About this Project This project is based around horror and the storytelling techniques involved with it. I wrote a short story placed in futuristic Pennsylvania with the focus on the return of polio. For the art section I decided to draw something that depicts a scene from the short story.
The process I originally started off the project by researching how horror works, and how movies, music, and stories can get the scary theme across well. I wanted to delve into creepiness, however some of my ideas that included the horror aspect of it went unused. After getting a good base of what horror is and how it can be used, I decided to start writing my futuristic world in response to things occurring right now. I got very caught up in writing and elaborating on the setting and groups that would affect the world, so my story isn't very complete, and I still feel like there is much for me to develop in terms of setting.
Language Arts: I wrote a short story placed in futuristic Pennsylvania where polio comes back. Art: I did a piece that represents a scene from the story, testing my ability to draw backgrounds, and shade in grayscale with a sense of dimensionality. Synthesis: Combining Social Studies: I decided to research horror and use modern history to help shape the futuristic world into what it is. |
The Story
On a normal day, the stars would have shone bright. On a normal day, maybe a few cars would have driven through the mostly quiet roads. On a normal day there would have been at least a shred of calmness, but that day was not this one.
Orange and red flames licked at the crumbling buildings with smoke clouding the skies above, giving it a gray appearance. Debris was spewed out onto the streets with what only can be known as the husks of cars laid throughout the pavements never to be used again. One could hear crackling of fire, the occasional thuds of falling objects, gunshots, and the light footsteps of soldiers in combat boots as they worked their way through the streets.
“Hey guys, they made fire from Minecraft into a real thing,” Roy piped up besides me. He spoke in a rather jovial tone of voice.
Sean sighed, “How the hell are you still working with us?” Because we all wore the same riot armor, the only real distinction between Sean and Roy was the crudely drawn symbol in white marker that adorned Roy’s riot helmet:
I II
I IL
I remember asking him about it a while back and he said it meant “loss.” I assumed he was talking about a lost loved one, so I didn’t pry for any more information after that.
We turned our attention to a small neighborhood that looked just like what was expected for it to look after being bombed.
“Our orders are to get to the survivors and take them back to the compound,” Sean signaled for us to move. I stopped at a house with a large section of it still mostly intact. I made sure to look for falling objects above me, and fire below as the search started. The fire illuminated the walls giving the surroundings an orange tint, while areas where the fire didn’t light looked a dull gray.
I noticed a small booklet just within reach, and picked it up out of curiosity. Upon closer examination, I came to the conclusion that it is, or used to be, the diary of someone that stayed here. The pages were burnt around the edge but most of the words could still be read. I flipped through the book, and decided it was a good idea to keep it, as it may give a good insight on what happened here. Searching around I saw what appeared to be the charred remains of a presumably young man. This might as well have been the owner of the diary.
I completed my search and went to move onto the next house when I noticed Roy quickly running towards me.
“Sean found this little girl that apparently knows where some other survivors are and she wants all of us to go with her,” Roy spoke like it was normal to be in this kind of situation. I nodded in response and followed him to where Sean and a brown haired girl stood.
Orange and red flames licked at the crumbling buildings with smoke clouding the skies above, giving it a gray appearance. Debris was spewed out onto the streets with what only can be known as the husks of cars laid throughout the pavements never to be used again. One could hear crackling of fire, the occasional thuds of falling objects, gunshots, and the light footsteps of soldiers in combat boots as they worked their way through the streets.
“Hey guys, they made fire from Minecraft into a real thing,” Roy piped up besides me. He spoke in a rather jovial tone of voice.
Sean sighed, “How the hell are you still working with us?” Because we all wore the same riot armor, the only real distinction between Sean and Roy was the crudely drawn symbol in white marker that adorned Roy’s riot helmet:
I II
I IL
I remember asking him about it a while back and he said it meant “loss.” I assumed he was talking about a lost loved one, so I didn’t pry for any more information after that.
We turned our attention to a small neighborhood that looked just like what was expected for it to look after being bombed.
“Our orders are to get to the survivors and take them back to the compound,” Sean signaled for us to move. I stopped at a house with a large section of it still mostly intact. I made sure to look for falling objects above me, and fire below as the search started. The fire illuminated the walls giving the surroundings an orange tint, while areas where the fire didn’t light looked a dull gray.
I noticed a small booklet just within reach, and picked it up out of curiosity. Upon closer examination, I came to the conclusion that it is, or used to be, the diary of someone that stayed here. The pages were burnt around the edge but most of the words could still be read. I flipped through the book, and decided it was a good idea to keep it, as it may give a good insight on what happened here. Searching around I saw what appeared to be the charred remains of a presumably young man. This might as well have been the owner of the diary.
I completed my search and went to move onto the next house when I noticed Roy quickly running towards me.
