My name is Kaori Driscoll. I am fourteen years old. I am a survivor living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The dove that is carrying this message has flown to all corners of the earth, searching for other survivors. If you find this message, send one back.
If you are out there, please know, you are not alone.
Two years earlier.
The first time I saw her on the news, I knew something was not quite right. Dr. Krippin's miracle cure for cancer. By reversing the affects of the measles virus, she had been able to create a good virus that would eliminate all traces of cancer in the body.
My family was sitting around our TV in the living room, as they always did at five o'clock. I didn't like the news, so I usually stayed in my room and drew.
But this time, I sat down on the couch, snuggled up with my dad, and watches as Dr. Krippin announced the cure for cancer.
My mother's brow furrowed, "This seems to good to be true."
My father shrugged, "It's probably one of those things where 'the cure is worse than the disease.' I agree with you, Sherri. It seems to good to be true."
I agreed. My oldest brother said that it might work, and my second oldest brother agreed with him. But my third oldest brother said that it couldn't possibly work. My older sister thought it was a miracle, and that it had to work. There was no evidence that it didn't!
She was always so shallow.
My twin sister and I often shared the same opinion about stuff like this, and with a single glance at each other, we knew that neither of us liked the idea.
I mean, a cure for cancer was great, but if it actually worked was another problem all together. From what Dr. Krippin said, all of the patients that had been tested with the cure had become cancer free. But it said nothing more, nothing about if the patience had come down with something else. She didn't list the side-effects of this cure, and that left doubts. Sometimes cures like this often had a risk of heart attack, stroke, ulcers or some other horrible infliction. If it didn't have any side effects, then I knew that there was something wrong with it. Nothing like that could ever exist without some backfire.
I strode back to my room, plopped down on my pink recliner in front of my desk and began surfing the web on my laptop. Everywhere I found news of Dr. Krippin's miracle cure. I searched around to see if the recipients of this cure had any side effects.
My twin sister, Daryl, came into my room.
"Find anything?" she asked.
"Not yet," I replied, "Everywhere I go they're praising the work of Dr. Krippin!" I said, waving my arms for drama.
Daryl came up and sat down on the arm of the recliner.
"I know a site where you might find something," she said. I leaned to the side to allow her to type. She typed an address in the browser, then clicked enter. It went to a governmental site where all the latest news, information and projects were kept. She clicked on a link, but it led to a page that read "Top Secret. You are not authorized to access this information."
"We'll see about that." Said Daryl, and began typing furiously. She pressed enter, and the page read "access granted," and continued to another page.
"Did," I said with surprise, "did you just hack into top secret governmental information?"
"Hey," said Daryl, "they shouldn't keep this stuff from the people, if there is anything wrong with Dr. Krippin's cure, we ought to know about it. Besides, no governmental mumbo jumbo security lock can keep out the Daryl, sis." she nudged me with her elbow.
I leaned closer to the screen and began reading.
"Log of General Hart. October 12th, 2009. Today Dr. Krippin broadcast on international television telling about her cure for all types of cancer. Dr. Krippin's cure is certainly a work of genius, but some are skeptical about it's effectiveness. All patients that were treated are now free of cancer, and are being monitored by governmental agents as well as expert scientists. I have, myself, visited the facility where they are being lodged, and they all seem to be doing well."
I kept reading the General's log, and it continued to say how the patients were doing well. Then, at the bottom of the page, I clicked a link to the next page. A popup appeared on the screen that said "Warning. This is top secret information. Do you wish to continue?"
"Yes we wish to continue, you moron," said Daryl, and I clicked "ok."
On that page was another log by the General, but this one was quite different. It read: "October 20th, 2009."
"That's today." I said. Daryl nodded.
"A few of the patients seem to be exhibiting signs of the flu. Those have been separated to prevent the flu from spreading to the healthy patients, and are now being treated. The healthy patients seem to be doing fine, although they complain from now and then about wanting to see their families, and some of them complain about being hungry, although they are being fed well. The patience inflicted with influenza seem to be having trouble getting over their illness, and many have coughed up blood. The docters and scientists are working hard, and the patients should be fine in a matter of days."
There the General's log ended.
Daryl's face screwed up, "Well that wasn't of much help. All the patients seem to be doing fine. It's just a matter of time though. We can check back here every day to see what this General writes."
I nodded, "The people that got the flu… that might be a side effect of the vaccine, do you think?"
Daryl shrugged, "Probably. Although I've never seen anyone with the flu cough up blood before. That's usually an advanced stage of…" her face went blank for a moment, "Oh I forget. Oh well. Some kind of really bad sickness."
"Ok. We'll check back on this site every day. Don't tell mom or dad or any of them we're doing this, though. They might not approve." I said.
"What about Bruce?" Asked Daryl, "Do you think he should know?"
I nodded. Bruce was my best friend, and we had known each other for a little over a year now. I trusted him.
"Ok then." Daryl sighed, "Let's hope this thing doesn't turn out to be anything bad."
Over the next few days, myself, Daryl, and Bruce, who was staying for the week, visited General Hart's log while the rest of our family watched the news.
The General continued talking about the patient's conditions, and how the patients with influenza didn't seem to be getting any better, despite the doctor's and scientist's efforts.
On October 25th, we read: "Several of the patients have died. The cause is unknown, but autopsies are being organized to find out the cause. Many of the other patients have also fallen sick. What their epidemic is, we do not know. The patients stricken with influenza are steadily getting worse. No medicine seems to be working. The patients with influenza are showing increased levels of aggression, and do not let many people come near them. In short, we believe that Dr. Krippin's supposed cure is causing a worse infliction than cancer. We are afraid, this information cannot be kept from the public for very much longer. We must soon release it. Dr. Robert Nevel has been notified of the current circumstances, and he is working with our leading scientists to discover what exactly is happening to our patients. Dr. Krippin has not been notified. Hopefully, we will find an explanation and an ending to this strange occurrence."
Bruce crossed his arms, "This all sounds like something from a bad mystery movie. Looks like you were right, Kaori. This cure is too good to be true. It seems like only a fraction of the patients that were treated are doing fine."
A lump caught in my throat. I felt sorry for the poor people that were being used as human guinea pigs, and had come down with these strange sicknesses, or that had died. But more than the feeling of pity was an overwhelming sense of fear. Fear of what was to come. If they couldn't stop this strange occurrence… I didn't know what would happen. I was afraid. Afraid for my family, for Bruce, for the patients that had been treated.
Afraid for the world.
And so it began.
This is my story.
This is the legend.