Please welcome Susan Kelley to Write with Fey! She knows about my fascination with disaster and has provided an intriguing article for us about how a pandemic could end the world.
Take it away, Susan!
The World Falls Apart
In my latest series, Survivors of the Apocalypse, humanity in on the brink of extinction after a pandemic sweeps the world and kills millions. How would the collapse of civilization occur and what would the impact be on the handful of survivors?
In
this futuristic world, scientists believe they’ve found a universal vaccine
that will make an end to the diseases that have plagued mankind since the
beginning of time. This isn’t something very far outside of reality. Legions of
scientists work on creating yearly flu vaccines and part of their work is to
someday create a vaccine that will work against any mutation of the flu.
2018
marks one hundred years since the worst flu pandemic in the world’s history.
Around 50 million people died. Looking at how people are more mobile and how
many more of us there are, can you imagine the numbers is such a virulent
strain hit us today. Before you think our modern medicine would prevent that,
keep in mind that an estimated 300,000 to 700,000 people die from the flu every
year. Last year’s flu vaccine only protected one in four people who received.
To read more about the search for a universal vaccine, here is one of many articles about it.
In my
fictional setting, the universal vaccines backfires and disaster results. Imagine
how civilization would crumble and implode. A lot of people get very sick, and
the medical resources are overwhelmed. Some of the sick would be essential
services like healthcare workers and police officers. Civil unrest would
follow. As more people succumb, families fall apart, media falls silent, and
infrastructure collapses. No phones, no electricity, and then no clean water.
Governments
first thoughts might be that an enemy have used a biological weapon. Before the
truth is known, a short devastating nuclear war could occur. Untended nuclear
and chemical plants would eventually dump their poisons into the environment.
Scientists that might have stopped the problem fall to the plague before they
are successful. The world of mankind is over.
Except
there will always be people who fall through the cracks and don’t get the
newest vaccine. There are people who are for whatever genetic reasons are
immune to the disease. And therein lies the hope for humanity’s survival, and
the framework for my series.
Add in
one protected biodome city, completely cutoff from the rest of the world, and
you have enough people to give mankind a chance. Maybe.
Exile’s Savage Lady: Book #3 in Survivors of the Apocalypse, is the final book as a few
brave people risk everything to bring the cure to everyone. Robin Linden was
saved by the Gibbs family when the city exiled him to die outside the dome. The
cure exists, but those in the city don’t know. Robin can’t let those inside
starve as their resources fail, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself to save
them. Kerry Gibbs doesn’t understand what makes the stoic city man tick, but
she’s not going to let him get away before she finds out why she finds him so
attractive. If that means following inside the city, she’s not afraid of
anything. But the more she gets to know Robin and what motivates him, she fears
for the first time. They may be able to save the city, but she’ll lose the man
she loves.
BIO: Susan
Kelley lives in a large country home in Pennsylvania where she and her husband
have raised six children. After many years as a high school teacher, she
retired to write full time. She loves dystopia, space adventures, superheroes,
but especially everyday heroes.
Find Her:
QUESTIONS: Do
you get your flu shot every year? Have you ever been really sick with the flu?
Do you think the world will end with a big bang or a long moan?
