Virus

By Ulrika Sjöberg

The Virus, follows Corinne, a new mother, on a painful journey to bring her remaining family together after the majority of human life has been lost following a biological warfare attack.

Set in the near future, the sun rarely shines on a dying Earth which has been infected by global warming and human consumption. Only the rich can afford to breath air free of pollution. Corinne is nine months pregnant when a deadly virus is released by a radical environmentalist organization, infecting the human population and collapsing society. Corinne must withstand brutal losses, human depravity, and Mother Nature on the road to survival for herself and her newborn son.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Seagull Editions
• Release date: May 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223284697

Book preview

Ulrika Sjöberg

© 2021 Seagull Editions s.r.l.

www.seagulleditions.com

To Giuseppe & Jonathan

I.

The bag was heavy and it stretched under the weight of empty glass bottles she had brought with her. The only sound in the otherwise silent evening was the crunching sound of broken glass under her feet, glass that people didn't have enough motivation to throw into the recycling.

You had to climb a steep ladder, and it was probably that bit of effort that made people not do it. But Corinne was strong. She had her principles. She was stubborn in the small things. Her friends used to laugh at her when she started arguing over things she believed in; things they had long ago given up hope of. The recycling station was poorly lit and the surrounding concrete houses made everything look like a typical place one could be robbed at, or other even worse crimes she didn't want to think about. She just wanted to be done as soon as possible.

A lamp hanging loosely from a nearby building flashed on and off as she bent down and pulled out a piece of glass that had pierced through the rubber sole of her shoe. A light rain began to fall. She had left her sweater inside, so the skin on her arms and stomach started to form goosebumps from the cold. The shirt she wore didn’t entirely cover the bump in her belly. Not that big yet, but it was growing fast.

She walked to the recycling container and before she climbed up, she took a breath and pulled her hand through her blonde mane of hair. With some difficulty she climbed up and threw the bag over the edge. It crashed loudly when it reached the bottom. Kevin would have done it instead but he was in bed with fever of 39 °C. He was always sick. He did not work in a luxurious office with filtered air. He worked outdoors repairing trains and rails. Even with a face mask, he breathed in far too much pollution every day. As a result, he had asthma and a weak immune system. But he would not change his job, it paid well because no one wanted to work outdoors. And now with a little one on the way, they needed the income. Corinne had been fired when it was revealed that she was pregnant. It was wrong, but there was nothing she could do about it.

Kevin was half asleep when Corinne came in. She crawled under the blanket next to him and felt the heat return to her body.

Did it go okay?

Yes, but I wish they would put up more lights, and stop throwing all the shit on the ground.

A nice dream.

If only people cared.

You care.

The fan in the apartment buzzed monotonously and Corinne momentarily drifted off thinking about how they would soon be a family of three. The thought pleased her and she put her hand on Kevin's forehead. Still hot.

Would you like anything? Tea?

No, I can sleep it off. Can't miss work tomorrow.

You should stay home.

Yes, but what choice do I have, we can't lose my job either.

No, I know.

The rest of the evening, Corinne sat and looked online at used children's stuff. It felt overwhelming how many things they would need. Diapers yes, some clothes and baby formula should really be enough, she thought, and closed an ad with some kind of singing rocking chair that cost like half a month's salary. The thought of someone sucking on her breasts scared her a little. Kevin's mother had said that breastfeeding was heartwarming. She did not believe it, but soon she would know where she stood. She would try it of course. It would be economical to not have to buy baby formula in the beginning in any case. She was already a little tired of all the well-meaning advice she got. Kevin's mother always had so much to say about everything and anything when they talked on the phone.

The next morning Kevin was still quite ill. Corinne made him a vegetable smoothie, she also mixed in some expensive vitamin tablets. Kevin grumbled that she wasted it on him. He thought she should take it herself for the baby's sake. But Corinne stood her ground. She did not want to be a single mother before the baby was even born.

When Kevin had left for work, she ran to the toilet and vomited. Sometimes she got a nasty bout nausea out of nowhere. She hoped it would pass soon. A cup of tea would soothe the nausea, and a large piece of cake. She looked out the kitchen window and the sky was a dirty grey. When she thought about it, she had not seen the sun for several years. The air pollution was that bad. And the authorities did nothing about it. Those who were lucky worked in offices with air filtration, but the unemployment rate was high. There were simply too many people.

The air that hit her when she exited the main door of the building was pungent. It was chilly outside and she regretted not wearing a jacket. It was spring, but as always in the spring, she could never make the right choice of clothes. Either she dressed too hot or too cold. She didn't have the energy to go up again and get a jacket so she walked faster to warm herself up. It took twenty minutes to get to the bus station. When she got there, a long queue was already lining up. Few people could afford a car today. Environmental taxes were far too high. Taking the bus or train was the most convenient way to get anywhere. Biking and walking were avoided by most because of the air pollution.

