text: The CDC told us that since there is no cure for this virus. The government told us that we have to kill all of those that are infected. The only way to kill the virus is to kill the carriers. I still feel it gnaw at my insides when I have to strap down strangers and take the most precious gift that any of us have been given. It’s hard to describe the guilt that I feel knowing that I get to live, and they’re doomed to face an early death. A positive test is an immediate death sentence. Our testing has gotten so efficient that we can actually get results almost instantly as to whether someone is infected. My lab actually has the testing strips within it. If someone is suspected of carrying the disease, or if they made contact with someone who had it, they are taken to our lab to be tested. If they test positive, they are killed immediately. Not all of the infected show symptoms of the disease. Rather, some are simply carriers. The carriers still need to be euthanized, though. The government says that we need to contain the outbreak. Those that aren’t just walking carriers die from the virus within a couple days. In those that are just carriers seem to act as a perfect breeding ground for the virus just serve to make it stronger. It’s amazing how many of my coworkers ended up dying from this disease or testing positive in the past few weeks. I walk out of the vacuum sealed room where we put down the infected, and I begin my decontamination phase. A chemical shower, my clothes are then put into the incinerator, and I open up a new package of clothes. I walk back to my living quarters, and collapse on the bed. I think about how tomorrow, and how I have leave to go home. I can’t wait to be able to go home and see my family. I haven’t seen them in several months, as I’ve been set in the quarantine here. I think of my son, living with his mother, and how I didn’t have custody of him anyway. “It’s better for him to have it this way,” she’d say to me in front of Jack, her new husband. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking over the course of my time here about the divorce and the custody battle. I decided that I’ll embrace my ex-wife and her husband as soon as I get out of here. A smile comes across my face. I pulled out a new testing strip and tested myself again. “Negative,” it reads. I reach into my bedside table and pull out the syringe. I inject myself with the serum inside of the syringe. I pulled out another testing strip. “Positive,” it reads. I smile and start to fall asleep as I think about how much I can’t wait to hug my ex wife and her new fucking husband.