THE PLAGUE- PROLOGUE

“Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished.”

Revelations 15:1

The Doctor rubbed his eyebrows in small concentric circles as he stared at the microscope in front of him.  The stress was insurmountable and nothing seemed to alleviate it. It was impossible for him to even think about life before the disease had spread so rapidly.

The Black Death, as it had been called hundreds of years ago, had made a sudden and volatile recurrence about a month ago, and had already spread to kill over 3 million people. The new version of the plague was stronger than it had ever been. Onset of symptoms from contraction could hit in as little as an hour from contact from an infected person, if they were in the right stage of the disease.

There were three stages that the plague went through; Bubonic, Septicemic, and Pneumonic.  And it almost always ended in death. Survival was less than one percent. From the time of contraction till the time of death varied from 12-48 hours.

Everyone was at a loss as to how the disease had become so deadly, so quickly. The most common theory was of course that it was a superbug, caused by the over use of antibiotics. However, There was one faction, The People of the Revelation, a religious group, who had decided that the plague was the cause of God, and that the end times were coming.

 “Hell,” the Doctor thought, “They were probably right.” Nothing cured the disease. Once it was contracted you either lived or died, nothing made any difference.  No matter what kind of preventative medicine they tried, or what common sense medicine (to atleast ease patients) they could do nothing to ease patients. It was almost as if once the plague was contracted, Nothing could do anything anymore.

Even overdoses of pain medications could not put people out of their misery. Medicine had completely failed.

 The crashing of the window caused the Doctor to run to his hiding place. The People were coming, and that was a bad thing.  It felt like the Salem Witch trials over again. Doctors and Scientists (the few remaining) were burned at the stake as heretics if found.  He tried to control his breathing, but that was impossible, he could only hope that they would not find him.

In his hiding spot the Doctor got to his knees and prayed, to the same God that The People were chasing him for. He prayed as hard as he knew how, and he continued to pray as his home went up in flames, taking all of his research with it.