Plagued by Regret

I was driving home from work when I saw the car crash. A car approaching the intersection lost control and smashed into the car in front of me. It was surreal to see something like that happen in real life.

My instincts kicked in, and I pulled over and ran to the site of the accident. It was late at night, and there was nobody else around.

I called for an ambulance right away. Both of the guys looked pretty bad when I checked on them. The paramedics took both of them to the hospital, and that was the end of it.

Thoughts of the accident haunted me. It could have been me going to the hospital if I had left work a minute sooner. I went home and told my wife about the crash, and she tried to comfort me, but something about being that close to death kept me awake at night.

A week later, I got a call from Dr. Bradley. He was one of the guys in the accident, and he called to thank me for saving his life that night. Apparently, if I hadn’t been around to call the ambulance right away he would have died. The other guy wasn’t so lucky.

Then Dr. Bradley offered me a reward, one that I took accepted but would come to regret for the rest of my life.

He asked me if I had a primary care physician. I told him that I didn’t even have health insurance, let alone a doctor I saw regularly. After all, I was pretty young and hadn’t had any serious health issues.

“I don’t see as many patients these days as I used to,” he said. “But if you’d like to come in for a checkup, I’d gladly see you, free of charge of course.”

A visit to the doctor was worth at least a couple hundred bucks, and I was due for a checkup anyways, so I made an appointment to go see Dr. Bradley.

I was expecting a normal doctor’s office with receptionists, nurses, and outdated waiting room furniture. When I arrived at the address the doctor gave me, I was surprised to see that his office building was a huge glass building that looked more like a research facility than a normal medical complex. There was even a security booth where they had to check me in before I could get into the parking lot.

It was so strange that at one point I considered turning around and going home, but after Dr. Bradley greeted me in the lobby I felt much more comfortable.

“Sorry, I suppose I should have warned you about the place. This really is a state of the art medical facility. That's why I agreed to do research here. Unfortunately, the investors feel that state of the art equipment needs to be guarded heavily, hence all the security.”

He was a charming man, and he looked far better than the last time I saw him.

We took the elevator up to his office. Up there he had all the familiar equipment you’d find in a doctor’s office. He checked my vitals, took a blood sample, and asked me some questions about my health including if I was up to date on my vaccinations.

“I have no idea,” I answered. “I can’t even remember the last time I got vaccinated for anything.”

“Well that means you’re likely behind on a few of them,” he said. “But it’s no problem. I can give you the essential ones here, and it’ll only do you good.”

“Those won’t be billed, will they?”

“Of course not!” He laughed. “I’d have to be a pretty rotten doctor to charge you for a few vaccines after you saved my life.”

He gave me the shots. I don’t really remember what he said they were, maybe measles or diphtheria or something. After that, though, he sent me on my way.

I forgot about the whole thing after that, and life went on as usual. Then people started getting sick.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a new virus was set loose. It was more infectious and more deadly than any virus ever seen. Once you caught it, there was little to be done. It took hold so quickly the body couldn’t fight it.

I watched so many people die, friends and family pale as death and coughing up blood with their last breath. I held my wife as she died.

The last words I heard from humanity were in the form of an emergency broadcast. They told us the virus had been engineered as a weapon by a group of fanatics that wanted to cleanse the Earth. They even identified their lead scientist, Dr. Mason Bradley.

I never got sick, even when I was in direct contact with the infected. That day at the lab, Dr. Bradley gave me a vaccine that protected me against the virus he engineered. I guess he thought he was doing me a favor. In exchange for saving his life, he saved mine.

I wonder if he ever considered that I would have rather bled from my eyes and coughed up my lungs than sit there helplessly while the people I loved died in pain.

The world is lonely now. Without humans, nature reclaims the land.

But I know I’m not the only one. Bradley and his conspirators are out there somewhere, living in the hellish wasteland they created.

At first, I wanted to end it all, but my burning hatred wouldn’t allow it. Now, I survive off the land, and I dedicate every waking moment to hunting the man who played this cruel joke on me.

I don’t know if I’ll ever find him, but every day I picture the expression on my wife’s pale face as the light fades from her eyes and it drives me onward. I may very well be the last hope for justice in this cruel world.