Going Viral

I've seen the very first video of it, and it's disturbing. I remember, at the time, people laughed. They shared it on all their socials. They re-made it, starring themselves. Smiling. Laughing.

But that first one? Oh, she was moving her body like she was out with her girlfriends and four drinks in. Waving her arms, her hips. Her feet moving in some strange, hypnotic rhythm. She wasn't smiling. She didn't look like she was having fun at all. There was a really strange expression on her face actually. Her eyes were almost completely blank. It was at odds with the way her body was moving, to some upbeat music that only she could hear.

I paused, and zoomed in. Did I imagine it that her face wasn't totally vacant after all? It was like she was in there somewhere. At the far end of a long tunnel, trying to communicate... something. Frustration? Panic? I don't know, but it unnerved me.

Some of the copycat videos started to look a bit too much like the original. A bit too real. They shared that same look... it was hard to fake.

That very day, or maybe the next, I saw one on the underground. The same steps, the same way of moving the arms... the same almost-empty stare. I glanced around, looking for the device they were using to record it, but there wasn't one. They weren't doing it for socials. They weren't doing it for likes. Not for fun, either. There was no enjoyment there. I had this mad urge to run up and slap that slack face hard, to give them a shake, snap them out of it somehow... This urge fought with another, just as strong, to sprint away from this madness as fast as I could.

Glancing around, no one else seemed affected the same way. They nudged each other. Smirked. Giggled. Someone was already filming. The man next to me was fishing in his pocket. I bunched my fists to stop myself slapping the device from his hand.

The phenomenon earned a spot on the end of the news with the junk pieces about skateboarding dogs and local bake sales. As the weeks went by, the grins melted off the anchors faces, and the reports on the mysterious Dancing Disease moved further up, until it was, not just the first thing anyone talked about, but the only thing.

People danced until they collapsed from exhaustion, and some of them never got up again.

The latest stats rolled across the bottom of the screen. The death toll was published and updated daily. Serious scientists admitted bafflement. A curfew was imposed (no devices to be used in public) because they theorised that this was how it was spreading.

Public spaces were all but deserted. People donned protective clothing and goggles if they had to go out. If you did have to venture out somewhere, and you saw another person, you looked at each other like frightened rabbits and then scurried away.

People watched in horror as the illness stole into their homes anyway, and their loved ones danced themselves to death in their kitchens and bedrooms. Many old people danced their last steps alone in front of the TV.

And then, as suddenly as it had swept the world... the weird dancing virus melted away.

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Thank you for reading, I appreciate it, and I do my best to reciprocate as many reads as I can.

The inspiration for this one was the Dancing Plague of 1518, and a little splash of COVID.

See you tomorrow!