The New Strain

Prologue

Science had predicted our extinction. Fossil records show everything goes extinct, eventually. Almost all species that ever lived, over 99.9%, were already extinct.

Humans were inevitably heading for extinction. It's the year 2250—the year where the end of our race was to become real. 

This had made me worried for the past few days. Everybody did. It's a threat to all our aspirations and dreams for the future.

My dream. Jacob. A family with him. All were to vanish in the wind. Will return from what we were right before God created humankind. 

Clouds of dust.

I sighed to ease the anxiety. Unti-unti, niyuyupos ng takot sa aking dibdib ang pag-asa na matagal ko nang pinanghahawakan.

Wildfires in Australia and the USA, civil wars in the Middle East and countries in South America, various tsunamis in Asia, g******e in Russia, China, and India, several volcanic eruptions randomly happen worldwide. I thought it was just nature's way of reclaiming its own, but when a scientific organization called Encore claimed that these were all the signs of our near end with convincing pieces of evidence, my world stopped in a quick drop.

I flipped the next page of the digital book I was reading: Numbers 35:33. On the text, I silently read, "You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it."

Then out of thin air, a small spark of light appeared in the sky. Naputol ang taimtim kong pagbabasa nang isang nakakabulag na liwanag ang sumilay sa kalangitan. "The Flash!" sigaw ng utak ko habang pinagmamasdan ang unti-unting paglapit ng liwanag. 

Looking at it, I knew it was the end of the human race. The media had shown this yesterday. 

It's real! 

It's the end of the human race. Nuclear weapons had exploded to eliminate our kind. 

The nuclear weapons emitted large amounts of thermal radiation as visible, infrared, and ultraviolet light, to which the atmosphere is largely transparent. 

Unti-unti, naramdaman ko ang pag-init ng gilid ng aking mga mata. Pakiramdam ko'y sinabuyan ito ng asido. I knew it's thermal radiation that will damage the eyes. I got blinded due to retinal burns. I'd die from it. 

Sabay-sabay ang pagbuhos kaba, takot at kirot sa aking sistema.

Nanlumo ako. Hindi ko na siya makikita. Si Jacob. Hindi na matutuloy ang pinaplano naming pagpapakasal at pagbuo ng masayang pamilya kalaunan. 

"Jacob... Mom... Aspen!" malakas kong sigaw bago ako tuluyang nilamon ng mainit at nakakapasong liwanag. 

Before I got blinded, my eyes became watery. I felt the tears of pain fall on my burning cheeks. A sob of agony seconded as I realized that the prediction was going to happen. 

This is the end.

The end that marked another beginning.