Sometimes the world can change, some changes are made for the better of everyone. Others are for ones own personal gain. However the worst kinds of changes are the ones done with good intentions only for it to back fire horribly… in the year 2026 the first successful manned mission to mars was launched.

Obviously everyone was excited they had finally sent an actual person to the red planet, however this created a horrible domino effect… the Americans were the first to send a person to mars but they wouldn't be the last. Now every country, being threatened by the americans control of another planet, began sending their own crafts to mars. Alot of which failed for various reasons, some died on the planet, others were killed on the way there or the way back, some went insane in the cold darkness of space, and some never even left the atmosphere. However it wasent just the trip there that was troubling, it was the terrain of the little red planet, and the fact that a person would feel weightless means their bones would get weaker the longer they stayed, to the point where some who returned were almost crushed by earth's gravity, bones cracked and shattered under their own weight.

Humans aren't meant for other terrains or climates we aren't good at adapting quickly, however what we are good at is problem solving. And one amateur scientist named Clint redwood made it his goal to solve this problem. Clint had always had sort of a Frankenstein complex, it wasent that he was obsessed with cheating death, he was more obsessed with evolution and how he could use it to become… immortal.

Before all this whenever he would try to create a means to improve himself via testing on live subjects he was stopped and his progress was haulted since he wouldn't ask people if they wanted to be volunteers, he'd kidnap them. He had kidnapped over 150 victims and experimented on them, he was sent to prison for 30 years back in 1992.

However with an excuse that he was "helping humanity conquer mars and more!" He began to gain traction and some investors were interested. He proposed if he could create a virus like injection and modify it he could create a person that could withstand any climate or terrain, when asked to elaborate he said "mr.redwood you said a virus correct?" A reporter asked "well more or less, it's not exactly a virus. It just acts like one, targeting normal cells and modifying them then the normal cells modify the rest of the cells in the body until it's been completely changed." Clint said as he gave a smirk, the reported seemed confused "trust me no harm will come to the recipient in fact quite the contrary, they'll become… beautiful" Clint finished.

However with most people who try to play god, it never works out well in the end. Suddenly a new focus was thrown into the global mindset "if I can make it the furthest in space then I'll control everything" suddenly every nation wanted control of the heavens and that ment clints idea became more and more popular, he eventually had his own team of scientist working with him as well as an actual lab he could use to test on animals. 

Two decades later 

The year 2045 clint had worked 20 years of his life desperately trying to make his idea work when finally he had the first successful batch, while he was advised not to use it on a human subject immediately, he was blinded by greed. He gathered up 100 volunteers and began injecting them with the semi successful batches of what he called his "deus ex machina".

After the volunteers were injected clint waited for 1 minute for the deus ex machina to take effect. "Alright It should be in its neutral state now so there shouldn't be any changes" Clint stated as he looked on at his volunteers from behind a glass screen,

(clint redwood art by me~)

he slowly lowered the temperature in the room to -100 degrees Fahrenheit and almost immediately the volunteers bodies began to evolve to the cold, they stated they "didn't even feel the cold air surrounding them." Clint then raised his volunteers room to over 300 degrees Fahrenheit rapidly and their bodies evolved even faster to withstand the great heat. Clint let out a short exhale with a slight chuckle "I-I did it… I fucking did it.. Ha ha! Yes!" Clint soaked in his victory and returned the room to its neutral state "good job everyone with this well be living on mars in no time!".

However when clint returned the room to a normal temperature the deus ex machina began changing again "um clint sir the cells are still evolving, they aren't showing any signs of stopping…" one of the scientists said in a nervous tone "well if it gets out of hand hit the kill switch" Clint responded a few minutes have passed and the cells haven't stopped evolving "s-sir its still going" another scientist spoke "I thought I told you to hit that damn kill switch!" Clint said in a more angry tone. The scientists didn't respond "s-sir we've been hitting the kill switch but its evolving too fast, it's almost completely immune to the antibodies you designed" "well youd better stop it right now I cant have that shit on me I've got investors eating out of my fucking hand, if this experiment goes downhill it's on your *** not mine" clint shouted

as he began to panic inside. Some of the volunteers began to feel serious effects of the evolution occurring within them, they were hunched over and vomiting. "S-sir" "d-damnit get that kill team in there, if the antibodies won't kill those bastards a bullet will" clint said as he motioned for men In military grade armor to enter the room and kill the infected volunteers. One soldier got close to them "jesus what the hell happened to you?" He said as he looked at the mans mangled face, then the man lunged at the soldiers tearing and clawing at their armor.

