"The Virus"

- FULL VERSION -

The Virus is a thing that haunts the mind of every human, for good or ill. It has been known to kill its host in just a few minutes and leave nothing but their corpse behind. It can also take a form similar to a dog, with sharp teeth and nails as long as fingers. It’s almost impossible to detect it, unless you are looking for something specifically. A virus is like an infection; they change your body and make it more susceptible to disease. And it only seems to occur when one has a significant amount of blood loss and/or infection. In the end, no one truly knows what causes the plague. However, it does seem to be the reason why so many people have died around the world over the course of recent history. The cause? No one is really sure. They have all heard rumours, some of which seem more ridiculous than others. For example, they say that someone accidentally ate an infected dog and the disease took over his or her entire body. Other times, they claim that an infected woman in another country committed suicide by having sex with an infected man, who was now infecting her with the same disease. Some people say that there are two types of infected individuals, which will attack each other and then multiply until enough have infected every person on Earth. The worst thing about these stories, though, is that they don’t always happen to people. Sometimes, the virus is caused by an accident and sometimes it attacks on purpose. And even if none of these stories happened in real life, there is still the possibility that something might happen to someone who has too much infection in their system, who can’t fight back against the infection.
The first outbreak occurred in Japan in 2004. A young girl from Kobe was walking home from school when she heard a noise coming from an alleyway nearby. She walked into the alleyway but didn’t find anything unusual, until she noticed that the walls were covered in thick blood stains. The blood had dried up by this time but the smell made it obvious that this was no ordinary blood. Someone had been dead inside the walls. The next day, there were a number of people in front of the Tokyo Police Department. People were screaming and pointing at the wall. “It’s that damn virus again! Don’t let it touch me. Don’t look at it!” “Don’t come near me! Keep away! I don’t want to die!” “My daughter… my baby girl! My precious little baby. Where is my baby girl?!”
The police tried to calm down the people and explained the facts of the situation to them. “Please, everyone calm down. We have found nothing suspicious yet, but we do not know whether this is a result of a normal virus or an infected individual. You need to cooperate and let us do our job.” They went around the building and looked for any signs of violence, anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately, there was nothing of note. One officer said to him, “I think we should put some officers around the buildings to prevent anyone from getting close to here”. He agreed and sent out his team.
It was late evening. As the night was approaching, the people became more nervous. Their hearts beat faster and sweat trickled down their faces. Many more people had already passed out due to fear, including those who were standing right next to the police cars. At around ten o'clock, the police came back with three bodies in body bags. After the third body bag opened, a group of people started chanting the word ‘no’ loudly. They refused to believe the truth. But no matter how hard they pushed, there was no way the police could convince them otherwise. The body bags disappeared and everyone was left speechless and frozen in fear.
When the media arrived at the scene the following morning, it turned out that there were two different kinds of victims:
One kind of victim, the ‘infected person', was a young man wearing a suit and tie. There were no cuts on his face, apart from a small cut near his nose. He appeared very clean and seemed healthy. His eyes were open and he did not react to anything that was happening around him. The second victim, a middle aged man was completely naked, with numerous wounds scattered across his body and a large bite mark on his lower abdomen. His clothes were ripped off completely and several of his ribs showed clearly through his skin. There was an angry looking puncture wound on his upper thigh and several cuts that ran the length of his torso. His hair had been shaved completely off except for a couple of curls above his head. Two of his fingers were missing. His hands, arms, and legs had been ripped off entirely, along with most of his organs. Even some of his facial skin had been peeled off completely. All in all, he had suffered a horrific and gruesome death. And judging by the wounds, this wasn’t a normal death. This type of death had never been witnessed before. There was no trace of poison or bacteria. There was also no evidence of struggle either, aside from blood on his fingernails and under his fingernails. When asked what kind of weapon had killed him, there was no response from the victims themselves.
The police managed to piece together what had happened after the first body had been discovered. The infected person had attacked one of the guards and bitten him. Afterwards, he fled the building and got lost somewhere in the city. The victim's colleagues found him in an abandoned factory, lying beside some rubbish bins. The first guard had been stabbed in the neck and throat. After a while, the second guard succumbed as well. Only the guard with the puncture wound was left. He had escaped during the struggle, although his bloodstains remained. He was found a week later outside in the streets, still alive but barely conscious.
