Hello everyone! I know I have been doing myself a disservice by not working on this series for so long. However I felt it was better to take a hiatus than to sour the quality of this story. There is no hiding what I have posted in the past, and the permanence of each entry really emphasizes my need to remain patient while publishing them.
Sorry to keep all of you beautiful Steemians waiting so long. If you are behind, not sure what the hell is going on, or simply want an easy way to get caught up, the first four chapters can be found here:

Without further delay, here is chapter five. I sincerely hope you all enjoy it. And as always, keep on steeming on!

Mutual Catalysis

"....And for that reason, it is imperative that we act quickly in recruiting bright and spirited individuals with an empirically grounded frame of thought to fill these vacant positions at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Please email all relevant qualifications and resumes to the company address, which your professor has kindly allowed me to display on your whiteboard. Thank you for your time, and if there are no questions then I must be on my way."

The spiel was performed as practiced and repeated a few times before. I feel satisfied with my voice, as if I'm some sort of salesman.
I see a thick, weak hand being raised in the back of the lecture room, limp and pale.

"Yes? Can I answer something for you back there in the red sweater?"

The fat pimply face staring at me from 25 feet away wheezes a couple times before a response gurgles from the depths of his throat.

"Mr. Greenpiece, do you think it is possible that life can somehow adapt to an irradiated environment, and instead of being hurt by the contamination it instead is aided by it?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Life, can it be aided by being exposed to radiation?"

The question struck me as rather stupid. But kids watch and do a lot of dumb things nowadays. Dumb movies, with dumb plots, and dumb characters, all acted out by royal idiots. Dumb activities with other dumb people in dumb places. It's a shitshow to be frank. But, I must reluctantly admit, they are the future of our society. We must seek to educate and employ them to maintain the world those before them built, or else they themselves will face the ends of days.

"Ehrm, no I would not think that is likely to occur. Radiation damages organic tissue by stripping electrons from atoms and molecules, it destroys your DNA even. It might cause a mutation that ends up being beneficial, but to be frank, I am not a biology expert. My realm of knowledge only encapsulates so much. Thank you for the query, it was thought-provoking."

Did I really just say that? It was a horrible question; I wasn't lecturing theory or anything of that nature. Damn it all, I hate when I get sent on these stupid recruitment assignments. I just want to stay in the workplace I'm most comfortable, why do I need to bother with these buffoons that will be trying to usurp my position in the first place? Wasting my time to ask me if some sort of animal can benefit from being violently and atomically altered by radiation? It sounds like a bad sci-fi flick. This generation of kids is fucked. We are fucked. Fuck.

"Well, if no other questions are hanging around that actually pertain to the subject matter at hand, I must be running. I hope to hear from HR that we received some resumes from promising young talent. Thank you all for your time."

As I am leaving the classroom I overhear a murmur questioning my qualifications. A sharp pang of heat and anger afflicts my neck, I am angry at the assumption.
As the door shuts behind me I release the pressure that has just been built up through a deep sigh of relief. I can't wait to get back into the routine back at the power plant.
The sine wave of a walking path leading to my car underscores a line of jacaranda mimosifolia trees, which streak demented purple goblet shaped flowers across the otherwise artificial and dead landscape.

It would be absurd if such a thing were to occur. A beneficial relationship between animals and an irradiated environment. Such a thing can't exist...
If it were the case with humans, we would likely exacerbate our consumption of radiation the same as we do with other sources of pleasure and well being. We would spread toxic radiation just because we like it and it helps us.
Such a preposterous thing to think of. The hilarity is nearly breaking me, thinking of an example of mutual catalysis that is more ridiculous than this can hardly be achievable.
There is just no way...

I begin to feel my face fill with heat and pressure and blood. My heart-rate accelerates.

These idiots think real life is just like their video games and movies. Well they need to understand, there are limits to things, and there are consequences for your actions! They are wasting away having all this fun, but they don't understand that they are dooming themselves by burning time. Life is not about fun and enjoying yourself, it is about working your ass off doing things you hate until the rotting flesh loosens and falls from your cracked bones.

The sun is blinding, and these birds boom as thunder with their incessant chirping. All chittering at once in frivolous randomness and absolute spontaneity. I would choke every Goddamned fowl this planet has to offer if I could just get one cursed moment of peace and silence. And holy fuck, this sun, why can I barely see in this light!? It is so offensive, I dare not open my eyes for fear of frying my retinas and losing my eyesight for eternity! The infernal heat and flame is boiling the liquid out of my skin!

I sweat profusely through the back of my shirt and jacket and the moisture drips from my brow and nose. My face feels like wet clay, and my extremities begin to lose all perceived connection to my nervous system.

I scream. I don't know why I am screaming, it just alleviates the mounting tension and pain I am now feeling with every fold of my brain and every fiber of my being. I seize up... and crash to the floor with the thump of a man with a body as stiff as a board. The demented purple goblet flowers are laughing at me, they are coughing up their lungs and slapping the caps off of their knees in hysteria. I can no longer stand it...Someone end it all! End the pain!
Just as piercing flashing lights and the blood curdling screams of banshees come around the corner, perched upon the heads of vast beasts of steel and glass, I lose my grip.

Darkness.

Free Energy Chapter V

Mutual Catalysis