Blight. Death. Deterioration. Destruction. In the space of one day, the Blight descended on the world. In appearance like frost, clinging to every surface, ice cold to the touch. But it was more than just a simple return of winter after a thousand years. So much more as we were about to find out. 

I scraped a few Blight samples into the test tube. Outside, the air was frigid. If I weren't wearing a hazmat suit, my breath would frost the air. As it was, the air was no longer safer to breathe without protection. "One more to go." I placed the sample inside the container.

"Hurry, Lia. You're running out of time," my colleague and ex-boyfriend, Tom Welling, warned. "Ten seconds."

"I'm aware." I extracted the final tube, added the sample and sealed it.  "Got it," I said over the comm. "Heading back in." 

"Good," Tom answered. "Just a few seconds more and I would have come out after you. Makes me nervous."

"So you've said, repeatedly."

"It bears repeating. You know the danger."

"I'm aware. More than thirty seconds outside and I'm contaminated by the Blight. But I made it. Again."

"Just. 28.6 seconds. You're risking your life for nothing."

"Not for nothing. We need the samples in order to create a cure. This time it will work. I'm sure of it."

"I hope so." Tom sounded weary. His tone held no hope. What little has been crushed by the deaths we've witnessed the last three months. Our friends, our families. Dead. Colleagues were taken one by one until Tom and I were the last survivors of GenTech. Mistakes were grievously made in the beginning. At first it was thought masks and gloves were enough protection but we soon found out our error. Hazmat suits were added but exposure to the Blight for longer than thirty seconds rendered the suits ineffective. Even then, it took time to whittle down the time within safety parameters. Thirty seconds wasn't a whole lot of time to gather sufficient samples. Even when we had enough of a sample to test, there were other problems to be dealt with. Often the Blight would dissolve before the test was completed. It was imperative to get the samples inside and into the lab before they dissolved.

Inside the sterile chamber entrance, I placed the container in the slot and Tom took it and ran to the lab while I shed the hazmat suit, including all underclothing. Naked, several cleansing chemicals sterilized me top to bottom. Once sterilized, the inner light turned green and I entered the locker room via plasticized tubes. I dressed in another one piece outfit, hazmat suit, gloves and helmet. Each part of the outfit was sealed with the rest so that no contaminants were allowed to enter. Thus far, the Blight has yet to make its way inside the buildings and residences. Thus far. We've been pretty lucky on that point. 

I took the elevator down thirty floors, walked to my personal lab, boots squeaking on freshly sterilized floors. Tom was already hard at work with the samples. "Anything?"

"Nothing yet," he replied, his voice muffled by the suit. We continued to wear them indoors, only removing the suits at night when sleeping. I have yet to get used to this. I long for the days when I could touch another human being without fearing for my life. I miss hugs most of all. My mother was a prolific hugger, extending warmth with her arms, offering comfort when needed. I inherited that trait. With the coming of the Blight, hugging was no longer an option. I miss it.

I joined Tom at the window, observing mechanical arms behind protective unbreakable empty the contents of the tubes onto the testing plate. If we timed it right, we might get a viable sample out of the six. If. "Were we in time?"

"I think so. The samples are retaining their substance. They haven't dissolved yet."

"Fingers crossed." The joke landed flat. Neither of us felt like laughing. So many lives lost, too many people went in a blink of an eye. Instantly. The shock weighed heavily on me, on us all. All eyes were on us the foremost bio lab in the world, GenTech. While cameras weren't allowed inside the complex, the rest of the world waited with bated breath for a cure. I had no family left regardless. All were gone well before the Blight showed up but several of my closest friends died so I could empathize with others who experienced the loss of their loved ones and friends. We all lost someone we knew, no one was exempt. Not after three months of this hellish nightmare.

Unbidden, my mind went back to that day it all started. I had just left after a twelve hour shift when I noticed a peculiar frost on the windshield of my car. Peculiar as in it was early summer. I had to dig around in my trunk for the scraper, it came off easily enough and I never gave it a second thought. The next day I wound up with a severe cold that kept me in bed for two weeks. A new kind of virus I couldn't easily shake. As it turned out, people from around the globe contracted this same virus. Bio Labs all received their fair share of the blame but no one died so the blame went away. That was the beginning. The next thing we knew, the mysterious frost had spread from the cars to the streets, to sidewalks, to buildings. To every known surface out of doors. This second strain was deadlier than the first.

