Black Liquid by Prospero2013

The outbreak slowly began among us.
I remember we were in an open field
and this location was crucial
in providing pieces to the jigsaw puzzle
of the coming conflict.

There were several of us.
Panic was building and speculation flew around town,
spreading beyond its usual confines.
There was a clear effort
to trump up charges against the liquid,
which had always been used in war for strategic reasons

There was a girl I liked in the crowd,
somehow she became my protector.
She believed there was something in the water.
I agreed.

We knew that they would come soon,
the beings of the black liquid.
There were mentions of the one adult
who had already caught the disease,
a strange fractal microscopic virus
which would change the core of our being.
An irreversible mutation.
It would then be impossible
for us to identify
the true tenor of reality.

We did have time to get ready.
We had trucks parked on Main Street for two weeks,
but it was an inadequate response.
The liquid had so far been successful
and we had been unable to fight back.

She helped me
to put up intelligent defenses
with her information warfare capability.
Her verbal and physical tics were clearly visible,
and I was barely a shadow about to disappear.

In the end doctors agreed it was all mass hysteria.
They only offered selective details
to back up their claims.
They said there were multiple factors
that exacerbated the fear.

The beings did come
with their thick and heavy black liquid.
But a tremendous amount of its effect
was based on images from social media sources.
And yet the symptoms appeared
to have spread beyond our walls.

We ultimately accepted the diagnosis
and still deem it accurate.
It was a persuasive case against the war.