The Girl With All The Gifts Would Survive Coronavirus
My 1,000 Book Challenge
Are you sitting at home, wondering if the projections of COVID-19 mortalities are going to be anything like reality? And if so, are we doomed? Well, I happened upon "The Girl With All The Gifts" on Netflix and was drawn to the parallels between Melanie, a young girl with promising genetics, and our own pandemic.
Melanie is one of many children on a military base that appear to be virtual prisoners. She's strapped into a wheelchair even though she can walk, and she is studied by doctors. When her teacher shows affection by patting Melanie on the head during a lesson, armed guards immediately descend upon the scene. Sometimes, kids don't return after being taken away for testing. Why? Well, it's a zombie movie. So of course, it means that Melanie has zombie-like traits. Because she was a fetus when the pandemic broke out, the fungus that infected people through bodily fluids formed a symbiotic relationship with babies receiving it through the placenta. Melanie, therefore, is a hybrid.
“The horror of the unknown is more frightening than any horror you can understand.”
― M.R. Carey, The Girl With All the Gifts
Melanie craves human flesh, but she shows a cognizance of this as taboo and attempts to control it. However, she is just as aware that while the sacrifice of her life for the development of a vaccine is possible, she also realizes that it should not be up to the next generation to save the less adaptable generation that the doctors and military represent. She is the next logical step in an evolved human race. And she's not wrong.
Think of some of the worst pandemics the world has known. You think of the bubonic plague, the Spanish flu, malaria, and smallpox. At varying points in history, these illnesses swept the globe. In the Middle Ages, the bubonic plague killed one in every three people living in Europe. World War I claimed fewer lives than the simultaneous global outbreak of the Spanish flu, which may have killed as much as 6% of the world's population. Apply that to COVID-19. There were over 1,500 deaths over the weekend in the U.S. alone, and about 10% of Italy's population two months ago is simply not there now.
Why is Melanie a solution to the pandemic of her reality, and what possible use is she to our own situation? Well, she's not very original. Perhaps in zombie lore she's a more uncommon example of a solution to the problem posed by a highly infectious pathogen that causes people to become zombies, but Melanie is a clever retelling of historical events. COVID-19 and the fictitious zombie plague have possible hosts who simply have a natural immunity. And no, that's not speculation. Past pandemics show us that it is undeniable fact.
“Every adult grew from a kid who beat the odds. But at different times, in different places, the odds have been appallingly steep.”
― M.R. Carey, The Girl With All the Gifts
Approximately 1% of all Europeans had a natural immunity to the bubonic plague, known more colloquially as The Black Death. Being that they survived where many did not, they became a larger percentage of the population that went on to produce children. Today, nearly 15% of people with European descent have a natural immunity to the bubonic plague.
Malaria affects millions of people worldwide annually. Nearly half of the world lives in areas where malaria is present. However, these same populations have their own version of day-walker zombie: carriers of a recessive gene for sickle cell anemia. Carriers are not symptomatic of the excruciating ordeal that the condition is, but their slightly malformed blood cells simply do not allow for malaria to be carried throughout the bloodstream.
It therefore stands to reason that those who survive COVID-19 will develop antibodies that can fight it, and then pass this to future children. I was reminded of this by "The Girl With All The Gifts" and wow, was I grateful for the reminder. Every day, we're bombarded with news about spikes in cases or deaths, trends that predict this coming week to be our "Pearl Harbor" moment of the war on an unseen virus lurking among us. So, if you need hope and inspiration from our past, take a couple hours to watch the movie. Pick up the book, as I was led to, to find the parallels between us and the zombie hybrids. Stay safe!
About the Creator
Elizabeth Tebb
I'm usually narrating books for Audible or writing romances, but writing in any form is my passion. My hobbies are focused on the written word. I also love to cook and travel. I live with my husband and two kitties in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Keep reading
More stories from Elizabeth Tebb and writers in Horror and other communities.
Coronavirus: Our Own Personal World War Z
You may have seen the movie, and its own way the movie attempts to cover the same principles as the book. It focuses largely on the politics, economic consequences, and measures that first allow an extremely contagious pathogen to first spread, then be eradicated. However, I highly recommend that if you want a very accurate, highly probable assessment of our global response to a pandemic, read the book by Max Brooks.
By Elizabeth Tebb4 years ago in The Swamp
The Poisoner
Assassins have existed since the dawn of time, higher ups in society across the world desire to see those who wronged them dead! So killers are hired to eliminate the targets for wealth, typically money is the reward they seek. Most assassins use hidden blades, carried under their sleeves, quickly slashing their victims before blending in with the crowd again. Others use sniper rifles or other long range guns, shooting from afar or up close. The best assassins are subtle and sneaky, the greatest ones of all have never been caught! There are a disturbing number of ways you can kill a human, I obviously won't share any, not in this story so use your imagination. The point of this tale is to explore the most bizarre assassin to ever walk the planet, a killer who is still unknown but has committed a countless amount of murders across the globe. All of which include spiking or tampering with the victims food or drink. This would poison the target to the point of fatal illness, it happened to the most unlikely of people, as though this assassin had no true targets but simply killed for sport. Perhaps there were reasons he chose to kill these people, but it is a mystery that has been left unanswered for decades. Many believe there to be multiple Poisoner assassins throughout the years, the theory that is it no single man or woman makes a lot of sense. It is a theory many subscribe to. The targets killed range from cute couples, families or lone travellers, who visit exotic restaurants whilst on their holidays around the world. It is always detected to be either rat or ricin poisoning, that kills the victims. There have been numerous cases investigated, where CCTV has spotted strange chefs in kitchens, those who were never officially hired had slipped in a disguise and tampered with the food. They always wear the chef's scarf over their face, to hide their identity. The figure has been described as male, standing tall and athletic. To presume the killer is male, he has been spotted in bars too, a hooded figure with a balaclava, spiking drinks of people who later end up dead. Usually the police don't investigate until the killer has already committed his murder, so it seems they have long vanished before any trail can be found. Not to mention the amount of people who were at first presumed to have been food poisoned, where it was the restaurant or cafe found responsible for not properly serving well cooked food. Only for forensics to later discover the truth, which was far more sinister and purposeful. Nobody knows who this assassin is, or why they do the terrible things they do. They are presumed to be male, but even that is uncertain. The race or gender of the killer is not yet confirmed. No face has ever been identified. A pattern has not been detected either. The Poisoner is a ghost, an assassin so good, they always manage to slip through the cracks, what with their many disguises and hiding spots. One can only assume the assassin seeks out those with bounties upon their heads, do if you've angered the wrong person, someone high up in society, be sure to eat food from the supermarket instead. You'll never know if The Poisoner is after you or not, until it is too late! If you eat or drink anything that tastes off, you should probably bin that item and wash out your mouth, there's a good chance it may be dangerous to consume. Then you'd become another death, on a list of thousands.
By Joseph Roy Wright2 days ago in Horror
A New Beginning
Tony couldn’t sit still, crossing and uncrossing his legs, trying to calm his trembling hands as Clara stood at the office window deep in thought. The airline ticket in his shirt pocket moved to the beat of his heart¬– each beat bringing back the nightmare causing memories of the words he’d spoken over ten years ago. Thanks to Clara he’d finally gained the courage to buy that ticket.
By Gerald Holmesa day ago in Fiction
Comments
There are no comments for this story
Be the first to respond and start the conversation.