There is a mystery surrounding The Mother in Zoochosis. Where did she come from and why is Pine Valley Zoo so hellbent on keeping her a secret from the public?
Here is our explanation of Zoochosis‘ story and events as we attempt to answer who exactly Mother is.
Zoochosis plot, summarized
Zoochosis follows Paul Connolly, a man desperate for work to put food on the table for his wife and daughter. He joins the Pine Valley Zoo as a Night Zookeeper, tasked to feed and cure the animals of any sicknesses. The game starts with a huge red flag as Paul signs a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits him from disclosing any information to third parties. His probation period starts immediately after signing, when his employer, Doc, seemingly drugs him. We quickly find out, however, that this drugging wasn’t something as simple as chloroform.
Paul’s first night on the job consists of moving from enclosure to enclosure, feeding each animal the correct amount of food, and diagnosing them with ongoing ailments. But as these mundane tasks occur, Paul’s not feeling too good. In fact, worms are moving underneath his skin like a scene out of FROM.
You aren’t the first, nor the last to enter the Pine Valley Zoo. This Night Zookeeper position has been available before. The lockers lined up in The Hub prove this. You can find former employee’s records of events, giving insight into what happened to them. Someone is observing your behavior, but what for? Employee records imply that it’s to make sense of the parasite and how it affects humans. Could the Zoo Keepers be unwilling participants in the Pine Valley Zoo’s experiments? It sure looks that way.
Getting out of this situation alive doesn’t seem like an option—especially after signing that concerning NDA. That high salary is likely out of arms reach. But if you decide to defy Doc and use your time to explore Pine Valley Zoo, you may just find a way to make it out of your first shift alive.
What is Mother in Zoochosis?
Paul quickly learns that the Pine Valley Zoo is far from an ordinary animal facility. Behind The Hub lies The Mother, the source of all parasites. She secretes these small organisms from her body, waiting for them to latch onto a new host. Their purpose is to live off food but aren’t specific to a particular host. All a parasite needs is a host and food to survive. Herbivores tainted by the parasite transform into aggressive carnivores that require human meat to contain. Human meat that Paul must source and grind into meat blocks (the same block he gave to his wife, Lily).
It’s unknown where The Mother came from. But human curiosity always gets the best of us. The Pine Valley Zoo contains her within the facility, allowing her parasites to roam free and infiltrate any animal or Zookeeper. They study the parasite’s behavior, differentiating the patterns between male and female parasites. Infected animals are observed as Mother’s parasites are allowed to run rampant. Pine Valley attempts to make sense of The Mother by studying her—and putting anyone desperate enough for the job in harms way to achieve their goal.
Dr. Oliver Metzger (or Doc) has his own theories and research based on observing The Mother. The whiteboard inside his office reveals that Mother may be older than 8,000 years. Similar to the story of The Thing, Mother was thawed from ice back in 1967. He believes she existed in Pangea roughly 200 to 300 million years ago. This is considered a time when Earth’s continents were one large mass, forming the supercontinent.
The mutation rates vary from host to host, affecting each species differently. What we know for sure is that you can only kill Mother with poison. This is done by locating the female parasite from infected animals you’ve managed to cure during the mutation phase. Former staff member, CJ (who was killed by Doc before Paul signed the NDA), explains that the blood of a female parasite disrupts a creature’s ability to regenerate. Thus, it kills the possibility of cell regeneration and, in turn, kills its host.
