The Procedure: A Novel

The Procedure: A Novel

By Jesse Calvert


~Extra~
This is the stories of three people who teach themselves to survive in the midst of an apocalyptic outbreak.
31-year-old Doctor Kevin Mitchell, a well-paid scientist who studies human behavior at the university of Montana, believes that the upcoming apocalypse is an impossible act. He has a wife and one son, who turned nine over the summer.
Maya Rodriguez, a sophomore student, who babysits and has three older sisters and lives with her grandmother in San Diego, California
Parker Jones, a 15-year-old boy in 10th grade. He has prepared for the doomsday as much as possible. He lives in the state of Oregon.
It is September 22nd, 2015. At the moment it is 4:41 a.m. in the state of California.

Chapter One::
Maya woke up from her dream. She felt sweat under her arm pits. In the dream, Sydney was running down the sidewalk and began sinking. Maya tried to help her escape, but she was trapped in the cement also. The crusty surface scraped her, and everyone around her began sinking, maintaining the exact position they were in before. Some were smiling, in the midst of running. Some were just standing She woke up just when the light disappeared.
Now she sat in her bed, looking around. Maya's sister (the only one who still lives in her house), Airely, turned over in her sleep, revealing the scars on her back, hidden by her thick bra strap. Maya remembered the day their father came home drunk. He sent her mother to suicide, beat the kids, and the whole time he had no idea. Since the Rodriguez family lived in Mexico then, they couldn't do anything about it. Luckily, three months later, Maya's father overdosed on cocaine. It was the day they visited their grandmother's home, and she allowed the kids to stay with her. Maya did not go to her dad's funeral. Only Sydney did.
A month later, Maya was in middle school in San Diego. She was a seventh grader. Now she is a sophomore. She would have to go to school in two hours. To go and dread learning and talking and writing. She hated school, but at home she felt good. She babysat, instead of socializing.
Maya didn't have many friends. Besides Airely, who is a senior, Maya only had only two friends. Christopher and Katie. Christopher lived next door. Everyone knew he had a mad crush on Katie. They dated once, and ever since, Chris has never stopped liking her.
Maya became thirsty so she went for water. She carefully opened the creaky door, the one that often woke her grandmother. After traveling down the hallway, she looked around the dining room. Things were out of place. The light was on, but dimmed, and a chair was pulled out. An empty plate with crumbs sat in front of it. It was probably grandmother.
But grandmother was a perfectionist. She can't stand the chairs not pushed in and always puts away her dishes.
Maya continued to the kitchen. The fridge was opened, another thing that she would only see once in a lifetime. This couldn't have been her grandmother. Maya did recall a commotion while she had been sleeping, but none of this is near possible.
Maya hears a groan coming from the family room while she pours her glass of water, which means grandmother is probably awake.
"Good morning!" Maya yells quietly. Another groan is heard while she sips.
She becomes confused, her steps are heavy. Maya sets down the drink, reaching for the knives that sits next to the toaster. She grabs the largest one.
The footsteps sound even louder than before; someone that Maya doesn't know walks in, sloppily and uncoordinated. She frowns, and looks at his face. He seems bloodied and bruised.
"Um..." Maya exclaims, "Who are you?"
The man screams, showing his dirty teeth, and runs at her. Maya screams and ducks. The man trips over her. Turning her head, Maya realizes that the man is fine. He stands up, takes a clumsy step, and is back at Maya. She attempts to dodge his first attack and takes a swing with her blade. Fortunately the man is too dazed to hit me. But the kitchen knife doesn't connect with anything except a wall. She easily pulls it out and looks for the man. She finds him face down on the floor. He seems dead, but he obviously isn't. Gulping down her intimate fear, Maya crouches behind the fridge, her knife ready in her left palm. The man stands up, looking around. He is not facing Maya's direction. Silence settles in the room. It seems as if the man had completely forgotten about his deadly brawl he just began. And judging by the fall he had just taken, it may have slipped out of his mind. Maya knows what she has to do. This man is a threat.
she runs at him and jumps onto him, digging the blade into his skull with all force. Struggling to take it out, Maya hesitates. What if he kills her? Finally, the knife gives. Maya wants to stop. She wants to run to Airely and cry. But instead she digs the knife back into his body. Into his Adam's apple.
The man is no longer moving. Maya stands up. She has never endured an attack. She has never witnessed anyone trying to hurt anyone, besides her father. But this man that she only knew for two minutes, that she greeted through frightened shouts.
This man was not human. Or he didn't seem like it.
Maya ran to her grandmother's room. The first thing she saw was a small figure on the floor, with a gaping wound.
"Mama!" Maya screamed. As she got nearer, she saw that it was a lot more than just a wound in her side. Her grandmother's arm was almost completely off. Bone showing. Blood poured out of her head. This man ate her.
Maya breathed in and out. She cried, weeped over her grandmother's corpse. She needed to tell Airely.
As she ran, she passed the man's body. She also put some things together.
The man was crazed, uncoordinated, and definitely not human.
His mother was eaten. The man was barbaric. A sick cannibal.
He was infected.
The man was a zombie, something Maya had heard about from insane classmates. She heard that one day they would take over the world.
This is practically impossible. How the hell do people rise from the dead and live? Become undead!?
Maya continued running, seeking Airely's comfort. At the turn in the hallway, she bumped into the closet door. Fell onto the floor.
The closet! Grandmother kept a gun in there. Just in case. This would come in handy.
Maya immediately opened the door, looking behind the coats and boxes. A leather briefcase.
It sat under a blanket, with a lock on it. It had a four number passcode. Grandma's birth year? No. She tries all four of her sibling's birth years. No.
Come on what could it be!?
2008? The year the family came to America?
Yes. Maya opens the large brief case. A gun and a box of ammunition sits on styrofoam. Next to it is a spare key to the car, a box of matches, and a 9 inch knife.
Wow, Maya's grandma really did prepare.
She closes the brief case after taking the gun, without knowing a single thing about fire arms. Maya locks it up and runs to her bedroom.
"Airely! Airely wake up!" I yell. I don't care about her peace.
Right now I care about her safety.