The Outbreak of RDS37

Chapter Two: It has started long before

     My parents have always had our family's best interest in mind, when it came to my sister and I, we were always cared for. Even the people around us cared, and they were kind to us. We lived in a small town, a little smile goes a long way here. It was around my freshman year of college. It has been going on for a couple months, tearing the world apart. Another sudden outbreak of RDS burst threw the streets in our small town. From all over the world, somehow this disease managed to travel across the entire world. Just to reach this small town...Raising chaos from neighboring towns started to spread to the bigger cities. We were in danger, my parents had to use the busy streets to get to and from work every day. One day, there was an accident on the road involving some diseased my parents lost their lives in the crash... I was devastated when I heard the news.

     My sister had it taken it to heart, she made a promise to always look after me. She wasn't always like that, she used to just want to party and forget the world around her. Now she has been busting her ass off to keep food on the table, a fire for when it's cold. She's done it all, for my sake, and now I have an opportunity to make things right. Mandy looks me up and down and wipes away her tears, she must have been so worried. Mandy has been someone I've always adored and have been friends with since junior high. She has always been there for me, and luckily was in town when the EMP went off during that faithful summer. Since we went to different schools now I rarely see her. Something seemed off though, she seemed distracted by something I couldn't hear. I can't hear much over this loud ringing in my ear. I can see it, her lips are moving but I can't hear her. I shrug at her and point to my ear and yell how I can't hear her. She goes wide eyes and launches herself on top of me to cover my mouth to stop me from talking. When she sat up she starts signing to me, when did she learn to sign? I thought. "We still have some intruders in the compound, everyone needs to regroup at their designated safe spots."

"We need to leave now" she signed she reached down to extend her hand, I painfully realized why I was in the stretcher. I had pain seize up my left leg, and still had ringing in my ear. Mandy covers my mouth, I don't know why, maybe because I was screaming and I couldn't hear her? She puts her finger up to her lips, begging me to be silent with pleading eyes. Whatever is going on must be urgent for her to be so serious. I know we are in a dangerous situation, so I nod gritting my teeth. As we begin to creep around through the compound, we see a red flare shoot into the sky. Not a good sign, it is in our safety protocol to shoot a red flare when a bunker has been compromised. To only do it if absolutely necessary, because it can sometimes attract unwanted attention. Raiders, again people causing more issues, it is unavoidable to disagree. Some people can co-exist in peace and have a common goal, others tend to hide in the woods in small bands or groups since the collapse of our governments and build forts. Those people tend to be a little more hostile, and when they sense a weakness in their neighbors... it's just like sharks in the ocean when they smell blood in the water.

It is human nature, to want to be greater, and what comes with success comes greed. People who want what you have, simply because they don't have it. Luckily, our nearest townships are friendly. Yet, this attack seems too coordinated to not be a direct attack.. "we must find out who did this." I signed to Mandy. I begin to observe my surroundings. It is quiet, maybe even suspiciously quiet. It has been roughly twenty minutes since the flare was shot. I can still picture it shimmering generally west towards the sunset. When suddenly another flare shoots into the sky. Another one? What the hell is going on? I thought to myself. There are five total bunkers on the compound. Creating this almost star shape from above. The two bunkers that have shot flares so far are the north and north west bunkers. A huge economic impact. One of the bunkers being used for agricultural purposes and the other being a storage for tradable goods and minerals. Although from the center it appears that the populations in both sections are slightly lower than the rest. Which means slightly less security, making me start to believe this could be an inside job. Someone trying to sabotage our way of life. We need to warn my sister right now, that is what seems to be the next right thing to do. My mom would always tell me to do what's right, and my dad thought me to chose who I aspire to be. I can do this, it is only 600 meters away to the safe house my sister is probably in. The two of us can make it, as long as we don't draw too much attention to ourselves. Hopefully our lurking enemies aren't near by. I look over to Mandy and I see her seem relaxed somehow. "Mandy what's our next move?" She holds up her finger as if telling me to wait a second, does one more look around outside through the window. Then crouches down next to me. She slaps her hand on my face very suddenly.

"We need to get out of here, so come on get up, I don't need you dazing off on me." She said so calmly, why is she saying that? I wonder. Then I look down and see my cut. I don't know how or when it got there, Mandy hasn't explained everything yet. However; the sharp pain in my side still exists. I winced and just nodded through gritted teeth. Not wanting to look down and see the damage in my side. I reach my hand out to her silently asking her to pull me up, due to so much blood loss my vision is starting to get blurry. She rolls her eyes at me then smiles and mouths "okay dummy" and reaches out to grasp my hand. I seem to be unable to walk on my own, so Mandy throws my arm over her shoulder then we head off. We are in the western corner of the governmental part of the compound. We need to start heading east, I sign to Mandy. She nods and points at the nearest house suggesting we should go through there and to stay out of the streets. None of the chaos that has suddenly occurred seemed to have reached this part of the compound. However there could be a threat just around the corner, and we shouldn't let our bias and comfortability in the compound to take away our ability to think rationally. We are in danger and need to get to the bunker now. As we move through the house, I see the claw marks along the walls. What happened here? I wondered, we don't have time to investigate. Mandy and I need to escape to the bunker and find my sister. Everyone else is waiting on us, I am probably worrying her sick right about now. Suddenly a loud groan snaps me back into reality. Mandy who was walking in front of me suddenly froze, and motions with her hands in a flat hand with a downward motion as if to say stay low. At this point we are almost through the house, with just a couple corridors left. With an eerie orange glow around the corner down at the end of the hallway. The closer we get the warmer I begin to feel. Suddenly another loud groan erupts through the halls, and this time it sounds a lot closer. Shortly after that low grumble, I see a human like figure through the orange fire like glow. As we approach the end of the hallway Mandy and I peak around the corner to see where those groans were coming from. For all we know it could be a trap, or an enemy, but on the off chance it is someone we know we have to help them. As we take a peak we saw something worse than we could possibly imagine. It wasn't only something we weren't expecting, it was someone we thought we only saw in our nightmares.