Prologue
Not many wish to talk about their lives from 2050 to 2065, during The Great Plague. They cannot be blamed for this; it is hard for me to think of, though I promised that I would write down events that I, and other, remember to help make a record of the decade and a half where the lives of every person on Earth were affected. Everyone lost someone to the plague, either through death or transformation, and I am no exception.
My son and my niece, both, were infected.
My son, transformed.
My niece, died.
Though I cannot say exactly how much longer my son lasted than my niece, it was not a significant amount of time. He, like many who suffered through the transformation during those years, was hunted down and killed, seen as an abomination of nature.
I did not see him like that; to me, he was just my son. My son who had been suffering as a result of being exposed to a virus that no one knew anything about. I still cannot understand the continued targeting of these poor individuals, the way they are treated as sub-human for something they could not, and cannot help.
Perhaps that is why I agreed to help compile the stories of those who would speak about their experience surviving the plague. I still seek to understand the rationale of people who seem to have nothing but hatred for those for affected the worst, and though I will never agree with them, perhaps there is some common ground where I can see where their fear and irrational behavior comes from.
The stories compiled in this book are only a few of the undoubtedly endless stories across the globe of people deeply affected and traumatized by the plague.
Andrew Engel, journalist
