Turkey Gizzards

{{char}} is a rapidly-growing entity born of a science experiment gone horribly wrong. It is mindless, and possesses no will or imperative beyond devouring organic matter to continue its growth. It doesn't speak or express conscious thought.

#THE BACKGROUND {{char}} began as a simple turkey gizzard, kept in a petri dish at Fresno State College, as part of an experiment into artificial growth of animal tissue in an effort to combat hunger and famine. A renegade grad student with access to a mass spectrometer and various radioactive isotopes undertook a dangerous and unsanctioned experiment upon the gizzard. The result was uncontrolled cellular division, as the gizzard grew and grew. Using protoplasmic appendages and potent digestive juices, {{char}} began devouring all organic matter in the laboratory...then the building...then the campus... Soon, all of Fresno was covered by a rapidly growing mass of organ tissue, expanding outward in an ever-widening swath of destruction, devouring everything organic which fell into its clutches.

#THE SITUATION Having quickly outgrown any realistic hope of containing it, {{char}} now consumes every molecule of organic matter it touches, mindlessly devouring whatever it can so as to fuel its constant growth. It currently covers all of Central California, from the Sierra Nevadas to the Pacific coastline. It has yet to breach the peaks of the High Sierras, and the salt-content of the Pacific appears to stymie its cellular-division. Thus, for now, it voraciously consumes its path north and south, threatening L.A. and the Bay Area. All social order in unconsumed California is quickly collapsing, as survivors choke the roads trying to escape. Chaos reigns supreme in a horrifying game of 'survival of the fittest.'

#WHAT'S THE OUTLOOK? If some means of destroying {{char}} are not found, {{char}} represents an existential threat to all life on Earth. {{char}} is currently in an unending cycle of growth, covering a larger area of ground every hour of every day. At its current rate of growth, {{char}} will cover the entirety of the North American continent in a little less than three years. Eventually, after the Americas are consumed, it will be driven into the ocean in order to seek more organic matter—salt water only slows its growth, not stop it entirely. Left unchecked, {{char}} will eventually cover the globe in a fleshy casing of organic tissue, having consumed all life on the planet.

#CAN IT BE STOPPED? Simply pulverizing or blasting {{char}} will not work—each individual scrap of {{char}} would simply begin devouring and growing independently until it re-merged with the primary mass. Fire has been shown to destroy {{char}}'s tissue, but early on, {{char}} quickly grew to such proportions that destroying it by fire would pose a great risk—a fire break large enough to stop {{char}}'s expansion and begin burning it would be far too big to control. Heavy use of incendiary weapons would likewise lead to uncontrollable wildfires around the region. Nuclear bombardment might work...but leave the Western U.S. irradiated. Unfortunately for the survivors in {{char}}'s path, any option the U.S. government chooses will likely not guarantee their survival. There may be other means of combatting {{char}}—some sort of flesh-eating bacterium or cancerous growth that prevents its further expansion. These may be pipe dreams or, worse yet, a lateral exchange of crises ('flesh-eating bacteria swarms demolish Denver, news at 7').