A short story written by: Lee Sonogan
Short description: The public’s physical health is changed by a contagious virus. When people’s bodies build up damage the physics of their body is flung by an unknown force. The more damage they receive the more they are pushed by the force and eventually enough pressure of damage will make them fling into the sky and atmosphere to their deaths.
In the future, everything was more advanced and everyone lived a better quality of life. There were no more wars. Conflicts between people were at a low time low. Governments were no longer run by political parties. Decisions were made based on science and logic. Ethical groups of educated people also helped with decision-making. There were only a few places left that needed individuals of power. Most people believed in their countries and everyone on their planet. Some would say the age of time they lived in was perfect. In this perfect utopia civilization, One problem did arise. No information about logic and science could stop it. It was not the world that had the issue. It was a human problem. Humans started this problem. Even though not many people knew about it. Once the outbreak started, individuals of power investigated and decided to hide it from the public. If people knew why it happened that day, there would have been a revolution. The change would ensue. People thought in all their balanced perfection, something would have to of caused it. A curse for what they have become? Was it god interfering? Endless theories were involved with it. With diseases and health all wiped out, how could one virus survive? Many people discussed the odds of it. The confusion was strong and people were scared. The symptoms/effects of the virus were everything this civilization has evolved from. Avoiding certain situations became the norm. People began to be less open and less social. It was that dangerous to a lot of people. Little did people know that this helped the perfect utopia from breaking apart at the seams. I would know. With years of marketing and advertising, they hired me to help maintain the ultimate propaganda. I know all the relevant classified information. They are watching me. Trust between me and them is apparently not strong in my opinion. I have had enough of what lengths they have got me in and what they do. They can not see what I write. I need to get out what I know somehow. Maybe I will send this document to an independent media when I am dead. I shall know peace then.
Physics is an odd topic. As we learnt to live in space, astrophysics opened us up to a new age of science. In the atom and in the photon was the secrets to the universe. Capitalizing on these new discoveries was major interests of past and present governments and scientist communities. The people able to understand these new methods and techniques became rock stars to the public. More people were inspired to take up the arts of science. Being a nerd made you popular in schools and adult life. The intelligence revolution swept the world and took over. Adult education became free with three strikes and your out rule. So much more was happening at that time. The future that movies and books predicted had come true. Yes, the future was an impressive one. Some particular people began to experiment in new and taboo ways in secret. Experiments were going on all the time. These experiments were all different. With years of working in advertising, I also had a blog. It was on the scientific culture. It helped me learn what science is all about. Good enough that the private company that hired me thought I could do a certain job well. The person who first called me was very persuasive. They knew actually what to say to me. With me not noticing at the time they used keywords that would make me react positively to what they were offering me. I found their offer interesting and did not ask enough questions in that first call. A meeting was set up and the next day I took to public transport deeper into the city. When I arrived at my destination it was crowded and the location was with structures very close together. Through the people, I found the correct address and entered the correct building. The interior was soundproof with only two security guards and a secretary out the front. “Hello, you are Mr Jackson I presume?” asked the secretary. There was no turning back now.
The building has many operations going on at the same time. Rooms at work were engineering, design, manufacturing, science labs, connecting break rooms, selling rooms and finally my room, advertising and marketing. Weeks have gone by and it was a job like many I had before in advertising. Collaborating with other advertisers, I gained contacts and resources quickly. This made my job easy. The stats that responded to our marketing was above average. Social media and the company’s website was getting heaps of traffic. Profit was being made by ad revenue alone. The connecting businesses made a profit from their products, services and scientific experiments/work. In theory, we knew them well in my department. The company had documents on everything. Well, that’s what I thought. Some department details were little compared to others. Higher ranked employees seemed to be hiding something. I ask them questions so I could keep being successful at my job the best I could. I wanted to get a bonus at the end of the month. At first, they were nice and friendly. But when I asked them for more information on certain departments, they would avoid the questions and change would come over their body language. They wanted to end the discussion then and there. I liked my job and did not push for more answers. It seemed there were secrets to the company I was working for. I tried to ask my colleges of the same questions. “Fuck if I know,” said one of them. Others and I got the same reactions as before. This made me curious. “Why would they not want to share their work? What could be so important?” I thought. In my breaks, I explored the facility. When people saw I was out-of-place I pretended I was on my phone. Some of the departments were easy to see what was going on and others were not. I made friends in the harder departments to gain entry. Still, nothing suspicious was going on. The company documents explained everything they were doing down to the tee. I was starting to get frustrated. The more I thought about it the more I needed to know what it was.
