Covid Apocalypse

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The dog wagged its tail and nibbled on his shoes, a sign that it had spotted something. He picked up his spear and followed it closely making sure not to make a sound to scare away the prey. This partnership of theirs had been born out of mutual need, food. He finally spotted what the dog had been so excited about and after careful aiming let his spear fly free. The animal in the bush jumped out of fear and what must have been a moment of regret felt the spear dig into its body, the dog rushed to it and completed the job. This was the second squirrel they had caught that day and he was growing frustrated, at this rate he would just as well discover a new virus.

When the virus first started spreading in Wuhan, everyone made fun of the Chinese and condemned them for eating bats and all manner of vermin. Life moved on as normal on the first month until the disease started spreading globally, they watched with horror as it ravaged through Europe leaving thousand dead in its wake. For the first time he was proud of being an African, the scientists were saying their black skin and tropical climate was preventing the virus from spreading into the continent. And then the government announced the first confirmed case.

In a rush to contain the spread, the government would then impose a curfew and restrict movement. At first people were skeptical, after all this was the same government that was known to loot even money meant to buy medical supplies. As the numbers kept increasing, the doubt kept growing. Why is it that the number keeps growing daily and yet no one personally knows even a single infected person? The people questioned. Celebrities would soon start coming out and saying they had tested positive but that was not enough.

The people wanted to be let out to continue doing business, many had been rendered jobless and were barely making ends meet. A high ranking government official then died, followed by a high flying corporate. The reality was of the situation dawned on them.

With the government refusing to uplift the lockdown, many families went hungry. Electricals were the first to hit the market and then it was the furniture, soon everyone was selling anything they could in order to raise money for food. Rent arrears had piled up for months and the landlord surprisingly did nothing about it, but could he? The rumor was that he had been taken to isolation with his whole family, at least he was not coming to collect rent anytime soon

Rumors started spreading that the president had contracted the virus, everyone was saying how other countries had refused to allow him seek treatment in their hospitals and he was in the international airspace begging to be let into a European country. The second wave was here and it was even more deadly than the first, diplomatic relations were thrown out of the window, it was now every nation for itself. Scientists who had been working on finding a cure to the virus were turning up dead and the world was starting to give up. Doctors and nurses committed suicide in large numbers, driven by the post-traumatic stress they had from seeing thousands of patients die begging for air while coughing blood from their lungs.

The army moved in and took over security operations from the police, movement was now forcefully restricted. When the news broke that the president had died and was buried even before the press release, everyone went into a frenzy. Shops were looted, riots broke out and everyone tried to leave the city. The rural air was all that could save them now.

At the roadblock he found a huge gridlock, the army was not letting anyone through. A car sped past the roadblock and in seconds it was torn apart by thousands of rounds of firepower, as it burst into flames they realized their goose was cooked. He joined a group of travelers who opted to leave through the forest that was filled with wild animals. On the third day one guy got very sick by evening he was dead, they buried him in a shallow grave and marked his initials on a piece of rock. Along the way many more would drop dead and they would be left to be eaten by the scavenging animals. With their numbers quickly diminishing, it was decided that the best thing was for everyone to go their separate ways to minimize the risk of contracting the virus.

After an eternity, he finally made it to his rural home. Here he found the condition to be even worse, combined with the plague, people were dying of hunger and lack of water. A major drought had brought famine right to their doorstep, almost the entire population had died as no help was coming. After two days he decided to move on, if he stayed the hunger would kill him. The neighbor’s dog that had been licking what curiously looked like human bones followed him into the night as he left the sleepy village.