuclear polyhedrosis virus, a disease more commonly associated with butterflies. It seems that this portion of the disease was used to enter the human brain, and in doing so induced the repression of the HPRT gene, which is commonly associated with the genetic disease Lesch-Nyhan. The repression of HPRT leading to Lesch-Nyhan like symptoms explains the self-cannbialistic aspects of the chimera disease.
But perhaps the most troubling discovery regarding the overall pathology of the chimera virus is that it contains portions of smallpox, a disease once eradicated half a century ago and only held in vaults in Atlanta and Vector, Russia. The fact that smallpox has made its way out of these well-protected facilities and potentially into dangerous hands is not a good sign at all. It brings into question issues of international security and more importantly, the threat of biological weapons. Is chimera in fact a biological weapon? We are none too sure but all signs point toward it being so.
It's a quiet morning here at Fort Detrick on a freezing February the 11th, 2027. The view outside my window is even more desolate than usual, as the barren landscape and deserted roads tell a tale of darkness and blight. It has been five years since the outbreak of the genetically recombinant chimera virus, and civilization is slowly but surely picking up the pieces after not necessarily being substantially depleted, but simply scattered for some time.
To this day no one is quite sure how the outbreak truly began. Whether it was the result of a lab accident, genetically engineered to harm, or simply occurring in nature. In fact, it may have been a combination of all three. The world itself was and is well equipped to deal with the outbreak of such a disease. But this virus hit in all the right spots around the world, and was so deadly that it struck down 40 percent of the human population. With everyone scattered and panicked around the world, it took us nearly two and a half years to reach the secure point that we are at today. Currently there are several small bases, towns, and cities throughout the United States as well as the world who have formed a tightly knit connection. It is difficult to travel to and from these spots due to the continual threat of the virus but we still maintain lines of production and communication with other localized areas. Some of us who are immune, such as myself, are able to go out into the world and do their best to improve our situation.
Living at the Fort Detrick army base in Maryland, which is currently the head of all operations within the northeastern United States and the only camp within the country that has established connections with other bases around the world, I am able to witness some of the key aspects in our journey to end the outbreak. I am currently working with my partner Doctor Khirie to end the Chimera outbreak itself. While he is working on the epidemiological side of the outbreak, I am researching the pathology of the disease and looking for a cure.