The Memory of the Virus

As the sun slowly sank towards the clifftops, Maxwell put his arm around Ade. In any other situation, this might have been romantic. It could have been nice. They could have sat and spoke about memories for a while as they beheld the beauty of the sunset together, and maybe there would have been a kiss or two. Instead, a silence hung between the two of them. They knew what had happened and it wasn't something that they could ignore. Maxwell watched as a pair of starlings landed in a tree. The birds were one of the the few species he was aware of that hadn't been affected by the pandemic. He envied them. He wished for a moment that he and Ade could be in the place of the birds, safe from the horrific reality that had taken the place of their quiet village life.

It had started small. The Virus, as they'd called it (there hadn't been time to name it officially) had originally been found in a few dogs. They were caught and studied by a research team of a few scientists. Fascinated by the sudden strange behaviour, they got a little too close to them. The Virus was carried through bodily fluids - blood and saliva among others. A dog would attack another, biting at it until it broke the skin. Then, it would simply leave. It no longer cared. Nothing would happen for a few hours, before the second dog, the victim, began showing signs of the Virus. Of course, the research team got a little too close. They thought it was only a canine disease, completely unable to spread to humans. They didn't quite realise how wrong they were. Soon enough, the entire research team was infected. They were mere shells of their former selves, only caring about spreading and infecting more. Unfortunately, this was in the centre of London, both the capital and busiest city of the United Kingdom. The Virus spread quickly, completely out of control. Within a matter of days, the entire city had been taken over. Destroyed. Wiped out. Reports of this spread very quickly. Radio announcements were made. Slowly, the most overpopulated cities in the world began to become overtaken. Tokyo was the first to fall. Shanghai followed soon after. Sydney took a little longer - an entire week. The entire state of California took little over four days, and Manhattan fell within a few hours. Brighton's population fled to France, where the Virus took the entire country. Smaller islands, such as Hawaii and Jersey seemed safe until all contact with them was lost. Canada closed its borders and stopped communicating, but there was no holding out the Virus.

In North Wales, Maxwell's home, the population was spread quite widely. He was safe for a while, until the first victim ran into his village, arms flailing as it grabbed and bit off the ear of an elderly fisherman. He took the love of his life and fled. The Virus was spreading quicker and quicker, and he began to realise that there wasn't an escape. Soon enough, they would both be dead. Of course, he knew that Ade was already infected. He saw him get bitten by a mosquito - seemingly harmless, until you considered the humans it could have bitten before. There was only a matter of hours until he began to exhibit symptoms, and that was the real reason they were sat atop a cliff. Maxwell wanted to spend as long as he could with Ade before the two inevitably died. He could kill him there and then, and he knew that very well. Perhaps he would live for a few more days. But he couldn't do that. Love was blind, and Maxwell was logical. Even if he did kill Ade, he would barely last any longer himself before another victim found him. No, he planned on killing both of them, the moment the Virus took Ade. They were waiting. Watching and waiting.

The virus had taken the world in two weeks. It was a known fact that humanity was racing down the tunnel of wiping itself out, but it wasn't known that it would end in the way that it did. The naïve mistake of a simple research team had ended the world. Humanity had wiped itself out.