Prologue

The beginning of the end was similar to the days before the plague. Major news networks bickering over the seriousness of the new disease. People stocking up on water and canned food, others taking it with a grain of salt, and despite what it ultimately became, in the beginning there wasn't looting or riots directly related to the epidemic.

In fact it wasn't until about half a month into the end that people started to see the truly horrifying truth of what was occurring. By that time, there was nothing anyone could do. Had the threat been taken seriously, with people remaining inside, there might have been a chance to prevent the sheer massiveness of the breakout. Unfortunately, with so many false flags in the past, the majority of people went about their day as usual. Pete Wenbeck was one of those people.

Chapter 1

The office was abnormally empty. Pete could anticipate the firing of all his coworkers who had chosen to stay home instead of doing their fucking job. It's only been 2 weeks since the first reports of a new super flu and yet people treat this nothing of a pandemic like it's the end of the world. If there's one thing I can't stand, is people taking advantage of world events that don't even affect them, just to get out of work, Pete mused. He stopped himself from thinking too much about them, there was work to do. With the beginning of a headache, he got back to filling out paperwork. He found it a little tedious, but that wasn't the point. The point was at the end of the day, when he had completed it all, the inbox was empty and the outbox was full. It gave him a sense of accomplishment, a relief.

At about noon he heard the TV change stations, and his boss, who normally never leaves his office, mutter weakly "g..guys. Come watch". What now? Pete questioned silently, riots? His pen dropped from his desk and rolled underneath as he stood up. Pete became frustrated. It's always something. He got onto his hands and knees to retrieve it, but as he was about to reach, his boss screamed "Pete, get your ass over here." Pete stood back up and silently walked towards the lounge area, as his boss pointed to the TV and maxed the volume.

The violent images briefly confirmed what Pete had figured. Riots. The confirmation only lasted moments as the TV switched to a camera on the ground showing people attacking others, bullets were being fired into a crowd of people, yet they didn't even appear to be injured. A male news anchor started speaking. As you can see, the infected individuals are resistant to pain. The influenza appears to be driving people violently insane. A female anchor cut the previous anchor off and added I am being told we have just gotten hold of a home-made video showing the stages of the sickness. The following footage is extremely graphic, viewer discretion is advised. Dante, Pete's neighboring coworker started to speak before half of the coworkers started shushing him. Pete turned his gaze back towards the TV and was suddenly aware of how unnervingly quiet it was except for the TV.

This is David Gilmen from Durkey, New York, my wife was attacked approximately 30 minutes ago by misses Higsby, a member of our church, I believe she had that flu that I've been seeing on the news. He sounded like he wanted to cry, but was holding it in. The video showed a woman lying on a bed, in a puddle of sweat. To the right, on the nightstand there was a picture of her on her wedding day, on the bottom of the frame the caption David and Rebecca 2005 could be seen. At the head of the bed sat a window, the shades drawn. We were about to leave when misses Higsby leaned through the passenger window and scratched her. I slammed the gas and got outta there, within 10 minutes she started to become pale. It was only a scratch, but it took root fast. The camera started to shake as David struggled with something and the camera appeared to be in his breast pocket now as his arms came into view and lifted up the blankets to show a gash on his wife's right arm. It looked like it had been infected for weeks, the skin was a greenish color. It wasn't this bad when we got home, it was about 2 inches long, less then an eighth of inch across and had a normal skin color. We've been home for 20 minutes. There was an audible wail, followed by a flat She's dead. I left the room for only a minute to settle down my 9 year old baby girl. I haven't told her yet, she's in her room. Behind the view of the camera came a very worried young voice "Told me what?" The camera turned from the woman in the bed as David turned towards his daughter. The camera slid deeper into his pocket and blocked out a small part of the screen on the bottom. There was utter silence for 3 seconds as the girls tears started to well up before she looked behind David, smiled and shouted "Mommy!". The camera turned at the same speed that the daughter ran by, capturing every step into her mothers outstretched arms. As she jumped on the bed to give her a hug, her mother bobbed her head down and bit her daughter on the neck. Blood spurted out like a pulsating sprinkler. The screams from the daughter and father were simultaneous as the camera got closer and Davids left hand came into view and grabbed his daughter while the other punched his wife. David had his daughter in his arms and all you could see was the shoulder of her shirt quickly turning red. A door was slammed shut followed by muffled monstrous shrieks coming from behind. The camera lens getting drops of blood on it. Oh my god, my baby, stay with me. A door creaked and then slammed shut followed by the panicked father laying his daughter on a bed and putting a bed sheet against his daughters neck. The camera followed his arm as he reached for the phone next to the bed and three tones were heard before a busy signal. No no no no no come on no. Three more tones and another busy signal. We have to get you to the hospital honey, ok? David said turning back towards his daughter. He shrieked and through the red tinted camera lens you could see that the bleeding had stopped, and her eyes were glossed over. David picked her up and started hugging her lifeless body. Within seconds a guttural growl was heard and David laid her back on the bed, slowly backing away sobbing. No, please don't. God don't make her like Misses Higsby and Rebecca. His daughter leaped off the bed and started to chase him. He ran down a hallway and opened up the door on the far end, the sunlight temporarily blinded his camera sitting in his breast pocket. A loud slam behind him, followed by growls and banging against the door. He made his way to his car and got into the drivers seat. The final image was that of his steering as he hunched over it crying.

The TV cut back to the two now ghost white news anchors who were having trouble collecting themselves before the male anchor stated "The video continues for another 20 minutes until Mr. Gilmen remembers his camera. We give our deepest sympathy to Mr. Gilmen in this time of tragedy."

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Screamed Dante. This time, nobody shushed him.