2 The tattered man

(Meghan)

Meghan was in a meeting when her phone lit up. She picked it up to find a voice note from her friend Riya.

She made sure to check if her mic was muted and then played the voice note.

"Bro, bro, brooooo…" Riya began. Meghan smiled even though she knew it was coming, "Have you read about what happened in Singapore? It's too scary bro. The virus is becoming crazier. I just read an article that said there were some cases in Singapore where the victims just straight up died after being infected for just a few hours. How terrifying is that? I'm worried what's gonna happen if those deadly strands make it here. Like what can we even do? I can't even think about it. Anyway, I'll send you the article. Take a look when you can."

That was the end of the voice note. And within a few seconds, Riya forwarded a link to a news article about a new mutated strand of the Corona virus that was discovered in Singapore just last week.

Meghan tensed up a little. As she read more of the article, she only got more anxious. There was a lot more to the story than what Riya had said. Apparently, the infected man violently lashed out at the people around him as if he was possessed. He attacked three people and badly injured them before succumbing to the virus. His victims were immediately rushed to the hospital only to discover than the virus had spread to them as well. When morning came, the nurse found three corpses in the place of the patients.

Meghan's eyes widened with shock as she slowly placed her phone down on the bed.

What the hell was happening? The virus was bad enough but now it's mutating and getting stronger? She could understand why Riya seemed concerned. This was indeed worrying on many different levels. Singapore wasn't that far from India either. If this deadly strand were to reach them here…

She shuddered at the thought.

Although reading the article made her feel uneasy, she didn't want to dwell on such things for too long. Mainly because she didn't have the luxury of time on her side. The most important thing right now was the meeting she was overseeing. Some of her juniors had shamelessly messed up the presentation they were supposed to do tomorrow and it was now her job to fix it all.

She sighed loudly. Why couldn't she have better teammates? It wasn't such a big thing to ask for, was it? She didn't even want them to do all the work on their own but was it unreasonable to expect them to do their own tasks properly? Meghan didn't think so. And yet here she was spending her valuable time fixing things that others broke.

Normally she would have considered making them redo the whole thing but tomorrow's presentation was an important one. She could not afford to let that get botched.

And so, she buried herself in her work.

......................

(Ray)

Ray was enjoying the view from his balcony when he was suddenly distracted by a disturbance he saw at the front gate.

He saw a man wearing tattered clothes tussling with one of the security guards. It looked like he was trying to force his way into the apartment complex and it was taking everything the security guard had to keep him at bay. The tattered man seemed to be pushing the guard back with relative ease as their struggle continued. Although his friends were still talking in the background, Ray was not paying attention to their words. He stood at his balcony, transfixed by what he was seeing before him.

"Hello!" Leon called out loudly, "Ray, you dead?"

"Shut up for a bit" He replied seriously.

Adam laughed.

"Woah you don't have to be rude…" Leon started.

"No seriously, be quiet. Something weird is happening at the front gate."

Just as he said that Ray saw the struggling guard call out for help as another man in uniform rushed over. The two of them could barely keep the tattered man from advancing forward. For a brief moment it seemed as if even both guards together weren't enough to stop him. The intruder grunted loudly and stood his ground, not even budging an inch despite bearing the full weight of two grown men.

"What the fuck?" Ray said to himself.

"Yo Ray, what's going on?" Rody asked, "What are you seeing?"

"Some kinda fight…" Ray said uncertainly, "Some strange guy is trying to force his way in and the security guards are trying to hold him off."

"Woah, what?" Leon laughed, "That's kinda funny. Why would anyone try to force their way into Prime?"

"I don't know. But it doesn't look funny at all. The guards seem to be struggling. Jeez how strong is this guy…"

Ray watched on as yet another guard ran over and started pulling the tattered man back from the hem of his clothes. Together, the three security personnel managed to drive the man towards the main gate and push him out. The intruder fell on his back and seemed to be struggling to get back on his feet. The guards yelled curses at him before walking back inside the apartment complex.

"I think it's over now…" he started, "They pushed him out."

"Wow, it took this long to handle one dude? That says a lot about our security guys" Adam joked.

Ray chuckled, "Yeah, they were actually having a hard time. Almost as if…"

Before he could finish his sentence, the tattered man sprung to his feet and lunged at one of the guards. Before the poor man could even react, the intruder opened his jaws wide and bit into the guard's neck.

The guard screamed out in pain and tried desperately to free himself. The other two security personnel stood there completely stunned for a few seconds. Once they had realized what had happened, they immediately rushed forward to pry the tattered man away.

"Holy shit!" Ray exclaimed.

"What? What's happening?" His friends asked.

"He—he bit a guard…"

"Bit?" Rody asked, "Like with his teeth?"

"How else do you bite someone?" asked Leon.

"Leon just shut up for a sec!" said Ray in frustration, his eyes still transfixed at the skirmish he was witnessing.

"Jeez fine, I didn't say anything…" Leon whimpered to himself.

