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THE BEAST AWAITS: A NOVEL, SYNOPSIS PART I

August 11, 2026 at 12:30 pm Leave a comment

Here is the beginning of the synopsis promised in my last post.

THE BEAST AWAITS

By Walt Trizna

Synopsis

The Beast Awaits is a novel composed of three parts: A New Species, Migration and Redemption.

The initial setting for the story is StemDiscovery, a newly started company located in a sprawling complex south of Miami.  The horror created there spreads throughout the country and then to the rest of the world

PART I OF SYNOPSIS FOR THE BEAST AWAITS

                                                            A NEW SPECIES

Part I, A New Species, follows the formation of a new species, a hybrid creature that is part human, part amphibian and part insect. At the root of this monster’s accidental creation is greed on the part of one of the investors in StemDiscovery. The company was formed by a group of venture capitalists for the purpose of exploiting the relatively new field of stem cell research.

Harding Fairfax, one of the driving forces involved in forming the company, has recently remarried. His stepson, Ralph, is a ne’er-do-well and drug addict. Fairfax goes to the head of research, Dan Webb, and insists that Ralph be put to work. He further insists that he be involved in working with a new stem cell line coming from Singapore. The origin of this cell line is a mystery, the truth known only to Fairfax and those in Singapore who created it using a human embryo. Unknown to science, this cell line contains a unique stem cell, a primordial stem cell, whose development depends on the nutrients provided.

Dan Webb informs John Martin, head of the lab that will handle the new cells, that he is gaining a new employee.

Ralph is put under the supervision of Janice, the lab supervisor working under John Martin. Unaccustomed to the sophisticated setting of a research laboratory, Ralph constantly makes mistakes in the care of the cells given to him. He repeatedly uses the wrong media to feed them. The contents of the various media used will have disastrous results. Soon he notices that the cells are changing. He destroys them and is given a fresh batch. His mistakes continue with the same results. He is given a walk-in incubator in which only he will keep cells so that he will not jeopardize anyone else’s work. One day, as he goes to retrieve the flasks, he stumbles and one of the flasks falls to the floor behind the shelves out of sight.

Janice notes an odd growth pattern in the flasks and consults John Martin about their strange appearance. Martin looks at them and orders them destroyed.

Ralph, given no further cells and only trusted with remedial chores, spends most of his time hiding in vacant labs, avoiding work and getting high.

The cells in the dropped flask continue to grow, rupture the flask and become a larva.

Janice invites her niece, Natalie, to visit the StemDiscovery complex. As they make their way down a corridor where Ralph spends most of his time, he hears them coming and ducks into the walk-in  incubator. The larva stings him, subdues him, and then uses him as a food source. It then weaves a cocoon suspended from the ceiling of the incubator and morphs into the beast.

Sometime later, Janice walks past the incubator and notices movement through the window of the door. She opens the door and is killed by the beast, which then runs down the corridor, crashes through a plate-glass window and escapes.

Chief Daniels from nearby Florida City is called to investigate.

This is Part I of my synopsis for my novel, The Beast Awaits. Let me know if this sounds like a novel you might be interested in reading.

Entry filed under: free science fiction and horror stories, free stories, READER'S OPPORTUNITIES, THE BEAST AWAITS, UNPUBLISHED WORKS, Walt Trizna, Walt Trizna's Stories. Tags: fiction, horror, novel, science fiction, stem cell, StemDiscovery, synopsis, the beast awaits, The Everglades, Walt Trizna.