And Then There Was One

Chapter 1: Shit

I was eating dinner with my family when the news reporter on TV had said, "This just in: the CDC has just announced that they have accidentally released a chemical compound into the air. They believe it's harmless to humans, but you should take precautions just in case."

The Internet just blew up with everything from: "The government is stupid and needs to be more careful," to "IT'S GONNA KILL US ALL! Lol," but, nothing happened... at first. People went to school and work as usual. I was in the middle of a class when I had a hot-flash out of know where, my vision went blurry and I felt like I was falling, the last thing I remember was hearing a thud.

I woke up in a hospital connected to some monitoring machines. "Have a nice nap?" Said my older brother Jacob. The clock said 8:30, had I really been out for twelve hours? "How long was I out?" I asked. "Two weeks. Your heart stopped four times," he responded. "WHAT!?!?" Within seconds of my shout nurses were in my room, they seemed a little shocked I had enough energy to speak, much less sit up.

Pretty soon a doctor had come into my room as well to see if I was okay. He looked sweaty and had a very strange tattoos of what looked like blood veins on his neck arms.

"O-okay," the doctor stuttered, "S-so, I-I have s-some good news a-and b-bad news..."

"Are you okay doc?" I interrupted, "You don't look to good,"

"I'm f-fine," he continued, "S-so any ways, the good news is t-that t-there appears to be n-nothing wrong w-with you; h-however, i-it seems that, through s-some phenomenon, the t-tissue in a-and around y-your heart has changed color."

"WHAT?!?!" I shouted. And again a swarm of nurses rushed in to see what was wrong.

The doctor went on, "T-there have been a h-handful of cases around t-the country, b-but no one know how i-it's happening, a-although I suspect i-it has s-something to do with t-that c-chemical t-that was released a f-few w-weeks ago," and with that, the doctor left the room.

Several moments later, I heard a soft thud from outside the room, followed by a loud scream. Since I was stuck in bed Jacob went out to investigate. After a second he leaned back into the room with a bit of a shocked expression on his face. "It's the doc," he said.

The doctor's body was taken away, and about an hour later some men in suits came to inspect the hallway. At this point I remember the photos the doctor gave me and started to look at them. "So what did I miss?" I asked Jacob, while I was still examining the pictures. "Not much, the news has been about the same but there have been some strange deaths lately, people have stopped going to school, and the government has ordered walls built around some of the bigger cities."

I was released from the hospital the next day and was told not to go back to school until Monday, so I used my time to catch up on some of the more important events of the past two weeks. Apparently the deaths, and all of the cases similar to my own, are only in the United States. After I got caught up on the news, I decided to catch up on some of my favorite T.V. shows. But before I could the news program I was watching was interrupted. "Breaking news," said the reporter, "we have just received information from several sources that some of the dead bodies from what can only be the recent chemical breach have somehow come alive and are now walking around cities all over the country. Please remain indoors, and do not panic,"

After a minute or two to react to this, all I could think to say was, "Shit."