Verminax
1978-1979.
The illegal dumping of chemical waste inadvertently affected a town’s water supply. This resulted in extreme contamination and toxicity to both humans and wildlife. Controversy and public outcry ensued. Many deemed it a conspiracy in order to cut costs and save a quick buck. This was never truly confirmed. Town officials worked to keep it under wraps. Rumors and speculation continued to run rampant until it was overcome by panic. No fresh water was available. It was replaced by a dark and rancid sludge.
Despite the mass hysteria, town officials didn’t sign off on evacuation. They placated the public with lies. Everything was under control and there was nothing to worry about. For a while, people were forced to ration their remaining drinking water. They couldn’t take showers or wash their clothes.Later, care packages from neighboring communities came in. These contained water bottles and filters to weed out harmful bacterias. Although this didn’t completely solve the issue, it was better than nothing.
Everything seemed relatively okay for a few weeks. Then an even bigger problem arose. Disturbing and devastating deformities were found in the town’s rat population. They inhabited the sewers beneath everyone’s feet. A team of environmental scientists led by Sebastian Gale and his teenage daughter and assistant Lyra Adams noted that the rats’ bodies were contorted into unnatural shapes and sizes. Some had grown grotesque tumors and extra appendages. Others had fused together into amorphous blobs.
Nearly all of the rats were unable to withstand their mutations and died out. However, one managed to survive and escape the sewers.
This initial form was horrid to look upon - three feet tall, exposed muscle tissue and inner organs, no fur to speak of, big bulging eyes, and stinking to high heaven. It was in constant pain due to its mutations and was quite mindless. Outside, it scampered around, leaving bloody meaty trails and wailing up at the sky. Each movement, no matter how big or small, sent jolts of excruciating torture down its entire body. The ice cold wind blew against it like snow battering a house in the dead of winter. It shivered uncontrollably.
Phone calls began rolling in from terrified individuals. They witnessed the disgusting monstrosity rummaging through their trash cans and trying to get into their houses. One woman claimed it even ate her cat. When the police showed up, they were horrified at what they saw. Not knowing what else to do, they shot it. The rat shrieked until it fell to the ground, riddled with bullets. Reluctantly, the police approached it. They were frozen in fear when the creature rose back up. The bullets they fired slid right out of the tissue. The afflicted areas fixed and reattached themselves as the bullets dropped.
No matter how many times they shot it, the same thing would always happen. When the rat scampered away towards the forest, the police followed it. They lost sight of it for a while. The bloody meat trail came to a stop. One of them, Officer Woodard, came to a clearing and witnessed the creature on the ground. It was convulsing and shaking, letting out unpleasant yelps and screams. It extended rapidly, everything from its head, eyeballs, limbs, and tail to a length of six feet.
The rat went silent on the ground. It appeared like a slab of meat hanging on a hook at a butcher’s shop. After a few moments, the police approached it again. None of them wanted to, but they had to make sure it was dead somehow. They shot it. Nothing. It was only when they turned their backs again, for only a brief moment, that they heard the impact of their bullets falling to the ground. Swiveling back around, the creature stood before them, a being that only half resembled the tiny little sewer rat it once was.
With the police officers’ horrific deaths discovered the next day, more and more sightings of the rat came to light. Many of them actively witnessed the creature’s continued mutations. It grew back its fur and its features stabilized into a now eight foot gangly mutated rat monster. Wherever it went, mayhem and disarray followed. Surviving victims of its attacks started contracting diseases such as rabies, tularemia, and rat bite fever, common rat-borne ailments. It was found that the chemicals the rat was exposed to elevated these pathogens tenfold. This contributed to major outbreaks of these diseases that were much more devastating than normal.
No matter what people tried, the rat would always resist. Sebastian and Lyra also made it clear that it would continue to evolve so long as the outside world continued to try to harm it. The rat was effectively invincible. Sebastian and Lyra convinced the town officials to evacuate everyone. This was further assisted by the governor and state police. Only healthy individuals were allowed to leave. Risk level individuals were forced to stay in order to avoid contamination of neighboring communities.
The news of the rat, a mutated creature born from pure human irresponsibility, made headlines everywhere. Once every healthy person was evacuated, the town was effectively sealed off and abandoned. Nothing was able to kill the rat, so it was left to fend for itself within the newly formed confines of the disease-and-blood-ridden town. The risk-level individuals tried to take matters into their own hands. They failed. Soon enough, it was only the rat who remained, trapped behind walls crafted by an unapologetic mankind who was intimidated at a horror of its own design.
The nine months that followed could be described in many ways. The simplest was “difficult”. News and media outlets contributed to the mass hysteria that erupted around the rat. They often propagated fear at the creature that had been cruelly devised. Some had even given it a name: “Verminax”. Many wanted it dead, in the face of cold hard facts that what they desired was impossible. Some activists put forth that Verminax was a poor animal who didn’t know what it was doing. Thus, it should’ve been treated humanely in both word and action. With the public’s tendency to hate anything abnormal to the status quo, Verminax was ultimately viewed as a vile monster.
