It started when he was vaccinated and had some blood drawn via a government necessity. Or at least that’s what they were calling it… At first he contracted the flu, but it didn’t take long before the flu turned into something much worse. His skin changed. Not because he had been in the sun, but almost as though the color had been drained from him by an outside source. And his eyes shifted in color. A color so deep and unfamiliar that his parents worried for his life… Sure the vaccine was to prevent the H1N1 strand of virus, but it didn’t really do its job too well… At least not in his case.

Prevalent panic overcame his neighborhood, and most of the surrounding areas; which began to spread over time. So much, in fact, that by the time the government officials were at his door speaking to his father, the news was issuing warnings to stay indoors while the “infection” was contained…

Contained…

That word came up a lot in conversation… It was a short debate fueled by fear, which won in the long run. Cyrus couldn’t stand the look in his parent’s eyes, both from the terror that their son was being taken away, and the pure horror that their son had been infected. But infected with what…? Was it natural? Was it another strand of H1N1?

Normally one only heard of those types of things in movies. Fantasies that didn’t exist. But it did. It existed and was more real than Cyrus could have ever imagined. Being taken into custody was the easy part. The worse came later. No matter how many times he begged, asked for answers, they never came. Tests pursued, so extensive and detailed that his skin crawled at the very mention of them. Was this in the contract his parents signed? What did they sign, anyway? Would Cyrus eventually return to them? He hoped that this was all for a cure for his “illness”. He prayed that it was, and his prayers… Well…

That was four years ago…