Genesis

Won't Fear The Reaper

     Someone was calling me.

     Was Evelyn alive?!

     Just as quickly as I sprinted away from what I thought was a silent attacker, I sped towards the ringing phone that gave me hope. Maybe I wasn't alone after all!

     I reached the phone and picked it up, not bothering to even look at the caller ID out of pure excitement.

     "Hello? Is anybody there?" I asked, trying to contain my excitement. The voice on the other end of the line spoke.

     "Quinn! Oh, thank God ! I've been calling your home phone forever now. Where have you been?!" 

     I recognized the voice as the closest thing I had to a friend; my neighbor Cindy. It wasn't Evelyn, but at least I wasn't alone.

     "Sorry, I've been in town. I just got back home," I replied with a hint of panic in my voice as I squeezed my temples, as I was still trying to tell myself that my aunt could be alive.

     "In town ?! Holy shit, Quinn... were you there when everything went crazy?" Cindy interrogated.

     "Yeah, but I almost got hit by this car... And then I ended up hitchhiking with the car... And they dropped me home," I explained, breathing deeply as I felt a rush of anxiety trying to overwhelm me.

     "My God, Quinn... are you okay?"

     "Well, I'm alive, but I don't know where Evelyn is. And my head hurts. What the hell is going on?" I asked her.

     "Haven't you been watching the news? Turn on the TV, tune into a radio channel, it's everywhere. They're saying it's some kind of Outbreak. I'm watching CNM," she explained.

     "One second, I'm turning on the TV," I told her, taking the phone from my ear and running to the TV.

     "House, turn the TV on, and put on the latest news," I instructed. I heard a ping as my command was recognized, and the TV flashed on, loading a Japanese man on the CNM news channel.

     "--and as you can see, the affected people are worldwide, as even here in Tokyo, the streets are in a great panic as we see the symptoms of the Outbreak take effect."

     Phone-recorded videos started to play, showing residents and police of Tokyo running on the streets, away from the maniacs that chased them.

     "Thank you for tuning in as our time is up, and back to you, Cheryl, in New York City..." the screen changed to show a blonde woman in a blue dress, black streaks staining her puffy, red eyelids, "...Thank you, Jun from Tokyo. For those of you who have just recently tuned in, we have called; Los Angeles, Austin, Stockholm, Moscow, Toronto, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Hong Kong, Prague, Athens, Oslo, Seoul and now Tokyo, who have all confirmed that what officials are calling the second Rage Outbreak -- that we suspect started about forty minutes ago -- has been globally widespread. Now we will switch to a leading Scientologist, who claims that the galactic overlord Xenu has come to reclaim Earth, which was previously called--..." Cheryl abruptly cut off her sentence, putting her hand up to her earpiece, "Hold on... we have just received news confirming the source of this Outbreak."

     "What the... where do you think it came from?" Cindy asked me through the phone, snapping me out of my fearful trance.