Lemmings

The Midnight Article "LEMMINGS: A PEEK AT HUMAN EVOLUTION, OR A PORTENT OF EXTINCTION?" was written by u/existential_risk_lol and posted to r/MidnightPaper.

The text of the post and Article was as follows:

July 26th Something really weird happened last night and I thought I'd better write it down before I forget about it.

I was minding my own business, eating microwave pasta out of the packet (yes, I'm an unemployed student, how did you ever guess) when there was a knock at the door of our flat. Now, as a broke university student, I share a flat (not quite enough to qualify as an apartment) with an equally broke roommate. We're on the third floor, and our door is at the end of a long hall. So anyone knocking on our door would've had to trudge up three flights of stairs and right to the end of the hall. I couldn't imagine many people doing that this close to midnight.

Of course, Robbie (my roommate) didn't wake up. That asshole slept through a 5.9 magnitude earthquake and didn't even fucking stir, so I got up from my laptop, bleary-eyed, and went to the door. Outside, on the hallway's threadbare carpet was a newspaper. Not some run of the mill Herald or The Sun, but a weird, almost black newspaper. Bold, almost gothic type was emblazoned across the top.

THE MIDNIGHT PAPER

Instinctively, I knew Robbie hadn't ordered it. My idiot roommate could barely make toast - no way he'd order some serious newspaper like this. I looked down the hallway, and here's the weird thing: nobody was there.

I feel stupid even writing this. Surely there must've been, and my exhausted mind just didn't register the encounter. I mean, what kind of newspaper delivery boy clears a hundred meters of hallway in about five seconds? I hadn't seen Usain Bolt around, and newspapers don't appear from thin air, do they?

I was too tired to read it right then and there, so I slotted it into the bottom drawer of my bedside cabinet. Tomorrow, I told myself, it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

As I was in the murky, half-blurred realm between dozing and full sleep, another weird thought hit me: if I had been awake, I'd have been scared out of my wits.

I didn't order that paper either.

July 27th.

I waited until Robbie left for his Cultural Arts class before I opened the Midnight Paper. I couldn't explain why, even to myself; it was like a part of me wanted to keep it a secret, make it personal to me only. I had a decent reputation with my Statistics professor, so I knew a sick day off wouldn't be remarked upon.

I listened for Robbie's footfalls to recede, and sat around for fifteen minutes or so to make sure he didn't come back to get something. Once I was certain he'd definitely gone, I slid the bottom drawer opening and took out the paper.

The first thing I thought was, this doesn't feel like paper. I couldn't scrunch it up:, its pages were smooth and seemingly impervious to any wrinkles or rips. The paper also felt as if it exuded some sort of energy; the tips of my fingers seemed to tingle and buzz under the paper's weight, like a pleasant version of pins and needles.

In true newspaper fashion, the headline was suitably large, although its content seems a little out of place:

LEMMINGS: A PEEK AT HUMAN EVOLUTION, OR A PORTENT OF EXTINCTION?

I had my doubts. What kind of newspaper prints National Geographic-esque stories? Why are lemmings on the front page? Regardless, I read it.

(Note, August 17 or 18? The next few paragraphs may imply I had something to do with the state the world is currently in. I put this here so anyone who finds this journal knows that I just read the paper. I had about as much idea as anyone else that this was going to go down. Don’t shoot the messenger.)

“Mankind has spread across the earth, colonizing every corner of its surface, or so we like to think. In the northern parts of our planet, a small rodent-like creature known as a lemming dwells in cool forests. A well-known part of lemming behaviour is that of ‘Following The Leader’ wherein a train of lemmings follows another on a migration, usually caused by population expansion. Similarly, man follows man across the globe, migrating and taming any piece of nature they find to make it suitable for them. Another well-known thing, or rumour, about lemmings is that they will throw themselves over cliffs at bodies of water, in their thousands due to some strange animal instinct. Such an odd pattern of mass suicide is frankly a complete fiction; lemmings have never been observed to do so. Neither have humans.

But where do us humans migrate when there’s nowhere else to go?

