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She took a deep breath "Here goes Once the victi spore has access to the bloodstreah the bloodstream the lymphatic system From there it hits the immune system and pretty much takes over It can now tell the host what it’s allowed to fight off infection-wise, and programs the immune system to think that the parasite is a friend So, once the immune system is under the control of the parasite, it’s free to roaet sick

"It next travels through the huan and tissue type At each new stop, it sets up a satellite colony that adapts and an, and it makes sure to take over shop and do any necessary repairs This is the initial colonization--setting up satellite colonies in every organ andup a repair shop, so to speak" She gave Marcus a ful look "Which is why you didn’t die of rabies"

He gave a short nod

Sofia’s attention came back to me "And is why you most likely don’t still have the chicken pox virus in you, or even if you do, you don’t have to worry about it coht I wasn’t ready to hear this "In other words, this zo hard

"Yes Even the brain I’m still not sure of the exact ht si else But the good news is that it doesn’t kill anything" She gavelook "What it does is head for the hunger center and gets itself hardwired in" She shrugged "And there are probably all sorts of specialized cell-cell junctions, so no way is it getting ripped out of there Even under the worst circuht And now that the satellite colony in the brain is set up, the infection is coe of the love seat and crossed her arms over her chest "There’sthe colonies, and how it es to mimic host tissue so extraordinarily well I ’s a a zombie "What about the brains? Why does it make us crave brains?"

"Prions!" she said with a proud s on for the past several years Prions are indestructible--they’re basically immortal proteins Your parasitic zo blocks and for fuel The best part is, every time the host eats brains, the parasite has a brand new fuel supply And, since it has its own personal hardwire into the host’s brain, it can tell it to go and getlow on prions If the host can’t find any immediately, the parasite takes a couple of actions The first is, it reinforces its presence in the brain and probably takes resources from elsewhere Now, as the colony starves and has to start shutting down sections, the first systeo are the hostbits and pieces After all, it’s not altruistic"

"Of course not," I said weakly

"Since the prion building blocks it uses are indestructible, the colony is fine at first, but the host tissue degrades, except for the brain--which the parasite still needs to function so it can et more brains…until it eventually runs out of steam and the host and parasite die"

I was silent for a couple of minutes after she finished I didn’t understand all of what she’d said, but I got the basic gist: I couldn’t be cured, and there was so in human brains that this parasite needed "And you ri todifficult to isolate exactly what the parasite utilizes"

"But she’s close," Marcus said "And when she gets there, it’s going to change everything for those of us with the zombie parasite"

I opened my mouth to say that I could see a lot of problems as well, but then closed it Marcus obviously adored his uncle, and probably wouldn’t take too kindly to ive these artificial brains away Plus, if it suddenly became easy to feed zombies, why notthought The parasite see as it was fed, but how did we knoasn’t controlling us in some other way that we couldn’t sense?

"Sounds cool," I said instead "But now that I’ve had the biology lesson of a lifetime, can you explain how the hell Zeke--whose head was chopped off, by the way--showed up at y’all’s lab and looking about twenty years older than he did before?"

Fear returned to Sofia’s face "I don’t know," she said as she sank to sit on the love seat

"Then maybe you can tell me about these ‘zo back and forth between the two of them

Marcus scowled "There are other zoree with the way Pietro wants us to stay organized Sofia’s research isn’t coet their hands on it, they could conceivably find another neurobiologist to finish it, and then basically corner theto try to tell me that your uncle won’t control the distribution?" I said in thinly veiled exasperation Sofia looked abruptly stricken Anger flashed across Marcus’s face, but I bulled on "Tell ive these fake brains away--to everyone? Even the ones who aren’t in his ‘circle’?" I ers