Chapter 3: Contagion

The air filled sadness with the surviving group. As they may have been able to clear the area, they witnessed another fallen comrade.

Leo is in the corner of the left section and was mourning for the death of his close friend. With no one leading them after the mission was accomplished, each had their own things to do.

Raj and Ahmed were Indian buddies at the company who have been like a buddy system ever since they worked at the company. Raj is a softer person compared to Ahmed but he's easily scared of horror.

As Raj was roaming around, who didn't know how to start any conversation, he then saw Ahmed on the right wing.

"I wonder what Ahmed is doing...the guys are feeling really down, I think we need to do something or everyone's drowning in sadness" he said to himself as he walked towards the right wing.

From the door, he saw Ahmed along with Carlos, Zoe and Ava dragging the undead to a specific room. Zoe has been an obedient worker and always supports Ava as her best friend since they worked together. Ava is a close friend of Leo and is currently working with Carlos which explains their closeness together.

Ahmed saw him and said "Oh Raj! Come come! We need to put these bodies somewhere or else we'll smell them after"

Raj was happy to oblige yet as he walked he noticed that the other 3 random coworkers before were separately put in place along with Ethan and the random woman.

"I don't know their names, but... I just felt like we should give them a separate place to lie down" Ava mentioned.

"I see..." Raj said with a sad tone.

The group continued dragging the bodies appropriately.

On the other side of the wind. Hannah was seen to be writing and talking to herself in a cubicle. Hannah has been a sweet and polite girl at their office, which everyone knows of. Yet, what lies in her true self is being selfish and a social climber. This explains her weakness during the apocalypse.

"I can't die, I shouldn't die... I'm still young...oh God please" she keeps saying the same words repetitively like she's begging to be saved.

"You know... we're all scared. But we don't have other options except to become strong don't we?" Isaac said as he approached her and smiled as he tried to calm her down.

Isaac has been known as the good boy of the company. He's currently the youngest of them all and has been helping out others when in need. His family suffered poverty before which explains his determination at work. Yet, the apocalypse has changed the way things go now.

"Nobody deserves this, I know. Still, we must do our best to survive this altogether" He said.

Hannah went calm yet something inside her says the opposite thing.

"You're only saying that because people like you Isaac!"

"You act like a good boy but you're not strong!"

"I don't deserve this! You should all die for me! for me to escape this nightmare!"

---deep inside Hannah, spoke such dark secrets with her sweet personality.

While Leo is taking his time to feel despair, a sound of footsteps were nearing him.

"Leo, I understand that you need to grief but these people need some motivation, we all do. We need to make a plan to escape and live through this, otherwise their deaths don't mean anything" Sarah calmly explained to Leo.

Leo tried to man himself up and said "You're right, we can't stay here much longer"

Leo kindly asked Isaac and Sarah to call the others in the meeting room. He suggested to have Zoe and Raj stay for a while at the Main Lobby entrance to check the barricades. He prepared a whiteboard and a marker for their brain storming.

After a few minutes, one at a time the remaining survivors have gathered in the room.

Sarah did the initiative to start the meeting "Let's begin! I understand everyone has their own minds to prioritise, but this is more important. It's for us to survive and to plan for our next action. I understand that everyone's also tired and maybe overwhelmed by what we had just accomplished, but we cannot waste so much time waiting around. Leo here will help us plan to get out of here"

Sarah then gave the stage to Leo for him to start planning with the group.

"Before we begin, let's try to talk with each other. What did you guys observe with the undead?" Leo asked.

Javier raised his hand and said "They don't seem to think, they're either just walking slow or like brisk walking to get to you." Javier's Carlos right hand buddy in the office if you see their spark in terms of cooperation and initiatives. If one of them got an idea, the other is always included.

Leo listed the information on the board and continued to ask if they had other information.

"It seems like they're willing to bite anywhere as long as they can eat us. Also, when bitten, you turn. I don't know for how long but I think it depends on where you were bitten and the severity of it." Ahmed quickly mentioned

Ava raised her hand and said "The only way for us to kill them is through the head. We can immobilize them but the main target is the head but the difficult part is their heads are hard to pierce.

"Wait!" Carlos hurriedly told them and then followed by "I remember that there's an Axe on the Hallway. If we can get that, it gives us firepower against those undead."

Everyone was amazed as they have forgotten such detail because of being focused on dealing with the undead.

"I understand everyone would like to give information, but can we please head straight to planning on getting out of here?! I have my family and I need to go home!" Hannah annoyingly mentioned.

Isaac tried to control her but she insisted on just planning on getting out of here since she is speaking but the truth is, each of them have their own families.

