U.G.L.Y. Read online

  U.G.L.Y

  H. A. Rhoades

  © H. A. Rhoades 2012

  H. A. Rhoades has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

  First published 2012 by Endeavour Press Ltd.

  Contents

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  43.

  References

  Preview - A Place of Strangers by Geoffrey Seed

  1.

  I woke up in a panic. Looking over to the night stand the clock read 5:36 am. What a nightmare, it was so vivid that I could look back on it and recount every detail. The dream was a continuous story that covered days, maybe weeks, so clear that I felt as though I had lived it rather than dreamed it. It was as if I had lived to watch my death. I closed my eyes and began to recount the details. Like a chronological history of a cataclysmic event seen through my eyes as I observed the end of humanity. And it began with the fall of a city.

  The Population of the greater Los Angeles area was over ten million when the first wave of infection started. That first wave took out almost 100 percent of that population, and they were all gone within a week. Another one million got sick, eventually becoming hosts that would help the propagation of a fungus that turned most of the remaining population of the world, as far as I could tell, into hosts or food. No one had any idea if the infection had spread to other continents. Maybe it hadn't, but I believed it would eventually.

  The communications we got towards the end were limited and very little information was passed on about any other survivors outside of what was left of our group. It seems likely that it spread to Canada and Mexico. It absolutely had overrun the western United States.

  There was some hope for the rest of the world if it was contained before international travelers became infected, although it was doubtful as airline travelers had spread it to major cities inside the US very quickly once the second wave broke out. The infection traveled in a similar way to a SARS epidemic that spread in the early 2000's. Fortunately, the World Health Organization managed to get containment and stop international flights before it spread.

  The fall of Los Angeles was labeled the first wave because the fungus that had caused the infection was unable to spread initially to other humans. Every victim had gotten sick through drinking the water supply. I speculated often about what led to the poisoning of the city's water. Maybe it was an overwhelming desire to profit. Maybe a need to control the population. Or maybe it was simply an act of compassion to help an ailing society?

  I don't think anyone will know the motivation, but it was clearly human stupidity. My thoughts were always with the idea that it was greed that was the motivating factor. A desperate attempt at selling a product to a population quickly spinning out of control because of increased stresses.

  Haste in bringing a new drug to market led to precautions being overlooked that were designed to insure the safety of drug manufacturing. That carelessness led to contamination by a fungus common to the region the drug was manufactured in. A fungus that had previously only affected ants in the South American rain forest, but was able to adapt to humans with the help of a unique delivery method.

  At the time the first wave of infection began, a large number of US citizens were on some form of prescription anti-anxiety drug or anti-depressant. General practitioners were handing pills out like candy. I thought it was surprising that someone didn't come up with a cute little PEZ dispenser for the modern versions of “Mothers little helper”.

  The drugs weren’t calming people down anymore. Benzo's (Benzodiazapines) which was a common prescription given out was a very dangerous, habit forming drug that required a continuous increase in dosage to maintain. A drug that was almost impossible to stop taking.

  Benzo's had the power to destroy a life, spinning someone into a nightmare that there was no escape from. Trapped within your own mind in a hell in which the path to escape is long and excruciating, or quick. If you killed yourself.

  Many people didn't make it through withdrawals if they tried to stop. They would often either kill themselves or die after going into seizures, or the strain would trigger a heart attack. Many simply would go back to the safety of the drug for the rest of their lives. The cost was phenomenal because the body acclimates so quickly to drug levels there is a constant need to “up the dose” to maintain a level of control.

  I knew first hand what these drugs did. I had gone through a breakdown initiated by prescription drugs and that was the closest thing to living hell I could ever imagine. I survived it and eventually recovered but the cost was terrible. I lost my family and the impact on my children was devastating.

  Many of the drugs approved for treatment of depression and anxiety were developed and sold by large pharmaceutical companies, which made millions, perhaps billions profiting from the misery of their patients. But it was largely what people wanted, they wanted help with their issues and felt they needed drugs to function in their everyday lives.

  A new drug company emerged just before the first wave that claimed to have the ultimate solution for depression, anxiety, bi-polar disorders, and all the other behavioral abnormalities that had crept into the human experience by the beginning of the 21st century. Unu Gallilum Lithium Ytirlum (U.G.L.Y) was advertised as the doorway to a happier life.

  A pharmaceutical corporation, Fallecimiento LLC. which emerged out of South America, had begun advertising this drug before ever getting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Clinical trials were not completed but doctors and patients were lining up for information and getting on waiting lists to be the first to try it. Even more influential was the impact this drug had on the medical research field, not because of the promised euphoric effects of the drug itself, but rather its unique delivery method.

