VIRAL CONTAGION (BRAIN DRAIN VIDEO GAME)

I can't stop touching my face.

I can't stop peeling dry skin off my lips.

I can't stop peeling flesh off my body,

tossing different pieces of me into a body bagged casket.

My thoughts have been replaced with frantic video games

in which every other person dies.

Will this video game suck

the life out of you and you and you and me?

How will I make my way through this and score enough

points before the final scene,

in which deadly clichés fill each screen?

I mean, every time I try to fall asleep,

he starts chasing me again.

He screams, "Wake up and choke on this!"

Walking to pick up my seizure pills.

A car drives by, spits poison from the window.

Either I explode or I keep on walking

and pretend I'm still alive as I turn into a coughing zombie,

then pass the virus on to the next character.

Hacking so hard stumbling legs break down

into broken limbs. Trees fall into sewers disguised

as giant swimming pools in which every other body

hides inside a red bathing suit. This character can't swim

her way out of this and sinks down into the sludge heap.

Lifting me up out of dirty water, he carries me to the front of his car,

but he didn't bother telling me there were a bunch of sick kids in the back. There's a dead kid in the trunk, hacked into pieces.

There's cracked vertebrae intertwined with the hood ornament

and then the car hits somebody else.

The characters that run get hit by speeding vehicles.

The characters that move at a slow but steady pace

get picked up and shoved down the poisoned well.

The characters that sing start screaming

until their voice box has one last gurgle then stops.

These characters died on the side of the road

because they didn't have homes to hide inside. I scored a few points for moving them out

of the way of more speeding traffic violations.

These characters died alone in nursing homes.

These characters died under the beds in asylums.

This character throws up

on 10 other characters, then drools slime on 20 more.

Hidden subcutaneous missiles shoot down 100 dogs in a row. Poisonous bugs crawl inside their mouths.

Giant poisonous bugs crawl all the way up

to the top of my ceiling then jump down

into my mouth while I'm trying to sleep.

This character wonders what the difference is

between assertive and invasive.

The different strains and mutations

are chasing her from every side.

A-tisket a-tasket

A green and yellow basket

I wrote a letter to my mom

And on the way I dropped it

I dropped it, I dropped it,

And on the way I dropped it

into a hacked and broken casket

and that scored 100 more points.

Juliet Cook - Ohio