Epidemic
Zombies!
When you live in the information age, its easy to forget. Even after plugging in all of your appointments in your palm pilot, at the end of the day you never remember to thank your wife for cooking your favorite meal and always forget to tell your children that you love them. They say the city can drive you insane. There are very few people left in this world who haven’t gotten sucked into the hectic working lives of everyone else around them. Noel Brand was one of those few.
Noel was never one to give up on the dreams of his childhood. He had always wanted to become a chemist like his father growing up. His father taught young Noel everything he knew about chemistry, which in turn earned him outstanding marks in his honors courses in high school. He was so good in fact, that he got a college scholarship to a popular university. He unfortunately never went due to a crazy turn of events.
It happened the day he graduated high school. It was the year 2010. After walking off the stage with his diploma, his cell phone rang in his jean pocket. As he reached for it, an eerie feeling swept over him. When he put it to his ear he heard his fathers pleading voice say something about an experiment gone wrong. All that Noel could make out were these two words: ‘epidemic’ and ‘2013.’
Noel rushed home only to find his father collapsed on the basement floor surrounded by broken beakers and scattered paperwork. Noel realized that it consisted of foreign symbols and strange step-by-step directions, all written in Latin. He took them without hesitation and hid them before calling 911. His father was dead before they even got him in the ambulance.
Now, 2 years later, Noel sits in the kitchen of his one room apartment in New York, void of emotion. It is 7:16 am and he had just gotten fired from his job at a Chinese food restaurant in Queens. He looked around his small living space hoping to find something he could sell. His stomach grumbled a complaint as he sighed, getting up and moving toward the counter.
Before opening the cabinet door, he caught a glimpse of today’s mail that he didn’t bother to open earlier. On the very top was a letter with no return address or stamp, which he considered odd. Curious, he ripped it open carefully and pulled out the contents. Inside was a letter written in the neatest penmanship Noel had ever seen.
He began to read:
There are a few things you must know. I knew your father well and I am sorry for your loss. I also know that you are a scientific genius, just like himself. I am a psychic and I foresee the future, and two years ago I had visions of terrible beasts coming to terrorize your city New Years day of 2013, which is in one week. Your father and I were working together to find a way to stop this epidemic but consequently it cost him his life. I know you still have the documents that were left behind that day. You need to find them and finish where he left off. You are our only hope.
Noel stood leaning against his table with his eyes wide, staring at the piece of paper in his hands. There was no signature at the end of the text. Noels head was spinning as he fell to his knees on the kitchen floor. He read and re-read the anonymous letter several times before coming to the conclusion that he would ignore it, even though his instincts told him to trust it.
A day had passed and Noel hadn’t gotten any sleep. He kept thinking about that letter and mulling over the information in his mind. He hadn’t done this in 2 years and he wasn’t keen on starting again. It brought back too many sad memories. Before long he decided to pull out the box of his fathers old stuff.
He opened it and sure enough the papers were on top. He leafed through them and got frustrated. He didn’t know a thing about Latin, so he did what any modern day person would do. He turned on a computer. It took all night to translate everything, and much to Noels dismay, it still didn’t make much sense yet.
For the whole week he became obsessed with coming to a conclusion. He experimented illegally in his apartment for days, and almost lost hope. Each day was one step closer to becoming 2013. He knew what to expect now, and he was ready for them.
The night of New Years Eve was in full gear. Even though he didn’t go outside, Noel could hear the festivities and see the lights from Times Square when he looked out the window. As time passed it became darker outside and the noise still remained. His palms were sweating and his body was aching but he didn’t give up.
It wasn’t until the big countdown arrived that Noel finished. “Five!” He opened the curtains. “Four!” He loaded the guns. “Three!” He put on his protective gear. “Two!” He grabbed the solution. “One!” He ran out the door, slamming it shut. “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” He waited. When he heard the sound of screams and saw people running in terror, he would react.
They came by the dozen, and were soon on every street corner in New York City. They had eyes of white marble, the teeth of a wolf and bloodied mouths with flesh and skin hanging from their chins. They were people, but they were not human. They moved at an alarming rate and snatched up innocents from the streets and ripped them to shreds.