  Fallecimiento LLC, had enlisted the use of H-Pylori, a common stomach bacteria, to deliver the drug into the digestive system of a patient. This concept became popular in research community after it had been adapted to delivering a drug that had a high profit potential, vindicating the work done by an earlier researcher who had been experimenting with using it as a delivery method for anti-viral medications. Eventually this interest would result in a modified bacteria that would carry U.G.L.Y into the digestive tract of an emotionally ailing patient. The drug itself wasn't in question with the FDA, clinical trials showed a success rate that was better than any other drug trial in history. It was the delivery method that was still being studied.

  Interest had grown in testing the potential for the delivery and biologists all over the world were eager to work with the bacteria. What hadn't been considered however was how a contaminant would affect the biological delivery platform. Contamination of a batch of U.G.L.Y with a fungus would initiate a symbiotic evolutionary event. Leading to the end of the human race.

  2.

  -Breakdown-

  Two years before the initial outbreak I had entered the most
difficult period in my life. It all began with a single event that lead to a complete breakdown initiated by a reaction to prescription drugs. I was having a heart attack, or at least I thought I was. In the years before my breakdown I had been working at an IT security firm and spent more waking hours at work then at any other aspect of my life. One spring day I leaned over my computer, stressed, in a daze, and my chest began to flutter and cramp. I was terrified, I left work and drove myself to the hospital, feeling real panic for the first time in my life.

  I remember staring at an EKG printout.

  Name: Stevens, Duncan. H

  age: 37 Sex: Male

  Results of EKG: heart rate nominal, nothing to indicate cardiovascular event.

  I began to carry the fear of heart failure from then on even though there was nothing wrong with me besides being continuously stressed out and scared. The weeks following brought one catastrophic event after another. First a car accident, then a death in the family.

  Each event took more and more out of me. In time I learned that my heart was fine. It wasn't the first time I had felt a fluttering sensation in my chest but it seemed different this time and I got scared. Inevitably it turned out my stomach had herniated and acid reflux was causing spasms. After weeks of doctors visits and coping with having the living shit scared out of me, My psyche was damaged and I began to fall apart.

  I can clearly remember knowing I had no reserve left. If something more were to happen I knew my life would collapse. In hindsight I realize it wasn't Amanda's fault, but for a while I had blamed what was happening to me on my wife. I was feeling pressure to keep pushing forward even though I knew I needed to stop.

  I caved into the pressures of my marriage. In order to make Amanda happy, and in the hopes that my kids would be in a good clean city that was free of too much crime and had good schools, I agreed to move. I gave up on myself entirely. My days were long, commuting up to five hours daily and continuing the pursuit of a graduate degree.

  I believed I was doing it for my family but by now I was just numb. I needed to stay competitive in order to continue driving my salary up. I understood it was necessary, or as Amanda put it “we were screwed if I didn't”. At one point I held two jobs that both entailed a great deal of stress and long hours. This all put me over the edge and I turned to my doctor for help. I was losing control, melting down on a regular basis. This lead to the doctors visits, prescriptions, and then side effects began. Ultimately my body began shutting down.

  One particular drug that was heavily prescribed and a lesser version sold over the counter was one controlling stomach acid, Proton Pump Inhibitors (PPI). Side effects were noted as relatively minor and in very few cases, severe but the percentage was very small.

  I ended up being in that small percentage and entered into the worst nightmare I had ever imagined. The pills began causing rapid heart rate, chest pains, stomach cramps, exceptionally high anxiety, and eventually led to episodes of complete panic. It was like being trapped in my own mind, terrified all the time.

  Then tranquilizers were added to the toxic mix and in a very short time I went from having difficulty controlling myself to complete loss of control. I thought that the only way to stop the agony and terror was death. I didn't plan to kill myself but the thought crossed my mind when I would react to the drugs as almost a necessity. I needed the pain to stop.

  Once I understood what was causing the problem I began to detox myself and started on the longest road I have ever traveled. The first days were the worst, I felt death everywhere. I was afraid to even move for fear of inducing a stroke or seizure.

  I pulled out of it eventually, took up yoga and regular meditation, Weaning off of all drugs. I got to the point that I wouldn't take anything, not even simple pain killers. Nothing helped the pain anyway.

  When the human nervous system goes haywire there is no relief, it simply has to heal itself and it takes time, patience, and faith. The strange sensation of continuous fear overcomes you. I became terrified to move because of the pain. Afraid to be alone inside of my own mind. Which I found to be the strangest reaction considering it is quite impossible to have another person physically inside your mind to comfort you.

