Quarantine

Worth the Risk

I just want to make clear on the offset that the events of this story in no way reflect my feelings on vaccines- I repeat I am NOT an anti-vaxer. I just wanted to write a story, please listen to healthcare professionals.

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Thunder boomed above Kayla as she paced down the empty New York streets. She looked up at the clouds with worry in her eyes, she had a limited amount of time before it rained- she had to hurry. Kayla rubbed the dirt away from a glass window so she could peer into another abandoned drugstore and tried the door- locked, again. Another boom of thunder above her, she had to make a decision. Risk continuing to look for a drugstore that may or may not have the medicine she needs and risk getting caught outside, or going back empty-handed and risk her sister-in-law's fever getting worse. It wasn't even a real question, she would keep looking, it was worth the risk.

The rain didn't become toxic until a couple of years ago, but the trouble started long before that. The coronavirus hit the US in March of 2020, the first domino in a series of events that led to half the world population dying off in only 5 short years. The virus had originated in China and spread quickly, affecting Italy and other countries forcing quarantines, overflowing hospitals, and a recession with a bug that was just different enough from the flu that no one had an immunity to it. It would have been simple enough to contain if people would have listened to the healthcare professionals from the beginning, but it wasn't long before the media and governments spread mass hysteria at the outbreak.

It wasn't long after that the scientists and doctors alike started working on a vaccine, Canada being the first ones to truly have something that could work. Little did they know that the vaccine would be worse than anything the coronavirus could have done. The Vaccine seemed to kill the virus and went into testing on a control group, after a few weeks of improved results, desperation caused this vaccine to spread to the hospitals across the world before thorough testing was done. The Vaccine only mutated the virus, the first effects weren't seen until 9 months after the first test group had been given the shot. Instead of affecting the lungs like the coronavirus,  COVID-19 had done- this Mutated Virus attacked the heart. Those who had been rich enough to afford The Vaccine died immediately- no warning. One day their hearts just stopped. COVID-19 had killed thousands in a manner of months, the Mutated virus killed millions in days.

Kayla's ex-husband had passed away before he ever got the chance to take the vaccine, but his family had taken it. Her ex-in-laws had died in January of 2021, leaving their teenage daughter behind on her own. 

If stockpiling toilet paper, water, and canned foods during the COVID-19 outbreak was viewed as extreme, then no one was prepared for the Mutated Virus and how the world would react. Already in a worldwide recession, the stock market completely crashed, governments scrambled and fell as most world leaders had taken The Vaccine and were now gone, and businesses went under left and right as people started stealing and stockpiling to the extreme. Law enforcement, already under fire for their corruption, couldn't handle the amount of violence that occurred as people became more and more desperate and soon it was every family for themselves. 

Things took a real turn when a nuclear power plant in Arizona exploded, investigations couldn't be done on what caused the explosion as radiation killed anything within a two-state radius. Those who weren't instantly killed in Arizona or the surrounding states felt the effects of this explosion of nuclear radiation into the world. That's when the rain became toxic, even all the way in New York. It ate away at brick and metal, so getting caught outside in it meant risking your life.

Across the street Kayla saw a couple of people throw something into a glass storefront and go inside, she froze at the crash of glass. How could they be risking making so much noise? She had to find cover quickly.