AM13 Outbreak Shorts

Quarantine - Prologue

Shrill alarm bells ring, lights flash, fear and panic comes at me from every single angle. My heart thunders noisily in my chest, my mouth feels like it has a cotton ball stuffed right into it, I don't know what to do. There's a screaming noise coming from somewhere too, which is weird because for some reason it feels incredibly disembodied.

One moment everything was calm, the day was exactly the same as every other and the next...well, the next everything had completely fallen apart.

As the infected stagger from their beds where they were strapped down to protect us, I tumble backwards falling hard into a wall. Someone must've cracked, maybe someone lost it because they couldn't stand what we'd been asked to do. I understand that I feel that way myself but not so strongly that I'd endanger everyone else. This is utter madness!

As I glance my eyes from side-to-side my lungs squeeze tight, an ice cold hopelessness washes over me. This is it, the end. The quarantine has failed, the attempt to control the virus is done, we're all utterly screwed.

They say when you're about to die, your whole life flashes before you. I've seen enough death in my time, but it's not until this exact moment as a strange sense of calm takes over me, I can see how true that is. I see my childhood, my loved ones, my achievements first before my brain takes a much darker turn. I close my eyes as the faces of the people I've killed brushes through my vision. One by one they taunt me, they remind me that I've not always been a good person, that maybe I don't deserve to live.

I've caused enough brutal death, maybe that's what I deserve too.

I want to cry, but I can't. How can I? This is justice, karma coming to get me.

The infected get closer, all I can smell is them, and I know the end has come for me. As I tense and I prepare to die it hits me that all along the screaming has been coming from me.