  Recovery was long and in the couple of years following, many things that would make life stressful continued to happen. Amanda suggested moving as a result of my breakdown and shortly after, she left me because of my declining condition. My health was failing rapidly as the drugs took over.

  The following year was full of family tragedy, divorce, child custody battles, then ultimately an economic shutdown and the loss of my job. Losing my job was Okay though, and almost a relief. I had fought so hard not to die, by now I had detoxed and was calming down so losing a job seemed almost trivial.

  I had an understanding that my life was a mess and I could only deal with one catastrophe at a time. So all new problems just had to wait for their turn at me. In the mean time I began building a better relationship with my kids, Amanda was out of my life for the most part and subsequently so was most of the daily stress.

  I began to fall in love with a beautiful younger woman who for some ridiculous reason found me appealing. I was writing and doing research, and eventually finished my PhD. Things were beginning to look good, and I began to believe the future was going to be bright. But even though I had come to this realization, I was in a small minority, much of the American population was spinning out of control, and for much of the same reason that had prompted my breakdown. I had decided that this was just the way life was, but I had to almost die to come to that conclusion.

  3.

  -Spiral-

  Many more jobs fell over the next two years and people began to get desperate. Drug usage accelerated as families were beginning to fall apart. There were even incidents of fathers losing their jobs, returning home and slaughtering their families. Employees were losing their jobs and returning to offices with loaded weapons. Many just killed themselves as a shadow of dread began to fall over the country.

  I had become oblivious to the failing of our system, which was rapidly spreading across the United States. I found work at a small research facility tucked away in the mountains, I had my kids close by, I was involved with a beautiful little research assistant. Even though the rest of the world was beginning to spin out of control, my life was improving dramatically so I didn't care what was happening to someone else.

  The damage to the population now was too far reaching for anyone to even rationalize a solution. People were beginning to have difficulty thinking outside their immediate world and any suggestion from an outside source that they needed to regain control of themselves was rejected, sometimes violently.

  Gradually, people stopped interacting with each other in a civilized manner, some civil unrest would pop up here and there. Riots erupted everywhere, first over political or civil issues, but later over what seemed like petty differences. Any reason to beat the crap out of your neighbor seemed to be justified by most people. As an answer to the growing violence, someone made a poor judgment call, a poor decision that would inevitably effect all of mankind.

  No one knew for sure if a new drug company, Fallecimiento LLC. Initiated the contamination or whether it was an official action by the Government to calm the population. The water supply feeding Los Angeles was contaminated with a large dose of U.G.L.Y over the course of a week. Los Angeles was where much of the civil unrest on the west coast was happening and it was growing at an alarming rate. It was discovered in the months following the first wave that the water contamination was due to high levels of U.G.L.Y.

  My initial thought was that the drug company had decided to prove the effectiveness of their drug by forcing it on the population of the city without them knowing what was happening. They would administer the drug to a large target group and within days order would be restored. This act would prove the viability of the drug and inevitably approval would follow. Better to ask forgiveness than to ask permission. After all,
the city had already set a precedent with the adding of fluoride to city water. How different could this act be?

  I, of course, was speculating. In reflection it seems intentional contamination would have been a little too vulgar an act for a drug company, too villainous. It could have just as easily been stolen and dumped as a means of disposing of it. If it proved to be an intentional means of calming the people out of compassion then it would lend truth to the saying “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” and unfortunately it proves to be true too often. Inevitably it didn't matter, the reason behind the contamination was never understood.

  Within a day or two, people began to calm as the drugged water supply made its way through communities. Civil unrest that was becoming a plague began to come to a slow end as the people involved were exposed to local water supplies. After about three days traffic thinned and fewer people were seen out of their homes, even during the day. It became very noticeable that there was something effecting the population of the city. People stopped going to work or school, then it was quiet. No one was on the streets at all, for one single day there were no cars, no pedestrians, and eventually no people.

  4.

  -First Wave-

  I regularly watched the news on a small TV hanging over the bar at a pizza restaurant where I often ate dinner. I didn't have to be home most nights, if I didn't have my kids at home I would hang out in the local village after work, eat dinner and make a feeble attempt at having a social life. I found it difficult to meet women being a single dad with graying temples and rapidly approaching middle age.

  Although I was seeing someone at the moment, I was sure it wouldn't last. Relationships always started off good. A girl would be interested and find me intriguing, but as the realities of my complicated personal ties came to light they would inevitably push away.