Starting Over

by Paintbrush235

Prologue: Forever Changed

No one could've imagined that anything so destructive would befall them that fateful day in July of 2016. No one could see the signs, the dreadful warning signs that it was all about to come crashing down. That fatal summer day, would change life for every human on the face of the Earth for the rest of time.

The first sign was a story that aired on the news. A story of a man from Pakistan who seemed to have contracted a new string of the flu virus. Of course when everyone heard the word "flu" they didn't worry that much. The reassuring statement "I got my flu shot." could be heard coming from every first world citizen's mouth. But then, the stories started appearing on the news more frequently. Cases of the virus began to appear in India, then China, then Africa, then Europe, until at last it reached the shores of the United States of America. It was then that it became apparent that this was no string of the flu. In fact, none of the top scientist around the world could identify what it was at all. They did have a name for it however: The Red Plague.

The Red Plague started off with symptoms similar to the flu. A high fever would engulf the victim and they would suffer from uncontrollable coughing and shortness of breath. Then the virus would attack the internal organs, causing them to break down and break apart. The sign that this was happening to the victim what when they started to cough up their own blood and parts of these internal organs. Doctors describes the scenario a similar to that suffered by gas victims in the First World War. The worst part was that if the victim reached this stage, there was nothing that could be done for them. They would suffer an agonizingly slow and painful death that at the longest observed took at max two weeks. By the end of that final fatal stage, the virus would latch on the the victims brain and send them into uncontrollable seizures that would end with certain death.

Doctors around the world scrambled to find a cure. They sifted through any records that they had to find possible solutions to the crisis, but there was nothing in their files that could help them in any way at all. This was a virus unlike any other seen before. It mutated and adapted almost every day, so it virtually impossible to create a proper vaccine much less a cure. It wasn't a surprise when a lot of the doctors ended up abandoning their posts to be with their families in the time of crisis.

Outside the medical facilities, the chaos only got worse. The body count continued to rise and law and order started to give way. Riots broke out in the major cities around the globe with the only outcome being the continued spread of the virus. Countries began to deploy military forces to maintain the peace, but it was like trying to put out a forest fire with a garden hose. The situation continued to collapse. Government leaders began to go underground, only to succumb to the virus in the closed confines of bunkers. Four months after the virus appeared, the President of the United States of America fell to the Red Plague. Other world leaders suffered the same fate along with other high members of their governments. Soon there was no one left to control the mass panic that gripped to world. The military abandoned their job of trying to contain the virus as individual commanders took it upon themselves to try and evacuated as many non infected from the major cities as possible. By now the world power grid had shut down, along with water, gas, and communication. Nations were cut off from the outside world. Pockets of survivors were now isolated. The world had gone dark. And to top it off, it had been only 5 months since it all began in July of 2016.

Two years passed for the Earth and the Red Plague virus had by now burned itself out a long time ago. But it's destructive effects were forever. All major metropolises around the world lay in ruin, beginning to succumb to mother nature's reclaiming of the land. What was left of humanity was still scattered around the world in the tiny pockets that had formed during the final endgame of civilization. The numbers of the survivors had dwindled still from starvation and clashes with other fellow survivors. No one knows what the future holds for the remnants of humanity. What is clear now, is that it will never be the same.

That much is clear for one of the few survivors of the apocalypse: Jason White. Jason, a 24 year old man from Harrisburg Pennsylvania, had attended Army ROTC at his college and had entered the military right after graduation. Assigned to the 1st Infantry Division. He had seen combat on tour in Afghanistan before the virus had appeared. When he returned to the states, the random cases had started to emerge. When the situation began to fall apart, his unit was deployed to Philadelphia to help maintain order during the crisis. But Jason like many other commanders after the President's bunker fell silent, could see the writing on the wall. He and the rest of his unit began to organize an evacuation of the uninfected from the city while leaving those that had been deemed infected behind to fend for themselves. That had been the hardest part for all them, especially Jason. The sight of some 500 citizens who only a few months ago had been living their ordinary lives happy and content, now afflicted with the deadliest disease known to man since the black plague, watching as their only hope of salvation locked the gates that had been set up surrounding the city, and left them.

Afterwards, the groups began to split. The survivors were divided up into groups of 400. Most of the groups went west to find supplies and link up with any other survivors. Jason was put in charge of a group and told to stay near the east coast in case their was any attempt by other nations to make contact and in case any members of the government were left alive. And like the good soldier he was, Jason followed his orders. Little did he know he would never see most of the other groups ever again.

He and his group moved across the eastern states, searching for food, fuel, medical supplies, and other survivors. They picked up over 50 people on their journey, but this was overshadowed by the number of those that they lost along the way to disease, starvation, and attacks from hostile groups of survivors. After two years of travel, Jason's group was down to less that 250 weary and starving survivors. This is their story and truly the story of humanity's salvation.

Author's Note:

Here is the start of my new story.

It may be apparent but I have never written an apocalypse story in my entire life. So constructive comments please :twilight blush:

Hope you all enjoy. Still gonna be working on my other stories so don't worry. :pinkie happy:

Again enjoy!

Comments

[Magnificent Bastard]

It's a good start, I'm looking forward to more in the future.

[Eonflare]

Damn, even Madagascar?

[dawn seeker]

um you might want to change the mortality percent on the description cause saying that over 99.9 percent means literally 100% meaning no one survives. a better percent would be over 90% giving room for survivors

[BestinDworld]

How sad.... Finished first chapter