My name is REDACTED and I am a REDACTED at the REDACTED Research Facility.

My colleagues usually just refer to me as REDACTED, though. This may be because of my love of boiled egg sandwiches during my lunch break in the cafeteria, or simply just a jab at my weight, although I am sure they mean no harm in it.

I was born and raised in REDACTED.

As a child I developed a nervous tic where I would laugh if I became scared or nervous.

My first experience with the virus was when I found a hedgehog outside in the wild near the research facility.

It was a strange blue colour and was trying to stand up on two feet.

My initial theory was this was due to a chemical outbreak or pollution, but what I discovered instead was far more shocking.

A secret underground lab at the REDACTED Research Facility was conducting experiments on a new way of storing powerful energy using seven small gems.

The results seemed to have been mixed, unstable and unexpected. The gems were refereed to as ‘Chaotic Gems’.

These Chaotic Gems had strange effects with mutating animals and plants.

I took those Chaotic Gems and planned to hide them all before they could do anymore harm. I think I must’ve dropped one somewhere when I was sneaking out from the facility.

When I returned home, I found I was already too late. My house had been destroyed.

The hedgehog had gone feral and spun at me with it’s sharp spikes and, not only that, I noted it had learnt to speak and was taunting me before it attacked.

That hedgehog had some attitude.

It escaped and ran off at such an unnaturally high speed.

I wanted to hate that hedgehog, but as an environmentalist and animal lover, I knew it wasn’t the hedgehog’s fault. I quickly got to working on a way to send the Chaotic Gems into another dimension and, just to make sure the outbreak of mutated animals was kept to a minimum, I worked on a way to protect the currently unaffected animals.

I came up with the idea to build robotic suits. It was the only way I could think off to keep the animals safe while I worked on a way to cure the mutations for good.

These suits would protect the animal inside from being contaminated by the Chaotic Gems and defend themselves from danger, while still being allowed to roam around in the wild. They seemed to be quite comfortable inside the mech armour and they could still move about with relative ease.

I also built large metal homes for some of them, so they could stay quarantined together until I could build them an individual robotic suit for protection.

I thought I was on a winning streak to stopping this thing… but it didn’t last.

That hedgehog came back and started smashing the robotic suits frantically with the small animals inside and destroyed the small metal cage homes.

I tried to subdue him by dangling a large ball in front of him and swinging it around, hoping that it would be distracted with running around it that I could drop a net down and bring it into quarantine where it couldn’t hurt others or itself.

But the hedgehog was too fast for me and it destroyed my ball swinging machine. I only just managed to get away in time but it is still chasing after me.

When I think about it, sometimes I believe it is just toying with me. Letting me run away and build something else just so it can come by and destroy it.

It doesn’t want my suffering to end.

That hedgehog relentlessly continues to harass and chase me. I am forced to build machines just to protect myself that I have hardly anytime looking into finding a cure anymore.

It seems to have found some more mutated animal friends to join in with the fighting.

There has been a two tailed flying fox that also seemed to be some sort of engineer, a bright red echidna with massive knuckles and a pink hedgehog wielding some sort of oversized hammer.

Those infected animals were just the ones that showed up at the beginning. Now there seems to be a new one that joins the fight every so often, so much so that I can’t just list them all anymore.

To make matters worse, the hedgehog has found all of the Chaotic Gems, even the seventh one that I lost myself and when he holds them all the mutation gets worse. He glows bright yellow and appears to be invincible. The effects seem to be only temporary at the moment thankfully.

I dread to think what would happen if it became permanent.

I have created a new base so I can do my research without too many interruptions. It is a massive orbital fortress, otherwise known as a space station, and I have named it the ‘Doom Egg’ because I plan to end this epidemic once and for all and bring balance back to nature.

I thought I could be safe here while I worked on a cure.

But the hedgehog has found a way to get to me, no doubt with the help of that intelligent fox friend of his, and now I can hear them trying to break down the door to get to me.

I don’t have much time left. I am not sure what they will do to me but I know it will not be pleasant.

It is all over for me.

I just have enough time to send these research notes back down to REDACTED and hope someone finds it and discovers the truth.

We knew the realm would not be the same. A few companions laughed, a few companions cried, most companions were silent.

Now, I am become the Farmer, destroyer of realms.

I suppose we all thought that one way or another.