Short Original Story: Epidemic
Title: Epidemic
Summery: Two friends find themselves in a bit of trouble after a virus to eliminate a forest pest was released.
Rating PG-13
It was mankind's most fatal mistake. Others would call what happened that year a fluke; a freak accident. They had been testing a virus that would supposedly kill soft-flies, an insect that nested in and fed on the soft wood trees that supplies paper making companies. It was becoming quite a large problem on the western coast of Newfoundland, where many large companies depended on the forest to supply wood for their operations. The situation had become desperately bad, and the industry could see only one solution: use the virus.
It is unfortunate that they couldn't see what would happen, that they couldn’t see the evil they would release into the world. It was unfortunate still that they hadn’t known that the virus had mutated into a grotesque disease, a disease that would not only affect the pesky soft-flies, but humans as well. But they couldn't see and they didn't know and the next day they released the virus into the western Newfoundland forest.
I remember that night well. I was visiting a friend in Corner Brook that week, a beautiful and scenic town of the western coast. My friend, of course, decided that we should go hiking, and informed me that he knew the most amazing spot. He insisted that we take the longer trail, the scenic route, saying that although it would take us more time, it was the most beautiful hiking trail in the area.
How could we have known at the time that the area was to be where they released the virus? There had been no press coverage and no warnings, only brief mentions of some political debate over the use of an unknown virus from and its possible effects on the human population. There hadn’t even been a blockade on the trail to keep hikers away. If only there had been some way to have known…
"Damian, what… What is that?" I asked, pointing to a grey-white mist that had enveloped the sky.
"I don't know." He confessed in bewilderment. "It looks like some sort of pest control. But they’re not supposed to release anything for months! And never in this area! I mean, I’ve heard something about some new virus, but… I mean, they would never. It… they wouldn’t…"
As I continued to look at the cloud, it appeared to come alive, and more so with every passing second. It took me a few minutes to realize that the cloud was headed this way, careening back and forth as if in search of prey. I didn't know what that virus, if indeed that's what it was, could do to a human, nor did I want to find out.
"Uh, Damian, I think we should leave." I whispered, starting to get uneasy. I hadn’t felt this way since I was a small child.
"Yeah. Let's get the hell out of here, Ally." We turned and started walking briskly back down the trail that lead home. I risked a backward glance as we hurried along the path and instantly regretted it. The cloud was right behind us.
"Run!" I shouted needlessly, knowing even as I said it that we could never hope to outrun it. Still we tried, our feet pounding the ground beneath us and our hearts beating furiously in our chests. It was too late though - much too late. I felt the cloud overtake me, knocking me to the ground and burning my body everywhere it touched. I glanced at Damian and saw that he too had fallen to the grey-white mass. As we panted, our lungs gasping for air, the virus entered our bodies, scorching our throats and scratching at our lungs as it sought to infect us. Fire burned through our limbs, causing our fingers and toes to clench in pain and fear, nails digging into the palms of our hand hard enough to make them bleed.
Eventually the pain subsided. Cautiously, I raised my head and glanced around me, grimacing when sore muscles protested the movement. I was surprised that I was even alive. Surely, something that had caused that much pain would have killed me. I realized that the virus cloud, or… whatever the hell that thing was, had moved on. But… something was different.
At first I couldn't quite place it. Everything still looked the same, more or less, save for the light coating of white dust that lay over everything. But there was just… something out of place. And then it hit me. I don't know how I knew - maybe it was the same way I could hear every sound echoed around me, or the way I could see every detail of every leaf of the trees that surrounding me, but I knew. I didn't have a heart beat. That familiar thumping that belonged in my chest was missing.
"Damian." I tried to say, but couldn't. I was puzzled. My throat felt fine, like nothing should be wrong with it, yet I couldn't speak. I began to panic as I soon realized that I wasn't breathing. I inhaled sharply, wincing as my I pulled the air around me into my collapsed lungs, and was relieved to find that I could still breathe. I tried my voice again.
"Damian?" It worked. "Are you okay?"
"Except for the fact that I have no pulse and apparently don't need to breathe? Yeah, I'm fine. Jesus, what the hell happened?" As if I knew. Right now, I only cared that Damian was okay. It would have been unbearable to be left alone out here in this still unfamiliar place. I leaned over and hugged him hard, surprising myself when I heard his bones creak beneath his skin.
"I'm so glad you're alright. I… don’t think that I could have handled this alone." I told him as I loosened my grip. Damian had been a very close friend of mine before he had moved away. Even after he had gone, I had kept in contact with him and kept our friendship strong. “And… I don’t think I could have handled it if you had died.” Although… without a heart beat, wasn’t one technically… dead?
