The End of the World as We Knew It

by Nick Cole

  They can’t kill us then.

  Plus, it’s been well over the incubation period for me. I should be dead. McMath should have died a week ago. So I don’t think either of us are infected. Hooray for me.

  VOICE MEMO 14

  There’s smoke in the air. It’s still foggy and we can’t see much because we’re on the 7th floor. For the week that Matt and I have been staying at the hotel, I’ve smelled the ocean every morning. When we first checked in, I told myself I’d go running. Not drink. I guess we know how that went.

  But this morning there’s smoke.

  I also heard sirens, a lot of them. Police and fire a while ago. Now it’s weirdly quiet.

  McMath’s taking a shower. He went to his car and came back with a duffle bag. I saw a gun in there.

  This is getting out of hand.

  Have I made the right choice? What if McMath is just some lunatic? What if this is all a psychotic break, or a delusion brought on by my binge? I’ve been drinking so much...

  (Drinking sounds)

  Better.

  I’ve been drinking so much, maybe this is just a psychotic episode.

  VOICE MEMO 15

  Oh man. Okay.

  (Drinking Sounds)

  The plan is gone.

  (Background noise. Possible helicopter, police variant type)

  As soon as McMath got out of the shower, I went to take one last look at the parking lot. There’s a ritzy open air mall across the street. Usually the employees are parking at the edge of the parking lot and walking into the mall about this time of the morning. Not today.

  There are two squad cars out there. Police cars. When I stepped out onto the balcony, one of the deputies touched the mic on his vest and spoke. They were looking directly at me.

  Ten minutes ago, two helicopters showed up.

  It was Tanner.

  He called me and Matt by name over a loudspeaker and told us to come out of the hotel with our hands up.

  There are snipers hanging off the sides of the other chopper.

  VOICE MEMO 16

  There’s a crowd of people forming in the parking lot.

  I don’t know what to do...

  (Background Noise: Helicopter. Someone in the room talking. Possibly Lt. Cdr McMath.)

  VOICE MEMO 17

  Jason, this message is for you.

  (Background noise: small arms fire. Male voice yelling, wood splintering)

  (Male Voice) Get it together lady! Drop that bottle and get to the elevator!

  (Background noise, indeterminate)

  (Female voice) The snipers are shooting at us!

  Jason... (Heavy breathing, drinking sounds) The snipers are shooting at us.

  We’re in the hallway. We... (Heavy breathing) left the room to get away from the snipers. One almost shot McMath. But that’s not the worst... (Drinking sounds, small arms fire) Something happened to Matt.

  I ran to his door... (Soft bell sounds, possibly the elevator) It was off its hinges. Matt was on... his door was smashed, but he was stuck on the other side of it. It was blocking him from leaving the room. His arms were all bloody. He was still naked. His eyes... he was gray, Jason, like he was dead. He... growled at me. (Crying)

  (Background noise soft bell. Elevator door opening)

  (Female Screaming)

  VOICE MEMO 18

  We’re in the stairwell now. McMath is trying to break open the door to the suite on the top floor of the hotel. A man with wild eyes came out of the elevator and grabbed me. McMath pushed him off me and threw the man back inside the elevator. This is crazy!

  (Sounds. Loud metallic clanging. Grunting)

  Jason I want to tell you everything. I want to tell you how sorry I am that I lied to you about who I truly am. I’m so sorry. I wanted to be the person you thought you could love.

  (Drinking sounds)

  Wait!

  (Smashed glass)

  Damn. I dropped the only bottle I managed to get out of the room.

  Well... I guess I’ll have to quit drinking.

  For now.

  VOICE MEMO 19

  I broke open the liquor cabinet in the suite. So, game on. Which is good, because in the five minutes I went without a bottle, at least taking small sips, I began to feel awful. I felt dead inside, emotionless, but at the same time I felt every nerve in my body, and they were all on edge. I felt really angry.

  If I don’t drink myself to death, I’m going to need to be hospitalized.

  Those helicopters are still circling outside the hotel. They’re trying to find us.

  Matt was crazy. He must be infected with the virus. He looked like hell. The guy in the elevator too.

  But why am I not sick?

  We were both in the lab. If he was exposed, so was I.

  We had... sex. So...

  (Male voice) Alex, check this out! The police are shooting at people.

