The ministry of population control has accidentally released Cuckbachia carrying mosquitoes during a field trial. When male Cuckbachia carrying mosquitoes mate with female, their eggs do not hatch. The side effect however, was it increases the female’s sex drive to mate with more males, nature’s way of ensuring the species continue.
The bacteria however, has jumped species. James, having been bitten by multiple Cuckbachia infected mozzies in the middle of Bukit Timah nature reserve, goes on to infect his wife Hailey, who in turns…need more…males to satisfy her.
James smacked the mosquitos on his arm and saw the small drop of blood.
PIAK! PIAK!
He got another two on his thigh as he continued his trek through the forest.
He can’t believe his company’s team bonding event is a trek through nature. He drank up from his bottle and saw another mosquito land on the back of his hand. He gently lowered his arm and smacked the insect just as it sank it’s proboscis into his skin.
James : arghhhh…fucking nature…
James escapes the stifling forest at last after another hour, his calves streaked with tiny cuts, his collar damp and ringed with salt, socks soaked through with spent sweat and squashed mosquito corpses. He has never felt more like prey, and he staggers through the sliding doors of Holland Village mall with an odor of decomposing foliage, which even the overpowered AC cannot neutralize.
He joins the beelines for the fast food joint, head filled only with fantasies of ice Milo and fried chicken. He does not see, nor would he believe, the invisible ballet of viruses that is now travelling through his blood stream.
James : 5 piece meal, original, ice milo upsize. Change the fries to cheese fries.
Minutes later, as he sinks into the seat in the corner of the fast food restaurant, a trillion Cuckbachia-laced particles are already crossing the blood-brain barrier.
He devours his meal at record speed, registers barely a twinge of the customary guilt for chicken skin, and glances at his watch.
Four hours until dinner with Hailey, his newly wed wife. A woman he knew was the one the first time he laid eyes on her in University.
Hailey’s body is a testament to her profession,lean muscle wrapped in blemish free skin, not an ounce of excess anywhere. Not even a random mole.
Her naturally straight black hair, falls in a perfect ponytail that swings like a metronome when she demonstrates the proper form for a hundred different exercises to her pilates clients.
When she eats,she can calculate the caloric content of any dish with a glance, her eyes narrowing slightly as she catalogs ingredients. She will probably get a fit if she sees James wolfing down the 5 piece meal.
When she walks into a room wearing her fitted athleisure, conversations pause, heads turn, and James feels that familiar pride mixed with disbelief that she chose him. He struck gold.
By the time James returns home, his skin is no longer flushed from exertion, instead, he feels a deep, unfamiliar warmth in his groin, as if all the blood in his body has been rerouted to his pelvic basin.
James : hey…
Hailey : her dearie~ how’s the walk?
James : Damm hot…and humid…i don’t understand why anyone would do this…
She came over and hugged him before smelling his breath. Her eyes narrowed and she grabbed his shirt like a debt collector doing his work.
Hailey :What did you eat? mmmh?
James: hehehe…
Hailey : Fried chicken right? how many? mmmh?
James: few piece only la…
Hailey : few is how many?
He grins and try to kiss Hailey but she nudged him away, irritated with his choice of junk food.
Hailey : We’re trying for a family, should at least watch your diet right…
James smiled and looked at Hailey returning to the exercise mat on the floor.
He can’t remember the last time he looked on her with such intensity, nor the last time seeing her in gymwear made his heart race like this.
She’s finishing up her pilates routine, ponytail swinging with every bridge and curl-up. The sight of her is overwhelming,a saturation of colored sports bra, skin tight leggings and movement.
He cannot stop looking.
Hailey :what?…
She teased with a sly glance from the corner of her eyes. Hailey knew what her husband was thinking off. They’re newly weds who just moved into their BTO flat after all.
James : you need help?
James said, stepping in close and wrapping his arms around her waist, feeling the warmth of her body through the Lycra.
Hailey laughs, but there is alarm in her laugh, a question about this charged energy in his touch, this new keenness in his gaze.
Hailey :siao ah! in the middle of the day…
James: erghhh…i want…
She yields to him, and what begins as a jokey clinch quickly accelerates into something desperate, almost feral, as James lifts her off the mat and kisses her so hard her breath is stolen away. He does not notice, nor does she, that the whites of his eyes have taken on a faint pink tinge.
Within minutes, they are enmeshed in the shower, soap slipping uselessly from their hands, water ricocheting off tiled walls.
James is greedier than he remembers ever being, emboldened by a sense of inevitability, as if the act itself has to meet some biological urgency.
Hailey is startled, but also swept away by the intensity,there is a kind of pleasure in his hunger, and her own body responds in ways she did not know it could. She comes twice in the span of fifteen minutes, then collapses against his chest, her legs weak, her lungs burning.
Hailey :wow…what is wrong with you today?haha
James: I don’t know…maybe the nature trek?
Hailey : fresh forest air? haha
James: hahah…
Neither of them realize that the Cuckbachia, multiplying all the while in the fluid of James’s testicles, has invaded every sperm cell, shattering their tails and scrambling their heads with selfish genetic programming. The virus is promiscuous; it wants to live, and in order to live, it has to spread. The final transfer is slick and instantaneous, delivered in a surge of milky fluid that coats Hailey’s cervix and takes root in her bloodstream within seconds.
The afterglow is a slow, honeyed narcotic.
Hailey, spent and giddy, lies motionless on the bed, drifting into a nap.
She was pretty satisfied with her husband’s performance. At this rate, they could probably start a family in no time.
She thinks nothing at all for the next two hours, not knowing that the viral load in her system is mapping every neural pathway, twining itself through the circuits of her reproductive drive. The virus needs to spread, it needs more host to survive. Hailey’s body is fighting it but it was a losing battle.
Hailey’s eyes fluttered close and when she dreamt, she starts to get moist as images of her being surrounded by men of different age, race and skin colour showered her with attention.
Coming soon.