Monster Monday: Puppeteer's Plague

You see the infected and dead twitching their way, almost dancing through the streets. Their bodies are no longer their own and seem to be puppeteer-ed by some unknown force. You see no strings, but their limbs jerk exactly like a marionette and their jaws are pulled open unnaturally to wail and sing in an unearthly mimicry.

The disease is a mycosis, caused by some sort of fungal infection that reaches the brain and forces it to perform in such a way. The skin begins to be covered in lesions and the muscles are quickly worn beyond use as they are forced to perform. While the fungus is a perfectly natural explanation, it does not explain why groups of the infected tend to congregate and perform almost choreographed puppetry movements. It seems as if some extra force is controlling the hapless victims.

The disease appears to continue even after the infected is dead. It should be said that it is not known if they are actually dead, but their flesh is so mortified and infected that by all appearances they should be dead. There body continues to move and jerk involuntarily while likely being controlled by their inflamed brain until their body literally falls apart from the use and stress. Their eyes and head will continue to act from the fungus even while completely detached from the rest of the body. Only through fire will the movement cease.

Inspired by a number of dancing diseases thought to be caused by ergotism as well as other diseases thought to be actually mass hysteria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_plague_of_1518 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydenham%27s_chorea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika_laughter_epidemic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergotism