Wisdom Does Not Become You

Entry for The Adam West Conspiracy May 2025

I had tried to handle the situation, but I quickly lost control. I had all of the information, the knowledge, and the wisdom to initiate things. I had the foolishness to think I could control what transpired. I had decided to play god.

The day things all unwound, I woke prepared to spread the virus, my lifetime of work to fix the problems of society. Breakfast passed like the world was not about to end. I unlocked my basement lab and trotted down the stairs, skipping the fourth one. It was rotten. Switching on the overhead lights, the fluorescent tubes flickered. I checked the half-gallon flask beneath the DNA sequencer. It was full to the line. It should be enough for what I planned.

Another flask held the key to immunity. A week ago, I injected myself with a syringe filled with the green fluid. Muscle soreness and a few days of feeling like I had the flu were the only side effects of note. I poured the contents of the flask into a sparklingly clean new spray applicator. On went the lid and hose, and I pumped the sprayer up to full pressure.

My hopes for the virus were to cut out aggression and violence from human DNA. Whistling a jaunty tune, I left my lab. I put on a jacket and a hat with the logo of a local pest control company. Ready, I began my inoculation. I sprayed around playgrounds and skate parks. My virology research told me that children were an excellent way to spread viruses. Schools and playgrounds were breeding grounds for germs. Teachers, siblings, parents, and grandparents were all vulnerable to things their children brought home or to school. I pumped up my tank several times throughout the day. At the end of the day, I discarded the tank and the jacket, and the hat. Then I returned home.

That was the beginning of the end. The virus spread like wildfire. Of course, it would; it was highly contagious. But the virus didn't begin to bear fruit until the eighth day. The fevers broke, and children began attacking parents, animals, and plants. Their violence was unbound! Time passed, and cities began to burn. In shock, I worked to finish the antidote to the virus in my basement. I needed to make it just as contagious. Within three weeks, I had what I thought would work.

I had spent that time locked in my basement lab. It was also my bunker. My house above burned but I supplies down here for months if not years. That was the day I heard the banging on my bunker door. I was ready to undo what I had done. The door burst inward, my lights flickered off. I heard the sound of a stair busting. Then the ferral scream of the intruder. I could hear them sniffing the air. Wisdom did not become me.


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The Adam West Conspiracy  (13+) Short Story Contest #2339870 by Jeffrey Meyer

(The Adam West Conspiracy)

Here's the list of titles for May 2025; please reply with your entry by midnight on May 31, and post it as a reply to this thread. It's already a week into the month, I know—sorry! But there's still time for everyone's genius to come out! Samantha and I might play, too—but we're just playing for fun, and don't get any points. Can't wait to see if anybody wants to play along!

— Downtown Bouillabaisse —
— Kevin, Cancer, and the Purple Potato —
— Wisdom Does Not Become You —