It’s not the end of the world, but the way people are acting makes it seem so.
It started like any vaccine would; careful work, day and night, in a lab. Funded by the government, that’s funded by people that pay taxes for some measure of security. Months of work and hundreds of vials. Half a dozen donated human brain tissue samples and comparative slides. Blood work, and lab trials that led up to clinical trials that led up to… something amazing.
A vaccine, created to fight, and in time, cure, the debilitating mental illness of clinical depression.
Not the cure for cancer, but a breakthrough! It worked. It honest to god, one-hundred percent worked. Daily medication and weekly visits to the shrink were traded for fun days off and nights on the town. All thanks to a bimonthly vaccine, cooked up in a little lab, for a big, government paycheck.
Yes, after some time, it backfired. The clinical trials were fine! That’s because the scientists and doctors behind them knew what to look for. They only had people diagnosed with some form of depression, by professionals. They didn’t just pluck someone off the street, they wanted actual, legit test subjects. There was too much money riding on the vaccine being effective for mistakes.
Yeah, the vaccine worked. But, the illness had to be present inside of the human brain for the vaccine to work.
Do you know how many people get misdiagnosed every day? Because too many psychiatrists see a paycheck, instead of a patient? Because people don’t realize what depression actually is, or how it works? Psychiatrists know how it works. That’s why some of them throw a prescription pad at a frown, instead of taking the time to do their jobs and listen.
Six months of injections, of bliss, of breakthrough moments all over the country. Six months, before the first incident hit the news. A mother of two had picked her toddler up from daycare, and greeted her with a hug. The mother, overjoyed, hugged back, and shortly caved in her little girls ribs. She smiled, and snuggled her screaming little girl, and didn’t let go until the police came. The mother attempted to give a cop the same hug. She left behind a husband, and a five year old boy.
It wasn’t anything major, it was tragic, but nothing too terrifying. You can find worse things on reddit, for gods sake. It was a thing that happened, but it was one, isolated incident.
Until the next one, four months later. Elderly man hugged his wife to death. They were both in their eighties, frail things. While she died of crushed ribs and internal bleeding, he fractured an arm, and a few ribs. But he never stopped smiling.
It became a trend. Only adults were doing these hugs of death, but then, the rare teenager hugged their BFF to death. We were looking for patterns that weren’t there. Hunting for links that weren’t available to the public.
The people figured it out eventually. None of the people that had done these hugs of death had been diagnosed with any form of depression. They had all had the vaccine. Think about this; seven percent of adults in the united states have depression. Roughly twelve percent of the population had gotten the vaccine. The only thing needed to get the vaccine in some states was a goddamn checklist of signs! If you met the criteria, you got the needle! Fuck accuracy and proper medical procedure, they’ve got a miracle drug!
…It’s … it was dubbed the ‘Hug Me’ virus, by the media. It’s not a virus. It’s a chemical imbalance in the brain, like the depression that doctors wanted to cure. But what it’s done, has made these people without depression become manic. Not the medical kind of manic, or the drug-induced manic. Full of, stereotypical, cackling mania. They seem normal until they make eye contact. They didn’t, at first, seem dangerous. Would you turn down a big, smiling hug from your father? Your wife? Your grandmother?
All forms of public displays of affection were prohibited as a case of national security. Few protested, and those that did learned fast that a hug in public got you tasered and quarantined. To get the point across, the media did a special on the survivors.
Not everyone hugged died, but surviving was a nightmare. Cracked ribs and paralysis in teenagers, spinal fractures in grown men. They interviewed a seven year old girl who would scream and cry if anyone touched her. Her daddy hugged her so hard that her lungs collapsed.
People infected by the hug me virus are being located. Carted off to quarantine, and tested, and terminated, no doubt. That’s how it’s gonna have to be. Blood and brain tissue samples from people who don’t know that their hugs snap ribs and kill. The vaccine is off the market, has been for months after the fact. I hear that scientists, the same ones that made the vaccine, are looking for a cure.
Back to the drawing board.
But, I don’t think we need to worry too much. It’s not so bad. Yeah, it’s bad, but it’s not the end of the world. People will die, but they do that every day. I’m not being heartless, I’m being realistic. How do we know a cure wont backfire again? We don’t, but… people want to try.
I know it’s dangerous out there, but, talking about this makes me remember how long I’ve been cooped up. Studio apartments are tiny, and I’m running out of food. Still, despite the bullshit going on outside, I’m feeling…. okay. Better than okay. I could be doing better, though. Maybe… maybe I just need a hug?
–
Credits to: http://theevilblackbunny.tumblr.com/
Comments