I wiggled free from the metal that snagged my pants. Several pairs of legs had surrounded the rusted car. Some jumped on top, others were clawing at the glass. Were they tracking me?
A scream shook the world louder than the rest. One of the creatures had bent down and was gawking at me through blind eyes. The mangled face bellowed another shriek. Dagger-like claws swiped in all directions as it struggled to snag something made of flesh. One claw cut my leg, gashing a few inches of skin near the knee. Blood splashed outwards, and I unwillingly yelped in pain.
A thousand more screams haunted to life, hearing the cry. All I could do was draw in my knee close to my body and wish those creatures away. More and more were crouching down, following the lead of the others.
Tearing at my pants, they managed to rip a few shreds of my sweatshirt. Talons came dangerously close to arties. All the while they screamed in their horrible language, which seemed to keep bringing more and more. At least there was much clearance between the car and the pavement. Though it didn’t halt the onslaught.
One claw caught on my pants and caught the seam just right, dragging me backwards a few inches. I held onto the frame above, even though the hole in the vehicle hugged me snuggly in place.
A scream shouted from above. Looking up, I noticed a large hole in the roof of the sedan. A blackened face glared at me through the hole. Another scream reverberated through the car’s insides, echoing so loudly it shook everything. The hole was only six inches across in the roof, and the creature tore it, trying to widen it.
Another yanked on my denim pants, but I was wedged sorely stuck and failed to budge. I pulled on the opening in the floor, trying to wiggle free of the grip that one of them had. It was safer inside the car at the moment, and with one final pull I freed myself and slipped through, back into the opening.
Sighing a breath of reprieve for a second, I looked through the grim of the windows and saw hordes surrounding the car. How did I get myself here? I thought.
Claws scraped the side of the car. I leaned back, hoping to avoid the grasp above.
A strange feeling came over me. It started in my feet, slowly traveling upwards, and a heat formed in my stomach.
No, not now. Not right now! I thought. This was the worst possible moment for this to happen. But before I knew it, the world died from existence, and I was somewhere else completely.
It wasn’t quite a vision. Nor was it a dream. As I slowly discovered what I was looking at, I began to understand everything I was and this history. I snapped awaked. I was no longer in that car, and no longer in the city’s center. I was far away from everything that I had known for the last two years.
I was standing atop a very tall building, one that could touch clouds if there were any that day. I was somewhere in a very alive town, and I drew in fresh air for what felt like the first time. The city sparkled like a jewel in the shimmering sunlight. Light reflected off the glass of the skyscrapers, bounced off the river that ran just to the north, and even though it was hot, it was comfortable.
To the left was the Bear’s stadium, Soldier Field. A game would have been played this afternoon, if they weren’t out of town this weekend. I didn’t care much for the sport. A shimmering Lake Michigan lapped against the shore. But the beauty was fading because what was happening, what had happened, was going to take over this city quickly, and most likely the rest of the United States. It might even spread and become a pandemic. There wasn’t a way to stop it or cure it. That’s why I was going to jump, to end it right here and right now.
My right foot flung out into the air, but I kept my eyesight straight up, watching the clear sky above. I let my foot hang there, allowing gravity to do its work, pulling me down. For some reason I feared the fall. Just human instinct I guess. Not wanting to die, and being afraid of what’s to come.
It wasn’t even the fall that would kill me. It was the ground coming up. Yet the fall, it kept me grounded. Shaking with tension, I tried to keep my breaths shallow. My heartbeat thundered in my chest, and I was truly scared of all of this. Stumbling backwards, I fell on my ass.
“Damn you,” I said out loud. “God damn you…”
I looked back at the sky and wondered just how many would survive the initial attack. It had started weeks ago. The percentage of patients who survived the virus was nearly point zero-one percent in trials. Though that was in controlled areas, with the best medicine and tools, the best people watching over them. Now, hell, the ones surviving were doing so on their own terms. Any type of medicine wasn’t helping in the least.
“It wasn’t my fault. It’s not my fault, it can’t be. I tried… God knows I tried!” I shouted at the sky.
But then again, the blame rested completely, squarely, on my shoulders. This would affect everyone here, and it would spread, quickly and silently outward. The spread might only take a few weeks for Chicago to be fully covered, less than a few months to expand to the borders of the region. In six months it could cover all of this continent. Knowing how the virus could manifest, it might touch the borders of Europe, Asia, and Africa by year’s end.
“Your father told me you were up here. Come on, the last of us are going to the bunker in South Carolina,” a voice appeared behind me. I looked back and saw a man, really just a boy, staring back at me.
“You should go, Phillips. The gestation period suggests that it isn’t safe here anymore,” I said, lingering back out into the world.
“I’m immune,” Phillips replied.
“I know that. But given the news reports it’s total chaos down there. There’s panic. Riots. And lots and lots of dead people.”
“Oh,” Phillips sighed.
I looked back at him. He was the first tested patient to survive the trial. Also, my lead researcher on the case. He’d volunteered and somehow lived with the virus, the disease dormant but not causing the same effects as it did to everyone else.
“Well, let’s go!” Phillips was slightly on edge. Though he’d survived the virus, I knew he wasn’t too keen to the idea of it floating around in his veins, sleeping. We had never seen anything like it before.
“Can’t do that,” I said with a sigh. Even though I yearned to jump, it wasn’t quite what I had in mind.
“Yeah you can. The chopper is waiting. The whole science team is waiting for us at the lab.”
“The five thousand effect,” the words echoed inside my head. It was a term I’d adopted. The idea was complex enough but it tested well. There was a station in South Carolina, Florida, Texas, and California, and the one that Phillips wanted me to travel to had been finished first. It was just about to be launched.
“Exactly,” Phillips replied.
“It’s right here too,” I whispered. The installation was being built below ground.
“It’s taking too long. It won’t be ready. But the one in South Carolina is all set!” Phillips cried.
“It started here. I’ll finish it here…”
“But we don’t even know if you’re immune.” Phillips moved forward, coming to face me nose to nose. He was only eighteen, but a complete genius. I trusted his logic, more than most. His strangely blue eyes radiated against the sunlight.