“Sean found this little girl that apparently knows where some other survivors are and she wants all of us to go with her,” Roy spoke like it was normal to be in this kind of situation. I nodded in response and followed him to where Sean and a brown haired girl stood.
June 8, 2025
Dear Diary,
Today is my 28th birthday, and I got this diary as a gift from my sister. I hope to be able to write in this one just as frequently as I had written in my ones previous. Today’s log will be kept rather short because it is rather late in the day and I want to work on a commission I received from my sister. I also want some time to do a few small drawings below.
Before that however, I must say how much I appreciate the making of this diary. The cover is a smooth black leather and the paper has a feel I can’t quite place; it just feels much better than normal notebook paper. Okay that’s all, bye!
Samuel N. Kirkwood
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June 9, 2025
Dear Diary,
There’s been talk about polio returning to where I live, and if I had to guess, it's probably because of the anti-vaxxers. Definitely not 100% their fault, but probably around 90% their fault.
I am not against vaccination, so when they placed the ban of vaccines into my state and the surrounding states, I wasn’t very happy, but I wasn’t surprised either. My sister had reviewed some of the articles the Seekers of Truth send out, and we came to the conclusion that it was absolutely propaganda. Anyways, there is a cure for polio, so I hope everyone can get this all sorted out. I’m sure it will, seeya!
Samuel N. Kirkwood
------------
June 10, 2025
Dear Diary,
I don’t have much to say about today, so I’m just going to draw some stuff below.
Samuel N. Kirkwood
(sketches of stuff)
------------
June 20, 2025
Dear Diary,
A lot has happened these past days, the polio has unfortunately gotten worse, but I talked with my sister, and I’m planning to move to her house. I lost my diary, so that's why I haven’t been writing much, but I found it again when I was cleaning my room and packing up to move. I am leaving today, so to make up for the logs I missed, I’ll update my progress very soon. Good day!
Samuel N. Kirkwood
------------
June 20, 2025
Dear Diary,
I am sitting in my car right now parked at a gas station, and my plans to go to my sister is officially cancelled. A bit after driving to her, there was a major backup and people were being directed to drive back. Some people were out of their cars yelling at other people who wore military armor. Things got increasingly violent and I decided to leave before things got too out of hand. I still don’t know why they were there, but I would assume their arrival has something to do with the polio having gotten worse. When I get home I’m going to call my sister.
Samuel N. Kirkwood
Dear Diary,
Today is my 28th birthday, and I got this diary as a gift from my sister. I hope to be able to write in this one just as frequently as I had written in my ones previous. Today’s log will be kept rather short because it is rather late in the day and I want to work on a commission I received from my sister. I also want some time to do a few small drawings below.
Before that however, I must say how much I appreciate the making of this diary. The cover is a smooth black leather and the paper has a feel I can’t quite place; it just feels much better than normal notebook paper. Okay that’s all, bye!
Samuel N. Kirkwood
------------
June 9, 2025
Dear Diary,
There’s been talk about polio returning to where I live, and if I had to guess, it's probably because of the anti-vaxxers. Definitely not 100% their fault, but probably around 90% their fault.
I am not against vaccination, so when they placed the ban of vaccines into my state and the surrounding states, I wasn’t very happy, but I wasn’t surprised either. My sister had reviewed some of the articles the Seekers of Truth send out, and we came to the conclusion that it was absolutely propaganda. Anyways, there is a cure for polio, so I hope everyone can get this all sorted out. I’m sure it will, seeya!
Samuel N. Kirkwood
------------
June 10, 2025
Dear Diary,
I don’t have much to say about today, so I’m just going to draw some stuff below.
Samuel N. Kirkwood
(sketches of stuff)
------------
June 20, 2025
Dear Diary,
A lot has happened these past days, the polio has unfortunately gotten worse, but I talked with my sister, and I’m planning to move to her house. I lost my diary, so that's why I haven’t been writing much, but I found it again when I was cleaning my room and packing up to move. I am leaving today, so to make up for the logs I missed, I’ll update my progress very soon. Good day!
Samuel N. Kirkwood
------------
June 20, 2025
Dear Diary,
I am sitting in my car right now parked at a gas station, and my plans to go to my sister is officially cancelled. A bit after driving to her, there was a major backup and people were being directed to drive back. Some people were out of their cars yelling at other people who wore military armor. Things got increasingly violent and I decided to leave before things got too out of hand. I still don’t know why they were there, but I would assume their arrival has something to do with the polio having gotten worse. When I get home I’m going to call my sister.
Samuel N. Kirkwood
About Post-Apocalyptic Pennsylvania
The year is 2025 and in the past few months, polio has quickly been returning to Pennsylvania. Now, however it’s back being much harder to oppose along with the ability to spread to animals and plants and cause mutations in the lifeform it affects.
