Disease X

by Garrett Williams

  Disease X

  Garrett Williams

  Prologue

  I

  Diagnosis

  II

  Just Business

  III

  First Day

  IV

  PUs

  V

  Initiation

  VI

  Revelation

  VII

  Weakness

  VIII

  Corruption

  IX

  Fury

  X

  False Safety

  XI

  Judgment

  XII

  No Hope

  XIII

  Exile

  Prologue

  The sound of a faint buzzing went through the room from a desk to the right of the bed. In that bed rested the still and half asleep body of a boy no older than sixteen. The boy, still dazed, reached over and hit the snooze button on his alarm clock, got out of bed and went over to his closet. After changing, he put on his favorite grey hooded jacket and grabbed his backpack from beside his bedroom door. As it was a rainy day, he was putting on his hood when one of the foster house workers came up to speak to him.

  “Don’t forget about breakfast again young man,” The cook pointed out as the boy was walking towards the door.

  The boy replied in what sounded more of a sigh, “You do remember that it is a forty-five minute walk over to the subway then to school don’t you?”

  “That is still no excuse to miss the most important meal of the day, Alexander.”

  “If I eat I might be late, and for the last time start calling me Alex. I’m not a little kid anymore Mrs. Smith.”

  Mrs. Smith, responded to Alex’s comment with a small grin, seeing as how some things just don’t seem to change with him. He had been like this since the day he first came to the sanctuary of the foster home. Alex, not feeling like arguing, decided to walk over to the table and set his bag down at his feet. He sat in anticipation of his food and in the hopes of eating it and getting to the subway as quick as possible. On top of that, the authorities always do a bio scan before anyone even goes on the subway. It only takes a minute, but by now he feels that it has become rather annoying. Still, he lowered his grey hood and brushed his brown hair away from his red eyes. It must have been a birth defect that one of his parents must have had, whoever they were. He had never truly been curious who his parents were, even Mrs. Smith didn’t know.

  “Here you go.” Mrs. Smith gave Alex a plate of eggs and toast as well as a glass of apple juice.

  “Thank you.” Alex said when the plate was set on the table with a soft “plink” that glasses often make when they make contact with one another as they are sitting in the sink of a kitchen. As Alex ate, as quickly as he could without getting scolded by Mrs. Smith, he heard the footsteps of the youngest child in the foster home come down the stairs with tired eyes. John Avery said his good mornings to both Alex and Mrs. Smith as he made his way through the old and slightly run down living room towards the dining room chair next to Alex.

  He sat and said to Alex, “Aren’t you going to start your junior year today?” Alex replied with a nod as his mouth was full of eggs and toast. “Well, if I were you, I would steer clear of Tommy today. He seems pretty upset about something.”

  “What is he so upset about?” asked Mrs. Smith.

  “Maybe it just got one degree hotter in his room this morning.” Alex said jokingly.

  “Alexander!” Mrs. Smith said with scorn. John giggled at this comment and made his way towards his backpack after eating his breakfast. John went to St. Andrews Middle school, off somewhere near Times Square; whereas Alex went to McKinley high school along with Thomas and a few other boys. After finishing his breakfast he said goodbye to Mrs. Smith and went out the door but before he did, he could have sworn that Mrs. Smith whispered to him, “this will all be over eventually, don’t worry.”

  The wind could be heard creating a slight breeze as the soldiers at the bustling military post went about their usual business. Along the wall were newspapers that read “Infection causes the military to take drastic measures” and “Crime rate skyrockets due to bioterrorist attacks.” Throughout this post were soldiers, at least ten of them per person that wanted to pass by to continue their daily life. To pass they needed to do a bio scan to determine whether or not they will have to be escorted and watched as they go about their lives.

  “Just stick to the plan and everything should go perfect.” A girl’s voice came from a communicator into the ear of a young man of twenty- three wearing a skull cap and a leather jacket and blue jeans. A common punk in a nutshell, but one with a plan and a team to help pull it off. As long as he followed orders, everything would go as planned and he would be able to pull off another successful operation. It was now his turn to go up to the post in the line of people and have one of the soldiers read him with a scanner. The post glimmered with a metallic roof, almost like the one you would see at a gas station, but with unmanned machine gun turrets just in case everything went south from there.

  The punk casually walked up to the soldier with an assault rifle and the soldier said, “State your business please.”

  “I’m here to visit a friend,” the punk lied.

  “Turn around please,” the soldier requested. As the punk was turning around the soldier scanned the back of the punk’s neck with the laser-like scanner, something almost out of a science fiction movie. “Turn please,” the soldier said. The punk turned around to face the soldier and the minute he did he scanned his forehead. The loud beeping of the scanner sounded like a siren emitting a sharp cry. Everyone could hear it all throughout the checkpoint.

  “C’mon, best two out of three?” The punk joked.

  “Come with me, we got a convoy waiting for you up ahead.”

