Journals of the Damned Read online

Control said that while the parasite resembles Toxoplasmosa Gondii on the outside, the new parasite is completely different genetically. Toxoplasmosa Gondii is a common microbe that infects the brains of rats and changes their behavior significantly.

  This particular parasite affects the behavior of its host species. The life cycle of the tiny parasite called Toxoplasma Gondii is unusual. Toxoplasmosa Gondii lives rats and reproduces in the intestinal tracts of cats. It is not only able to survive the cat’s digestion process but requires it to reproduce. The single celled puppet master ends up in the feces of the cat and if other animals come in contact with the excrement it can cause the animal to become infected. In Infected rats the parasite makes its way to the brain and alters the rodent's behavior. Once the parasite establishes itself, the normally fearful rat becomes fatally attracted to the smell of cats and cat urine. The rats, if they aren't attracted by the smell of cats, certainly no longer fear being eaten by the cats and end up becoming dinner. The ingested parasites then make their way to the cat’s stomach and reproduces to complete its life cycle.

  Scientists and doctors know that humans can be hosts to Toxoplasma, too. People can become infected by its eggs by handling soil and kitty litter. In some places of Asia (where cats are still on the menu) poorly cleaned knives and cooking utensils can spread the organism. In most people, the infection causes no harm. Toxoplasmosis is a serious risk for people with AIDS. If a person's immune system is weak Toxoplasma can grow uncontrollably and the parasite can kill. Pregnant women are also advised not to handle kitty litter, and Toxoplasmosa Gondii is the reason why. The insidious organism can cause birth defects and spontaneous abortions (miscarriage). There are studies that have shown behavioral changes in humans, including slower reaction times and an increased risk of traffic accidents among infected men. There also may be links to schizophrenia, hallucinations and reckless behavior. In most cases, the parasite lives unnoticed in people's brains. Estimates range from a third to half of the people on Earth are infected with Toxoplasma.

  Sometimes the more I know about something, the less I wish I knew about it. That is so totally messed up.

  Onto the weirder news of the day. In South Korea and southern China there are reports of bat colonies just going insane, attacking villagers and any living creature they can find. Nobody has died from the attacks but their victims are covered with cuts and nicks from their small teeth and claws. The bats behavior turns increasingly violent, until they turn on each other, dying from blood loss due to their many wounds.

  The fact that bats are related closely to the rodent family, coupled with the fact that this new parasite seems to be related to one that can change the hosts behavior (and normal thinking patterns) leads me to think that this is also the work of the new, still unnamed, parasite. I hope I'm wrong.

  Wednesday, September 5, 2012

  Toxoplasmosa Mondus Omni is the name of the new parasite. The meaning of the words come from Latin with Toxon meaning "bow" and Plasma meaning "shape of" or "disposition of", with the whole meaning of the word being "bow shaped organism". Mondus means "world" in Latin and Omni means "all" or "everything". The new name for the new parasite literally means "The bow shaped organism that covers the world". A committee of the CDC gave it this name, no particular researcher or scientist named it. I did some research of my own on the name and found that "Mondus" has multiple meanings, just as many English words do. Mondus can also mean "clean" or "organize" or "neat". The root of the word mondus comes from "to prepare, to outfit" in Latin. In the sense of the belief that the world was created from chaos comes the ordering of the world, hence its dual meaning. In that sense the name of the new organism could also mean "The bow shaped organism that cleans all".

  Leave it to a U.S. government committee to be perfectly unclear in something as simple as assigning a name. They named it before they knew of the parasites effects in its adult stage. Maybe they weren't being unclear, maybe they unknowingly got the name correct after all. Maybe they got the name right but the meaning wrong.

  There's a horrific wave of terror sweeping Asia and reaching into deepest Russia and the Middle East. The fast moving surge of death is following the same pattern and spread as did the "Rat Death" and the "Rat flu". It's as if the animal kingdom is rising up against all of nature, including mankind. Especially mankind. The human death toll is already into the tens of thousands. It's going to go global. There is no doubt on this. It will spread to the furthest reaches of the globe within the week. It will be here, in Florida, in no more than three days from now.

