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would run at full sprint towards anyone they saw. The military simply set up barricades, got their attention, then when a group of these monsters would run towards the barricade the soldiers would open fire.
         T here was no propagation after the suffering were dead. The fungus could not grow out of the human head like it did with the ants, the skull was too thick. And even if spores could be released, the risk of contamination again was zero. Maybe an ant might pick up a spore and get infected but there was no adapted method to propagate among other humans. This infection was an anomaly it seemed. T he processes involved that caused the infection to spread to humans were man made and for the fungus and those infected it was a terminal incident. This terrifying episode ended as abruptly as it had started.
         The second wave was very different. A lthough human infection occurred in the same manner. The fact that the digestive systems of those that fell ill was not functioning at its full capacity meant that the fungus wasn't absorbed into the body and was able to integrate into the ecosystem of the existing gut bacteria. The fungus adjusted to its host and not only adapted its method of infection, it developed a way to replicate itself and pass to other hosts in the species.
    It mutated to infect the glands of the host, including the saliva gland with a spore that could then be passed onto another host through fluid contact. A bite would provide a path into the blood stream of the new host and the fungus could set up shop. It took months for this mutation to happen in the ill. T he symptoms were similar to the stomach flu and medical officials treated people with standard antibiotics which had no effect.
    The degradation of the hosts brain was much slower in this version of the infection. I n many cases the hosts were sedated so the progress was much slower than it would have been otherwise. Once they began to turn however, propagation from host to host was fast and it took only minutes to turn.
    S pores would infect a new host through fluid transfer and target a specific part of the brain that caused the host to begin losing coherent thought within minutes of infection, and not long after, begin searching for a new host. A newly infected host would attack and bite another, introducing the spore through saliva into the blood stream of the next host and so on. They were not killing each other anymore, each attack had a specific purpose. A lthough bloody it would stop as the new victim began to react.
         The second wave began to build as hospitals filled up with patients that had fallen ill during the first wave. Authorities had to begin moving overflow patients into vacant prisons as the number of ill overwhelmed the system set up to support them . All were filled to capacity and in none of these locations was there any thought given to isolation of the patients. There was no reason to isolate them, as far as the authorities could tell they were not contagious. But they were very sick .
    Just prior to the outbreak, a ll of these victims had been placed in tight quarters and it only took one turned patient in a  group to turn them all and everyone would be infected in minutes. O nce it started the infection would spread rapidly. I nflicting everyone that was not able to escape.
    My little town got its dose of the second wave one quiet evening . A charter bus on a nearby highway carrying the gravely ill to an overflow facility in the desert crashed and a few patients that had turned in transit survived the crash. They ran into the woods, towards my town, my family, and my home. It only took a few to change everything forever.
     
     

9 .
     
    -Smoke In the Distance-
     
         In the hills above our little mountain town, the government research facility where I spent my days was perched on a high ridge. I worked there exploring the wonders of the universe, or rather fixing old instruments so others could