CODE Z

Chapter 1

The sirens blared. And stopped.

My heart skipped a beat.

I couldn't breathe. I jolted out of the recliner with my eyes wide open.

I stood there listening, praying not to hear the second siren.

Not just me but I could feel the sudden silence that crept upon the entire city.

But as if God abides by the Murphy's law, it did. One long blare and the noises of the general population returned. Only this time it was louder and a hell lot less calm.

"Jesse!!", I shouted and turned just to see her standing at the window just as shocked as I was.

"They got in. Tell me it's just some fire or ...", her voice faded as her eyes caught up with the rising smoke near the east gate. It was hardly noticeable as it was dark there. There were choppers swirling around that area."

"No. They wouldn't make a mistake like this.", I was at the phone and before I could pick it up it rang.

I picked up the phone to hear," Attention civilians!!! CODE Z! This is a message issued as a warning from the UN Aid declaring a breach in the colony. There seems to be a possible infection of the C virus-"

"It's not a virus fools", I yelled out loud to the automated message meanwhile Jesse my wife was barring down the 2.4cm thick steel shutters on our windows.

"-and is spreading fast. Containment procedures are already under effect. We advise you to please stay indoors and wait until the Aid arrives at your doorstep. The following precautions-"

Stay at home. As if that's ever going to happen.

Nothing's going to help us now. They won't be able to contain it. They couldn't contain it in a lab or a city or a country. Not even in one whole damned continent.

I went to the door and checked if I barred it or not.

Our colony with a population of 4084 individuals was the last remaining shred of human existence.

Yes. We are certain.

It's been 6 years since the zombie Apocalypse (as they like to call it) and we hadn't had any contact since the last 2 years.

Satellite or drones havnt found any signs of human activity anywhere else.

There is no more humans out there. And neither the undead. Even zombies have an expiry date.

They kinda rot and wither away in about 9 months from the point of transformation.

I just woke up the computer. I had too many notifications and mails with the tag CodeZ. But that was not what I was interested in.

I opened the UNA main site and entered my credentials.

The page loaded and maps and stats appeared.

The east Gate is indeed breached. Multiple red flags were appearing in random order near the spot of the breach. And red spots too.

Red flags indicate SOS calls or 'compromised situations' and red spots means only one thing. Non vitality of the brain cortex.

My eyes automatically moved to the population index on the sidebar. It shows live population stats via RFIDs installed in every member of the colony.

It showed 4049. I would be goddamned.

Just as I was looking at it, it went down to 4048.