This correspondent isn’t sure - after all, we are just newspaper writers and journalists. What on earth do we know about anything? Surely making doom-and-gloom reports about lemmings and humans in a mass suicide pact is simply the stuff of fiction. Or perhaps...not.

Weird shit, I thought to myself. Mass suicide, vaguely ominous wording. Must be some arsehole editor's clever idea for a joke. I opened the bathroom window, took a run up, and threw the paper through the window. Closing it triumphantly, I tried to get on with the day.

Outta sight, outta mind, I reasoned, no need to get worked up over some stupid prank.

And yet, for the rest of the day, I couldn't shake the irrepressible fear that something was about to go very wrong.

July 28th

School's closed off today. After this morning's suicide, I can't blame the authorities. I can barely believe it myself. Seth Markham was the star of the basketball team. As far as we know, his parents were lovely people, he had a great relationship with his girlfriend, and the college basketball team had just won the county playoffs. He was, by all accounts, the happiest kid on campus.

Which is why everyone is mystified by the fact that he apparently just walked straight off his seventh-floor balcony, in full view of his roommate, Dougie Trent.

Dougie's a decent guy; he's on the cross-country team, and decently successful. He's a little quiet, but still sociable enough. After the accident, though, he sat in the paramedics' tent, shaking and mumbling to himself. I guess seeing your friend and roommate turn himself into gravity-powered ravioli will do that to you.

That'd be that, usually: a tragic suicide, a promising young man dead, and a sad day for all involved. However, there is one spanner in the works, a fucking terrifying spanner. If I hadn't gone down to see Dougie, I'd have been lucky enough to have never known.

Dougie was still gibbering to himself when I got to the paramedics' tent. A stern-faced nurse, with a shock of iron-grey hair and a vaguely bulldog-ish look stood next to his chair, glancing at him every now and then.

'Hey there, Dougie.' I ventured, my voice quavering slightly. How the hell was I supposed to talk to him?

Dougie mumbled something and carried on humming, apparently oblivious to my presence.

'He's in shock, kid. Best you say a little something and get on back to your room, okay?' the nurse says, rather patronisingly.

I flick her a quick glare and refocus on Dougie. My mind's pretty much blank at this point: there are only so many empty platitudes I can echo.

'Hey, uh, Dougie? Really sorry about what happened to Seth. You should know that it's not your fault. Hope you get better soon, dude.'

The overbearing nurse makes a snobby, flick of her hand movement, indicating that I should get lost. Cringing at my awkwardness, I turn to go, and that's when Dougie says the word that changes my life forever.

'Lemmings.' Dougie whispers, so quietly that I barely hear it.

I whirl around on the spot.

'What did you say, Dougie?' I reply, trying to keep my voice level.

'Lemmings.' Dougie croaks, but it's louder than before, and the nurse picks up on it too.

'Get lost, you're agitating him!' snaps the nurse.

'LEMMINGS!' screams Dougie. I turn on my heels and run, run back to student accommodation, up to the third floor and securely in room.

Jesus Harold Christ. Dougie's gone round the twist, Seth's spattered across the campus courtyard, and that bloody paper said something about mass suicide...

On a whim, I open the bottom drawer of my bedside table.

The Midnight Paper is sitting in the middle of the drawer, unruffled, and completely undamaged.

Description:

The "Lemmings" phenomenon is a Trend-Type Oddity. It appears to be a form or "contagious" mass suicide that spreads from person to person through unknown means. An affected individual will seemingly walk off the edge of a tall structure (like a building or a cliff) in an attempt to end his or her life. This act is similar to the urban legend that massive groups of lemmings, small rodents, follow a "leader" off the edge of a cliff to their deaths.

"Leader:"

Like the common misconception about lemmings, it appears that the Lemmings suicide trend starts with one individual, with many "following" him or her by replicating their method of suicide.

In the case of the online post, the anonymous user reported that one of his roommates, Seth, was the first to commit suicide by walking off a seventh-floor balcony. After that, it appears that another roommate of his, Doug, was inflicted by the same unknown condition.

