Overpopulation

The yard was admittedly overgrown.  Yet, Stephanie wanted to try her new miracle seed.  It would be her new Jack and the beanstalk story with a new twist of how she will never have to go the supermarket to buy veggies again.  A perfect ending for a vegetarian like herself. It was the first time in a long while that she had mowed her own lawn, she had forgotten the strength she needed to do so and was only able to do a small portion.  Her skill had come back though.  Within a few minutes she was able to make rows to plant the seeds.  A small feat for a big start.

In a day, she saw the bud grow. Mason was wrong.   He had definitely given her the concentrated seed by mistake.  By the end of the week the yard was filled with full grown vegetables, which she quickly picked.  She was curious about the taste.   She made a nice vegetable salad and baked potatoes.  It was flawless, fresh and tasty.  No one would know that it wasn’t natural food.  And was it?  Mason had told her it was and that it was perfectly safe, but the scientist in her was pecking the thoughts of a world filled with incurable altered DNA passing through the bodies of every living being.  The what if’s came pouring in.  It’s what was taught to her, what if this was possible?  What would be the outcome?  A true scientist always look at every possibility.

She felt like a fool asking the what if questions, aftereating the salad.  She had become complacent in the fact that she wasn’t getting younger and dared to not care anymore.  But she was also frightened to have broken the basic scientific rule of not becoming the test subject herself.

Three weeks had passed and her garden had overgrown extensively, although she had not added any additional seeds.  The study she did, made her realize that the plants were producing excessive seeds of its own; peculiar seeds.  They were an unusual size smaller than it should be.  One normal seed was at least ten miniature ones, as far as she could count, not knowing for sure exactly how many.  Mason’s company had somehow broken the molecular structure and created a way to duplicate, or have in the human world, decuplets of plant life.  The seeds were variations of the same kind, in multiples.

What was worrying Stephanie was whether the substance that caused the anomaly was pass through to human life or any life form.  It would be a disaster if people started producing decuplets themselves; or even if rabbits did or worse, bugs.  Mason had sold her seeds without any warning label.  Most importantly they had sold seeds to others before his car had broken down. She was certain anyone who bought those seeds were having the same problems she was having.  The only thing left to do was to pull every plant out of the ground and stop it from spreading and she needed help.

Five weeks in and she had no choice, but to hire helping hands to remove the overgrowth.  The faster she could get it out of the ground, the better she can control it and contain it.  Louis was the head farmer who was given strict instructions to dig up everything and place it into the metal container.  He was to be very careful not to spread the seeds or the roots anywhere. Worried, Stephanie had sent a sampling to the federal government for examination and a serious warning something very bad was going to happen if they didn’t put a stop to it.

It wasn’t too long before Louis and his workers realized that they were miracle seeds.  The very thing they needed to help their families and make fast money.  Two weeks into uprooting the plants and containing it, he realized that they had made a very big mistake.  They had stolen seeds that was more problematic than a miracle and soon it would spread back home and to every businessman they had sold it to in the black market.  Louis had no choice but to confess of their theft.  Stephanie was livid.

“Are you insane?  Do you know what you have done?  I gave you specific instructions!  Very specific ones!  Why did you think I said to be careful with the roots and the seeds! You have caused a worldwide disaster. You’re fired!”  Stephanie spewed her words out shaking fearfully.  They walked out without looking back.

Seven months went by and Stephanie finally got a response from the federal government.  They were aware of the problem and were dealing with the matter.  In the meantime, she was instructed to burn the farm area down before it spread any further.  They were sending agents to inspect her land and to further assist in containing the problem.  At the end of the letter, they asked if she had consumed any of the product and if so, how much, with no explanation of what they plan to do with that information. Stephanie stiffened.  They wanted her to burn down a portion of her land to terminate the seeds.  What in the world were they going to plan on doing to anyone that ate the products? It was with certainty that they had eaten the seeds whole without knowing it, due to its miniature state.