Better off Undead

Chapter 8: The Apocalypse

"Are you serious?" Daniel asked, incredulous. His eyebrows shot to the top of his forehead, the utter disbelief he felt as clear as a picture on his face. However, just as clear was the expectancy on Eli's face. Daniel leaned forward, placing his hands on his knees as he studied the younger man. "How... how long have you known about this?"

Eli shook his head. "Just found out today, not thirty minutes before I ran into you guys."

The older man's jaw nearly hit the floor. "Are you..." he began, his brain now running so many circles it was difficult to keep his words straight. "Are you really telling me that you didn't know anything about the outbreak this entire time?"

"Entire time?" Eli echoed. "Just how long has this been going on exactly?"

Daniel shot a helpless look at Daina, and felt some degree of relief that she seemed every bit as shocked and appalled as he did. "Well," she said slowly, letting the word roll off her tongue as she considered the question. "I suppose it's a little difficult to say. We haven't exactly been counting the days. If I had to guess, I would say it's been about a month by now."

Eli sat bolt upright, his eyes full circles of shock. "A month?" he repeated, almost mechanically. "An entire month?"

Daniel was nodding his head before Eli even finished. "Probably a little longer than that, truth be told. The outbreak hit almost overnight, but it was about a week before everyone really began to understand what was going on. Then for about another week there was belief that the problem could still be contained. When everyone started losing cell phone reception, internet and power it was pretty much official. There was no fighting it anymore. I didn't think there was a soul on Earth who was unaware of it by that point."

"Except me, of course," Eli muttered, sinking back into his seat, feeling defeated. He thought back to all those ways he had intentionally cut himself off from the world. No TV, no news outlets, and for the most part no people ever made their way into the microcosmic world of his apartment. This was his own fault. There was nobody to blame but himself. He really had slept through Armageddon.

"Were you... in... a coma, or something?" Daina asked, helpfully. He managed a weak smile in her direction. It was almost cute the way she tried to find the best in a person, even at a time like this.

"Something like that," he answered cryptically, and offered no further explanation. Looking back to Daniel he added, "So what exactly did happen?"

Daniel let out a sigh and shook his head. He stared off into space above Eli's head, as if looking for the answer somewhere across the room. "Truth be told, I'm not sure anyone really knows for sure. From what I can tell, it started at night, in a town not all that far from here. That's where the first news reports I remember seeing about it came from, anyway. One day, I woke up to dozens of news reports of some new disease that was affecting a few nearby towns. We figured it was some new West Nile or Swine flu or something. The weird thing is that all the people with the sickness reported having been attacked the night before, on their way home from work. Every single one of them. Of course, we didn't know that at the time. No one had put that together. At the time no one really knew what to make of it. Not until the infected started dying. It happened so fast it was frightening. Some died within hours, some took a day or two, but they all died."

He paused for a moment, as a flood of emotion ran through him. He took a deep breath to steady himself. Distantly, he was aware that this was the first time he'd actually thought about any of these events since they had initially occurred. It had all been so overwhelming at the time. Life had been so much just about survival, there hadn't been any time for thoughts like these.