"Come on, we should go." He replied, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment. "I'm… I’m glad you're okay too, Ally." He whispered. If it hadn't been for my recently acute hearing, I don’t think I would have heard him at all.
It was strange, really. Our lives had just taken a drastic turn and we said almost nothing about it. I guess shock does that to a person, makes them feel as if they’re observing themselves from outside. Nervously, I bit my lip, surprised when my teeth cut through, leaving glistening red drops behind.
"Something wrong, Ally?" My friend asked.
"I, er, bit my lip." I replied in embarrassment. “I guess I didn’t realize how hard I was biting. I… it’s just that… well, I’m a bit stressed.”
"Here, let me see." Damian leaned in close, only inches from my face. I felt my face flame red as I blushed in embarrassment. I was about to tell him that I was fine when he darted closer and licked the droplets of blood from my mouth.
"Damian!" I cried as I shoved him back. “God! What are you doing? That’s… eughh… I think the chemicals from that cloud are definitely messing with your brain. Sheesh, that was my bl…” I trailed off as I seen the horror blossom in Damian’s eyes, heard his breathing, needless though it was now, becoming rapid
“Oh, Ally, I’m so sorry! It’s just… it just smelled so good, so sweet!” he paused a moment, disgust at what he had said clouding his feature. “I couldn’t help it. Something took over and… I just... wanted to taste.” His eyes clouded over and he turned his cheek to me, but not before I glimpsed the lingering lust captured in his now golden eyes.
I was about to reply to him when I felt this awful sensation come over me. It was as if something were gnawing at my insides, trying to claw its way up from my chest, trying to tell me what it wanted, what it needed. I could smell something now; something sweet and tantalizing and oh-so-delicious. My heightened senses told me that it was coming from the path ahead of us.
A quick look at Damian told me that he was sharing the same experience. "Ally? You feel that too, don’t you?" Damian asked me. "Oh God. This can't be right." So he felt it too, the hunger...the need. "I smell them." Those were the only words the boy could get out of his mouth before the hunger took him. He gave me one final look before taking off. He paused only a moment to turn his head toward me, catching me with those fierce golden eyes, silently calling me to join him. I followed him without a second thought, some newly ingrained instinct taking over and driving me forward to our new prey.
Finally we came upon them, baring our teeth snarling as we recognized the Raven Industries scientists. These were the monsters that had created the virus that had mutated our bodies, had changed us into these monsters that craved the life of what we had once been. It infuriated me, seeing them in their white suits, safe from the virus that would infect them, that would make them one of us. The hunger that had led us to them was only infuriated by my rage. I wondered briefly if they even had the slightest clue of what they had created, what they had engineered. Well, it hardly mattered. They would know soon enough, would come to realize first hand what it was they had done.
The foolish men had yet to notice us. For all their genius, they were pathetically stupid and unaware. Damian edged silently beside one of the white suits while I closed in on the other. Quickly, I yanked his plastic helmet off his head and spun him to face me.
"You did this." I said, my eyes glowing golden. "You want to see what you've done? What you’ve created? I'll show you." I hissed menacingly in his ear. I shoved his head roughly to the side and sank sharp teeth deeply into the muscle beneath his skin. I quickly labored at the wound, forcing the scientist’s sweet life into my mouth with every pull. The man whimpered in pain, unable to move from the iron grip I held him in. After a too short time, the man’s whimpers quieted and his body sagged in my arms. Disgusted, I let the body drop to the gravel beneath my feet.
My hunger, satiated, faded and I slowly became myself again. As my thought processes returned to normal, I was horrified at what I had done; what I had become. As I looked at Damian and the other dead scientist, I noticed the despair in my friend’s eyes, echoing, I was sure, the despair in my own. I made my way over to him and wrapped my arms around him, squeezing him tight.
"I...I killed him, Ally." He seemed disturbed by that fact, and no wonder. "My God, I'm a murderer. But…" He paused, looking at me. I nodded for him to continue. “I don’t… I don’t feel guilty. I… can’t! They got what they deserved! How many other people have suffered through this? How many others are going through the same crap we are now?” He was howling now, pouring out his frustrations into wordless fury.
I rubbed my fingers down his arm, soothing him, and began whispering quietly in his ear. “Oh, my sweet Damian. They will pay, don’t worry. We will make them pay. They will know suffering. They will know pain! We will take from them all that they value; all that own. They will pay dearly.”
And so it was that we were released upon the world. We found that, if we wished, we could spread the virus to others. We could spread the disease that had been inflicted upon us through the smallest scratch or bite. And so we began to spread across the world, taking our vengeance on those that had harmed us, and those who thought they could hunt us. It won’t be long now until our vengeance is complete.
