Cheyenne Mountain Complex, CO
It was three days
after Christmas. Doctor Samuel Gordon Chase was made honorary guest and brought
to the Air Force Base for the revealing of his Quantum Wormhole Catalyst. As a precaution
they kept it away from Dr. Chase during its construction. His
reputation preceded him.
But Samuel was no beast, he knew the only way to do
this properly would be to wait until all the pieces were in line. The Tachyon Resonator
was different; he needed to know what it felt like to be in the midst of the
tachyons. He must understand the course fully before he travels it.
Since he could not make it himself, Samuel
could not wait to see his designs in real life. According to the people at the
base it was just as portable as the Resonator and the Time Collider, and they
were all three being analyzed to fully optimize their integration with the air-space
vessel they were developing specifically for this mission.
Samuel walked
around the assembly hall with the General after the presentation and met the
members of the secret government sector. One of the men he met was a Lieutenant
Atticus Roth, two years out of flight school and he was recruited to start the
pilot program for space/time travel. General Saarsgard made sure to tell Samuel
that this was going to be his first pick.
Atticus Roth was the best pilot the
military’s seen in over ten years. He can keep conscious at over 9 g’s and
hasn’t had the opportunity to be tested any further by modern technology, until now… Atticus greeted the now
infamous Dr. Samuel Gordon Chase who turned out to be a friendly regular guy. During the
conversation General Saarsgard coughed a lot.
“You know they
got a thing for that now…a supplement.” Dr. Chase suggested, “I don’t
personally believe in it, but anything's worth a try these days.”
It was not late.
Everyone seemed to be leaving the cocktail hour and not coming back. When
Samuel caught wind of it he followed a soldier out of the assembly room. He
caught up to him and found out there was a crisis happening in Washington D.C.
The soldier led Samuel
to a TV where the others were gathered. From the network news the crisis was
shrouded in mystery. Thousands of people were dying from what appeared to be
the super-flu or the swine-flu. Whatever it was it killed quick, fever coming
over them rapidly until it was untreatable and fatal.
Some treatments even seemed to make
the fever worse. It didn’t make any sense. The news teams were blatantly
confused, giving conflicting stories about the epidemic. Samuel had enough of
cable news and searched around for a military broadcast channel.
He pushed the MP aside and brought a browser
up on the computer, tapping into a Pentagon stream…all facts verified…the speakers flickered on, once the people
die from the fever their corpse re-animates, repeat, fevered corpses come back to life...
People around him gasped. Trained professionals brought to tears and turned into the petrified pedestrians hanging on every last reported word. Samuel could not believe
his ears. The information continued…
…There is no part of the reanimated dead that is
still human. Just like the ghouls of ancient folklore commonly known as zombies,
the undead only show two functions…walking and eating, so far field examinations
have concluded there is little to no pulse and no breathing…
...There is no reason determined yet but all the dead eat is living flesh, repeat, the walking dead will try to bite you. Experts have only really concluded in one area of agreement...
...It's a scientific phenomenon...
A break in the reporting gave Samuel a chance to think. The man broadcasting
sounded desperate, as if he was trying to get all the intel out before people
could begin to doubt him. Samuel listened carefully, the man on the radio
wasn’t desperate…he was scared. To Samuel's dismay that conclusion proved there was no way in the world this was a
government ruse.
...The outbreak
first sprang up mostly between Virginia and
Maryland, our nation’s capital before thousands of cases poured in around every major city on the east coast and over to Ohio. So far there is nothing besides this to indicate a lead to the source right now.
They had to concentrate on
containing it.
...If the virus is not stopped in the next
seventy-two hours the entire country will be compromised…
There was no way
to tell if it was terrorists. The contagion was not only being transferred
through bites and scratches but it was in some everyday household item that people
were buying in stores.
…The bodies have to be permanently put down by severing the brain-stem and
examined in order to help trace it back to patient zero…
Once they could
identify a source that might lower the rate of infection. But it was too late
for that. The dead were hungry and were going after the living.
…If you are bit, you are
contaminated. There is no doubt. In a couple
of hours the infection from the bite will kill the victim and raise them from the
dead creating a hostile out of a fallen friendly...
The broadcaster might have been getting hysterical. He began repeating himself over and over again, just in different ways. After thinking about it Samuel realized it was the confirmed news he was getting that was hysterical. It was pandemonium in the streets. There was no denying what they were.
Everyone’s worst
fears had finally come true. This was the zombie outbreak that would bring about the elimination of mankind, their ultimate undoing. It did not matter anymore that they were at the
execution stage of Samuel’s time traveling experiment. This was the end of days.
All venture and
auxiliary programs in the military and government were immediately dissolved to focus
on preemptive salvation, including 1) quarantining the epidemic before it spreads over the entire world, and 2)
tracing the disease back to a source in order to stop it, better understand it,
and possibly cure it.
Every prominent
mind in the country would be called to help save the world. Doctor Samuel
Gordon Chase would ignore his calling until the bitter end of humanity’s salvation.
For Samuel could only think about one thing and one thing alone, getting back to New York City.
Samuel did not flinch when looking straight into the heart of the festering darkness.
Nothing can stop him from saving
his family.