Krill at the bottom of the sea

We, the damned.

"But what did the doctor say then?" Jane tapped impatiently on the reef table, her eyes shifting from the report in his hand to the floor.

"There have been a few victims to this virus. Scientists haven't found a cure for this disease, but they've identified a number of the symptoms."

"The symptoms. . . what are we supposed to do with that!" she let out a cheeky laugh. " Symptoms! That's damn fine isn't it." 

"Jane. . ."

"Well, what are the symptoms then?" She slammed the table and stood up with a jerk.

"Calm down, honey. " He wrapped his arms around her, burying his face in the tussle of her hair. Soaking in the scent of the air around her.

"It's going to be okay, alright?" 

She tilted her head backward, her eyes wavered as a flicker of fear crossed her features. Teardrops rolling down her face. She drew her eyelids shut and moved closer to him.

"What did the doctor say?" She whispered.

"Most of the symptoms match. He's stopped eating regularly, the insomnia, frequent vomiting and. . . the blood."

She sunk her head into his arms, allowing him to cradle her as she bore the news, wishing in that moment desperately, that the universe would swallow her whole.

"Jiminy has got the plague." 
    
                          * * *

It was raining heavily today. The diggers had been at work all night. A mound of sand was piled on the side,dotted with small fragments of seaweed clinging to the pebbles and soil.

The casket was the size of a grocery basket. So small, it was hard to believe he was that short. No, they'd definitely got the dimensions wrong, he wasn't that short. She was kneeling next to the casket. It had the image of a young child; her little baby. Smiling without a care in the world. She gingerly traced the features of his face, stroking his forehead. His father gripped the coffin as he sat there in a haze. 

Until a few years ago the state cemetery was where the bodies would be buried. After plague struck the waters however, it wasn't long till the graveyards filled up.

***
As a final resort, we left our town, our homes and everything we had to move up north toward the ice caps. As we crossed the cemetery and the acres of hallowed ground surrounding it, the only sound that could be heard was that of the western current sweeping across the countryside. Everyone had lost someone, we were the damned, sitting hand in hand paying the price for a fault that wasn't ours.

***
In the years to come scientists would place the cause of the plague as false food falling from the surface. It was transparent and smelt of Plankton and Krill. What is worse is that there wasn't a sure-shot way of distinguishing them from actual food in the deep depths of the sea which was scarcely  illuminated by light from the surface.

As of this day numbers exceeding 500,000 dead aquatic fauna has been recorded due to intake of entangled plastic in the ocean depths. Being given the gift of a conscience, it is our duty as human beings to fix the damage we've caused to the biosphere. Let's make this world right again.