Quarantine- Malec AU

Chapter 5: The Day Has Come

•Alec•

   I step out into the cold morning air and take a deep breath in- with my face mask on, of course.

I figured if we were only walking a little while, we could get to sector 5 pretty easily.

  Suddenly, for some reason- I feel like I'm choking on air.

  "Alec?" Jace runs up behind me.

   I start feeling really dizzy, the world spinning around me- and I fall.

  Clary looks up at Jace from my side.

  I quickly get up a few seconds later, bewildered at the fact that that literally just happened.

——————

I walk in front, while Clary and Jace stay back, quietly chatting.

I'm assuming it's something about their relationship or something so I continue.

I look up at the dim-lit sky. The new trees we planted a couple years ago around the site are growing well, due to the people we've hired to keep them safe.

It sucks that people actually have to plant trees now- because the world has gone to shit.

We all were told that it was going to happen- we just didn't care enough.

I re-watched some of the news reports from the days leading up to this becoming a worldwide plague.

It's horrible.

Newscasters families had been taken, leaving them to tell people about their personal experiences.

Famous people dying every day, alarming statistics, and worst of all- the riots.

People had been waiting outside my family's home- holding up signs, screaming, threatening us.

And we just let them.

The police asked us what we wanted to do- but I just told them not to waste their time.

I wanted to do something.

I just hope that it's enough.

"Alec? Snap out of it," Jace and Clary had finally caught up to me.

I notice that we are right in front of the entrance to sector 5.

"You gonna be okay?" Jace asks me quietly.

"I have to be."

I push open the door and continue to the meeting room, where Maia and Simon are waiting.

The room is cold and dank and on the side where the two sat, I could see rain dripping seeping through the cracks in the cement.

"Simon Lewis and Maia Roberts," I say as I take a seat across from them.

Maia looks like she's about to say something, but Clary bursts through the door.

"Alec- we need to go," she speaks quickly, "Now."

I nod and follow her.

When we are out of earshot, I speak up, "What the hell was that about?!"

"Somebody in the institute is sick," she sighs, like she was hoping she could get away with not telling me.

"What? Who? How?"

"Sebastian Verlac- they said that he arrived a few weeks ago from the London institute."

   I run my hand through my hair.

   I went to a meeting with him, he was right next to me.

   "They say he was working with some of the patients recently, and caught it from them."

   "How long has you known?"

   Clary hesitated, "-I just found out."

   "That's a lie," I say, slightly confused at why she would.

   "Alec-" she takes a deep breath, tears forming in her eyes.

   "What's going on, Clary?"

   I turn and feel my arms being restrained.

   "I'm sorry."

   Jace and Izzy, also tearful show up beside her.

   "What the hell is this for?!"

    "You're sick," she said.

    Those were the last words I heard before I was dragged away.