Final Hubris

FINAL HUBRIS 

by: Henry "Dink" Winston Ball 

Audio-Journal 6/14/17 

               We live in a big world. 

                Its immense! 

                To fathom everything we can see with the naked eye alone can be difficult to some, for this is the nature of the world we live in. We believe the idea that there is a "bigger fish"; a world around this one that is titanic in size that we either explain with science and understanding or worship this divine belief and give it fancy names like "heaven", that we mortal beings are barred from. 

                The realm of gigantic and immensely universal Gods. 

                This train of thought though, is what lead us to this mess. 

                We think the world above us is huge, but in truth its the world below. The unseen realm that is the start of all life in the world and others. From the bottom of the ocean, to the top of mountains, to the city streets and even the vacuum of space; this microscopic world is truly the domain of God. 

               Bacteria and microbes control this world without hands or a voice, but with their power they can heal and poison life. They are unseen lifeforms that can create or destroy worlds. 

                There were those who saw it coming. They believed that it was in this microscopic dimension that would spell the doom for us. And what did the human race do with these warnings? 

              These warnings to be knowledge of the unseen and microscopic were simply met at entertainment value. 

              God! I remember all those movies, shows, novels, comics, games, and even social media made jest at the "novel idea" that this microscopic world had so much power over us. Making thrills or chills (but never knowledge) of this world that keeps ours and many others in balance. 

          They turned systems of creation at the most basic level into a science fiction that couldn't properly join in the reality of our thoughts. 

          It makes me think of what an old friend of mine used to say on the subject of how we viewed those science back then. He used to say, "Always remember! The 'H' in 'human' is for hubris." 

           At first, we never knew where it truly came from. 

          Eventually we did learn but it was too little too late. In less than a week; a country became infected. Afterwards word didn't come out about the origin of the virus till it got to the States. 

         It turned out it was from the Middle East. Still unsure if it was natural or man-made; whatever it was no one could have known right away its true nature. This unthinking thing that without a mind waged war against our species. 

                It was released that it had something to due to with the War in the Middle-East that seemed till almost a few months ago to never end. Oddly enough the country where it started was one of the last to go. 

            This virus was unknown and unseen as it was born from the gun wielding politics that back then was common nature for us.  

           The history of the Jijn Virus is short but has details. It was a virus that seemingly adapted and evolved itself to withstand chemical warfare and any other biological agent that mankind seemed to dish out in time of bloodshed. After we found out that its birth was gestated in our wars, many believe it was only logical that it flourished in only us. 

            And it did try its luck on other lifeforms. 

            I remember that I was at a bar and a solider who was on leave told me that before he left, they kept finding animals in the desert dead with what would eventually become the tell-tale pale green mucus that was a symptom of Jijn. 

          The virus was called "Jijn" because people seemed to relate it to the Middle Eastern genies of lore. This virus was indeed like a genie in a bottle and we unknowingly rubbed the bottle the wrong way. 

            It also got the name because it made you wish for three days. 

            All it took was three days of wishing. 

             Three days of wishing you were already dead. 

          It starts out with a cough. 

          A small one is all it takes to become infected.

          How the original strain of the virus gets around is still unknown. The original strain though doesn't show its true face at first. It simply makes it seem like you have a small cold. A little runny nose. A scratchy throat. A slight fever. And.....a cough. 

           Once you have that first day of cold like symptoms, the clock starts to tick for your last two days on Earth. 

         Day two is when the mucus and the congestion start getting really bad. Its almost hard to breathe right. Your cough worsens and you spew out mucus almost constantly.  

        Day two is when the virus starts to evolve once again because of human biology. 

         Due to our diets now consisting of a lot of artificial foods, fast food burgers, instant ramen, and TV dinners, the virus  begins to turn the delicious factory food against us. 

         I am no scientist, but I did read an article before the silence that it was because of preservatives and add-ons in our food, Jijn feeds on it and creates what is un-affectionally known as "genies".  

           

       Near the end of the second day and depending on your diet and how much you truly eat out, the mucus begins to host the virus. The virus then rewires the mucus to be the genies. Once the genie mucus is hurled out of your mouth view cough and its the ground....it begins to move. 

          Like a slug. Its pretty nasty to see. 

           And it makes the Jijn virus even more deadly. 

         This viral ooze squirms away from where it hits the ground and becomes "alive" for about a hour or so. 

           (Though lately they do live a little bit longer since there are less of us now.) 

        When they do finally expire, the mucus then becomes a ticking time bomb. Through this we defiantly know the airborne strain of Jijn. The now "dead" genie begins to decompose and "evaporates" into aerial particles and use the air to infect more hosts. 

            It was after this when we learned what they could about the virus is when they announced that the patient "Zeros" of Jijn were in a US military hospital near Baghdad. The hospital did make a blip in the news once since they were losing patients quickly. The tragedy was the reason why it spread was that it infected all the doctors. 

          Most the doctors, it was revealed, were visiting ones. 

          The first country to be truly effected by it was South Korea. Then after that, since Seoul was such a hub of internationals that back, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and the Philippines were next. By the time the Philippines had its first victim, we finally learned what happened on the third day of Jijn....

                   Death. 

                   And I hear that its painful. 

                  Painful for the one that is infected and painful for the ones that have to witness. 

                  Honestly, in less than a month the whole world changed. 

                  My life changed because of it. 

                  So much change and no one had time to react to it.......

                  I started coughing yesterday.

                  And its simply worsening.  

                  I coughed so hard this morning that I coughed up blood. 

                 That is a symptom I didn't hear about. 

                   I can feel my strength failing and honestly I haven't touched my audio diary since she left. 

   

                I kind of want to say something and just hope it gets to you. 

                I just want to say I'm sorry.

                 I want...I wish....

                There isn't a cure to all of this....

      

                 At this rate, I doubt there will be one. 

                 Dammit. 

                  Dammit. 

End of Audio-Journal 6/14/17