For the love of Mankind

She stood looking at him holding a pistol in her hand, a tear just beginning to form in her left eye.

Dr. Darly ran the local medical centre, and was head researcher there, simply because she was rather good and enjoyed her work. She was in this field for almost 13 years. Her husband would take care of the business side of things which suited her fine. She would daily go about her work with her scrubs and pristine white coat nudging tiny microorganisms in various stages of their life checking if they pose any danger to mankind. She had put a stop to many life threatening germs. She was rather proud of her work. She felt she was doing her bit for the good of all mankind. She loved her husband and her husband loved her. They just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary. Life was good.

One day she noticed her maid Antonia, was unwell with a temperature with black and blue markings on her body and it did not subside even after two days. She suspected a viral fever or something similar, and got her checked at the local medical health centre, it turned out she was infected with a new breed of virus. A known virus had mutated into a highly resistant strain. The virus attached the white blood cells and killed their immunity at a very high rate. Antonia was almost at death's door in the span of 4 days. This was the fastest acting virus she had ever seen in her life.

After her initial shock, Dr. Darly put on her scrubs once again to check how she could battle the new strain. She took several blood samples from the young woman to test how best could this virus be defeated. It died at a temperature of 106 degrees Fahrenheit, which was useless as that temperature killed the host as well. It was seems as if it enjoyed mocking them by thriving in potentially deadly soups of drugs and toxins. It would only die if the dose was fatal to the host. Dr. Darly knew Antonia did not have too much time to live, she had now lost all control of motor function, and could not speak. Antonia was an orphan and had no family to speak of, so the good Dr. Darly began to fight for her life desperately, hoping against hope that she would be able to find a way to kill this virus once and for all.

Dr. Darly looked up the facts. As of now, Antonia was the only known victim of the disease, they did not know how it came to be and how it spread. They took blood samples of everyone she could think of, who she had been in contact with for the last 2 weeks. In the next two days, people began getting admitted into the medical centre, as they also began to show the symptomatic black and blue marks and a high temperature which would not come down. Almost the entire research centre got admitted, people who worked with her husband and the local supermarkets where Antonia visited for shopping, and her girl friends she used to hang out with. The community was in a state of panic. The research centre figured out that physical touch was the manner of transmission. She and her husband sent out the message for the community to stay indoors, eat only what they cooked at home and keep contact with the outside world to a minimum level.

But that information put Dr. Darly and her husband under the radar, as Antonia had worked in their home. The little maid breathed his last on the 6th day with massive internal blood hemorrhages. the virus was practically attacking the white blood cells to such a vicious extent as to eat through blood vessels.

Dr. Darly asked herself, who was in close proximity to Antonia? Naturally, herself even more than her husband. Hadn't they both used the utensils Antonia would give them for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Drank from the glasses she touched? How come both of them were feeling fine? She decided to test her own blood. What she saw shocked her. The virus lived within her, she was the host. Her exposure to so many viruses over time made her the immune to the effects of this particular family of viruses. She was the carrier of this mutant strain. The disease was deadly which lead to imminent death in 6 days. As of now, already 12 people on earth were identified to be infected with the virus and they were kept under 24 hour vigilant lock down in the medical centre. But now she knew, she was the mother of the virus. She had to kill the virus that lived within her before she caused any more deaths. No one knew this but herself. But what about her husband? Why hadn't he contracted the dreaded disease? She took a sample of his blood too. She was flabbergasted.

If she was the mother of the virus, he was the father. They thrived in both their bodies as hosts but due to her exposure to various strains of viruses she and her husband apparently were immune to the deadly effects. They both were the carriers of this dreaded deadly virus that could kill a human being in 6 days.There was no known cure, everyone who was infected had to face their certain fate of death.

But what of them both? As of now only she knew that they were carriers....if she informed the authorities, she knew they would keep them in separate isolation cells for observation and testing until they were able to come up with a cure. She knew that could take months or years or what if they never find a cure??? and who knows how many people might get infected in the process?

She made up her mind. She called her husband to come down to her research centre. He came. She told him everything that she had found out, and then her plan. Then, she stood looking at him holding a pistol in her hand, a tear just beginning to form in her left eye.

That evening at 8:00 in the evening the guard said he heard two gun shots and then the entire research centre burst into flames. Everyone in it, all the patients who were infected, the doctors, the nurses, everyone in the reserach centre that night died, along with Dr. Darly and her husband.

The deadly strain of virus was never heard of again. All evidence of its existence was destroyed in the purifying flames of the fire.

Mankind was safe.