  (Distant popping sound)

  (Sound of woman’s heels on marble)

  (Female voice) They’re not falling down.

  (More popping sounds)

  (Male voice) Don’t look.

  (Loud ripping sound. Possible helicopter-mounted mini-guns. Also identified heavy caliber rifle fire sounds)

  (Male voice) The helicopters are using their chain guns to try and stop them!

  (Female voice) For the record, whoever finds this smartphone, this is seriously out of control now. The crowd that was watching the police attempt to take us out, attacked the sheriff’s deputies in their squad cars. The deputies fired back, but the crowd... kept coming.

  (Drinking sounds)

  (Male voice) They’re still coming. Those mini-guns aren’t doing anything to them!

  (Female voice) Is that possible? They’re just dragging themselves forward.

  That one just... no!

  (Drinking sounds)

  He’s... the deputy...

  (Drinking sounds)

  (Male voice) We’ve got our own problems. The other chopper just set down on the roof. They’re probably coming in to get us.

  VOICE MEMO 20

  This is Alex still letting whoever finds my phone know what’s going on. If you find me dead, blame Tanner from the project. He’s the one who killed me.

  I’m still hoping to make it out of here alive.

  I’m still hoping to make it back to you, Jason. If I tell you the truth, and you’re cool with it, we can start over again. I’ll never drink. I promise. Please just let me get out of this.

  Tanner called a moment ago.

  He’s sending the two snipers in to take us out. Actually me. He doesn’t know about McMath. He says he doesn’t need me alive. But if I’ll cooperate, he’ll do everything he can.

  When I asked what that meant, he didn’t say. He just said he’ll do everything he can.

  Tanner’s circling in the helicopter now. McMath says one of the snipers will probably repel through the big window in the suite while the other comes through either the door that leads out to the elevator, or the stairwell. He can’t cover both.

  He says they’ll use a “flash-bang”, whatever that is.

  I’m hiding in the bathroom.

  VOICE MEMO 21

  It’s starting. I’m recording just in case they kill me. At least there’ll be a record.

  I really love you Jason. I know I keep saying...

  (Sound of breaking glass)

  It’s starting...

  (A muffled whump.)

  (Door splintering)

  (Small arms fire)

  (Sound of metal rending)

  (Sustained continuous small arms fire)

  (Groan. Unverified but reminiscent of Plague subject vocal pattern, post-infection)

  (Helicopter sounds growing louder)

  (Three rapid bursts from an automatic weapon.)

  (Helicopter noise interrupted. Sudden increase in turbine speed and pitch deflection of helicopter)

  (More automatic gunfire)

  (Silence)

&nb
sp; (Distant impact sound)

  (Female Voice) McMath?

  (Male Voice) Stay where you’re at, girl. Don’t come out here.

  (Female voice) McMath...

  (Male Voice) Stay. Don’t even think about coming out here, lady. Just stay... I...

  (Female Voice, whispering) McMath’s alive, but he doesn’t want me to come out yet.

  (Automatic gunfire)

  (Silence)

  McMath? What’s going on?

  (Male Voice) Alright. Come out, but don’t ask me what’s under the sheet.

  (Female voice) I won’t. What happened?

  (Walking sounds. Woman’s heels on marble.)

  What happened?

  (Male Voice) They came in like I said they would. I popped the one rappelling through the window. The other came through the main door. He had me. Then... well, then your friend Matt showed up from down below. Tore the door off the hinges and went straight for the one that came through the door. Sniper must have shot him with his sidearm twelve times dead center. Couldn’t use the MP5, he had it trained on me. Slick as a snake that sniper pulls his side arm with the other hand and puts twelve into your friend.

  Then your friend tore out the sniper’s throat.

  I grabbed the MP5 off the sniper dangling in the window and fired at the helicopter. I think I hit the pilot. They went down inside the mall. I finished off your friend next. I put a sheet over the two of them before you came out. Don’t look, it’s pretty awful.

  (Female Voice) I won’t.

  VOICE MEMO 22

  I drank all the booze in the mini bar. I really don’t feel so good. In fact, I feel... pretty awful.

  There were a bunch of sirens and cop cars making a big racket a few minutes ago. We thought they were on their way here to rescue us, but they passed by, heading North on Pacific Coast Highway. Once they were gone, it got real quiet. The sky is orange and there’s thick gray smoke everywhere.

