Guardians of Winter
Winter, an enemy of man and beast, yet a friend to all living things, for only winter can change a hunt for food into a struggle for life. Winter affects all life for life must adapt to the daring times that winter brings. Water freezes over, plants are covered in snow, and animals grow a thick fur or hide to conserve their body heat. Humans make up for it by being able to bring these animals down for their fur to use as their heat reserves.
1925
The only thing that affects humans more than the cold is illness. Illness can decimate continents and bring suffering to nations. Many can be immune, but it's this immunity that makes them weak. Viruses can change, just like winter can change. It can be cold one moment and freezing another. A virus can have on set of genetic makeup before changing to another.
The serum run was a great success, saving the lives of the children. But what if another virus was coming? What if diphtheria was just paving the way for another one to come in? What if this virus had no cure? What if it only affected Homo sapiens?
Something was wrong in Nome, hell, even Alaska itself. It was as if the wind talked about it, the air whispered it, and the plants were affected by it. Something sinister had come to Alaska. It had paved its way from the lower forty eight states all the way through Canada and into the Yukon. Whatever it was had death all over it.
Newspapers within the United States whispered rumors of a virus that killed without mercy. You would get a fever, sore throat, and rashes. After stage one, stage two was where it got bad. In stage two, you would start throwing up, coughing blood, and suffering from migraines. You'll also suffer from diarrhea and stomach pains. Stage three is where death occurs.
This virus is different with age. Children, three happens in twenty minutes. Teenagers, it is thirty minutes. Adults, it's a day. Elderly and babies, it's between five and ten minutes. Thousands have died before even a vaccine can come, but the vaccine is useless since this virus changes too quickly and too often. There is no hope against this virus because it kills too quickly. The leading medical staff that had tried to find the cure have gotten sick themselves. There is nothing left for anyone to do except pray that their death will be quick.
Life is life; there is only one rating and that rating is the worst one of all. You cannot censor life. So when the dead start piling up, how long can you keep it hidden from the public?
There was no stopping this virus. All human life had been extinguished in less than seventy hours in the United States. Europe was also hit, losing the entire human population in ninety hours. Asia lost the entire population in a hundred hours, while Australia was lost in thirty hours.
Scientists theorized that the virus was like other viruses and heat or cold would destroy it. They were wrong. Heat and cold both produced the same result; an accelerated reproduction that quadrupled the amount of virus cells, killing whatever was infected in a minute instead of the regular time it would usually take.
No serum could be produced so, whilst leaving a trace of their own destruction, humanity became extinct.
Now this virus also did something unusual as well. Certain people, not for any reasons known, were transformed into canines. Unknown why they were transformed, many scientists tried to research this, but they died due to the virus' uncontrollable reactions to the human body.
When the virus came to Alaska, it came in silently, like a specter in the night. The next day is when the killing began. All it took was fifteen hours and Alaska was devoid of human life.
A/N: This is my first story so... go crazy I guess. Butcher it, I do not care. As long as people read it, I'm fine. Anyways, the next chapter is with the Balto characters so... have fun.