The tattered man wasn't letting go despite the efforts of the security guards. They pulled him, punched him, kicked his ankles and even battered his head with their fists but to no avail. He only groaned loudly and sunk his teeth deeper into his victim. The guard on the floor kept crying out for help, for his god, for just about anyone to save him.

Soon, more people gathered around them. They looked like they were residents of Prime. Ray recognized one of them to be the head of the Owner's Committee, Samson. Together the residents and the other two guards held the tattered man and tried to wrestle him off the poor man.

As they jerked his head away, a stream of blood shot out from the injured guard's neck, covering his clothes and the area around him in a deep red hue. He then fell to his knees and collapsed on the ground. A pool of blood cushioned his head as it started spreading wider and wider.

Ray gasped in horror. He could not believe what he was seeing. Had he just witnessed a murder? As he stood on his balcony, petrified after seeing the guard lying in a puddle of his own blood, a cold chill ran steadily along his back. He could not move; he could not speak. All he could manage to do was hold his phone to his ears and stare blankly at the front gate.

His friends were shouting at him for information. They kept asking, "Ray what's happening?" "What's going on?" "Are you there?" "Dude, what the fuck? Say something!"

He opened his mouth to speak but words abandoned him. The hair on his arms stood upright, his eyes were wide and unblinking. It was as if he was frozen.

Back at the main gate, together with some of the residents, they had finally managed to shove the intruder far enough for them to close the gate. But it seemed the tattered man did not give up easy. He charged forward and slammed his body into the metal gate, causing the residents to flinch and take a few steps back. A few of them kept their eyes fixed on the intruder while the rest immediately turned and started tending to the guard on the ground.

A resident Ray didn't recognize, pulled out his phone and started calling someone. It was either the cops or an ambulance. In a situation as dire as this, they needed both.

Just as Ray began to wonder if the security guard had succumbed to his injuries, he saw him move. He lifted his arm lazily and placed it on the ground at an odd angle. He attempted to lift himself up but his hand slipped from under him and he fell face first onto the concrete. Seeing this, several people rushed to his side in order to help him stand up. One person retrieved an old cloth from the security cabin and pressed it against his injured neck in a feeble attempt to stem the bleeding.

A woman, who Ray recognized as Susan, ran up to them and started talking in a very animated fashion. She seemed to be trying to get a response from the injured guard but he wasn't in any state to give a legible answer. Soon enough her husband, Samson, walked back from the main gate and explained what had just happened. She nodded several times and placed her hand over her mouth in disbelief as he reached the end of the story.

Susan then said a few words to the resident who was on the phone and the man shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't believe this!" she shouted loudly, "How could they not answer?"

She then pulled out her own phone, tapped on it a few times and placed it over her ear. Susan walked up to the injured man and placed a hand gently on his arm in an attempt to reassure him.

"Yo Ray!" Rody shouted through the phone.

Ray flinched slightly. That brought him back to reality. He shook his head and answered, "I'm here" he said.

"What's happening?" they asked collectively.

"One of the guards is injured. He's bleeding all over the ground. Susan and her husband are there right now. I think they're calling for an ambulance. The weird guy is still at the gate though, he kept ramming into it like a maniac."

"Ramming into it? The fuck…" Adam commented.

"Damn, maybe he's a crazy person or something."

"Possible… I just hope the ambulance gets here in time. The guard's lost a lot of blood…"

"AAAAIIIIIIIIII!"

A shrill scream cut through the air. Everything else fell silent in that instance.

"What the hell was that?" Leon said, "I heard it all the way here…"

"Me too!" exclaimed Adam.

Ray focused his gaze back towards the front gate and saw something appalling. His eyed widened and his mouth dropped open. For a second Ray couldn't believe what he was seeing. It looked like a scene taken straight out of a horror flick.

The injured guard had bitten off a finger from Susan's hand and was chewing it in his mouth as she lay writhing on the floor. She held her hand tightly and cried out in pain. Her husband ran to her aid and helped her up. He turned his head and cursed loudly at the guard who still chewing the finger. He didn't react. Instead, he was staring at a rather chubby resident beside him who seemed completely mortified by what he was seeing.

In an instant, the injured guard rushed forward, tackled the resident to the ground and took a big bite off his face. He pulled his head up unnaturally and came up with a sizeable chunk of the man's flesh.

The poor resident howled in pain. He tried desperately to push the guard away but he was pinned down completely. He then reached out a helpless hand to the others around him and pleaded for their help. But this time nobody moved. They all stood and watched as the deranged guard bit into his face again and tore off his nose before swallowing it whole. The banging of the main gate grew louder and louder until finally a loud snap was heard, followed by a metallic thud.

Ray watched in pure terror and the main gate lay flat on the ground. The crazed intruder slowly walked inside Prime Gardens, bearing his bloody teeth and scanning around for his next victim.

'Oh fuck' Ray thought to himself, 'Oh fuck! What the hell is going on?"