Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-25716255-20141118200653

Science has gone a long way. A long, long way. It has saved lifes, it has developed the humanity that was once trademarked by an overwhelming presence of sticks, stones and an absolute lack of human nature beyond survival instinct. It has evolved society. And inevitably, it has wiped it out. Up to the point where only the remnants of humanity remain. This is 2026, with no way of tracing the exact date of the day when this was written. We have reached the pinnacle of nano-science, and the downfall of humanity as we know it. Allow me to introduce myself: I am Waylon Greene, a scientist once in charge of a leading company which researched and developed human enhancements through biological modifications, I specifically led a group of well-trained scientists responsible for research and development of nanobots. Nanobots are as their name implies, small machines on a microscopic scale responsible for duties that a human can not perform, or with much effort. After several years of developing the prototype nanobot which we deemed capable of looking over and maintaining the human body for over a lifetime, going as far as even being developed with the intentions of regenerating parts of the human body that were otherwise forever lost, we eventually came to decide that we were now looking at the pinnacle of our project. We had come to a stage which to which we both looked foward to and feared; the testing stage. Dr. Isaac Manera in particular, was a devoted scientist who had left his old live, contact with friends as well as family behind in devotion of science, in almost a zealous way. As you may have expected by now, he was incredibly enthousiastic of what we had developed over the years as a group, and was the most avid (and only, mind you) candidate willing to undergo the testing phase. After injecting Dr. Manera with sufficient nanobots and closely monitoring his bodily functions, we were soon fascinated to find out that the nanobots had a fascinating interaction with the doctor's body; the nanobots merged with the body, becoming organic beings with full control of the doctor's body. At this stage, the doctor (now in an isolated space with a one-way see-through glass and a microphone hanging on the room's ceiling, much like an interrogation room) had remarked to feel exceptionally hungry after three hours of the injections being made into the body. After 48 full hours, scientists were alerted by the doctor screaming in excessive pain; The skin around his cheeks and arms had begun to dissolve, and according to the doctor himself, he felt the skin around his thighs and chest had started burning as well, implying that more of his skin had begun to dissolve. A mere three hours later, the doctor's face and arms, along with other parts of his body too being disfigured but much slighter than his face and arms, making for a heavily mutilated and primal appearance. He had stopped showing any signs of pain, but apparently also his ability to communicate. When sound left the speaker mounted on the corner of the ceiling of the isolated space that Dr. Manera inhabitated, he would merely mutter incomprehensible stammering, fully archknowledging that he was being spoken too although not showing any interest to this. Eight hours later, the doctor had deceased, seemingly having died to a lack of nutrition although he had completely ignored the bread and vegetables that were shoved through the shutter of the door between the lab and Manera's isolated space. Pondering about the significant flaws of the nanobots we had created, we soon found out that Dr. Miles Walker (the scientist who provided the bread and vegetables to Dr. Manera) had started identifying a burning feel in the areas of his body that stored the most fat of the human body. At this point, I felt my heart in my throat; The nanobots merging with the human body gave them the ability to become contagious, and like every biological being, it seeks to survive. In this case, through means of reproducing itself. The scientists I led were horrified by the conclusion that we had in fact created a deadly, highly contagious 'disease', and were in denial, and in search of a cure of what we had created.

I knew better.

We had reached the pinnacle of nanobot science, a point where they had overthrown human life. Survival of the fittest, men would once say.

Either way, I knew what I had done, and the precautions I had to take; I had convinced my family to leave Manhattan due to 'a rapid spread of an airborne disease being noticed'. A pitiful parody of the terror I had created, but I had to take them to a safer place. I could no longer face my responsibilities. After leaving to Ireland, I watched the terror I had created unfold with a heavy heart; People became disfigured and mutilated monsters wilst losing all signs of well-developed humanity. This fearsome 'evolution' was protein and water-heavy, which type of food do you think stores these two values most? Exactly, flesh. In this case, human flesh. People had started bludgeoning each other to death, feeding themselves to drive this 'zombification' which inevitably led to a disease-ridden fall of society. Evacuation plans were made, cures were in development but none of these proved to be succesful enough in time before people resumed bludgeoning and eating each other alive.

I now live at a secluded offshore Irish Island, having left the live I once led entirely. Not only my job, my friends, but also my family; when they started displaying signs of the disease I was all to familiar with, I had to leave them behind in an act of survival instinct. In the hope that I will one day see the presence of this 'disease' dissolve into thin air, and the gathering and rebuilding of a population that has passed these days, the arguably darkest days a man has seen.

You may conclude that I am cold, careless and rather unaware of what I've done; I may be cold, I may be careless, but I am aware, and I can, as incredible as it sounds to you carebears, comprehend that I've made a fatal mistake. But despite that, I wish to move on, and make up for what I've done by seeing the end of this tragedy and assisting into the rebuilding of a society. I am, or rather was, a scientist; a man of facts. I am one of the horsemen that led this apocalypse.

Science is a bitch. A contagious, apocalyptic bitch. That being said, I must shake off the burn of the nettles I have plowed through today, and continue scavenging the remnants of these barren lands to survive. I'm feeling particularly hungry today. 