Post 29: The Virus

Monday June 13th, 2016
6:31 am (6 1/2 hours of sleep)

Turtle down lovers walked silently along the river. Never had one so urgently been placed along paths and byways to intercept knowledge kept for other men. Hampered by their own declarations of love, those from the Palisades could never go beyond just a courtship phase in life.

Trailing urgently behind the rest, Tvlakthin never could find someone to accept his somewhat abrasive personality. Only the duchess would appreciate someone with his particular character flaws and she was much his superior. No, they could never be. He would live a life alone wandering from petty interest to even more empty pursuit. Thoughts of melancholy possibilities would leap unbidden to his mind. It was time to pursue another one of the sciences. Those seemed to always take his mind off of his unused heart.

He gathered several books of various branches within the sciences studying each in turn until he felt himself gravitate to one particular pursuit. This time he would study microbiology. The world of the miniscule was of particular interest to him.

After months locked away in extensive study of what lay beyond the naked eye, he found within his collection of microbes and viruses, a particularly virulent strain of the kluthbrek virus. Deadly if directly exposed to any part of the body, the kluthbrek virus had been known to kill a grown and healthy person within days of initial infection. How Tvlakthin hadn't caught it himself before it's discovery, he didn't know.

After much cultivation by building up the viruses natural defenses against the medicinal, Tvlakthin decided it was time to leave his legacy. If he couldn't know the love of another then no one could.

After carefully bottling up the means to everyone's end, he set out for the large city of Delthekin. It would be in the center of the city's market, cultural hub of the planet, that Tvlakthin would release what had consumed all of his time of late.

After throwing the glass canister through the crowd and watching the thing break, Tvlakthin made a hasty retreat. He didn't stop running until he arrived at his hermetically sealed laboratory and had locked himself inside. There was enough food and clean water for him to wait out the destruction of all he had ever known.

A time and some passed. Was it years? Was it decades? He had no idea, not being particularly fond of schedules or calendars there would no way for him of knowing. Debating with himself the effectiveness of the virus he spent days and weeks yelling at nothing but the thin recycled air. Finally, he decided. It was time to see what had become of it all.

Bypassing safety protocols and opening his great steel hatch with shaking hands, he emerged out in to a cool crisp autumn evening. He knew not of what lay ahead.