Outbreak: The Extinction Chronicles

Chapter 7 Alarming Discovery

It was so vivid. My heart and soul was completely wrapped with joy and contentment, looking at the blue sky, figuring the shapes the clouds make out, while lying on a fine checkered linen strewn across a greeny landscape covered in grass and flower-bloomed trees. Life was never better.

Then there was a woman by me, sitting on her lap preparing the most delightful meal I had never seen in years. How she handled the knife to cut the bread, how she brushed the spread and stuffed it with goods, her fine strokes and graceful hands were screaming it, she has been doing these for more than a few hundred times in her lifetime. But no matter how I stared, no matter how I leaned my head, a haze-like fog lingered obstructing a clear view of her face. Odd, I thought; but it was more unusual when I didn't seem to be bothered.

There were lots of people here: men and women of all ages, children, and even pets, strolling and playing around doing their stuff. But everyone and everything was moving literally slow, like a movie played at half speed. And again, I just didn't mind it. I couldn't explain the amount of happiness I was feeling at this very moment. It seemed heaven just right here.

I was scanning the full view of the park, when my eyes had stopped at this particular child playing ball with other kids. I knew he was very familiar, I just couldn't tell. Suddenly, he threw a smile and waved a cheerful hand at me. I was cluelessly surprised at what's going on. Did he just smiled at me? And as if my body has a mind of its own, I just smiled and waved back. I had no idea what I was doing; but I did know there was this greater feeling of peculiar warmth brewing in my chest, as if my heart had started melting.

Soon, he looked at me and pitched the ball in his hand, throwing it high in the air. It ought to land at me. He was purposing me to catch it. And as it flew gracefully in the air, it began to swirl in its own. Its flight was curiously slow, but so high I could see the rows of buildings ahead. Soon, it reached the midday sun blinding the sight off of me. I blinked long enough to soothe the sting, but when I opened my eyes terror had struck me back.

When I had thought it was the sun in the sky, it was actually nothing less than a large missile descending upon the heavens. The scene made me stagger as I stood up. Soon, the brightest of lights consumed all of us, igniting everything in its path. The buildings, the trees, the grass, all the people, and even the child and the woman I looked upon, they were all screaming as they burn.

Then I ran. I ran towards the kid. But I was moving so slow, it felt like hopping on the the moon. Soon I raised my hand, motioning to reach him. But he was under such agony, the torment of his flesh searing upon the flame was like no other. Yet, he weakly lifted his hands trying to reach for mine.

Hang on! I'm almost there! I shouted in my mind.

Just a few more steps and I would have reached him, when suddenly something unimaginable happened. He changed, all of them changed, physically. Others became the infected; while he slowly transformed into one sick hideous monster, and became the beast I had once faced.

When earlier I thought this place was heaven, now it was a living hell of flame and shrieking infected.

Not for long, the beast gave me a chilling stare, his trained eyes eager for a chunk of my flesh. And with the whole of its body still aflame, it roared and charged unto me.

I was trying so hard, but my legs just wouldn't budge. They would not obey, no matter how I willed them to. Bizarrely futile, I gasped. And as the beast ranged in, it immediately leaped with power. It spent a moment in midair, before it came crashing down claws first on top of me. It roared once more until it heaved its massive jaws against my face. I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes. I have just accepted my fate of a horrible death. Pain surged all over; and then blackness consumed everything.