cosowarrior
Member
- In the year 2017, a U.S. biotech company, OsiriGenix, was granted permission to begin stem cell research on brain-dead patients in an effort to re-stimulate their neurons and, potentially, reanimate their bodies. It was a controversial decision that spurred an intense ethical debate, but while the public engaged in heated discussion, behind closed doors, the study forged on. Before long, the lab began producing shockingly positive results. Not only did their stem cells reactive the dead patients' brain activity, but the subjects regained full consciousness and use of their bodies with a nearly 80% success rate. Within a year, the researchers published their results. Within three, the company pushed to take their technology to the market.
The first release of OsiriGenix's "revivification technology" was restricted to a small sample city in the Northern U.S.: Willow Falls. Candidates had to undergo a number of tests, and the families of the late patients were required to sign piles of legal docments in order to be eligible. But for the residents of this poor, underprivileged city where sickness was common and good things were rare, no inconvenience was too great to pass up this special opportunity. Hundreds applied to have their loved ones brought back to life. Within a few months, the practice became commonplace amongst Willow Falls dwellers.
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To those who fear death, OsiriGenix's success seems like a miracle solution to what was once inevitable. But some things aren't meant to be tampered with. Although the company claims the procedure leaves no lasting side effects, patients who were reanimated report a strange sensation that something is not quite right. Many suffer from loss of memory, particularly of those that were made earlier in life. Even the loved ones of the 'survivors' sometimes notice an unplaceable, eerie difference in the patient, something no one seems to be able to put into words. Is the person who comes walking out of OsiriGenix's lab really the same that went in in a body bag?
Now, new rumors that threaten to damage the biotech company's image are beginning to surface. Residents have reported incidences of reanimated Survivors reverting back to their original dead state in a rapid and grotesque regression. These stories, however, have not yet broken through in any meaningful way; strangely, any dissent from the public is quickly quieted. More distressing is the string of unusual deaths that has recently plagued Willow Falls. Though crime is hardly uncommon, mounting evidence suggests a serial killer may be in the midst of the city's denizens. Stranger yet, the victims are almost all reanimated Survivors.
Is a cover-up of OsiriGenix's failures underway? With such alarmingly short initial trials before the testing of their technology on the public, OsiriGenix must be guilty of some kind of negligence. The question is, will the truth ever come to light? Or will OsiriGenix bury it once and for all?
I would like to get started soon, I think. But for now, I guess we can chat a bit about the plot, if anyone has ideas they want to share, in the OOC board.