With the public’s fears being at an all-time high and tensions at their breaking point, the government forgoed any acknowledgment of the town’s existence. They wiped it off the map completely. A buffer zone was created around it, guarded 24/7. Anyone foolish enough to try to travel to it would either be imprisoned or shot on site. These were usually urban explorers or those simply fascinated by the town’s degradation. Bodies littered the woods, but it was for everyone’s greater good.
Sebastian and Lyra made the trek themselves. They were silent and they were careful. In no time, they dodged all the guards and reached the outskirts. Through the trees, they observed the silent ghost town. The streets were littered with the remains of the town’s at-risk population. They had all perished at the hands of violence, illness, and mutations. It was a wasteland where humanity no longer had a place. This was now the domain of Verminax. Sebastian and Lyra took photos, but there were no signs of the creature. Ultimately, they were discovered by the guards, who arrested and had the both of them imprisoned. Quite sternly, they were told to stay away, if they knew what was good for them.
Everyone was trying to figure out things in the long term. Yet, there was no correct answer. Within the town itself, through guard towers, barbed wire, and machine guns, Verminax continued to live. It feasted upon the dead, human or otherwise. Nothing else lived besides it. Occasionally, it would return to the sewers, where it once belonged as a tiny little mammal, blissfully unaware of anything beyond its natural existence. Plenty of food was available down there in the form of its brethren rats. Verminax would often drink the contaminated water. The bubbling browns were intertwined with faint psychedelic rainbow streaks, as if someone puked all over a Jackson Pollock painting. If the guards listened very carefully, they would hear Verminax. This made their goosebumps rise right out of their skin.
No matter what, the outside world’s fixation on the small town never wavered. It was like a zoo with only one fascinating animal. The town became something of a tourist attraction. Beyond those wanting to get up close and snap a picture of Verminax were those pointing and laughing at the ugly beast. There were also the protesters and rioters holding up signs reading statements like “KILL THE RAT” and “THIS IS OUR TOWN”. People would be thrown in jail, people would be shot at, but nothing stopped them. To curb these issues, the government conjured up a dastardly plan to rid the town of trespassers for good. It was a cruel yet necessary evil.
Nearby was a nuclear power plant. Under the cover of nightfall, explosives were set up around the base of the reactor. Every trigger was set to detonate at once. The explosions shredded apart the plant. This sent radiation blasting out into the air in all directions, blanketing the town and Verminax in nuclear fallout. Everything about the operation was controlled. Everyone knew the price that’d be paid. Sebastian and Lyra tried to stop it, but it was no use. Beyond holding back the tourists and protestors, it was expected that Verminax, the rat, the monster, would be killed. Nothing could handle the extent of radiation from the plant. It was too powerful for any living thing to handle.
At least that’s what they thought.
Days after the explosions, Verminax was still alive. The monster cowered in fear when the loud noises shook everything around it. It then looked towards the dark sky as radioactive debris continuously rained down onto it. Everything was oddly peaceful until something happened. Something unprecedented. Sebastian and Lyra had warned of what nuclear radiation might do to the creature. The government was too stubborn and self-righteous. After all, they were the government.
Excruciating pain struck Verminax. It hit the monster hard, mainly because it had become accustomed, for just a moment, to peace. Everything about it began to fluctuate, its body widening and extending to extreme lengths. The creature’s bones and muscles repeatedly broke, ripped, and tore. The monster vomited copious amounts of the contaminated water mixed with blood as it writhed around. It jerked its head back, its vomit flying high in the air and landing back onto it. This burned the skin and fur right off its body. Naked, devoid of fur and skin once more, and steaming with its own vomit, Verminax grew to nearly 20 feet in size in all of ten seconds. Trying to lumber forward, it screamed up at the sky in clear abject agony.
After what felt like so much time, yet wasn’t at all, the monster’s form finally stabilized again. Its snout was long and its ears were huge. With its long sausage-like tail behind it, the monster tried to stand on its back feet, which felt like walking underwater with 500 pounds weights strapped to your feet. Desperately, it tried to keep itself upright. It failed every time. Slowly, clumsily, its eyes glazed over and pointing in opposite directions, the creature dragged itself along the forest. Verminax’s arms didn’t work. Its legs did all the movement. The malfunctioning circulation all over its body flared in distorted rhythms. The creature’s every step felt like an eternity, a trip to the other side of the Earth. Its destination was truly nowhere.
