FLASH FICTION:-- HORROR, SCI-FI, HUMOUR, CRIME, SLICE OF LIFE, ETC.

Friday 15 November 2013

The cure


When I got to the lab the celebrations were already in full swing, most of the staff were drunk, or well on the way.

I pulled Doctor Menzies to one side.

“What the hell is going on here?” I asked him.

“We've done it, we've found the cure, it's official now, we've finally beaten the virus.”

“In who's opinion?”

“We hit the five thousand cured mark this afternoon, that was the target figure, five thousand infected treated, with five thousand tested clear afterwards, officially we've found the cure, isn't that wonderful?”

“Menzies, you moron, all of your subjects died, all five thousand of them.”

“Yes, but not from the virus.”

“Well what the hell DID they die from?”

“Errrrr... well.... we're still working on that one.”


©2013 Stephen. J. Green.

18 comments:

  1. But it worked! :) Fun story Steve and quite a "full" one for so few words.

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    1. Thanks Deanna. It certainly seemed to have killed the virus, but... :-)

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  2. oh wow, lol - that was really good - great story, Steve - thanks for the chuckle

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    1. Thanks Claudia, I'm glad that the humour worked for you. :-)

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  3. I suppose death is a cure, but these guys have been working hard, too bad not for what ails them. Fun story.

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    1. Thanks David, I have heard it said that death is the ultimate cure-all. :-)

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  4. Yikes! Hard to develop the cure when you don't know the ailment. Gave me the creeps for some reason.

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    1. Hi John, I think maybe many people may disagree with Doctor Menzies on the definition of "Cure" :-)

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  5. Some cure! It worked didn't it ^_^ Big smile on my face now.

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    1. Heheh!! Yeah, it certainly worked Helen, not much to the benefit of the patients though. :-)

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  6. Hah! Like the drug ads I see where the side effects seem worse than the condition the drug s treating, this has a nice edge to it.

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    1. Haha!! Thanks Tim. Quite often the listed side effects on medicines are exactly the condition they are supposed to be alleviating. :-)

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  7. If the virus was making them zombies, maybe they're better off dead? Otherwise, sounds like the cure is worse than the calamity.

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    1. Hi Larry, in my mind I had "Plague" type virus, but I think the story works well with "Zombie" type virus too. I seem to write a lot of "Virus" stories, probably because the idea of any out of control, rapidly spreading disease scares me quite a lot.

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  8. [evil, despairing laugh] funniest twist on Sartre ever!

    This reminds me of a comedy sketch I saw once where a celebrity solemnly asked for donations to find a cure for NC (Natural Causes).

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    1. Haha!! I haven't heard that one Katherine, but I like it. :-)

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  9. Heheh! yeah, all they need now is a cure for "The cure" :-)

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