1 Viral Water

Change starts small – a tiny nucleus implanted without anyone noticing and develops over time in front of our excited eyes. Most changes are welcome – they show the world something fresh, innovative, and better, which is why they immediately become the new norm.

The change I am about to reveal to you is the last to be welcomed. It is a cursed change, which I wish would never happen. This change was forced upon us, and we must learn to adapt to it. Because now it is too late, and the wheel cannot be reversed.

"Hey mike! It's good to see you, man!" I called out to him excited.

"You too, Joe." Mike replied with a smile.

"How was your trip to Peru?" I immediately asked, the question fired out so quickly I felt I could vomit of excitement.

"Oh man, it was amazing! So many breathtaking views…" it felt like each question one asked increased the other's enthusiasm.

"Sounds great! I wish I could hear more, but our shift begins in five minutes…"

The enthusiasm of both of us slowly faded – time to be serious.

Working at the water desalination plant is a serious job indeed. For four consecutive hours, twice a day, we have to monitor the pressure of water flowing into the pools and their temperatures during desalination. Such a job could drive a man insane if he had no one familiar to work with. I felt so lucky to have Mike as my partner during the shift.

He told me about his trip. The view from his hotel room, the hiking routes to the mountains, even the Peruvian prostitutes, though I refused to listen to the latter. That is just the way with someone like Mike – once he starts talking, it is very hard to silence him. Then he got into an interesting incident, which he had during one of his hikes:

"So I walked alongside the river, and its sight made my throat dry. I pull the bottle out of my bag and found it empty!"

"And? What did you do then?" I urged him nervously to continue.

"Then I realized I could use the river to fill up my bottle. The river's water was clear, and besides, I saw little animals drinking from the river during the hike. I filled my bottle and drank like an alcoholic! I'm telling you, this water was the safest liquid I drank!"

"Sounds divine." I said, imagining the taste he described.

Then I realized I got thirsty. I guess the entire story about the sage cold water, along with our consecutive stay by the water pools, affected me.

"Well done, Mike! Your story made me thirsty!" I stung him amicably.

Mike laughed:

"Go then! Don't let me dry your throat any further!"

When I got back from the drinking break, Mike was not there. Probably he went either to smoke or bathroom. I sat back in my chair and watched the clock on the wall. One hour left for this shift to end.

I quickly got bored of sitting, so I decided to get up and shake a leg. I got out of the room and began walking on the catwalk around the pool. My heart dropped down when a blurry object on the pool floor caught my eye. I rushed down from the catwalk and to the object, which caught the shape of a man with every step.

"Stop!" I shouted to the air repeatedly, hoping any worker nearby would hear.

As expected, the pumps slowed their suction rate until they completely stopped. The ripples in the water weakened and disappeared slowly, the surface of the water turning as smooth as glass. The image of the man underwater became clear. It was Mike!

"Get him out!" I yelled with panic toward the other workers, who gathered around the pool.

Just before Mike's body was entirely out of the water, I noticed another thing at the pool. It was as thin and long as a strand, and fully black. It moved in a crooked way until it disappeared into one of the pumping holes. My eyes froze on the last place I saw this creature, until my awareness to Mike came back. I slapped him, trying to wake him up, but he did not respond.

Tapping on his chest and mouth-to-mouth respirations didn't help either. Mike, my friend, drowned to death… and I was not there for him.

For three long days, all the factory workers, including myself, were waiting impatiently for the results of Mike's autopsy. The day the pathologist appeared at the doorstep of the plant made us all miss a beat. The poor fellow hardly took a step inside as we all surrounded him like a starving wolf pack, eager to quench our thirst for information.

"Mike died by water congestion in his lungs." said the pathologist, as everyone around annoyed a bit – he just noted the obvious.

"However…" the pathologist continued, and everyone's eyes lighted at once, "We found remnants of a cocoon in his stomach.

I knew it! That black worm at the bottom of the pool must had been within Mike's stomach! And who knows for how long?!

"We analyzed these remnants, and we could associate them with a specific breed."

"What was it?" a worker's voice came from within the human circle around the pathologist.

"Spinochordodes tellinii," the pathologist replied, "A parasitic worm. It starts its cycle of life as a nematode, and grows up within its host."

"Excuse me, Dr." interrupted the shift manager, Clark Johnson, "But how is this worm connected to the drowning?"