Summery: Two friends find themselves in a bit of trouble after a virus to eliminate a forest pest was released.
Rating PG-13
It was mankind's most fatal mistake. Others would call what happened that year a fluke; a freak accident. They had been testing a virus that would supposedly kill soft-flies, an insect that nested in and fed on the soft wood trees that supplies paper making companies. It was becoming quite a large problem on the western coast of Newfoundland, where many large companies depended on the forest to supply wood for their operations. The situation had become desperately bad, and the industry could see only one solution: use the virus.
It is unfortunate that they couldn't see what would happen, that they couldn’t see the evil they would release into the world. It was unfortunate still that they hadn’t known that the virus had mutated into a grotesque disease, a disease that would not only affect the pesky soft-flies, but humans as well. But they couldn't see and they didn't know and the next day they released the virus into the western Newfoundland forest.
I remember that night well. I was visiting a friend in Corner Brook that week, a beautiful and scenic town of the western coast. My friend, of course, decided that we should go hiking, and informed me that he knew the most amazing spot. He insisted that we take the longer trail, the scenic route, saying that although it would take us more time, it was the most beautiful hiking trail in the area.
How could we have known at the time that the area was to be where they released the virus? There had been no press coverage and no warnings, only brief mentions of some political debate over the use of an unknown virus from and its possible effects on the human population. There hadn’t even been a blockade on the trail to keep hikers away. If only there had been some way to have known…
"Damian, what… What is that?" I asked, pointing to a grey-white mist that had enveloped the sky.
"I don't know." He confessed in bewilderment. "It looks like some sort of pest control. But they’re not supposed to release anything for months! And never in this area! I mean, I’ve heard something about some new virus, but… I mean, they would never. It… they wouldn’t…"
As I continued to look at the cloud, it appeared to come alive, and more so with every passing second. It took me a few minutes to realize that the cloud was headed this way, careening back and forth as if in search of prey. I didn't know what that virus, if indeed that's what it was, could do to a human, nor did I want to find out.
"Uh, Damian, I think we should leave." I whispered, starting to get uneasy. I hadn’t felt this way since I was a small child.
"Yeah. Let's get the hell out of here, Ally." We turned and started walking briskly back down the trail that lead home. I risked a backward glance as we hurried along the path and instantly regretted it. The cloud was right behind us.
"Run!" I shouted needlessly, knowing even as I said it that we could never hope to outrun it. Still we tried, our feet pounding the ground beneath us and our hearts beating furiously in our chests. It was too late though - much too late. I felt the cloud overtake me, knocking me to the ground and burning my body everywhere it touched. I glanced at Damian and saw that he too had fallen to the grey-white mass. As we panted, our lungs gasping for air, the virus entered our bodies, scorching our throats and scratching at our lungs as it sought to infect us. Fire burned through our limbs, causing our fingers and toes to clench in pain and fear, nails digging into the palms of our hand hard enough to make them bleed.
Eventually the pain subsided. Cautiously, I raised my head and glanced around me, grimacing when sore muscles protested the movement. I was surprised that I was even alive. Surely, something that had caused that much pain would have killed me. I realized that the virus cloud, or… whatever the hell that thing was, had moved on. But… something was different.
At first I couldn't quite place it. Everything still looked the same, more or less, save for the light coating of white dust that lay over everything. But there was just… something out of place. And then it hit me. I don't know how I knew - maybe it was the same way I could hear every sound echoed around me, or the way I could see every detail of every leaf of the trees that surrounding me, but I knew. I didn't have a heart beat. That familiar thumping that belonged in my chest was missing.
"Damian." I tried to say, but couldn't. I was puzzled. My throat felt fine, like nothing should be wrong with it, yet I couldn't speak. I began to panic as I soon realized that I wasn't breathing. I inhaled sharply, wincing as my I pulled the air around me into my collapsed lungs, and was relieved to find that I could still breathe. I tried my voice again.
"Damian?" It worked. "Are you okay?"
"Except for the fact that I have no pulse and apparently don't need to breathe? Yeah, I'm fine. Jesus, what the hell happened?" As if I knew. Right now, I only cared that Damian was okay. It would have been unbearable to be left alone out here in this still unfamiliar place. I leaned over and hugged him hard, surprising myself when I heard his bones creak beneath his skin.
"I'm so glad you're alright. I… don’t think that I could have handled this alone." I told him as I loosened my grip. Damian had been a very close friend of mine before he had moved away. Even after he had gone, I had kept in contact with him and kept our friendship strong. “And… I don’t think I could have handled it if you had died.” Although… without a heart beat, wasn’t one technically… dead?
