Earth's Last Stand

Chapter 1

James wasn’t having such a great day. He didn’t claim the position of school captain even though he wasted many extended lunch-times to write and rehearse his speech. This was far beyond his comfort zone, he wasn’t expecting anything like this to happen. The day had turned out to be stark terrible.

The memory of his failure was etched permanently into his mind, gradually chipping away his sanity. As the school bell rung for home time, James mounted his bike without thinking and rode home quicker than lightning. He didn’t want to suffer from any more humiliation and depression. His friends didn’t stand up for him, but instead back-stabbed him and fazed him with their malicious insults.

When he arrived home, he was even more depressed to see his sister, Rhiannon clutching her face and bawling her eyes out. James muttered in a hush tone, “What’s wrong, is everything okay sis?” She turned reluctantly and met James'eyes. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. She retorted, “Turn on the TV, something terrible has happened” James hefted the television remote, his hands shaking with discomfort and uneasiness. With a click of a button, the TV blurred to life revealing an image that James would never forget.

His eyes raced across the headlines, ‘Science Experiment gone wrong, virus changing humans into monsters’. Multiple scenarios flashed through his mind. Vivid images so gruesome and disturbing that he collapsed from the effort of trying to imagine a possible salvation from this Armageddon.

Rhiannon was crying so badly which made her voice ripped through the air and could be heard miles away. She sat there on the couch, with tingling nerves of pain and horror as she watched many people get torn apart by monsters in this mass destruction. The images and videos on television were so shocking that she couldn’t bear to watch. She seized the remote and exterminated the TV.

James woke up finding himself in a bed. His sister, Rhiannon sat there by his side comforting him. He stared up at her showing the optimism and resilience that was still inside him.

Rhiannon broke the silence and muffled, “How are we going to survive this?”

James ogled at her with no stern expressions but one that looked like he was engaged on the situation that the world was facing.

The news seemed like a death sentence to everyone who watched it. Originally, the now known virus was meant to be a cure created by a young scientist in Washington D.C. America. However, the result of the experimentation has ended in a catastrophe due to an accident involving acid and quantum particles, thus mutating the young scientist. The virus can be transmitted into other human beings easily and can either kill them instantly or transform them into beasts with tremendous power and give them a sudden urge to kill at sight.