Johnnywulf Ch 1
How it all began
The years before had offered suffering and death for the multitude of the Earth. Few of us survived, and we living were plagued with the burden of stacking and burning the billions of decaying bodies left behind. Unlike any of us ever expected, as we had once pondered the future doom from our comfortable living room couches, it wasn't the wars, the strife among the nations, atom bombs, politics, or religion that dealt the crushing blow. It wasn't a tsunami, global warming, terrorism, or an asteroid striking the Earth that cast us into darkness. The darkness? It was The Disease. It came from birds. From many birds. The Avian Flu it was first called. And at first it was just a joke on the television news: seemingly insane hypochondriac hordes at international airports, running to and fro in packs, with surgical masks over their faces, afraid to breathe the air. Minor scares here and there, chicken coops in Romania, dead birds dropping into suburban yards in Philadelphia, but no significant human life lost - a few here and there only as a result of direct contact with poisoned fowl. But then, one day, the serious outbreaks really happened, The Disease mutated and became airborne. People started dying in droves, first in China, then India, Russia, the Eastern Block, Africa, Western Europe, England, Australia, and finally, the United States. 72 hours from first cough to death was all it took, and the death toll grew each day. The contagion multiplied exponentially, with no sign of slowing. There was no effective vaccine, though several were offered as hopeful cures, but each time they failed - and there was not enough of the impotent medicine to go around. I think the shortages drove the mobs madder than the medicine not working. Being denied an injection after standing in a ten-mile-long line at a government clinic, when the world was dying before one's eyes, simply took away any hope. Caught in the mass hysteria of impending extermination, the cities of the world rioted, raped, pillaged, murdered, tipped over police cars and disabled tanks, burned buildings, and turned the streets into bloody madness, unquenchable disorder. The United States kept order with an iron fist the longest, but soon the weapons and armor of the National Guard, the Army, the Marines, and precision surgical air strikes, were not enough to quell the warring mobs. The anarchy spread as fast as The Disease.
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