A Diagnosis; Plague Land

 Title: Plague Land

 Author: Alex Scarrow

I know this looks VERY long, but trust me, it won't take up too much of your time. I hope this made you reconsider. If you do read this and choose to comment, tell me if this actually worked and made you stay

… Also, it’s NOT a zombie book. 

I recommend you read this report aloud. 

Plague Land, by Alex Scarrow, published in 2016, is a thriller scientific fiction narrative revolving around an ‘alien’ contagious outbreak centering itself around the point of view of a family living in London. 

-Okaaay, now that I got past the boring whatsits, let's get to the fun stuff. In this book report, we will not focus on the characters and story plot: why? How dare you even ask, I’m sorry, are YOU the author of this report? No; so close your yap-trap. 

 Jokes aside, the plot of this book is pretty interesting and takes you on a full emotional roller coaster embodying you with fear, and disgust, yet so much attachment, as you ride along with the family’s story and tag along in their great journeys as they find themselves in a whole new world (yet on the same Earth now characterized by a seemingly never-ending pandemic), struggling for survival and forced to adapt an unwanted lifestyle. Just to make things clear, I’m not joking about not writing about this. 

Okay, so why are we not gonna focus on that? Because I have five hours left to finish this, five hours I don’t want to spend analyzing the same old setting, plot, and character profiles any book has.

…

But for grading reasons, let’s just say I’m being unique and/or special. And hopefully this makes it a funner, different type of read than you’re used to. 

…

 Anyways, here’s what we're gonna do. First things first, you’re gonna want to turn on the “doctor” lever inside your brain. You may think you don’t have it, or you don’t even know what it is, but believe me, we all have it. However, If you truly have been searching for it for hours and you still haven’t found it…

(if you have been searching for it for hours, go take a break, it’s okay to take a break sometimes)

…the detective switch will do. And if you’ve watched any type of medical or judicial drama (e.g., Grey’s Anatomy, Doctor House, 911, Station 19, Better Call Saul, The Good Doctor, Suits), don’t worry, that switch is set on by default for you. 

Okay, next; this step is optional, but I highly recommend it. If you’re at home, go grab some veggie straws (don’t worry, I won’t be like the other types of book reports that tell you to grab popcorn, it’s not that deep), and WATER. 

Not sprite, not coca cola, I’m telling you to drink water. Have you ever drank water before? Congratulations! It tastes like nothing. Do you not want to drink it? Sounds like an ish-you, not an ish-me, drink it. You’re gonna need it for the stuff I’m gonna describe to you. 

Believe me, you’re not gonna want to be spilling acidic beverages that probably have a pH above 14. Hah! See what I did there? pH.. -Above 14… 

…hahaha.. 

okay.. 

CHECKPOINT: 

✅

        Well hello there reader. You have reached your first INTERACTIVE checkpoint. That's right, it's interactive. Why is it interactive you may ask? Because if you've reached this checkpoint, I now ENTITLE you to read the rest of this report. If you've stayed this far, there is a small chance you may enjoy what is to come. So, if you've passed this checkpoint and are wondering "I'm bored can I go?" Duolingo will say hi to your family... Kidding! However, I'd recommend you keep on reading. 
4,960 × 3,306

        Anyways, sit back, relax, eat those veggie straws, have the lingering thought of remembering to do your Duolingo lesson for today, and enjoy!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

If you're still looking for water but don’t know what water looks like here you go: 

And these are veggie straws: 

Make sure not to drink any water from your local pond though. If you’ve been paying any attention to Ms. Smysers class in Biology, the second you drink that pond water, there's going to be a number not yet known to humanity of bacteria that will undergo the four stages of cell division so many times that it will probably cause the next pandemic. Please don’t become patient zero. I’m begging you to not recreate this book. 

Ah, now, with that out of the way, let’s start, shall we? … And may the odds be ever in your favor… if you drank the pond water. 

 We will refer to the virus as webbie. You’ll find out why later. Additionally, this is your spoiler checkpoint: everything after this point is gonna be spoiling what webbie does, what webbie looks like, how webbie came to be. Enjoy. (Note: webbie isn’t one thing, like I said, it’s like a type of virus. So, there are many webbies.)

The story of the virus’s origin goes as follows: 

(I would play some sad music while reading this)

In the Earth's atmosphere, there was peace. 

Silence. Nothingness. 

However, then came a meteorite. Not a big one, not a dinosaur one, a small meteorite. 

The Earth’s atmosphere has seen these types of meteorites many times before. 

What happens? As the meteorite submerges itself deeper into the layers of

our atmosphere, it burns up and showcases itself for us as sparks of  light. 

This too is also what happened to this particular meteorite.

However, buried beneath its icy crystals and rocky stone,

There was something. 

Currently, it wasn’t moving. It was cold.

It was dark.

