My
profession owes a lot to Dr. Alexander Kellis, inventor of the misnamed
"Kellis Flu" , and Amanda Amberlee, the first individual successfully
infected with the modified filovirus that researchers dubbed, "marburg
Amberlee" before them, blogging was something people thought should be
done by bored teenagers talking about how depressed they were. Some folks used
it to report on politics and the news. But the application was widely used as
reservedfor conspiracy nuts and people whose opinions were too vitriolic for
the mainstream. The blogosphere wasn't threatening the traditional news media.
Not even as it started having a real place on the world stage. They thought of
us as "Quaint". Then the zombies came and everything changed.
The "Real" media was bound by
rules and regulations while the bloggers were bound by nothing more than the
speed of their typing. We were the first to report that people who had been
pronounced dead were getting up and noshing on their relatives. We were the
ones who stood up and said: "yes, there are zombies. And yes, they are
killing people." While the rest of the world was still buzzing about the
amazing act of eco-terrorism that released half tested "cure of the common
cold" into the atmosphere. We were giving tips of self-defense when
everybody else was barely beginning to admit that there might be a problem.
The early network reports are preserved
online over the protests of the media conglomerates they sue from time to time
and get the reports taken down. But someone always puts them up again. We are
never going to forget how badly we were betrayed. People died in the streets
while news anchors bad jokes about people talking their zombie movies too
seriously and showed footage they claimed depicted teenagers "hoarsing around". In latex and bad
stage makeup according to the time stamps on those reports. The first one aired
the day Dr. Matras from the CDC violated national security to post details on
the infection on his eleven-year-old daughter's blog twenty five years after
the fact his words simple bleak, and
unforgiving against their background of happy teddy bears still send shivers
down my spine. There was a war on, and the ones whose responsibility was to
inform us wouldn't even admit that we were fighting it.
But some people knew and screamed
everything they understood across the internet. "Yes, the dead were
rising" said the bloggers. They were attacking people, yes it was a virus
and yes, there was a chance we might lose because by the time we understood
what was going on. The whole damn world was infected the moment Dr. Kellis's
cure hit the air. We had no choice but to fight. We fought as hard as we could.
That is when the wall began. Every blogger who died during the summer of 2014
is preserved there from the politicos to t he soccer moms. We have taken there
the last entries and collected them in one place to honor them and to remember
what they paid for the truth. We still add people to the wall. Someday, I'll
probably post Sean's name there along with some light-hearted last entry that
ends with "See you later".
Every method of killing a zombie was tested
somewhere. A lot of the times the people who tested it died shortly afterwards.
But they posted the results first. We learned what worked, what to do, and what
to watch. For in the people around us, it was a crossroads. Revolution based on
two simple precepts; survive however you could and report back whatever you
learned because it might keep somebody else alive. They say that everything you
ever needed to know you learned in kindergarten. What the world learned that
summer was "Share".
Things were different when the dust
cleared. Some people might find it pretty to say "especially where the
news was concerned" but if you ask me it is where the real change
happened. People didn't trust regulated news anymore. They were confused and
scared and they turned to the bloggers who might be unfiltered and full of shit
but were fast, prolific, and allowed you to triangulate on the truth. Get your
news from six or nine sources and you can usually tell the bullshit for the
reality. If that's too much you can find a blogger who does your triangulation
for you. You don't have to worry about another zombie invasion going un-reported
because someone somewhere is putting it online.
The blogging community divided into its
current branches within a few years of the rising; reacting to swelling ranks and
changing society. You have got newsies who report fact as untainted by opinion
as we can manage on our cousins. The Stewarts who report opinion informed by
fact the Irwins go out and harass danger to give the relatively housebound
general populace a little thrill while their more sedate counterparts. The
Aunties share stories of their leaves, recipes, and their snippets to keep
people happy and relaxed and of course the fictionals who fill the online world
with poetry, stories, and fantasy. They have a thousand branches all with their
own names and customs. None of them meaning a damn thing to anyone who isn't a
fictional, we are the all purpose opiate of the new millennium. We report the
news. We make the news. And we give you a way to escape when the news becomes
too much to handle.
From images may disturb you
The blog of Georgia Mason, august 6th
2039
Copied
from the book "Feed", by Mira Grant
السير فيروتشي
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