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The Virus of the Mind
An unreleased short story from the book:
The Infection Spreads How the World Became Undead
Dr. Evelyn Ward had been at the forefront of neuroscience for over two decades. A brilliant mind, she was hailed as one of the leading researchers in the field of neuropsychology. Her experiments focused on unlocking the deepest recesses of the human mind—specifically, the ability to read thoughts. The world marveled at her work, the possibilities seemed endless: a future where minds could communicate directly, a world without barriers of language. She believed that mind-reading would revolutionize humanity, allowing people to connect in ways they never could before.
It started with small, controlled experiments. A subject, sedated and connected to a series of electrodes, had their neural activity monitored while engaging in various thought exercises. The results were groundbreaking. Dr. Ward’s technology allowed her team to record and decode thoughts in real-time. It was a breakthrough that seemed to promise the dawn of a new era—an era where the limits of human communication could be obliterated.
But there were consequences that no one could have predicted.
Dr. Ward had been testing her new prototype—a device that could enhance neural transmission and amplify thought-reading capabilities. The machine was designed to enable clear, telepathic communication between individuals, bypassing spoken language entirely. A test subject, a young man named Thomas, was the first to be linked to the device.
For the first few minutes, everything seemed normal. Thomas’s thoughts were projected onto the screen in clear, legible text. Dr. Ward and her colleagues marveled at the precision of the technology. But then, something began to go wrong. The text on the screen became garbled, distorted, and erratic. It was as though Thomas’s thoughts were suddenly… fragmenting. His expression twisted in confusion as he tried to speak, but the words that came from his mouth were nonsensical, jumbled—a bizarre mix of languages, thoughts, and fragmented images.
Dr. Ward quickly disconnected him from the device, but it was too late. The damage had been done.
Over the next few hours, Thomas’s condition deteriorated rapidly. His body began to convulse violently as his mind struggled to process the flood of thoughts, now uncontrollable and chaotic. His pupils dilated unnaturally, his veins bulging as though his brain were swelling. His thoughts no longer resembled coherent human ideas—they were incoherent bursts of emotion, aggression, and fear. It was as though his very identity was unraveling.
And then, Thomas’s mind snapped. His body collapsed, and the strange, fractured thoughts that had been consuming him began to recede. When he stood again, he was no longer the man who had walked into the lab. His eyes were hollow, lifeless—like empty sockets, devoid of recognition. He moved in jerky, mechanical motions, as though his body was no longer in his control.
The first attack came when Thomas lunged at Dr. Ward’s assistant, Sarah, with horrifying speed. His hands were no longer hands—they were like claws, grasping her with a terrifying strength. She screamed as he bit into her neck, tearing flesh and muscle as though he were an animal, driven only by an insatiable hunger. The others tried to pull him off, but they were too late. Sarah was already gone, her body limp and lifeless.
Dr. Ward was horrified. She had never anticipated this—her mind-reading device had turned Thomas into a monster, his humanity erased, his thoughts shattered and replaced by pure primal instinct. The virus she had inadvertently unleashed didn’t just affect the body; it tore apart the mind itself, rendering the subject a hollow shell, an empty vessel driven only by violent urges.
The infection spread quickly. The virus spread through the air, carried in the very thoughts of those who had been exposed to Thomas. Each person who came into contact with him—or with anyone who had been infected—fell victim to the plague. Their minds fractured, their thoughts became unstable, unable to contain the violent chaos now ripping through them. It was like a plague of the mind, one that spread through the neural network like wildfire. It was only a matter of time before the entire population would fall.
Within days, the town fell into disarray. People who had once been friendly and kind, their thoughts clear and focused, were now nothing more than hollow, zombie-like husks. Their eyes were glazed, their minds consumed by an overwhelming urge to destroy, to feed. The virus erased their personalities, their memories, and replaced them with a mindless hunger—a hunger that could only be satisfied by the living.
Dr. Ward and the few remaining survivors barricaded themselves in the lab, watching in horror as the chaos spread across the town. Every attempt to escape was met with more infected, their blank eyes staring at them with terrifying intensity. There was no way out. The virus of the mind had already claimed them all.
As the days turned into weeks, the survivors grew weaker. The infected grew stronger, driven by a shared hunger, a shared madness that bound them together. The survivors, once hopeful, now began to lose their minds. They couldn’t think clearly anymore. The infected had become too numerous, too relentless. Even Dr. Ward, the creator of this nightmare, was no longer safe. The thoughts that had once been her greatest achievement now felt like a prison. Her mind was unraveling, just like the others. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the fractured, chaotic thoughts of the infected flooding her consciousness.
The walls of the lab were closing in, both physically and mentally. There was no escape from the madness. The virus had spread beyond the lab, beyond the town, and it was only a matter of time before it spread across the world.
The virus of the mind was irreversible.
Dr. Ward’s last moments were spent in the dark, clutching her head as the thoughts of the infected surged into her consciousness. Her mind, once sharp and precise, now felt like a shattered mirror. The thoughts of the infected poured into her, and she couldn’t shut them out anymore. Her body slumped, her breath shallow as she joined the others in a new state of existence—empty, hollow, and lost.
The world outside was silent, save for the faint, distant groans of the infected. Humanity had fallen.
There was no cure. There was no salvation. The virus had consumed the mind, and with it, the world.
The Age of Madness had begun.
If you enjoyed this short story you will probably like our latest release available now:
The Infection Spreads How the World Became Undead
$3.99
The Infection Spreads: How the World Became Undead is a chilling collection of dark, morbid, and mind-bending short stories that explore the terrifying origins of the zombie apocalypse. Each story reveals a new, unexpected cause of the outbreak, blending science fiction, horror, and dystopian terror in one unforgettable anthology.
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