Chapter 2 Chapter 2 One small step...

As with all massacres, bloodshed and death soon ensue, but at the beginning of the massacre the process was very slow. After a seemingly endless journey, the second wave of spores fell slowly from the atmosphere like extremely fine snowflakes, scattered randomly by the breeze.Wave after wave hit the atmosphere.The latest wave has come close, arguably the closest, but still can't touch the critical mass it needs to accomplish that task. Most spores survive the gentle fall, but the real test is yet to come.Billions of spores die as soon as they come into contact with water or the cold.Other survivors who have successfully landed have had difficulty finding suitable conditions conducive to growth.Only a few landed in the right place, but they were destined to be swept away by the wind, or the light touch of the hand, or fate.

However, a tiny percentage of the spores found the perfect conditions for growth. Even smaller than a speck of dust, the spores now temporarily have a place to stay.Each spore has tiny, stiff fibers that end like tiny hooks on the surface of a Velcro chain, helping them stick firmly to surfaces.As the spores make a lucky landing, they begin a race against time.The Spores face an almost impossible task of becoming self-sufficient, a battle for survival started by a single bug. A little mite. More precisely, a Demodex folliculorum mite.Despite its tiny size, Demodex folliculorum is much larger than the dead skin it feeds on.It's so big that a tiny piece of dead skin can be swallowed in one bite.Mites generally hide in hair follicles, but sometimes they sneak out at night and crawl onto the skin of their hosts.They live in almost every human body in the world.

There are mites in the host body. The mite spends its short life inside the body of its host, voraciously devouring the skin.In their constant feeding frenzy, some mites happen to encounter spores - these spores look very similar to human skin, and the mites devour the spores greedily, enjoying the endless and abundant dead meat mouthful after mouthful . The walls of the mite's tiny digestive system slam into the spore's shell.Protein-digesting enzymes, known as proteases, eat away at the cell membrane, breaking it down and weakening it.There were several cracks in the cell membrane, but it was still not completely dissolved.The spores, still intact, pass through the mite's digestive tract.

That's where it all really started, in that pile of tiny mite poop. Most of the time, the temperature hovers around 70 degrees Fahrenheit, and sometimes can reach 80 degrees Fahrenheit or higher under suitable cover.Spores need these temperatures.Of course, it also needs a certain degree of saltiness and humidity, and the skin of the host just provides these conditions.These conditions can stimulate the recipient cells, which can wake up the spores, which means that the spores are ready to grow.But there are other conditions that the spore must meet before it can germinate. Oxygen is one of the main conditions for spore growth.During its long descent, the airtight spore shell prevents any gas from entering the thing it encases, which - if it's a living thing - we call an embryo.The digestive system of Demodex folliculorum, however, breaks down the spores' protective shell, allowing oxygen to penetrate.

Next, the autoreceptor cells detect the conditions and make complex and precise biochemical responses like a pre-satellite checklist. oxygen?Check out. Correct saltiness?Check out. Proper humidity?Check out. the right temperature?Check out. Billions of tiny spores survive the long journey.Millions of spores survived the initial fall, and thousands of spores persisted for a long time before reaching the right environment.Hundreds or thousands of spores land on a particular host.Only a few dozen spores reach bare skin, and some of them die before turning into bug droppings.In all, only nine started to grow.

A period of rapid growth ensues.The cells undergo mitosis, doubling in number every few minutes, drawing energy and building blocks from the spores' food stores.The survival of the larvae depends on speed—they must establish themselves and form a protective film in an environment that could soon become hostile.The spores don't need leaves, just a tap root, which in botanical terms is called a "radicle".These radicles are the lifeblood of the spores, and only through them can they exploit the new environment. The main function of the radicle is to penetrate deep into the skin.The outermost layer of the skin -- made of tough, fibrous proteins -- forms the first barrier.Tiny roots grow down, slowly but continuously, through this barrier and into the softer tissues below.One spore failed to destroy the top layer of the skin, and its growth stopped abruptly.

That leaves eight spores. And once through that barrier, the roots of the spores quickly descend deep, through the epidermis, into the dermis, and then through the fat cells in the subcutaneous layer.Before reaching the firm muscle layer, the recipient cells measure changes in the chemical composition and density of the subcutaneous tissue layer, and the fine roots begin to undergo a phase transition.Each of the eight new roots becomes another new organic center. Then enter the second stage. Rapid growth has depleted the spores' food stores.The little shell is slowly coming off, and it has fulfilled its mission as a delivery vehicle.In the lower layer of the skin, the roots begin the second stage of expansion.They are not like the roots of trees or other plants, but like small tentacles that expand from the center to absorb oxygen, proteins, amino acids and sugars from the new environment.Like a biological conveyor belt, the root transports absorbed elements into the new organism to feed the surging cell growth.One of the larvae died on the host's face, just above the left eyebrow.The larva does not absorb enough nutrients to sustain growth and slowly runs out of energy.Some parts of this larva still continue to grow, assemble, automatically absorb nutrients from the host body and synthesize some raw materials that will never be used again-but in fact, this larva is already dead.

There are only seven left. The larvae that survived started building things.Start by building something tiny that can move freely.If you have an electron microscope handy, you can see that they look like a ball of hair-covered spheres with two jagged jaws at one end.These jaws cut into cell after cell, tearing apart the cell membranes, finding the nuclei, and sucking them into itself.These spheres read raw DNA, the original blueprint of our body, identifying bioprocesses, building the musculoskeletal, and maintaining the codes for all metabolism and functions of the human body.That's all that sphere needs, the original blueprint of the human body, and that's it.Once the relevant information has been read, the spheres return to their organisms with the new information.

Armed with this data, the seven hatchlings know what they now have to build in order to grow.Not consciously, but more like in a state like rudimentary data input and output.Consciousness doesn't matter - the organism reads the original blueprint and knows what to do next. The hatchlings suck sugar from the blood and fuse them quickly, welding them quickly and easily into a pliable and durable building.As the building blocks accumulate, the organisms start building their next structure that can move freely on its own.Where the spheres gather, new microstructures are built.Using these growing reserves of building materials, they began weaving the shell.Because if the shell doesn't grow rapidly, the new organism won't survive five days.

It usually takes this long to reach the third stage.