2. What Doesn't Kill You Now Just Assimilates You Later

A retired cop takes a security job at a classified desert research facility — and discovers something buried far older than humanity was ever meant to find. When a massive stone “wall” is excavated and brought inside, it begins to grow… and assimilate. After the story, we explore the real science behind biological assimilation — from deep-sea anglerfish that permanently fuse with their mates, to documented cases of human chimerism where two individuals become one body. What doesn’t kill you doesn’t make you stronger.It assimilates.Trigger warning: body horror(FYI: The name of the anglerfish’s lure is an “esca”.)My website: https://mnclarke-shortstories.comPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheUnnaturalSelectionPodcastCitations: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bizarre-sex-helped-anglerfish-diversify-and-dominate-the-deep-sea-study-suggests-180984449/ Brownstein CD, Zapfe KL, Lott S, Harrington R, Ghezelayagh A, Dornburg A, Near TJ. Synergistic innovations enabled the radiation of anglerfishes in the deep open ocean. Curr Biol. 2024 Jun 3;34(11):2541-2550.e4. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.066. Epub 2024 May 23. PMID: 38788708. Pietsch, T. Dimorphism, parasitism, and sex revisited: modes of reproduction among deep-sea ceratioid anglerfishes (Teleostei: Lophiiformes). Ichthyol Res 52, 207–236 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10228-005-0286-2 Yu N, Kruskall MS, Yunis JJ, Knoll JH, Uhl L, Alosco S, Ohashi M, Clavijo O, Husain Z, Yunis EJ, Yunis JJ, Yunis EJ. Disputed maternity leading to identification of tetragametic chimerism. N Engl J Med. 2002 May 16;346(20):1545-52. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa013452. PMID: 12015394. License:Sound effects from ⁠Pixabay.com⁠Theme "Horror" by The_Mountain ⁠https://pixabay.com/music/horror-scene-horror-375975/⁠All music and effects within Creative Commons license 0