Don't Breathe

Author's Note:
This short story follows and derives inspiration from "The Plague Doctors" by Karen Lorde as well as the current global pandemic. Lorde's characters Collin and his daughter Maisie escaped from Pelican Island and began their new life on an island known as Corona Island, leaving his sister Audra behind to find out the various secrets behind the grey pox. Years have passed since Collin and Maisie left Pelican Island and Collin and his new wife even welcomed a baby girl. Since then, fortune has finally dawned on Collin.
However, all of that would change in the next few decades when Maisie's little sister conceived Nyala. In writing "Don't Breathe", I was hoping to give a sequel to the open ended story "The Plague Doctors" and tie it into the current global pandemic with the new generation and a new killer virus that is similar to the virus that Audra was trying to fight. Nyala and her friend encounter "Tovid-20-Genisis" a genetically modified virus that has the potential to mutate into something physically monstrous.
This Science-Fiction futuristic short story teaches the audience that sometimes viruses should not be tampered with or they just might stop you from breathing.