The monster took down trees and passed animals, such as squirrels, chipmunks, deer, and birds. They would rapidly mutate and die in a few short minutes. When the creature reached a local highway, its very presence caused traffic to come to a grinding halt. People were too stunned to move, their blood running cold. It was beyond comprehension. On its stomach, the creature stared right back at them. Its eyes were terribly dry from being unable to blink. What snapped the humans out of their daze was Verminax opening its mouth and letting out a shriek so loud, so high-pitched, that it ruptured everyone’s eardrums. They tried to run as the monster barreled through their cars. Some were crushed under the monster’s immense weight. Others ended up trampled by their fellow humans. More ended up inside the creature’s mouth and down its gullet. Then all of them stopped. Their impending mutations ceased any hope of escape.
Verminax encountered the city. It crashed through the streets and destroyed every building it could, trapping its inhabitants within. The screams were horrific and the crying was worse. The monster left behind a trail of blood and meat that went on for miles. While the town’s emergency preparedness protocols were tested to their limits, these were rendered completely useless. No one cared about safety in an orderly fashion. They only cared about themselves. All of it was worth zero. They just mutated and died like nothing.
Sometimes Verminax burst in multiple places. This caused blood, muscle tissue, and bone fragments to spew out in every direction. It would then regenerate the missing pieces bit by bit. With a long line of obliteration behind it, the monster stopped. There were no more screams and no more cries, only blaring sirens. It was a standstill, save for the plastic bags floating through the wind or pieces of destroyed buildings falling down to the ground.
Emerging on what was once a utility road, the creature collapsed. Another mutation was on its way and it would be hell. Verminax’s size went up by nearly 50 feet. It grew back the gray fur it once possessed. The monster’s skull bulged and swelled, widening its eyes with it. Inside its body, its internal organs rearranged and contorted in so many different ways. The creature’s teeth grew longer, sharper, cutting its gross tongue as it dragged itself along. This caused blood to fall down in pools to the ground below. Verminax’s needle-like claws shredded the asphalt and cement beneath its feet. With full control over its tail at last, the monster whipped it back and forth. This destroyed the ruins of other nearby buildings even further. The creature’s teeth grinded together. Blood leaked out of its eyelids, mouth, and ears. Rest assured, it did let out a sharp and searing roar of absolute torment. All that pain forced it into shock as well as something new. Anger.
Verminax destroyed everything in its path. Massive waves of people died in the carnage. It had evolved the ability to dig to get away from the bullets and missiles being shot at it. This way, the monster would travel somewhere in an instant. Everyone could only guess at its location. Wherever it went, the creature left behind swathes of radiation. The whole eastern seaboard was irradiated. All it knew besides pain was that the little ants beneath its feet were why it was like this. The cause (humans) and effect (pain), two very simple notions to base an objective on. Weed out the cause to negate the effect, that was its objective. That might not make sense to us, because obviously weeding out the cause of the effect doesn’t negate the effect. However, to something that suffers endlessly, making the cause feel the effect is a remedy in of itself.
It took a lot of time and a whole lot of attention seeking for Sebastian and Lyra to make this apparent. Verminax was simply taking its revenge. Out of all the emotions it could theoretically feel, only three boiled up to the surface. There was pain and there was anger. There was also hate. The monster was impervious to everything from bullets to missiles to thermonuclear warheads. All was for naught. After every military strike, the creature would get stronger and become an even more efficient killing machine. More pain and more anger equaled more hatred.
People needed a solution, lest it be too late. They had to save themselves in one way or another. The radiation was spreading. Nothing could be truly invincible. Everything had a weakness. Technology had advanced to new heights. What would kill Verminax? It was the most obvious question on everyone’s minds. No one had answers. Then they found the only weapon it was susceptible to: its own kind.
In a daring international operation, an artificially created bioweapon was forced directly into the monster, one that would impede its ability to mutate any further and would then rapidly decay its cells. Very much a suicide mission, those who took part knew that it was likely they wouldn’t return. Many volunteers were killed in horrific obscene ways, but by some miracle, it worked. The creature was killed. However, no one realized that they breached the point of no return the second the idea was even conceived.
After its death, Verminax’s decaying body hosted a sort of mutagenic disease, one that carried on living. As Sebastian and Lyra stated, it would live in some way. No matter what. Combining this with the bio weapon that was launched into the monster, it worked to decay every bit of its new hosts. Simultaneously, it mutated them into new versions of the creature. This could be thought of as asexual reproduction into its offspring. The disease was spread every possible way. It could mutate an entire body in under thirty seconds. No one lived to see their new forms. There was no way to stop it. One would be trying to delay the inevitable. Most just let it happen. Humanity dwindled in number. Everyone lost hope and let death embrace them.
Two of the last hundred on Earth, Sebastian shot Lyra, his daughter, his bundle of joy, in the head as she mutated into something foul. Unable to live with himself, especially in this new hellworld, Sebastian turned the pistol to his head and shot.
Something new made its home within the human race. It intended to transform us into what it was, mutating us to death and rebirthing as one of it. In the end, Verminax accomplished its objective. Its fundamental existence was a doom spiral. We were the cause and the effect is killing us. We inflicted the pain, the discomfort, and the torture. Now it's being spat back at us with a vengeance.