They all shot to their feet and rushed into the living room, jumping on the huge sofa as if the floor was liquid lava. Logan grabbed the remote like it was a lifeline and turned on the television, their only open window with a view to the outside world.
He zapped through the channels in a hurry, his fingers fumbling over the buttons of the remote.
"Wait. Go back." Carter gestured with his hand, a truly nerve-racking move.
Logan obeyed, and the same robotic-like voice Maddy had listened to on the news the previous morning filled the living room. "There seem to be many rebellious teenagers around the world who refuse to get vaccinated..."
"Turn the volume up, Logs," ordered Mia, biting her manicured nails.
"... Harper Max to speak with us." A slim, gorgeous woman with golden brown hair appeared on the screen, wearing an elegant costume.
"That's..." the words wouldn't come out of Maddy's mouth.
"... the assistant director of FROST. The woman who wants to speak to our parents," Carter completed her sentence.
"Listen, they're interviewing her." Sia leaned closer to the TV.
"Investigation is still ongoing, as I said," said the woman, Harper Max. "We haven't stopped conducting researches and examining the symptoms of the virus. You must already know that the symptoms of the new disease are generally mild during the first stage of infection. A sore throat, a blocked or runny nose, a raised temperature, headaches, coughs, sneezing... That's why it is so hard to distinguish between a simple cold and the virus, and that's why we've said before that it is an extremely sneaky virus. But the second stage of infection is a different story. In the second stage, the real symptoms start showing. The host's limbs begin to numb from the sudden drop in their body temperature, their skin breaks out in a rash, there's frostbites and burns on their complexion similar to those caused by ice cubes for example, they start spitting blood and so on. The third stage is fatal. It's the stage when the host's blood starts freezing. We're carrying out various experiments in search of a cure, but for now we'll have to settle down for the vaccine."
"Yeah, anything new? They're literally repeating the same things over and over again for months now," groaned Mia, looking frustrated.
It was true. Ever since the outbreak of the virus, there had been little progress made regarding the collected data about the new disease.
And that left people repeating the same things over and over again.
Maddy remembered the first days after the escape of the virus from the laboratory in London. Those days seemed so distant now, yet also so near, like it was just yesterday. Those days were days of darkness, days of mourning, days dressed in funeral black.
YOU ARE READING
Smells Like Winter
Science Fiction"Don't touch me, your hands are cold." Maddy Wesley was your typical 17-year-old high school student, a wallflower with excellent grades, a good taste for vanilla ice cream and a normal, somewhat dull life. Until a virus broke out. A virus that brou...