  McMath says that...

  I need a drink.

  And I don’t have one.

  Still, I need one. Badly. There’s got to be a ton of booze somewhere in this hotel.

  Anyway, McMath says the virus seems to be getting out of control. Maybe it’s just local. Maybe they’re cordoning off the area. He says if we can get outside the cordon, we’ll be safe.

  I wanted to rip his eyeballs out when he said “safe”. I’m feeling unreasonably angry and I blame it on the lack of booze.

  VOICE MEMO 23

  I need to talk to you Jason, but cell service is down. Still, I need to talk to you. Just leaving these voice memos... I feel like I am talking to you now. Even though it’s not real, it helps.

  My skin is crawling. If the DTs haven’t started yet, and this is just a taste of what’s to come, then I’m in really big trouble.

  McMath says we’re going to hold out here at the top of the hotel. There’s only the stairwell and the elevator, and he’s got that stuck on our floor somehow. Now he’s busy with the stairwell door.

  Outside, there’re more sick people. Sick people that look like Matt. Or like Matt used to before... They’re just wandering around down there. Sometimes they vomit or fall down. But they’re not doing much more than that.

  It’s too quiet out. And it doesn’t feel good.

  VOICE MEMO 24

  (Male Voice) Get inside the elevator!

  (Automatic weapons fire)

  Now! move it!

  (Female Voice) The sick people are coming through the stairwell door, Jason!

  (Female Screaming)

  (Male Voice) Get the hell off...

  (Automatic gunfire)

  (Movement sounds. Running. A woman’s heels on marble)

  (More gunfire echoing off an enclosed space)

  (Male voice) Stand back!

  (Sound of elevator doors closing)

  (Female voice) Those people... why are they attacking us?

  (Male Voice) (Sighs) I don’t know.

  (Sounds: Magazines being ejected and inserted into various weapons)

  I don’t know, and we don’t have many rounds left.

  (Female voice) Where are we going to hide?

  (Male Voice) We’ll make a run for the mall across the street, out the back entrance of the hotel. Try and find someplace to hide. Maybe a bank. Those things just ripped my barricade to shreds.

  Investigator’s Note: This is yet another personal account that deviates from the norm of documented infected behavior. Most infected possessed little strength. It was their numbers that seemed to increase their lethality. But, in Southern California, several eyewitness accounts indicate infected that were abnormally strong, or even incredibly fast with seemingly endless endurance. The general level of ferociousness in these accounts seems much higher than the norm.

  -F. Darrow, Sr. Review Investigator, Department of Reconstruction, New California Republic.

  (Female Voice) How?

  (Male Voice) Again, I don’t know.

  (Elevator bell)

  (Female voice, screaming)

  (Male voice) Hang onto my shirt and stay real close.

  (Hostile groans from multiple sources)

  (Automatic pistol shot)

  (Three successive automatic pistol shots)

  (Hostile groaning)

  (Woman’s heels on marble)

  (Two automatic pistol shots)

  (Male Voice) In there.

  (Sound of heavy door being slammed)

  Gimme a hand with this

  (Scraping sounds)

  This should take us to the loading dock. Maybe there’s a delivery truck and we can drive ourselves on outta here. C’mon.

  (Female Voice) Why can’t we go that way?

  (Male Voice) Did you see the lobby, lady? It is swarming with those things. Are you still drunk?

  (Female voice crying)

  VOICE MEMO 25

  Jason, it doesn’t look good. We found a truck. But McMath can’t get it started. He’s got the hood up and he’s trying to see what’s wrong with the engine. The sick people are coming down the delivery ramp. Jason, it doesn’t look like there’s a way out of this.

  Maybe this is for the best. Maybe I deserve this. I feel like... I feel so useless and angry. I feel... jagged, Jason. Jagged.

  They’re getting closer and I don’t know what we’re gonna do, but before they get me... I just want to...

  (Male Voice, Inaudible)

  (Female voice) Trying it again!

  (Male Voice, Inaudible)

  (Female Voice) I am turning the key! It’s not...

  (Engine-starting sounds)

  (Squeak, then door slamming sound)

  (Male Voice) Alright girl, take it nice and slow up the ramp.

  (Female Voice) They’re not getting out of the way!

