Children of the Hollow ✔️

Prolouge

150 years ago over 99% of the world's air was contaminated by an infectious disease called the Hollow. In order for survival a city of 500 000 people built a underground city, known as Stratis City.

———

Stratis was built with six separate layers. Each layer would represent the social class and how close they were to the surface of the ground. The fifth layer was the closest to the surface and the people who lived there were by far the poorest and had the highest chance of contracting the Hollow. The layers would continue to go lower into the earth, it was said the lower you were the safer and furthest you were from the Hollow. Which  explained why in the first layer was filled with wealthy and high status people, but lowest layer was the most important.

The layer furthest from the ground above was filled with elites and scientists who were dedicated to finding a cure for the Hollow. They were known as the Centre.

For the remaining of the human population, the end goal was to stay safe underground and eventually return to the light. Living peacefully once the Hollow had gone stale, but for 150 years the Hollow has continued to linger in the air. Not daring to leave, still unsatisfied.

Only 12 hours after an individual had been in contact with the Hollow symptoms would slowly start to reveal. Once contacted with the Hollow it took seven days for death to follow.

Symptoms may have included; dryness of the mouth and eyes, itching, sever bruising and discomfort, open sores with puss, and death.

Scientists at the time would calculate when each of the symptoms would appear so they could determine the amount of time a patient had left.

The first day would usually be dizziness, drowsiness, itching, and coughing. Day two, bruises appeared on the body, eyes would become blood shot, and the coughing intensified. By the third day the body would be covered in more bruises, hair loss would begin, open sores from itching would spew puss, and the patient's nose would begin to bleed. Day four, the body would be nearly black and blue from bruising, fingernails began to peel off, the skin had more open sores and hallucinations began. On day five ears began to bleed and the skin had started to turn black from gangrene. Day six, the patients were bleeding from the nose, ears and eyes (sometimes the mouth), all their hair had fallen out and the body was completely covered in contusions. On the final day, day seven, the body would to continue to rot, and the organ's fail. No one had ever lived to see day eight. After the patient died the corpse began to decay rapidly, bubbling and releasing a concentrated gas of the virus.

No cure was ever found.

Scientists say that the disease goes rampant in your body, destroying nearly all your white blood cells in forty-eight hours. After that the virus would weaken your blood vessels, causing contusions to appear easily. By day six the virus will have destroyed your immune system, blood vessels, and infection would spread quickly through open sores. After that the organs shut down from the overload.

So, when you say that a unknown force from above the ground has penetrated the seal that separated Stratis from the Hollow. Mayhem will break lose, and fear will become the next disease we should find a cure for, because it spreads faster than any other disease, even the Hollow.

After the Fifth Layer has been breached over half of the people died on immediate contact. Soon the Fifth Layers fate will be the rest of Stratis' too. Each child, mom, dad and grandparent exposed to the merciless disease will die. Nearly all perishing with the touch of it, but not all.

The only remaining untouched are the Immunis.