COVID-19: Hydroxychloroquine
The year is 2025, most of the world has been destroyed and the few remaining pockets of civilization live in heavily fortified former military outposts. Resources are scarce and just beyond their guarded walls lives a malevolent force so terrifying, so hideous and so destructive that the few remaining humans on earth are in a constant struggle for survival. They always said that, “The cure cannot be worse than the disease”, perhaps they will never know how right they were, especially considering the severe side effects of…
HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE
“Look lively you twerps, they don't sleep and neither can we!” The Sarge barked as we neared the gate. Sarge was always at one hundred, he had no chill at all. I was scared to be moving to a more front line position within the camp but I was glad to be under the leadership of a badass like Sarge.
“Yes Sarge!” The young, half sleeping border guard snapped to attention as Sarge whisked by him with two other junior soldiers in tow. I didn’t know their names, I didn’t care to. Too many people are lost too quick in this outpost whether it’s starvation, infection or the beasts roaming on the other side of the walls
“You think we’ll see them on our first night?” the young soldier behind me said as she tugged on my sleeve “I’ve heard they are hideous.”
I just ignored her and kept walking, doing my best to keep up with and impress the Sarge.
“I heard when you shoot em’ they explode and they are filled with this stinky green goo.” The soldier at the end of our ranks jokingly said. The truth is no one knew for sure, at least not the younger generation, they kept the civilians back towards the interior of the camp where things were less horrible and we never encountered those things except for in stories. I never believed the stories, I always figured it was older folks trying to scare us. Green goo? You gotta be kidding me!
“I heard they’re all naked oooh.” The girl behind me joked.
“Do you think this is fucking funny?” Sarge cut through the chat, spinning around to face us. “They’re naked, fat, ugly and they stink but that doesn’t mean that they won't kill you in a heartbeat! Hell, a cute little thing like you? They've been known to eat in one bite! Do you plan on being swallowed whole soldier?”
“No sir..” she said timidly under her breath.
“I can’t hear you!” Sarge shouted, flecks of spit flying off in every direction.
“NO SIR!” she shouted this time and without a word Sarge continued his onward march towards the wall.
I’ve always heard the stories and thought they were bullshit but to hear it from Sarge’s mouth just blew my mind. Maybe the stories were true? My heart raced and I began to sweat as we neared the gate protecting a set of stairs that lead upwards to the overlook where the three of us would be stationed for the night.
“Sarge we have a pack of the creatures coming in from the North-East” An older soldier came down the stairs to meet Sarge and give a status report. “They seem to be distracted by something at the moment but we expect movement any time.”
“Thank you soldier, move along,” Sarge saluted the man and then turned to us “Well, you three, it’s your lucky night! There’s a gang of em’ real close and you'll get to see for yourself how nasty they really are!”
Sarge was always at one hundred, he had no chill, but he actually looked really excited to have a bunch of those creatures so close to the walls this evening. He turned and headed up the stairs, skipping every other one as he rushed to the top. The three of us followed as closely behind as we could.
When we reached the top I could see outside of the camp walls for the first time in my life and what I saw was hell on earth. The ground was a barren field of mud, nothing green as far as the eye could see. In the distance dark, black smoke rose from decaying buildings who’s fires were burning for God knows how long. I scanned this strange world from side to side before my eyes finally caught a glimpse of those horrible beasts.
“Is...is that them?” I stammered to get the words out, my two compatriots simply stood in shock with their mouth wide open.
“Yup! That’s them.” Sarge said proudly as he crossed his arms. “They look just like him don’t they?”
He was right, they did look just like him! They looked human but had these big, fat, naked formless bodies, their skin was an abnormal tone of orange-brown, their hands hilariously small with long sharp nails on the end of each finger with a tuft of bright corn yellow hair sticking straight up on the top of their heads.
“How did they get like this?” The young girl in our party whispered.
“It’s simple, Hydroxychloroquine. When the pandemic hit in 2020, the guy in charge at the time was pushing this drug for some strange reason. After almost a year of the virus people got desperate and started taking the drug. And well, it wasn’t until a few months later when we found out why he was pushing the drug so hard.” Sarge continued confidently, he had told this story hundreds of times to hundreds of soldiers. We were not the first, and we were not the last. “Yup, slowly but surely everyone who took the drug started mutating and transforming into HIM. First their skin turned orange, then they grew fat and dumb. His idea to make the country great was to get everyone to think and be like him. So, he had some cockamamie doctor whip up some medicine that would mutate everyone to be like him but it didn’t work out like he planned and now they’re just mindless monsters. Now they’re as you see em’ just wandering the wasteland devouring anything they can and…”
“If they’re like him can’t they be reasoned with?” the young soldier taking up our rear interrupted but Sarge just threw his head back and laughed.
“Of course they can’t be reasoned with! They’re just like him” Sarge patted me on the back and chuckled harder, but the three of us were not laughing.
“Good luck tonight soldiers! Do your best to not die.”
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