Into The Darkness

Chapter One

I woke up to hearing the television, my dad must have fallen asleep with it on again. He always passes out with it on. I went to the living room to turn it off, but stopped because the news broke in.

"We've got breaking news coming out of Atlanta this morning. A scientist who worked at the CDC has been fired. Scientist Demetrius Abram was fired a week ago upon discovery of documents, emails, and phone calls with a man in China. The emails, documents, and phone calls consisted of Demetrius giving scientists at a facility in China classified information from the CDC itself. The FBI and the head of CDC are scouring the evidence as more information is uncovered. Demetrius Abram is currently in police custody.

"Conspiracy theorists are already saying China has had a hand in making this new virus come to light. We will keep you updated."

There is a virus that popped up out of thin air it seemed, I didn't pay attention to it much at first. But then a few weeks ago the President declared it a pandemic, the first pandemic to be declared since the 2009 Swine Flu. After I saw it was declared a pandemic of course I scoured the internet to research past pandemics and viruses. Yellow fever, Cholera, Scarlet fever, Typhoid fever, Spanish flu, Polio.... The list goes on.

It's only been a short amount of time and the United States is already infested with the virus. People have been dying, the only good thing about it is that it seems to only target the older community and people with a compromised immune system.... It sounds bad, but I thank God that my sisters and I are healthy as can be.I shut the television off, no need to stress over it when there's nothing I can do.

I snuck into the twins room to check on them. Both Suzan and Aubry were still sound asleep in their beds so I went back to my room and got ready to head into town. I quickly got dressed and pulled my long red hair up into a french braid. After I got ready, I went back to the twins room.

"Girls! Wake up!" I shouted, but they didn't budge. "AUBRY! SUZAN! Wake your lazy butts up! We've got stuff to do!"

By noon, we were in the car on the way into town.

When we got to the store, people were frantic and running around everywhere.

"What the heck is going on?" Aubry asked.

The twins haven't been following the news, and I didn't really want to tell them and freak them out. So i shrugged, "No clue, people are crazy."

We hurried inside and grabbed what we needed. I noticed as we walked, the people with carts heaping with canned food, bottled water, basic survival gear. I rolled my eyes at them, they were acting like this virus was the end of damn days.

Still with all the chaos at the store, we were in and out no problem and back home by three o'clock.

"Where the hell have y'all been?" our dad shouted as we walked through the door. Even across the room, I could smell the strong scent of alcohol on his breath.

"We went to get groceries, if you haven't noticed, we've been out for three days now."

Our dad mouthed something I couldn't understand, then went back to his business. He has always been an alcoholic for as long as I can remember. But it got much worse after our mom passed away a few years ago from breast cancer. They were divorced, but for some reason dad could never get over our mother and her death just hit him really hard.

The next morning I woke up to the sound of the television again. I went into the living room to find the girls playing on the floor not even paying attention to the tv. It was on the news and they were talking more about that scientist and the virus.

"We have more breaking news this morning about scientist Demetrius Abram. Last night, still in police custody, Demetrius became very ill. He was thought to have contracted the virus, but when taken to the hospital, he became very aggressive. Much too aggressive for the staff to even test him for the virus. After security wrestled him down to the ground and a doctor got him with a very heavy sedative the staff managed to get him into a bed and tested. The test for the virus Covic-02 was negative. Which is making the staff wonder just what the man was on during his fit of rage. We also have news that the police who had him in custody are now showing signs of sickness.

We just would like to remind you to keep washing your hands, and social distancing from others."

I switched the tv off, there's no telling what was wrong with that man. And I've heard the guidelines for this virus so many times. '

Wash your hands for twenty seconds

Keep at least six feet away from others at all times

If you feel sick, contact your doctor

Don't sneeze or cough into the air

Some people don't even show symptoms, mostly young people are what they are saying. So I could have it and pass it on to someone else without even knowing...

"Hey, do y'all want to go to the creek?" I figure the girls could use some time away from the house and from dad. They were both ready to go in five minutes.

When we got home that evening, our dad was already passed out drunk in his chair. Like most nights. I told the girls to shower and get in bed, while I did the same.

After I made sure my sisters were in bed watching cartoons, I slipped under my covers and got on my phone. I wanted to check on the status of the virus, but when I read the new information I felt sick.

There was a news clip from the World News attached to the article I read so I clicked on it.

"Good evening America, we come to you tonight with some very grim and troubling news. Virus Covic-02 has seemed to mutate within the last 48 hours. The death toll seems to have skyrocketed, raising the death toll by at least a million. The president has issued a lockdown for the entire United States. Stay in your home for your safety. Scientists haven't had much time to examine the mutated virus, but what they have seen and what we here at world news have seen.... It's horrific. An infected person grows aggressive, and will attack you. If you suspect someone in your home is infected, isolate them immediately and call the police. If you feel like you are in danger, get away from the infected person. This is still developing so please stay tuned and please for the love of God... Stay safe..."

The video stopped and I couldn't stop shaking... Was this real? No... it couldn't be, how could something like this really happen? That was something straight from a movie or a book... I decided to google "Virus attack" and a few videos popped up. I clicked on the first one and was horrified.

There was a grainy shaky video of two men, one looked to be covered in blood... maybe even bite marks, but the video was too blurry. But he attacked the other man, lunged at him like he was an animal and tore into him.

This is crazy... is this really happening? I went out into the living room to see if our dad was awake, of course he wasn't. He had an empty whiskey bottle next to him, so he probably wouldn't be awake until noon tomorrow. Maybe this isn't really as bad as the media is making it... I made sure the doors and windows were locked before I went back to bed. I'll figure out what to do in the morning when dad is up and actually sober.