MicroHorror

It would have made more sense if I had killed them all, but I didn’t. Now everyone is suffering.

The idea came to me when I was still testing insecticides for Chem-Tec all those years ago. 100,000 flies would be released into a room into which fly spray had been used. Usually a few would have an inbuilt resistance and live despite the strong chemicals used. We had strict instructions to kill these with a swatter, as we feared that if they got out and bred, their resistance would spread through the fly population, rendering our product useless.

When the plant shut down, I decided to do some experimenting of my own. I took 100 locusts and used low doses of insecticide on them. The ones that lived, I bred and repeated the process on them. Again and again I did this until no chemical I had would kill them.

My experiments lasted three years, by which time I had locusts that were damn near indestructible. I was ready to blackmail the world.

I sent a batch to America in the post to prove my claims. I wanted people to know the sort of person they were dealing with before I began demanding payments. But the packaging apparently came apart and they escaped, soon breeding with the native locust population.

That was five years ago, and they still haven’t found a way to kill them. America, the supposed “Bread Basket” of the world, loses 80% of its crops to the offspring of those that I bred and is on its knees. Africa is desolate, a barren wasteland; there is nothing to feed the cattle or people now. We thought AIDS was hell on Earth; how naive we were.

And the Food Wars in Russia and Europe have reduced this continent to one inhabited by savages–peopled by those ready to kill for a loaf of bread. Put together the two World Wars and you are not even close to the devastation we are witnessing.

Do I feel guilty? Yes, I do. Not a day goes by that I don’t regret what I have done, but finally I have an answer to the problems of the world. I have bred a carnivorous locust which when released will eat the crop-eating locusts and solve the problem.

I’m sure I’ve got it right this time. Absolutely sure.