Instalment Thirty Three

In 2011 the Variola Vera virus, better know as smallpox, responsible for the death of 300 million people in the 20th century alone, was declared eradicated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

WHO had initiated a global smallpox eradication campaign in 1967. Routine smallpox vaccination in the United States concluded in 1972 and the final round of vaccinations across the world were undertaken in 1977.

There were still two known repositories of the virus were left, at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia and the State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology (VECTOR) in Koltsovo, Russia.

It was never made public if they were the source of the mutated strain of smallpox that swept the world like wildfire, or if it was a terrorist act, either way the result was the same.

Global lethal pandemic that killed indiscriminately, except for those individuals inoculated in the 70s.

For a brief while a smallpox scar on the shoulder was a thing of pride, something that marked you as special, a survivor.

Then reality set in.

The year was 2026 and the youngest person on the planet was 49, though in years to come they became known only as The Parents.