All 100 of the volunteers attacked, the soldiers filled their bodies full of lead but it did nothing, their bullets were useless "d-damnit burn them! Burn them now press the button and burn them!" Clint yelled as he slammed his fist on a control panel, suddenly the room erupted with flames, smoke blocked everyone's view "sir! There were soldiers in there what the hell did you just do?!" A scientist yelled "I saved our sorry asses from those freaks" before clint could continue a body was thrown at the glass screen separating clints room from the volunteers, the glass shattered and the subjects lunged at the scientists clint tried to run but he tripped on a body and fell to the ground.

when he looked up one of his own creations was standing above him, clint realized what had happened his eyes widened, standing above him was a soldier, infected with his virus, "I-its infecting people… why" clint paused for a moment "I-it wasn't supposed to change the body in a neutral environment so why damn it!?!" Clint yelled as he slammed his fist on the ground, he looked up at the infected soldier standing above him he noticed his mouth opening, it opened wider and wider, it just never seemed to stop,"holy shit" clint said as he realised what was happening "I-its evolving to swallow me whole" Clint looked down as he accepted his fate, the soldiers mouth keep opening wider, its bones breaking then evolving to open wider and wider until it was fully unhinged like a snake, the soldier lunged at clint and it consumed him in one gulp. Everyone else working at the facility either suffered the same fate as clint or became infected. 

End

A warm spring morning in salt lake city utah, a first year named Brock Williams is barely managing to keep his head up in class, it feels like he might catch at extra couple hours of sleep when he felt a tap on his shoulder, it was his friend Dan who he'd know since kindergarten, "hey! brock did ya hear?" Dan asked "hmm? about what" brock replied confused "what do you mean 'about what'?! you mean you didnt watch the news?!" dan yelled shocked "sorry man I've just been so tired lately" brock said as he yawned and leaned back In his chair so he could talk to dan who was behind him. "well I'll just tell you then, apparently that scientist guy, you know the one clint redwoo-" "yeah clint redwood the guy you wont stop obsessing over, the guy you keep sending me articles about" Brock interrupted dan, "y-yeah sorry about that its just that I'm very intersted in his study's ya know?" "yeah I could tell" brock replied "well anyway apparently no ones heard from him in weeks and they think something might've happened to him" dan spoke like he was a child telling a scary story "hey wasnet he trying to evolve himself enough to live in space? who knows maybe he succeeded and hes stuck out there" brock said jokingly "y-yeah maybe aliens abducted him and are doing experiments em!" "hey do ya think they'll stuck something up his *** like they do in the movies?" brock added as they both began to giggle.

30 minutes later

brock looked out the window as he watched the cars go by, he had a soft smile on his face remembering the first time him and dan had a sleepover, and how excited he was on the drive over to Dan's house. he lost his train of thought as something else caught his eye, he saw a helicopter... it kinda looked like an Apache helicopter just kinda hovering in mid air, moving slowly. every once in awhile itd sway to the left..... then the right...... the back to the left..... it seemed off and brock had a bad feeling In his stomach. "h-hey dan do ya see that?" brock asked as he pointed out the Apache just hovering "dont ya think its flying a bit too low" brock asked concerned "hey man you worry too much, I'm no expert on helicopters but I'm sure were fine" dan stated as he continued writing what was on the white board into his notebook. brock tried to return to doing his classwork since he was failing this class but the helicopter kept catching his eye, over and over again he'd stare at it almost as if it was a sign. a few more minutes passed and brock noticed the helicopter had gotten considerably closer without pulling up, brock wanted to tell dan but he also didnt want to bother him again "hey its fine... I mean it's a military helicopter with trained pilots I-I mean how could they not see a high school in broad daylight" brock told himself.

"they will pull up"

"they will pull up"

"they will pull up"

"they will pull up"

"they will pull up"

brock began chanting to himself in his head

.

.

