Nimble Jumped
Everyone thought that they had contained the original virus Nimble (A.132) in the U.S. Southeast and they were mostly right. Anyone who hadn’t been killed who were infected as Noir were vaccinated and cured. There was no human infection anymore. It was gone.
Alex and Bram went to live with their extended families. They decided on Central America thinking that getting away would be a just what they needed. It was there that things changed.
Bram’s former military lab was set up to test on animals. Dogs were immune to Nimble. The scientific team didn’t realize that it could jump zoonotically, however. These dogs were carriers. Five lived from the original lab. One was Diva, Bram and Alex’s dog.
While in Central America Diva was bitten by a bat. The bat had a different strain of rhabdo (rabies), which Diva was immune to due to Nimble's combined virus strains of rabies and Ebola. However, the bat was not immune to Nimble.
Nimble healed the bat from rhabdo and inside the virus brewed, remaining dormant. The bats mated and passed it onto their babies. They had communities for a few years that were not actively biting. Then it emerged mutated as Anguish (A.266).
The first incident happened in Florida. The bats had been trapped on a boat unwittingly. Once the barge was unloaded the bats escaped. A person was bitten and began showing strange symptoms.
Periodic seizures were the main obvious complaint. They were admitted to a hospital. During an IV drip change over, the patient bit a nurse. Then there was a cascade of events. People were bitten repeatedly, infected, and it spread.
That hospital and the area was quarantined. However, a restless child escaped the quarantine, and a family was sympathetic to a homeless kid wandering the streets. A child could not be left out in the cold, they said and took her in. Then, the spread quickened.
Bram began experimenting again. He and Alex worked with people who were sick, trying different combinations of the DarlNoir vaccination—designed to eradicate A.132. None seemed to work once the person was infect with A.266. One night, when they were with a patient, Alex was bitten.
They waited for the inevitable, said their goodbyes and made funeral arrangements. But they never lost hope. Bram began studying her blood and could only conclude one thing. Alex was immune due to her healing ability combined with former Noir status.
Soon they found out she was not alone. Others who were actively infected were not dying, so he began to study further.
Through several experiments they figured out that those who had incredibly strong partnerships had nearly one hundred percent immunity to the illness. The ones who remained had genuine love for their partner, whether it be romantic or not, and that was what kept the virus inhibited.
If that bond was broken, and they were to part ways for too long, anyone who had been bitten with Anguish would begin to show symptoms. Unless they bonded with their partners again, it would emerge.
They tried drugs to inhibit the virus mimicking the bonding hormones like oxytocin and prolactin. It could help keep symptoms at bay in the first week but by week two they would begin to show worse signs and inevitable death would happen...or they would turn.
Reports were produced studying this new strain. They were able to figure out why certain drugs helped to keep it dormant. They were perfecting the combination dosing when it had spread to New York. Soon, it ravaged the east coast.
Separately scientists all over the country were conducting their own trials. It was in New York City that they figured out about bonding too.
Scientists had been communicating and sending information back and forth with the results with Bram and Alex. It was widespread and information disseminated to everyone by social media and the news every day.
Every six weeks they would publish peer reviewed articles for people to reference. They went on TV. They traveled to make people aware, but Anguish was unforgiving. It wreaked havoc on those who did not have partners or children they could be close with.
That is where the panic set in and Vergers were created. Once you were a Verger you had a short window of one week, or less, where you could bond which caused mass hysteria.
Because Vergers aren’t logical, they can’t properly bond with anyone, however they are in denial. They’re driven to do so anyway. A sparse few had been successful in bonding, and they all held onto that hope of being another special exception, but their behavior made it too hard to connect with them.
Bram had experimented with several Vergers and with the help of the right combination of sedatives, they were finally able to keep the Vergers calm. This made conversation a bit easier for the infected. A few were able to make friendships or romantic relationships in the lab setting.
After two weeks went by without incident, the formerly symptomatic Vergers were allowed to leave. They agreed to long-term studies, and it was confirmed that bonding was the only real way to inhibit Anguish.
Soon they realized that people who had been together for decades were completely immune. Unlike the bonded who were together for less than a decade, those with relationships for longer were more immune.
The more years they had, the more immunity they had. Several older people who had been married, had children they were close with, or were partners otherwise, had the answer to finding a cure. These people became what are now referred to as “Messengers”.
Messengers were able to telepathically connect to their Angels to guide them to whatever city they resided. There were five major cities that they’d settled in. These Messengers decided to build communes where people could gather and live. They could be safe with there.
Angels were also known as Beacons, those who had the ability to connect with Messengers. At first, there were one thousand Angels. After several years, their numbers were much lower.
Enter Anguish...
Alex's POV
I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to have children. We had both been infected and I had become Noir at one point. Though we were vaccinated, Bram found that it was possible to for me to become pregnant with a Noir child which would probably kill me. However, the power to heal was called into question. The only way to know differently was to try.
But we never had the chance. We heard about Florida within weeks of infection. Bram insisted that we visit the most infected area. I agreed it was for the best.
It was devastating to hear about a new virus cropping up in the Tampa area. Bram had his suspicions about it having something to do with Nimble. Though the bat bite was microscopic, Diva had developed an abscess.
Bram, always the scientist, took samples. He could tell it was virulent. Something that had awakened with the combination of the bat bite and her dormant Nimble infection.
It was imperative that we investigate. Bram’s confident, satisfied, competent feelings about containing the virus were turned into despair and shame. That was why we HAD to go to the new ground zero.
It had been a long trip but we ended up leaving Costa Rica with Dad and the rest of the Darling family.
That’s where we ran into problems. The bridge between Tampa and St. Pete was clogged and Anguish was rampant. People were trying to attack others. Cars were congested. It was hard to escape.
Bram used as much teleporting as he could. The four brothers, their partners, some with children now and Dad and Windy were all brought to a hospital that was doubling as an experimental lab.
Because of the teleporting, it took my husband a while to recover. I was worried. It was the longest I’d seen him off his feet. A full week. It was draining more of his energy as time went on.
Similarly, I’d discovered that my healing abilities required similar downtime. After everything with Rusty and my Dad, I realized I’d been running on adrenaline for weeks.
Once we were relaxing in Costa Rica, I was able to cure Rhys for good but I had to take breaks in between sessions. Depending on the illness, it could take weeks until I could perform the healing again.
Bram was the same way. Moving over ten people tapped him out. That was his absolute limit in a twenty four hour period. We found that out the hard way in Tampa.
He had no other choice but to rest.
In the meantime, Jonah his wife Wendy, Sandy and I began to explore the area regularly. We brought Diva with us too. She had a keen sense for newly infected. We began to interview them.
As we conversed and the disease progressed after a week, they began to get desperate, begging to bond. The only way was to sedate them to keep them from attacking others. I felt horrible doing it, but we had to put them in jail cells. Luckily, the prison near Tampa had been mostly evacuated.
Another bonus was that the casinos had been faring well, even in the midst of illness. We'd collected enough money for backing our research. Dad had a premonition...well probably not but he turned those money-makers over to me and Bram shortly before all this happened.
These desperate people we began to call Vergers after we realized they only had about a week left to bond. On the verge was where it came from. In some cases it was only a day before they died or turned. They knew if they bonded they had a chance. But most didn’t have the opportunity to do so.
The last question was what its common name would be. We'd chosen the name Anguish because of the pain it caused sufferers and the agony it left many feeling as their ability to bond was taken away.
