The following is the first snippet of a story that never went anywhere 10ish years ago. I even had a name for it but never did anything with it. I hope to expand on it one day but Aloft comes first. Hopefully you won't mind this short introduction to another story.
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In the year 2043 Earth as humanity knew it, ended.
Several years before that unfortunate event took place, Lucas was sitting at home for the third week straight. He fiddled with some code for a new app he and his lazy best friend had been working on. He'd been forced into home isolation since he'd tested positive for a new type of disease that had been going around for a few years at this point. Doctors had never seen anything like it before and had declared it a new type of virus. People had come to call it the Crystal Virus due to the crystal-like growths that would form on the infected. It wasn't truly known how the virus was spread but most assumed it must have been airborne.
Some people only got flaky skin that hardened to the point of chipping off and was considered more of a cosmetic issue than anything. Others however were not so lucky, the virus quickly encased some peoples entire bodies with cloudy blue but almost translucent crystal. Those that were encased were considered dead and were shipped off to secure facilities. The reason they were considered dead was due to no form of technology being able t o read the patients vitals and were thus, presumed dead. That was the official story at least.
The governments around the world kept collecting the 'dead' crystal encased humans and told the general public that for safety and sanitary reasons, they couldn't bury those unfortunate souls like normal dead bodies. Most people took that excuse well enough and sadly moved on without their loved ones who had succumbed to that terrible fate. Chrysalitasic Xerosis Encasement Syndrome (CXES) was running rampant across the globe but nearly every developed country had taken to downplaying the seriousness of the virus. in all honesty, scientists didn't even think it was a 'virus' at all.
It didn't operate as a traditional virus would, such as moving from person to person through touch, air, or bodily fluids like any other virus. But what else were they going to call it? 'Virus' was the only word they could think of that would keep people from panicking but also take it seriously enough when they were ordered to shelter at home. It didn't matter in the end though, people who were completely isolated from the rest of the world were still getting the virus and nobody could understand why.
Lucas didn't feel bad at all when he first discovered the flaky blueish-grey skin on his stomach. He knew pretty quickly what it was but knew freaking out about it wasn't going to make it go away and made a doctors appointment shortly after his find. The doctor confirmed that he did indeed have the Crystal Virus. His doctor didn't even take a sample or anything, just a quick glance, shook his head and said "You've got CXES Lucas. The only thing we can do for you is give you some anti-inflammatory medication and ask you to stay isolated for a month." The medicine wouldn't do anything to the virus itself but would reduce the inflamed skin around the inflicted area. Now, he was sitting at home for the third week in a row and the virus had spread to his neck, arms, and just shy of his privates. He wasn't too happy with the idea of the crytsal-like rash spreading downstairs but again, nothing to be done about it. Working on a pointless app had been nice but he was feeling more stiff and tired than usual, so he decided to go lay down for what would be the longest nap of his life.