They were hard to run away from, but not difficult to kill. They were no match for Noel, who slaughtered them with precision and dissolved their corpses in the mixture designed to kill only their kind. He saved many lives that night, and made sure to tell every one of them his name, and to remember him and what he died for.
Noel was never one to give up on the dreams of his childhood. He had always wanted to become a chemist like his father growing up. His father taught young Noel everything he knew about chemistry, which in turn earned him outstanding marks in his honors courses in high school. He was so good in fact, that he got a college scholarship to a popular university. He unfortunately never went due to a crazy turn of events.
It happened the day he graduated high school. It was the year 2010. After walking off the stage with his diploma, his cell phone rang in his jean pocket. As he reached for it, an eerie feeling swept over him. When he put it to his ear he heard his fathers pleading voice say something about an experiment gone wrong. All that Noel could make out were these two words: ‘epidemic’ and ‘2013.’
Noel rushed home only to find his father collapsed on the basement floor surrounded by broken beakers and scattered paperwork. Noel realized that it consisted of foreign symbols and strange step-by-step directions, all written in Latin. He took them without hesitation and hid them before calling 911. His father was dead before they even got him in the ambulance.
Now, 2 years later, Noel sits in the kitchen of his one room apartment in New York, void of emotion. It is 7:16 am and he had just gotten fired from his job at a Chinese food restaurant in Queens. He looked around his small living space hoping to find something he could sell. His stomach grumbled a complaint as he sighed, getting up and moving toward the counter.
Before opening the cabinet door, he caught a glimpse of today’s mail that he didn’t bother to open earlier. On the very top was a letter with no return address or stamp, which he considered odd. Curious, he ripped it open carefully and pulled out the contents. Inside was a letter written in the neatest penmanship Noel had ever seen.
He began to read:
There are a few things you must know. I knew your father well and I am sorry for your loss. I also know that you are a scientific genius, just like himself. I am a psychic and I foresee the future, and two years ago I had visions of terrible beasts coming to terrorize your city New Years day of 2013, which is in one week. Your father and I were working together to find a way to stop this epidemic but consequently it cost him his life. I know you still have the documents that were left behind that day. You need to find them and finish where he left off. You are our only hope.
Noel stood leaning against his table with his eyes wide, staring at the piece of paper in his hands. There was no signature at the end of the text. Noels head was spinning as he fell to his knees on the kitchen floor. He read and re-read the anonymous letter several times before coming to the conclusion that he would ignore it, even though his instincts told him to trust it.
A day had passed and Noel hadn’t gotten any sleep. He kept thinking about that letter and mulling over the information in his mind. He hadn’t done this in 2 years and he wasn’t keen on starting again. It brought back too many sad memories. Before long he decided to pull out the box of his fathers old stuff.
He opened it and sure enough the papers were on top. He leafed through them and got frustrated. He didn’t know a thing about Latin, so he did what any modern day person would do. He turned on a computer. It took all night to translate everything, and much to Noels dismay, it still didn’t make much sense yet.
For the whole week he became obsessed with coming to a conclusion. He experimented illegally in his apartment for days, and almost lost hope. Each day was one step closer to becoming 2013. He knew what to expect now, and he was ready for them.
The night of New Years Eve was in full gear. Even though he didn’t go outside, Noel could hear the festivities and see the lights from Times Square when he looked out the window. As time passed it became darker outside and the noise still remained. His palms were sweating and his body was aching but he didn’t give up.
It wasn’t until the big countdown arrived that Noel finished. “Five!” He opened the curtains. “Four!” He loaded the guns. “Three!” He put on his protective gear. “Two!” He grabbed the solution. “One!” He ran out the door, slamming it shut. “HAPPY NEW YEAR!” He waited. When he heard the sound of screams and saw people running in terror, he would react.
They came by the dozen, and were soon on every street corner in New York City. They had eyes of white marble, the teeth of a wolf and bloodied mouths with flesh and skin hanging from their chins. They were people, but they were not human. They moved at an alarming rate and snatched up innocents from the streets and ripped them to shreds.
They were hard to run away from, but not difficult to kill. They were no match for Noel, who slaughtered them with precision and dissolved their corpses in the mixture designed to kill only their kind. He saved many lives that night, and made sure to tell every one of them his name, and to remember him and what he died for.
♠ ♠ ♠
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