“We now pass you over to our nature correspondent, Richard Smith.”
“Thank you, John.
The reason for the explosions has now been discovered and confirmed. CCTV footage of the event which devastated the Swansea PC World last month revealed the most worrying development in recent history. Prior to this incident it was believed to be a series of terrorist attacks.”
The scene changed, CCTV footage, a large black bird flying into a window immediately followed by a huge explosion, the camera died leaving static and the scene returned to the studio.
“With me in the studio is Paul Graves, professor of avian biology at Oxford university. Hello.”
“Hello.”
“Now… What the hell is going on? How can a bird explode like that?”
The professor sighed. “We’re only just getting to grips with it ourselves. You know the first few events, I.S. claimed responsibility?”
“What are they doing? Force feeding them explosives?”
“Much, much worse. It took a lot of time and we lost several respected scientists in the initial attempts to capture one… We finally managed to lure one into a trap, gas it and get it into the lab without too much disturbance.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“After a dissection, we have discovered the cause.”
“And that is?”
“The birds have… changed… Their livers have now developed a… I’m sorry, this is very difficult. They’re synthesising nitroglycerin in their livers and not only that but to such a high concentration… Well, you’ve seen the results.”
“Nitroglycerin? How? That can’t be an evolutionary”
“No. No, it isn’t. After a further round of study, we have discovered a virus. A new, previously unknown strain of avian influenza.”
“BIRD FLU? How the hell can”
“Please, let me finish. This is not a naturally occurring virus. It’s been modified. Designed to infect any species of bird it can, designed to insert new genes into their cells and cause those cells in the liver to metabolise carbohydrates and produce, as I said, high explosive.”
“So, it is a terrorist attack?”
“It would appear so, yes. We have sequenced the virus and there was an unusual structure close to the beginning of the strand of DNA. Further study indicates who is responsible.”
“How?”
“We decoded it. It was in arabic. It said Allah Akhbar. Translated it means Allah is Greater. We have no idea how they did it, but it seems I.S. has weaponised our native avian population.”
“What can you suggest? To protect ourselves from this threat?”
“The only reason birds fly into windows is because they can’t see them. The best advice at this stage is to make them visible. Either tint your windows, put a semi-reflective film over them or tape them in a cross-hatch pattern. A bird will not fly into a window protected in this way because clearly it is visible to them then.”
“But doesn’t this mean any time a bird strikes anything…”
“Yes, yes it does. We are working on a counter to this virus, either a vaccine or perhaps a counter agent to reverse what has been done but it’ll take a long time to find out how they did it in the first place.”
“Thank you professor. So, there you have it. Tape your windows. It could save your life. John.”
“Thank you, Richard. And now, the weather.”
The Glass
Was it her fault that... no it wasn't falling in love - that was too typical. And he was far from typical. He made her realise that her previous attractions were only sleazy, lazy guys that hoodwinked naive girls like herself with sweetly guised words and smirks. He was brilliantly genius and unconventionally attractive. With him she felt like a bird released into the cool, tranquil dusk at the end of a strenuous day. Initially.
It was at a particular art exhibition that she met him. Or he discovered her. As fate would have it (and she knowingly contradicted herself by saying she believed in fate, but also believed she could choose her fate), he was standing behind her in line to pay the admission fee. She had absent-mindedly scanned him and something about his easy stance and self-assured expression had repelled her - she doubted he would give her a second look. On the other hand, he had misjudged her physical features to think she could not speak English well. However this misjudgement only heightened his fascination of her as her uniquely sweet voice and mature accent enraptured him as she seemed to flutter her arms and chirp excitedly as a friend approached. It was something about her unassuming presence, along with her shy appearance barely containing the life inside of her that interested him.
But he was a coward and couldn't muster himself to speak to her. Therefore it was to his pleasant shock to walk in on her by herself in a small, curtained-off alcove.
Looking up from the abstract sculpture, she smiled nervously. He immediately rocketed off with cascading stories to tell, and although she was flattered by his attention, his almost arrogant nature stiffened her smile. Then she was vaguely surprised as he asked for her number. After that, tiny fireworks seemed to ricochet off each other's minds through texts.
She couldn't see him for over a month because she was busy. But he waited, and eventually asked her to be his girl - despite the fact that she would be leaving the country in two months. She was pleasantly flattered by his attention, but it all seemed a little rushed and her carefully guarded heart failed to block out her observations of their differences. Yes, they were both intelligent and could easily understand and explain each other's thoughts. However, she doubted he would invest much time and effort to keep her for a long time.
He was truly beautiful in every sense - but maybe that's why she was afraid. It was like flying through dusk - pleasant and sweet, but to continue flying into it meant having to fly into the night. She would be digested in its dazzling darkness. If she continued to let herself fall into this unknown darkness, she would recklessly fly into all sorts of boundaries and mechanisms that kept her safe and sane. And these jagged glass tunnels of darkness would indelibly rip her innocence and dignity.
She just felt too deeply. She could feel herself falling too deeply into him, at the same time she was barricading herself from him. It was like building a moat full of crocodiles around a sinking island: pointless, and ready to come back and nip the back of your heel. But she would still do it nonetheless.
Falling in love with him was like flying into glass windows and exploding.
To like him, she had to let go of herself. But to fly through complete darkness was inexplicably self-demolishing.