"Just stop..." Leo said with anger in his face.

He then said  to Hannah "Do you think I don't want to come home and save my family? Do you think they're still alive?"

Hannah felt embarrassed and then she left the room. Isaac felt bad for her andhhe followed her.

Leo then moved to their plan. "We will be heading upstairs" he said.

"What? Shouldn't we move down instead?" Carlos argued.

Leo tried to explain that there may be other survivors on the upper floors. They could also secure more resources especially food as the other pantry is located just 2 floors above.

"Once we cleared those floors, and got enough supplies then we can prepare heading down. We can't just head down the floors and if we get stuck, we don't have any food or equipment to back us up." Leo explained it to them calmly.

Sarah then mentioned that they all have access to the  internet but everyone seems to be pleading for help. It also appears that no authorities have been conducting any help to the civilians. A few seconds on checking out the social media platforms, a notification has occurred on their mobile devices.

The announcement says "This is the Government of the Philippines. This is not a test. We are now under attack by unknown strains of viruses such as the ones we see in movies. We highly advise everyone to stay at your homes, barricade yourselves and prepare for the worst. We hope everyone survives this disaster. God bless us all."

"Shit... it seems we're all on our own for now" Javier stated.

After that, everyone was anxious about what would happen in the future. The meeting has been concluded already. They have decided to put 3 persons to guard the entrance from certain shifts.

Gabriel and Isaac were tasked to manage the food. Gabriel's an average person in the office yet he has this perfectionist personality which let him become cautious to what's happening around him.

Zoe and Raj were informed of the plan after the meeting.

The remaining survivors then called it a day and decided to rest for now. As night came, they could still hear the moan and growl of the undead. Sounds of different things are heard not from afar; people screaming, explosions, just loud sounds that occupy the silence to where fear filled in.

***

TWO DAYS AGO, somewhere in the continent of Asia. There was a hidden military base where numerous scientists were found.

A certain group of scientists from different nationalities in a laboratory seems to be talking about a virus. The organization that is tackling this matter is called as The Pillar.

The origin is unknown as it appears to be man-made yet they are trying to uncover its root to be able to create a vaccine.

"This is getting us nowhere. We've done multiple tests but this virus is seemingly unsolvable." a scientist named Spectre said. Spectre is considered as the second most practical person in the group. He mostly relies on logical assumptions and proper actions to be taken immediately.

"We just need to keep doing it until we get the right formula and once we understand how they work, we can easily make a vaccine" another scientist named John replied. John is considered their second leader in the group. He has excelled in knowledge and has been tackling unknown diseases and have been able to help identify and create vaccines against them.

The third scientist named Allison then said "You're making this sound easy John" as she smiled it off.  Allison is a unique thinker to where she collectively relies on data and more on the trial and error process of Science.

They continued discussing how to possibly stop the virus or on how to survive from it.

After a few hours of tests and discussions, it appears that they're still unable to solve it. The leader of the group, the head scientist named Violet decided to call it a day. Violet is a busy woman who has been a close friend to the three scientists. They've been in such projects for a few years now ever since a known pandemic occured in the world. She is a person who knows how to negotiate and deal with critical situations.

Before leaving, Spectre mentioned "Just imagine how powerful the person who created this is. They could easily depopulate the world without effort."

Spectre's message somehow gave chills to John as he jokingly said that only a psychopath would do such a thing.

The group laughed it off as they continued making jokes and ended their day.

Violet who went to her office as she had to do some reports. A few seconds later, someone knocked on her door.

"Come in!" Violet said.

A colleague of hers, named Jordan came to her to report their group's findings. Jordan is one of the average scientists they have in the organisation who handles the daily report of data and makes sure that samples are contained properly. In the current project, he found out that the test subjects are simply interesting since they're already dead yet they continue to function.

"Yeah, only if you're dead, then maybe I can turn you into one" as Violet gave him humor.

Violet then asked Jordan for a favour to check on the test subjects and check their latest data. Jordan agreed and went ahead to the test subjects.

The place where the test subjects are is guarded. Only certain personnel can enter due to the restrictions and confidentiality of the project.

Jordan entered the room and started checking on the subjects' data.

He noticed something on one of the undead "Something's not right on your data...I need to highlight ---" then the next thing he hears was a thud that hit him on the head.

"whaatt...I...he..lp" Jordan slowly said as he started to lose consciousness.

Then, the only thing Jordan heard after was a person who said "Let the cleansing begin. Let the strong survive, and recreate this world toxified by weakness! HAHA!" as the mysterious man laughed.

The doors of the test subjects were then open all at once. As the door to the room opened, the guards thought the scientist was done, as they didn't notice it was a number of undead coming out. As it was late already, they were bitten and were only able to fire their gun randomly.

Some of the guards heard the gunshots so they immediately ran towards the noise. The current guards on patrol are Vincent and Caine. They have been working at the organisation for almost a year now along with their third friend, Axel. Axel is currently handling the monitoring of the CCTV in the security room. They usually pull pranks on him so that he won't get bored.

When they were about to go around the corner, they saw the scientist, Jordan walking like crippled and facing the other direction.

Vincent tried to ask if he was okay. As they got closer, the group of undead immediately showed up and took them out. Caine tried to reach the alarm but was unable to do so. Vincent did his best and radioed for emergencies even when he's already getting eaten.

"Command!!---spe...cime...broke...loose! Arrghh!" and then only static was heard.

Axel, who was handling the monitoring thought it was a prank as the other guards tend to scare him in his work. After a few minutes, he still hasn't heard anything from them.

"What's taking them so long? Are they committing this much time to prank me?" the guard said to himself.

He then doubted himself and checked the security camera. He saw the undead of the left wing which is overrun. As he checked the doors, the undead have gathered up already. The door was about to go down so he picked up the gun, launched the emergency sounds, and prepared to fight for his life.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck! I'm not dying without a fight!" the last words that the guard gave before losing his life from the horde.

As Violet is doing her reports in her office in the central wing, a team of security suddenly opened the door and at the same time she heard the alarms.

"Ma'am we need to escore you immediately, please follow us. You can call me Fury, we are Alpha Team and we're here to get to you to safety. A security breach has happened and we don't have time" Fury said as he pulled Violet's hand and guided her.

"What's going on?!" Violet asked with confusion while they were cautiously walking towards the right wing.

While walking, Fury explained what was happening with haste while carefully ordering his men in properly to secure the head scientist, Violet.

"The test subjects broke loose from containment and have overrun the left wing now" Fury said with worries on his face.

Violet couldn't believe it as the containments couldn't have made an error like that. She started to worry about her team, especially on Jordan as he's the one she ordered to check the subjects.

"Ma'am the dead came from containment 2-B, to where you have ordered your scientist to. I think you know what I mean". Fury said as he is being annoyed by Violet's persistence.

She asked their whereabouts but the Fury's priorities were not aligned.

"We need to secure you first, we will try to search for survivors after." Fury said to her and insisted on accomplishing it first.

As they are going through along with the other employees evacuating to the right wing, Alpha team made it successfully to the right wing without any trouble. Different concerned employees were there and Violet tried to look for her team.

Nowhere to be found, she's now concerned and wonders where they could be.

In a silent hallway, blinkering lights and walls are painted with blood. A door slowly opened and one of the security personnel named Paul peeked. He is currently one of the guards patrolling the area the time the undead came. His buddy system was caught, and he had to run away since the undead were many.

He bumped into other survivors on the way and they made a retreat into one of the quarters.

"There seems some of them still roaming around. We need to get out of here before more comes." as suggested by Paul to the group.

The survivors consist of 7 people; Paul, John, Allison, Spectre, Joseph, Mary and Marcus. Joseph and Mary are also scientists but were handling different tasks and on a different team. Marcus is a rookie security personnel who only started few days ago.

"The dead shouldn't be able to take us as long as we get to dodge and run faster than them." John mentioned and advised that they still should craft a plan on how to get to the others.

A voice suddenly came from the announcement speakers on the hallway.

"To everyone who are still alive, please lay low and hide. We will do our best to rescue everyone, please hold as much as you can. We are currently on the right wing and have temporarily secured the area. Survive"

After the announcement the group huddled as a decision and planning needs to be accomplished.Only Paul is experienced in combat. Even when Marcus is a guard, he is only used to training.

Paul told them to ready themselves for they'll be needing to defend themselves as he may not be able to save them all.

Spectre layed out a map of the area for them to navigate easily through the left wing to the right. Upon checking, they are currently at the middle area of the left wing. The shortest path seems to be through the library, cafeteria and from there they should enter the Central wing.

They tried to take everything in the woom which they could use as an equipment to fight.

"Can you lend me the handgun?" John initiatively asks Paul. He explained that he has experience in handling a weapon because he previously did not want just to be a scientist, but be able to protect himself as well.

"All right, but if you shot yourself, don't go coming back from the dead and blame me for it" Paul said as he gave the clips and gun to John.

With everyone prepared to go out, their survival would depend on each other as the whole section been overrun and that every corner lurks with danger.

Will they be able to leave the left wing successfully?

To be continued...