by Steve Green
The Melancholy virus had taken just seven weeks to overrun the planet.
Bacterimelanchol, or Bluebug as it came to be known, was aggressively infectious. It could make the jump from electronic circuitry to biological with horrifying ease, affecting machine and animal with impunity.
Soon the germ was hooked into everything. Television, internet, satellites. No system, or system operator was beyond its reach, or control.
Doom and gloom were spread through every possible media.
Until the whole world was wrapped in the black cloak of depression.
And ultimately, the button was pushed.
And then, oh my, how that bug did laugh...
Author bio: Genre-hopping flash fiction writer who blogs at The Twisted Quill: http://greenstephenj.blogspot.co.uk/
Bacterimelanchol is part of 101 Fiction issue 5.
Oh myyyyyyy!
ReplyDeleteHi Catherine, I hope this hit the spot. :-)
DeleteYipe! It mutated! ;-)
ReplyDeleteI think a less virulent version is already extant. It's called "the news."
Haha!! Yeah Larry, there isn't too much of it that you could call good, is there? The "Mini me" of Bluebug. :-)
DeleteOoooooh it healed itself, grew, transformed! I think it's beginning to spread wider now, what with all the bad and ugly coming to scary fame. Happy for the bug though, it traded depression for the happiness of a planet.
ReplyDeleteHiya Cindy. I guess that bug is now the happy ruler of a very large pile of ash. LOL.
DeleteSome bugs are easily pleased, aren't they? :-)
You're right in that it only takes one depressed soul to push a button. I sure hope we have multiple checks and balances to prevent a greater catastrophe.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you all the way on that one Stephen. Just now Bacterimelanchol is fiction, but in the future, who knows?
DeleteProbably one of the most dangerous viruses around.
ReplyDeleteHi Richard, I reckon the Bluebug would make the Flu bug look like a complete wuss. LOL
DeleteLord alone knows what kind of firewall you'd need to guard against that!
ReplyDeleteI have a feeling it doesn't exist Icy, but even if it did, an infected operator would soon make it worthless.
Delete[eyes soap dish in kitchen] This is the second flash in a row I've read for this week where ideas and contagion amount to the same thing.
ReplyDeleteLove it!
Hi Katherine. Contagion and virus scenarios are quite unnerving, probably because they usually have some element of possibility in them.
DeleteI think if this bug ever gets out that soap dish won't be any protection either. LOL.
And we laughed and laughed and laughed...
ReplyDeleteWait? was that too much? Is it wrong to root for the virus?
If you had the choice Jon, you might as well be on the winning side. :-)
DeleteDon't you know he laughed, the sorry so and so! Great little ditty, Steve : )
ReplyDeleteThank you Miss A, them bugs can be insufferable, can't they? Heheh!
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