Free Monthly #20 Unlocked Growth

The remnants of a journal have been discovered!

Introduction

This is a series of journal entries by a neuroscientist as they discover the experiment they are working is not what they thought it would be!

Unlocked Growth

Journal Entry 7

The embryo has grown at a rapid rate, much faster than expected. We were only anticipating a fifty percent increased growth rate from the baseline. At this moment, the embryo is exceeding ninety percent the regular growth rate and I am not sure what to expect. This experiment was supposed to test if we could grow a mammal faster than normal, but almost half the time is simply incredible! The question remains, however, if the embryo will sustain such rapid development or slow down. We have changed staffing arrangements to a 24/7 model instead of the outlined 12/5 so that we can monitor around the clock. If the embryo slows down, it would be useful data to know how far it went before doing so.

Journal Entry 10

The embryo has not slowed its growth… but has instead picked up steam. We are seeing a life form develop at more than two times the natural rate. There is also evidence of heavy development in cognitive abilities. This is something that we are monitoring closely alongside the development of the heart and lungs. So far, nothing abnormal other than the rapid development of the life form and its organs. There’s no reason to fear the embryo growing into anything abnormal at this point, but maybe we should worry that it will continue this accelerated growth rate after it has fully developed and we “birth” it?

There is the question of what the authorities will have to say on the matter and if the embryo will grow to a full term and “be born” so it’s not something anyone’s actually mentioned out loud. I for one am not thinking this will actually take place but there is no way to know for sure until the inspector comes next week. If they allow it to go to full term, then we are talking about potentially having the key to unlocking all of the human genome in our hands. In the case of this embryo, rapid development, but who knows what else is possible with some tinkering?

Since we were not expecting this experiment to actually work, or at least had our doubts in our ideas, we had not prepared for an eventuality of a lab “birth”. The question that still lingers on my mind: will this being grow old rapidly as well and die at a young age?

Journal Entry 16

So the inspector came and said we could not bring it past the first trimester, relative to development and not time. So we will need to terminate the would-be fetus at that time, which is not long considering the accelerated growth rate. However, until then we are free to study as we’d like. I have to get back to monitoring since my colleague has to leave early.

Journal Entry 20

The fetus is gone! I came in for my shift and found the person before me fast asleep with a dart in their back. Someone tranqed them and stole our research! The entire office was in an uproar today and it was not until the head of research came in and calmed everyone down that we learned the truth. The investors were displeased that the government inspector ordered us to shut down the project which would have been later today. So apparently the investors confiscated their property. We are all to be paid exorbitant confidence money to keep quiet and anyone who wants to continue the work can sign up for a phony expedition to Brazil.

It has taken me a few hours to think about everything and I have decided to go and see the project through to completion. I feel attached to this project, to this life form we have created. I would hate myself if I did not go.

Hopefully they do not reject me joining the new research team!

Journal Entry 25

I have been chosen! I have to pack and get a trip to the airport which is not a short journey. I will be flying down to Brazil in two days. TWO DAYS! I have told my wife and kids I will be back in a few months. I had to lie about the nature of the trip and it nearly broke me, but my life is going to be filled with all sorts of lies now. We will not be doing things by the book anymore and that will mean questionable ethical territory may be crossed.

I asked to be chosen, and I was. I made my choice and I will stand by it as I want to see this project through to the end, whatever end that might be. I only pray that God may have mercy on me for pursuing the research that has defined my career and gives me meaning.

Journal Entry 35

The development of the fetus has slowed to roughly ninety percent increase over normal development rates once again. The total growth rate since the inception date has been about one hundred and three percent ABOVE baseline. I wonder why things sped up so much and then dropped back down. My suspicion is that the drop in growth is partially due to the instability while it was moved to Brazil but still faster than normal. The average in the last few days has been higher than one hundred and ten percent of baseline.

We are located somewhere in the Amazon Jungle and are stowed away in a secret building built a long time ago by some paramilitary groups. The land, as I understand it, is owned by one of our investors. I guess we are safe from prying eyes for now; however, we are not safe from the creatures lurking around the compound or the heat and humidity.

Journal Entry 42

We are in the third trimester, the fetus is still rapidly developing but we are starting to see signs of abnormal cognitive behavior. We do not think this is because the fetus is growing in a clear vat that might entice some senses to develop that were not present before. However, we do not have any ideas to go off of at this juncture…

I have spent the last two weeks trying to wrap my head around the brain waves we are seeing but I cannot make heads or tails of it. We are expecting the fetus to be fully developed and ready for “birthing” by the end of next week. I will have try to update when I can but I doubt I will have time to devote to anything other than figuring out these bizarre readings.

