Day 142

Some people call it The Rapture.
The rest of us call it dermopsychosis maligna.
It starts with phantom skin irritation, or to you and me an itch on your back that you can't quite reach.
It then progresses to self-inflicted excoriations of the skin which are prone infection, often becoming gangrenous.
More often than not, patients are found to peel their skin off, heavy restraints are required in all cases.
What we have found particularly peculiar about this condition is the state in which it leaves the patient.
They seem to go into a trance-like state during the skin-peeling process and are seemingly cured when the skin has been completely removed (often in one piece, similar to a reptile).
Dermopsychosis maligna has yet to be fatal, though the psychological effects are catastrophic on their own with suicide rates up by 37% within eight months of the condition being officially identified.


While the patients are treated for PTSD, gangrene, skin trauma etcetera, their shed remains are tested to see how it was possible for them to peel off their skin in such a way whilst remaining alive.
This would have been simple enough however it showed that the skin had its own kind of central nervous system and brain stem, in other words it had the potential to be a lifeform on its own.
We put five of these skins through a series of tests to determine life which proved to be difficult as the skin lacked several features that their "host" had (such as eyes, vocal chords, a pulse and internal organs).
Our team decided that the best course of action was to place the skins in a cold environment (to minimise potential decay) and monitor them 24/7.
The first week saw minute muscular spasms (despite a lack of muscles) accompanied by spikes in neural activity which were a definite sign of potential life.

These gradually increased over the span of a month to the skins (or birthday suits as the team had affectionately dubbed them) lifting their limbs.
They always did it in the same order: left arm, left leg, right arm and right leg.
I just wish they wouldn't do it in unison, though it has raised the question of "Are they communicating and if so how can we talk back to them?"
We set up additional monitors to determine the exact levels of "brain" activity to see if there was a correlation between the five skins.


Its been four months since my last entry here and so much has changed.
The skins now walk about their sealed room, they pulled off all monitor wires and in all honesty the team is too disturbed by their movements to do anything besides record their walking patterns and attempt to establish communications.
We're currently playing music to them, we asked their hosts for their favourite song in case their skins retain the hosts information via muscle memory.
Speaking of the hosts, despite their fragile physical state they are doing quite well in terms of coping psychologically with such a drastic change.
None of the findings on the skins have been made public yet, neither has our study on them though who would believe us anyway?

We've now installed a glass wall on one side of the skin enclosure as the music has failed to produce any significant physical reaction.
We are going to attempt behavioural mimicry (playing copycat) as mammals - especially humans - learn via copying their parents and peers.
Hopefully this will allow us to establish their level of intelligence, we've already determined they can see somehow as they have yet to bump into anything in their room (maybe some form of echolocation? Blind humans have been known to successfully navigate via clicking or high pitched sounds).

Right, Doctor Sellers, Doctor Rowbridge and myself are now standing in front of the glass.
Our plan is to create both an audio and visual attraction (tapping the glass and waving our arms) to draw their attention over here before we try to talk to them.
Beginning audiovisual attraction...now.
Ten seconds... twenty seconds... thir- the skinsuits have stopped walking at thirty seconds.
They are turning, yes turning to face the glass.
Verbal communication attempt number one: basic greeting.
"Hello"
No verbal response, skinsuit three is walking towards the glass.
Skinsuit 3 has stopped approximately... 1.5 feet from the glass wall.
Repeating basic greeting with additional verbal stimulus.
"Hello, can you hear me?"
Skinsuit three is exhibiting muscle spasms in left arm and throat, we are unsure if this is an attempt at mimicry or "regular" behaviour.

Ah, skinsuit three is capable of blinking!
Rowbridge, are you writing this down?
Skinsuit three is... convulsing at the throat, the left arm is now significantly raised and is swaying, palm open.
They can hear us, my god they can hear us!
It - now it seems to be smiling!
Yes, its mimicking our facial expressions!
This is fascinating,how are they doing this with such a minute amount of brain ce-
Di-did three just make a noise?
You must have heard it too, it said your name!
I wonder if it can form sentences?


After such a breakthrough we've been talking to them every day.
They are even beginning to show personalities though they are very different to their hosts.
A further month down the line now, we're going to ask them questions and record their responses.

Doctor sellers audio recording one, conversational experiment with subject three.

Hello three, how are you?
Threeee. Threeee. Hellooo threeee.
I said, how are you, how are you feeling three?
Th-the-the-threeee. F-feeling threee.
What day is it, three?
Threee. Your daaayy threeee.
I'm sorry, what day is it three?
Yoourrrr. Daaaayyyy. Lassst. D-d-d-dayy.
Why is it the last day?
Sssspreaaaads. Soooo fasssst.

We couldn't get anything more from skinsuit three.
We assume it meant the rapid increase in walking skin cases.
They seem to be trying to get to one central location, though no others have shown speech capabilities like three has.

Three refuses to expand on what the last day is, or even when it is.
Every day seems to be this "last day", its stressing out what's left of the team.
Rowbridge caught dermopsychosis last week, his will states that in such a case his skin is to be burnt.
We have no idea how this would affect the disease, we have yet to burn one of the skinsuits.
Its a tempting idea, the general census of the people is definitely in favour of this.
Probably made worse by the first casualty of the skinsuits.
The CCTV footage was blurred, we showed it to three in an attempt to get a more significant reaction out of them (I can't think of them as an it).


Doctor Sellers has sadly perished after showing the CCTV footage to subject three.
After putting three in restraints and back among the other four subjects violent behaviour was soon observed among all of them.
They are far stronger than we thought them to be.
They are capable of breaking bullet-proof glass, steel doors, bones.
The three remaining members of the team, including myself, is locked in the most secure room in the lab- the security room.
They are outside.
We can see them waving at the cameras.
Three is moving their mouth, can we get audio in here?

Bzzzzt, krrrrkkkkkkzzzzzzzkk-eeeeeee.
Threeeeeee.
L-laaaassssst Daaaaaay.


Weee seeee youuu