Humanity was different. That was for sure, but appearances had nothing to do with it. In a way on a war with the unknown could, they had united in a common goal. People were still weeping, so many had died, too many of them were taken too soon for acceptance. Leaders looked at the economy and grimaced, so many gone, so little to build of. It would take so much work to build them back. To restore the morale alone, would take so many years, too many to count. Entire nations may have just been deserted, they certainly looked the part.

One man had seen his entire family wither away, one by one. He was the only one left, the only one to remember them, to make them proud. On the other side, a child, barely a year, would never remember his mothers' warm smiles and strong embraces. He would grow up, without knowing his first caretakers, without ever getting to tell them the three sweetest words a person could utter: I love you.

But in the aftermath of it all, both of them know things are going to get better. As mankind has an idiotic, baseless, but important trait, no matter how bad, how tragic, or how crushingly depressing the circumstances are, they will always look to the North and see better things coming. They always believe things can get better.

At the end of a pandemic, we will not only think things could get better. We will strive towards it, hand in hand; knowing that we all share the same pain. We carry each other's burden and in return ours will get lighter. Humanity is an intriguing masterpiece because the best way we learn is not practice, but by trial of fire.

We are a race forged by fire. We are tested and tested again and again, each time we learn something new. Each time we surpass what we thought couldn't be done, and we will continue to do so. We learn, we learned, and we will learn. At the end of any pandemic is a race better than before, who bears scars of pride, battered but not beaten, pushed but not broken.