Journal Entry 43

It is five hours until “birthing” and we still have not figured out the peculiar brain waves. Something that we have confirmed is that they are in addition to normal brain waves and nothing like them has been captured in any available data from the scientific community. At this point we are concerned this means the fetus will either be cognitively impaired and unable to communicate with us or some strange mutation has occurred that could become problematic. In either case, we have prepared for every contingency we could think of. The last thing we need is a mutated rapidly development human looking entity running around the Amazon. There’s way too much at stake for such a thing to occur.

Journal Entry 44

We have named him Hummy since he is humming ever since he came out of the vat. We have been monitoring his vitals and nothing abnormal is coming up. However, the brain waves seemed to have changed. The mysterious and anomalous waves have disappeared, or at least have grown faint enough that we cannot detect them. By all accounts Hummy appears to be a normal and healthy human boy.

Journal Entry 47

Something strange happened today. When Hummy opened his eyes he began to hum along to what we were saying. It was almost as if he understood we were talking about how all our findings would have not been possible if we had terminated him. That freaked us out. My colleague will not speak in the same room as Hummy anymore, which makes discussing our work rather difficult while on shift.

I do not think Hummy knew what we were saying but he seems convinced that Hummy is able to understand us. I tested to see if it was possible Hummy had developed his brain to the the point of following human conversation , but after multiple brain scans I confirmed there is no activity being registered that would indicate Hummy knows what we are saying. I suppose there may be something I am missing but I ran out of time and ideas by the time my shift was up.

Journal Entry 48

We have created something that cannot be described as human. I am sure of it. The genes we tampered with seemed to not only double the rate at which the embryo grew into Hummy, but also doubled the rate at which he has developed after he was woken up (we no longer use the term birthed and agreed to the term “woken” instead). But that is not all. His cognitive abilities seem to be edging on the side of psychic. He opened his eyes and glared at me and when I cocked my head, the vial in my hand was knocked out by an invisible hand. I have been told I’m making it up but I know what I felt. It was as if someone had slapped my hand and caused the vial to slip out and fall to the floor. I’m not sure what to make of it.

When I ran my routine brain scans shortly after, I detected some anomalous behavior that wasn’t there the day before. I have been looking at the activity of the brain and it seems to correspond to a new pattern of thought-like behavior that is unknown to homo-sapiens.  It’s as if the brain is developing more neural connections and not pruning the weak or unnecessary ones as is normal for humans. That process of pruning unnecessary relations allows humans to hone in on what they specifically need to know about the environment and the information derived from it. It allows us to view the world through a lens that is closer to reality and based on previous experience. We are seeing the opposite of that healthy deterioration, or rather pruning of relationships. As I said, I am not sure what to make it.

Journal Entry 49

I reran the scans from yesterday and it’s still happening. For whatever reason, Hummy’s brain is not pruning synapses between neurons but solely making more. A lot more. This may explain why he has rarely interacted with us in any way besides looking and humming. He is experiencing sensory overload. Instead of losing those relations to make sense of the world, he is gaining them. That is my theory anyway.

I’ve asked that we sedate him until we learn more. If this keeps up, it may very well start to cause complications with further cognitive development and I would hate to see what that means. More importantly, after a few more incidences around Hummy that involve things slipping out of hands or being knocked over,  I want to be sure that we aren’t in any peril from our own creation.

Journal Entry 50

I was denied. And the worst part was they came into the room while I was running brain scans to do it. As they spoke the scanner picked up heavy amounts of activity that correlated to what anger. That’s as near as I could tell based on my previous experience and research into the human brain. It’s not a definitive art, especially the kind of scans I’ve been working with. Shortly after the images came in, the computers all shut down. It was as if we lost power but the lights only flickered.

I don’t know how to put it other than I think Hummy is responsible. For whatever reason, these additional synaptic relations his brain is retaining are somehow allowing his mind to perceive of the space around him in a way that others would not. We limit the inputs sent to our conscious mind as we grow but Hummy isn’t doing that. My suspicion is that his subconscious is directly tied to his conscious mind. This has been theorized by some batty scientists throughout the years to be one way to leverage parts of our brain and genetic code that modern humanity calls “junk”. If this is true, Hummy is able to sense more about his environment and act on it consciously than a regular person would. Whether that gives him abilities to mentally do things as we might physically I don’t know.

That’s all just a theory though, and I’m at the seams of scientific knowledge to try to prove it. I think there’s some newer research I’ll need to dig through from some other experts in the neuroscience area who have theorized such things, who knows what I’ll find. I’m barely sleeping as is and in order to be prepared for my next shift, I will need more caffeine and less sleep than a mother with a newborn.

