2 Episode 1: The beginning and the ending (1)
I gazed out of my window as the stars glittered in the deep, dark space. It's rare to see stars at night in an urban city like Coventry.
"3:00 am..." I muttered to myself.
The night sky was awfully quiet as I listened to my laptop playing a live stream in the background.
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"Yahoooo~ this entire world is finally now under 'my' control!"
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"Huh... what an idiot," I thought to myself. It took him five hours to finish the game 'infect'. There were many routes he could have done better but...
"Haaa..." I let out a sigh. "Why am I getting so annoyed? It's just a game, not like I care much..."
Suddenly, my phone buzzed and the screen illuminated the entire room.
I shielded my eyes as I peeked through my fingers trying to make out what was being displayed.
It's Janda.
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Janda: "Hey look!"
Janda: "There's some hot news goin..."
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That was the two messages I saw before I got bombarded with more messages moments later. My phone kept buzzing and flashing non-stop for the next few moments as I saw the notifications replacing each other through the tiny gaps of my fingers.
The bright light gave me a shocking feeling as I rolled my eyes.
"Agh... what's this? Messages 3:00 am in the morning?" I said angrily. "Come on... I was about the head to sleep after that boring stream! Forget it, I'm gonna check tomorrow."
I turned the phone screen off, put it on silent and headed to bed.
* * *
The next morning, I make myself a slice of bread and headed off to uni[1]; just another typical Monday.
I slid my EarPods in, turned up the music and started scrolling through my messages.
Cars paced by the busy streets as I walked along the pavement heading towards the engineering building.
"What the-? 26 messages? That's ridiculous! Is he spamming me or something?"
I tapped his contact name and opened his messages.
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Janda: "Hey look!"
Janda: "There's some hot news going around lately!"
Janda: "You gotta see this!"
Janda: "I know you're not asleep man..."
Janda: "Anyway, apparently some random virus was found. Here's the link below..."
...
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I quickly glimpsed through the paragraphs within the website. To summarise, it was talking about how the virus is dangerous and some important features this virus had.
"C19...? Is that the virus name?" I muttered to myself.
"Symptoms..." I said looking at my phone.
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"...feels hot when touching the back or the chest..."
"...continuous coughing..."
"...change in sense of smell and taste..."
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"This looks... pretty normal. Well, normal symptoms of being infected by a virus. It'll get resolved soon. Just like that African virus a couple of years ago..." I thought to myself.
I scrolled back to the top and looked at the publishing date.
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'20th January 2020 2:48 am'
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"What? So Janda instantly sent me the text after he saw this?" I said quietly but then I heard a loud crash.
In the distance, a black car stumbled onto the pavement crashing into a pole on the opposite side of the street.
The driver got out of the car. He was wearing a white shirt with his sleeves rolled up and his tie loosely done.
"Aw, man!" He kicked the floor furiously as a couple of cars stopped by to check out the situation.
"What the fuck is wrong with this heatwave!!! My hands started sweating and it slipped on the wheel! Shit!" He punched the pole but in return injured his fist.
I could hear his voice from where I was standing through my EarPods. "Damn... he's loud."
I continued to walk off pretending as nothing happened and moments later, some police cars stopped by the crash.
* * *
Looking at my watch, it was 10:03 am.
"Oh shit... I'm late again. Damn that stupid car. I better go in through the back..."
That was what I thought but the usually busy hallway, was very quiet today.
I peeked in through the windows and saw a bunch of students gathered around one spot near the seating area.
The lecturer has begun his class but no one was paying any attention to him.
"I guess no one's gonna notice if I step through the front door~ right?" I said quietly as I walked into the room.
I glanced over at the commotion as I stepped up towards my usual seat near the back. They were watching something - a live stream.
"So... when you use this formula and-" the lecturer explained but suddenly interrupted by a student standing near the commotion.
"Hey, Dr. Vandel! You gotta see this! It's about the go live!"
"It's class time, please quiet down and focus!" the lecturer said furiously.
"Nah, you HAVE to see this!"
"Yeah! Yeah! It's about to go live, put it on the screen!" shouted the other students. The guy with the laptop squeezed his way down the stairs and pushed the lecturer aside.
"Wha- what are you doing!?"
The guy continued ignoring the lecturer and plugged the HDMI cable into his laptop.
*Bzzz*
The screen lit up and a moment later, the live stream started.
* * *
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"Look at what's happening over there- hey! Why are you pointing the camera at me? Point over there!"
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She said angrily while pointing out of the open helicopter door.
The cameraman in the stream shifted the camera towards the ground. They were live streaming from a helicopter flying above a city. It looked familiar but I couldn't tell where they were located. He zoomed in and what we saw next was not what we expected; it was devastating.
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"Ahem, as you can see... there seems to be some kind of protest? going on down there..."
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The host turned her head to the other side of the helicopter and gasped.
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"Hey capture this bit!"
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We all saw it. The big, blue windows, that reflected the sunlight, were shattering. An army of some sort wearing full black suit and helmet rampaged through the city. Missiles flying left and right as fighter jets soared through the bright, blue sky. It was as if this world turned upside down in an instance.
"What the hell was going on?" I thought to myself.
The helicopter shook fiercely and the cameraman dropped the camera. It laid on its side facing towards the left side of the helicopter where the door was wide open. We could all see a flying object from the distant sky heading towards them.
*BANG*
A loud noise through the speakers stunned the students in the room.
The live stream suddenly cut off. The missile, it hit them.
*Bzzzzzzzzzzzz*
The loud buzzing sound echoed throughout the room as everyone looked at each other with their shocked and confused face.
There was a moment of silence in the room but not for long.
The lecturer couldn't stop trembling, but he still acted professionally and said, "Everyone... please calm down. I will go find out more... stay here and don't go anywhere."
"This... doesn't sound right. How did this all happen without any commotion or prior uprising? The internet... shouldn't it be spreading like wildfire if something like this happens or is about to happen?" I thought.
I had so many questions but no one could answer them... at least, no one from this room.
Dr Vandel left the room and after a brief silence, the room became chaotic. Worries filled everyone's faces. The students took out their phones and started digging for more information. Some laughed about it being a realistic joke, others shivered in fear.
I looked around, but I couldn't see Janda.
"Huh? He didn't come to class today? Why? Hang on... did he... perhaps?" I questioned myself.
I took out my phone and tried calling him.
*Beep-*
"You are out of range, please try again later."
"What?"
I was greeted with a robotic voice.
"No signal?" I thought.
There was no signal bar displaying on my screen.
"That's weird," I thought to myself. "Usually, I get full bars and at least 4G in this room..."
I was in confusion but it wasn't the time to doubt anything. While still wearing my backpack, I walked up the carpet stairs and sneaked out the back door.
I passed by the teaching office and Dr Vandel was telling the other staffs about what he just witnessed.
"That's absurd."
"I'm looking through the news but I see nothing."
"Isn't it just that kid playing a prank on you?"
"No! It looked real!" Dr Vandel exclaimed. "Everyone in that room was shivering after seeing that!"
No one believed him. It was understandable since only us students and Dr Vandel saw it.
For some reason, I got the feeling that I shouldn't be caught leaving the building because of what I just heard.
I need to find Janda fast. He probably knows something I don't... maybe something about this situation.
*****
[1] 'uni' stands for university
