Gods Green Earth

 Dec 31st 2012 - ???????

 

            Contrary to popular myth, the end of the world wasn’t brought about by the flu. We didn’t blow ourselves up with nuclear weapons (despite our best efforts to the contrary). Aliens didn't invade and enslave us. There was no zombie, vampire or other supernatural takeover. And despite it being one of the more common themes since the turn of the century, computers didn't attain sentience and decide to wipe us out.       Innocently enough, the chain of events that would lead to the decimation of mankind began, with a cup of coffee.

            Barry Crow had worked at the agriculture division of NewCrop pharmaceuticals for most of his adult life since graduating from University. He was one of the brighter students in his class and was snapped up by a recruiter barely two months after he was handed his cap and gown. His work with NewCrop had primarily been on the agriculture side, developing new strains of wheat that would grow in less than ideal conditions, sometimes working on the seed batches of grains that are fed to cattle to try and increase their body mass while using less feed. Most of his recent work had been in the International division and that dealt with the needs of other countries less equipped to help themselves. Helping crops grow in India that could survive the dry seasons, or helping plants thrive in colder areas of North America where crops couldn't grow for almost a quarter of each year. It wasn't until his projects started working with the food chain within North America that the company started to receive some bad press.

 

Actually, Barry had no problems at all with the general public until one project was leaked to the press that contained the word that drives fear into the hearts of the fanatics everywhere, and that word was "splicing". A relatively simple word that means the combining of two or more desired genetic traits to produce a customized result. The result being a more hardy, more disease resistant, more flavorful, more colorful or simply more cost effective than the original product. Such splicing is what enabled his seeds to grow in places they had never grown before, but as they were implemented mostly overseas, they had never generated much buzz at home. But then he became involved with batch B921, and almost instantly his division had to start working with security firms to keep out the whackos.

 

            It seemed that one day he was able to enjoy the drive to work, park in the warm sun and walk in through the large glass front doors of the company offices. Then, almost overnight, it was an instant change to the buildings' underground parking that came with key cards, security stations, searches and spot checks to "keep everyone safe" as the company communicated. But Barry knew, as most of his colleagues did too, that the security that kept the general public out, was also designed to keep the companies' information and data safe from competitors and the outside world. Corporate espionage was at an all-time high as the right type of crop for the right country could be worth billions. B921 was the latest development for NewCrop and had initially begun as a seeding plan to help under-developed countries build a more stable base for their other crops. B921 was a type of grass that was not only intended to grow quickly, but it was originally designed to produce deep roots that could find purchase on almost any surface and would help to soften and naturally till the harder soil and rock beneath rocky terrain, making it more able to be seeded the following season with the  final intended crop. Agriculture companies would pay outrageous cash for these seeds, once they were completed and proven, as it allowed them to grow their crops in parts of the world where farm land is a fraction of the cost of land in North America. It was big business, and NewCrop, and its employees, or more specifically, their ideas, were now at greater risk.

 

            In general, most of the experimental seeds came from a standard starting point. Speed was of the essence, as NewCrop was not the only show in town and sometimes the winner of these contests came down to who could prove their model first. And at times the difference between the winning contract and the company that lost millions came down to days. For this reason, the first types of grasses selected were grown with no other modification than their ability to grow quickly. Natural grasses could take a month to germinate and TopCrop had whittled that time down to an almost guaranteed 8 day period from planting to sprouting. From that point came the other modifications.

 

            Barry's process was a relatively simple one. Grass seeds were spliced, cloned, nurtured, and grown in large underground facilities. The type of grass grown depended on the desired outcome. Today Barry is overseeing grasses being selected for their ability to grow at high temperatures with relatively low moisture. The seedlings themselves started out many months ago as strains of Bentgrass, Bermuda, and even Rye Grass. These finished blades of grass were then subjected to varying levels of extreme environments to select for the most hardy strain. The area Barry visits today contains roughly thirty thousand blades of grass (not B921, as we will get to that strain in a moment). Each blade is located and tracked by computer with one of the world's most sophisticated laser measuring systems that can track movement as slow as, well, as slow as grass growing. Accurate to a range of nano-meters per day. This system also detects when the grass had died and begun to whither. In this particular test area, the grass has been exposed to greater and greater temperatures, gradually increased over the course of several days. As expected, those blades of this particular strain of grass that were more sensitive to the temperature change died off first. As the temperature increased, at some point near the terminus of the experiment, there was only a handful of blades surviving, scattered at random throughout the original field of lush green. Barry's job was to collect these few surviving blades, and analyze their genetic makeup and attempt to clone them into the final strain as they contained the desired trait of lasting longest under heat. Then these new strains are again copied and grown under any number of new conditions to try and force the strain they needed.