The bus arrived and she barely made it on, some people had to wait for the next one. She stood pressed against an elderly man who smelled like he hadn't showered in days. She felt the nausea rise and struggled hard not to vomit. The trip took half an hour but felt twice as long. No one had offered her a seat, so she had cramps in her back and legs when she finally got off at her stop. She sat down on a bench and rested for a moment before walking towards a large grey building. She needed to buy food and because of their tight budget they needed to go all the way here for second-hand goods. The food had small defects and could be ugly, but cost less than half the price. What she was most interested in were vegetables. She seldom bought meat because it was too expensive and she didn't always trust what meat was actually in the package. There had been far too many scandals about old, sick or wild meat ground down and sold as new.

A woman with four children in a stroller pushed past her, causing Corinne to stumble. She felt the irritation rise but when she saw the four children the feeling faded.

Inside the store, she saw that there were carrots and potatoes on sale. She picked as much as she felt she would be able to carry home. A rather withered batch of celery lay in large wooden boxes and she took two bundles. She bought cheese with only a little mold on it. The bargain of the day was a whole pack of eggs with past the expiration date. But eggs could last for several weeks. Satisfied, she went to the cash register and paid. Not everything fit in the backpack she had brought, so she had to use a paper bag as well. It all fit, but the handles cut into her fingers due to the weight. She wished Kevin had been with her.

On her way to the bus station, she passed a book store. They were rare these days. Everything had been digitalized a long time ago. She pressed her forehead against the window and looked inside. It was overflowing with books that her fingers itched to pick up. She would have loved to have a few more books at home. The feeling that the books wouldn't have to be charged or get a cracked screen if you dropped them was unbeatable. Corinne's friends had laughed at her when she tried to describe why she liked books so much. After that, she kept quiet about it. Even friends could be so unconsciously mean at times.

Once home, Corinne laid down on the couch and rested her legs. They were swollen after all the walking. She hoped Kevin would not find her too unattractive.

A sound from her phone caught her attention. It was a notification from a news app. She put the phone back on the table. She didn't feel like scrolling through the news now, there was rarely anything positive to read. Instead, she went into the kitchen and organized the food she bought. Just as Kevin was getting home, a vegetable soup simmered on the stove and spread a warm scent through the apartment.

The door opened and there was a rustling of bags and paper. Corinne curiously went out into the front hall to see Kevin put down two large bags.

Look at all of this Corinne!

What have you brought with you?

Max from work gave me all his old baby things from his daughter Sofia. She's so big now and they aren’t going to have another child.

But the last time I talked to Sofia's mother, she said she wanted to give Sofia a sibling.

Yes, but they have agreed now. They can’t manage another financially.

Such a shame. But so nice of them to give us all of this.

Yes, you can go through it later.

How is the fever?

Feels a little better. The vitamins probably did the trick.

I knew it.

The soup was good and after dinner they sat down on the couch and Skyped with Kevin's mother before they turned on the TV. Corinne wanted to look in the bags he had brought, but she felt heavy and tired. It had to wait.

There was some talk today at work that environmental extremists are on the move again.

Ah, did something happen?

Wait, the news is starting, you can hear it yourself.

The news anchor appeared on screen. Serious as usual. He quickly went through the day’s accidents and some politics. Ten minutes in, he started talking about an environmental extremist group that had begun to appear more and more on social media. They talked about mass extermination and how the earth’s population needed to be cleansed. The news anchor sounded calm, but warned the public that those who were involved with them could count on long prison sentences.

Corinne sighed and wondered how people had the energy to go on. Of course, the earth was overcrowded, but going so far as to actually kill each other sounded sick. Kevin seemed a little more worried than Corinne felt. He had felt the atmosphere at work when they had talked about it and it had felt much more frightening than hearing it on TV. He said that Max knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who had connections to this group, and Max had sounded worried when he said he thought they were actually a real threat. Exactly how they posed a threat he could not say, but he had a bad feeling. And when Max had a bad feeling about something, everyone at work took it seriously. Kevin thought that Max had a sixth sense. Corinne laughed at this, which annoyed Kevin. He turned off the TV and went to bed. Corinne sat for a while, annoyed that Kevin was upset. When she heard snoring from the bedroom, she went in and laid down. After a while she crept closer to him. It was so unnecessary to fight. The wind was blowing outside and the fan in the bedroom was buzzing faintly. Soon she was asleep.

