Astra Chronicles

Chapter 20: The Previous World

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"The silence is the worst part of any fight, because it's made up of all the things we wish we could say, if only we had the guts." ―Pete Wentz

Year 2113. The Archives, Central Library. Academia Astra, A City.

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Before I was born, there was a different world.

It was a different Earth.

People used to travel on airplanes or sometimes those luxurious cruise ships. They used to enjoy too much freedom.

They had what they called races, nationalities and borders or kingdoms to sort them into their cultures, beliefs and world leaders.

They experienced hiking, camping, water sports, music festivals, buffets, country hopping and lots of other events where masses of people interact with each other.

The previous people explored anything and anywhere in their world.

I envied them for having that privilege.

I was jealous of how they didn't have to worry about regular virus-screening blood tests and the polluted air going into their lungs to kill them.

How they didn't need to learn how to done a Mira mask as a child before exploring outside. Or how they weren't confined within The Walls even as adults.

Maybe they had it easier than us.

Maybe their lives were worth living more than ours.

I had wished I could find someone who could tell me more about the previous world and its people. But that was already a wish lost to circumstances.

For years, no one has lived past the age of sixty. The last one who got to sixty one years died a decade ago.

It was due to the reawakened virus inside his system.

The fact that no one knew exactly how the virus began, how long it could incubate and infect, and why it could mutate continuously was absolutely terrifying.

There were too many questions left unanswered about its etiology and its ability to 'tolerate' every medication developed to combat it.

I guess that was a repercussion we had to bear with after having majority of the world's population perish within a short span of time.

Survivor scientists and researchers tried to work with all types of methods to end it but there seems to be nothing to stop it.

They could only slow the virus down if detected in its early stages via specialized form of therapy. And yet the chances of succeeding were limited.

They describe the unique family of virus of its kind with an 'intelligent pathogen'.

Only time could tell when the rest of us who were descendants of the survivors will turn out positive too.

The previous world carried lots of secrets with it to the grave. Thus, like any horror movie, we were simply waiting for the worst to claim us.

We were racing in a losing battle against time. With false fantasies of finding an answer somewhere in a dying world.

We already knew we were eventually walking to our deaths.

Unless a miracle cure of some sort magically appears.