||THE OUTBREAK||

||Chapter 2 : The Outbreak||

Chicago, USA

17th May, 2020

Evergreen Academy

SAM'S POV

I was at the biology lab with my classmates. We were doing an experiment. You know the regular ninth grade experiments. I was bored of that stuff. I wanted to learn new things. I loved science. Everything related to science fascinated me. So I was the first one to complete the experiment(It was a cakewalk for me). I walked to Professor Eugene to inform him. He was a high school teacher. But he liked to be called professor. I dunno why🤷‍♂️.

"I'm done with my experiment", I informed him.

"Already?", he asked. I nodded. He smiled brightly at me and walked with me to the experimental set up.

"Good...well done Sam", he patted my back and I smiled. The bell for recess rang and everybody rushed outside, towards the canteen. Taking off their lab coats and leaving their undone experiments behind.

"Hey folks...you don't finish this experiment, you don't get grades", Proffessor Eugene reminded them but they didn't pay any attention. He sighed in disbelief and looked at me.

"You're my favourite Sam. Come with me, I have something to show you", he said and started dragging me towards his cabin.

Professor Eugene Jenner. He was quite old, probably in his sixties. He loved science, just like me. He used to be lost in himself with his calculations. You can imagine him as any scientist, take Einstein for example. People used to call him mad, because he was way too scientific. But he seemed okay to me. He used to do crazy stuff but it appealed to me. You can say that in the whole school, I was the only one who supported him in his crazy, hit and trial experiments.

We entered his cabin and he closed the door behind. His cabin was like a small chamber. There was a pile of answer sheets placed on the floor. A notice board filled with pamphlets of new discoveries in modern science. And he had his small experimental lab that occupied almost more than half of the cabin.

"Stay here...I have something for you", he said and walked towards his lab.

I stood there waiting for him. He came back with a small bottle, like you know those bottles in which you keep all the chemicals and held it proudly in front of my face.

"What is this?", I asked him, as I took it from him and looked at it fascinated.

"Toxoplasma gondii", he replied proudly. I looked at him confused. I opened the cap of the bottle and looked inside. There was nothing.

"There's nothing in here", I told him tilting the bottle to get a closer look.

"Don't tilt it.You can't see it", he replied.

"By the way, where are your gloves?", he asked me raising his eyebrow.

"Oh...sorry", I said wearing the gloves and looking at him with anticipation.

"Its an obligate intracellular parasitic single cellular eukaryote", he said and my eyes got wide.

"Its a parasite?", I asked.

"Its a zombie virus", he replied smiling.

"You planning to make zombies....are you nuts?", I shouted at him.

"Calm down Sam...its just a virus. You guys have always been fascinated by zombie movies right? Here I found an infectious virus that can make zombies", he said excited.

"I tested it on a rat and see what happened", he said showing me the rat cage where his beloved rat Squeakers lived but he was no longer a rat, he had turned into a rat zombie.