The fact still remains that my request to sedate Hummy has been denied and I’m concerned for our safety. I’m not sure at what point they’ll say they no longer need my help. They’ve brought new doctors and scientists that are more focused on early childhood development than I’ve ever been in my career. I’ve never heard of any of them either. The one I did talk to gave me the creeps.

 I am hoping they let me leave at this point so I can go back to my family soon. Otherwise, I fear I may be on a permanent trip to Brazil, stuck in the facility studying Hummy indefinitely. That’s not on my bucket list.

Journal Entry 51

Some of the newer researchers haven’t been as careful with Hummy as the rest of us have, and it has provoked several more glares than normal from the child. Yes I said child, and I am sure that we should take this life form seriously! There’ve been at least fifteen unexplainable occurrences between things falling, computers not functioning correctly, and badges being wiped clean of data with no reasonable explanation.

As frantic as I have been studying for proof of my hypothesis, some of the others are starting to think it was right after all. There is no way they are letting me leave anytime soon. Not until we can figure this out. I worry that Hummy’s rate of development will continue faster than our research to discover what he is capable of.

Journal Entry 55

Everything has been fine for the last few weeks as we backed off and the others studying Hummy have been wading through my research and performing additional tests to determine if my hypothesis of psychic behavior is indeed correct. It seemed as though things had returned to normal but today things… changed. I can’t describe what happened, other than it felt like gravity itself had been altered, at least momentarily, and we were half the weight we should be. Before we could objectively measure and gather evidence it felt as if gravity returned to normal. We have no proof other than our testimonials.

Journal Entry 56

It is official. Hummy is capable of using his brain to change the world around him. We know this because he managed to grab a pen and paper with his mind and draw things that he has never seen. I say this because there’s no other way a pen and piece of paper can fly to a desk with no one nearby and begin drawing. It’s impossible. Or at least it was impossible.

What’s more, and this is both incredible and terrifying, Hummy was drawing things we’ve seen in our past, things that are not in the lab. He drew a tent, car, and pine tree. It’s safe to say he’s able to read our minds and memories. This has concerned everyone a great deal and as a result we’ve taken extra precautions to isolate ourselves from potential psychic abilities in order to determine our next steps.

It has become clear that we cannot let this continue any longer until we have complete and utter control of Hummy. However, that is not likely at the rate his abilities are developing. He can read thoughts and mess with gravity (unless he was able to pick up the entire building and everyone in it halfway to space with his mind). This has to stop. As I write this we are preparing to exit our psychic proof enclosure, or at least what we hope is psychic proof, and terminate Hummy. There is nothing else for us to do.

Journal Entry 56 P2

We have failed. Hummy’s figured out what we were up to. We told everyone to not think about what we were doing and think about anything else. When we made the final preparations, though, he know we were about to kill him. Someone must have slipped in their thoughts. He freaked out and finally began to move his body around. This is the first time we’ve seen him move more than a few inches.

When he lifted his hands the entire compound lost electricity. I’m writing this as he’s rampaging through the lab, destroying everything and attacking anyone that comes near. We are not sure how to stop him without heavy casualties and the authorities have been informed of the situation. Our only hope is that the military can stop him.

Journal Entry 56 P3

It has taken a few hours, and so far Hummy has not left the lab, but the military just arrived. We’ve been holed up the best we can be so we had a hard time making a way out of our room to talk to the soldiers. Even as I write, I’m seeing flashes of light and hearing gunshots. This is not good…

Journal Entry 57

The military stationed sentries throughout the facility and locked down the lab as much as they could. However, Hummy escaped the lab and has been moving through the halls! Some of us had finally dozed off due to sleep deprivation and the apparent safety of the military personnel. We ran for our lives and are currently in a troop carrier of some sort.

Journal Entry 57 P2

Our worst fear was Hummy escaping into the Amazon Rainforest and that is exactly what he has done! It’s unlikely that we will be able to track him down at this point. All the researchers are being told to speak of this to no one and all evidence is being “destroyed” by the military with the help of the Americans who arrived minutes ago. We all know what that means.

I’m supposed to burn this journal but I am going to try and smuggle it out. When we all die and the world is ready for the truth it would be good to have a record of what’s transpired here. If not for my sake, but for Hummy’s. He is alone in the jungle after all. Who knows if he can speak or communicate properly with humans and who knows what he will be capable of as he grows older and no doubt stronger.

My only prayer at this point is for The Lord to have mercy on our souls for creating him, and that the Almighty warms Hummy’s heart so that he is not unfettered chaos. I’d ask The Lord to guide the military’s plans, especially the Americans, but I’m sure that will be a fruitless prayer.

If this journal makes it out and I do not, I hope whoever sees these words will get them to the press so we that the public is made aware. I’d also ask them to tell my family that I love them and I’m sorry for what I’ve done. I wish I could take it all back, but I cannot.

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