Hmmm... from what the latest tests show, splicing this new gene into lettuce with CRISPR should have increased resistance by at least 20%. However, our current crop and simulations only show the chances of survival against the virus improved by 10%.

"Damnit! Still not enough!" I yell loudly, startling my fellow worker and best friend Alan. “The virus never showed this trait before! What is this thing!?”

-

-

"Matt, guessing the latest gene splice isn’t the solution?"

A gruff feminine voice interrupts us as Alan was looking over at my screen, "Hey, is everything okay in there? I need an auditory confirmation on the status of the clean room you're in."

"Yes, this is scientist Matt Stern, working with scientist Alan Ham. Clean room isolation is still intact, and no issues are currently occurring. Sorry Leah, the frustration is just getting to me."

“Yupp, Alan here too. We’re good.”

My job here at Vertical Farms Unlimited, ever since the grey death appeared, has become more and more important to the government, and the world, every day. It's not a joke to say that the security here rivals that of Fort Knox. In fact, we have a couple of servers chugging along in vaults that may even be thicker. Disturbance alarms in every room, multiple security checks to get in and out of different sections, roving guard patrols. The project, and us who work on it, is deemed irreplaceable. In fact, I currently live alone in a room here at the lab, as it has been deemed too dangerous for me to walk from my house to the lab. A 5-minute walk, too long. I haven’t seen my house for several months, who even knows if it’s still there after the last fire that swept through the area last month. The higher-ups used to tell me that they had a guard stationed up at my house to keep an eye on it, but even that pretense has been abandoned after the food riots started up. I’m pretty sure that any guards not currently here at the plant have abandoned their posts to look for food or protect their families.

The grey death, also locally known as God’s Discipline, started out as a small infection in China that appeared on some of their crops. Of course, they burned everything down, and some villages ‘disappeared’, but for some reason the infection started to spread beyond any containment measures across the globe. No known vector was discovered, until 70% of the crops on the planet had been infected. Of course we had secondary sources of food, but nothing could be done to completely offset the loss of the main staple of food for humanity. Algae farms, animals, and surviving plants were quickly stripped away beneath the rampaging hoard of humanity. And that vector? The worst case scenario, humans.

The population on Earth at this time was 12 billion. Overcrowding and unemployment became prevalent, though for the most part the food issue was solved. Vertical farms adorned most of the major cities, making up farmland for that which was lost as humans kept expanding. However, no matter how “green” we went, and pollution grew worse. But these overcrowded conditions caused an environmental reaction in our DNA. Hidden in the junk DNA in 98% of humans existed virus DNA that only activated a short time ago. This virus began to spread, and activate the production of the virus in other humans too. But the most insidious part of it all was that the effect on humans was minimal, a slightly elevated chance to sneeze. To compound our difficulties, the effect our sneezes brimming with viruses had on the crops was slow acting, only affecting the final product, not the stalk itself. If it was just this we might have been saved, but due to the mass production and cloning of specific strains of species, the susceptibility of our crops was large. The genetic diversity was gone, and so was any natural resistance to this virus that may have been passed through the generations.

“Camera check, voice check, and information provided all match up. Status confirmed. Relieving disturbance alarm in clean room 11. Also, Matt, Alan, I know it’s tough. It’s tough on all of us. Just remember that what we’re doing is important. Buuuuuut, since you caused me a headache from this stupid alarm, you’re buying the drinks tonight.”

‘click’

Zzzzzzzzzz…. Leah always tries to pawn off buying drinks on to either Alan or I. I wouldn’t mind it if we weren’t in the situation we were in. And by situation I mean end of the world. Haha, jk, that doesn’t really matter a whole ton when buying girls drinks. What matters most are two things. One, the only alcohol left is crazy expensive since the forced siphoning of all edibles to the populace, by law and by force. Law and force are separate at the moment as it’s the strong vs the weak out there. And two, Leah just isn’t my type. She’s good looking, athletic, and smart, but she is just out of my strike zone. Sure we’ve had sex a couple times, we’re both cooped up in this place, but I’ve never felt anything more signaling a connection. I haven’t been able to fall in love since Rose was taken away from me.

“Like hell I will” I mutter, even knowing she had already turned off the microphone.

“Not getting out of this one. We both know how loud those alarms are in that office, and if you don’t buy, she won’t talk to you for a week. Which only leaves us playing an awkward telephone game where you two won’t directly talk to each other. For my sanity, buy the drinks. You know what, for your sanity too. You need to let loose a little bit more.”

“Alan, you do realize that if we fail here, there might not be a next year right?”

“Of course, who doesn’t know that? But there are other stations too, and if you overwork yourself and get sick or die, then we have even less of a chance of-“

Alan was interrupted as the building shook around us.

“What the FUCK!”

“Matt, Alan, get somewhere safe NOW! Goddamn riot reached us and they have homemade explosives. They want our food – wait. No way. Fuck. They have a fucking canno---“

A large boom, bigger than the last, shook the building once more. Glass shattered and rained down on us both as the speaker cut out.

“Alan, run! We need to get to the evac tunnels!”

“But our work! Without it, we’ll be back to square one! I’m taking it with us!”

“Damnit Alan, hurry. I’ll check the hallway, grab it and go. I’ll follow right behind you.”

The work he was talking about consisted of live plants that contained several synthesized genes that increased resistance to the grey death. It would take months to get back to where we were now, and we were already expecting more than 80% of the world population to die before our work could stave off the complete end of humanity. Any further delays can quickly bring that right up to 99%.

‘bratatat’ ‘BOOM’

Shit Shit Shit Shit Shit. That’s coming from the front of the farm, and those gunshots are getting progressively closer. I’m at the first door to our room, peaking around the corner down the red-lit hallway.

‘clomp, clomp, clomp’

I’m starting to hear heavy boots running towards us.

“Alan, we have to go, NOW!”

“Got it, let’s go. I think I have everything.”

On the other side of the room I see Alan running towards the far exit, and as I’m about to join him, I see a grenade land on the floor between us.

Welp. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. Starving rebels on one side, grenade on the other. I’m a dead man, but Alan, Alan still has a chance to get away. Without any further thinking I run and jump on the grenade.

“RUUUUUUUUN”

‘Thud’

A muffled noise comes from below me and suddenly I feel weightless as I'm launched upwards, then nothing.