The return of this deadly disease largely started when the fear of vaccines causing more harm than good was fueled by a large campaign from a York group known as The Seekers of Truth (SOT) in 2020, and since then, they have steadily been gaining followers. By 2023, 64% of the Pennsylvania population were reported to be against vaccination mainly due to heavy amounts of propaganda being pumped out by SOT along with mixes of fact and fiction which proved to be very misleading for people who didn’t fact check the information. The government’s fight against the anti-vaxxers severely lacked, but highly renowned groups of science such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Academy of Sciences were at the helm to fight against the pseudoscience that SOT spouted out. Although many science groups have refuted many points being made by SOT, they still find a way to discredit some of the scientists going up against them, along with advocating a ban on vaccines in Pennsylvania. In 2024, the ban was put in place, and surely enough, diseases came back in greater numbers, however the new poliovirus alongside it’s mutations came back with the most intensity and affected the most amount of life forms in Pennsylvania. With the modern polio vaccine failing to cure any lifeform, the State borders were closed per request of the White House in an attempt to keep the virus away from neighboring states. All travel from Pennsylvania or to Pennsylvania closed leaving the entire state to stew within the disease with the government attempting to help by stationing heavily armored units just within and outside the borders to make sure nobody escaped with the disease. Research for the cure is localized in a compound in Pennsylvania to not risk any more people getting infected, and is guarded by multiple mercenaries and police officers. The compound, however gets found and destroyed by a cult and causes the research for the cure to slow tremendously, as much has been destroyed. |
The seekers of truth
The Seekers of Truth (SOT) is a group that was originally founded by Robert Thomson who was born and raised in York. He wrote a book full of science conspiracy theories called “The Truths Behind the Science Lies.” During 2018 - 2019, he was an active member on a Facebook group he moderated which became the predecessor of SOT, and it was dedicated towards exposing lies in science like the moon landing or about vaccinations. However, the group was shut down in 2020 due to spreading misinformation and violating Facebook’s guidelines.
Followers of the six eyed goats
The Followers of the Six-Eyed Goats is a longstanding pagan religion based in Pennsylvania and has been around since the early 1990s. Although it was a topic covered on a small subreddit surrounding certain religions that aren't very well known, it’s coverage was vastly overshadowed by that of the cult Heaven’s Gate which had been making big headlines at the time. The religion used to have unanimous beliefs and ideology, but in 2016, a split occurred in the interpretation of the beliefs resulting in the original religion, and the cult break-off group.
In the original beliefs, there are two ram deities Cornilux and Pravumbra. The names deriving from latin with Cornilux being, “Horns of Light” and Pravumbra being “Curving Shadows.” These two deities are not inherently good or evil, but are a mix of both, and are representations of the balances in nature and human ideology. They operate much like the yin yang symbol within Taoism, and have an identical meaning. One cannot operate without the other, vice-versa, and together they make one entity.
This belief is heavily applied to nature and natural forces, and it is thought that nature, along with it’s cycles, should largely be left alone. If something does gets put out of place, actions should be taken to restore its original balance. That being said, the pagans strongly advocate against global warming along with deniers of climate change and uneducation of earth science. They are also against littering, not recycling, and other things that do harm to the earth. The group has also donated to charities dedicated to natural science on multiple occasions. They also believe that a certain level of skepticism is healthy and no idea should be left unchallenged.
The adapted set of beliefs take the account of leaving nature as it is to an entirely different level. Their belief is that humans should not affect the earth at all, and consequences of their actions should be taken without trying to prevent nature from doing so. They still believe that humans should try not to affect the earth, but if global warming continues at an even faster pace, then we should not try to prevent it because they believe that it’s nature trying to fix itself. This belief unintentionally strays away from the original meaning behind the gods, and ultimately goes against the original ideas. This new cult also enforced these beliefs rather than the original religious group, which simply gave suggestions.
The earliest account of this new belief was documented in 2012. When it was first proposed, it was heavily questioned and debated by many members within the religion, however years later, it still remained an argument that would be brought up. Overtime, the people following these newer ideas attempted to disassociate themselves from the original religious group and left to form their own version; their own version being able to be classified as a cult with many cult-like tendencies. Although the original pagans still remained unaffected by the break-off with new people joining every so often, the cult received much more attention and had more people who were interested in joining.
This caused the popularity of the cult to raise, and although both the religion and cult still wasn’t worthy of big headlines, more information surrounding the both appeared, however the information talked more about the cult than the original religion, so despite the major differences in the beliefs, the cult was the one that came to mind whenever someone thought of the Followers of the Six-Eyed Goats.
In the original beliefs, there are two ram deities Cornilux and Pravumbra. The names deriving from latin with Cornilux being, “Horns of Light” and Pravumbra being “Curving Shadows.” These two deities are not inherently good or evil, but are a mix of both, and are representations of the balances in nature and human ideology. They operate much like the yin yang symbol within Taoism, and have an identical meaning. One cannot operate without the other, vice-versa, and together they make one entity.
