Andrew Bailey & The Eternal Maze

Chapter - 1

If I could receive a penny for every single stare at me for just this single moment; I'd probably have enough to retire from the navy. Ever since that little talk with the man in the hazmat suit, I was transferred back to the glass box accompanied with the constant stares by the nurses and doctors. Seeing how all of them seem scared of me, the situation I was caught up in seems to be a lot worse than I thought.

The only one so far who actually treated me like a normal human being was my attending physician. Her name was Dr. Cherry Woods. She was the type of happy go lucky person that sees everything with probably rainbows and unicorns. Basically, a strong optimist. Her radiant blond hair made her stood out among the rest, not to mention she had cute freckles that complimented her hair. Yes, I admit it. She was cute.

"Mr Bailey, great news! Your checkup seems fine and your toxicology screen report and blood test seem perfectly normal. However, for safety reasons, you will still have to stay here for observation but rest assured your operation was a complete success."

"Oh okay that's great. WAIT WHAT!? What operation!? No one told me about any operation!?"

"Ah that was supposed to be a secret. Whoops! Don't tell anyone okay? It will be our little secret."

"Wait! Dr Cherry! You can't just walk out like this after telling me something so important!" I protested to no avail.

She gave me a cute wink before sending herself out, I honestly had my doubts whether she was trying to be nice or she was simply a natural air head. Due to my tiredness, I had not actually seen my own body in a while aside from the parts directly in front of me but not noticing an operation was unexpected.

As I checked for scars from bottom to top, I was greeted by a surgical scar on my chest. Was there something wrong with my heart? Seeing this just increased my worries. What on earth happened?

Moments later I was officially cleared fit for duty, and soon came the welcoming wagon.
There were four men in black suits that were there to escort me, they were tough looking, battle hardened with the aura that would scare a tiger. I heard about these types from father. The people that experienced combat time after time would have the ability to project their strength just by looking at them.

"Lieutenant Andrew Bailey. You are hereby ordered to enter into our custody and to be transported to a special facility for the specifics to the incident you have recently come across." I was handed my navy uniform and they waited outside for me to change.

I was then taken into a limousine with tinted windows. then blind folded without being told where I was being taken to. After being driven for hours, I was actually wondering if I was about to be whacked.

All off a sudden the car came to a jerk and was told to keep walking till I was told otherwise. The anticipation was killing me, I never thought these types of spy stories were real. Being dragged off somewhere according to the higher ups whims and fancy without any knowledge where wasn't exactly common for a desk junkie like myself.

"Lieutenant Andrew Bailey, you may remove your blind fold and standby till you are called. When entering the room, you will give the proper greetings."

I removed my blindfold and all I saw was the few men who took me and a completely white door and hallway. Literally everything was as white as snow. There wasn't a smudge anywhere. This was getting creepier by the second.

"Lieutenant Andrew Bailey. You may enter." A voice called me inside the room.

I knocked on the door and what was inside was yet another surprise. The highest ranks of the navy were there, they had such serious looks that I just tensed up by accident. Realizing what I was told before about giving the proper greetings, I straightened up my body, gave what was probably the most proper salute I have ever given in my life and introduced myself. Everyone one of them were above one star in rank. Even the Admiral Chief of Naval Ops was in the room. This just made a serious situation an understatement. As I took a look around the room, I had realized even father was there, never before had I seen such a serious face from him. This was definitely no social call.

"Lieutenant Bailey, do you know why you were called in?"
"I have a general idea sir. But I am unsure whether it is the same situation you are referring to."
"Very well Lieutenant. Please explain the situation you were in."

As I explained the facts on how everything started just by opening a letter and the next thing I know I was actually laying on a bed in the hospital. Their faces showed that was not what they wanted to hear.

Thus, I mustered up courage and asked them a simple question.

"Sir, can you please tell me exactly what is going on? I was knocked out by some sort of powder, rushed to the hospital and somehow, I have a surgical scar on my chest with the doctors telling me that it was a secret that I had surgery. I think any sane person would want an explanation by now."

"Lieutenant, the situation is crucial. This isn't just about you anymore. However, seeing how you are a victim of this and despite your mediocre security clearance, I suppose we will make an exception and loop you in. Anything that will be revealed to you is highly classified. Just mentioning it exists is treason."

All of a sudden, my throat felt dry and I felt like I had to swallow my saliva just to hydrate.

"Exactly six days ago at around 0800 hours, there were a massive number of black letters sent to many unique people around the world. The targets consisted mainly of people with superior intellect or possessing incredible skills in a particular area. The targets included even non-military personnel from every part of the globe. Even children were chosen. Within those letters, contained a white powder that infected every single person who had opened the letter. When the powder entered the body, it goes into the bloodstream and after a certain amount of time it clings onto a random part of the body creating some kind of small lumps in an area which were impossible to remove from the part it infected. It then causes the host's body to rapidly start breaking down in several stages. The interval in between each break downs of the host body were a mere hour. Most of the victims died after the third interval and those who managed to live through the third interval had only more suffering to look forward to followed by death. There was already a pile of corpses before any doctor could even get an understanding what was going on. It was a completely new virus that no one in the world has ever seen, an unknown gene sequence like no other. And that isn't even the strange part, the individual or organization behind this attack somehow managed to send black letters all over the world without a trace and managed to make every single one of the victims open it at the very same time."

"How is that even possible..."

"This is beyond any terrorist attack or declaration of war the world has ever seen. If other countries decide to point fingers at each other for this, world war three would be imminent and world war two will look like child's play, if this situation is not handled properly."

After hearing those words, it dawned on me. How could I have been so naïve. If this many people have died, why was I alive?

"I'm sure you realize by now, after having such a majority of the infected victims did not survive. So why are you alive? Do you know the answer lieutenant?"

"Sir, are you accusing me of being a part of this or treason?"

"If I did, you wouldn't be in front of us. You would be locked up in a dark hole somewhere so far away from society that no one would ever find you."

Somehow I felt that he wasn't bluffing, the individual or organization involved really went too far. People probably have been thrown into dark holes for way less.

"It all started with this black letter, I know most people have not read this since the powder has been released before the reader was able to open it as seen in the reports given to us however its written in an unreadable language or could be a code or perhaps even gibberish. Take a look for yourself, the powder has been cleaned off yours, since you are a cryptologist, this is where you come in."

I was handed the letter while the Admirals were having their stern faces on.

"The reason why you survived is far from simple. You like the others were not immune to the disease, and it progressed into the fourth interval, which was already extremely rare compared to the other cases. But even your time then was running out and making things worse, the powder clung to your heart."

As the Admiral was telling me what had happened to my body, I took a peek at the letter but that turned my world into further chaos. The moment I had opened the letter, a few words were written.

"Welcome to Nova-Mondo."

The next thing I know is probably the weirdest thing that ever happened to me at the time. The moment I read the words, I was sucked into the letter. Entering into a world beyond imagination. I entered Nova-Mondo.