Unlike the common misconception about the rodents, however, an individual afflicted by the "Lemmings" suicide trend does not immediately follow the "leader" as he or she walks off the edge of a building. It appears that whatever mental process leads to this suicide trend takes a few days.

Effects on the Mind:

It is not known exactly when Seth began experiencing the mental symptoms of contracting the "Lemmings" suicide trend. However, given that the Midnight Paper that contained the Article in question was delivered on July 26th and that Seth's suicide occurred on the morning of July 28th, the process is disturbingly quick.

We know, from Doug's outburst in the hospital, that an individual who has contracted this unknown condition will be aware of the misconception about lemmings. Doug shouted the word "lemmings" repeatedly, though it is not known if his repetition of the word is part of the symptoms of the condition or if he was simply trying to warn or explain to the anonymous poster about what is happening.

It is also not known whether Seth or Doug read the Article in question but, given how the online user stated that he hid it in a drawer, it is probable that they never read it. If Doug never read the Article, it is very likely that part of this condition involves thoughts or ideas being forced into the mind of an "infected" individual.

Doug may have begun experiencing intrusive thoughts or visions that made him associate Seth's suicide with the lemmings misconception, though it is not known exactly what these thoughts may have been. It is possible that Doug saw himself following Seth off the edge of the building, and thus associated what was happening with the urban legend about lemmings. It is also possible, however, that part of this unknown condition involves "seeing" visions of the small rodents themselves committing mass suicide.

Prognosis:

We know, from Seth's fate, that an afflicted individual will commit suicide between 54 and 60 hours after initially contracting it. Given the misconception about lemmings, it appears that the method of suicide will be the same: walking off a tall structure and plummeting to one's death.

After one individual succumbs to this condition, they will then "pass" it to other people in their immediate vicinity. In Seth's case, he passed the condition to Doug, his roommate. It is possible that an affected individual will always pass the condition to people close to their living quarters, such as family members or even neighbors. These people will then go into shock and will have public outbursts that will most likely get them committed.

Transmission:

How this Lemmings condition is transmitted is a mystery. However, given the fact that Doug's first symptoms were purely psychological in nature (there were no physical symptoms such as coughing or sneezing) it is safe to assume that this condition is purely psychological in nature. The method of transmission, then, might simply rely on a Midnight Paper containing the Lemmings Article being read, as if the information itself is contagious. It is, however, odd that the reader of the Midnight Article in question was not the first one to contract the condition.

It may also be possible that the Midnight Paper was simply warning its recipient of a condition that was about to appear in their immediate vicinity. In this case, finding out how Seth contracted it is next to impossible with the limited information available about his whereabouts and activities shortly before his death.

What is almost a certainty, however, is that a suicide is needed in order to "transmit" the condition from one person to the next. Like lemmings, a "leader" is being followed off the edge of a cliff or tall structure. The first person, the "leader," must actually go through the act of purposely jumping to their death for another person to follow in their footsteps.

Origin:

The "Lemmings" condition's origins are entirely a mystery. However, given the fact that a Midnight Paper is involved, it may be possible that reading the Article itself brought the condition into existence. The Article itself does not describe the condition in detail. It does not, for example, detail how one mysterious suicide was found, then another, then another, leading to a mass suicide chain being discovered. The Article seems to hint at humanity as a whole following in the footsteps of the lemmings urban legend. This hint may indeed be the "seed" of this condition, and reading the Article's text and processing its information is all that is required to bring the condition into existence.

Without more information, however, this is merely speculation.

UPDATE:

On October 10th, 2020, u/existential_risk_lol posted an update to the Lemmings Article.

The text of the update was as follows:

August 4th

Okay, I know it’s been a while. Things have gotten pretty bad here at school; I’m not sure how much longer I can stay here. But, I’ve figured out what this suicide thing is, and how it spreads.

