Disclaimer: I DO NOT own I Am Legend.
October 31st, Halloween, 2009, Dr. Alice Krippin went on CNN (I don't own that either) to explain her miracle cure for cancer, which is a genetically engineered measles virus. That all 10,009 patients given the cure were free of cancer.
She explained a minor side effect would be dilated pupils, but that they would wear off. What Dr. Krippin had failed to realize was that at the moment she was talking, her cure was going under a transformation. A deadly one. A week later, 200 of the patients given the cure were exhibiting the early onset of rabies, and 1,000 had already died.
On the week of Thanksgiving, Dr. Krippin went on CNN to talk about the mutations. She said that her cure had mutated into a lethal virus, one that would kill 90 of all whom contracted it, over 9 would lose all possible humanity and would be degenerated into a primal state of aggression, and less than 1 would remain immune.
They planned to quarantine the infected, but who was to know that their adrenal glands were now permanently open, so they could outrun any normal human. One escaped, and before long, normal people were beginning to die, and some began degrading themselves in the dark, for the infected had an extreme sensitivity to UV radiation.
By Christmas, the population of Manhattan began decreasing at an alarming rate. The president had no choice, but to issue as military quarantine of Manhattan Island. The night of the quarantine, those who were scanned to be free of the infection were allowed to leave via helicopter, but with such little time since the outbreak, the military did not have time to perfect its equipment, so the scanning devices were flawed, and some who were cast as infected were actually clear, and some who were thought to be clear, were infected.
With some infected people outside of Manhattan, the virus began to spread. It was dubbed Krippin Virus after its creator, or KV. Had the infected stayed in Manhattan, the whole disorder would've been cleared up.
When KV became noticed outside of Manhattan in New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts, it was too late to quarantine the US, for many infected people would have already left to other places around the world.
Even the top scientists working on a cure soon became infected with KV. In Europe and Asia, KV was being reported. Thailand sealed off its borders, but allowed people to come in if said were clear by their perfected scanning machines, which actually worked.
But then came the bad news. KV got airborne. It got into even the most secure places. Soon, the population of the world began to diminish by the millions. And then by the billions.
There was chaos everywhere, stores being looted, and at night, the infected could be heard screaming and groaning as they roamed the streets that were once so quiet at night.
Soon the world became so quiet, so peaceful, that it seemed nobody had stumbled upon this world for centuries. Major cities like Washington D.C, New York, Seattle, Atlanta, Miami, they were all ghost towns.
By the end of 2010, 90 of the world's population died. Over 9 remained infected, but went into the primal state of aggression. Less than 1 was immune. That was 5,400,000,000 people, dead. 588,000,000 people, infected. 12,000,000 people, immune. And after that, when food ran scarce for the dark seekers, they began hunting down those who were immune, and those who were left alone committed suicide because of the isolation.
That has cut down the population of those immune down to 6,000,000 healthy, immune survivors in the world.
One of those was Dr. Robert Neville. Since KV began spreading, he began searching on a cure. He was the last healthy individual left in New York. He spent his time searching on a cure, and in 2012, he found one.
Moments later, he died to defend that cure. The cure was brought to a survivor's colony. A group of people went out to venture into the world with supplies, the ones needed to capture the dark seekers, cure them, and bring them to the colony.
And since then, the estimated number of dead is still at 5,400,000,000 the estimated population of infected is 300,000,000 and the estimated population of survivors, both immune and cured is at 294,000,000. And it is still growing. Because of this, humanity is still alive.
Dr. Robert Neville will be the one remembered as the one who saved humanity.
We are his legacy.
This is his legend.
Light up the darkness.
Written by Anna