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Actual thread: Detailed - The Medusa Strain
The Medusa Strain
Without warning, without cause, or without explanation. That’s how it struck, spreading rapidly and paying no mind to class, amount of medical assistance, or anything we humans had at our usage to halt or slow it. It swept across the world in great swaths, turning bustling cities of millions to silent memorials to it’s victims. It was a virus we’d never encountered.
The Medusa Strain.
The Medusa Strain had come out of no where, a virus with nothing to be compared to. What it did exactly we were unsure, how it traveled was unknown to us. All that we did know? It killed. It’s victims would turn to stone, as impossible as that sounded it was nothing but true. It was slow at first, hard to detect and only starting out with minor symptoms. But as it advanced it seemed to reach a climax before it began to take effect in an aggressive and effective nature. First it would take root inside the body, leeching into key systems to start. The heart, the lungs, stomach, nervous system, all were slowly affected to a degree before it was noticeable. And then it seemed to snap, people afflicted seeming to rapidly solidify, their skin still warm but unmovable as the stone seemed to spread from the inside.
We couldn’t do anything to combat it. We could only watch.
As panic spread a group came forward offering the only viable solution, Cryo-stasis. Going into a cryo-sleep was the only escape. Those who were healthy, or thought to be healthy, were directed to a stations that were set up in secure buildings to last through time until it was time to awake. But it was dangerous given the unnoticeable nature of the virus. This group had ways to detect it, ways to know, and if they found out you had it when you arrived...you were shot. No questions asked. You would arrive, be scanned, and if you tested positive a man stepped forward and shot you point blank without a word. Some would consider it a mercy...that’s what they called it anyways. I still thought it was murder.
But it didn’t stop me from going...
I risked it, for the promise of safety, for the promise of a future. I’d tested safe and been ushered into the facility. Inside were men and women dressed in full hazmat gear who directed me through a a lengthy process to prepare me cryo-sleep. There was no paperwork for such a dangerous act, they must have saw no need with the state of things. I was rushed through with a number of other grim looking people. We’d made it in but we all knew what was going to happen next. One of the stipulations they’d listed when the word went out was no family members. One person per family, many were outraged and didn’t understand why. I did though, I was smarter than most. Preservation of the genetic pool, they wanted to ensure that what they had was random and no relations were included. It was obvious they knew everyone else would die out.
That only made the situation far more grim to me though. Ignorance tended to be bliss, and I wish I’d remained ignorant.
I knew it was likely that those helping us were infected, or relatives of those going in. They were entirely sealed the entire time and spoke no more than necessary. And when they did speak their voices carried a grim acceptance of a fate we all knew they shared. It was their job to fill the pods, and then die...
The process was lengthy but fast all at once, and mostly a blur. The last things I remember clearly was the face of the person helping me in the pod as their mask angled itself just enough in the right way to be seen through. It was a mix of emotions. Sadness, acceptance, defiance, and hope. Those were my last thoughts before the cold encroached and the chemical cocktail injected into my body stole away my mind to another place. Sleep took me then.
The Medusa Strain
Without warning, without cause, or without explanation. That’s how it struck, spreading rapidly and paying no mind to class, amount of medical assistance, or anything we humans had at our usage to halt or slow it. It swept across the world in great swaths, turning bustling cities of millions to silent memorials to it’s victims. It was a virus we’d never encountered.
The Medusa Strain.
The Medusa Strain had come out of no where, a virus with nothing to be compared to. What it did exactly we were unsure, how it traveled was unknown to us. All that we did know? It killed. It’s victims would turn to stone, as impossible as that sounded it was nothing but true. It was slow at first, hard to detect and only starting out with minor symptoms. But as it advanced it seemed to reach a climax before it began to take effect in an aggressive and effective nature. First it would take root inside the body, leeching into key systems to start. The heart, the lungs, stomach, nervous system, all were slowly affected to a degree before it was noticeable. And then it seemed to snap, people afflicted seeming to rapidly solidify, their skin still warm but unmovable as the stone seemed to spread from the inside.
We couldn’t do anything to combat it. We could only watch.
As panic spread a group came forward offering the only viable solution, Cryo-stasis. Going into a cryo-sleep was the only escape. Those who were healthy, or thought to be healthy, were directed to a stations that were set up in secure buildings to last through time until it was time to awake. But it was dangerous given the unnoticeable nature of the virus. This group had ways to detect it, ways to know, and if they found out you had it when you arrived...you were shot. No questions asked. You would arrive, be scanned, and if you tested positive a man stepped forward and shot you point blank without a word. Some would consider it a mercy...that’s what they called it anyways. I still thought it was murder.
But it didn’t stop me from going...
I risked it, for the promise of safety, for the promise of a future. I’d tested safe and been ushered into the facility. Inside were men and women dressed in full hazmat gear who directed me through a a lengthy process to prepare me cryo-sleep. There was no paperwork for such a dangerous act, they must have saw no need with the state of things. I was rushed through with a number of other grim looking people. We’d made it in but we all knew what was going to happen next. One of the stipulations they’d listed when the word went out was no family members. One person per family, many were outraged and didn’t understand why. I did though, I was smarter than most. Preservation of the genetic pool, they wanted to ensure that what they had was random and no relations were included. It was obvious they knew everyone else would die out.
That only made the situation far more grim to me though. Ignorance tended to be bliss, and I wish I’d remained ignorant.
I knew it was likely that those helping us were infected, or relatives of those going in. They were entirely sealed the entire time and spoke no more than necessary. And when they did speak their voices carried a grim acceptance of a fate we all knew they shared. It was their job to fill the pods, and then die...
The process was lengthy but fast all at once, and mostly a blur. The last things I remember clearly was the face of the person helping me in the pod as their mask angled itself just enough in the right way to be seen through. It was a mix of emotions. Sadness, acceptance, defiance, and hope. Those were my last thoughts before the cold encroached and the chemical cocktail injected into my body stole away my mind to another place. Sleep took me then.
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