Vacation Fiction Day 2 -- When The Coast Is Clear -- Jimmy Buffett

George loved Orange Beach, and he hated crowds. Vacations were such sweet torture. Nearly every inch of beach at Orange Beach had high rise condos, so the ocean beaches stayed covered in people year round. If he had liked Gulf Shores, he could have at least gone to the part of the island that was only houses, but it wasn't the same. It wasn't Orange Beach.

Then George's chance came. The Chinese took a page from the Russian book: if you can't come up with the technology yourself, steal it from the Americans. If there was a man from whom one could steal a super-virus, it was George. His work on engineering viruses for cancer treatment was the best in the world, and the easiest to weaponize. When the CIA found out that the Chinese wanted it, they asked George to help them give the Chinese broken information. The Chinese were barely able to make something infectious before they accidentally released the virus in Wuhan.

Of course George got the call when the US started making a vaccine, and that's when his plan could go into motion. His vaccine introduced a small gene into the population that made you vulnerable to the next virus. Three months later, George made a few plane trips...

George looked out across the white, empty sand. The manditory evacuation orders had sent the tourists running, and most residents had left or died at home as well. This pesky raspy cough and shortness of breath was an annoyance, but he had plenty of time to deal with that. The coast was clear, after all.