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The Ebola Steakhouse Incident
“I’m totally serious Franklin. Look at this rat! It’s been practicaly swimming in ebola for a week, and it’s fine!”
“But we engineered them all the same. It’s brothers and sisters bled to death days ago! I never even noticed this one. My God Brensan! This rat is immune to ebola! There must have been crossing over during meiosis in addition to the genetic engineering we’ve been doing. Now we just have to find what chromosomes were switched when the cells were dividing.”
“Just imagine it Franklin, we could be the scientists that go down in history for ending the crisis that that damn Ebola Steakhouse started. I still don’t understand how people could be stupid enough to serve food flavored with monkey spit.” Brensan looked up from the miraculous rat who was holding his attention, and looked up to see Franklin shaking his head with disgust as thoughts of Doris filled his head and he recalled the events of the last few months.
It had gone on for so long that it was surprising anyone was still alive. Luckily for the city of Guthrie, and the whole world for that matter, a strange phenomenon had occured with this strain of the virus which had never been seen with the Zaire, Sudan or Reston strains. Even though most of the people effected died, there seemed to be some people in whom no symptoms developed. Because of this, and a strict and effective quarantine, the outbreak had been contained while scientists hurried to find a treatment. And now they may have found a cure. A vaccine.
Doris however, had not been lucky enough to be included in this phenomenon. She lay in one of the many high security quarantined ebola hospitals which had sprouted up throughout Guthrie, with the early signs of the virus. Franklin’s heart sunk to the floor as he pictured his young bride laying alone in misery. He shook his head once again, scattering his thoughts, and bringing himself back to the cold and all too familiar laboratory surrounding him.
“Wait, Brensan. Am I right in saying that this had to have occured during crossing over?”
“Yeah, in prophase. That’s the only way the difference could have occured,” Brensan responded.
“Then the immunity takes place in the gametes?”
“At least partially. Since the genetic material was exchanged during meiosis, then it was the gametes that were eventually effected.”
“So this rat might not be the only one made immune. My God! We could have found a way to permanent immunity!”
“I know how important this is to you Franklin, but we can’t jump to conclusions. We’ve got a long road ahead of us. But if we can study this rat to find out what happened and find a way to get transfer the gene therapy to humans, then it’s possible,” Brensan said. “We should start to see if this rat’s offspring are immune.”
“Yeah, perfectly. I think I know what you’re getting at Franklin, and I don’t know if it’s a good i--” “It doesn’t matter. There isn’t much time left. You know we’ll need human trials soon enough. I’m just asking you to do me a favor.” “I don’t know Franklin. It’s still very risky. We can’t be responsible if it doesn’t work.” “Don’t you get it Brensan! It doesn’t matter! They’re dying! She’s dying! Right now as we speak! This is my last hope. I haven’t even seen her since she got infected.” Brensan looked up at his longtime coworker and good friend. He let out a sigh. “Fine, alright. We should really be moving this along faster anyway. I’ll contact the hospital and have them bring her over as our first patient.” Franklin let out a long sigh, and smiled at his friend with an expression of inexplicable gratitude.
She was rushed by him, and into the nearest room, which had been equipped for this treatment, but their eyes clung to one another until the last second. Brensan and Franklin followed the other scientists back into the building, and headed for the room. As they approached the door, Brensan stopped. “Franklin, I think you should stay here. You’re too involved. Wait until we’re done. Then you can be with her.” He walked into the highly sterilized room, wearing a suit similar to those of the ambulance guards, leaving Franklin speachless and helpless, standing and staring through the glass into the room where his wife lay at the mercy of their science.
He stood in awe of how his world had been turned around so quickly. Just one year before he had been left completely alone, isolated and locked into fear by a virus, a protein coated nucleic acid, which had threatened to tear his whole world apart forever. And now he was standing here, looking at his his new family, in a city and a world restored because of the work he had done. Doris noticed his presence and smiled at him. “Gwoff woke up for the sunrise again,” she said in her incredibly sweet voice, glancing down at the new miraculous life she held in her hands. The first of many children who would never again have to endure the threat of ebola.
“What is it?” Gwoff yelled back. “Just come in here and see.” Gwoff got up from his comfortable seat and enjoyable view, and walked inside. His wife was standing up infront of the television, with an expression of awe on her face. “Can you believe this! There’s another outbreak of ebola! This time in Tokyo. They think it’s from some imported gibbons. Thank God your dad and uncle Bransen got this when they did.” “Wow. I thought it was completely wiped out. Nobody’s been infected, have they?” “No, everything’s under control right now. It’s still quite shocking though. Imagine if they hadn’t been able to cause gametic mutations. Had their treatment only effected somatic cells, the virus could have spread to our generation, and throughout the world before treatments got started.” “Yeah. We’re definitely lucky it’s permanent,” Gwoff said proudly, remembering the stories his parents had told him as he grew up.
Suddenly, their attention was directed solely at the television. “This just in... I can’t believe it... twenty people are reported dead, all who were vaccinated for ebola.” Gwoff and Justine stood silently, staring at the television, as they heard their children playing outside. “Apparently these twenty were not killed by the ebola virus directly. Scientists speculate that there may be some other aspect to ebola infection that we were once immune to. They are citing sickle cell anemia’s effectiveness in preventing malaria in parts of the population as an example of what may be occuring now.... Five more are now dead.”
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