Leprosy- a chronic, mildly infectious disease caused by Mycobacteria, affecting the nervous system, skin, nose, and characterized by ulcerations, tubercular nodules, and loss of sensation that sometimes leads to traumatic amputation of the anesthetized part.
I am lucky not to have the disease because I am immune, but unfortunately eighty percent of the world population is infected. Somehow, even with the advances in science and the medical profession, the disease runs rampant.
My name is Thomas. I’m ten years old, and I live in the twenty ninth century. I used to live in a giant mansion and I had everything I ever wanted. I had tons of money, even with the economy being as horrid as it was, until the day when not a single child was born. It had to be the most peculiar anomaly in all of human history. The next day people all around the world suddenly became sick. Crime rates shot up nine hundred percent, and the world fell into total anarchy. Everyone rushed to gather food and the ones who didn’t died off.
The disease called for a whole entire army of doctors, but there was no way to counteract the infection. The doctors tried amputation, but so many people needed them and the body parts began piling up. The remaining population went underground to stay away from the airborne sickness that plagued the world. I’d never seen such a horrible disease.
Out of the nine billion people that populated our Earth, I was the only one who was immune. Scientists poked and prodded me over and over again and were astonished by their findings. It turns out that I was immune because of my strange eating habits. It only took two years for the scientists to create a vaccine to stop the disease. I always enjoyed mixing oranges and ketchup and eating it. I would eat weird mixtures nonstop and my mother thought it was disgusting, but she died three days after the worldwide infection.
I really miss my parents and I would give up everything just to see their faces again. All the people I knew died right before my eyes. I am tired and sick of this disease. It destroys everyone it touches, so why is it that I’m the only one who can’t be affected by it? What did I do that makes me so special? I paused for a second the minute the scientists told me they found the answer.
They said that by mixing the chemicals inside ketchup and oranges, they could cure the disease. The people thought it was disgusting, but that’s just the way it had to be done. My brother always hated the things I ate, and unfortunately he was the first one to go. The disease was so powerful that you would not survive if it went untreated.
The scientists tried to save as many people as possible, but the disease had already claimed 8.98 billion lives. As we walked out of our underground caves, we could all smell the putrid air. The smell of decaying carcasses, although nasty, had to be looked over. We found Backhoes, forklifts, dump trucks, and big semi’s which we used to move the bodies. We dug huge holes and buried all the bodies in a mass grave.
We took refuge on the coast of California and we built a colony out of the scrap material we found while searching for bodies. Slowly our colony of 1,500 doubled and then tripled. We may never know how this disease started or where it began, but one thing’s for certain, no matter what challenge is thrown at us, humanity will always survive.