Apoptosis

by Matthew Gall

Apoptosis

Apoptosis is programmed cell death. It’s a regulated mechanism in multicellular life that allows for new cells to grow, when the old cells wear themselves out, or outlive their usefulness.

It is also the main reason life is temporary. Continued apoptosis leads to DNA mutation, cell shrinking, and DNA fragmentation. In short, apoptosis is why life ages.

However, stopping apoptosis is a double edged sword. Cancer is caused when a cell does not undergo apoptosis, it ignores programmed death and keeps functioning, keeps dividing, leading to more and more cells that never die.

Ironically, this cell immortality leads to death for the organism.

It took scientists decades of genetic research, but they figured out the secret to eternal life.

They managed to make cells that stop undergoing apoptosis. In short, that person does not age after they are resequenced. They also managed to stop those same cells from undergoing mitosis, the process of cell division, which prevented tumors or cancerous cells from developing in the body.

Humanity had created the cure from death, their cells would never decay on their own. The perfect balance of cellular stability had been found.

It’s human nature to be selfish, there’s no cure for that. The wealthy elite class in America bought exclusive rights to the DNA sequencing, and in return, the insurance companies jacked up the price to an unreasonable amount of money. In return, the rich elite had to make people rely more on what they had to offer.

Nothing was done about climate change, the ozone layer, or reliance on finite resources. In fact, those problems worsened over time as the elite rushed to make enough money to live forever. Sunlight became piercing, ocean levels wiped out most cities, millions of species the world’s ecosystem needed became extinct. The planet slowly became inhospitable to anyone who could not afford advanced shelters. In other words, the now immortal elite class.

The elite wanted this cure so badly they forced the scientists to rush production. Which meant they skipped clinical trials.

There was a major side effect to this sequencing. One that scientists only realized after the elite made this cure impossible for the common man to get.

If cells don’t age and replace themselves, illness can’t be cured, as the body cannot produce any more T-cells to fight off germs. Any injury would become permanent; a broken arm or leg would never repair itself, a concussion would never go away, cuts or bruises would continue to bleed indefinitely.

The team of scientists, tired of years of being ignored over their fields, discovered this when testing on rats. They looked outside at their dying, flooding world, and smiled.

There is no natural karma in real life. We have to make our own.

The rich elite would live forever in a dead world, always starving, never healing, always in pain.

There’s no cure for greed.

But there can be justice.

About the author

Matthew Gall

Matthew Gall is some weird guy who lives in Wisconsin. He enjoys reading, camping, writing (duh), and hiking. Matt lives alone with his cat Walter, whose company he prefers to most of the general population. He will always accept any drink with whiskey in it, so feel free to offer him one if you ever see him (hey, it’s worth a shot). Matthew Gall is also the author of “Insomniac,” a collection of bite sized scary stories.

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