Cover-up

No Brain

Human psychology is such that the assurance of a trusted colleague can create a cognitive blind spot in a person's deliberation. This blind trust can rewire a brain by altering the strengths of synaptic connections in a way that inhibits the perception of specific sensory input. When incomplete or biased sensory information arrives at the decision-making apparatus of the human brain, the resulting decisions, although considered reasonable by the decision-maker, are irrational to any objective observer.

Incredibly, the mental hospital unceremoniously released the patient without realizing he had neither a ride nor a functioning brain. So high was the staffs' confidence in Sam that no one questioned his motivation for recommending the patient's release. No one noticed the red flags, of which there were many.

This patient's brain, the part that creates conscious thought, had been destroyed by Sam in a botched operation and subsequent cover-up. The area of the brain that defines a person as human, with conscious thought, and emotions to give life meaning, had been obliterated. This patient had no mind or soul; his brain had no consciousness, no thought, no emotion, no planning ability, no desire, and no will. What was once a young man named Timothy, as flawed as he was, ceased to exist following his Surgeon's accidental scalpel lacerated of his brain and trauma of the subsequent cover-up. The entity known as Timothy was either absent or dead and his return an absolute impossibility. His body was now a walking, breathing, empty shell — a soul-less zombie minus the brain-eating urge.

Parts of the patient's brain, however, functioned normally. For example, motor coordination controlled by his cerebellum worked fine. In addition, all senses worked perfectly, yet the generated data feed to either a toxic void or to undamaged autonomous portions of the patient's brain. The patient lacked volition yet projected a convincing illusion of a willful being. His connectome suffered irreparable damage but had enough of a vestigial neural network that a few remarkable behaviors presented themselves.

First, a purely reflexive behavior presented — an ability to follow moving objects with his eyes. When the patient's focus locked onto a moving object, his focus remained on the object until it either stopped moving or moved out of sight. To maintain focus, the patient turned his head to follow any moving object, with the patient standing, walking, or running after the object, if necessary, to maintain eye contact. While focused on an object, the patient made a singular facial expression — a frown — that could be interpreted as either intense disapproval or deep concentration, yet all conscious thought was absent. The patient's behavior misled because it projected a strong illusion of thinking, judging, and considering when none of these brain activities were present. All of the patient's behavior was purely reflexive, purely mechanical.

Second, another reflexive behavior — a tendency to mimic the behavior of others. If someone talked to the patient, he would occasionally respond with gibberish. Bizarrely, because of the human ability to see patterns where none exists, his words seemed to have meaning and reflect a degree of intelligence. Some interlocutors blamed themselves for not understanding more of the patient's message and assumed a wisdom surpassing their own. If someone reached toward the patient, as if to shake hands, he would reach back as would a mirror image.

Today, the patient stood at the curb, waiting for a ride that would never come. He stood without thought, feeling, ambition, desire, or anything related to a thinking human. The remaining portion of the patient's brain that functioned actively processed the inputs from his senses.

The sidewalk supported many pedestrians today, and soon, one passed. Like an unthinking automaton, the patient turned and followed. The pedestrian happened to be a young lady, nicely dressed, about the same age as the patient. He remained five feet behind the lady, stopping when she stopped, moving when she moved, all the time watching her legs and frowning. When the young lady stopped at a food cart to purchase a hot dog, she grew suspicious. When she turned, she saw a young man standing five feet away, staring at her face, frowning with an intensity that deeply offended her. After receiving her hot dog, the lady continued her walk home, albeit faster now, nervously glancing over her shoulder at her stalker.

When she could take no more, the lady abruptly stopped and turned to confront her stalker. She looked straight in his eyes, "Why are you following me?" When the patient failed to respond, the lady asked again, louder this time to hide a growing dread, "Why are you following me? Answer me!" She demanded, arms akimbo, staring straight into his eyes. Her stalker's eyes horrified her. She felt as though she were peering into an empty shell — no soul, no being, nothing.

When the stalker responded, his words were clear, but the sentence came out garbled, "What weed became your highly footed bugger face to pick. Do it." The patient began an odd habit of ending his utterances with the phrase, "Do it!" Plus, he continued talking as he inhaled, producing a grating sound that would reverberate the spine of the most composed of individuals.

As the distraught young lady processed her stalker's outburst, she saw a mosquito circling his head. When it settled on the middle of his forehead, the lady gaped in wonder. Fighting her impulse, she dared not swat it away. She continued to stare, frozen in her position, able but unwilling to move. Both fascinated and disgusted, she watched as the giant mosquito probed for the perfect spot. After a few seconds, she saw the mosquito plunge its proboscis into her stalker's forehead and begin to suck his blood. The lady froze in horror at the sight. The patient, seeing no movement, relaxed his face, dropping his lower jaw as his head tilted upwards and slightly to one side. The mosquito continued feasting on the patient's blood, and the young lady continued to stare. The patient's eyes roll upward in their sockets, exposing the whites of his eyes. Seconds passed, but they seemed like hours. Exhibiting an odd curiosity of human nature, the lady could not turn away from the sight as horrifying as it was. She was fully absorbed in the moment.

The honk of a car at a jaywalking squirrel jolted the young lady from her trance. She fluttered her eyes as her whole body gave a visible shiver. Her movement alerted the patient who, again, glared at her with an intensity that frightened her to the core. The mosquito, now engorged with blood, had nearly doubled in size. The mosquito had positioned itself at the middle of the patient's forehead, facing down with perfect bilateral symmetry. If one were to view the scene with one eye closed, thus eliminating depth of vision, the mosquito would present the same as if it were a tattoo of a spider.

Heart pounding now, the lady screamed and in a wild panic raced to her condo where she opened the gate, closing it behind her, and dashed up the steps to her door. Although the patient ran after her, the gate stopped his advance. Glancing back before entering her condo, she saw that the mosquito remained attached to her stalker's forehead. That grizzly image left a permanent impression on the young lady's mind that would replay many times in the coming years. When she closed and locked the door, she sat on the floor with her back to the door and shuddered as her body shook from uncontrollable sobbing.

The patient remained standing at the gate, staring upward to the sky until the next passerby, who happened to be walking in the opposite direction. The patient, alert now, turned and followed a young man from a distance of five feet.