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Mike had been a conservation agent working with the Fish and Wildlife Department, taking field censuses of local amphibians in the Midwest United States. He was essentially taking the temperature of the overall ecological system, as amphibians typically showed signs of environmental impact long before other species. Cataloging his latest numbers, he was interrupted by another conservation agent.
“You've got a visitor,” the young brunette told him, ushering in a man of at least seventy, from the look of him. This was odd, as the public wasn't readily allowed in that particular area, and he never had 'visitors' at work. The old man was holding a minnow bucket and smiling.
“Howdy son,” he said to Mike.
“Hi there. What can I do for you?” he asked the old man.
“Well, I been findin some funny lookin frogs at Klausner Lakes lately, and I called around after finding them two years in a row, but folks didn't much care about it,” the old man began.
“A couple of weeks ago, I started getting callbacks about them frogs, telling me I needed to bring them in here the next time I found 'em...so here I am. My name's Willy, well...William, actually, but I prefer Willy,” the old man informed Mike.
“Hi there Willy,” Mike said, walking up to the waist-high table separating the entrance area from where he was working. “Whatcha got there?” he asked the older man.
Willy put the minnow bucket up on the table and opened the lid. The bucket contained three leopard frogs, not unusual for this area, but these were not typical specimens. The frogs had two to three additional legs growing out of the knee and pelvic joints. While Mike was initially taken aback, this was something that he had seen before.
“It's a parasite,” Mike stated, still staring into the bucket. He wrestled one of the frogs from the container, holding it up and turning it around as he continued to inform his visitor of what he knew about the condition.
“It starts out in snails, frogs eat the snails and the parasite morphs, adapting to its new host and passing itself on to the eggs and resulting tadpoles. The tadpoles grow as normal, but are sterile, so they won't waste time and resources on reproduction. They begin to grow these extra appendages, which, in theory anyway, makes them slower and easier prey for the next stage in the parasite's evolution, the bird. A specific type of bird has to eat the frog, then it gestates inside the bird, is expelled and again makes its way back into a snail, starting the whole cycle again.”
“Whoa...that's pretty crazy stuff,” Willy proclaimed.
“Yep, nature is amazing,” Mike said, still studying the deformed frog. “Well, we'll take it from here. I need to get these guys recorded, this could be something new, as I've never heard of this affecting amphibians in this area before. It is usually limited to a single species of frog and bird, if I remember right,” he told the old man.
“I love me some frog legs...but I ain't eatin nothin that looks like that!” Willy declared, then thanked Mike and departed the building.
What he didn't tell Mike, was that he had several more frogs, bullfrogs, in his truck that he was taking home to eat. They had no visible signs of malformations and therefore seemed perfectly fine to him, not to mention they were an entirely different type of frog. Willy, his wife and granddaughter ate the meat, tainted with the same parasite as the leopard frogs, and the cycle began. It revealed itself as alarmingly high numbers of birth defects, specifically extra limbs and, later on, extra organs and conjoined versions of them all. By the time it was recognized, it was already too late.
Panic took hold and ostracizing started in earnest, fear of the unknown and the ignorance of the situation led to the cities becoming strongholds for those free of the parasite, while the outlying suburban and rural areas filled with what had been given the affectionate nickname: Squids. When startled, those not prone to violence would try to flee instinctively, though their jumbles of limbs made it difficult to move quickly, so they almost always backpedaled. This caused the useless, extra limbs to stream out in front of them as they moved backwards, resembling a squid swimming away in the water.
The parasite had found its way into several species and was still being consumed. Infrastructure slowly collapsed, due to a sheer lack of manpower to keep things maintained and running. Once it was certain that embryos were where the second stage took place, population growth nearly stopped completely. Those brave enough to take on the fifty-fifty odds were lucky to have an unaffected child. The unlucky ones were either cast out with their newborn, since it was known one of the two was carrying the parasite, or rewarded with a stillborn.
Breaking the Cycle Page 2