The worms¶
The worms are the microscopic parasites spread through Marblehead's communion wine and food, which first give their hosts vigor and a youthful glow and then hollow them out into the bloated worm bags of The Summer Service.
| Type | Monster / parasite |
| Aliases | Worm parasite; communion-wine worms; Marblehead worms |
| Abilities | Boost strength, hair and vigor in early hosts; bloat and hollow later hosts; burrow into flesh and flee air |
| Weaknesses | Heat, heavy salt, vodka and alcohol; Ivermectin; the radio contact's anti-worm agent. Communion wine does not harm them |
| Status | Being treated by the National Guard (as of Summer Service 06) |
| First appearance | Wine tasted in Summer Service 01; worms identified in Summer Service 03 |
Description¶
In Summer Service 03, Donald McManley examines the communion wine that Andrew spat into an empty Crystal Pepsi bottle and finds it "absolutely swimming with microscopic worms." He is not a parasitologist, but says they "look a lot like tapeworms or nematodes," and tells Andrew to find a horse doctor and get Ivermectin into his body as soon as possible: "People are drinking this" (Summer Service 03). Congregants drink it at the church's three services a day (Summer Service 03). When the worms turn up in Summer Service 05, Ezra remarks, "First moth, now worm. What next, guys?", a nod to the earlier Radford case (Summer Service 05).
Outside a host the worms are slow, and they flee a dying host. Inside flesh they try to burrow (Summer Service 05; Summer Service 06).
Abilities¶
Early stage: the glow. Infected people gain vigor, muscle, hair regrowth and a youthful look. After drinking the wine, Huell Kendrick cannot sleep after 48 hours awake, looks significantly more muscular, has an advancing hairline, a faint glow and +1 Tough (Summer Service 03). By Summer Service 05 he has "all the worm strength" and heals back to full in about an hour (Summer Service 05). See The glow.
Late stage. Hosts become swollen, near-translucent and hairless; see worm bags. The affliction also shows in animals: Puddles is the first fully transformed animal, and the EPA field journal's drawings show fish that are essentially bags of worms yet still alive (Summer Service 03).
Symptoms in the party. In Summer Service 04 the team agrees that the town's food and drink are full of worms and that they all have parasites. Kurt has an itchy back spreading around his ribs, fever and joint pain, tangled up with chicken pox and the nerve agent (Summer Service 04).
Weaknesses¶
In Summer Service 05, the team tries things on the worms that escape Arnold's body. Andre rules that salt works pretty well, though not at concentrations safe for people, that alcohol bothers them, and that vodka "seems to cause problems for them." Kurt Larson later reports that straight vodka and heat kill them. He reasons that since the church gives the worms to people in communion wine, wine evidently does not kill them, and wonders whether alcohol explains why Ma Gramoire, who offered him absinthe, is unaffected (Summer Service 05).
The anti-worm liquid from the radio contact works against them in bulk; once the team is dewormed, Huell loses his bonus, gets a pounding headache and runs a high fever from the dead worms (Summer Service 06). At the end of Summer Service 05, Kira points out that killing a host's parasites all at once can flood the body with necrotic tissue, and the team decides to hold off on Ivermectin until it is out of the firefight (Summer Service 05).
History¶
The Summer Service¶
Origins of the infection. The wine is served as "Blood of the Lamb." It tastes fishy, which Dante calls "fucked-up Pruno," and Zack drinks it at the first service (Summer Service 01); see Communion wine. Kurt tells the FBI by phone that the church is infecting people intentionally and en masse and asks for antiparasitics (Summer Service 05).
The cure. After the fight at the nuclear plant, the Guard distributes deworming medicine. The team's cover story tells the military that a terrorist group seeded the parasite through the food supply; see Terrorist cover story (Summer Service 06).
What remains unknown¶
The source and purpose of the worms, and whether the angel thing is connected to them. Zack jokes in Summer Service 05 that "their god's definitely real, I have a mason jar full of it right here" (Summer Service 05).