Jornada del Muerto: Prisoner Days Read Online Free

protocol.
For example, despite all of their best efforts, scientists were
never able to create a luxury genius vaccine. The original
developers of The 146 believed this was a safety feature. The next
generation saw it as a drawback that left them unable to treat
mental illness.
    The last vaccine resolved this problem by
blowing a metaphorical hole in the blood-brain barrier. Once the
hole was created, each heartbeat brought the brain a flood of The
146-protein. The result was that people transformed to wasps
overnight. This transformation would eventually be called “The
Great Human Transition” by the yet-unaffected media. 1 billion
vials of this particular vaccine were created. They gave out a
little less than 500 million of them.
    By the time George fell ill, most farm
animals had been eating The 146-modified feed and receiving The
146-modified vaccines. They were in the same situation as human
beings. Farm animals began turning right about the time people
changed. Many wild animals and birds of prey transitioned because
they had been eating rodents who, in turn, had been eating modified
seed. The 146-protein transformed humans and animals into wasps
overnight. The wasps’ brains had turned into a liquid mush the
consistency of oatmeal. They became so infirm, I wondered if they
had been deteriorating bit by bit all along.
    Like the white man coming to this continent,
the wasps killed, maimed, and pillaged everything in their path.
When wasps eat, they kill. And they eat only living tissue. The
wasps went through the Pen in the matter of days. They left the Pen
in waves and brought their brand of death to anyone or anything in
their path.
    The 146-protein affected people differently
based on how much of The 146 they’d come in contact with. Here are
some examples of the variations at the Pen:
    * The warden grew up on a commune and made
enough money to eat mostly non-146 food. As a warden, his job
required that he stay vaccinated. When the transition happened, he
kept his mind but lost his bodily functions. He was trapped in his
office unable to eat or relieve himself. I dispatched him in one of
my early visits through the prison.
    * Two guards, who were both ex-military,
lost their minds and bodily function along with their souls. I
found them in a closet they had hidden in. Mad and unable to move,
they died of starvation.
    * One guard managed to keep some of his
mental processes but lost his soul. George and I fought him for a
year. He finally succumbed to The 146. We found him stuck in a
corner in the big Pen.
    * The rest of the prison staff turned to
wasps. With George’s help, we tracked down, and dispatched, any
prison guards, office workers, and staff still remaining in the
Pen.
    * George lost only the speaking and
analytical part of his mind. He became simple, and sweet, but not
dumb and savage. I believe that the one-month fast and George’s
overall tremendous physical condition were the only reasons he did
not deteriorate more.
    While the Great Human Transition happened on
October 31, 2046, people continued to transition long after the
vaccine was destroyed. The 146 DNA from food and the vaccines had
integrated into human DNA. This meant that every human being who’d
eaten 146-modified food or had even one vaccine continued to make
the protein. And the DNA was passed from parents to children.
    After the Great Human Transition, people
stopped taking the vaccines. They started growing non-modified
foods. The poorest of the poor made this transition first because
they had received the modified seed the last. Poor farmers from
India and Africa became brokers for unmodified seed. For a few
years, there was hope that the transition had affected only those
given the last vaccine.
    But The 146 was too insidious. The DNA was
now a part of the human genome. Children who had never received a
vaccine nor eaten the modified food transitioned to wasp around
their fifth birthday.
    The 146-protein continued to build up in