.

brock finally snapped out of it and looked away from the window trying to ignore the oncoming aircraft. a few more minutes and it got even closer, at this point brock wasent the only one, most of the class was looking in horror as the helicopter slammed into the floor above brocks classroom with a loud and heavy boom. seconds before it hit brock panicked and went under his desk, he covered his head with his hands and waited.

the entire building shook as people let out screams and ran for the hallway, a large portion of brocks class ran into the hallway desperately trying to leave the school. brock didnt, he was too scared. the helicopter had slammed into the floor directly above brocks room, the roof was getting unstable as it collapsed, brock let out a terrified Yelp as the roof fell around his desk, a large chunk of roof and metal from the helicopter landed on the desk brock was under, the desks legs collapsed and the body hit brock in the head - knocking him out.

1 hour later

brock slowly opened his eyes as his vision was covered by smoke and debris, he got from under the collapsed desk as his eyes began to adjust to the suns light, he walked towards the door and into the hallway "h-hello? dan!" brock yelled as he began coughing from all the smoke in the air. his eyes hadn't fully adjusted the the light so he didnt notice the blood on the floor along with all the dead officers and soldiers that litter the hallways, by the time brock had walked downstairs and out the front exit his vision had finally come back, he looked in horror as there was nothing left, he finally could see all the destruction and bloodshed. as brock began to process what just happened to him he heard a noise, he jumped and looked towards the direction of the sound, it sounded like foot steps nearby. "hello?" brock said "who's out there?, can you tell me what happened?" "where are all the teachers?" brock asked. the footsteps stopped, brock was surveying the area closely as the noise picked up again, this time getting louder and faster as they approached him.

The footsteps stopped for a moment and then immediately picked up speed, headed straight for brock. Brock looked at what was coming towards him, it looked like a student but there was blood dripping down her face. She looked like someone he knew… a sophomore named Emily but he just called her Eme "hey.. Is that you Eme?" … Brock knew something was off, when she got closer he noticed that she has a gunshot wound at the bottom of her neck. Brock's eyes widened and his body started running on its own with Eme chasing close behind him. Brock cut his leg on a shard of glass and fell to the ground, when he looked up Eme was standing above him. She lunged at him with her mouth wide like a snake trying to finish its prey, Brock put his hand on her shoulders trying to push her away but she kept struggling. "Dammit Emily, stop this! What the hell is wrong with you!?" Brock shouted, he moved one hand onto her neck and used the other to grab the glass shard that cut his leg. He stabbed it straight into her eye but she didn't stop moving, she just kept trying to bite him. Brocks free hand balled into a fist "You leave me no choice!" Brock yelled. He pulled back his fist, getting ready to use every ounce of strength he had and then he punched her right in the cheek causing her to fall back, the back of her neck landed on a spiked fence post. She was still alive trying to reach for Brocks legs but her neck was to deep in the fence post. Brock slowly got up, he looked at his friend… impaled on a fence post, "damnit..." he muttered as he walked off. He went to his parents old house, it was vacant, has been for a few years now. He opened the door and walked in. Brock had blood stains from his fight with Eme, he walked into the kitchen to wipe his face when he saw someone lying on the ground dead. He looked on in horror as he saw someone else crouching above the dead body, it was eating it. Brock slowly backed up but the thing heard him its head jolted up, it slowly turned around and charged at him. Brock was about to turn away until something inside him sparked and he grabbed a baseball bat that was hanging on the wall and bashed the fiends head in. It was blown back and fell down, banging its head on the kitchen sink. it seemed to not even feel the pain from the blow. Brock snapped out of it and ran away as fast as he could. He was terrified and didn't even realize where he was going exactly. He noticed a car thats door was open, not thinking he hopped into it and closed the door trying to hide. He was in the back seat, He didn't even notice there was another one in the front seat. It turned towards him and lunged at him with its mouth wide open. He let out a yelp put the end of his bat into its mouth desperately trying to push it away. He kicked it off his back and it's back hit the steering wheel.brock hopped into the passenger side and pushed the button that unlocked all the doors, then when the fiend got back up he kicked it with both feet so hard that the door flew open, launching the thing outside of the car. He slammed the door hard and locked it, the thing pushed its face up against the window which causing brock to jump back a little. he noticed that the key to the car was still in the key hole, he started the car. "I really hope I dont crash again..." Brock said as he slowly stepped on the gas and drove off. While driving he looked around the town and saw nothing but destruction. There were more of those things walking around, brock noticed they were attracted by the sound of his car. Suddenly he heard a scream and gunshots, he drove towards the sound and saw a girl who looked like she was probably a senior she was being chased by a huge crowd of those things. Brock stopped the car so the passenger side was facing her, he unlocked the door and kicked it open "get in!" He yelled.