 

            Even among large groups of cloned blades as in this test chamber, the experiment allows for a small amount of biodiversity with some random elements added to small sections of the growth area. In short, to see what happens if any cross germination takes place or not. Occasionally a fortunate accident occurs and an unexpected strain emerges, or as is the case in today's test, there was a small amount of rapid growth grass in the mix to try and get the heart-hardy strain to grow faster.

 

            Barry approached the growth area supervisor. A nice older man simply known as Nick. No one had yet to think of asking for his last name.

 

            "Morning Nick". Offered Barry. "How's the grass today?"

 

            "Not bad"  answered Nick. "The last batch of heat grass they tried to grow really made it hard to kill them off. We used up more juice on our heaters in the past week than I think we did all month with the last batch."

 

            "But good results?"

 

            "Well, you know that the best results we had with the last crop had most of the blades dying and drying up almost as soon as the temp approached 70 Celsius. Hot enough for the blades to make it for a while even in the Sahara."

 

            Barry knew this, but didn't see the point and asked: "That's great. But what about this batch?"

 

            "Ah. That's where it gets interesting." Said Nick with a sly smile. He started walking as he spoke and Barry followed him. "We got down to the usual 5% survival of the grass before we turned off the heat, but ended up with two variants instead of one when the computer counted the survivors".

 

            "Two?" Barry was genuinely surprised. "Well, rare, but not unheard of with the wild-card strains they sometimes throw in. What were the two variants?"

 

            "Well, you lab boys will have to confirm it of course, but we got the usual high heat strain I think they were looking for. Last day of the heat lamps had it up to almost the maximum of 95 before we killed them down to 5%. Jackson thinks we could have gone hotter even but we stuck to the 5% hard limit."

 

            "The automated system would have shut off the power at 5% anyway. And the other strain?" Barry was genuinely interested. Nick probably wouldn't make such a fuss if it wasn't something interesting.

 

            "That's just it" Nick had stopped walking as he reached the far corner of the growth flat. The area was still dark as the normal overhead lights hadn't been switched on yet. "We're not too sure what we got. Jackson ran the final count last night around 8 PM once the computers said we had hit the 5% threshold." Nicks hands reached for the breakers to turn on the lights. "Then when we came in this morning we found, this."

 

            As Nick flicked on the lights, there was a second or two while Barry's eyes adjusted to the change. Then he alternately stared open-mouthed at Nick, then back to the growth flat, then back at Nick again."This is a joke. You guys in maintenance trying to put one over on the lab geeks or what?" His eyes were drawn back to the flat.

 

            But he knew it wasn't a joke. With the money at stake here there was no way Nick, or anyone else who wanted to keep his job, would mess with a growth flat during the selection process. Besides, Barry had seen this flat two days ago and remembered it was at least half covered with the usual patches of dry whitish-yellow dead grass that didn't make it past the forced selection process. And he also knew that the dead patches would grow as the less resilient grass died off. As his eyes adjusted he had to rub them to make sure he was seeing what he was seeing.  The entire floor of the growth flat was covered with lush green grass about an inch high.  Not a sign of any dead grass at all.

 

            "This must be a mistake" he offered, not really believing it himself. "You sure this is the right flat? This area looks like it was planted yesterday before any selection pressure was applied". He knew the area was the right one even as he checked the labels on the walls and read the familiar code for this strain, B921.

 

            "Yup". Nick looked not as much confused as pleased that he had discovered something unique. "When I left last night there was no more than a handful of green areas in that flat. Hardly enough for the scanners to pick up and recover for you lab geeks. I always thought 5% was too low but what the heck do I know?"

 

            "This is WAY more than 5%. And you're telling me that this grew like this in the last 12 hours?"

 

            "What else could it be?" Offered Nick. "No one was in here last night. Even if they were, you can't plant a full flat in just 12 hours."

 

            "Did the computers or video pick up anything?" Barry was looking at the computers hoping to find some answer that was missed.

 

            "Nope. Everything was shut down before we left last night. Computers and video only monitor the grass as it's selected and either growing or dying off. The process was over last night and we were gonna harvest the 5% today."

 

            "Then... What happened?" Barry was scratching his head.

 

            "Isn't it obvious?" Asked Nick. This grass grew overnight."

 

            There was silence in the room as they absorbed what seemed to be impossible.

 

            By way of explanation Barry offered; "Some strains of grass can grow pretty quick. We had some bamboo linked strains that can grow almost a foot a day when the water is right. But even then it has to be in the right soil, with the right temperature. This grass covered the entire flat, there isn't even any sign of the dead grass I saw just a couple of days ago." But first and foremost, Barry was a scientist. "Nick, stop the selection process on this flat ok? Do nothing with this grass until I've had a chance to find out what happened. But first, I need to clear my head. Come and join me across the street for a cup of coffee?"

 

            With so much green in the room, what neither man had seemed to notice was that there was small patches of green that was just starting to be visible on the walls and on some of the light fixtures. There was also some small blades on the floor surrounding the flat as they examined the new grass.