But.. It was something.

As the meteorite got closer and closer to the Earth’s surface, it did        what any meteorite would do. Layer by layer, it started eroding to the forces and matter present in the atmosphere. Layer by layer, something was finally coming to light.

However, something was still dark. 

Something         detached from the meteorite as it scattered itself into hundreds of tiny pieces.

Something         didn’t burn. 

Something survived the atmosphere. 

Light hit something.

Something was still dark.

That something found itself falling, and falling, and falling

A wind gust hit it. 

Now above London, something was coming.

Finally, it landed.

On a pot.

The pot had beautiful flowers.

That something laid there. Restless. Motionless. 

A pigeon came.

That something came in contact with the pigeon.

From the pigeon, something turned into two.

Four.

Eight.

Sixteen

Thirty-Two

The pigeon flew away, with something still on it. 

Yet still so tiny, no one could see.

As the bird flew, and flapped its wings,

Something spread.

Black particles spread across the small town square where the pot with the beautiful flowers laid. 

An hour later, the pigeon did not survive.

An hour later, there was no more pot.

No more beautiful flowers.

However, there was something.

It turned others into nothing.

It was alive.

Here, I practically summarized webbies origin story - but with a more poetic feel to it. Let’s start our analysis. I’ll add on more facts as we go.

Oh also, now I’d recommend playing some 'inspirational', fast-paced music. For example, that one Oppenheimer song. Believe me, it’ll make it go a lot faster (If you already have a music player open, what’s to lose?).

Now, get ready for a whole load of science dump. Try to formulate your own conclusions on the matter as you read. And uh, a quick warning; you're gonna see some pretty chunky paragraphs from now on. If you haven't turned on your music yet, I recommend you do it now.

1. Webbie is extraterrestrial. It is flammable.

-     According to the book, webbie originated from a different planet; at least, we have to assume so if it is coming from a meteorite, as I don’t think life can appear out of nowhere from an asteroid belt. What was most likely to happen is that its home world got destroyed, and webbie was kept safe within the cozy viscosity inside of the space rock it settled in. However, if webbie was able to survive for so long in outer space (assuming that it probably had to travel light years to get to Earth, because currently the closest habitable planet to us is four light years away), this means that in its home planet, resources were most likely highly limited to some degree. This probably ranged from severe lack of water, organic material, and oxygen; and because of this, webbie had to learn to survive in a resource-limited environment to a point it became so efficient that it was able to survive hundreds if not thousands of years without resources and materials crucial for life, floating in outter space. Additionally, as described in my summary of its origin earlier, it finally made it to Earth via an atmospheric entry. What do we know about this? We know that webbie is in fact flammable, although I failed to mention that in my poetic summary, the book does in fact describe most of webbie burning up in the atmosphere, and only a few clumps of webbie survived. Because of its flammability, we have to assume that it contains some form of hydrogen within its macromolecular structure because hydrogen is the only molecule out of the other carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur atoms that make up organic life (if you’re asking why I didn’t include oxygen, that’s because oxygen by itself isn’t flammable; however, oxygen works as an oxidizer and contributes in creating a flame) that are flammable. So, why is it important that we know that it is made of hydrogen? We know that hydrogen is substantially used in our bodies to sustain crucial chemical reactions that contribute to the production of energy, most notably the creation of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). If webbie contains hydrogen, that means that it likely utilizes the same means of creating energy as we do, meaning that webbie requires adenosines and phosphates to survive (these make up ATP). Adenosine is formed inside the cells or the cells’ surface mostly by the breakdown of adenine nucleotides. Adenine nucleotides come from nucleotide inosine monophosphates (IMPs), which are mainly found in postmortem organical meat; this meaning that one of webbies main sources of food has to come from bioorganic skeletal muscle that can only be obtained from living organisms. And possibly, it needs it prey dead before it can start its consumption of the adenine bases. Additionally- okay wait this is going more into the next topic, so I will continue this in #2. (P.S., if I’m getting some stuff wrong, feel free to correct me in the comments, or if you have different conclusions of what this means. I’d like to debate). 