People started dying. Bodies piled up in hospitals, overflowing into the streets. The medical staff couldn't keep up. Neither could the morgues. By this time, President Yarrow issued an order for everyone to stay in their homes except for emergency and medical staff. A special order was issued to the scientists in the Bio Labs to find a cure. I haven't been home in three months. I lived in the dorms. as our complex was interconnected via tunnels, there was no need for anyone to venture outside except for samples. even then, every precaution was taken. We were isolated from each other. No six feet apart rules this time. We were miles apart so that no one could possibly contaminate another. I haven't had personal human contact in three months. No touching, no face to face except on screens. I might as well be the only person left alive on the planet. It was only after everyone else either left or died that Tom and I risked working together in the same lab.

"The wait is excruciating," said Tom, breaking the silence. 

"I know." I tried to think of something comforting to say but came up blank. I was beyond exhausted. Weighed with the burden of finding a cure before all of humanity went extinct. "We still don't know where the Blight came from."

"We may never know."

"I suppose. It's not important. A cure is." I said more to remind myself of that rather than Tom. Part of me wanted to know so I could blame the culprits. So I had a face to go with the mysterious virus out there. Somehow it had cropped overnight, without warning. We could not point to any one perpetrator, faction, or country. With a face or faces, I could derive satisfaction in defeating them with a cure. Helpless was all that I felt. Helpless and almost certainly useless. I let out a long sigh that showed my fatigue. 

Tom turned toward me. His eyes were all that I could see beneath the plastic facade of his suit. Eyes golden brown, they glowed in the fluorescent lighting. I couldn't say what it was that caused the breakup, right now our arguments seemed so petty in light of the danger we faced. His smile warmed me. "You're exhausted."

"So are you." 

"True." He didn't touch me. I wouldn't have felt it anyway underneath the layers of fabric. 

"I wish--" I left the sentence unfinished. Hanging in the air. Best left unsaid. Wishes were useless in this new reality.

"I know. I wish it too."

"How do you know what I meant?"

"We were together for nearly a year as a couple. Prior to that, we worked together as colleagues for five years. If I could turn back the hands of time, I would."

"Right." I cleared my throat past the lump that suddenly formed. Regrets were a powerful thing, no matter the passage of time. I resumed my observations of the samples. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say the Blight was capable of adapting."

"Adapting? How?"

"Learning somehow. Like it knows we want to defeat it, so it adapts its defense against us. Silly right?"

Tom thoughtfully eyed me. "I wouldn't dismiss the idea so quickly. It could be an intelligent virus." 

"An intelligent virus?" I didn't even think of the ridiculousness of these two words. There was no time for games. Any and all ideas were considered seriously by this point.

"Could be."

"Well, hell."

"Agreed. Lia. If we aren't successful--" he left the sentence unfinished.

"Don't. We have to be successful. This isn't our time."

"Sure feels like it."

"I know." The alarms went off, the sudden shrill sound made us both jump. "Oh, no." My heart leaped to my throat. "No." All five test tubes had shattered. But the Blight was gone. "Where did it go?" 

"I can't see it," Tom said.

"Neither can I. Did it dissolve?"

"I think so."

"But why did the tubes break?"

"I have no clue. Unless the Blight adapted."

I tapped the controls. "The computer continues to register the presence of the Blight but I can't see it." I pressed my helmet against the glass trying to locate the Blight. I scanned up and down and side to side. The testing plate was empty. There was nothing on the inside walls that remotely resembled the Blight. If Tom was right and it adapted, we were seriously in a lot of trouble. As soon as I stepped back, the impenetrable, unbreakable glass in the testing chamber exploded. We were thrown across the lab from the impact. I landed with a thud and crack of bone. Moaning, I tried to stand and yelped.

Tom turned over and crawled to me. "Lia, are you okay?"

"I think I broke something," I groaned.

"Where?"

"My arm, I felt it crack."

"Let me see."

I wasn't paying attention to him at that moment. Horror swept over me. The Blight was no longer contained. It spread to the walls, floor and ceiling. It appeared as spidery cracks of white frost spreading too fast. "Tom, forget my arm. We have to get out of here. Now." 