  First comes the colonies of bats, flowing out of their dark roosts, attacking and trying to kill everything and anything that moves. This continues until they finally end up mauling each other to death after a day or two at the most. Then comes the squirrels, chipmunks, gerbils, hamsters, minks, lemmings and every other small, once timid creature.

  The human death toll is greatest among the poorest and more remote peoples. Lightly built dwellings and huts serve as no defense from the attacks of the small maddened creatures. The insane critters slip through gaps, chew through thin walls and jump through open windows. No weapon can truly stop them. Small, fast moving targets are hard to hit even with automatic weapons. Even a sharpshooter, even if he killed an infected animal with every shot, soon gets simply overwhelmed or runs out of ammo. Whole villages are simply clawed and ripped to shreds by the enraged beasts. Only by taking shelter in solidly built, modern buildings can one be safe. Whole areas of countryside's are de-populated as the people rush into the cities to try and flee certain death.

  Thankfully we in the U.S. have warning of this. People are reinforcing their houses, boarding up windows and doors as if a hurricane were on the way. Once again the huge corporations are making a ton of money, plywood and food stocks are almost completely sold out around the world. Nobody knows how long this will last. From observing the animals in captivity, like zoos, we find that once the blood-lust hits the infected animals they no longer show any interest in food or water. They mercilessly attack any and every thing until they die of thirst or starvation. Even pet food stocks are low as people prepare for the oncoming siege, both for themselves and their pets.

  The ferocity is so overwhelming in the poor animals that even after they have brutally murdered their children and mates, the lone survivors relentlessly claw and bite at their confines, desperately trying to get to the zoo keepers. Those maddened creatures only stop once they die of blood loss, having turned their paws into bloody stumps of useless meat and having lost all their teeth from biting frantically at metal and glass enclosures.

  The parasite has turned up in seals, otters, dolphins and whales. They, like the canine and ursine families, show no outward symptoms or behavioral changes.

  Cats, primates, and just about every other thing, on the other hand, show signs of the sickness. There is endless speculation as to whether they too will go mad, only time will tell.

  To me it's a final judgment from Pan and Artemis against mankind and its unceasing attacks upon their subjects.

  If my religious beliefs in some way offend you Mrs. Johnson, please think on this. Is there only one star in the sky? Is there only one blade of grass? Where does anything exist by itself? All of the natural world shows where one thing exists, there are many. Nothing exists in a vacuum. Quantum physics has basically proven that there are also multiple realities and separate universes. Even your 'Holy Trinity' is flawed (the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost), logically they are all separate beings with godly powers are they not? If they have such godly powers doesn't that then make them Gods in their own rights? Then you have your Satan, supposedly with powers over the people on this planet that rivals your God's own powers. So how can you logically state there is only one God when your own religious belief belays this. I view your God as if he's another version of Odin, of Zeus, of Ra. I'm not a Wiccan, but I do believe the Old Gods still walk among us.

  It is to them that I pray we survive the next
couple of weeks.

  Friday, September 7, 2012

  I had no idea how many small mammals there were. Before I rarely noticed the squirrels, only seeing one or two at a time. Even all the rats and mice (which are now almost extinct, their putrefying corpses still taint the air), that once existed in their multitudes, I had only seen rarely when one of old Mrs. Hoffner's cats proudly trotted by with one in their mouth. Now since they have gone mad with blood-lust they seem to be numberless.

  Here, in the suburbs, where mankind has replaced the natural world with concrete and asphalt, it's not too bad. Here in the Orlando area, the people greatly outnumber the squirrels and other small creatures. Out in the countryside, where large acres of farmland exist for mile upon mile, like most of Kansas, it's much worse. In the farmlands, the ranches, the wide open spaces of big sky country they outnumber people. In states like Oregon, Montana and the sparely populated states and territories of Canada, the animals driven to unending violence vastly outnumber people.

  Small towns, farms and isolated homes are practically under siege. The assaults are constant and relentless. When they