That was just her. When she flew, she flew with all her might and passion and self - she could not control her omnipotent emotions.
It was a sweet curse to blindly fly so deep into the night. And it killed her.
#challenge: What if... birds blew up when they hit windows?
If birds blew up when they flew into windows...
Instead of a gentle chriping and pale blue sky, we would wake up to fireworks in the sky and enormous vibrations. If birds blew up as the flew into windows,the world could be a better place. Hell, we could be safer from terrorists as we would develop metals that the birds could not erupt. But then again, I suppose, those who wish to inflict evil on the world would find a way to create stronger and more deadly weapons. An entirely different reality would emit as the sweet tweets of birds turn into battle cries and horror. Perhaps the birds would be used as weapons themselves. Ostriches would be bred and forced to run straight into walls, canaries would be sent as gifts in delicate cages only to detonate in the arms of a hopeful child. Guts and gore would cover the city as feathers rained down from the sky and the ashes fluttered off the ground.
Bye-Bye Birdie
Oh, Gosh! Not only would that be extremely terrifying, but could you imagine the mess? Blood and guts everywhere. Also, the sound. The bird would, probably, know instantly, as it headed towards the window, that they'd screwed up. Could you imagine the noise it would make as the bird felt its body being torn apart into a thousand little pieces? It's just so disturbing to think about.
Boom Man
Since the beginning of time, humans have gazed up to the sky and wondered, "What the hell was that bird doing?"
Bird training has a long and rich history, though it is worth noting that the most renowned bird demolition experts died in fiery explosions. For centuries, the bird demolition field hit a dead end, and the most anyone expected out of a carrier pigeon was a self-destructing message.
But, in recent years, one man has revolutionized the field of bird demolition. From a young age, "Boom Man" Richard Pryce found birds drawn to him.
"I dunno, there was just something about me," he said in an interview. "I would, you know, be outside playing, and I'd look up, and then just... Just birds, everywhere in the yard. Like, sparrows, crows, robins, cardinals, swans, geese... Just an amazing number and variety of birds."
When asked how he came to be involved in the bird demolitions field, he replied, with a bit of self-deprecating laughter, "I dunno, I guess I got really tired of seeing all these birds following me. I mean, I'd go outside, and if I stood still for ten minutes, BANG! I'd be covered in feathers. Cause they'd just get really excited, you know? And they'd start flying around, and sooner or later, one of them would just, just fly into a window or something. And, you know, that was when I figured out that these birds, these amazing birds, they would explode if they flew into each other hard enough. That's a trade secret. Not everyone knows that, but it's true."
'Boom Man' Richard Pryce has become famous for his work in the field of pyrotechnics, namely for his use of an exploding flock of sparrows.
"Yeah, the Shooting Sparrow. That was the first firebird I ever came up with. I must've been, oh, eight or so when I came up with it. It happened when I saw the most amazing sight. I saw this huge, absolutely huge flock just way up high, kind of wheeling around. And they saw me, so the next thing, you know, BOOM! This massive explosion, from all these birds just... just banging into each other. I was cleaning bird bits out of my hair for a week! But yeah, that really got me thinking."
When asked how he made the jump from bird demolition to pyrotechnics, Pryce had only one thing to say:
"I mean, what else was I going to do with a bunch of exploding birds? Eat them?"
Poof
"Quickly, stick some black tape on the window." shouted John. The news channel was reporting many strange incidencices where birds were exploding when they hit people's windows.
"It's a news scam John, that's stupid. Birds just smash into windows and fall to the ground limp and dead. Nothing new." Sally said. Sally is John's sarcastic teenage sister.
"Last time when a bird hit the window it cracked it.We live in the woods. Do you really want to risk it?" John asked.
"Do whatever you want. I don't care." Sally rolled her eyes.
"Of course you don't care. You never do." John said annoyed. He ran to the garage to grab some black tape and stretched it across the window in their kitchen. Sally walked into the kitchen to get some cold pizza they had bought when they went into town last night.
Just as John was going to cut the tape. A black bullet darted towards them from a distance. John backed away from the window and screamed.
"Sally look! Th-The bird is coming right towards –,"John shut his eyes tight waiting for the thunk.
"What just happened?" Sally stared shocked. Her eyes were open the whole time. She couldn't explain what she say. The bird zoomed closer and closer to the window but the second before it hit, it went POOF. The only thing left of the bird was one black feather. It was now falling peacefully towards the ground.
"The bird just disappeared." Sally told John.
"I told you birds explode." exclaimed John. The two siblings rushed outside to go make sure there wasn't a cold dead bird laying outside.
When they got to the spot outisde their window, nothing was there, except for a perfect black feather.
"This feather symbolizeds something." Sally pondered.
"What does it mean." John asked confused.
"Hope." It was simple.
Crash.
It was a relatively big bird this time, about pigeon sized. Smaller birds, such as sparrows would just leave a tiny splat mark. You know, kind of like when you throw an egg. The bigger ones, though, they can be quite problematic.
Jerry sighed as he heard the crash, slowly folding his newspaper. The more time he took to put the paper away bought time until he had to go assess the damage. He looked the window over, sure there was steam coming out of his ears. With a frustrated sigh, he called down the hall, "Damn it! We need to replace the window again."