One must have common sense, nothing is permanent, nothing endures. I have come to the conclusion that this place is run by a madman. A madman, let me tell you, can be very logical. If you are rich and logical and also mad, you can succeed for a very long time in living out your illusion. But in the end....in the end this will break up. Because, you see, it is not reasonable what happens here! That which is not reasonable must always pay the reckoning in the end.
"Destination Unknown" by Agatha Christie
Short story inside (A place for another one) is based on "Scary stories to tell in the dark" by Alvin Schwarz.
The aquarium was a green, bright spot in a dark, gloomy room. A neatly trimmed green lawn of moss, trees of seaweed in the background, and rocks like Rocky Mountains - she didn't' know that aquarium could look like this. The water was undulating calmly, misted by the currents from the filter. When you looked at it, you almost were in a trance. It was so relaxing.
But the most interesting elements of this shiny, green box were fishes. Beautiful freshwater specimens - neons tetra floating in shoals, glistening in the fluorescent light like real neons; black mollies with their tales like widow's veil; danios - zebra type and some with amazing fluorescent colors, GMO fishes; and last but not least: outstanding betta fish, the violet king of that aquarium.
She stared at the aquarium enchanted. Colorful fishes flowed at the height of her eyesight and put her in trance.
"They are amazing, aren't they?" A low bass voice said almost to her ear. She shuddered and turned away.
"Oh, that's you, professor. I didn't hear when you were coming into the room," Audrey said. "Yes, this aquarium is incredible. I would look at it for ages."
"And it hides a secret," the professor said with a little smile.
"A secret? What kind of secret?"
"The secret is inside the fishes."
Fish flowed colorful shoal inside the fish tank. The professor put his pointing finger to the glass and most of them came and followed the finger. They weren't hungry, but every occasion to eat something was good, especially when this thing looked like a good-looking fat earthworm.
The professor pulled something out of his pocket; it was a dog training clicker. He clicked once. A group of fish separated from the shoal. He clicked twice. Suddenly new group pounced on the remaining fish. The fishtank boiled over. The professor clicked for the third time. The boiling subsided. In the aquarium a new group remained, and the remains of the other fish were scattered at the bottom.
Audrey was shocked.
"Voilà! What do you think about our little show?" There was a broad smile of satisfaction on the professor's lips.
"What has just happened? I don't understand..." Audrey stood still. She tried to figure out what just happened. The fish went berserk, but only some of them. They killed all their fish mates.
"Oh, I'll explain it to you with pleasure. In our laboratory we developed a virus that turns peaceful organisms into killing machines. They are changing in a second from a calmly fish into a bloodthirsty killer; like Doktor Jekyll and Mister Hyde or..." The professor looked at Audrey to make sure the girl was listening "... like werewolf; hence the name of the virus: werv-26. Everything else is a matter of instrumental conditioning. Surprisingly, fish can also be trained; just like dogs but they react not on sound but on specific waves in the water."
"That is just..."
"Amazing? Revealing?"
"Terrifying! Why you have developed such a terrifying virus? What is it for?"
"And this is the company's sweet secret," The professor smiled. This smile was minute by minute more and more disturbing. "But you can tell your employer that the project is nearing completion."
***
She didn't sleep very well that night. She fell from side to side, waking even at the slightest sound. Finally, she got out of bed and went to the kitchen for a drink. As she walked down the corridor, it surprised her to see a blue glow emanating from the living room. She peeked into the living room and couldn't believe what she saw. A giant fish tank stood in the middle of the room. She heard a click. Fish got big sharp teeth like sharks. Then double click changed all of them into killer machines. Suddenly, all fish headed towards her and started popping out of the aquarium. They headed towards her, snapping their mouths as if they wanted to eat her. Someone said: Earth can't stand so many representative of our species...
And then she woke up, this time for real. She was still terrified, sweating, and her heart pounding in her chest. "It was only a bad dream. Bad dream," she told herself over and over. Then she reminded herself of a short story about a strange and prophetic dream.
John was sleeping deep. He had a very strange dream. He was dreaming that a hearse came next to his home. People with black suits and black ties were running back and forth. In one moment, they all had got into the hearse. One of them stuck his head out of a window and said: "We have a place for another one". Suddenly, this John woke up.
The next day John went to work. In the office building, he was waiting for an elevator. The door opened up. Elevator was full but someone said: "We have a place for another one". It chilled John through his bones. He shook his head and said: "I will wait for another one". The door closed.
Few seconds later John heard a terrifying noise. People were screaming and shouting. It turned out that the elevator had just fallen down. Everybody in the elevator was killed. Only John survived. "We have a place for another one" - said the voice in his dream...
She didn't believe in prophetic dreams. She could justify all of the elements of this bad dream with events that took place during the day. But those words... She remembered it very clearly: Earth can't stand so many representatives of our species. What it meant? She didn't hear it earlier. Or maybe? Maybe her subconscious registered these words somewhere.
She went into the kitchen to make some drink. While she was walking next to the living room, she glanced uncertainly inside. There were no fish tank, no strange neon light. All as same as always.
"I'm getting mad... This was only a bad dream. And nothing more," She whispered, but it didn't sound certain.
