[ WP ] Global suicide rates rises rapidly . The governments deny responsibility . You know better .

The world I grew up in was gone. It existed only as an echo, as a memory. 
 
 Five years ago, the global suicide rate passed the birth rate, and it's only gotten worse since then. 
 
 Unprecedented death on a scale humanity had never seen had left the world broken and grieving. 4.9 billion worldwide and counting. Everyone has a theory, but no one has proof, and no one can stop it, it seems. 
 
 I've been working for the CDC since the epidemic was recognized, and the only thing I can say conclusively is `` we do n't know.'' It did n't fit any pattern we had ever seen before, there were no common factors that we could find, and we looked at everything we could possibly think of. 
 
 The facts failed us. 
 
 `` But we are only human. And we are trying. As long as we're still here, there is a chance.'' I tell myself this every day. I have to. 
 
 We exhausted lists of industrial pollutants, chemical weapons, viral vectors, bacterial, and fungal factors, prion diseases, even considered the possibility of it being the world's largest occurrence of conversion disorder, but no matter what we examined, nothing made sense. Nothing offered us a clue. 
 
 It did n't follow any socioeconomic, cultural, racial or religious lines. There was no pattern to its spread. It was going to leave the world dead without so much as an explanation. 
 
 As far as we knew, whatever this thing was, it killed indiscriminately and without warning. Worst of all, it did not appear that it could be contained. 
 
 I hustled toward the building as I did every morning, without the time to mourn the dead, and without the knowledge to save the living. 
 
 I walked inside. Years ago, I would have had to stop here and submit to a security check, have my ID scanned and my bags searched, but there was none of that to be had anymore. 
 
 These days, we're all far more scared of ourselves than each other. 
 
 Dr. Jackson's voice surprised me as I hung up my coat. The old man who ad taught me everything I know about this monster we face was sitting at my desk with a gun pointed lazily at his own graying temple. 
 
 `` Steve, I needed to tell you this before I go.'' 
 
 `` Go ahead.'' I say, still cautiously eyeing the gun in his hand, just in case. 
 
 `` None of this is what we thought. We've been all wrong from the beginning. This is n't something we can stop. This is n't a plague.'' He said. 
 
 `` It's a migration.'' 
 
 And he pulled the trigger. 
 
 