She woke up to a not-too-mild shaking. Kevin was leaning over her. He smelled of coffee and soap.

What is it?

Wake up, how can you be such a deep sleeper?

How can you not sleep? What time is it?

It's five.

Five! It is in the middle of the night.

I couldn’t sleep. I sat and checked my phone again and watched something disturbing.

What? Corinne felt herself waking up more and pulled the blanket around her. A slight nausea rising in her throat.

That environmental extremist group had posted a video.

Okay.

Of a man who injects himself with something and dies in a sickening way.

I don't think I want to hear about this now.

Well, listen, they claim to have created a virus that is 99% deadly.

What, like in Japan when hundreds died after someone spread poison in the drinking water?

Worse than that. That was stopped relatively quickly anyway, and wasn’t even a virus. According to the group, there is no cure for this injection and it spreads through the air.

Stop it.

No, it’s true.

Let me see the clip. Kevin handed the phone to Corinne who pressed play.

The video showed an nearly empty room; sterile and white. A naked man was sitting on a chair. He looked very old, well over 90. He sat calmly with a white sign in front of him. There was black writing on it. For the sake of humanity, I give my life, for the sake of our planet we must die. There is no other way.

The man looked up at the camera. He then looked at the people standing on the other side of a glass wall. Placed on the floor close to the chair was a black box. He bent down and took it in his hands and opened the lid. There was a syringe with a clear liquid. His hand trembled before he managed to gather and inject the liquid into his armpit. The video turned black for a moment and then cut to the same room, but as Corinne understood was some time later, hours or days, she couldn't know. The old man was lying on the floor in a fetal position. His breathing was fierce and his hands gripped the air convulsively. The floor was covered with blood and body fluids. Large pieces of his skin looked like it was missing. It was as if he had been skinned alive. There were now only two people on the other side of the glass wall. A man and a woman. They looked pale and tarnished. The old man on the floor muttered something, the person behind the glass wall, the woman, turned on the speaker. She leaned forward as if to hear better. The man behind stood with his arms crossed, not revealing any emotion.

The old man reached for the window. He was too weak to stand up. He coughed and blood flowed from his mouth. The coughing intensified and the floor was covered with bright red splashes over the already dried dark ones. He grabbed his neck and his eyes rolled wildly. When the cough fell silent, the old man was dead. The woman behind the glass wall wrote something on a laptop and the video ended.

Corinne looked at Kevin. She was wide awake now.

What happens now?

I don’t know. But I don’t want to be around if this spreads.

Where would we go?

To your parents?

Daddy's farm?

Yes, we could live isolated until it’s under control.

If it happens.

Yes.

No hasty decisions now.

No.

And what about your mother?

I guess we could make a stop and pick her up on the way there, if we go by train.

This is just in case it spreads.

Yes.

Because I would like to give birth here. There is only a small health center where mum and dad live.

That's true, I didn’t think about that.

––––––––

Both Kevin and Corinne immersed themselves in their own thoughts. As the clock approached seven, Kevin kissed Corinne goodbye and Corinne took a shower. The image of the dying man had etched itself in her head. She felt a clear kick in her belly and laid her hands on the point where she thought the baby’s head was lying.

A few weeks later, the media had calmed down and not many people thought about the group any more. Nothing had happened. Corinne was busy living and preparing for the baby's arrival. She had been to a routine check-up and the ultrasound and everything was fine with the baby. She didn't want to know the gender, which Kevin couldn't understand, he could hardly wait to find out who was in there. Kevin worked extra shifts to be able to take a few days off after the birth. They went through the stuff they got from Max, and Corinne was especially happy about a baby carrier and some clothes that almost looked new. They felt they had to invite them over for a dinner, so Max had come over with his wife and Sofia.  They brought with them a stroller and a changing table. It had been a cozy evening. Corinne was amazed at how a seven-year-old could be so wise. It felt unreal that within a few years she would sit and talk to her own child as she sat with Sofia and talked about various things. But seeing her big belly in the mirror was proof. Whether she was ready or not, they would soon be three.

Corinne's mother came to visit for a week.  Corinne's father stayed at the farm to take care of the animals. She could have gone there to meet them both but Kevin did not want her to travel in her condition, and she agreed. But she missed her parents so much that it hurt sometimes. She remembered the farm as sunny and free. There she had learned to crawl and walk, drank her first beer and kissed a guy from her class behind the barn. Just a few kilometers away was the sea. In the summers they had sailed a lot. That was before everything went to shit, before the environment gave up and before the economic crisis. Corinne's mother said that it was extremely rare for the sun to appear there now. It was pure luck that they managed to keep the farm. Only through an unfair deal where her father agreed to grow and raise animals which were then picked up and transported away without almost no pay, were they allowed to stay on the farm. Otherwise, the farm would have been confiscated.

