Harry's Solution

Harry wasn’t an evil man.

He was just the average middle aged guy next door; a bit chubby, working hard, sometimes double shifts, always with his favorite tie around his neck. The local laboratory had hired him decades ago, and he worked as an assistant. At least that was what he called himself. A laboratory assistant. He never worked with the masterminds. He just ran errands, got the scientists this solution, that solution, from this shelf and that shelf.

«Harry, get me a couple beakers!»

«Harry, where are my protective glasses?»

«Harry!»

«HARRY!»

But he loved his job. He always observed the men and women in their white coats and strict facial expressions. He always overheard what they were talking about, and learned. Although they never thought he was good for anything but doing the jobs they were too busy to do.

His cat was sick. The tiny ball of fur and love was without any energy, and was like a little fire that was burning down. It was the only creature in the world that Harry loved.

Harry never questioned the professors, but nevertheless he was a curious man.

He had observed.

It was silent in the laboratory, and Harry was cleaning after yet an other explosive disaster the students in the study corner had made. Vingear and baking powder. It smelled.

«Remember to turn off the lights when you’re done, Harry!» someone whose name he didn’t remember called from the other side of the big room. Harry nodded, not bothering to turn around. This night was his night.

«A blue bottle...» he whispered when everyone in the building had left. «Blue, blue... where is it...»

He searched through the shelves, until found a tiny fridge.

«Ah, there it is.» he tried to read the complicated word on the bottle, but couldn’t pronounce it correctly. He had seen one scientist use that bottle once before who even tried to teach Harry something, but quickly gave up. Although, Harry had heard. He was like a sponge.

«Listen, Harry. This solution is not dangerous to man, not in this form right here. But once combined with a decent amount something called aqua, which you would know better as water, it is very dangerous. But, listen; this can do wonders. It can heal, Harry. We just don’t know how to use it, because the human body is made out of so much water. It’s such a shame...»

And now this was in Harry’s hands. This little, blue bottle. He found a test tube and put a tiny amount of the powder in it. The powder was white.

«Just a little heat...» he said, as he slowly put the test tube between his palms. He had learned that 35 degrees Celsius was enough to make it fluid.

It was like magic. Harry felt like a powerful man, like Chuck Norris. Like God.

«Now, where...» he said to himself. He was looking for an acid he had heard was in the human stomach.

It was on a shelf in a big bottle. The label said hydrochloric acid. Perfect.

Using a chemical dropper he had two drops of the acid in the testing tube. And it started to foam.

«No... NO!» he yelled, hoping it would stop the foaming. Panicking, he put the tube back into the stand, before running out of the building. This was a bad idea.

Two days had passed. Harry had isolated himself from the outside world. He patted his cat, drank coffee and slept. Phones were shut of, the big, slow computer in the guest room had been off, and the TV didn’t show any images during those two days. The embarrassment was unbearable. But the third day he went back to work.

What met him, was the greatest surprise he could ever have gotten. Applaud.

They had found, and tested, Harry’s mixture, and it turned out that it was indeed a perfect solution. It could heal. It only had to sit a couple hours, react with the oxygen in the air. Medical companies quickly showed interest, so did the media. Harry became famous overnight. But it all passed him in a blur. Interviews, photos, TV-programs. He felt like a zombie. All this attention - why did he get it?

Nasal spray. That was the best way to use this solution. People described it as amazing, giving a feeling of relief in an instant. You just had to use it one time, and it made you able to breathe again, people said. It became a success, and it was robbed of the shelves.

They called it Harry’s solution.

Too good to be true.

Indeed.

It didn’t take long before the symptoms came. A month after the first time it was used. One week. People sneezed more and more, unstoppable. Then they started coughing. Really bad. After two weeks they coughed blood. Chocked. Three weeks passed, and a bad headache made these people unable to think. Four weeks, and their breathing channels were blocked. One month. Four weeks. One day. They were dead.

The nasal spray was quickly taken off the marked, and the deaths were covered up by making people believe a new flu was on the way, this one more lethal than any other flu. But Harry knew. He knew that the mixture he had made, the one that was supposed to be magical, was the reason these people died.

The spray was off the marked. But yet the death tolls rose. 200. 1300. 4000. In just one hour. It was out of control. And Harry. Harry was out of his mind.

Airborne. Somehow, the nasal spray turned into a virus once inside the human body. It attacked the cells, mainly in the throat and lungs, but then the head. The nerves stopped sending signals, and people stopped functioning. And this turned into a virus. Which was airborne.

It spread quickly. Faster than any other disease known to mankind. Doctors and surgeons didn’t know what to do. Media didn’t know what to say. Presidents and kings didn’t know what to tell their people.

The first extinction of an entire country happened only three months after the release of Harry’s solution. After that, they followed like beads on a necklace. One by one. Population by population. Sneezing, coughing and choking themselves to death.

Like a horror movie. Only for real this time.

Harry wasn’t an evil man.

He was just the average middle aged guy next door; a bit chubby, working hard, sometimes double shifts, always with his favorite tie around his neck.

But thanks to him, an entire planet was led to extinction.