"It's almost funny that you ask," replied the pathologist, but nobody around seemed to find his reply humorous.

"After arriving to full growth, the presence of the worm in the body causes the host to secrete proteins, which affect its behavior. Spinochordodes tellinii… simply causes its host to drown himself."

A murmur of wonder and lingering came from the crowd. They could not believe such a vicious creature could exist.

"There's only one thing we could not understand," continued the pathologist, "How could such a worm penetrated a human body, for its usual victims are grasshoppers and crickets."

The murmurs silenced, since no one had a clue about the answer to the question presented. Only I knew the answer. Mike told me himself an hour or two ago, during our shift. His incident in Peru with the water bottle – he must have drawn and drunk water containing a Spinochordodes nematode, with no idea at all! The nematode had been dwelling his stomach all this time, growing into the black serpentine I saw when I discovered Mike's body… and this black serpentine has made its way into the drinking water containers!

Take a minute and think about the magnitude of the incoming disaster.

The disaster I could prevent if I had just opened my mouth. If only I knew about the destructive powers of this worm. No! I will not sit back and let millions drown themselves mindlessly!

"Ladies and gentlemen!" I shouted while moving next to the pathologist,

"A crisis on an unimaginable scale is about to occur if we do not act quickly!"

Questioning murmurs came from all over.

"That worm responsible for Mike's death… has penetrated the main water containers!"

Whispers and cries of shock came from all sides. They could not believe their ears.

"Are you sure?" Clark asked, the frightened look in his eyes hoping my words were a bluff.

"I know what I saw, Clark!" I replied, anger slightly took over my tone, "The worm vanished into one of the pump holes!"

"Jesus Christ!" Clark and other workers around gasped. This is real, the crisis is imminent, and only now they began to realize the things that might come.

"Bullshit!" a loud shout took over the scene.

The voice came from the human circle around us. Everyone turned silent and searched the one who dared to defy me. The man made its way closer to me while workers moved right and left, clearing his way. It was none other than the facility's manager, Eric Melver. Eric, whose appearances in the factory weren't common, could match any description of death himself: He was aged, had high stature, pale skin and face, and of course his long pianist fingers. His mysterious absences simply explained by many as consecutive seclusion in his office.

Eric entered the center of the circle, his pupils focused on me as he approached, while I struggled to look back at his eyes.

"You claim you'd seen the worm vanishing into a pump hole. Prove it then."

I stared back at him, shocked from his lack of trust and contempt.

"You have to believe me, sir!" I began to reply, "I saw…", and before I could finish my sentence, Eric interrupted me:

"So you have no evidence, hmm? I'm sorry, but your little play won't fool me!"

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" I yelled at him. His response took me out of restraint. How could he be so indifferent?!

The audience was whispering. Their eyes, which until a moment ago were filled with horror, took on an angry contemptuous look – they doubted me.

"You try to cause chaos among our workers!" Eric said, "The suicide of one doesn't affect us all!"

"You must believe…!"

"Not a single word," Eric shushed me again, "I will not tolerate such intimidation attempts at my factory."

"Please! You must…!" I tried to plead with him in a last desperate attempt, tears in my eyes and my throat choking.

Eric did not listen anymore, neither any of my fellow workers. Eric turned his back on me and joined the others as the circle dispersed, everyone mumbled angrily at me.

I fell down to my knees and cried in despair. Mike's suicide will be in vain.

No one believed my warnings. I stayed there by myself, the only one who knew the truth, and cried of the horrors to come.

Three long months passed. I left the state within the first two. I just couldn't stay there, not with the danger of water infection, which surely spread widely since Mike's death.

One day I felt a yearning for my old house. Despite the danger hovering over this place, I decided to go back there, just for a visit, just to see what had changed. A gloomy silence greeted me as I reached the city, which seemed more like a ghost town. There was no traffic, nobody walked alongside the road, and even the skies were empty of birds.

The surroundings stood mute and looked pained at the ground. Each fountain, river and puddle populated the drowned bodies of men, women, children, pets and birds. I looked at the scene in front of me and burst into tears. They all fell victim to the damn worm that took Mike.

Suddenly I felt a strong urge to get wet. I do not know what led me to think about the sea or what I believed I would find there, but I found myself descending to the beach. Hundreds of bodies swept back and forth by the waves, while others vanished into the sea, but I never gave them much attention. I walked hypnotized among them, entered the cold sea water and got deeper and deeper.