Tom uttered several curse words. "Let's go." He helped me up. I cradled my broken arm close to my chest. We exited the lab and raced down the corridor to the tunnels. Beyond the doors, Tom sealed the lab then we took for the far end of the complex putting as much distance between us and the Blight.

I didn't look back. I was tempted but I refused to give into the desire to glance behind me. There was no telling how far or how fast it will spread. "Garage," I panted. "If we can get to the garage, we can drive away from here."

"And go where?"

"I don't know. Anywhere but here."

"We'll figure it out." We entered the elevator. In the space of time, it took for the doors to close, I saw just the Blight only yards away from us. Spidery tendrils, groping, reaching for us. "My God," Tom breathed, shock visible in voice and eyes. Then the doors shut. Tom jabbed the button for the garage. 

I counted the levels. "Come on. Hurry." The elevator creaked as it went, was it possibly getting slower too? "Go faster," I urged.

The doors parted and we raced toward Tom's car as it was nearest the elevator. I came to a sudden stop. "Wait. What about the keys? We have no keys. How are we going to start the car?"

"Relax Lia."

"Relax? Don't tell me to relax. We have a menacing almost alive Blight after us. If it gets us. We're dead. That's it. Dead." Panicked laced every word. All those months of trying to find a cure. Worrying about extinction. Coping with the deaths of colleagues and friends. I was on my last nerve, about to snap. 

Tom grabbed my shoulders, mindful of my bad arm. "Lia. I have the keys." He unzipped the hazmat suit long enough to retrieve them off his lanyard. "See?" He sealed the suit quickly and unlocked the doors.

I laughed. "Of course, practical Tom."

"One of the many things you loved about me."

"I did. Until your anal retentiveness got in the way of romance."

"Sorry. Get in."

I opened the passenger door with my left hand. "Not a very good apology but under the circumstances, I'll take it." I sat down on the seat and swung my legs around, closing the door with an awkward bang. "Whoever said driving with a hazmat suit would be this easy?" I joked.

"I'm not driving with it on," Tom said a split second before he tore off the helmet and tossed it and his gloves in the back seat. His boots followed, landing with dull thuds on the leather seats. "I figured by now, what the hell?"

"Good point." I followed his example, my helmet and gloves added to the pile in the back. I tugged the boots off too, using my feet. What did it matter? The Blight would keep on adapting. We might as well enjoy being human for our last few hours on Earth. Without the helmet, I took in Tom's full gaze, his sweaty, red skin and matted curly hair. He was beautiful to me. I touched his face, sliding my finger down his chiseled jaw. I'd always admired his adam's apple, out of which the most deep, sonorous, soothing voice ever existed. "let's get out of here."

"Agreed. Where to?"

"Where else? The family villa in Italy."

"Sure thing. We'll have to commandeer a plane for part of the trip."

"Our private jet is gassed up and ready to go at the airport." 

"Who will fly the plane?"

"Have you forgotten? Our robot pilot will fly it."

"You're right. I have forgotten." The fantasy we indulged in was pure escapism but I enjoyed it all the same. 

Tom chuckled for the briefest of seconds then the dimple in his left cheek faded. "No. Seriously, where can we go?"

"Anywhere."

We drove out of the garage, away from the complex and back into the real world. Silence filled the car as we passed empty streets, filled with abandoned cars. Everywhere we looked the Blight had taken over, slick like ice. So deceptively deadly. For three months, I'd been holed up in GenTech, no contact with the outside world. I rarely kept up with the news, too disturbed by the rising death counts. I'd channeled all my energy into finding a cure only to have it snatched away by an evolving virus with the capacity to adapt. Screw that. I refused to go down that road any longer. "Remember that cabin we stayed at a few years back?"

"Oh yes. On Lake Hudson."

"Right. That's where we're going."

"You got it Lia."

I entwined my fingers into his. Forget busting my butt in a lab. I was going to enjoy the little time we had left being human even if we had to spend it inside in front of a roaring fire, drinking hot chocolate out of beer mugs. Better yet, wine. Sipping wine, holding hands. Long hugs. Lots of sex. Oh yeah, we're going out with a bang not a whimper. I met his gaze. "It's our time."