Day 1,532

They called it Mother's Bane once they figured out that it only affected children. There's only so much their little immune systems could handle and this was so very far beyond them. Survivors were unheard of but thankfully they only lasted a few weeks.

Nobody survived beyond the twenty-one day threshold - by that point the child's skin would be covered in fragile cysts that burst at the slightest breeze and aerosolized the contagion. That's how it spread so quickly, all it took was one infected child in a playground and within a day they'd all be carriers.

Within a week the first cysts would appear and they'd only deteriorate from there until they were pus-drenched, little bodies wracked with pain and begging for it all to end. After the first few wards were overrun with their cries they began to soundproof the hospitals. It didn't help the children but it made everyone else feel better not having to listen to them dying.

They'd swarm anyone who walked into the ward, and people used to visit the ward all the time to try and comfort them. When the news announced that finding a cure would take them years and by that point an entire generation would be dead, the visits stopped. Why try and give comfort to children who were as good as dead?