8 Days

DAY 0:

It felt peaceful, the golden rays of the dying sun, the hard cold floor of cement beneath my feet, the plants of mother nature taking what was once their own, and especially the silence, the silence of parked and salvaged cars, the silence of lonely streets and empty homes, and the silence of humanity going gently into that good night.

The virus had killed most of us, taking everybody out at the same time; our parents, our sons, our daughters, our friends and couples, everyone dead, silent, in a week, eight days. The 8-D virus was first identified around the Middle East, but it was too late. With a virus much more infectious than Tuberculosis and the Flu, resistant to any drug or medication we have, much deadlier than Ebola or Malaria. The manifestation of suffering and death itself, it expanded throughout the world with a thirst of blood.

I was walking down Lenard's Street on the hard pavement next to the river, I whispered to myself, —3 miles to go and I arrive at the base. Hope they worked and have not messed anything up. — My team and I lived on the outskirts of our city, in the woods.

The final hours of the day were settling in the beautiful fallen city. I was at the end of Christmas Street; the base was closest if I turned left, and I didn't have enough time to take more supplies, so I did turn left. Nonetheless, at the moment I turned, I knew that my life was going to change more than it already had, that my life was close to the silence. This feeling of immediate danger was only in the 8-D survivors, the feeling of true fear, and the feeling of true death.

I stopped right in front of the corner, beneath the shadow of the Happy café next to me. I took my gun out of its socket and pulled the hammer behind it, the metal was cold, but my hands were burning, and the image of using the gun was terrifying but it was my only salvation.

I turned to clearly see what was behind, there were three people walking down the street, two adults and in between, a late teenager or young adult. They probably knew I was close, if I turned away, I'd run a bigger risk of infection. They were walking down as a family, holding hands, it was warm to see their unity, the thing that made us human, however, I'm no human, and there are no more humans. I aimed. I pulled the trigger.

The two adults were infected, the woman at my left was stage 1, the man to my right was stage 2 and I couldn't confirm what stage the girl was in; so first, I shot my biggest threat, the stage 2. There are four stages of the virus, Stage 1: —The gaze—, the behavior of the person changes to become friendlier and the colors of the eyes change to purple (lasts one day), Stage 2: —Hair spikes— in addition to stage one, the person becomes stronger, smarter and faster, made to look, find and infect more people(lasts four days). These two are transmission purposed; these are what conquered the world. Stage 3: —Blood Cry—, you start bleeding from your nose, mouth and eyes, but also from your skin pores of your forearms (last 2 days). Stage 4: —The silent night— Total organ failure, death (Few hours). These are what killed the world.

I don't know if I missed, but at the moment I shot, they both ran away with incredible speed to opposite sides of the street; behind the houses. I saw them coming to me trying to surround me, the stage two with its characteristic forearm hair, sticking up like spikes, making the virus air borne, and those four bright purple eyes that gazed at me with a friendly look to fool me, and a deadly one to join them. I backed up, and jumped through the window of the café, and took cover behind the café counter. They came in the café at opposite sides of the windows with such great speed, faster than any animal. However, I took out my knife, and pointed it and the gun at them, both stopped right where they were. I noticed the wound on the stage 2. His right shoulder had a hole in it, and the blood that was coming out of it, was leaking through the shirt and sliding down to his fingernails, although the wound will disappear after our conversation. They were so soothing, and believable, but I knew this was only the effect of the virus on the brain. I was in a room with two monsters, if it hadn't been for my nose and mouth air filter, my goggles, and my headphones, I'd probably be infected by now, that's what I thought at the time, anyway.