AM13 Outbreak Shorts

Crackdown - Two

The AM13 virus began as just another media scare being portrayed on the news. No one paid much attention, people barely even talked about it, I guess we all figured it would just blow over like all the different strains of flu, and that everyone would have forgotten about it within a month or so.

I certainly paid no attention to it, I was just trying to keep my head down and to get on with my job. Ever since I landed my position on the force, nothing else meant anything. I became an addict for my police work, it was a healthier way to work my personality.

But I was wrong, we all were. Something that can only be seen with hindsight.

This time, for some reason, the virus didn't seem to vanish. The media scares grew fiercer and more intense with every passing day. Instead of everyone forgetting about the silly illness and moving onto something more important, everyone began discussing it as if it was something real and vital. Experts were on television discussing it, every newspaper printed about it on the front page, it began trending on every single social media channel possible. It became so common to see #AM13 online, it seemed like everyone had reverted from not talking about it at all, to being unable to speak of anything else.

Then it infiltrated my work, so I had to pay attention too.

The hospitals became so overrun, there was a lot of panic out on the streets which of course meant certain people behaved in a negative way; fighting, looting, that sort of thing. We had to be extra vigilant. We were also told to look out for people showing signs of the virus too, but I didn't pay any attention to that. I wasn't sure why the police were being told to search for anything who looked a bit flu-like, that felt like a waste of energy. Sure, the potential violent side effects, such as biting, fine, but anything else was below me.

Then I saw one for myself. My very first virus victim. I don't remember what day it was or what I was even doing. All I know for sure is one minute everything seemed very normal, there wasn't a scrap of anything weird in the air at all. I had no idea that my life was about to be turned upside down forever.

Then I saw her.

She had her back to me at first, the only thing that made me concerned about her was the matted blood in her hair. I wanted to help her, to save her from whatever trouble she found herself in. I called out to her, puffing out my chest, feeling brave and positive.

Until she span around.

The blood wasn't just in her hair, it was everywhere; over her face, down her tee-shirt, dripping from her mouth. At first I thought she was eating a steak, even after hearing the rumors about the infected eating other people, I didn't immediately think that was what I was seeing. I mean what sort of person immediately jumps to that conclusion?

"Are you okay, miss?" I asked pointlessly, because obviously as I now know once people are infected they lose all of their brain function. Well, most of it. They can still move and eat. Eat humans, anyway. But they no longer listen, or talk, they no longer emote. They don't do anything that makes them human. They become a slave to their bodies needs only. Their new bodies needs.

I guess the term 'zombie' is the only thing that describes them well. I don't like to think of them in that way because I think it makes them cartoon-like, but in the popular media, that's the closest thing out there. The victims don't die before they turn, it just slowly happens, and they go more of a gray color than green, but other than that it's mostly still the same.

It's horrible. A new, terrible world.

In all honesty, much as it still pains me to have Marie gone, I'm glad that she never had to face this world. It would have been much too hard for her. She was a beautiful, fragile, tortured soul that abused substances to handle the real world. This would have been far too much. It's hard enough for me, as I proved to myself only yesterday.

If only things were handled differently, if only I had some control over what happened during all of this, then none of this would have happened.