Finally, I found out what was going on. I will tell you the story of why the truth needs to be told. The main character of this story is me and the people I heard. My perspective and my account of what happened. In the lab below in the basement, it began. I did not know anything about this lab until I had seen an open door in a wall that I had not seen before. The door was perfectly hidden in sight. I became excited. “What could be down there that could get me in trouble?”. I made sure no one was around to see me. There were no cameras in this particular hallway. A security guard hinted this was the place to goof off if need. I did not want to waste my time. My feet begin walking. Down I went, starting to feel anxious. At the bottom of the stairs, I saw someone lying on a table. I felt like yelling out to the person. In close expectation, the person was strapped to the table and not moving. I was frozen in shock. Once my senses returned I entered and tried to find somewhere to hide. Hiding was not a good idea. I hid behind a door that led into an equipment closet. It was dark in the room and I could not see anything. Fumbling in the dark I managed to lock myself in. Then I had to stop and think about what to do next. There was no time to think because steps were heard out in the room he was in before. I stayed in the room hoping that no one would come looking in this closet. Outside the unknown person or people began to speak loud enough for me to hear. “Let’s do this,” said a voice. “I got all the equipment ready before. What do you think will be the reaction this time?” said a different voice. I now knew there were two people in the other room. “This is an experiment. Information that will add to our company and the world. You were briefed on the classified information right?” You know what we are trying to achieve?” asked the first voice.
“Yes, yes. My understanding is limited though. Don’t you think such a combination of chemicals could have negative effects? This time it could be a risk. Why are you so willing to try this again?” said the second voice. “Who are these people? The voices are not familiar to me,” I thought. The first voice sighs. “You in or out? You have already been paid and signed a non-disclosure form. You have to do what is required of you. The choice has been already made to try this again. Backing out now is your choice and you will have to live with the consequences,” said the first voice a little annoyed. “I am still unsure,” said the second voice in a low tone. I could barely hear it. “I can call someone if you want out?” said the first voice. Then it was silent as the second voice paced in the other room. That is all I could hear. The silence broke and the second voice spoke. “Ok, ok. I do not want to get in trouble with our employers. With great risk comes great reward right? I am not stupid, I know exactly what I agreed to sign.” said the second voice. “All right, set the volunteer up to the drip. I have the needle here’ said the first voice. “In the documents, they mentioned volunteers in company experiments. Are they gonna inject something into this unknown volunteer? Why did I hide in this closet? I need to do something,” I thought. “How long?” asked the first voice. “If it is similar to our other tests, any second now,” said the second voice. Silence hits the air and I try to breathe with absolute now sound. My hand was gently resting on the locked door. I thought I may have to make a runner. If I did I would off cover my face with my hands. With my build, they could mistake me for anyone who works here. We all wear similar uniforms. I then quickly look around and reach around. I looked for something else to wear in the dark very slowly. My time could have ended any second. Finally, something felt like a lab coat. It would make me blend in as any scientist in the company. AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!
The voice was loud and the person sounded to be in a lot of pain. Two pairs of steps move back to a corner of the wall of the door where I was. I could hear them yelling at each other where I stood loud. AGHHHHHHHHHH!! The presumed volunteer continued to scream. I snack up to a wall beside the interior door. At the wall, I heard the outside people’s conversation. The first voice is now screaming out one sentence over and over again. “You jinxed it, This was all in vain,”. The door gets knocked on. “You are not going anywhere,” said voice one. Then it happened. BANG!!!!!! The interior wall cracks where I stood. Falling back I turned in mid-air and landed on my stomach. Something falls to the ground outside the closet. Then, everything was quiet. Dust flies down from the cracks of the wall. On the floor, I was shocked and confused. Sounded like an explosion. Crawling I got to one knee. One bit of dust got in my face. Still shocked, I closed my eyes and mouth and let it hit my face. Tempted, I wanted to blow in the air. Standing up I held my breath and kept my eyes closed. AGHHHHHHH! Another scream was heard from outside. This caused me to open my eyes and mouth at the moment. AGHHHH! I slowly walked to the door with dust just stinging my eyes and the taste of it in my mouth. Took a second to unlock the door hatch. Then gently pressed my hand on the doorknob. Took one last deep breath and decided to have one quick look and then get the hell out of there. In the basement room, it was a horrifying state. It was not an explosion. The volunteer was surely dead. He had crashed into the wall next to the door of the closest. He somehow was shot out of a strapped bed and shot out in an explosion with velocity. The volunteer had hit something before hitting the wall. The scientists were hit and severely damaged. AGHHHHH! One scientist was torn into two with blood spread everywhere. The other scientist had an arm blown off with the crushed volunteers head.