            2. Webbie can only divide when in contact with organic material and/or water.
-     Welcome back. Before I go back to my ATP and adenine talk and its relation to webbies' diet, I’d like to go over how webbie is able to find and then digest these materials in the first place. In the book, it is said that in order for webbie to propagate, it needs to come in contact with one of two things; organic material, and/or water (this is what the scientists trying to figure out what webbie was were saying). So, my hypothesis is that it has some form of advanced lysosomes (a type of intercellular organelle), similar to the ones found in immune cells, the only difference being that these lysosomes are able to produce much stronger enzymes and proteins capable of larger scale reactions; through these ways, webbie is able to ‘liquify’ organisms as described in the book by destroying any cellular membrane it comes in contact with (if you don't know what I mean by liquify, wait until the next excerpt, I'll explain). This also brings me back to my first point, as this means that whatever hosts were in webbies home planet, they had to be pretty tolerant to this type of enzyme that webbie possesses, because if not they would’ve died quick; and without any more hosts and no more resources to feed off of, webbie would eventually die off. Another type of enzyme that webbie would be possessing/similarly mimicking is pepsin, an enzyme found in our stomachs that largely contributes to our digestive system and our digestion. However, the reason I believe it is more likely they house some sort of granzyme B enzyme class from immune cells rather than pepsin is because webbie doesn’t really show to be differentiating in its cell types, and it looks like as if it's just expressing the same genome throughout all its cells because they all have the same properties, function, purposes, and appearance. So, there is no specific type of webbie cell that could possibly produce a specific pepsin enzyme.
-     Additionally, webbie seems to be a unicellular organism, yet still working together with its own species with some sort of mutual-beneficiary relationship; in the book, it seems as if they are also able to communicate with each other through biochemical links of some sorts, however this is not thoroughly specified. This leads me to my next point, though, as webbie connects with its own species and forms large masses that can entangle entire buildings. In the book, it is referenced that webbie is somehow able to find its way to where there is an abundance of resources. What I am led to believe is that it is more sensitive to chemical signals dispatched and carried by the surrounding living organisms it comes in contact with, so much so that it is able to sense these reactions and/or differentiate living against non-living by using some sort of defining biological markers given off by organic compounds. Make use of this information to how you best see fit.
-     Anyways, now reverting back to my adenine talk, another big point arises; to even create ATP in the first place, you need mitochondria in animal cells, or chloroplast in plant cells (atleast, on Earth you do). And on Earth, our cells got mitochondria in the first place through the endosymbiont cell theory describing that at one point in Earths’ history, a prokaryote ate another (which was a mitochondria) but failed to digest it. However, the two prokaryotes had a mutual relationship as together they got a higher chance of survival due to more efficient energy input and output as they worked together as a team. What does this bring to the table? This means that webbie is most likely not the only enhanced life form that was on its home planet, and that means that there are so many more webbie-like that likely took the same endosymbiont path. This means there might be countless advanced lifeforms floating around in space in the same asteroids waiting to come in contact with different planets (atleast, from this perspective, it seems likely). Additionally, this evidence suggests that webbies home planet had a similar biological history to our own Earth, meaning that we can probably attribute many of life’s common properties to webbie such as cell theory and the characteristics of life; notably webbie is able to reproduce, grow, develop, maintain homeostasis, adapt, and acquire and use energy.

Now, I will produce another excerpt summarizing some characterizing features of webbie.

Something created blackness. 

It all became dark.

There was still light,

But it was still dark. 

Out of the darkness came several clumps      of       particles

Seemingly working together for a common purpose

At any contact with water, or living matter

Came more of this darkness,

And to any unlucky sole that came in contact with this darkness

They would turn into a jelly,

A liquid.

Only bones left.

Whether through heat, 

Or pure destruction,

Something spread through this new liquid.

With every contact of living matter absorbed,

Something would continue its task,

Through connections, and self-paved paths

Something spread itself out as if it were a web, 

Finding whatever it may need.

Something lived

Something spread

It went fast,

Before the vast world became a prey to somethings grand feast,

Something was picked up.

Something became from something else

The black jelly that turned everything else to an absence of the reflection of light. 

It went.

I hope you were able to figure out why I named the pathogen webbie now.

- Another reminder that these excerpts are not a direct quote from the book, I am summarizing it in a poetic manner.

Some takeaways from the novel and the excerpt you should keep in the back of your mind:     Purplish-blackish color

    Jelly/goo

    Can be liquid or solid form (either as particles when airborne, or liquid form when in host)

    Large. Seen in clumps, can be seen as small black particles

    'Liquidizes' host in under an hour, only bones left behind

    Works together

3. Webbie ‘liquifies’ its hosts. 

-     In the book, webbie is able to completely liquify its hosts in under an hour. In the end, the only feasible structures remaining are bones. This further supports my point that webbie uses some sort of advanced enzyme because there is no known enzyme that can dissolve bones. Additionally, this brings up the point of what method webbie is even using to liquify its hosts. My best theory is that through enzymes it is able to catalyze chemical reactions so large that it releases too much energy for tissues to handle, enough energy that can break through any type of cell membrane, even being able to get past cell walls as described earlier in the book. The book details that webbie can make use of any type of organic matter here on Earth, signifying further that it derives from a different planet that had much more harsher survivability rates and requirements than this one and for that reason webbie is able to easily take organic resources and materials here on Earth quickly and fast enough to spread to other organisms. In the end, this brings back a point that webbie could be too advanced for its own good. Over time, if no cure is found, webbie will be able to take over any and every organism on Earth -quickly, too. Because of this, it is eventually bound to die off with no more host-sources(but as discussed earlier, it probably adapted to live longer periods of time, meaning it might still take a while for its end). However, another contradicting theory that could oppose the enzyme theory for webbie, is that webbie is a type of parasite that adapted to Earths’ organisms’ common way of communication through electrical signals in our bodies and was able to alter areas in our brain that changed our body temperatures and set our body temperatures excruciatingly high over our limits, or perhaps set an allergic reaction that started producing highly exothermic chemical reactions leading to a surge in temperature and/or acidity spike in our pH levels that led to the dissolvement of our cells, tissues, and organs. In spite of this, it could’ve also caused a spike in our basicness on our blood’s pH scale, disrupting our bodily functions and giving webbie an easy way into our nervous and lymph systems and causing confusion in our body's defense system, confusing immune cells.

3. Webbie is lethal; takes down their hosts in an hour or less. 

-     By the rules of modern biology, a pathogen can kill; but it probably shouldn’t do it too fast. If a pathogen’s lethality is higher than its infectivity, the pathogen’s host will die before they even get the chance to spread the pathogen or itself to other hosts. This is why we don’t typically see pathogens that kill in an hour less, such as in this case with webbie. However, even though webbie can become lethal in such a short amount of time, it still manages to propagate across the world; for why this may be, how could this happen? The book details that webbie can divide fairly quickly - and my best guess for this would be that because it is so efficient at using the resources it has, it is better for it to kill the host quicker to enable faster spread - and it's able to spread fast due to its ability to turn into a liquid state and be picked up by the air, making it airborne. Notably, webbie is able to survive outside of its host, and uses its host as a temporary habitat; most likely using their hosts as ‘pit stops’ to gather more resources to divide further. Although, another point could be that in its home world, things don't work the same way as here on Earth, and most living organisms there had a higher heat capacity that let the disease stay and live within the host for a longer amount of time. 

         4. Webbies’ classification.
-     At first, webbie seems to be a type of virus; simply holding genetic material and floating in space on board an asteroid, simply a bundle of genetic information with instructions within a thin chemical membrane. However, if it were a virus, it would have no organelles; and many of webbies theories of dietary consumption and survival are based on webbie having organelles. However, if it were a virus, it is possible that its genetic material could code cells to produce highly acidic chemicals, proteins, or enzymes that interfered with our body’s circulatory systems or other major bodily systems that led to the dissolvement of our cells’ membranes which set a structural chain reaction of organoid collapse leading to liquefaction. However, if it were a virus, it would be harder to link up and communicate amongst other of webbies species due to its lack of self-reproduction and self-resourcefulness, as viruses need a host to accomplish all its tasks; but at the same time, webbie can only divide once it comes to contact with organic matter or water, so it being a virus is still plausible.
-     Secondarily, it is possible that webbie is a prokaryotic organism; more specifically, a type of bacteria. Again, bacteria do not possess any membrane-bound organelles, so if webbie were to be a bacteria, any organelle theory can quickly be eliminated. However, bacteria can reproduce quickly due to their feature of having no solid nucleus to dissolve and recreate during cell division, also called mitosis, and bacteria do not particularly require a host to divide, they just need the materials necessary; something webbie could be doing. Additionally, bacteria can work similarly to a parasite and could be manipulating bodily signals and messengers to drive all resources to it and only it, taking so many materials from across the body that the body is then basically dissolved by the point that webbie is done collecting its required materials - starving our body of its resources. 
-     Next, webbie could be a type of fungus. Fungi are able to navigate throughout their environment pretty well due to their enhanced external stimuli and reactivity, something that webbie showcases thoroughly throughout the book as it is able to effectively find its prey across short and long distances. Additionally, it could be reproducing and propagating itself through large spores that then mature themselves into their own cell once they come in contact with organic matter or water; again, anything could be possible. Fungi also are able to reproduce fairly quickly which is a dominant feature shown in webbie. 
-     Lastly, webbie could have its own unique, new classification of sorts combining all of these types of pathogens. Webbie is from an untold, extraterrestrial land; we couldn’t possibly know what the rules for life elsewhere away from Earth could be. Depending on webbies' original environment, setting, competition, and so many more factors, there could be completely different levels of categorization and classification on webbies' home planet (assuming that webbie did come from a different planet). However, in the end, webbie was able to take the characteristics of almost every pathogen recognizable here on Earth and suffice them to its most affection in a way it took the globe. 

Thank you for reading my review on Plague Land, and although it’s a different touch of how I normally write, I hope that you enjoyed it and that you can spark your ideas and alternate opinions whether it be mentally or down in the comments. I’d love to hear what you all think! (assuming you didn’t drink the pond water). 

                                                                                                                            - Jakub Tinoco