Organism X – Ch. 01

More than 50,000 meteorites have been found on planet Earth, scattered around the world. While seen as a distant cosmic phenomenon by most people, the planet is being bombarded all the time.

Most objects burn up in the upper atmosphere, but every so often, something makes it through. Upon impact, there is no telling what might linger within the craggy rock and ice.

From high above Bailey College on the coast of Virginia, one such object made it through. It tumbled down at high velocity, expelling its outer layers as it prepares for impact.

The rock, approximately the size of a bowling ball on impact, slammed into the Earth with a loud thump in South Woods, just off campus. The blast formed a crater the size of a mid-sized car a couple feet away from the quiet stream. The contents within were mercifully spared from the heat and impact.

For a moment, the small meteorite glowed in the darkness. Then, without warning, the rock split, sending an echoing crack through the woods. Steam emanated from the opening along with something else.

It was green and viscous, glowing slightly in the gloom. It slid onto the dusty ground below the rock and began its slow, lurching trek. It desperately needed life-giving water and sensed a body nearby.

It plopped into the stream, letting its body ride with the current. Though it appeared like a green blob of slime, it never dissolved into the cold water. Instead, it condensed its form, moving as a near solid sphere.

As it moved, it absorbed bits and pieces of organic matter, taking the nutrients into its body, allowing it grow and mutate. Life surrounded the thing, mostly small forms capable of serving as vessels. Further off though, it sensed disruptions in the psychic field. Intelligence. Instincts kicked in.

***

Across campus, Haley Lewis had just watched a fallen star.

It was nearly eight o’clock in the evening on a Saturday night and the campus waited in pre-game heavy slumber.

The flash had come quick, cutting through the early Autumn air almost like a red bolt of lightning. It terminated near the woods to the south of the campus. It was there for a moment, then gone in another, leaving Haley to stair at her own reflection in the window pane.

Haley stared at herself for a moment. She had a round, pale face with curly brown hair cut short and glasses magnified comically by a pair of large glasses.