Corinne's mother had brought knitting needles and yarn with her and tried to teach Corinne to knit. It was not easy and her fingers felt stiff and awkward. But she wanted to learn. She was fascinated by traditional crafts and how people had lived before, before digitalization and the masses of people who just took and took and never gave back. She could crochet and had already made several small figures for the baby. She also crocheted her own bags, which she used when she went shopping. Plastic bags have long been banned from use in shops. Together, with so much plastic waste, they had destroyed the oceans so there was almost no fish left. All whales and larger sea creatures were already dead or on the verge of extinction. Eating fish was one of the most toxic things one could do, given all the heavy metals that accumulated in the fat. Only the smallest fish species were considered relatively safe.

Corinne's mother had a small present with her.

It's from your dad. He thought maybe you could have fun with it.

Thanks! She took the hard little package in her hand and guessed it was a book. She was right. She tore open the paper and held the book up to the light. Edible and Useful Plants was the title.

Oh, thank you!

Me and your dad know it by heart. It is a luxury to be able to pick up a little extra to fill the soups with from the forest. I always pick mushrooms for your father, he loves them.

I remember that. As soon as the little one is born, I will try to persuade Kevin to go to you so we can pick some together.

Of course.

The week with her mother went way too fast. Kevin ended up with a high fever again and Corinne's mother felt that she really should have stayed to help. But Corinne’s father needed help on the farm, so Corinne accompanied her to the bus and waved her off. She wished she could have followed her all the way to the train station, but both Kevin and her mother had been strongly against that. On the short walk home, she got so nauseous that she had to vomit in a bush. A couple that had been walking behind her passed and glared.

In the evening, when she and Kevin had finished dinner, they turned on the TV. Kevin was wrapped in blankets with the fever still rising. When the news started, the anchor appeared on-screen. A terrorist attack had taken place. One person had blown himself up in a crowded shopping mall. The worst thing was that the group of environmental extremists who had been so quiet for several weeks had claimed responsibility for the attack. On social media, they had written that the beginning of the end was here. Corinne was shocked and disgusted by the pictures she saw. That night they both slept extremely poorly and the baby seemed to kick more than ever. She believed the baby could feel her anxiety.

II.

For two days, Kevin stayed home unable to go to work. The third day he was well enough to return, but he came home upset and tired. He said that Max had fallen and broke his leg. Kevin would jump in for Max and take his hours for as long as needed. Corinne wondered how Max would manage to take care of his family now. She was wrapped up in her own thoughts when a small notification popped up on her phone. When she opened and read it she felt a shiver run down her spine. One of the people who had worked with cleaning up after the suicide bomber had fallen ill and was in quarantine. There was nothing more to read. If there was a virus, which Corinne immediately thought of when she remembered the horrible video of the old man she had seen a few weeks ago, the media would certainly not want to exaggerate and create a panic.

The next day Kevin came home later than usual and looked grim. What is it now, Corinne wondered.

Ten more people who were at the scene of the attack are now in quarantine.

Wow, so many. Nothing has been said on the news.

No, I know, but I went to see Max to check the situation, and he had just heard from his friend. Max said they are going to try to stay inside until this blows over.

Blows over? There must have been a huge number of people who were there at the attack site.

Yes. Let's hope they succeed in isolating this before it becomes an epidemic.

Kevin hugged Corinne and leaned his face against her neck. He had a light stubble that tickled nicely against her skin. Corinne took his hand and placed it on her stomach. The baby pushed back what she thought was its bottom. Kevin laughed. Her stomach got a strange shape when the baby did that.

He might be a clown like you, said Corinne.

It looks so scary, doesn't it hurt?

No. I can’t describe how it feels but it doesn’t hurt.

The next morning, Corinne went to the store. It was heavier than usual to walk and carry the groceries, but spring had turned into early summer so she enjoyed being able to leave her jacket at home. While waiting for the bus to take her home, she saw the mother with her four children again. She looked grey and tired. The children quarreled and the mother seemed to have given up hope of calming them down. Her little bag of food was smaller than Corinne's well-filled backpack, and bags. She looked at Corinne but lowered her gaze. Corinne was ashamed. Ashamed of how the world had become.

The bus came and she stepped on. When she got home, opening the main door to the house, Kevin called.

Corinne, it’s chaos at work. Several train lines have been cancelled indefinitely. There's a lot of upset people here right now.

Why?

"The virus. Didn't you see the news? It has a 98