VERTIGO UNICELL ORGANISM - The Beginning of the EndA meteor crashes in the jungles of South America, carrying with it an ominous alien passenger. A organism so resilient, it has survived countless millennia in the vacuum of space and Jericho Genetics has found it. Jericho is the world’s largest genome and pharmaceutical company headed by Landon Willis. Jericho begins extensive research and partners with the Pentagon giving birth to the Vertigo Z284 project, a top-secret super soldier program. Of the many characteristics the alien unicell organism exhibits, there’s one that begins to concern Jericho and the Pentagon… It’s thinking.

Once infected, the Vertigo organism imbues the host with superior strength, stamina, and reflexes by increasing endocrine production. It also modifies white blood cells to give superior healing, but there’s a fatal flaw. After seven days, the organism destroys the host’s cerebrum, leaving only the old brainstem and parts of the cerebellum functional. The result, out of control ravenous human animals.

A special Navy Seal Team is created headed by Captain Roman Tate to scour to find any fragments of the meteor containing the alien specimen. Unbeknownst to them, they are also the guinea pigs for ongoing human trials to develop an antibody to give immunity. It’s successful. The 12-person Navy Seal Team are the first Vertigo “Super Soldiers”. However, the antidote can only be derived from the original organism specimens; replica cells are ineffectual. With a limited amount of immunity serum, the Vertigo super soldier program becomes improbable.

Soon, things go very wrong. With the strictest of controls, the organism escapes the lab. It found a way out, it was thinking. Madison Hayes, head of Cellular Research, learned of the Vertigo Z284 program and began asking questions. As control of the alien organism was lost, Jericho and the Pentagon implemented “Protocol One”, the “End of Days” contingency. Now, Madison Hayes must piece together what she can to save what’s left of human civilization as it begins to decay. She must find Captain Roman Tate of Navy Seal Team Four, as he is the key to what has happened.

THE END ... STARTS THE BEGINNING

Time is of the essence for Madison Hayes as the organism threatens human civilization. As she peels back the onion, she learns the details of the Protocol One “End of Days” contingency. She finds Captain Roman Tate, the highly decorated commander of the special 12-person Navy Seal unit. He has been on medical leave dealing with the death of his wife and daughter. He is on a fast spiral down with a severe addiction to alcohol. He’s given up on life just as Madison Hayes finds him.

Captain Roman Tate is a man with conflicting demons. After 15 years as a Navy Seal, his PTSD turns him into a fierce combatant, but the hole inside him caused by the death of his wife Charlie and daughter Sadie, casts him into an emotional abyss. He is a man conflicted. The question is now, how will the unfolding events affect him and his tedious emotional stability?

Madison Hayes lost her mother when she was very young and watched her father die slowly from alcohol addiction before her sixteenth birthday. She is a woman who has fought alone to become a world class cellular scientist, but the hole left by the death of her father is one that she has never recovered from and now to see Roman Tate struggle with the very poison that took her father, is a hard reality to bear. To relive her childhood through Roman’s addiction tests Madison at her very core. She must fight her childhood fears and help Roman deal with his demons as she struggles with hers. Madison needs a strong male figure in her life. Roman is less than perfect but maybe enough to bring some solace and stability to her as they begin their road together.

Madison and Roman are people who need each other to survive. Each one filling each other’s inadequacies and helping the other cope with their present and previous life demons. Each one’s deficiencies are the other one’s strengths. Neither one could survive alone, but together they may find a way to help each other to combat each other’s demons that bring them close to unraveling.

All the while, Landon Willis continues looking for her and the entire 12-person Navy Seal team. He cannot have a rogue top level Jericho scientist and highly trained super soldiers on the loose knowing what they know. Between Madison Hayes, Roman Tate and any other of the Navy Seal Team he commanded, they pose a real and serious threat to him and Protocol One. For Landon, their elimination is paramount.

THE INFECTED

Within 24 hours, thick red veins grow into the pupils confirming infection. Over seven days, the host becomes increasingly violent and less capable of basic human behavior. On day eight, the change is complete. The host is left in a mindless state, acting on pure instinct. Loss of cognitive ability is 100%. The skin becomes a leathery charcoal with protruding red veins, sunken in cheeks and red veins in the eyes. Awkward, sudden, and aggressive jerking movements in the head and shoulders are apparent with a compromised nervous system.

Vertigo infected are not zombies, they are alive. Shooting an infected in the forehead will not kill it, as the cerebrum is already 100% dysfunctional. The brainstem must be destroyed to affect a kill or a shot in the heart. Since the infected are alive, they can bleed to death just like any human. However, the alien organism provides heightened healing, so major arteries must be compromised.

A Different Kind of APOCALYSPE STORY

END OF DAYS blends two popular themes, the “apocalypse” and “super soldiers”, to create an exciting story of human survival. END OF DAYS portrays how people can prevail in the worst of circumstances if they trust and help one another through difficult circumstances. This is a story about the people within a “decaying society” as opposed to a story about a “decaying society”.