Authors: H. A. Rhoades
U.G.L.Y
U.G.L.Y
H. A.
Rhoades
©
H. A.
Rhoades
2012
H. A.
Rhoades
has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.
First published 2012 by Endeavour Press Ltd.
Preview - A Place of Strangers by Geoffrey Seed
1
.
I woke up in a panic. Looking over to the night stand the clock read 5:36 am. What a nightmare, it was so vivid that I could look back on it and recount every detail. The dream was a continuous story that covered days, maybe weeks, so clear that I felt as though I had lived it rather than dreamed it. It was as if I had lived to watch my death. I closed my eyes and began to recount the details. Like a chronological history of a cataclysmic event seen through my eyes as I observed the end of humanity. And it began with the fall of a city.
The
Population of the greater
Los Angeles
area
was
over
ten
million
when
the
first
wave
of infection
started.
That
first
wave
took
out
almost 100 percent of that population, and they
were
all
gone
within
a
week.
Another one million got sick
,
eventually becoming hosts that would help the
propagation
of
a
fungus
that
turned
most
of
the
remaining
population of the world, as far as I could tell,
in
to
hosts or food
.
No
one
had
any
idea
if
the infection
had
spread
to other
continents.
M
aybe
it
hadn't, but I believed it would eventually.
The
communications
we
got
towards the end
were limited and very little information was passed on about
any other
survivors
outside
of
what was left of our group
.
It
seems
likely
that
it
spread
to
Canada
and
Mexico
. It absolutely had overrun the western
United States
.
There was some hope for the rest of the world if it was
contained
before
international
travelers
became
infected, although it was doubtful as airline travelers had spread it to major cities inside the
US
very quickly once the second wave broke out.
The infection traveled in a similar way to
a
SARS
epidemic
that
spread
in
the
early
2000's.
Fortunately,
the
W
orld
H
ealth
O
rganization
managed
to
get
containment
and
stop
international
flights
before
it
spread.
The fall of
Los Angeles
was labeled the first wave because the fungus that had caused the infection was unable to spread initially to other humans. Every victim had gotten sick through drinking the water supply. I speculated often about what led to the poisoning of the city's water. Maybe it was
an
overwhelming
desire
to
profit. Maybe
a
need
to
control the population.
O
r maybe it was
simply an act of compassion to help an ailing society
?
I don't think anyone will know the motivation, but it was clearly human stupidity. My thoughts were always with the idea that it was
greed that was the motivating factor.
A
desperate
attempt
at
selling
a
product
to
a
population
quickly
spinning
out
of
control
because of increased
stresses.
Haste in bringing a new drug to market led to precautions being overlooked that were designed to insure the safety of drug manufacturing. That carelessness led to contamination by a fungus common to the region the drug was manufactured in. A fungus that had previously only affected ants in the South American rain
forest, but was able to adapt to humans with the help of a unique delivery method.
At the time the first wave of infection began, a
large
number
of
US
citizens
were
on
some
form
of
prescription
anti
-
anxiety
drug
or
anti
-
depressant.
General practitioners were handing pills out like candy. I thought it was surprising that someone didn't come up with a cute little PEZ dispenser for the modern versions of “
Mothers
little
helper
”
.
The
drugs
weren
’
t
calming
people
down anymore.
Benzo's
(Benzodiazapines)
which
was
a
common
prescription
given
out
was
a
very
dangerous,
habit
forming
drug that required a continuous increase in dosage to maintain.
A drug that was almost impossible to stop taking.
Benzo's had the power to destroy a life,
spinning
someone
into
a
nightmare
that
there
was
no
escape
from.
T
rapped
within
your
own
mind
in
a
hell
in
which
the
path
to
escape
is
long
and
excruciating, or quick. If you killed yourself.
Many
people
didn't
make
it
through
withdrawals
if
they
tried to stop.
They
would
often e
ither
kill
themselves
or
die after
going into seizures, or the strain would trigger a heart attack. Many simply would go
back
to
the
safety
of
the
drug for the rest of their lives.
T
he cost was phenomenal because
the
body
acclimates
so
quickly
to
drug
levels
there
is
a
constant
need
to
“
up
the
dose
”
to
maintain
a
level
of
control.
I
knew
first
hand what these drugs did.
I
had
gone
through
a
breakdown
initiated
by
prescription
drugs
and
that
was
the
closest
thing
to
living
hell
I
could
ever
imagine.
I
survived
it
and
eventually
recovered
but
the
cost
was
terrible. I lost my
family
and
the
impact
on my
children was devastating.
Many
of
the
drugs approved for treatment of depression and anxiety
were
developed
and
sold
by
large
pharmaceutical
companies,
which
made
millions,
perhaps
billions
profiting
from
the
misery of their patients.
But
it
was largely
what
people
wanted,
they
wanted
help
with
their
issues
and
felt
they
needed
drugs
to
function
in
their
everyday
lives.