Zombie: Philippines - Bulacan (Under Revision [SLOW])

The Package

"I still think it's bullshit." Lucas Mercado muttering to himself as he types away an article for his blog.

The article's title was "Is the City of Biringan real?".
Attached to the article is a drawing that he himself drew from scratch, based on statements made by those who lived to tell the tale of the fabled city.
The old tales or weird ones excites him, the thrill of the unknown makes him feel alive but there's always a shadow of doubt within him.

It's always like this for him, voices clouds his thinking space. One side provides a logical point of reasoning, while the other points out the flaws. He usually talks to himself, those who doesn't really know him would probably think he's not quite right in the head.

20-years old, fresh out-of-school and currently self-employed, Lucas runs an online blog which features mostly local unusual news, or anything that he can get his hands on. Never political or whatsoever.

"Hmm.. have I missed something?" Lucas said. He quickly scanned the article he wrote, looking for grammatical errors or what-not, and found none. He proceeded to publish it, waited a few seconds before hitting 'Refresh' on his browser.

The ticker on his blog quickly changed to '545 Views'. 

"That should keep them busy," Lucas said to himself, as he refills his cup of coffee. He switched tabs on his browser to check his email and the news. Found nothing that seems interesting to him, he opened another tab to go on Facebook.

He had 5 messages; 3 from his friend, the other 2 were from individuals he doesn't recognize. He decided to check the suspicious messages first.

Someone named Bret Tods, left a message that says, "Be Ready for the End. This is not a hoax, please pass this on to your relatives, classmates, colleagues, or neighbors. There will be a great catastrophe, the government will be covering it up. Open your eyes, and listen carefully once the time comes, Do not let yourselves be slaughtered like Sheep."

"Huh." Lucas left it on 'Seen', he didn't need to bother himself with bullshit chain messages.
He opened the other message, which was sent by someone named Stanley Red, the message is different.

"You have been chosen to be one of the Wolves amongst the Sheep that is people. We've been watching you for quite some time now and we've decided to make our presence known to you."

Lucas was intrigued since the message addressed him personally and it's not one of those plain chain messages but still he left it on 'Seen' but just as he was about to click 'Log Out' - Stanley Red sent another message. "Hello."

"Shit," Lucas said to himself, but he replied. "Hi?"
"Do you accept our invitation?" Stanley replied.

"What invitation?" Lucas asked, then typed a follow-up question, "Who are you?"

"We are the Wolves of Society, we have been around for decades. We have integrated ourselves into the government, we are everywhere."

"I don't understand." Lucas said. He suspects that this Stanley Red and Bret Tods are throwaways or dummy accounts, a front for some scam. "Look, whoever this is, I'm not interested in joining your cult or club, or whatever you call it."

"There will be a Culling." Stanley replied. "We, the Wolves, will be the ones responsible for it. We will slaughter the sheep, balance out the population and cull the weak and unable."

"Hold on." Lucas began recording his screen as he input his reply, "What are you talking about?"

"There will be an event, a small one for now - to test the waters for what this government will do in response to what we'll execute." Stanley said, "You have our invitation, should you change your mind. Just follow the instructions that we've sent in your email and you'll be truly one of us."

Stanley Red went offline before Lucas could compose a reply. He logged out of his Facebook account and stopped the screen recording. Saved the video file before going to another website to check his email account, and there it was. The subject line was proper and simple: "Welcome to our Pack" it said, "You've got to be kidding." Lucas muttered. The message was sent to his private and non-business email account. He only uses it for job applications or private message between close friends. The sender was gibberish, obviously a throwaway account.

He scanned the email first before opening it, the contents were exactly the same passage as the one that 'Bret Tods' sent him via Facebook, the difference was that there was a link at the bottom part of the message.

Lucas clicked on the link then found himself dumbfounded, it contains an online submission form. "Eh, what the hell." Lucas said.
He filled it out, out of curiosity and clicked 'Submit'. The page refreshed then expired, Lucas went back to his email account and found a new message, again from the same account as the first one. The subject line was: "Track Package", and the body of the said message contained the tracking number and the courier's website, and a passage at the very end - "Your package has already been paid for, all that's left is for you to decided whether to accept it or not."

"Huh," Lucas said. "Oh, well, free stuff for me then."
He continued to browse the internet to absorb some more recent news before hitting the sack by midnight.

The package arrived the next day at exactly 10 AM, Lucas received it from the courier, it was a medium-sized box, not heavy nor light. He got his box cutter to open the package, the contents further ignited his curiosity. The box contained several things: an injection gun, a set of vials with numbers on them, a notebook and a pen.

There were several notes written in the notepad: Page 1 was, "Do not redistribute or try to replicate. Vials are good for 7 trials, complete trials for full effect. Inject at least an hour after breakfast." There was also a fine print which urged Lucas to log any discomfort or side effects he experiences during his trials and send it to an email that was also written in the notepad. The written notes goes halfway through the notebook.

The vials were numbered, 01 up to 07 and the liquid contents were also different in color.

Lucas loaded the injection gun with the first vial and used it on himself. "I'm going to Dizzyland." he said to himself before he passed out.