The premise is intense: a war among the nation’s most formidable armies over possession of a desperately-needed vaccine.

But initially, the story looked like a real cry for help, posted to Reddit from an island near Argentina…

A lab tech screaming for help because the Chinese navy was landing troops on his remote area in order to steal a breakthrough vaccine…

It was hard to believe, but believe people did. It circulated widely, and once the internet understood it was just the opening salvo of a flashfiction piece, it didn’t lose steam, it gathered it.

Now Amazon is in the running to take a piece of writing from a Reddit post and turn it into an amazing movie: a World War III spectacular called THE HEARTBEAT WAR.

The setup is that a new virus has overtaken the world, causing a series of terrible symptoms: intense and overwhelming depression, then paralysis, then a comatose state before the victim succumbs to death.

There is only one vaccine on Earth, and no time to share with the world.

Each phase in the very short story is highly dramatic–but a new problem has presented itself: the website Reddit is claiming rights to the story alongside the author, and demanding not only payment, but is specifically requesting that Amazon begin promoting a line of Reddit branded items, and not just T-shirts and fridge magnets, either. The Reddit merchandise they are insisting on includes everything from toasters and hairdryers, pool equipment, dog collars and pet toys, jewelry and makeup lines, landline telephones, kitchen tables and cabinetry, and even Reddit-stamped fine China.

Naturally, Amazon balked at the request, particularly the demand that these products fill the first page anyone sees on Amazon for at least 1 year in return for rights to THE HEARTBEAT WAR.

Yet Reddit is not backing down.

As of today, they have enlisted their enormous readership to continue their fight with an email campaign, and they’ve issued a new demand.

As part of the deal for the movie rights to THE HEARTBEAT WAR, this is their additional, un-turn-downable request…

Jeff Bezos has to appear in a six-episode sitcom series written by his own employees.

Amazon is reportedly ready to agree.

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For the actually-quite-interesting flashfiction story, look below at the post, or just click on the link at the bottom that’s highlighted: