It started off so innocently -the lab had reported the outbreak as soon as the sample leaked. Everyone was quarantined- we thought we knew what was coming but the fact was that we didn’t. 

I was left wondering what is the mode of action of the virus? Is it latent in individuals? What is the reservoir, and how are new infections happening? How is it diagnosed?

It didn’t affect any living beings, it affected the air. Individuals grew big -muscular, that wasn’t the problem you see it was the hallucination; people who would breathe the contaminated air would kill themselves - I don’t know what they see but it is scary enough to make them kill themselves.

We decided what we could best do at the moment was to insert tracker chips to know who was leaving their house and who wasn’t. The manner in which this happened was that we built suits for a few of our technologists and they would go out to create a pipeline all over the city through which we would transport food and necessities. Becca was the only one who made it back, Ben cut his suit while working and had killed Clarissa and himself.

At first, no-one went for the chips, then after a string of ugly deaths people feared. Fear does make you do a lot of things -chip guns were easy to use, you just had to place it on your arm, and shoot the chip would enter your body and do its work.

THIRTY-FOUR.

That was the population of our city, we had no idea about the other cities.

Humans find it challenging to unlearn fears. Thus when we realize that we are scared we must ask ourselves how real the threat is or if we have begun to generalize fear and seek evidence to cement it rather than challenging it. The prize for doing all this right is a well-functioning society, the punishment for getting it wrong is run-away paranoia.

“I haven’t seen the sun in months, I’d rather die than be traped” Becca sighs

“No one has seen light in months, we’ve all shut every microhole and blinded the windows,” I say. “Besides it is ending soon, right?”

It’s hard to believe that once we consumed the land with our homes, so much that nature had nowhere to thrive. Now our homes float in the ocean; they are so much bigger than those our ancestors built.

People still live up top, where the farms are, and the hydroponic stations. The only towers are those of the growing fruits and vegetables, each of them moving like an old Ferris wheel, from planting to harvest in one cycle. I'm going up there when I'm twelve to learn how to care for our plants. They say the animals roam around the land in herds and birds fill the sky with music.

“We’ve got it” Elijah exclaimed.

“What?” I ask.

“The solution to this situation.”

In the silence there is warmth. 

“All we have to do is detoxify the air at the central park and use a suction pump to reduce contamination and fill the antidote air to neutralize the remaining toxicity.”

It was clear what that meant- one of us would die. The team was ready - Becca, Elijah, James, and me. Once we got there, Elijah without hesitation took off his suit. Soon The blood left the artery it belonged in surges, beat out by a slowing heart. It had all been so silly, the attempt at a rescue... but if you don't try, then who are you?? He could have died safe and warm many years from then, cozy in a bed yet even in those last moments, he was proud to have tried.

Everyone unzipped their suits except my stupid suits zipper broke. 

“Becca” I call out. “STOP”

The bloodshed was as barbaric as it was stupid; it was as evil and cruel. They began to eat themselves. Becca pulled her superficial artery and ate it like noodles. Doors unlocked and people rushed to the streets I saw everyone kill themselves. One by one they all ate themselves, dropping dead on the ground. They all had the same look in their eyes.

It started off so innocently - I walked back alone. The only heart beating was me.