I felt the pain before I knew it.

The wave hit me like a sudden sea of fire - bearing down on me with everything it hard. I collapsed, struggled to get up while clutching my side - the most painful of my whole body. It took nearly the whole strength of my body to stand up again.

My hand lurched and crashed through something made of glass. It pierced through the suit and I shrieked out as I felt that fiery pain sweep through my veins, making the experience all the more painful. I tried calling for help but my voice didn’t want to work. I collapsed again.

I struggled to take a look at the broken glass - it had a fushcia tinge as the radiation ate away at it, mingled with liquid and my own blood. I looked up, evening moving my eyes slightly seemed to make the pain a lot worse.

The case - broken! The DNA I was supposedly guarding had vanished - according to the little microscope screen. My hand had smashed the case’s glass and now the DNA could be anywhere. If the radiation didn’t burn it away, then where could it be? Contact with anything from an Imongon - name for a radiation-mutated animal gone rabid - could mutate an Orotian.

But why wasn’t I dead yet? The radiation had surely swept right through my veins and reached my heart now, yet I was still alive. Why? At least I thought I was alive - but I’m pretty sure I was. I was racked by a spasm of more pain and I felt tears run down my cheeks.

Then it hit me - it was so obvious, why could I miss it? The DNA had probably been carried with the liquid when I broke the glass, and my hand went right through to the center and back - even now it was covered in the stuff. Imongon were growing a never-ending life, safe from radiation, lightning and those sorts of things until their heart was thoroughly incinerated.

Safe from radiation. Oh my god.

But it’s only a very tiny strand of DNA - could something really affect me that badly? Would I really turn into a freak of nature as the rumors had it? Most of the Orotians come in contact with a live, flesh and blood Imongon had long died out, days before the full effect came.

I blacked out at some point. The last thing on my mind was pure worry.