This incident had been dubbed the ‘Blood Count Incident’ because of the amount of victims it took to complete it. More than fifty people had been injured in this incident alone. Most of the injuries were severe, but a fair share of the victims died relatively easily. The number of murders increased dramatically. By the middle of 2014, there was an estimated twenty million deaths. Of this figure, less than one percent of the victims were directly involved in the event.
In 2014, Japan went on a hunger strike, which was followed by an antiwar protest organised by the public in protest against the government and the armed forces for failing to stop the epidemic. During these protests, thousands of people joined the protests, including women, children, elderly, sick and injured persons alike. Although these protests were unsuccessful, the hunger strikes continued and continued.
By the end of 2015, nearly half of the country’s population was infected. Over 100,000 people had died, more than one hundred thousand had died of infections.
There was another outbreak in 2009. It took place in Brazil. This time, more people perished. Thousands of people perished. More than 200,000 people perished worldwide. Another thirty thousand people died in China and Malaysia in 2014. Over seventy thousand people died in Russia.
This is the exact same case as well. Every year, people get infected with the virus. Every year, more people die. Every year, more deaths.
Every year, more infected.
Some believed that this was God’s punishment for humans for killing animals. For causing diseases. For eating meat. For being greedy. For wanting more food. For fighting wars. For living in big cities. For taking part in political demonstrations. For becoming violent criminals, and therefore deserved to be punished.
Many thought it was a punishment from the heavens.
But the fact that the government allowed this was the main problem. No one really wanted to believe these reports. No one wanted to believe the rumours circulating around the internet about the strange illness that had spread across the world. No one wanted to believe what would happen to their family members and friends in such an epidemic. No one wanted to believe what would happen to their children when they reached adulthood and realised they weren't safe. Everyone wanted everything to stay as usual as possible. To live normal lives. To live like every human being deserves to live.
No one wants anything to change.
So many people blamed themselves for the disease. They couldn't control themselves; it felt so good to blame something else and punish someone else. They blamed each other, they blamed the government, they blamed the rich and the poor, they blamed each other for not stopping the disease from spreading. They blamed the government for not doing anything to stop the disease. They blamed the government for not protecting them. They blamed the government for not helping them. They blamed the government for not saving them. They blamed the government for not caring about them. They blamed the government for not doing anything to help them.
And then, of course, there were those who just accepted the fact. Who simply shrugged and said that whatever happens, happens. They accepted that the human race had gone insane. Some of them even said they hoped the world would soon end so that they wouldn't have to worry anymore. Others, on the other hand, didn't accept this reality. These people wanted their problems to go away. They wanted society to return to normal again. They wanted the plague to just disappear. If the only way was to just die, then that was fine. Why continue living in misery? Just die, just give up, just die. No one wanted to survive.
These people knew the consequences of having an infection, so no one chose to suffer any further. Those who survived chose to hide. Because they feared the virus too much, they began to live with caution. They started hiding and avoiding contact with other people. They didn't want to die. No, they didn'w want their families and friends to know that they died. That would mean they wouldn’t be able to escape the curse they carried. So they decided to hide, to isolate themselves. No one wanted to come into contact with the outside world again. They didn’t want to risk infecting others. They just needed to live their lives quietly. They tried to keep calm, but they couldn’t hold out forever. And soon enough, life came to an end for them.
In 2015, another major wave of infections was released. It occurred in the United States and in Britain. In both cases, people were bitten by the infected person. They did not resist; it seemed like they welcomed this new disease that they could control. They wanted to be treated as if they were normal, instead of being treated with suspicion and mistrust.
Because of these outbreaks, the population of the country decreased drastically. The number of people dying became over one billion by 2020. According to official figures published by the government and various scientific organizations, the majority of the population now lived in urban environments that were populated by more than three million people. Almost half of the population in the metropolitan areas and rural areas of the United Kingdom were infected with this deadly disease. In contrast, fewer than ten million people had been infected worldwide. This meant that the total number of people infected was over five times smaller than the global rate of death.
It was estimated that between twenty million and fifty million people had died in the last five years in the US and Europe. As for the rest, the number was still rising. However, despite all of the efforts by the public organisations to prevent the disease, it was still spreading rapidly. With a population of less than one billion people, and a population of almost two million per square kilometre, there were only seven hundred million people who fit the criteria of a viable vaccine, but it seems that the numbers are increasing steadily as time passed. And yet, not everyone has caught the virus.
That's why I am currently sitting here waiting to see if I can catch this bug myself…