We never got to find out what the findings the CDC had made. We never got to find out where the disease came from, never even understood whether it was a virus, a bacteria, a parasite. Never knew how it spread from person to person. It was slow, but it was insatiable. Like the coming wave from the tsunami, it could not be stopped. All of humanity figured that out quickly enough. We thought it would give us a fighting chance.
The WHO was given all the money and resources it could use. Whole militaries became subservient. In humanity's twilight, the conspiracy theorists were right. We had a single world government, and it had a single purpose. Find those who hadn't been infected, quarantine them, and get them off of the planet. No one knew the vectors, we couldn't isolate the cause, anything. The entire thing was a mystery.
Meanwhile, me and a handful of others were already off of the planet. Theoretically we were safe. There weren't enough of us though. You couldn't repopulate the planet with the population of the ISS.
So, they had a plan. It wasn't a good plan, but it was a plan. Send everyone you could into safe. Put the ISS in charge, hopefully train them while they were up there. Survive. It was theorized that if we could make it only a half dozen of years, the disease would burn itself out. As many of us as possible would return to the planet. A lot of the infrastructure would have collapsed or destroyed itself. We were briefed on how they would try to shut down various oil plants and nuclear facilities, but some they would never get to. Some would tear themselves apart, causing devastation. Every moment that we weren't talking with someone from the ground and coordinating, every iota of bandwidth was used sending up videos and texts on how to accomplish different tasks that would be needed to rebuild civilization.
Believe it or not, it worked. Mostly. There were certainly some terrorists and extremists who protested or tried to prevent the fleeing of the planet, and entire books can and probably will be written on that topic. This story isn't about that though. This is about our time in space.
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Viral Shedding
Science FictionFrom the writing prompt - The man leans into you. There is a dark red almost black color to the whites of his eyes. He is so close his nose is almost touching your nose. You can feel his breath when he says, “We all have it in here. We are all infec...
