Prologue
White.
The color I see everyday.
In this hospital room I call ''home'', I have been strapped to this bed and connected to many machines I don''t know the purpose of for many years.
After all this time, I kind of forgot how I got here in the first place, but what I do know is that I''ve contracted a disease.
And because of that... I have been quarantined.
Feeling numb all over and the occasional phantom pains on random parts of my body, I wheezed through the mask that covered my mouth.
Looking around, I see other patients as well. A man in his twenties, a girl around twelve, an old woman... the long hospital room contained many victims and is divided by some plastic curtain.
The only reason I can say for sure that these people are who I think they are and how old, is because I spent a looong time here enough for me to just give a guess that I slowly confirmed or corrected to be a fact.
Back to the disease, it seems it has spread out quite far and wide around the world and doctors from everywhere are feverishly trying their best to keep this sitaution from getting any worse. But alas, after so many years, they slowly gave up. Of course there are still quite a lot of them left studying and researching a cure for this sickness.
A sickness that nobody knows where it came from.
A disaster that popped out of nowhere, attacking us from behind. Not only humans but animals as well. Because of this, many are not even sure what to eat anymore. Many have become vegetarian because it was found out that plants were not affected by this disease.
And a while after that, a sort of temporary cure was found. But in reality, it was just some pain killer that only delayed the sickness for a really, really short amount of time. After that, no more progress has been made, and production of this pseudo-cure has taken priority.
But even with this, it doesn''t stop the progression of the disease and continues until it becomes severe.
Like us.
Cases where the body cuts all control, but doesn''t numb it and leaves phantom pains every now and then. Pain so unbearable but thankfully short. And even when we feel it''s painful, we couldn''t move our bodies nor could we shout. It was excruciating. It was painful. It was like torture.
I''m not sure if doctors even notice this or even know about it, so I doubt they''d think that it would be better to kill us. To put us out of our misery. But it has been so long and my vision is hazy.
And the only thing I could see is white.
White all around me.
And a person.
“...”
“...”
A person with an appearance that I cannot process. Ah, maybe it was because my vision is blurry. The person in front of me was incomprehensible. I don''t know if it was a man, a woman, or human at all.
No. It is human. It looks human.
My vision slowly left me during thse few months and I''ve gotten kind of used to it.
The person then stretched out it''s arm and offered me it''s hand.
Subconsciously, I reach for it.
And surprisingly, I could feel my hand move towards it. But the hand was too far away.
So I walk towards it. I put one foot in front of the other, and before I knew it I was running.
The person felt so close yet so far away.
And when I was close enough, I grabbed hold of the hand.
The person smiled.
Slowly, I felt myself drifting away. My body dissipated and all I can see is white.
Then green.
Then brown. Blue. Yellow. Red.
Until around me was a beautiful place.
A forest with a lake and in the horizon is the sun going down. The red sky covering us all.
It was strange.
Looking at things without a body. But then it hit me. Is this heaven? Then... I must have died. That''s, that''s great... To think that the day would come when I would be free?
Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.I moved around in happiness.
I looked around and found that there are animals as well.
Hmm, if this is heaven, then where are the other humans? Or maybe their just like me. A mind without a body. Oh well, I''ll just go towards the animals then.
When I got close, of course they didn''t notice me. Even if I ''stood'' in front of them. There were many animals I recognized. Like deers, rabbits, foxes, bears, wolves... I kept travelling around but sadly none of them noticed me. It''s kind of lonely though. So I went to one of the rabbits and tried petting it. Albeit being inevitably ignored. I kept petting it because the sensation of petting it felt real. As if I still had my hand. After a while, I let go.
…
Did I let go?
Strange. I know I let go but I can still feel the rabbit.
I examined the rabbit. Looking a bit closer now, I can see a bit of colour red. No, it''s not blood. Just the colour. Like some particle effect. Did I do that? I tried touching it again and found that the colour red became more vivid and covered more of the rabbit.
DNA point+1
What? I thought as a screen appeared in front of me.
DNA point? What''s that?
And just as I thought that, another screen appeared in front of me.
DNA points
Points used to upgrade or degrade your plague.
These can be obtained by infecting various living things.
You can also infect non-living things but these
do not give you DNA points.
Another way to obtain DNA points is by
popping ''bubbles''.
Bubbles?
Bubbles
These appear randomly around those you have infected.
And among these bubbles, there are different types.
Red-gives you a small amount of DNA points
but very plentiful.
Orange-gives you a good amount of DNA points
but appears less.
Blue-does not give you DNA points.
Taking these all in, I stared at the screens in front of me.
What do these all mean? Plague? Does that mean I''m a disease now?
Haha, very funny. But still..
What sick joke is this?! I die from a disease and now this?!
Even though I ''shout'' these out, I feel very... apathetic about it. I know I''m supposed to be angry but...
nothing. Just nothing. I can still feel emotions, which is strange for a disease, but I don''t particularly feel anything about my situation at all.
So instead of thinking about all this, I turn back to the screens.
DNA points huh... I gained one but how do I use it?
After thinking that, another screen appeared. No, not just one, but multiple screens appeared.
Genes
Bacteria
Obtained
Virus
100 DNA points
Fungus
200 DNA points
Neurax Worm
500 DNA points
Parasite
500 DNA points
Prion
750 DNA points
Necroa Virus
1500 DNA points
Nano-Virus
1500 DNA points
Bio-Weapon
2500 DNA points
Simian Flu
0 DNA points
Transmission
Bird 1
12 DNA points
Livestock 1
7 DNA points
Rodent 1
10 DNA points
Insect 1
9 DNA points
Blood 1
8 DNA points
Air 1
9 DNA points
Water 1
9 DNA points
???
???
Symptoms
Nausea
2 DNA points
Coughing
4 DNA points
Rash
3 DNA points
Insomnia
2 DNA points
Cysts
2 DNA points
Anaemia
2 DNA points
???
???
Abilities
Bacterial Resistance 1
6 DNA points
Cold Resistance 1
7 DNA points
Heat Resistance1
11 DNA points
Drug Resistance 1
11 DNA points
???
???
DNA points
3
...