All I heard was the sound of sirens. The only thing that I was thinking: why me?

A deadly pandemic had broken out five years ago and up until recently, the governments of the world had gotten it under control. The problem was that a majority of the people wanted things to go back to normal as soon as possible; unfortunately the world wasn’t ready for it yet. Immense pressure from the major corporations caused the governments of the world to reopen business prematurely, causing a new surge in pandemic cases. Unfortunately for me, that was when the virus developed a new strain. 

I was one of the first to get this new strain of the virus and I was rather surprised that I had. I was the 23-year-old daughter of Brazillian immigrants and we had lived a pretty comfortable life in the United States until the pandemic started. Both my parents had gotten it, and since had passed away, but it had seemed like I had an immunity to it. I guess the new strain was sufficiently different that my supposed immunity made little difference. 

I was living with my 21 year old sister at the time when the new strain showed up. She was finishing up university while I supported the two of us working as a social worker. I primarily worked with current military personnel, veterans, and their families. It was a way for me to connect with people and help those that were serving the country. 

Two days ago, I had been at work and I had been helping a young soldier with some of the issues he was dealing with. At one point he started to cough rather strongly and excused himself. With the initial wave of the pandemic coming to close, I didn’t think too much about it until he came back. Where eyes are normally red when they are bloodshot, the soldier's eyes had become green. 

I asked him if he was ok and told him about his eyes. The soldier looked rather concerned for a moment and thanked me for my help before telling me that he should go home and get things checked out. 

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I wasn’t too worried about what had happened except for the fact that he had a green tinge in his eyes. That scared me quite a bit. Regardless, I made sure to avoid touching my face and washed my hands. I decided to head home early and take a hot shower to hopefully cleanse myself of any germs.  

The next day, despite my best efforts,  I developed a hacking cough and the same green color in my eyes. I called off of work as I was concerned about whatever illness I had caught from the soldier. I was also thinking about my sister but she was visiting her boyfriend who lived in a different state and had accidentally left her phone behind. The day later,, I started to cough up some sort of green fluid. Around noon,  I started to feel weak so I called 911 before I collapsed and faded out of consciousness. 

I drifted back to some level of awareness as I was taken to the hospital but I was still delirious. I was only able to make out some of my surroundings but I could tell that I was at the local hospital’s emergency room. A doctor and two nurses were in the room examining me. I couldn’t quite catch everything they were saying. 

“Patient is in critical...include abnormal heart rate, difficult...and a serious cough. Other abnormalities include the...eyes and the green fluid that she coughs up.” 

“Are there any signs of -” 

“No, Doctor. She -” 

“Have her blood drawn immediately...have a new strain of that virus that caused us so much trouble.” 

“But Doctor, that disease has been contained.” 

“Just run-”

I faded out of consciousness again only to wake up to the sound of my screaming. I realized that I was fighting to leave the hospital bed as two orderlies struggled to keep me down. The sounds of the vital signs monitor were going crazy and I was seeing double of everything. I heard the doctor hysterically shouting orders but that was the last thing I remember before being abruptly dragged into darkness.