A/N: Goodness, you guys certainly delivered in the review department! Here's me keeping my end of the bargain.
I skipped ahead two years because I want to get to the nitty gritty stuff. Maybe I'll come back at the end and fill in the gaps, but I hope you guys don't mind me getting ahead of myself.
Since this chapter is so short and since you guys are the best readers ever, I'm going to put up another chapter right after this. And (surprise!), it's going to be the first Max POV chapter.
Fang (2012)
For two years, I learned. I studied everything I could about global warming, the melting of the polar ice caps, the changing environment… I even read about past major environmental changes, about theories of what happened to make the earth, to kill the dinosaurs, the ice age, what happened after the ice age.
I read every newspaper I could find, followed the development of national ties and treaties, read about legislatures and laws that passed. I watched as people around the world realized that the earth was changing -dying- right in front of them, because of them.
And then, in December of 2012, while I was in Oregon, everything changed.
It was all over the news that there was some strange disease running rampant through the world. It started in coastal cities, then the farmlands, and quickly spread to major cities and towns.
Scientists later realized that the disease had been contained in the polar ice caps, but when they thawed to a certain point, it was released. The ice-melt merged with water in the ocean, and from there it was in the blood of the world. There was no way we could have stopped it. We were too late.
People panicked when they heard the news. Everyone believed they had the symptoms. It was easy to mistake at first. It started with nausea and after you had thrown up everything you could, dry heaves turned to a hacking cough. With the cough came a strange weakening of the muscles. After a few days you couldn't even move and your muscles were visibly shrunken.
It was a gruesome disease. Some people died quickly, in less than a day in some cases. Others lingered on for weeks. People died in their beds in pools of excrement and vomit. Scientists were unable to stop it.
They tried to find a vaccine, but within a few months almost everybody who might have had the ability to find one was dead.
I waited to see if I would develop the disease. It was always in the back of my mind that Angel's prophecy could still be in effect. Maybe when I had died for a few minutes two years ago, that had been fulfilling the prophecy. Or maybe I was still destined to die. Now seemed as good a time to die as any.
But I lived.
And after about six months the plague or virus or whatever it was went away. Nobody got sick anymore. The last few infected were dead or dying.
Newspapers were printed for the last time. They wrote a farewell to some of the more important figures that had died. Celebrities and actors. Olympic athletes and Sports superstars. The President and Vice President.
People hardly cared anymore. Most had lost everyone they knew.
The newspaper estimated the new world population to be 2.1 billion people.
A/N: So let me know what you think. I'm sure there will be repercussions to my method of apocalypse, but hey, something had to happen. I'm going to start setting up the next chapter for you. It should be up in a few hours. Thanks for reading and feel free to review!