March 22nd 2002, a small lab on the outskirts of Vladivostok, Russia, Yuri, one of the junior lab techs at the Russian national immunology research laboratories is searching for a sample of Smallpox numbered XVI for destruction. Searching through the vials of diseases now declared extinct he discovers the correct vial, however as he picks it out of the storage area the vial slips slightly and it bangs into the edge of the shelf on which it had been stored. Within 3 days Yuri is dead. Total deaths from the epidemic are over 5 billion.