  (Male Voice) That’s okay. Don’t look, just keep going. Don’t look!

  (Loud thumps, muffled groans, cracking glass)

  Easy does it, girl.

  Okay, we’re clear. Stop at the intersection.

  (Female Voice) Hey, a plane!

  (Male Voice) Where?

  (Female Voice) Look. Up there. It’s circling.

  (Male Voice) Hold on a sec...

  GUN IT NOW, NOW, NOW!

  (Engine rising to max rpms, tires squealing)

  (Female Voice) They could be trying to help us!

  (Male Voice) Watch out for those three in the road! That’s a Specter gunship up there, it doesn’t help anybody, lady. It kills people in adult-sized doses.

  (Brief inaudible groan, indeterminate sound)

  (Male Voice) Right! Right! Right!

  (Female Voice, Screaming) They’re firing at us!

  (Sounds consistent with the 30mm Chain gun carried on Specter Gunship period aircraft of this type. Multiple artillery shell impacts.)

  (Male Voice) Floor it! Straight into the mall!

  (Explosion)

  (Explosion)

  (Chain gun)

  VOICE MEMO 26

 
Jason, we’re inside the mall now. I mean, it’s not a regular mall. The stores are all out in the open. But there’s a maintenance hallway that runs through the buildings. I drove the van into a fountain and we ran to the nearest store, a men’s clothing store, and found the fire exit in back. We barricaded it, but it’s not going to hold for long.

  McMath is clearing the area now.

  Once those things come for us, we won’t be safe in here. We’re running out of places to hide.

  I think I’m sick, Jason.

  I think somehow the booze has been keeping the virus... at bay, or dormant. Now that I haven’t had any, I feel rotten. But that’s not the worst part.

  The worst part is that I want to...

  I can’t even say it.

  I want to eat him. McMath.

  It’s just this... it’s not like a voice. It’s like a craving.

  Even now, I can hear McMath banging around down the hall and I just want to run down there and rip him open.

  That’s disgusting.

  I’m ashamed of myself.

  I’m going to hide my phone. I have no idea if you’ll ever find it. But, maybe... maybe this isn’t as big as it seems to me.

  I hope whatever is happening is only happening to me. That plane flew around shooting at everybody for a long time. Maybe the virus is just in this area and they’re trying to keep it contained by killing everyone. Maybe.

  File that under sentences you never thought you’d hear yourself say.

  But I hope it’s just here. It’s bad Jason. It’s really bad.

  I mean, and if you knew me, knew the real me, you’d know I’m not the selfless type. But whatever it is that’s made these people sick, I hope it never happens to anyone else. I hope it’s just me, Jason.

  I’m going to check something out and when I come back... I’m going to leave you one last message. Then I’ll hide my phone.

  Historical Artist’s Note: This brief medical report summary was attached to the end of the transcript file in hardcopy. In reviewing the piece, I felt its inclusion at this point helps paint the narrative.

  Medical File Review 11/10/47

  Rumors abounded during the Plague that drinking large amounts of alcohol could indeed stave off the infection. There is no scientific evidence to support this hypothesis. Interestingly, and at this point merely conjecture, as these events and any possible lab data or samples have long since been consigned to the rubbish bin of history, it would seem that if the U.S. Military were attempting to create a retro-virus for the dead to turn on themselves, then perhaps the serotonin levels in the brain were part of the research method pursued. If this line of inquiry and the transcripts are to be believed, then yes, serotonin would have been the answer to affecting control of infected persons. Alcohol’s effect on the serotonin levels in the brain would have definitely affected both the metabolic nature of what we know about the disease and the rapidity of degeneration into long-term post-infection existence. This is the only recorded evidence indicating that this may have been the case as a result of these “Black Ops” experiments at the Dome. On a personal note: As a bit of a collector of arcane conspiracy theories from the time of the Plague, this has all the earmarks of a classic “Tall Tale”. Conveniently, the West Coast Crisis Management Headquarters, the Dome, assists the tale with its spectacular demise, thus eliminating any independent verification. Also, the mysterious AC-130 gunship appears to obliterate the infected area. Obviously, a military asset of this nature used on Day One of the Plague indicates “Dark Forces” at work and fits the conspiracy narrative conveniently. In truth, it’s one of my favorites. Alas, it is hardly credible.