Virus (Draft 2)

The city glowed as the sun shone its first few rays across the horizon. It glowed in a beautiful way, the kind that you see in photographs taken by famous photographers long ago. Although it was picturesque, there was no one enjoying it. As the sun rose, the streets remained empty. There was nearly no sign of life. A dead trees stood beside the streets, motionless and lifeless. But limp trees weren’t the only sign that things were dying. Limped stray dogs and cats were found on the streets, they too, were dead. When you see this scene, you would probably by wondering why these were happening. If you look close enough, you would see that in the crumbling buildings, chests of humans still heaved to provide oxygen for the body.

Stefen stared out of the window, not enjoying it’s beauty, but wishing that it was in the cyber-world, so that with one command, the streets would be cleaned up, and the trees would spring into life and green leaves would be providing shelter for the streets once again. Life was so much better in the cyber-world. One command, just one, would make the world perfect.

There were Computer Simulated Robots inside the cyber-world, but their intelligence level has been greatly reduced so that they do not over power real humans. “Life” has been perfect, until people started reporting that the system was infected by a virus, the only virus ever found in the cyber-world. Instead of giving it a name like what was done in the past, they just named it Virus, as simple as that.

Despite being only twenty-one, Stefen have a certain amount of knowledge when it comes to dealing with computer virus. Such people were really rare in those days, as it has been commonly believed that the cyber-world would not have viruses. Everyone with even the slightest knowledge of dealing with computer viruses has been employed by the company who was in charge of the whole cyber-world. Stefen held the position as the head of the section. He did not believe in Virus, thinking that the handful of people claiming that they, or rather, their machines, are lunatic. Despite that, he researched on the topic, since it brought a high income. Money in the cyber-world was used like those in the reality. .

After interviewing people who claimed that their machines are infected with Virus, Stefen found out that they were all very rich. All of them could not remember what happened, but they knew that it was something very terrible. Something so terrible that it would force the brain to choose between killing the person or to make him or her forgets everything. The brains decided to choose the latter. Soon after experiencing the effects of Virus, they would all commit suicide. You cannot die in the cyber-world, but can still die if you exit the cyber-world. Stefen has already decided that all those people infected with Virus were suffering from mental problems.

Instead of reporting his finding, he went on, researching on different types of viruses that existed in the past. It would allow him to earn an income and, at the same time, do something he actually had interest in. He tried as hard as possible to research on things more related to Virus, lest he finds out anything useful.

One mundane morning in his research lab, Stefen received a message sent by his subordinate that another person reported about having caught the virus, and he was a relatively poor person. Stefen went, rather eagerly, to have a talk with him. the only question in his mind as he approached the man’s house was whether he holds the key to the mystery.

As he reached the man’s house, he could hear him screaming, “NO! STOP IT! STOP IT! DON’T! ”

Such words were often heard from people who suffer from Virus. They would faint, then, after a while, regain conscious. After, they would not be able to remember anything.

Stefen sat down in front of the man, and waited for him to return to cyber-world. The man’s eyes opened slightly, then closed again.

“Light,” her murmured.

His murmur was followed by a long groan.

Instead of saying the usual things that normal patients would face, he said, “She knows, she knows.”

“Know what?” Stefen asked.

“She knows that I know. No, no, I shouldn’t say. She knows… … she knows… …”

And he lost conscious again. Suddenly Stefen understood that this wasn’t a mental problem. Virus was created by someone, and sent throughout the Internet to people he wanted to infect. This man knew who she was. Hence, he has to be eliminated. For a moment he felt very vulnerable. She knows that the man knew about her, and she killed him. She does not hesitate to kill. That night, when he slept, he could feel a difference, but he could not name it.

The world, it was crumbling. Toxic gas filled the air, deadly chemicals clogged the drains, the rivers, and the seas. The humans made a futile attempt to combat the problems they produced when they were young, but now they were all old, they could only do so little. As a result of the cyber-world, no one had any children. Stefen saw himself, old and weak, with on one to help him. A river was overflowing, and it was raining acid outside. His roof was dissolving in the toxic rain, and the flow of deadly chemicals was flowing nearer and nearer to his house. There was no where to hide, and no where to run.

Stefen woke up, screaming, “NO! STOP IT! STOP IT! DON’T! IT WON’T HAPPEN!”

Suddenly, he calmed down. No, no. It’s only a dream, it’s only a dream. You won’t forget it like the others. You won’t. You’re stronger than them, stronger… … He fainted.

The world is hopeless. It’s going to end exactly the way described in that dream. Earth will crumble, the human race would go extinct, and earth would then become another barren planet like the others.

He sat up, his hand placed on his forehead. It was hot. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he thought of how the world would end just like that. Then he noticed something different. He could remember. He could remember every single detail of the dream. He rolled our of bed, and was about to record his dream down when he saw a lady about his age, leaning against the wall. For some reason, Stefen need not wait for the lady to introduce herself.

“Virus’s creator,” he said.

“Yes.”

“What do you want? Go straight to the point.”

“You. You and your knowledge. In short, your alliance.”

“Why?”

“I wrote this program, also known to you as Virus, to change the world. What you have seen would really happen, unless we can do something about it, now. At first I infected only the rich, as they held the most power amongst everyone, but then I found out it’s real potential.”

“What can I do? I’m just a programmer, a researcher.”

“You are a virus researcher, quite rare. To combat a virus, you must first know how to write it. And that it all I need.”

“Why? You can write Virus. I have yet to find out how. You are more capable at doing it then I am. You don’t need me. And tell me, why didn’t I forget the dream?”

“You have a strong mind. And all I can do is to program the machine to show them what I want to show them. I’ve tried to show the pioneers of the cyber-world what would happen, but they just die. I cannot hack into the system. Are you helping or not?”

Stefen considered saying no, but he did not know what would happen if he did.

He was working late, but something great was going to happen. He just needed to complete the hack.

“Done?” she asked.

“Yes. Are you sure we should do this?” he quizzed.

“Yes. Are you ready or not?”

“Ready to destroy this wonderful world and send mankind to face troubles? Sure.” He uttered sarcastically.

“Does it delete all information about cyber-world?”

“Yes.”

“Do it.”

He pressed enter.

The city glowed as the sun shone its first few rays across the horizon. It glowed in a beautiful way, the kind that you see in photographs taken by famous photographers long ago. As the sun rose, the streets remained empty. There was nearly no sign of life. A dead trees stood beside the streets, motionless and lifeless. But limp trees weren’t the only sign that things were dying. Limped stray dogs and cats were found on the streets, they too, were dead. When you see this scene, you would probably by wondering why these were happening. If you look close enough, you would see that in the crumbling buildings, chests of humans still heaved. Then, out of a sudden, everyone woke up.