Seth’s death was the catalyst, really. Given that he was pretty famous in our little town (as high school sports stars usually are) there was a whole hullabaloo on social media. People commemorating him, paying respects, that kind of thing. Dougie Trent, who as Seth’s roommate directly witnessed his leap into oblivion, died the next day; the deaths aren’t limited solely to falling off objects. He and his mother were at the train station, and according to the police report he got this faraway look in his eyes, wasn’t responding to anything anyone said, and calmly stepped in front of a train. It was pretty hushed up, unlike Seth’s death - I really had to twist arms to get that scant paragraph report on his death.

The third suicide, however, changed everything.

Lewis Ablett-May was, if possible, even more popular than Seth. He was the star striker on the university soccer team, and everyone knew he was good friends with Seth’s big brother, Johnny. Lewis’ soccer team had actually made state finals this year, and he himself was a regional champion in clay pigeon-shooting. Well, according to Johnny, Lewis started missing practice, and his mother didn’t see him on the night of July 30th. As well as that, a few of the people who had been Seth’s closest pals on social media started disappearing: deleting numbers from contact lists, ghosting other friends and even bailing on real social gatherings. Mrs. Trent went missing; a neighbor came round in the morning and found a window smashed, the door locked from the inside.

However, this is getting away from the main article of the piece here.

At around 4AM, August 1st, a long-haul trucker was having a smoke break at a rural gas station  when he noticed a rustling from the bushes behind the store. Taking his shotgun, he was surprised to see a young man, bleeding, crouched on his haunches. Upon noticing the trucker, the kid darted at him: the trucker, scared witless, dropped his shotgun. The young man picked it up, and… well, that’s how the story of Lewis Ablett-May came to an abrupt end.

It was a pretty high-profile death. It was on the county news, all over social media, it even ran as part of an anti-suicide campaign in our county. I started to have misgivings; everyone who had seen the deaths on social media were vanishing, Mrs. Trent was missing and presumed dead, and now one of the deaths was plastered over the county news, raising awareness of the suicides from a couple hundred to tens of thousands of people.

As you can imagine, it all went downhill from there.

A large city about ten miles from my town had a sudden outbreak of ‘rioting’ on the evening before last when a man had allegedly knocked a police officer to the ground, and subsequently shot. There were several homicides reported in the outer boroughs of the town, and of course, the suicides ramped up. A load of kids didn’t appear for class the next day, and we were informed that our Latin teacher, Ms. Rand, had ‘taken leave.’ It took me awhile to remember that Ms. Rand’s daughter had gone missing - it was in the paper.

Clearly, people who had been close to or learned about the deaths were going insane and killing themselves; it would explain the deaths of the immediate family and friends of the first casualties, as well as the ‘rioting’ immediately after Lewis’ suicide. What I couldn’t figure out was why I wasn’t affected. I’d been in close contact with Dougie, and seen both Seth and Lewis’s memorial posts on the internet: by rights, I should be dead, or crazy. The only thing I can think of is the Midnight Paper; by reading it, had I immunized myself against this epidemic of craziness? Or had the paper itself caused it? Had I activated the whole thing by reading that creepy article?

These questions still chase themselves around my brain at night. God, I’m terrified.

August 6th

Right. Today’s the day I get the hell outta Dodge. Robbie’s already gone, and the school board are ‘quarantining’ the place tomorrow. This epidemic of craziness is probably spreading over the national news as I write.

Yesterday, our town’s police constable, Constable Wilkes, gave an address to the news networks about the spate of deaths and suicides surrounding our town. (At my last count, it was 47, but more people could be affected by now). Wilkes was a close friend of the Ablett-Mays, and his distracted behaviour around town was chalked up to grief over a close friend’s death. He was very clearly in the grasp of whatever this insanity plague was, if it was even a plague. He kept looking at the sky, losing focus, staring just off camera: Little things that you’d never notice unless you were watching specifically for them.

“Our duty is to, to, um, protect. Protect the people of this town.” he’d said. Then he gave a little shudder, and started convulsing. The shouts of alarm from the assembled crowd were raised, and a couple of people approached the lectern. Wilkes then stood up, straight as a board and cleared his throat. A camera on the side of the stage caught him flicking the safety off of his police-issued pistol.

