Note: This is posted “as is”, no editing or proof reading involved, as part of the 30 Shorts In 30 Days project. During April I will be attempting to write and post a new short story everyday.

  They say that the first kill is the hardest, and that after that it gets easier. They also say that the more kills you make, the sloppier you get. The longer you keep going, the more chance there is of getting caught. So I thought, what the hell, go   for broke on the first time out.

  Planning a murder is really difficult. No matter what anyone tries to tell you, it’s really, really hard. The problem isn’t how to kill someone, that’s easy. Pick up any blunt object and hit them around the head, job done. Killing is easy, it’s murder that’s hard. The difference is subtle, but it’s worth noting. You see, murder is taking another human life and that’s something that you have to be comfortable with. The other hard part is getting away with it.

  But as I say, the more times you kill, the more chance you have of getting caught. So you have to kill lots in sporadic bursts. At least, that was my thinking and it seems to be working so far. The problem with killing lots of people in one go, if you’re wanting to get away with it, is you have to not be there. And that’s the tricky part. Thankfully though, we have the libraries and newspapers. I stay away from the internet, because internet searches can be monitored. But a little research, a little lateral thinking, and a little luck, and you can apply your art.

  The little research was looking into diseases and poisons, if you’re going to kill without being there, disease and poison are the best bet. The lateral thinking, that was working out how to distribute it without anyone figuring out you did it. And the luck? That was getting hold of the disease, you see you can’t just wander down to the local pharmacy and pick up a vial of something moderately deadly. Which is where the newspapers come in. Most serious diseases aren’t in the wild here anymore, nor in any developed country with a decent health care system. So you have to watch the papers, especially the international news. And when you find an outbreak, you book a flight.
Getting the disease back isn’t actually as difficult as you’d think, find someone with it, get a blood sample, mix it in with some soda, seal it in a beer bottle and bring it back in your checked luggage. A lot easier than you’d think.

  You can’t use just any disease though, you have to be careful. If you chose something too deadly, everyone dies. There’s even a chance that it will spread and cause an epidemic, and you might catch it yourself. The best sort to go for is something that won’t always kill, but usually just makes people feel a little ill. That way, it’s harder for people pinpoint the source too.

  Then, there’s distribution. You can’t walk up to people and inject them, you have to use your head. The method I came up with was elegantly simple really, all I did was dilute it into water and put it into a mister bottle. With a little bit of tweaking, it was possible to have the spray pipe run up my sleeve and out the wrist, while the trigger was in my pocket. And then, I went shopping.

  One of the great things about supermarkets is that there are a lot of them, and they have a lot of people going through them. A visit to one, and a wander through the fruit and vegetable aisle liberally spraying, and then off to the next one. In one day I was able to visit eight supermarkets. I’ve no idea how many people I managed to infect, but looking at newspapers and the obituaries I know that on my first outing I caused a rather nasty outbreak that killed ten and put a further twenty in hospital.
The second time out, I diluted it less and spread out the choice of supermarkets. Twenty deaths and a further thirty in hospital.

  And then the police got involved, they started to look in the fruit and vegetable suppliers, they started at contamination sources from the suppliers. So I’ve changed what I do.

  A bit of research, a bit of lateral thinking, and a bit of luck, and this time I think I might hit the magic one hundred mark