The End

1

Every time someone tries to explain the end of civilization they always say that it started out as any other day. It's always described like that because that's how it always is like any other day until it is spun into chaos and then nothing is ever the same again. There will never be a normal day again, any one who made it out alive will constantly be looking over their shoulder until they can't survive anymore. Ryan's day started like any other, she practically threw her alarm clock across the room when it started to scream in her ear at six in the morning. She begrudgingly pulled herself out of bed to make herself some much needed coffee. Ryan couldn't survive the day if she didn't have enough coffee.

Just like any other day Ryan sipped her coffee as she got ready for work. Ryan was a doctor at the hospital just a few blocks away from her one bedroom apartment. It was almost like the family business except her father was a veterinarian, he was retired now and had a farm a little ways outside of Atlanta. Ryan couldn't wait for her week to end, she was going to be taking a much needed week off to spend time with her family on their farm where it was quiet and you could no longer hear the sounds of the city.

As soon as she set foot into the ER it was chaos. Ryan raced to get changed and make her way back down into the hustle and bustle of the hospital, she spent all morning stitching patients up for various wounds or running back and forth to the coffee machine. By lunch time she was already wanting to run as fast as she could out of the hospital and back to her bed, but with the amount of patients coming in there was no hope for her to even leave once her shift was over. The day was odd though, there were many patients coming in with odd symptoms. Never had Ryan ever seen this many people come in feeling sick with the same thing, it was like a constant flow of the doctors trying to contain the people that were searching for their expertise.

There were many that they sent away with prescriptions to try and help with their aching bodies and fevers. The ambulances were constantly running around to any hospital that could take someone in. Ryan barely got to sit down before a group of military men started to march their way through the hospital. Some of the staff gathered around whispering to each other about the possibilities on why the military was there. Ryan's friend Steve came up beside her, peeking through the blinds of their break room.

"Got any guesses as to why they're here?" Steve started to rummage through his bag trying to find the granola bar he had thought he grabbed that morning. Ryan shrugged, "Not a clue, maybe one of their team members was injured." She made her way to her locker, grabbed the extra granola bar she packed and tossed it to him. The bar smacked into his chest before falling in his lap, Steve nodded in thanks. Ryan always made sure to pack something extra, Steve always forgot something. Not two minutes went by before a tough looking man came through the door into the break room.

"Alright everybody I need your full and undivided attention." He paused to make sure everyone was paying attention. "We've got a situation going down and we're going to need your full cooperation. As of right now anything you do has to go through me. You are now under a different ownership." Whispers were heard throughout the room. "There's an infection going around and we're going to get ahead of it if it's the last thing we do. Got it?" There was only silence, the tough man took that as confirmation to continue. "Now I need all of you to keep this quiet for now and I need everyone to report anything odd or suspicious to me or any of my men. CDC has come up with some guidelines tha all of you need to follow for all of this to go smoothly and hopefully without a hitch."

He started to hand out packets with the rules they needed to follow. Everyone read through them briefly before the man started to split everyone up into groups. Lucky Ryan and Steve were in the same group along with two other co-workers they got along with. Their group was in charge of triaging everyone who came into the ER depending on their symptoms. Once their shift ended they were to report to the tough man also known as General Jenkins and he would tell them where they could go next. Now that the hospital was being run by the military, everyone that was already in the building when it happened was now quarantined and was not allowed to leave.