 

            "Sounds good".

 

            Now the  security at the plant was very strict. But the purpose of this security was mainly to prevent outsiders from entering, as well as to prevent theft of electronic files. Nothing metal could leave the plant without going through the proper channels or else it triggered the metal detectors. And anything that was attempted to be snuck through was wiped by the EM machines near the doors. But this was not a biological or a virus producing laboratory. The same protocols that would prevent someone from stealing a file or trying to break in to vandalize a growth flat, were not at the same level of security that required a "wash down" or any kind of decontamination procedures. The materials and discoveries dealt with here were thought not to be dangerous to the public. So it is not necessarily the direct fault of the NewCrop company that as Barry left the building, suffering through the pat-down and the running of his briefcase through the non-EM examination table, he did so with a single small seed of B921 embedded in the small crack of the tread in one of his shoes.

 

            The coffee shop was a popular one, as most seem to be these days, especially during rush hour or break times. Barry and Nick walked out to get their coffees and sat outside in the bright sunlight discussing the incredible ramifications of what they may have stumbled across. Grass that could grow that fast under that kind of heat would be a great boon to their industry. Accident or not, they hoped that their discovery would net them a raise, or a promotion, or likely both! Neither knew that they would be beyond such cares by the end of the week.

 

            They might have had luck in deciphering the code of their new strain had they been given the time to do so. But chance, ever the fickle mistress had other ends in store. The wild-card gene that had been innocently introduced into the last batch of grass grown in Barry's growth flat had been one designed to grow not only quickly, but in a varied selection of environmental conditions. As sometimes happens with these types of experiments, the introduction of the new seed with the heat-hardy grass had produced an entirely unexpected strain. One whose function was, in effect, what they had been searching for all along. A strain of grass that grew quickly in almost any environment. But no one could have anticipated the release of this grass into the general environment.

 

            The seed dropped out of Barry's shoe in the soft soil just outside the coffee shop. By the next morning, as the proprietor made his way into the coffee shop he smiled as he noticed how lush and green the lawn outside his shop looked. He might have to tip the guy that tends the lawn.

 

            Anyone who has seen one of those "plague" movies knows the effect they invariably use. The gradually exploding stars of infection showing how the disease spreads from one state or country to the next. How just a single person who bought a coffee that fateful week also happened to pick up his aunt at the airport with a few blades of grass stuck to his shoe. How someone from Europe, and China and Mexico also happened to be walking through the airport in the same area that day and pick up those few blades of grass or seed to spread them back at home once their flights landed.

 

            The grass simply grew anywhere it landed or on any surface it came into contact with. Germination seemed to be instantaneous and the grass grew to almost a full inch within 12 hours. It was only three days later that anyone of consequence took notice of what was happening. There was no, "disease". No one died right away which would have been more of a trigger and a call to action. People simply noticed one day that their lawns looked a heck of a lot greener and by the next morning they wondered why grass seemed to be growing on the outer walls of their homes. It took almost 36 hours before representatives from the World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control liaised with agriculture experts to share their knowledge. The grass was spreading like a plague, so maybe the containment protocols would be the same if they treated it like any other disease or virus.  But in 36 hours almost every street in "Town Zero" was covered in the grass. Most people assuming there could be no harm in it, simply walked in the newly formed greenery and enjoyed the experience, and innocently enough, spread it to wherever they travelled. In their shoes, in their car tires, in their bird feeds and other natural animal migrations. Not until they heard the radio reports or saw the warnings on the TV did anyone really start to panic. Other towns and cities tried their own methods to control the spread of the green carpet that seemed to spring up overnight. The threat wasn't imminent until farms started to complain that their crops were being choked out by the grass. Airports began to cancel flights both by order of the quarantine and due to the flat green carpet of green that caused their planes to slip on the tarmac. By forty-eight hours after the initial spread, the walls floors and ceilings of people's homes started to show a definite green color, both inside and out, as the grass took root and started to grow. As a test, the government picked a small midwest town and evacuated all of the occupants before targeting it with a small nuclear device that vaporized the town in an instant. The grass near ground zero was also vaporized in the intense heat from the blast, but for the grass outside the zone of the blast, the prevailing winds and the force of the explosion combined with the heat of the summer and the rain that fell, only exacerbated the problem for neighbouring areas as seed and grass was spread even further.

 

            People didn't really suffer for long. Normal oxygen levels for our atmosphere are just under about 1%. For areas where the grass grew in larger amounts it actually had a direct effect on the air itself.

 

 

The excess oxyggen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grass is eaten, washed away or deprived of light. Grows normally between 50 and 90 degrees.

 Bentgrass 10-15 Bermuda 10-30 Bluegrass 20-30 Buffalo Grass 14-28 Centipede 14-21 Fescues 7-15 Rye Grass 5-10