moribund
[mawr-uh-buhnd, mor-]
1. in a dying state; near death.
2. on the verge of extinction or termination.
3. not progressing or advancing; stagnant:
a moribund political party.
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The man’s skin was the color of snow. His breathing was ragged and shallow. His eyes were half glazed and unfocused as he looked up at the sky. Seeing the man lying there in such a state, Chris did the only thing he could reasonably be expected to:
“Are you okay?” He asked.
He knew he should not have asked it. It was obvious the man was anything but okay. ANd yet, it was the only thing he could think to do. Had he been able, Chris would have kicked himself. The man slowly turned his head and looked like he echoed Chris’ unspoken desire for the kicking of his own person.
“Sorry, that was stupid.” Chris said, attempting to apologize. The man let out a long wheeze that was probably supposed to be a sigh.
“Great. An overly apologetic idiot on top of a cripple.” The man said. His voice was strained and thin. Chris had to lean in close to hear the words at all.
“I’m not a cripple.” Chris said. The man’s eyes wandered down to the thing that said otherwise. “I prefer the term paraplegic.”
“Rose by any other name, kid. Now listen up, I’d rather not do this to you, but I don’t have much of an option. I need to give this to someone, and you’re the only one here. So shut up and take it.”
The man’s hands shook as he reached into his pocket and retrieved a large, black flash drive. He reached out, offering Chris to device. He took it, not knowing what else to do. He could not, in good conscious, refuse, after all.
The drive looked fairly normal, but there was something off about it. It was no heavier than any other flash drive of its size, but it felt more solid somehow. Denser maybe, like it was made of some kind of reinforced plastic that was still light.
“Okay, and what am I supposed to do with it?”
“Nothing. Absolutely nothing.” The man croaked out. “I mean it. Listen up, kid, right now, I’m Zeus, you’re Pandora, and that’s the box. Don’t ever use it.”
“Uh, you know Pandora opened the box in that story, right?”
“Yeah, and bad stuff happened because of it. That’s why I’m telling you not to use that drive. Don’t plug it in to anything computer related. Ever. In fact, it’s best if you don’t even show it to anyone. Best to just put it somewhere and forget it.”
“Why? What’s on it?” Chris turned the drive over in his hands, looking at the device critically.
“Bad stuff. Really bad stuff. Stuff some very bad people are willing to kill to get. Right now, the only thing keeping you safe is that you haven’t used the drive. Once you do, they’ll know, and they’ll come for you.”
“Oh come on. Who’d hurt a guy in a wheelchair?”
“These people would. They don’t care if you’re blind, deaf, and dumb. They’ll kill you and everyone you know about to get that drive. Trust me, the second you plug that in, you can consider yourself dead. Hell, the only reason I’m not pushing up daisies now is because they underestimated how tough I am, and they still put me one foot in the grave. Imagine what they’ll do to a guy who can’t even run.”
“Geeze, what’s on this thing, nuclear launch codes?”
The man let out a raspy laugh. “Nukes? Really? Oh boy, you wish it was nukes. Trust me, this makes nuclear weapons look like pea shooters. I’m talking extinction level events here. If you use that drive, you might as well cause the end of human life, period. No survivors, no rebuilding. We’ll just be gone.”
Chris swallowed a lump in his throat. “Maybe...I should get someone to run it over in their car or something?”
“Yeah, good luck with that. I’ve tried breaking it before. Thing’s tougher than it looks. A tank couldn’t blast through that thing.”
Chris was suddenly very scared. What had he gotten himself into?
“YOu know what, I think I’ll just tie a rock to it and throw it in the ocean or something. That should work, right?”
The man thought about it. “Maybe. Haven’t tried seeing what salt water would do to it. Hopefully it’ll work though. Just make it really deep. Shallow water won’t cut it here.”
“I think I can do that.” Chris said. He was unsure of anything, really.
“Good. Now get out of here. It’s only a matter of time before they find me, and you do not want to be here when they do. Get as far from me as you can, as fast as you can.”
“What...what about you?”
“Me? Kid, look at me. I’ve got five, ten minutes tops. I’m amazed I lasted this long, to be honest. Don’t worry about me. Now get that chair in gear and get out of here.”
Chris nodded slowly, stuffed the apocalyptic flash drive in his pocket and started moving. His mind raced as he went, his arms moving the wheels faster than he had ever gone before. Once the man was out of sight, he stopped to think. What should he do now?
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So, is the flash drive the end of the world? Probably. It's more interesting that way, don't you think?
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