Future Fears ((Story))

((Another addition from my latest crop of stories coming to my channel on Youtube. This fortnight's theme is Oceanic Dystopia. Will post a link when editing is finished!

EDIT: Link is here: ))

It started with a virus. A manufactured virus. Do not misunderstand. This virus was not designed to harm, but rather to help. Humanity was faltering. It was getting sicklier as the years passed. Pandemics, lack of resources and poor living conditions all meant that disease and death was rampant across society.

And so, for perhaps the first time in human history, differences were put aside. The greatest scientific minds of the age gathered together under the banner of ‘Infirmitas’, working alongside each other to find the solution to this problem. Mankind depended on it. A cure-all solution that would stop the accelerated withering of the human race.

And thus, the Simul Virus was made.

‘Simul’, latin for ‘combine’, named for the virus’ curious properties. You see, the experts realised that they could not find a single cure for every sickness out there. Too many different viruses, infections, disorders. One cure was not going to be able to address the millions of different variables for every disease. Therefore, a different solution was needed. And it was found in a place that already existed. In nature.

Did you know that when they were alive. Crocodile’s blood contained several antimicrobial proteins that protected them from various diseases? Or that the now-extinct shark has antibodies that could potentially help with degenerative brain diseases? Even the simple acacia tree could release pheromones to protect against insect invasion and disease. Almost everything you need to cure a disease can be found in nature. However, humans found it difficult to use these natural weapons, because it was very difficult to adjust these things for the human body.

Until the Simul Virus.

The Simul Virus does not make the human body accept foreign elements. Rather, it CHANGES the human body. It turns the DNA into a sponge of sorts, able to assimilate and combine foreign DNA into the human genome, altering it. For example, a person experiencing blood diseases could be exposed to a crocodilian, and have its DNA combined with their own. Therefore, the human would then begin to generate their own antibiotic blood, just like the crocodile. No more blood disease.

Humankind lauded the Virus as the biggest breakthrough in history. Disease vanished within years, and the human race became healthy. The success of the Simul Virus led it to be administered to nearly the entire human population. I guess Infirmitas can afford to be generous when they have already made riches beyond belief. They constructed many great clinics across the land, where people could go to receive the blessing of the Simul Virus. The greatest of these is Novae Terrae, the original site of the virus’ manufacture. And, so the legend goes, the place where even greater medical treasures reside. Soon, everyone has the Simul-Virus coursing through their veins. No diseases, no issues. Humankind was thriving.

Until the mutation.

It started slowly. Some people began to notice others were changing. A person with a cat started displaying pointed ears and sharpened nails. Someone with a dog developing an enhanced sense of smell. Only certain people. Not all. Still, humankind did not see it as anything. Nothing major, accepted as side effects of the miracle virus. Then, it got worse.

More changes. Claws became longer. Teeth sharper. Human form began to change. And with it, so did instinct. These changed humans lost their humanity. They devolved into beasts, attacking others with wild abandon. They could not be reasoned with, nor convinced to stop. It was like they had become the animals they encountered.

When these incidents became too much to ignore, Infirmitas launched its own investigation into the matter. Their findings were chilling – the Simul Virus had mutated. In most people, the virus worked as intended. But in some, it went further. Instead of the foreign DNA being restricted to immune responses to disease, OTHER traits and characteristics were manifesting. Physical… and instinctual traits. Infirmitas found that these changes accelerated over time, leaving the subject mutated beyond recognition. And, they discovered, the changes were irreversible.

And so began the downfall of Infirmitas. The attacks by the mutated people increased. They drove people to act. ‘Sims’, as they began to be called, were rounded up like the animals they had turned into. At the first sign of mutation, they were imprisoned and separated from ‘normal’ society. Without anywhere to put them, Infirmitas (desperate to save face) took charge of them. They were taken far from civilisation and released. “They are still human,” they said. “They should not be imprisoned.”

Infirmitas realised their mistake too late. In the cities and towns, Sims only had domestic or small animals to absorb DNA and mutate from. In the full glory of nature, their exposure was limitless. New Sim beasts arose, born from the Simul Virus mutating using the DNA of Mother Earth’s deadliest creatures. These beasts multiplied quickly, hunting and killing all in their paths. Gradually, they took over every ecosystem, wiping out the plants and animals that came before them. Biomes and landscapes collapsed and changed, with the Sims taking the roles of animals. They were savage, primal ecosystems, driven by carnivores. By the time Infirmitas and the rest of the ‘normal’ humans found out, it was far too late.

Towns and cities became the only safe haven. The Sims ruled the countryside in between. In time, they even took to the waters, decimating the oceans and rivers. ‘Wills’, as the unmutated came to be known, tried to co-exist with the Sims, but their bloodthirst natural always lead to killing. They then tried to wipe them out, but they were far too numerous. Therefore, the only way for the Wills to survive was to stay in their cities. To wall them off from the natural world. Severing contact with the other Wills settlements. Dozens of walled, self-contained cities, cut off from everything else. Infirmitas, seen as the cause of this calamity, was disbanded, their organisation and record lost to time and public blame.

Over the next decades and centuries, humanity devolved. Power became scarce, then non-existent. Resources dwindled, as the Wills could not venture out into the world to collect more. Small parties were sent outside the city walls, but always returned with virtually nothing, and always minus a few members. Those that survived never ventured out again, to re-live the horrors they encountered.

Energy sources vanished, to be replace by steam, with water the only available resource, pumped from the very ground. The Wills were imprisoned, a shadow of their former selves, eking out a living in a world that was no longer theirs. A prison of their own design. Then, to make matters worse, the unthinkable happened.

The Wills started getting sick. A few at first, then more. The Wills society, after spending hundreds of years in relative health, were getting sick. Common colds, infections and viruses. People did not get better. Even with the society trying to use treatments their ancestors had used centuries ago, people were dying in significant numbers. Outbreaks started become more common. But why? Surely, the Simul Virus had stopped this? Why were people getting sick? Why now?

It became apparent that for Wills Society to survive, something had to be done. But they were not their ancestors. They had no means to cultivate a cure for the disease. To do so, the needed to look back to the past. To a time when the humans of old developed the Simul Virus to begin with. The Wills needed that information, and there was only one place to get it.

Novae Terrae, the original site of the Simul Virus’ manufacture. It was the only place answers could be found. The only place that could save everyone. There was a problem, though. Novae Terrae was outside the walls. A long way away from any walled cities. Infirmitas, all those centuries ago, was paranoid that someone would steal the key to their magnificent virus, so they kept the facility hidden. No one knew for sure where it was. There were only hints and stories, passed down for generations, of the secret fortress of Infirmitas on an island, surrounded onall sides by the infested, impassable ocean.

The Wills leaders made a decision. They would pool their resources to finance an expedition. A group of brave, strong people to brave the terrors of the outside world. To set out to find this fabled facility. To maybe bring back a cure. To possibly never return. To venture farther than anyone has in hundreds of years. To save the Wills from extinction.

You are one of those people. You have been chosen. You will be given resources. Steam-powered weapons. Vehicles. Provisions. Companions. You will be given everything you need to brave the outside world. To brave the Sims. You are the Wills’ last hope. You are their only hope.

Good luck, and don’t get sick.