I stood there looking at the three. AGHHH! The scientist screamed while pools of blood drew closer to me. “Get me the hell out of here!” yelled the scientist. I did not know this person. Aghhh! The Scientist tries to stand up in the pool of blood. “I gotta go,” I thought. “We gotta go, help me or I swear I will out you!” yelled the scientist. This got my attention. “Shit, shit, shit,” I thought at the moment. “Over there!” pointed the scientist. I turn around and see a large pole like a stick. Moving towards it, I attempt to help the scientist without having to get blood on me. Reaching out while holding the stick, the scientist grabs their own with his remaining hand. I give him a second to hold onto it tight. He grabs on strong and I pull him to his feet. He saw my face more clearly. Stumbling through the blood with one arm I can never get that image out of my head. Out of the blood while still looking at me I could see his body twitching and arm’s wound dripping. The scientist turns to the stairs and looks upwards. I see he wants to leave. So I begin to refocus to run. AGHHHH! The scientist runs up the stairs wobbling about. Then I had two choices pop into my head. Back to my office just kept running? Run now, think later was the second thought. I returned to my office and pretended I was working on something on my computer. I hid the lab coat in my bag for the rest of the day. That is what I witnessed. Day after that I knew something was going to out me. The scientist who saw my face would have drawn a lot of attention. I still went to work every day. Rumours were a topic of choice with employees even more days later. People were talking about the basement. They still seemed scared to share everything they knew. The main fact shared was that the basement was doing taboo experiments. And the one that got noticed had been done over 30 times with no success. At this point, I suspected that no one knew I was involved.
Today, the craziest events will happen out of nowhere. Myself and many others have been infected. It various between certain people. The virus within people had made people anxious enough where conflicts would arise. Irrelevant issues of the past come back to the present. People were accumulating various small amounts of damage. People were surprised to see them get knocked over easy with the smallest touch. The news was all over it. It did not hit the mainstream until a mixed martial arts pay per view happened. In the first fight of the night, the fight was the most unusual fight ever. Trained to protect themselves by strikes. Each singular blow would knock them to the floor. Then the fighters would get up instantly. The referee was losing his mind trying to judge the fight. Then one fighter got one lucky punch directly to his opponents face. The punch swung was average for a human being. But this time it was so powerful a force flung the opponent into the air. Over the cage and landed in the audience. The audience cheered at first and then went silent. No one knew what happened. Then the event was officially called off. The announcer did not explain why. It was the death of public fighting. Shortly after a civil war broke out between two African states. Record footage came out daily. It was typical war footage with one exception. An inhuman exception. Every injury, bullet wound and explosion would send anything it contacted with into space. Everything else was shredded to pieces and created dust storms. Even a tornado was said to have formed. The virus was getting stronger in Africa and the world. The United Nations formed many meetings the next day. There had to be a solution. All the greatest minds were brought together in one place. Debates went for days. They did not want this to cause more chaos after years of good relations between nations and peace. Arguments and debates went on for days.
In conclusion, the truth must be told. From me or eventually from someone else. This is a medical issue we need to cure. Curing it will not happen unless they accept this truth. Humans caused this pain and fear. Maybe we are not as advanced as we think. The new utopia system is not perfect. I do not want to be scared to touch someone. Living with it is not ideal. Nothing good lasts forever. I fear getting old. Sneezing at any second could send me through the walls of my apartment building. This is no way anyone should live. I am still at the company. Living past the first epidemic, I still work at that company. They even gave me a promotion of sorts. It’s the same job but, I get to work at home. Many people’s professions were changed to homework, it was easier this time for companies to do so. The virus helped certain individuals of power. Absolute safety was part of my new job and necessary for our world to survive in the current time. A department at the company sells all the safety equipment you need. I sell it too from home. One product is a vest limits the virus’s symptoms and cushions you if you are knocked. They market it for older people who have the virus. I brought one for myself. I am starting to ramble about my work and losing my point I am trying to make. Where is the recorded information for these experiments? People in charge of those experiments need to be accountable for their actions. They need to publically release the recorded information for everyone to see. Then get everyone to work together to find a cure. I can not feel guilty about this anymore. Writing about it has made me feel better about it. Selling safety equipment makes me feel better about it. I will not get over it until we are back to the making process on the issue. My time is better used on selling and not propaganda to keep it hidden. If they keep giving me direction on what to add-on to my marketing plans, I will have to release this document sooner or later. I still have not seen that one-armed scientist again.
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
Inspired by the video game video below:
Here is some links to my book for sale: