25 It Went Viral

Todd dug his way out from under the pile of bodies that were sprawled all over the first floor office. All twenty-five employees, besides Todd, laid dead or dying. He remembered an explosion, then the room filling with smoke as gunfire erupted. He ducked under the front counter as Alice fell to the floor in front of him, staring at him through lifeless eyes and a gaping, oozing hole in her forehead. Another explosion rocked the bank; Todd blacked out.

Todd stood up, staring at the carnage. Sirens raged in front of the building, random pops of gunfire rang in his ears. He carefully maneuvered his way through the tangled mess of corpses to the blown out front windows. Shards of glass fell on Todd, gashing his arm, as he exited the building.

A haze of smoke still hung low to the ground outside. Todd could hear screams of terrified people, several police officers were laying dead on the sidewalk. He could not see further than that but was sure he did not want to. He took refuge behind a firetruck to avoid any stray bullets.

The gunfire died down but Todd could hear a stampede of screaming people coming his direction. Rather than getting crushed by the mob, he climbed under the firetruck. He could see feet scattering by and the occasional person falling down getting crushed under the herd of people. Shrieks of pain caused Todd to cover his ears. He could see someone had bent down to help one of the fallen but when he looked a bit closer, the man was not helping her at all. He was ripping the flesh from her body with his hands and chewing on her neck. Blood ran towards Todd and puddled inches from his face. He had to hold back the bile rising in his throat.

After what seemed an eternity, Todd, uncovered his ears. The chaos had dwindled to a mild panic. The smoke had cleared enough that he could see bodies lying everywhere along the street. Victims were not just from the panicked mob; police officers, firefighters, and medics were also mixed in.

Todd finally gathered enough courage to come out from under the truck. He stepped over several bodies to get towards the middle of the street. He looked left, then right. A small crowd was rushing up the street to his right. For a moment he considered jumping back under the firetruck, instead, he decided to see if anyone could tell him what was happening. He began waving his hands, hollering to get their attention. They were not slowing down, rather, it seemed they were all making a beeline towards him. As they grew nearer, he could hear a low guttural moaning coming from the crowd. As they got even closer, Todd could see skin hanging off of some, limbs missing from others, and only the whites of their eyes were visible. Todd was quickly regretting not getting back under the truck.

As the group of mutilated bodies neared within one block, Todd knew it was time to run. The crowd began shrieking a blood-curdling sound as Todd darted in the opposite direction. He busted through the door of one of the high-rises, quickly closing and locking it behind him. The shrieking crowd slammed into the closed door, bending it at the hinges. Todd ran to the elevators and started mashing the button to go up. The closest elevator was dropping but it was still on the thirteenth floor. He could hear the glass breaking at the main door. Nine, eight, seven...the elevator stopped. The door was about to give. He kept pushing the button. Finally, the elevator was moving again. Four, three, two, one...the elevator finally arrived.

The door to the elevator opened. A pale looking man, wearing a blood-stained shirt who also had visible throat muscles with a flap of skin hanging, lunged out at him. Todd threw him aside and lunged into the elevator. He pushed the top floor button, the doors started to close. The last thing he saw before the doors shut was the glass door busting in.

The elevator stopped on the fifty-third floor. He exited the elevator into a long, wide hallway. There were four doors, two on each side; Todd tried the first one, it was locked. He banged on it a couple of times but no one answered. He ran across the hall, twisted the knob, and the door popped open. No one was in the room. Todd flipped on the TV to see what was going on. A reporter was on the screen describing scenes of terror from across the city. Someone had detonated a bomb at the CDC research site unleashing a violent, rapid spreading virus. The same group bombed several buildings believed to be holding pieces of secret research that the CDC had been conducting. Moments later soldiers walked into the newsroom, the camera shook violently then stood still on an image of the floor. Gunshots exploded, then the channel went dead.

Todd flipped through several more channels only to find more dead air. He left the room to see if anyone else was on the floor.

He knocked on the next door. No answer, but he could hear papers rustling in there. He hollered a couple of times, but no one came to the door. He crossed the hall to the last door. He could hear raised voices inside the room. He did not knock right away, he just listened to what he could of the conversation. Someone was yelling about "not following some damned orders." The conversation went quiet for a few seconds then someone could be heard screaming, "Don't do it, you don't have to do this!" A loud explosion deafened Todd for a second. When the ringing in his ears died down, he could only hear some muffled voices in the room.

Todd decided to go down a few floors. He turned toward the elevators as the door behind him swung open. Someone yanked him in by his collar. "So...we have an eavesdropper, huh?" Todd said, "I was just looking for other living people. I don't know what happened in there and I don't care." The guy let go of Todd's collar. Todd turned around to face a hulking statue of a man. He had a military uniform but Todd did not recognize what branch he was serving. The towering giant stared, intensely, down at Todd. Todd quivered a bit. Another man came around the corner, his look was just as intense but his stature was less intimidating.

"Good evening. What were you doing outside of our door?" asked the less intimidating soldier. "I was just looking for other people. Those things outside are not people. I saw something on the news, in the other room, talking about some kind of virus. Do you know anything about it?" Todd queried. "You don't ask questions! We do!" the monstrous man spoke this time. "Let me just get out of here. I'll go to a different floor and wait this thing out. I won't tell anyone anything." Todd promised. "Ha! We can't let you do that. This is our mess to clean up but no one else can know." "I won't tell a soul. I'll even leave this building and take my chances elsewhere. Come on!" begged Todd. "No!" the bulk of a man said. He grabbed Todd by the throat, lifting him a foot off the ground. He carried him across the room, then tossed him through a window. Glass fell alongside Todd. There was a larger group of monsters in front of the building now. Todd could see them getting closer as he fell. He thought, at least I'll be dead before they get a hold of me. Todd was quickly growing closer to the concrete, his body hit with a thud that sent a mild shake through the ground. The ghastly creatures swarmed his body. The last of his blood oozed onto the sidewalk as the monsters clawed and scratched through his flesh, devouring his insides.