"Come on, we should go." He replied, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment. "I'm… I’m glad you're okay too, Ally." He whispered. If it hadn't been for my recently acute hearing, I don’t think I would have heard him at all.
It was strange, really. Our lives had just taken a drastic turn and we said almost nothing about it. I guess shock does that to a person, makes them feel as if they’re observing themselves from outside. Nervously, I bit my lip, surprised when my teeth cut through, leaving glistening red drops behind.
"Something wrong, Ally?" My friend asked.
"I, er, bit my lip." I replied in embarrassment. “I guess I didn’t realize how hard I was biting. I… it’s just that… well, I’m a bit stressed.”
"Here, let me see." Damian leaned in close, only inches from my face. I felt my face flame red as I blushed in embarrassment. I was about to tell him that I was fine when he darted closer and licked the droplets of blood from my mouth.
"Damian!" I cried as I shoved him back. “God! What are you doing? That’s… eughh… I think the chemicals from that cloud are definitely messing with your brain. Sheesh, that was my bl…” I trailed off as I seen the horror blossom in Damian’s eyes, heard his breathing, needless though it was now, becoming rapid
“Oh, Ally, I’m so sorry! It’s just… it just smelled so good, so sweet!” he paused a moment, disgust at what he had said clouding his feature. “I couldn’t help it. Something took over and… I just... wanted to taste.” His eyes clouded over and he turned his cheek to me, but not before I glimpsed the lingering lust captured in his now golden eyes.
I was about to reply to him when I felt this awful sensation come over me. It was as if something were gnawing at my insides, trying to claw its way up from my chest, trying to tell me what it wanted, what it needed. I could smell something now; something sweet and tantalizing and oh-so-delicious. My heightened senses told me that it was coming from the path ahead of us.
A quick look at Damian told me that he was sharing the same experience. "Ally? You feel that too, don’t you?" Damian asked me. "Oh God. This can't be right." So he felt it too, the hunger...the need. "I smell them." Those were the only words the boy could get out of his mouth before the hunger took him. He gave me one final look before taking off. He paused only a moment to turn his head toward me, catching me with those fierce golden eyes, silently calling me to join him. I followed him without a second thought, some newly ingrained instinct taking over and driving me forward to our new prey.
Finally we came upon them, baring our teeth snarling as we recognized the Raven Industries scientists. These were the monsters that had created the virus that had mutated our bodies, had changed us into these monsters that craved the life of what we had once been. It infuriated me, seeing them in their white suits, safe from the virus that would infect them, that would make them one of us. The hunger that had led us to them was only infuriated by my rage. I wondered briefly if they even had the slightest clue of what they had created, what they had engineered. Well, it hardly mattered. They would know soon enough, would come to realize first hand what it was they had done.
The foolish men had yet to notice us. For all their genius, they were pathetically stupid and unaware. Damian edged silently beside one of the white suits while I closed in on the other. Quickly, I yanked his plastic helmet off his head and spun him to face me.
"You did this." I said, my eyes glowing golden. "You want to see what you've done? What you’ve created? I'll show you." I hissed menacingly in his ear. I shoved his head roughly to the side and sank sharp teeth deeply into the muscle beneath his skin. I quickly labored at the wound, forcing the scientist’s sweet life into my mouth with every pull. The man whimpered in pain, unable to move from the iron grip I held him in. After a too short time, the man’s whimpers quieted and his body sagged in my arms. Disgusted, I let the body drop to the gravel beneath my feet.
My hunger, satiated, faded and I slowly became myself again. As my thought processes returned to normal, I was horrified at what I had done; what I had become. As I looked at Damian and the other dead scientist, I noticed the despair in my friend’s eyes, echoing, I was sure, the despair in my own. I made my way over to him and wrapped my arms around him, squeezing him tight.
"I...I killed him, Ally." He seemed disturbed by that fact, and no wonder. "My God, I'm a murderer. But…" He paused, looking at me. I nodded for him to continue. “I don’t… I don’t feel guilty. I… can’t! They got what they deserved! How many other people have suffered through this? How many others are going through the same crap we are now?” He was howling now, pouring out his frustrations into wordless fury.
I rubbed my fingers down his arm, soothing him, and began whispering quietly in his ear. “Oh, my sweet Damian. They will pay, don’t worry. We will make them pay. They will know suffering. They will know pain! We will take from them all that they value; all that own. They will pay dearly.”
And so it was that we were released upon the world. We found that, if we wished, we could spread the virus to others. We could spread the disease that had been inflicted upon us through the smallest scratch or bite. And so we began to spread across the world, taking our vengeance on those that had harmed us, and those who thought they could hunt us. It won’t be long now until our vengeance is complete.