|
Post by JELLY on Mar 12, 2012 2:14:46 GMT -8
WHERE IT ALL STARTED
Usually, placebos are an asset to medical testing. They are merely handed out to volunteers who are expecting the true drug so that those studying its affects can separate the physical from the mental. No one in Ellis Pharmaceuticals thought their test would be any different.
Ten years ago (2002), the company was studying the common cold, rhinopharyngitis, and the possibilities of slowly introducing the various viruses that can cause it into the human body in the form of daily pills. These would give the body the chance to build up immunities, while the amount of 'virus' in the pills was almost untraceable.
In the same study, they were working with ways to effectively tackle the common cold once it had set in. This was much slower research; research that has since been abandoned.
But who knew it would be the common cold that would save humanity?
HOW IT SPREAD
2002
Ellis Pharmaceuticals was based in New York, New York, and focused their medical testing on locals as much as they could. With a rather diverse population, the city fit their needs nicely, and their wide-spread testing went off without a hitch. At least five hundred people volunteered for the experiment (after months of searching and enlisting by the company), and approximately half of that group was given the experimental drug. The other half, as was procedure, were given a replacement, a placebo. Who was given which pill was handled by a third party; not even the doctors and scientists involved knew.
A few unexplainable deaths in the control group (those given the placebo) occurred not long after testing began. However, these deaths were written off as natural causes or other diseases not related to the common cold that they were studying, and were ignored among the medical field.
2003
Within a year, deaths were becoming more and more common. Scientists and medical specialists across the world were powerless to explain just what was causing the increased mortality rates across all spectrums - age, ethnicity, gender. The infection quickly became a pandemic, as more and more people started showing symptoms.
In hindsight, whatever infected those first placebo pills mutated further, or was activated by the human body that ingested it, and began spreading in new, much more dangerous ways.
2005
Even with the global panic, trade and travel was a major vehicle of the infection's spread. Because no one could be sure who was infected and spreading the infection and who wasn't, most thoughts of quarantine were difficult to put into action. By the time the infection kicked in, dozens - if not hundreds - were dying in a city.
Few locations across the world reacted quickly enough to protect themselves.
Australia, Brazil, Greenland, and a small portion of northernmost Russia barricaded their people within a set border, refusing entry of any means for any outsider. Many claim that they were simply lucky that no one had broken through their defenses already, but the few self-appointed leaders ran a strict shift in their personal "bubble" or safety. They only survived because they were together; they only survived because they were smarter than everyone else.
Unfortunately, as 2005 ticked past on the calendar, both Russia and Greenland lost their last grasp of "clean" land. The infection appeared unstoppable.
"THE LAST STAND"
2006
As the disease ran rampant, little attention was paid to the "lucky" few who simply avoided getting sick. However, an Ellis Pharmaceuticals scientist discovered something interesting (although how he came to this conclusion is unknown and lost with his death - by drowning, not the infection). Somehow he tracked the original test subjects for the common-cold pills, and he discovered that anyone who was still taking these pills (although many had abandoned them in the chaos) had yet to fall ill despite their contact with others who were now dead or dying.
He made this discovery public, claiming that it was the presence of the cold virus that was making it impossible for the infection to take hold - much like how victims of tuberculosis became immune to leprosy. The desperation of the world both shunned him and catapulted him to the heights of fame. He was placed in charge of the production of these pills shortly before his death, but by then the remnants of Ellis Pharmaceuticals had been bought and transferred to Australia - one of the last "clean" areas of the planet.
As the chaos continued, they used a small air fleet that the group in charge had commandeered, and made regular air-drops into any major cities or areas where people had fled.
Despite their efforts, only a fraction of the human population was left, and those were often scattered and alone.
SUMMER, 2006 - PRESENT
Little can be said about what happened as the last bits of order vanished from most of the world. Small groups banded together; charismatic leaders took control where they could. Survivors built large, walled-in cities that they could quarantine, and the only real communication between them came from the air drops that the Australians sent out. Small attempts at governments rose and fell, but no area has been strong enough to manage more than their measly population.
Towns, cities, states, and countries lie abandoned. Dead still unburied sit in their homes where they passed, or lined up outside hospitals that couldn't help them no matter how desperate they were. Some clean-up missions have occurred close to where solid safe havens have emerged, but they don't stray far.
Slowly, the world is trying to rebuild. Some hope that the infection has cleared the way for new opportunities; some are simply claiming all the power they can get. Republics and democracies, dictatorships, and even monarchies are shaping how the people live - and the only question is: can they survive together or will they tear each other apart to protect "their own?"
|
|