Young Writers Society

The year is 2388, and we desperately need your help.

For a while now, the world has had a new obsession with creating a treatment for all diseases, and some have come close. In 2163, A lab in Russia began work with this same goal--to find a medicine to treat and cure each and every disease. They had some previous success in more minor endeavors, but then decide to move on to something bigger. In their attempts to combine different chemicals to combat these diseases, they accidentally mixed two dangerous chemicals together, creating Virus C-284.

This virus would first be administered directly into the blood, but it was highly contagious. If one was a mere five feet from an infected person, they could get the disease. If they weren't careful, one accidental injection could destroy the human race.

So they locked up Virus C-284 in a cage and put it in the far corners of the storage area, and it disappeared for about 200 years, the employees strictly prohibited from even looking at the bottle. But one day, the lab is robbed by a group of political activists hoping to steal some sort of lethal chemical to use on their hostages as a means of persuasion for the uncooperative government. In that heist, they manage to get away with one vial of Virus C-284.

After using it on two of their hostages, they realize that Virus C-284 does not kill people, rather, it destroys them. Infected people first start showing the symptoms of someone with just a bad case of the flu, and at that stage it is not contagious. But after about a week, their skin begins to peel and their eyes become crusty and yellow. A week after that, they begin to look like lepers and are unable to perform most daily functions. A week after that, they die, in excruciating pain. Worse yet, the virus is very contagious, and it spreads from two people to about 1,000 in a matter of days.

What do you do?

***

Rules:
1. You can be either an infected person, a scientist, or an uninfected person who is A. evacuated from a Quarantine City or B. related/connected to an infected person.
2. There will be a little bit of gore, and some mild violence is allowed, but nothing too graphic.
3. Mild swearing is allowed (words such as hell, damn, ass, crap), but nothing above that.
4. No sex, even implied.
5. No god-modding.
6. No killing anybody's character without discussing it with both me and the person whose character you are killing and receiving the OK.
7. All usual RP rules apply.
8. Have fun!

Everyone she knew was in that city. Liverpool, the place she grew up.

Nora stood before the city gates. Of course, they were closed and locked. But they had no security guards, since who would be willing to go that close to Infecteds. Except for Nora, of course.

She clambered up the fence, perfectly sliding between the barbed wire, in the way she had practiced for weeks. This has been planned for awhile. Landing on the pavement, she took off down the streets, with only one thing on her mind. She had to know if her sister was dead.

Dr. Pecker stepped up to the podium to address the Center for the Control of Sickness and Disease, this time regarding the virus that had swept across most of Asia and needed to be addressed.

"Friends and colleagues, I come before you at a time when the world is at a tentative state. If this virus is not immediately handled in the best way possible, the entire human race could become extinct. I will keep my speech brief so as to give you enough time to put my suggestions into action, if you so choose. Here is my humble proposition. I have decided on 3 rules that will stop the spread of the disease while we work around the clock to find a cure.
1. All infected people must be quarantined inside a designated sick house in one of the 6 designated cities: Liverpool, Bristol, Leicester, Oxford, Dundee, and Cambridge.
2. All new cases of infection must be reported to the Center for the Control of Disease and Sickness.
3. All uninfected residents of those cities shall be evacuated immediately, and no uninfected person should enter a designated Quarantine City for any reason, without exception.
Should these rules be broken, all offenders will be executed, along with five of their closest contacts, which may include family or close friends."

Dr. Pecker concluded his speech and stepped down off the podium, waiting for approval from the Council.

As Nora continued down the abandoned road, she saw corpses piling up on the sides of the streets. Their bodies had begun to disintegrate, and their eyes were yellow and crusty. Shivering, Nora realized these were former Infecteds.

She had to follow the road, to ensure her sister wasn't one of these corpses. The road was wide enough that if she walked down the center, the corpses would be too far away to infect her. Probably. No one had ever studied the virus' actions after the Infected was dead, so there was no saying if she would be fine.

She had planned for danger when she crawled over that fence. Putting on a face of determination, she walked down the center of the road, making sure to look as confident as possible.

Dr. Pecker stood in the streets, here to hang up posters decreeing the new rules. After some tweaking, the council had agreed to his three propositions, and now they were being hung all over town.

Across the road, she spotted a figure who didn't seem infected. "You!" he barked at the figure. "You can't be over here!"

Nora looked the man over. "You don't exactly look infected yourself. Can you be over here?"

The man stiffened, as if he had been insulted. "Excuse me, I am Dr. John Pecker, one of the honorary representatives of the Center for the Control of Sickness and Disease, here on very important business. I can be wherever I want. You, on the other hand, are nothing other than a little street urchin and by law are prohibited from standing here."

"You're telling me a law will prevent my allowance of risking my life? But you're legally allowed to risk your life? That's kinda screwed up."

"I didn't come here to argue, rat. Scram or I'll call the police."

Nora took a step back, so she was standing just far enough away from an Infected's corpse that she couldn't be infected herself. "Good luck finding a policeman willing to get this close to the virus."

Dr. Pecker took a deep breath, his face flushing. This girl was really pushing him to his limits. "What do YOU want here, anyway?" he questioned. No sane person would willingly go close to infected people unless they had a very, very good reason.

She stuck out her tongue. "Nothing that concerns you!"

"Everything concerns me nowadays," Dr. Pecker sighed. "I can have you arrested, you know. Violating these rules is now a criminal offense, and the punishment is not just death on you, it is death on your five closest friends or family members. So I would really recommend cooperating.

Nora giggled. "That's cute, you thinking I fear the death of myself or anyone I'm close to." Her eyes darkened. "Good luck finding anyone I'm close to who isn't in here. In fact, it's a miracle I myself wasn't infected. Perhaps I am." She took a daring step closer to him, her eyes still dark, but a devilish smirk crossing her face.

Dr. Pecker stepped backwards. "Well, you do what you want to do." The thought had not occurred to him that she wasn't infected herself, and he practically ran away in his hurry. He couldn't afford any risk of infection.