"Operation Insect": A Fictional Short Story

“They told us that if your brain was less developed than others, less fit, more cruel, you were more likely to mutate due to the virus.” Drew can’t remember her life before she woke up on the cold concrete floor of the hospital, chained up alongside several others. All she– and anyone else in the facility– knows is what the guards have told her: they’ve been exposed to the Insects, prior humans who caught an airborne virus that turned them into zombie-like creatures. To prevent a mutation into an insect, Drew and the others must quarantine inside the abandoned hospital, training their minds and bodies against the virus living dormant inside of them. The virus that is triggered by one’s cruelty. As time goes on, lines begin to blur between being kept safe and being kept a prisoner, and it becomes hard for Drew to know who to trust. Combining elements of sci-fi and horror, Operation Insect serves as a cautionary tale of current incarceration issues in America.