This short story was inspired by the idea of a phytoplankton apocalypse.
Read the story below or skip straight to More on why I wrote this story.
The Bloom of Small Things
Slap!
“Damn mozzies!”
Mocky dodges the sweaty hand.
The parasite has landed.
Mocky’s not going to let a tasty human squish her into oblivion. She wants to make the most of the few days she has left.
Some of her friends have already died. But Mocky has speed. She wonders about that. Is it because the age of the mosquito is dawning?
She smiles, thinking of the penguins. Mmm, such delectable red blood cells. Mocky had a good feed on those chubby creatures.
Funny how some species could adapt while others died.
She knew she’d picked up the parasite when her proboscis sank into Arctus. But while her reflexes sharpened, Arctus lost his jaunty waddle. And he wasn’t the only one.
The penguin colony was full of whispers.
“Red algae.”
“Krill tastes funny.”
“Another one with fever.”
It was so bad, the humans came. Mocky has heard of this species of human. The ones who care for animals (but hate mosquitoes).
The humans shake their heads. They plunge shiny needles into Arctus and the other sick penguins. When they go limp, one human lifts the creatures into a truck.
They don’t find Serena though. The dark-haired young trekker with her camera and delighted smile.
The engine vrooms. Mocky zooms into the truck window and hitches a ride. So now Mocky is in a laboratory. Camouflaged against the grey neck of a vet’s skivvy. Mocky clings on as the vet shakes his head over Arctus.
“It’s that new strain of malaria again. And this species is highly susceptible.”
The chief scientist crosses his arms. “Damn climate change. Those algal blooms are making this population boom.”
“At least avian malaria doesn’t jump to humans.”
Mocky grins. Serena had delicious blood too.
Now Mocky is getting hungry again. The vet gives off a tantalising scent. A sweet sweaty perfume. Mocky’s proboscis tingles.
Tiny organisms can change the world. Mocky’s seen it. One toxic phytoplankton blossoms into a red tide. Predators turn into prey. And an unexpected species rises to dominance.
Mocky crawls over the lip of the skivvy.
Bare skin.
She prepares for transmission.
Her proboscis sinks in. Mmmm.
The human is fast.
Slap!
“Damn mozzies!”
Mocky dodges the sweaty hand.
The parasite has landed.
More on why I wrote this story
The explanation for this is a whole lot longer than the story itself! This is a very short story, more flash fiction really. But these 364 words took an extraordinarily long time to write. I wanted to portray an impending disaster in as few words as possible.
After hearing about the concept of the phytoplankton apocalypse at the Continuum conference, I did some research on the role of phytoplankton in the ecosystem. The original premise presented at the conference was of phytoplankton dying out and starving the earth of oxygen. That’s one possibility. However, what struck me was how an infinite number of things can go wrong with even small shifts in the types of phytoplankton available in the ocean. There are the obvious issues of toxic phytoplankton poisoning wildlife and even humans through contaminated seafood.
But what was interesting to me was the slow changes. The impacts of one tiny change working its way up the food chain. Because phytoplankton are right at the bottom of the food chain.
Changes in phytoplankton levels are not always bad in themselves. I read about one penguin species flourishing due to an increase in a certain kind of phytoplankton.
But then I asked myself, “What if these cute penguins had diseases that could be transmitted to humans?” That’s when I found out about avian malaria and the outbreaks that had killed penguins in zoos. This strain was not transmissible to humans. But malaria is mutating all the time. So it may be possible, right? Maybe? What if…
I went a bit crazy with the What Ifs and I admit the story is leaning towards the fantastical but it was still fascinating to imagine what could be. The real question is what could happen if we continue human behaviours that disrupt our delicate ecosystem? We could accidentally wipe ourselves out. That’s not a new idea but there are certainly many ways to do it that don’t actually involve nuclear bombs or war. We could do it slowly and surely just by our lack of care for the environment. A slow apocalypse.
Let me know what you think of the story and the issues surrounding it in the comments below.
Image by Welcome to all and thank you for your visit ! ツ from Pixabay
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