It wasn't.

I wasn't sure where it went, but the wet puddle on the floor and the empty bottle of Jack beside me had something to do with it. Of that I was sure. It was the only thing I could be sure of right now other than I would be late for my shift in the meme mines if I waited any longer.

People think memes come from content creators. That's...true, but not how you think it is. We dig 'em up and toss them on the Internet. They find their way to people and then they're out in the world. Millions of them, every day. Most are worthless, or useless these days. Grandma Finds the Internet and First Day on the Internet Kid were early strikes, you can still find one or two sticking out of the ribs every now and then. Internet is Tubes was a massive vein, but it was only one and ran out quick. You'd find Wat? mixed in and have to throw the entire day's ore out. The first big strike, however, was Lolcats. Those things were everywhere, we chased them down tunnels. There were so many different ones, they were hot fires of fun in a cold pan of water...but we hit nyancat shortly after. Those ran out quick. After that? We found a huge vein of advice animals. All kinds, bears, seals, black man, dogs, ducks, asian man, even dinosaurs. Those ran for what seemed like forever. Heady days, we dumped thousands of those an hour on the Internet. Piles of the them, even the broken ones went as quick as we could upload. I can't even tell you how long that was, we still find them.

But then it changed. Different kinds. Pepperidge Farm Remembers, Kermit Drinking Tea, some of them even moved as you looked at them. Gifs...how did they get here? But then, we came across something so rich, so varied, so intense, that we don't even see an end. Frogs. Rare Pepes. They stretch on forever. No matter how many we dig out, there's more. All different kinds. You won't run across a repeat for days, months...they dance in front of you...carrying their wine glasses and wearing hazmat suits. The Internet is insatiable, it takes everything we can give it and demands more. We've added shifts, opened new tunnels, but it's not enough. The upvotes roll in like golden dollar coins from heaven. The geologists say we may be digging these up for the rest of our lives.

Oh sure, you still find other ones. Disaster Girl, Distracted Boyfriend, and even a Bro Not Cool now and then.

But those frogs. They're making us rich men. May the Pepe continue forever.

Sometimes, maybe just once in a lifetime, there's a time when you're under an enormous amout of stress. It's not just the pressures of life, but a time when everything seems to just stop, and go the other direction, leaving you where you stand. You lose your edge and get thrown back into the forge. The heat of the flames is unlike anything you've experienced, you lay there melting and flowing until someone - or something - pulls you out and starts to hammer a new edge on you. Some break, shattering their mental state into shards of useless insanity. But some, some come out sharper. Different in ways that they never imagined. Life almost starts over.

I knew I was in the fire, but I didn't know something was about to pull me out. It was my time to be reforged...

So they pulled me, the Turkey, out of the oven, and looked upon my skin, glistening with fat.

Looks good, don't it? I bet Darlene and the kids are gonna love this.

And I, the glistening, roasted, well-seasoned turkey, began to realize that death was not the end for me.

I was born in a factory farm, for the Thanks Giving Holiday.

I was sold in a Walmart, for the Thanks Giving Holiday.

And God would not Let me Die, despite being Burnt Alive,

For the Thanks Giving Holiday,

I would have my Vengeance.

Your wine aunt?

I stuffed my wing down her through.

Drunk uncle?

I replaced his eye sockets with my giblets,

And now we are left with you.

Look at how hungry you are,

And how tasty and suicidal I am,

And I can shove myself into your mouth,

Wishbone and all,

And you will choke without any gravy.