  “Wait! That symbol, it’s him!” A soldier cried as the punk’s back was to him. The collar of his leather jacket showed a phoenix in mid-fire breaking out of his cage, attempting to set itself free. The second the soldier shouted, all eyes were on the punk, as well as all guns.

  “Get on your knees!” a soldier shouted with a scolding tone.

  The punk simply replied, “Screw you.” In that instant, every soldier circling him open fired. Bullets rippled through the air and the punk took the full impact of each and every one from all directions and he responded with a painful scream, and then hit the floor with a loud and lifeless thump. The military officer gave the signal for his men to hold their positions as he checked the corpse.

  The officer walked up cautiously with his M16 still staring down the lifeless figure. He knelt down to move the body and check for any explosives or a tracking device that may lead others to their base. As he stared down at the body he soon realized, even though there were holes in his clothing, the blood was nonexistent. Silence filled the air as the large crowd of people gazed at the scene in awe. And in that moment, when the corpse faced upward, the punk’s armed shot up and grabbed the officer’s face. He became as bright as a candle and he was letting out a loud, high pitched shriek for everyone to hear. The punk mutated into a cloud of pure flame and flew through several soldiers, leaving behind a burning corpse in each place. He reappeared in front of the officer who had gone silent on his knees and, with a smile, the punk took his finger and pushed his black and smoldering head to the ground.

  The crowd panicked the minute they saw the punk fly and kill all of the soldiers. They ran about, seeking shelter from the terrorists that threated their lives.

  “I told you not to make a big thing out of this Danny!” a girl’s voice from the crowd shouted as she walked toward him scowling.

  “C’mon, we have these awesome powers! What’s wrong with having a little fun doing our job?”

&nb
sp; “You had one job! To get on the convoy and set the people free when you were far enough away!”

  “Relax. We can do that right now.”

  The girl looked over with a serious and calculating expression at the jeeps filled with scared people. “Don’t make me regret bringing you on this rescue mission.” The girl said in a harsh tone as she handed Danny an AK-47.

  “I get the job done, Ashley,” He said in a snarky tone.

  Ashley just sighed and ran off to get the prisoners. When she made it to the large jeep sitting on the curb across the city street, she immediately held out a 9mm at the driver telling him to beat it. The soldier jumped out of the car from the driver’s seat in a panic to call for reinforcements. Only to get tangled up by a web of bones Ashly had spawned from her arm. She was fondly referred to as a skeleton by the other soldiers for her ability to create weapons such as claws, blades, and even practical tools for everyday use. The first day that she started exhibiting powers her parents reported her to the military, knowing full well what they do to people like her. It happened on her twelfth birthday, when she had accidentally murdered her sister. Since then, she had grown more and more cold and skeptical about what others promise her, even her own friends.

  She opened up the doors that contained the infected, only to see petrified faces beaming at her and children crawling into their parent’s arms. Every soul in the truck was terrified to see her and her comrades after their freedom display earlier. “It’s ok, were the good guys, were going to get all of you to a new home,” she said to a small girl crouched in the corner as though she were a turtle in her shell. A woman, most likely her mother, rammed into Ashley, causing her to fall on her back.

  “Stay away from my child you animals!” she screamed as she picked up her little girl from the corner and scurried to the back of the truck with her daughter in her arms. Damn you Danny, you need to stop making a game out of this. How will people think we want to help? She thought as she picked herself up.

  Danny rushed through the crowd, gunning down any soldiers that he came to or that tried to take the hostages. The sound of screaming and gunfire were the only things that could be heard in Time Square as the transportation checkpoint was at war with the single man who was setting humans ablaze with a golden ember of flame and blood red sparks. He was setting gas containers on fire and spreading the dancing flames around every building. Several soldiers were either caught by the blazing clouds or trapped by the flame only to be gunned down the very second following. Running through the crowd of scared civilians, Danny sprinted to a small shed under a mega screen, grabbing and melting the lock, he slammed open the door to take refuge in the small military structure. Filing cabinets lined the wall of the small room, probably containing info on several of the infected in the district, including him.

  Danny was gunning down three military officials when he realized that the shed was the filing center of the whole checkpoint. Searching for a lull in the fight, he slammed the door shut and barricaded it with one of the cabinets, knowing it would only buy him a few seconds to search for what he needed. He looked frantically and hopefully for a file that he had been in search of for years, since the outbreak began and they started quarantining districts off. Several families had been separated because of the outbreak, either by death or by separation, and both by imposition and forced.

  The disease that started all of this was originally intended to heal rather than to destroy. It was a parasitic vaccine that was created to devour cancer cells with each vaccine having different half-life’s based on how severe the cancer was. If it were a success, the university, Branford, would have become forever known as the heroes who had finally created a cure for cancer.

  When first tested, the results appeared promising, with patients showing no signs of hair loss or skin disease. They were even being healed by it, regaining their hair and their skin turning vibrant and glowing. The following weeks, some subjects started to show immunity to intense pain whereas others showed the ability to carry fire or unlock the other ninety percent of their brain, giving them telekinetic powers. One day a man with a prison sentence volunteered to be one of these test subjects as he was on death row. Within minutes, he showed symptoms of extreme strength and speed, allowing him to break out of the laboratory he was being tested in and kill several police officers in the process. When he was on the street, he infected several citizens, and even infected members of his own gang. The city was a battlefield, military gunning down gang members and even citizens for fear that they were also infected. Since then, they have closed off several districts and separated millions of people for their own protection. Several families even turned in their own loved ones, knowing that the infected can be dangerous.

  He was searching through an entire cabinet labeled “M” for a file that he had hoped would be there. He searched, using his hand to burn the files that weren’t helpful to him and leaving a pile of black and smoldering paper beside him. He had spent six minutes searching when he heard the barricaded door being slammed against the cabinet, once – twice – three times, then the door gave way and the cabinet flew past Danny, making him flinch. On the other side stood a man of about thirty-six wearing camouflaged military cargo pants and gray t-shirt with dog tags around his neck. His green eyes stared at Danny with seething disdain as he made his way to him, the ground shaking.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he said with pure seriousness in his voice.

  “I was just trying to take cover and –,”

  “From all the way in here? We have to go while we still can. They’re bringing in the PU’s!” he yelled.

  “I just need to –, “

  Not letting him respond, the man grabbed his leather jacket with his large tanned hand and carried him off toward the truck containing the infected, machine gun in the other hand. He threw Danny into the back with the others and slammed the door down behind him. Holding onto the side, he shouted at Ashley to punch the gas. She slammed on the pedal while the man blasted the turret of a firearm he was wielding. He killed at least two soldiers in the process then climbed into the passenger seat as he faded into the background.

  “You know I hate that Merrick!” Danny shouted from the back. Ignoring him, Merrick asked Ashley if they got everyone in the back. She said that she didn’t see anyone leave. “Guys,” Danny said, “we have eleven people back here.”

  “Ok,” replied Merrick.

  Danny retorted, “Isn’t this a twelve person truck?”

  It was still raining when Alex, wearing his hood over his head, ran up to the front of his school. In front of the building was a yellow bus with several other students inside and one last student about to get in. “Wait!” Alex shouted as he ran up to the bus behind the girl about to get in.

  “There you are,” replied the brown haired girl with brown eyes magnified by the rectangular glasses she wore. Wearing a blue jacket and blue jeans, she climbed in, Alex following her. “Where have you been? I had to stall them for you,” She said dissatisfied.

  “Some of us don’t live next door to the school, Julie,” he sneered.

  “Whatever,” She replied. “At least I get perfect attendance easier,” She commented in a snarky tone.

  “Nerd.”

  “Shut up,” Julie said in a playful tone as she unzipped her jacket, revealing her third day revelation album shirt.

  “I suppose I am happy I made it to this one at least,” Alex added.

  “I’m sure that you are,” Julie replied.

  “The science lab behind the Disease X program,” Alex quoted from the itinerary Julie was holding in her hands.

  “And you call me a nerd,” She stated.

  “Say whatever you want, I’m proud to be interested in the disease.” The doors shut and they both took a seat in the midsection of the school bus. The bus had begun moving and Alex said to Julie, “This is going to be awesome.”

  I

  Diagnosis

  The rain was beating d
own like turret fire as the forever moving citizens of New York wandered the streets in their daily routine. Here there were, most likely, the ones they call the freaks or the monsters walking among them in their disguises. One such monster is constantly reminded of this as he walks the streets with his head looking down at his phone checking his messages. A message quoting, it’s time, had appeared and a feeling of anxiety quickly swept over him. The monster disguised as a man quickly walked over into an empty alleyway.

  His brown trench coat was swishing with his movements and his drenched black hair dripped water onto his brow. His soaked blue slacks and the bottom of his sweater were slowly dripping to the ground. Drip, drip, drip. It was all that could be heard as the monster diverged from the noise of the herd behind him. Continuing down the alleyway, the monster sent another message to the sender stating: is everyone ready? Within moments the sender replied were waiting on you. The monster read this message and quickly removed the battery cap from his phone, took out the phones insides and threw the empty shell as well as the insides on the ground. The monster approached a corner and in that instant, arms emerged from the other side and took hold of his overcoat.

  The arms, with great force, threw him into a wall on a small staircase, in a hole on the ground, hidden by a dumpster. As the monster was trying to refrain from falling down the staircase, a man wearing a Kevlar vest with sleeves underneath quickly pulled the dumpster over the hole which housed both him and the monster.

  The man was wearing fingerless gloves, as well as grey cargo pants and a black baseball cap. He wore black military boots with the bottoms of the cargo pants tucked in and a bandana to hide his face. The monster quickly turned around and gave the man a haymaker to the bandana covering his face. Taking the hit, the man stumbled up the staircase and the monster grabbed him by the back of his head and slammed it up to the bottom of the dumpster. This caused the man to fall down and cover his forehead. The monster was about to stomp his stomach when he heard a familiar voice.