This belief is heavily applied to nature and natural forces, and it is thought that nature, along with it’s cycles, should largely be left alone. If something does gets put out of place, actions should be taken to restore its original balance. That being said, the pagans strongly advocate against global warming along with deniers of climate change and uneducation of earth science. They are also against littering, not recycling, and other things that do harm to the earth. The group has also donated to charities dedicated to natural science on multiple occasions. They also believe that a certain level of skepticism is healthy and no idea should be left unchallenged.
The adapted set of beliefs take the account of leaving nature as it is to an entirely different level. Their belief is that humans should not affect the earth at all, and consequences of their actions should be taken without trying to prevent nature from doing so. They still believe that humans should try not to affect the earth, but if global warming continues at an even faster pace, then we should not try to prevent it because they believe that it’s nature trying to fix itself. This belief unintentionally strays away from the original meaning behind the gods, and ultimately goes against the original ideas. This new cult also enforced these beliefs rather than the original religious group, which simply gave suggestions.
The earliest account of this new belief was documented in 2012. When it was first proposed, it was heavily questioned and debated by many members within the religion, however years later, it still remained an argument that would be brought up. Overtime, the people following these newer ideas attempted to disassociate themselves from the original religious group and left to form their own version; their own version being able to be classified as a cult with many cult-like tendencies. Although the original pagans still remained unaffected by the break-off with new people joining every so often, the cult received much more attention and had more people who were interested in joining.
This caused the popularity of the cult to raise, and although both the religion and cult still wasn’t worthy of big headlines, more information surrounding the both appeared, however the information talked more about the cult than the original religion, so despite the major differences in the beliefs, the cult was the one that came to mind whenever someone thought of the Followers of the Six-Eyed Goats.
mutated polio
The virus does not have a cure, and the normal cure for the normal version of polio has not worked. The mutated polio’s key difference is the increased intensity of the fevers and flu-like symptoms of infected lifeforms, and can be seen a few hours after the disease is contracted. The paralysis caused by polio also affects the muscles that help people breathe much more often than normal polio did, so those who get paralyzed by it are at a higher risk to die.
This version of polio is spread like the normal version; through contaminated food and water, however it has also been reported that sparrows (and sparrows only because this is literally only a plot device) can also be carriers of the disease.
This version of polio is spread like the normal version; through contaminated food and water, however it has also been reported that sparrows (and sparrows only because this is literally only a plot device) can also be carriers of the disease.
Government Operations
1 - Bordering Western and Central Pennsylvania - Government borders in areas affected by the polio, and sets people with polio vaccines on guard around the borders of Pennsylvania. They are equipped with riot armor and automatic rifles and are tasked to keep people from coming in or out. Military trucks would occasionally go back and forth with supplies and restocks. - Action was taken to keep disease away from neighboring states. Plan was to keep the people inside the affected areas of Pennsylvania until cure was available. People outside of the affected areas of Pennsylvania were told about the return of polio, but not the severity of it. Almost all of the news channels reported about the closure of the borders.
2 - B for Bomb - When the center for the cure was destroyed, the government moved
onto plan B, which pretty much just goes like, “Fuck it, we’re bringing in the bombs.” Local stations were convinced to lie to people about a rescue operation in order to get the unaffected people out of there (not entirely wrong since they technically do leave the area albeit through death). After the bombs (not atomic) were dropped, they sent a few squads to go through the rubble and off the remaining people. They are also going to lie to everyone outside that someone else bombed it, and they’re sending a squad to search through and check for survivors - Action taken because they just wanted to do it.
Check the money and repercussions of this action, there are so many better options both in efficiency and cost.
Government Thoughts on Operation 2
Pros:
Cons:
2 - B for Bomb - When the center for the cure was destroyed, the government moved
onto plan B, which pretty much just goes like, “Fuck it, we’re bringing in the bombs.” Local stations were convinced to lie to people about a rescue operation in order to get the unaffected people out of there (not entirely wrong since they technically do leave the area albeit through death). After the bombs (not atomic) were dropped, they sent a few squads to go through the rubble and off the remaining people. They are also going to lie to everyone outside that someone else bombed it, and they’re sending a squad to search through and check for survivors - Action taken because they just wanted to do it.
Check the money and repercussions of this action, there are so many better options both in efficiency and cost.
Government Thoughts on Operation 2
Pros:
- Possibility to eradicate disease and rebuild from there
- No need to think about the science behind the disease anymore lol
- Billiam Johnson lives in that zone and the president hates him so hah
Cons:
- People have families and lives (nah screw them)
- Unsure whether or not the disease is actually gone
- Damage to property
- Loss of multiple Taco Bells
- Loss of multiple Taco Bells
- Loss of multiple Taco Bells
- Loss of multiple Taco Bells