Tales from the Apocalypse

CHAPTER I

The morning was cold, empty and it had a veil of fog that obscured the sleeping streets. At seven fifty in the morning, Scott was about to catch the school bus. He waited, moving back and forth, his breath visible in the air. This weather of late has been annoying for Scott, as he’s always been a summer boy; the winter jackets and hoodies made him feel trapped and uncomfortable.

Not long after arriving at the stop, the bus arrived and he entered it - the same neutral expression on his face, as he said good morning to the driver. He made his way to an empty seat, and leaned against the window that shook on every little bump. Music was blasting through his headphones, his eyes were closed and he was for once at peace despite being on his way to school. 

For a moment, he sat in silence, slowly drifting off. But suddenly, he felt someone lean against him, and then, with no warning, his headphones were ripped from his head.

“Good morning!” 

Shouted Stella, a good friend of Scott’s. She’s always had so much energy in the morning, it’s incomprehensible. He quickly took back his headphones, rolling his eyes at the girl. 

“What’s up with you? Bad morning?”

“Bad life.”

“Jeez, man.”

The blonde murmured her words and crossed her arms, sitting still next to him. They both sat in silence, Scott continued to lean against the window with his eyes closed, and Stella scrolled through her phone. For some reason, the tapping of her nails against the screen perturbed Scott and it made him open his eyes and straighten up on his seat. He didn’t pay any mind to this though, and continued enjoying his music. 

A few minutes go past and they’re about to leave the bus and head to school. They make their way inside, running because of the sudden rain. Stella gave Scott a hug and said her goodbyes for the day. They had classes on opposite sides of school, so it was rare for them to see each other throughout the morning.

“In a bit of a bad mood today, no?”

Scott shrugged, not responding. Stella sighed and gave him another hug to reassure him and walked away from the boy. It was going to be yet another smooth morning for the two of them.

It wasn’t a very smooth but filled with work morning for Scott’s mother, Katherine. She worked at a science laboratory in London that conducted experiments on death row inmates. She was given another project to pile up on her other works yet to complete. This work was rather interesting, though. She was given a sample of a microscopic creature frozen in the permafrost of Antarctica. Without any crazy expectations, she went on to examine and study it. 

Hours had passed by, and Katherine was still examining the creature. The morning had gone by fairly quickly for Scott and it was already time for him to head home. He only had school during the morning on wednesdays. 

When he got home, he made his way to his room and laid in bed, resting for a minute. He spent that time on his phone, texting his friends and checking social media. Way more than a minute had passed and he had fallen into a deep sleep for the rest of the day.

A couple minutes turned into late afternoon, and his mother Katherine continued her work at the laboratory. The microscopic creature from the Antarctic permafrost had piqued her curiosity. It was a unique project, and she was determined to unravel its mysteries. As she continued her examination, she couldn't help but sense that there was something unusual about this specimen. Its structure and behavior seemed unlike anything she had encountered before. Then she noticed something peculiar about the microscopic creature. It seemed to be exhibiting signs of life, despite being preserved in permafrost for who knows how long. The creature's movements were subtle but undeniable. She decided to document her findings and consult with her colleagues about this unexpected development. 

“Carl, I figured it out.”

Katherine spoke as she slammed her notebook on her colleague’s table.

“What?”

“It’s alive.”

She whispered, getting closer to Carl’s face. Her eyes told enough of the way she was feeling right now. 

“I’m sorry, what’s alive?”

Behind her, one of the other colleagues overheard this conversation. His name was Randy, and he specialized in viruses. He stared at the two of them, waiting for an answer. 

“Hey, Randy. I just found out the thing we extracted from the permafrost is alive. I saw it moving.”

“Did you really?”

She nodded, unable to articulate her words any further. Her heart was racing, this wasn’t a common thing to happen, in fact, it never happened before. She took her two colleagues into her laboratory section and they examined the creature together, perplexed by its movements and behavior. They had to notify their superiors about this case. But before Katherine could walk out, Carl got a hold of her arm.

“Katherine, are you sure we should notify them right now? We can do that later, we need to keep studying this thing. We can’t take our eyes off of it.”

Carl spoke, whispering so no one else would hear him. He quickly covered the glass case with some fabric he got on the side. 

“Are you crazy? This has to be reported, we can’t just-”

“Yes, we can. We will report this later. Come on, let’s study it. Please.”

She sighed, and eventually nodded. 

“Fine. But we have to report this today.”

The three colleagues huddled around the glass case containing the mysterious living creature, their curiosity taking over. The implications of such a discovery were staggering, and their desire to understand it was overwhelming. They decided to continue their observations and experiments for the time being, but with the understanding that they would report their findings to their superiors later in the day.

As they observed the creature, they noticed that it exhibited subtle movements, almost as if it were responding to its environment. Randy, with his expertise in viruses, speculated that this could be a unique form of microorganism capable of surviving in the harshest conditions on Earth.

 Hours turned into days, and Katherine and her colleagues worked tirelessly around the clock to find out more about the mysterious creature. This project made Katherine spend most of the week at work, and Scott rarely saw his mother.