Four Days to Anarchy

I never used to write a journal before the sickness took hold, but now it seems the only logical way to keep from going mad. It's sort of funny when I think about it, because before, I was not very well adapted to...well, living in society in general, but now I'm the best at survival out of all of them. It strikes me as simpler this way, though it's unfortunate that I had to lose everyone just to find myself. I used to write about this stuff, you know. The scattered remains of humanity banding together and reestablishing civilization, bringing a glorious name to mankind. Pardon me while I die laughing over here. This is so much different than my dumb-ass stories from before. First off, you wouldn't believe just how fragile 'humanity' is. We like to think of ourselves as evolved, superior and all that, but really, we're not so different from animals. We just developed the ability to tell ourselves that it wasn't true. Once the going gets tough, the tough beat each other to death and then checked their pockets for cash.
The part that really blows my mind is how goddamn fast it all went. I mean, yeah, the seasonal flu comes, you either get your flu shot or not, and it's not really a big deal. Only this time, it wasn't influenza..or it might have started out that way, I guess, but it mutated faster than any normal bug. It really wasn't that different symptom-wise, but that doesn't mean anything at all. How many diseases are characterized by 'flu-like symptoms?' Yeah, I know. We weren't prepared at all. We didn't even have time to give it a good name. Now I just refer to it as "The Opportunistic Plague", or "Oplag" for short.
You remember reading about the Black Death? About how it just swept through Europe and infected everyone? And no one had any immunity, and their society just collapsed? Well, they didn't have super fast commercial travel, either. I mean, on airplanes, they recycle the frickin air! Great plan, people. It's a giant tin can with a constant supply of germs for everybody. But I never liked airplanes anyway, even when I was young. Always thought it would crash. People used to call me a worrywart, but now they're the ones who're sick. Yeah, I'll go ahead and be a worrywart, you just have fun coughing up your lungs over there.
The thing is, not that many people died. I mean, compared to some other diseases, it was a cakewalk. What was different is how many people actually got sick at the same time. One of the symptoms of this 21st century plague was sheer persistence. Normally, you get better after a week, two weeks tops, but this would stick around for a month, easy. No one went to work if they were hacking up blood, so no one ran the power plants, no one stocked the grocery stores, no one picked up the garbage, no one did crap.
The worst part was when the nuclear power plants overheated. God, I remember seeing the light for hours, and everything just kept burning. Luckily, we were out of the irradiating zone, so we didn't die from that. At least not just then. But I guess it's pretty damning that my father died with a tumor the size of a cantaloupe in his brain. I'm pretty sure I am the last of the Moreauxes left alive now. Mom died first, from septicemia, because she never left the bathroom. Oh, yeah, we tried to move her to her room, but she didn't get better. At least she didn't die in the toilet. My brother lasted longer than any of them, and he actually helped me escape to the country. He went out one day to hunt for supplies, and I don't really know what happened to him after that. I guess it's better that he disappeared so I could justify telling myself he was still alive. I doubt he could find me now, though. I've been almost constantly moving since day one. Mostly north. I'm lucky that all the plants were downstream of me, or else I'd be washing myself with radioactive petroleum.
Somehow I'm not sad about that. Probably my mind snapped or something, just to deal with the complete overturning of my world. These days, my usual emotion is simple determination. Determination to live, no matter what. Needless to say, that means doing it alone, but it's easier that way. Damn better than giving up, that's for sure.