Nitrogen - Part I
An "unknown pathogen" they called it, "something in the water". It was the best guess all their years of wasted research could conjure. In the end none of it is going to matter anyways. Once we're all gone, it won't make a bit of difference to the world whether or not we were able to identify the thing that... "took" us. Still, even us simple folk could tell it was no disease, didn't need a degree in applied medicine to make it as far as that. Hell, I reckon even the doomsayers got a better guess; running around yelling "evolution" at anyone who'd listen... yelling louder at the those who wouldn't.
So no, I don't believe we'll ever know for certain what we've suffered here on this earth, nor by whose hand, but as our time seeps away, faster and faster, I... I feel an ever more urgent need to record it all, to write down what little we knew for certain. I don't expect this will serve any further purpose than granting an old man some peace of mind in his final hours, but if somehow, someone is reading this... well, I suppose you're one of them....
Please forgive an old man's ramblings, this is something we all suffered together.
At first the television broadcasts were coming at us every second hour. Every time they thought they had discovered something knew, they were on that damn wire again, proudly telling it to the entire planet. Then, after about a week, the broadcasts became less frequent, I remember in about the third week there was an entire day that went by without that damn emergency broadcast signal showing its face, lighting up our living room. I remember because it was the first time I was ever struck with the thought that we might not actually make it out of this. It was only for an instant, and it's strange that it never occurred to me before. I guess my faith in our fellow man's ability to solve this had faltered for a second. It only got worse after that, and eventually the broadcasts stopped altogether, the world was becoming far too dangerous to worry about the trivial idea of keeping the public informed.
None of the discoveries so adamantly spewed forth over radio-wave were of any use to us, every evening their "facts" would dissolve in the night air, and by sunrise there was some new explanation coming in through the windows. Still, from between all their speculation, we'd managed to gather enough information on the events of that day, so many years ago now. Dates and times, perceived symptoms, environmental reactions... we never did find out what caused it all, but by the time those broadcasts had died out, we knew a lot more, and what we knew was this: At 08h56, EST, and for the six minutes which followed, approximately 73% of all newborns across the globe experienced a uniform shift in the chemical composition of their respiratory systems. At first the mutation went undetected, and most of the affected managed to find their way into their local maternity ward. It was this point at which the effects of this strange generation first became noticeable. In hospitals across the globe, those infants unfortunate enough to share a ward with the mutants began to show signs of oxygen-deprivation, bluing at the lips and finger. The medical staff on duty at the time would later complain about the difficulty of breathing in and around the wards. It was not long before we knew that, somehow, these children were immediately and completely expending all oxygen drawn into their lungs, and, more importantly, exhaling nothing but pure nitrogen back into their immediate atmosphere. In addition, these children appeared to have no reaction to the resulting change in atmospheric composition, breathing just as easily on nitrogen as they did on oxygen.
A long time after that, after the widespread extermination attempts, when those few who managed to survive had gained a few years, we noticed yet another difference between us and them. That strange generation seemed to thrive on the large-scale atmospheric changes. When they became old enough to run, we learned that they were faster, when they became old enough to fight, we learned they were stronger. And when they were old enough to learn, well....
They learned that they were both faster and stronger, and so our end began.
So no, I don't believe we'll ever know for certain what we've suffered here on this earth, nor by whose hand, but as our time seeps away, faster and faster, I... I feel an ever more urgent need to record it all, to write down what little we knew for certain. I don't expect this will serve any further purpose than granting an old man some peace of mind in his final hours, but if somehow, someone is reading this... well, I suppose you're one of them....
Please forgive an old man's ramblings, this is something we all suffered together.
At first the television broadcasts were coming at us every second hour. Every time they thought they had discovered something knew, they were on that damn wire again, proudly telling it to the entire planet. Then, after about a week, the broadcasts became less frequent, I remember in about the third week there was an entire day that went by without that damn emergency broadcast signal showing its face, lighting up our living room. I remember because it was the first time I was ever struck with the thought that we might not actually make it out of this. It was only for an instant, and it's strange that it never occurred to me before. I guess my faith in our fellow man's ability to solve this had faltered for a second. It only got worse after that, and eventually the broadcasts stopped altogether, the world was becoming far too dangerous to worry about the trivial idea of keeping the public informed.
None of the discoveries so adamantly spewed forth over radio-wave were of any use to us, every evening their "facts" would dissolve in the night air, and by sunrise there was some new explanation coming in through the windows. Still, from between all their speculation, we'd managed to gather enough information on the events of that day, so many years ago now. Dates and times, perceived symptoms, environmental reactions... we never did find out what caused it all, but by the time those broadcasts had died out, we knew a lot more, and what we knew was this: At 08h56, EST, and for the six minutes which followed, approximately 73% of all newborns across the globe experienced a uniform shift in the chemical composition of their respiratory systems. At first the mutation went undetected, and most of the affected managed to find their way into their local maternity ward. It was this point at which the effects of this strange generation first became noticeable. In hospitals across the globe, those infants unfortunate enough to share a ward with the mutants began to show signs of oxygen-deprivation, bluing at the lips and finger. The medical staff on duty at the time would later complain about the difficulty of breathing in and around the wards. It was not long before we knew that, somehow, these children were immediately and completely expending all oxygen drawn into their lungs, and, more importantly, exhaling nothing but pure nitrogen back into their immediate atmosphere. In addition, these children appeared to have no reaction to the resulting change in atmospheric composition, breathing just as easily on nitrogen as they did on oxygen.
A long time after that, after the widespread extermination attempts, when those few who managed to survive had gained a few years, we noticed yet another difference between us and them. That strange generation seemed to thrive on the large-scale atmospheric changes. When they became old enough to run, we learned that they were faster, when they became old enough to fight, we learned they were stronger. And when they were old enough to learn, well....
They learned that they were both faster and stronger, and so our end began.