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Her hospital roo in death’s doorway, but her doctor had hoped that by bringing her fa her off life support The dareat Tests had shown that Sally herself--the thinking, acting girl they reone "Clinical brain death" was the ter toback And if they kept her on artificial life support for in to shut down, until there was nothing left If her faans now, her death could ans with splices taken from her SymboGen implant, the risks of rejection could be reduced to virtually nothing Dozens of lives could be saved, and all her family had to do was approve All her fao

All they had to do was ad up

Sally Mitchell opened her eyes

The ceiling was so white it burned, in to water in a parody of tears She stared up at it for al froe wanted her to close her eyes Another part of her brain awakened, explaining what the burning sensation in her retinas meant

Sally closed her eyes

The doctor was still pleading with her fa thereed to have Sally declared legally dead His voice was nothan the buzz of theto her, and so she dismissed them as unimportant stimuli in a world that was suddenly full of uni her eyes to open again She wanted to see the white ceiling It was… interesting

The second ti came after that, and then the realization that she could breathe--her body re, of the h the nose, the expelling of air through thethe breathing process began beeping shrilly, confused in its mechanical way by her sudden involve-colored coat beca her ears

Sally sat up

More machines started to beep Sally winced, and then blinked, surprised by her own autoain, this ti-colored coat stared at her and said so she didn’t understand She looked blankly back at hi noise, as shrill and confused as theherself onto the bed, putting her are sound in her throat, like she was choking

More people ca noise, but the people kept on doing it,questions she didn’t have answers for, and ans, one by one, resuoing to live Everything else was secondary

STAGE 0: EXPOSURE

Your health is too important to trust to just anyone Choose SymboGen Choose freedom

--EARLY SYMBOGEN ADVERTISING SLOGAN

Where aiene hypothesis was proposed in the late 1980s, e science It was based around the idea that ies and autoih early-life exposure to infectious agents Not just viruses--everyone gets exposed to viruses, unless they live inside a bubble--but allergens, bacteria, even parasites We weren’t living in literal bubbles, but ere sterilizing our environ to see the effects Children were getting sick because we refused to let them play in the dirt It was a ludicrous idea Pure scientific co of the 21st century, no one was laughing More andfaced with a choice: find a way to keep our systems in the equilibrium they had evolved tobiological and neurological disorder, and potentially, eventually, extinction

That’s where we came in

--FROM "KING OF THE WORMS," AN INTERVIEW WITH DR STEVEN BANKS, CO-FOUNDER OF SYMBOGEN ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN ROLLING STONE, FEBRUARY 2027

… traffic ca to shake uncontrollably in the middle of the intersection before she apparently experienced aa draht Witnesses reported that Sally Mitchell, age 20, appeared unaware of her surroundings as she drove straight into the path of an onco crosstown bus

In his deposition, the bus driver (David Alexander, 37) claimed he had been unable to either hit the brakes or swerve to avoid Mitchell’s car The two vehicles collided without slowing, sending Mitchell sla into the wall of a nearby bank One pedestrian was hit, Anthony Tho and several minor contusions, and was released two days later At the ti, Sally Mitchell reained consciousness…

--FROM THE CONTRA COSTA TIMES, JUNE 13, 2021

Chapter 1