“Excuse me, folks, I've just got to take care of something.” Wilkes said pleasantly, and promptly shot himself in the fucking head.

The concussive force of the bullet practically caved the side of Wilkes' head in. Blood spattered everywhere - it was pretty bloody obvious that he was stone dead. Hundreds of people witnessed it in person, and hundreds of thousands, maybe millions all across the United States will be watching it on their TV screens tonight. I wouldn't be surprised if they managed to make it into an international news piece, and if that happens, we're all completely screwed.

My parents live in an eco-friendly cottage on the other side of the US, on an isolated patch of farmland in Oregon: I've called ahead to tell them that I'll be coming over for a few days, that I'm perfectly fine and to not, under any circumstances, look at the television or radio, just cut off contact with everyone they knew. I said I didn't have time to explain and that they'd just have to trust me - God, I hope they listen.

It didn't take long to pack up what little I had in my flat: my laptop, a few sentimental items, some canned food and bottled water, and a pillow in case I had to sleep in the car. The Midnight Paper I left in the bottom drawer of the bedside cabinet: hopefully when the place is quarantined it'll be left alone forever.

I transferred everything to the car in the evening, hoping to travel by night: if I'm right, and people do start going insane and killing others and themselves, I sure as hell don't want to be seen. My Honda sedan is a dark navy blue, so it'll blend right in. Thank God for small mercies.

I set off, out of the campus gate and towards the highway, heading west. Fumbling for the map I keep stored in the glovebox, my hands brush something light. Something… soft.

The Midnight Paper sits there quietly, terrifyingly, wedged into my glovebox as easily as if I'd placed it there myself.

Updated Description:

On August 4th, the online poster provided more information that helps us better understand the Lemmings phenomenon.

They explained that Seth's suicide was indeed the "catalyst" that started the trend. Seth appears to have been the "leader" that was alluded to in the parallel of the lemmings misconception. Given the fact that Seth was immensely popular, it appears that his suicide was particularly far reaching. After his death, a spate of suicides followed.

The next suicide to be reported was that of Dougie Trent, Seth and the online poster's roommate. Instead of taking his life by jumping off of a tall building, however, Dougie walked off a subway platform and into the path of an oncoming train.

The third suicide in the Lemmings trend was that of Lewis Ablett-May. The online poster described him as even more well-known and well-liked than Seth had been. Shortly after Seth's suicide, however, it appeared that everyone in Seth's social circle began erasing their phone's contacts, avoiding friends' messages, and not attending social events.

It was then that Dougie's mother appeared to have vanished, leaving behind only a locked door and a window broken from the inside.

Lewis was found shortly after that by a trucker who, upon seeing something bloody by the side of the road, approached it with his shotgun. Lewis then took the trucker's gun and shot himself with it, continuing the Lemmings suicide trend.

This latest suicide escalated public awareness of the trend, with it being reported on widely in both social media and as part of a suicide awareness campaign. It appears that this increased awareness actually worsened the trend, as seemingly anyone who learned about the suicides became "infected," succumbing to the strange trend themselves. Most people who became aware of the suicides vanished. It can be inferred that they took their own lives.

Seth's position as the "leader" had been what led Lewis to take his own life, but Lewis appeared to have a larger effect. The news of his death was so widely circulated that the awareness of the trend went from only people who knew Lewis personally to thousands of people who watched and read the news.

Rioting, homicides, and suicides skyrocketed. It is not known if the rioting and homicides in question were also attempted suicides, as "suicide by cop" is a well established phenomenon, and the homicides may have come about as the result of someone being so entranced by the Lemmings trend that they will attack and kill anyone who attempts to stop them from taking their own lives.

The trend escalated to the point that the Constable of the online poster's town shot himself in the head on live television. This, of course, made even more people aware of the trend as his suicide was talked about on news reports throughout the nation and, eventually, the world.

The online poster retreated to a cabin owned by their parents in an attempt to escape the growing Lemmings trend, only to discover that the Midnight Paper had somehow appeared in the glove compartment.