Prologue: Joy
Omnipotent View
Many of us has that happy moment in our life we just can't forget. All our friends, all our family, cheering for us as we blew that birthday candle, shot that buzzer-beater ball that brought your section to victory, asked out the girl of your life, or married the woman you now call as wife.
For some of us, it is now just a distant memory; one to relish for a lifetime. Yet many of us are just experiencing theirs. Take for example, Marcus Forsythe, a 13-year-old boy whose birthday party was just getting started. Poor Mark. He doesn't know what fate awaits him. Little he knows what the future holds. The date is 20th of June, 2013. He invited all his friends. His mum and dad are with him. It was at the Waterpark he wished for since he was 7. For him, this was the most fun he'd had since the little treehouses he built with his uncle and dad. Time passed by. It was now near dusk. He had let all his friends back home. But still little he knew what had awaited the world at the same day.
The place is underground Moscow. The time is 8:37 PM. Doctors were trying to modify a gene responsible for memory capacity. They were inserting different viruses to different people---they call them experimental subjects---and testing them to memory tests. The "memo-serum," as they call it, had a light bluish color. It had a thick consistency. It was to be ingested in small increments 12 times per day for 3 days, even though the consumer was an adult. The testing was today. There were 10 subjects for testing. 3 were the control subjects. The ones that were just brought there to compete with the experimentals. The last 7 were subjected to different doses of the memo-serum. The first one was with baby drops and the seventh one with measuring cups. It seems that memory wasn't affected. The tests were not even possible that night. Even though the subjects were separated by thick reflective glass, the last 7 had broken through the barrier.
It seems that all voluntary actions were shut off. The "memo-serum" had altered all actions to simple groaning, scratching, bashing, and biting. The gene had also allowed this to be contagious(for some reason,) and not just generational. Of course, if they had children(which would not be possible because of their mental state, unless some insanophilic people meet them,) they would catch the sickness. The contagion can be passed on by simple fluid contact, for example, their spit to any part of your body can make you one of them in mere days. There was also the zombie-bite cliché, and this is almost instantaneous. But of course, this was hypothetical. The doctors knew nothing of the potential this sickness may bring. No one will know until time passes by. The doctors had decided to keep this from the world. They had invented what will become the ultimate apocalypse.
And at that same night was the happiest night of 19-year-old girl Lavender Marshall. She had attended the concert of her dream boy band(which I will not mention because I hate them too.) She and her friends had stayed up all night, going through the different shops in the mall after the concert ended. They were talking about planning to go to another concert of yet another boy band next week(don't even ask how they put up with the other fangirls who has the same likes as them.)
One thing you didn't know, though, was somehow(notice how I emphasized "somehow") she had the highest grades in her college class(how's that for multitasking?) and had a lot of friends. Poor Lavender. She won't know what awaits her world. All the friends. All the respect she earned. All the boy bands. Gone within a span of time.
Meanwhile at Moscow, the doctors cannot control the subjects anymore. Their powers(although not super-heroic) had already grown. They now had shouts that make depression hormones go overdrive. Even though sound cannot penetrate glass that's thick, the groans can be heard clearly, like a sound of plea in the midst of oblivious officials. This effect can now be observed as the first three subjects were now showing signs of severe depression as they were crying for help to get free from this "horrid world." One doctor had finally given up to his conscience. He is the assistant director of Gene-altering Experiments, Dr. Jekyll(fitting for the wonderful occasion!) Antonov. He had exited the underground bunker to tell the world what will happen in the future.
As he booked flights to China, Saudi Arabia, India and USA, he thought what might have happened to his colleagues. Were they affected? Will they kill him if he was back? He didn't know. His first stop was Beijing. The date was now June 21. He was now at the airport. He had lost sleep. He was thinking too much. He was waiting. What would happen if they broke out? Will they run over the world like the scenarios he had read in some of his favorite books? Will they be used to kill? Or to make everyone equal? He shuddered at the thought of both. He imagined the devastation this would bring. Cordyceps version two. The next biological weapon. The disease of chaos. After grueling hours, the plane finally landed. He now laughed at the thought of them in the plane. Of course, no depression-causing biological abominations were here. But being the current paranoiac that he is, he looked around every corner. Every nook and cranny. Every passageway. Every room. Except for the girls' room.
Hours had passed. Doctor had finally gotten some sleep. As he awaited the landing of the plane, he adjusted his watch. GMT +8:00. He now had in his arm an iPhone. He had set a voice dictionary and translator(basically, he speaks English or Russian into it, and the dictionary will translate the spoken language to Chinese. The Chinese person will now read it, and speak his response onto the phone, and, voila! A masterpiece!) He left the airport and called for a taxi to the doctors' office. This is it. It's the final countdown! Sorry. I got hyped up there. Anyway, he had checked his assistant director card and showed it to the guards up the highest floor of the 20-storey building.
He entered the room. "Welcome, Dr. Antonov! I have been expecting you. Sit down." Jekyll gulps and sits down.