***
She had worked on models of virus spreading for two weeks. She was comparing the spreading charts of the largest and deadliest viruses in recent years: Spanish flu from 1918, sars-covid19 from 2019-2021, and the most terrifying epidemy of the Ebola virus from 2024.
After covid world population was weaker and more prone to disease; but also thirsty for travel and entertainment after many months of forced isolation. People didn't believe that the next pandemic is right on the doorstep. And it wasn't a new laboratory virus, none biological weapon but an old, good-known Ebola virus. It was spreading and killing so fast - just a few days and some big European cities became the focus of the disease. Fortunately, fast-spreading and fast-killing was for people a threat and salvation in the same moment. The deadliest epidemy of ebola lasted two weeks and costed the life of 50.000 souls. Only 50.000 souls...
But what would happen when the Ebola virus evolved and became like the flu virus; longer-lived, easier to spread? It was the worst scenario for the world and she didn't want to think about it.
"Have you made this model for us?" Mark, her boss, snapped her out of her thoughts.
"I'm working on it. I will end it till twelve," Audrey said and she looked up from the monitor. Her boss looked tired. This case was clearly overwhelming him.
"Ok, at 1 P.M. we have a meeting with the management board. It will be good if you come too."
"Sure."
She didn't say anything else. She was a little confused. As a rule, she did not participate in any board meetings. Why now? Was this case so important, that everyone who participated in the project, should discuss research results with "the top"? She ended her report and clicked "send". A model of spreading a new type of virus was sent to Mark.
***
"I'm glad that you came," the president said kindly. "We want to discuss your report but first..." the president nodded at Mark, and he handed her some papers.
"It's classic NDA. You are our employee but you know... Well, better safe than sorry."
Audrey scanned the documents. She was strictly forbidden to talk to anyone about the new type of virus. What kind of virus? We've talked only about the theoretical models...
She signed the contract and gave it to Marek.
"So, let's start. Professor Kuntz, who is here, has created a new virus with his company" professor Kuntz nodded. "This virus - werv-26 - is changing every living being, even harmless fish, into a real killing machine."
Audrey watched the show in the professor's office. Horrible show, chilling through the bones.
"We are entering the second phase of our project: testing on humans. Our goal is clear: changing soldiers in the first step, then regular people in the second step into cold and painless war machines."
What?! Is it a bad, surreal dream? It is not happening right now!
"But first," the professor interjected, "we must know, how this kind of virus spread. That's why your company worked on spreading mathematical models. We want to infect all the US population in a short time, but only, I want to highlight it, ONLY the US population. Because it's our secret weapon."
Audrey fell into a stupor. All humans turned into killing machines - werewolves waiting for a signal to change. It's kind of paranoid.
"Our model suggests," Mark said "that we will infect 500 k people in 4 days. And then the number of infected will double each week. But the problem is - how to not infected other nations."
"We must remember that the infected units need a trigger to change. Let's observe our fish - they need to feel click to set ready, two clicks to change. We can condition infected population with tv commercials." The professor said calmly.
"Brilliant idea. Television is licensed to broadcast only in the US."
"Yes. And the spreading rate is satisfying. But first - test on soldiers in isolated lab."
***
Audrey didn't say anything at the meeting. She was shocked. Terrified. What is happening? This is just a bad dream. Surrealistic, twisted dream. I must wake up.
In her head one melody played over and over, obsessiveness that would not vanish from her mind. Sonorous voice of Sully Erna rumbled again and again:
Open your eyes, a chill passes you by
A premonition coming strong
Rich with desire, superstition in disguise
Draws me into where I belong
Have you ever wondered why
In a dream you can touch a fallen sky?
Or fly to the heavens that watch over you
Telling me it's a voodoo, voodoo too
Voodoo, werewolves... Did she lose her mind? Evil professors changing people into werewolves was only in books and movies. She noticed Mark leaving the conference room.
"Hey, Mark, wait a minute."
"Oh, Audrey... I thought that you were gone already." He stood uncertainly, staring at the ground.
"Can you explain me what is happening?"
He asked, "What do you mean?"
"What do I mean? God damm it, Mark! You heard them! They want to infect all the population with some kind of unknown virus and change them into killing machines! This is madness."
"Calm down, please... You really don't understand..."
"Oh I understand very well! All that matters is money, right? Army or some kind of fu... freak want to have cold blood solders in every home. And he can pay us a lot of money!"
"Audrey, look..." Mark looked sad.
"Why Mark, just tell me why you agreed to it?"
Mark shouted, "Because we are all doomed!" He took a deep breath and then said, "Viruses have had power over us since ages. They left a microelements of their RNA in our cells, and make us more and more weak and dependent. We are their subjects, their breeding cattle."
"Oh come on..."
"No, this is real Audrey. We are like zombies, we can make our own decision, everything is subject to viruses. But there is small chance to make our DNA independent and clean them from virus RNA. And that is making our lab with new virus. Changing people is a small cost to be independent!"
"You are brainwashed! You are mad!" Audrey looked at him like at a rabid animal.
"You can belive or not. But it is happening. Virus is spreading. Becouse we were the first carriers."
"What? But testing on soldiers?"
"Whey will test only conditioning with commercials. We are werewolves now. And we will infected all world."