Bio Hazard

San Francisco 2027

San Francisco lay in ruins. Buildings that once stood tall against a clear, bright blue sky were now hunched, burnt out, in front of a backdrop of endless black clouds. The whole city reeked of death. Each passing hour would be marked with the sound of suffering; a yelp of pain, a cry of terror, a shout of rage. The world had fallen apart at the seams. The catalyst? That would be Haemomutasis 3, the third strain of the destructive infection that took the world by surprise. Haemomutasis 3, or just HM-3, was a bacterial-viral infection that hijacked the body's functions and used them to turn the infected into dangerous, potentially lethal, hosts that would spread the infection far and wide. The effects of the infection were... Horrific.

It started slowly at first. Doctors called it a 'chance meeting', but couldn't give a figure of probability. Two dormant diseases, released by an unknown cause, crossed paths. The result was a fusion of the two of them, a fusion that wasn't so stable. The bacterial-viral infection had an 'unstable genome' which allowed for rapid growth, adaptation and mutation. Once they met, however, and the fusion had begun, it exploded across the world. Third world countries, especially coastal areas in the west of Africa, were quickly inundated with HM-3, though it was not detected at first. As the first strain was discovered and labelled 'non dangerous', a new strain was reported that lowered immune response in humans. This, along with increased drug resistance and the ability to travel in blood, helped the second strain to go global in a matter of years, with no cure being found.

That's when HM-3 came around. First, people started noticing that eye colour in infected people was changing. No matter what, they would always turn a vibrant neon green. Following tests, doctors noted that all patients reported 'burning in the veins themselves', which was later revealed to be the body bolstering the strength of blood vessels following the production of new corrosive blood. This boosted the threat level fairly quickly. It was found that while the blood was inside the body, no harm could be done, other than a mild discomfort in the patient. Outside the body however, not even the host's skin could withstand the strength of the corrosive properties of the blood. In other words, the blood would burn and melt down to the bone in no time at all. When doctors announced that they could not cure HM-3, panic spread across the world and the world's governments tried and failed to regain control. In a mere matter of three years in total, HM-3 dismantled thousands of years of human development, thrusting mankind into a post-apocalyptic, hellish world where infection is your number one enemy.

Ruby Vivant stood in their small, half collapsed corner shop of a home, in front of a cracked mirror. Looking into her own acidic eyes, she remembered their life before. Happy, bright, full of life. Now though? She turned their head to the left, showing herself the right side of her face. Everything from the cheek all the way to the ear lobe had been burnt away by infected blood, leaving behind exposed bone. Her lower jaw, with only very tiny amounts of muscle left on the burnt side, sat there, full of exposed teeth. It caused no pain to her, not any more. It was not the only injury HM-3 had caused. Her ring and little fingers on her right hand were stripped to the bone and a hole in the side of her clothes revealed protruding ribs. She had been reduced to horror movie material and she, along with the rest of the infected population, was feared as such. 

Ruby turned away from the shattered mirror, running a hand along the side of her face, brushing the tips of her short brown hair away from the wound. A bitterness crept into them, causing Ruby to raise her top lip in an angry grimace. She had one person to blame for this, for the misery that the infection had caused her. An old friend, whom she had trusted with her very life. A new enemy that had left them for dead with the infection festering in open wounds. Had the world have still been normal, Ruby might have been able to settle for never seeing them again. Even if the world still ended up the same, if they had of tried to help Ruby, she might have settled for never seeing them again. But in the black world of death they inhabited now, revenge was the only thing on her mind. Ruby glanced down at her body, brushing away dust and stains from their torn and scuffed jeans and their ripped shirt and jacket, purely out of habit. She knew they would be back in a matter of hours. If she had been keeping track of time correctly, Ruby knew that it should have been approaching sunset. She glanced around the corner shop, with its empty shelves and bowed ceiling. She had no reason to stay any longer. No reason to delay the journey of vengeance any further. It had been two years since Ruby had become infected with HM-3, it was high time this 'friend' answered for what they had done.