Scott had finally done it. He had finally created a video good enough to go viral. All his hard work was finally paying off. For months he had videotaped everything hoping one of his videos would take-off. He’d follow the dog everywhere and constantly prod it to do tricks. He’d videotape the neighbor’s cat stalking the bird feeder. The camera was always rolling and he had finally caught something amazing during a thunderstorm two days ago.
Scott had heard of ball lightning but had never seen it before. There were three steel posts in the back yard that made a triangle; two for the laundry line and one for the bird feeder. Balls of blue light circled around each other between the posts. Scott stood at the sliding French door filming the spectacle. Despite the risks, he opened the door and continued to record. He slowly took a couple steps outside the door and filmed for about 10 seconds when BANG… A bolt of lightning struck the steel post 30 feet from where Scott was standing. He instinctively jumped back and fell to the ground. His whole body tingled and his ears were ringing. Somehow he managed to keep the camera focused on the posts in front of him.
After getting back to his feet, Scott rushed inside to his computer and quickly transferred the video. As he watched he saw the lightning strike and then saw the balls of light rising from the ground as they danced. After a few seconds they shot up into the sky and disappeared. He quickly edited the video from when he opened the door to when the lights disappeared and posted it. One hundred people had watched the video within the first hour it was posted. After 24 hours it was over 3,000.
It was late in the evening and Scott was checking his social media accounts and his video. There was now over 10,000 views and only slightly fewer likes. He then checked his comments and messages from friends. As he read their comments he could tell that this was going to be big. One friend, Jessica, seemed the most excited. Her one post read: This is amazing. I can’t wait until you see the video I’m working on. You’re such an inspiration. The video had sparked something in all his friends and pretty soon they all commented that they too would be creating their own videos. As he read the messages from his friends he noticed a big spike in his friend requests and page likes. He felt a little run down and his ears were still ringing from the day before. He didn’t want to be rude and not respond, but he was too tired to post any responses.
When he woke up the next morning and turned on the news he immediately recognized Jessica. She was in hand-cuffs and being placed in a police car. The news anchor stated, “A woman by the name of Jessica Pyco was arrested as she videotaped herself pouring gasoline on a neighbors car and setting it on fire.” Scott watched in horror as the news showed the video. When he went online it was all over the internet. He then noticed a video from another friend named Jeff. Jeff had taped himself going into a highly offensive rant about every stereotype he could imagine. The comment section quickly filled up with angry rebuttals and threats. It was completely out of character and Scott couldn’t imagine why he would do it.
As he was reading the comments he heard sirens blaring down the street. Out of instinct he grabbed his video camera and went to see what was going on. He went out the door and saw one of his neighbors tight-rope walking on the electrical lines. He had propped up an aluminum ladder on the pole and climbed up. As he watched the ringing in his ears grew louder. He could feel the same tingling sensation he had felt a few days ago. He looked at the sidewalk below the man and saw a video camera setup on a tripod. The firemen scrambled to set up a net under the man. Scott could hear someone on a bull-horn yelling at the man not to move. When the firemen knocked over the video camera the man started flailing. The net was in place barely a second before the man lost his footing and fell into it. Scott had caught it all on tape, but couldn’t shake a terrible feeling that was coming over him.
He went back inside and back to his computer. He noticed that he had been tagged on a video. As he opened it he saw the most embarrassing home video of him as a child. His mom had posted his most traumatic childhood memory for the whole world to see. He was only 6 years old when the family stopped at a farm while on vacation. He was feeding the chickens when one started flapping its wings and startled him. He had fallen backwards right into a fresh cow patty that was still steaming in the morning air. The farmer had to pull out the hose to clean him off as tears were streaming from his eyes. His parents had promised to destroy the video long ago.
All the videos were going viral. It was like some kind of disease had been unleashed. He kept watching videos being posted by his friends or that were somehow linked to his own. All of them seemed odd and he would start to hear that same ringing sound on every video. The content varied from one person’s video of a cat licking itself for 3 minutes to someone jumping off their roof, onto a trampoline, and bouncing into a pool. Something else caught Scott’s attention: the people were all wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans when they made their videos. He looked at the comments section on various videos and everyone who made a video had commented on a previous one.
Scott realized it all started with his video. He quickly pulled it up and watched it on his computer. Right before the lightning struck he could hear the ringing. He stopped it and went back and listened again and could hear voices. It wasn’t just a few voices but many; more than he could count. They were all saying different things. He could pick out a few random words but could only concentrate on a few like watch, go, and take. After the lightning strike the words continued. It was like instructions only he couldn’t understand them. He had a sudden impulse to go put on jeans and a blue shirt. He shook his head and composed himself.
His video now had 40,000 views. Everyone was sharing it or blogging about it. He had his viral video. He was going to be famous. Then he looked at the numbers on all the other videos and they were all starting to go viral too. Everyone was liking and doing the same things. It was as if something was slowly taking over their minds. Scott had to take the video down. He hated to give up on being famous, but hated the idea of being a mindless drone even more.
Scott spent the evening trying to cleanse the internet of his video. By midnight he had done all he could and finally went to sleep. When he got up the next morning he got back on the computer and saw that everyone else had taken down their videos as well. Even Jessica’s video had somehow vanished. He started sending messages to his friends to find out what was going on. All of them acted like they didn’t know what he was talking about. A quick search still showed a few, but all the links were broken. It was as if all memory of the video had been erased. Scott wondered who could have done it or if it was just his video and he had just imagined what he had heard in the others. He pulled up his video once more and played it all the way to the end. As the lights disappeared he heard one last instruction, “Follow”. Scott realized that they were following him. When they saw him erase his video they did the same.
He thought back to when he made the video and he had been wearing blue jeans and a blue shirt. He was never in the video so there was no way anyone could have known. Scott had been obses
sed with creating a viral video and getting people to follow him. It was at this moment that he realized that the voices on the video were always his own. It was all the thoughts he had that day all at once. People were wearing blue jeans and blue shirts because that is what Scott picked out to wear that morning. He wanted them to follow him. It also captured his obsession. He understood now why people were so out of character. The obsession to create a viral video had over-ridden their common sense just like his own when he walked outside and towards a steel post in the middle of a thunderstorm.
All that was left now was to figure out what to do with the video. It seemed too dangerous to keep, but it was too valuable to destroy at the same time. The only solution he could think of was to remove the sound. He reposted the video without the sound and had a solid 300 hits the first day, but then it faded into obscurity. It didn’t bother him. Scott knew that if he could go viral once he could do it again. If there is one thing he learned it’s that going viral is contagious.
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About the Author:
I started out in 2012 by publishing several collections of poetry and a short piece of science fiction. I have branded myself as the AWPHUL poet. AWPHUL is an acronym standing for Articulation With the Phonetic Use of Language. My style of poetry is unique and helps fill the ever expanding void between traditional and modern/contemporary poetry.
I am currently working on 3 full length novels and have plot outlines for 2 more. One of the novels I am currently working on will be the first in a series. I also continue to write poetry as well as short stories such as the one you just read. Part of this is out of necessity since I have a full-time job and write in my spare time (sometimes only 15-30 minutes at a time). In addition to being a writer I am also a father, husband, artist, and outdoorsman. I create my own cover graphics for all my books and I have made some of my artwork available online including various items with the phrase “Going Viral Is Contagious”.
Other Works:
The Bigger Picture (poetry)
Words to Paint 1000 Pictures (poetry)
On The Verge of Live, Love, and Lyrics (poetry)
Texting Death (short fiction)
Introduction to AWPHUL Poetry (poetry)
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