Never give Ellie a Sword

The Cure (Round One)

The Task: Write about an important day in history (may be made up) that will possibly change the earth forever, from the point of view of the antagonist.

Topic: Set in the future, this is a possibility of how everything is going to hell. 

What I did: I basically killed the entire human race. You are very welcome. 

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‘It’s not my fault, you know.’

Jeremiah lets out a big sigh as he walks through his study and sits on the corner of his desk. He looks out of the window and what he sees depresses him.

Buildings are tumbling down, glass is shattered, roads are disappearing and things are on fire. The unidentifiable objects that once were cars broke down a long time ago.

He pities them. As he looks upon the people roaming the streets in despair, he pities them. It’s not his fault, though, so he shouldn’t feel bad.

He doesn’t.

He only feels pity.

‘Things used to be different,’ he whispers. Almost immediately, a grim expression covers his face like a mask. Everything indeed used to be different.

He can still remember like it was yesterday that none of this was happening. That everyone was healthy. He knows it wasn’t yesterday, though, because it is impossible for a city to crumble so quickly. To fall so quickly. To die so quickly.

Even before that is a longer time ago. The time that everything was alright. That was a time he barely can remember.

‘I can’t recall the last time it snowed.’

The realization dawns upon him, scares him a little. He can’t remember the last time it snowed. Not just in New Orleans, but in the entire country called the United States. He cannot recall a weather forecast that predicted snow. Not a single one. Climate change had made sure of that.

He isn’t exactly sure when it happened.  It happened gradually, it didn’t change from one day to another. The hot climate and the duplication of the world population… It had happened, though, and ever since the food ran out, everything went to hell.

‘I was already a doctor back then, when it happened. Moira was pregnant when the food crisis started. As a doctor, I barely made enough money for us to be able to buy food. That’s why I worked day and night to get on the level where I am now, to become the best doctor of New Orleans.’

He had worked his ass off. Day and night, just like he says, he had worked on perfecting his skills and studying new techniques. He worked so hard that he forgot everything around him.

‘I never knew…’ Jeremiah’s voice shakes and he takes a deep breath.

‘I never knew I’d lose her. Your mother, I mean. I had no idea that labor would be so hard on her, I thought we had an entire life ahead of is. I didn’t know…’

Someone outside is screaming. Another scream follows.

‘Then she was gone, and I had you. You were all I had left, all that kept me in this city. I started a private clinic because of you. Less hours, more money. All of that was to support you.’

Everything had changed that one eventful night. What had started to be a perfect day, ended in a tragedy.

‘I had no idea that this was going to happen. You have to believe me, sweetheart. I didn’t know. I had no idea that the Homeless would be there. They were not allowed to be there, they never were. They are banished to the suburbs, far away from the city center. And yet there they were, looking for food that wasn’t there. Food that you didn’t have with you. They didn’t know that, though.’

All emotion drains from Jeremiah’s voice as he recalls the horrific events. He can feel her pain, her suffering, without even being there. He can tell.

‘It is not only the city that has changed. You were taken away from me, taken from the safety I could provide. Now, I’m not even sure if you were afraid when it happened. If you screamed, if you cried for help… You were taken from me without a single warning. All I ever wanted is for other parents to never experience this pain. You must believe me.’

Ever since Tinder’s death, Jeremiah had thrown himself at his work. There was nothing else he had left, it was all he had.

He closes his eyes as he recalls the event that lead to this. The one event that he never regretted, the one event that he can claim as his.

The woman had come to him. Of course she had come to him, everybody came to him. It was clear she wasn’t from the rich part of the city, but she still was willing to pay his high fee because he was the best doctor out there.

She was sick and she’d asked him what was wrong with her. He had examined her and when he found the cause, he couldn’t believe his eyes.

A new virus, a new disease. One that mankind had never seen, never experienced. This could mean the end of all time, and Jeremiah knew that.

‘I don’t regret not treating her and I don’t regret not telling anybody about my discovery.’

His voice sounds hard, too hard, in the silence that claims the study. A barking dog outside is a welcome change to the silence, a silence that almost never occurs.

‘She infected others. People started losing their mind and they came to me. I always told them I was helping them, but that was a lie.’

The barking turns into a howl.

‘Before I knew it, half the city was infected and other cities got it, too. A worldwide epidemic started. They called me for help, help that I wouldn’t give. I myself never became sick, no idea why.’

The dog stops making any sound. It’s probably being eaten this very second.

‘The disease affects their brain. They lose common sense, they are driven to insanity. My theory on how the woman got sick is that she ate an infected rat or something like that because there simply is nothing else.’

A swarm of people passes by on the road outside. One of them looks up at his house, but then walks on.

‘I didn’t do anything wrong. With so many casualties, the population declined. That meant that food would be available again! That was my plan, you must believe me.’

Jeremiah gets off his desk and sits down on the ground, his back pressed against the wall. His head held in his hands, his elbows resting on his pulled up knees.

‘I wanted no other parent to ever experience the pain of losing a child. I had planned for them to all die together so nobody would feel grief. Why didn’t they listen to what I told them to do? Why didn’t they?!’

Silent sobbing gets the better of him and for a minute or two, Jeremiah doesn’t say a word. Then, he takes his hands from his head and gets up.

‘I didn’t create the disease. They did this to themselves. I am letting the earth cure itself. I’m letting the earth cure itself of them.’

He looks through the room and his eyes finally find the item that he is looking for. He calmly walks towards the table and picks it up.

‘I’m letting the earth cure itself.’

A loud bang could be heard from the big mansion on that hill in New Orleans. Everybody had long forgotten who lived there, long forgotten who he was.

Nobody ever realized that with his death, the only existing cure disappeared. He knew, nobody else. What he didn’t know, though, was that he was infected. Not with the disease, but with heartbreak, with loss. He had lost his mind because of it. Lost his mind, yet developed a way out of this epidemic.

And now…

The only way to truly cure the earth, gone.