“Mosquito Madness: The Six-Legged Apocalypse”
“April 10th, 2059. Trial 296 of the Mili-Mos-Trials is underway. Release the cow!” A metal door slid open and a cow entered a barely lit room. Upon closer observation, the room was virtually empty. The only thing that the room contained was a metal table with what looked like an insect buzzing a few feet above it, and a bale of hay. The cow moved towards the table slower than a turtle on morphine and stopped ten feet from it. The cow then proceeded to chew at the bale of hay on the ground.
“How are you going to get the mosquito to bite the cow, Dr. Ivanov?” The voice came from a very pale and skinny man who was holding a clipboard close to his heart. He looked over at a much larger figure, who looked as if he had eaten a cow or two himself.
“I modified this mosquito to bite anything and everything it sees. How else would I ensure their ability to spread illness quickly and efficiently? Now get your clipboard ready, Vladimir, I think our mosquito is about to act.” The mosquito flew away from the table and landed on the cow’s back. The mosquito was there for a few seconds before hovering a few feet away from the cow.
“The mosquito has bitten the cow. Now we just have to wait and see if the illness takes its full effect like it’s supposed to. Right?” Vladimir looked over to the large doctor for his approval, and maybe even some praise.
“Yes, you nincompoop. The illness should take three days to take full effect, and when it does, it will be lethal. I have spent the last forty years genetically modifying mosquitoes to spread an illness that will be capable of a global apocalypse. Of course, a global apocalypse is not what we’re aiming for, but the ability to start one should be strong enough to gain control over the current world powers.” The sound that came out of Dr. Ivanov was similar to a wolf who had just killed a deer and was alerting its fellow members of the pack of the feast. Today’s menu was death.
Trial 296 of the Military-Mosquito-Trials, or Mili-Mos-Trials for short, was when Dr. Ivanov successfully created a brand new illness spread by mosquitoes. The illness came in three stages. The first stage was extremely high fevers that would surpass 100 degrees. Eventually, the subject’s body temperature would return to normal and large cysts would form on the infected individual’s body. The cysts started on the bitten area and would spread to every other part of the body. The final stage of the sickness was when the cysts would start to expand, some getting as large as a small melon. The cysts would eventually start to explode and would serve as a spawning ground for new mosquitoes that flourished in the humid environment inside the cysts. The explosion from the cysts would be the lethal blow that killed the infected person. Dr. Ivanov’s motto was “Retention then Reproduction” for this phenomenon. The spawning of new mosquitoes was what made the illness so threatening and dangerous to mankind.
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The following were from Vladimir’s notes...
24 hours after Trial 296 started: The subject (cow) had a 105° fever. The cow was able to move its head and look around but was incapable of standing up.
60 hours after Trial 296 started: Small cysts started to form on the subject's underbelly. The cysts matched the size and color of the cow’s nipples.
74 hours after Trial 296 started: The subject’s cysts expanded in size and turned dark green in color. The cysts had spread to nearly every area of the body.
80 hours after Trial 296 started: The cysts on the subject started to explode, killing the cow. A few minutes after the explosion, mosquitoes were seen flying out of the cysts, hovering above the carcass of the subject.
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After Trial 296 was successful, the mosquitoes were kept in Moscow for a few weeks. Dr. Ivanov had informed Russian President, Sachar Smirnov III, that his experiments had been a success. After witnessing the full capability of the mosquitoes, President Smirnov told Dr. Ivanov to shut down operations. Smirnov said that the mosquitoes should all be killed and that granting Ivanov permission to create such a deadly disease was a huge mistake. Fearing that his forty years of work would go to waste, Dr. Ivanov decided to release the mosquitoes. The mosquitoes spread out across the globe and started mating with normal mosquitoes which passed down their deadly genetic traits to the next generation of mosquitoes. Soon enough, the entire globe was filled with Ivanov’s genetically modified mosquitoes. The cow was the first recorded statistic of the disease, but it definitely wasn’t the last. The mosquitos were able to spread an illness that was capable of a global pandemic. Dr. Ivanov’s Mili-Mos-Trials completely changed the genome of mosquitoes. This change was unwelcomed, catastrophic, and apocalyptic.
The sickness that was spread by Ivanov’s mosquitos, which was known as the Mos-Flu, was detrimental to Earth’s population. After a month, the population of Earth was reduced to 1 billion. This number decreased to 500 million a month later and reached its minimum, 250 million, three months after Dr. Ivanov released the mosquitos. However, this number slowly but surely started to increase. A small team of doctors scattered across the globe found a cure for the Mos-Flu. Deaths that were associated with the Mos-Flu ceased to exist. Humans have adapted and found solutions to problems for hundreds of years. Civil War? No problem. Mosquito Pandemic? No problem. Society has always survived and always will, no matter what. Motivation would be replaced with the creation of a new life. A life that would have a whole lot of mosquito repellent.
SPLAT… and fly swatters.
