The Contaminated: Where Were You When The Pandemic Hit?

by Kypers, Ryan

  I zoomed in on the United States map to get a better view of where the outbreaks were. The entire pacific coast was black, though parts of Washington were still clean, but those were closest to Canada. The black spread through the west very strongly. It stayed almost entirely black until Missouri. Once there, spotty blue areas popped up near St. Louis, Kansas City, and out west to Boulder, Colorado, though never in large concentrations. The city was gone, as was most of New Jersey, and Connecticut. The southern tip of Florida was clean, as was the St. Petersburg area, though how clean that was is still up to interpretation. The majority of the clean areas were those near the coast with a lower population density.

  What struck me as odd was the coastal cleanliness. If the contamination started in the water supply, then why were the coastal cities and towns better off than the more inland ones? Regardless, I was able to pinpoint a couple of places that were okay and not too far away. Cape May was the closest in southern New Jersey, but we would need gas to get there, and I doubt that there would be a return trip, not to mention that Cape May was entirely surrounded by darkness. The only other logical places that we would be able to flee to were one place in Connecticut and maybe upstate New York, but that was a long shot.

  The map darkened my hopes of being rescued, let alone being able to contain the contamination. It seemed as if its spread consumed the entire world in one fell swoop, and it was not releasing its grasp any time soon. I might actually be one of the few to witness the fall of man, and that was not a reassuring thought.

  Chelsea popped her head back into the room, yawning as she moved towards me. “What are you looking at?” She asked, her eyes squinting from the light of the laptop screen.

  “Buffalant909 sent me this article, but it really isn’t anything too interesting,” I said. I tried to make a quick move to shut the laptop closed, but Chelsea’s hand stopped me.

  She pushed back the screen and saw the map in full view. “Why did you try to stop me?” she asked, her mouth slightly agape from the view of the map.

  “I don’t know. I mean your spirits have been a bit down lately. I didn’t want you to stay down,” I said, rubbing her back. “Just trying to make sure that you stay with me, that’s all.”

  She kissed my cheek, “That’s sweet, but I think it’s better we share this kind of stuff, don’t you?”

  I nodded in agreement. “Alright, I’m sorry that I hid it from you.”

  She kissed me on the cheek again and lay down on her bed. I tied her up loosely and re-set the trap. Before I knew it, Chelsea was fast asleep, her light breathing being the only noise in the dark night.

  I was just about to close my laptop when I heard an alert message.

  ZmB1EbtR: You’re up late.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Yeah. Chelsea woke me up. Our alert system went off again.

  ZmB1EbtR: Ah, bummer. At least you can entertain me now.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: ha. Ha. No. I need to get some sleep. I’m going to try to convince Chelsea to let me go on a run tomorrow for some foodstuffs.

  Zmb1EbtR: You running low on food?

  DR. YLSRUS3390: No, but eating hotdogs and spam for dinner really gets old. Besides there’s got to be some good loot around.

  Zmb1EbtR: you saw what Buffalant909 posted?

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Yeah, scary stuff.

  Zmb1EbtR: Yeah. It seems as if the whole world is contaminated – well it is, but it appears that the Aussies found a loophole.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Them along with the UK and Japan. Seems that islands are the best places now.

  Zmb1EbtR: Hang on, North America is completely isolated from Asia and Europe, so where would this thing have started?

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Your guess is as good as mine. I’m no scientist, though Chelsea might have an idea, or a better one than mine. She was studying biology before the contamination hit.

  Zmb1EbtR: Speaking of Chelsea, how is she doing? Ya know with the whole contaminated thing and all?

  I looked over to her sleeping body. It was true, I had tried to push her condition out of my mind for a while now, but the funny thing was that she did not seem to be getting any worse. I could not tell if the parasite virus was dormant or slowly taking over her body, but she had seemed perfectly fine since her sickness initially passed. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was fortune. I did not care as long as she improved.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: She’s fine, oddly enough.

  Zmb1EbtR: that’s strange, like really really strange.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: ?

  Zmb1EbtR: Well, apparently you haven’t read this article: www.apocalypseplz.com/contaminationterms

  DR. YLSRUS3390: I haven’t seen that at all. Where did you find it?

  Zmb1EbtR: Jeff, or RRDRAGN99, posted it a while back. It might have been before you joined up with us.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Sum it up for me?

  Zmb1EbtR: ugh. Fine. It gives some theories on how long the body would take to give in to the contamination.

  I waited for more, but he wasn’t going on. I had to press.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: and?

  Zmb1EbtR: OMG you can read it too! Jk. But the main theoretical conclusion was that something so foreign to the human body would take over pretty quickly, like two days max kind of quick.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: wut

  Zmb1EbtR: kind of like how when the colonists came over, they infected the Indians with crazy diseases which were only crazy because the Indians had never encountered them before.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Ah, that makes sense.

  Zmb1EbtR: Yeah. Crazy, right. She could be sucking your flesh right now!

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Keep it PG, k?

  Zmb1EbtR: hahahahaha! I’m just teasing. But this is definitely strange. Maybe she’s immune?

  DR. YLSRUS3390: I don’t know. I mean I did alcohol swab the wound shortly after she was bit.

  Zmb1EbtR: Eh, I don’t think that would do it. Blood to blood, remember?

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Maybe the crazy bitch that bit her wasn’t as contaminated as she thought?

  Zmb1EbtR: Maybe? I mean there are thousands of theories right now.

  DR. YLSRUS3390: To be safe, I’ll wait another few days before leaving her free roam of the house.

  Zmb1EbtR: Keeping her locked up? My kind of kink

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Dude

  Zmb1EbtR: Joking!

  DR. YLSRUS3390: Going to bed. Later.

  I closed the lid of the laptop shut, the internal lights flickering off shortly after. My hopes were high, like really high. Like three filled and freshly smoking bongs high. If the article was correct, then Chelsea was fine, like perfectly fine.

  But what if she was the cure to the disease? We would not be able to live our happy and dangerous life here in this small contaminated town any more. We would have to find help somewhere, some form of scientific life people who could take blood samples and create an immunity out of Chelsea’s own.

  I decided to put the thought to the back of my head and try to get some sleep. I wanted to try another run tomorrow, but it was not for the supplies. If we had to travel somewhere, I needed to know my enemy. I needed to know how tough they are and how to beat them in more effective ways.

  My thoughts wandered from place to place, restlessly keeping me awake. I did not get to fall into an actual slumber until near five in the morning, and awoke an hour later with another clattering of pots and pans. “Sorry,” I heard her whisper

  I mechanically got up to go undo the bonds on her arm, “Why are you up so early?”

  “I don’t know,” She said. “I guess I just can’t sleep for some reason. A bit restless is all. Sorry for waking you…again.”

  I smiled a tired smile, “It’s fine. I need to feed the cat anyway. She’ll get annoyed if I don’t soon.”

  Chelsea and I went downstairs together and into the kitchen. Once there I fed Coal without even thinking about it and proceeded to start up breakfast. Chelsea seemed to be bobbing in and out of sleep.

  “I was chatting with
the guy in Colorado today,” I said, starting up conversation.

  Chelsea looked up, too tired to respond, so I just continued. “He showed me an article about the contaminated, how long it takes to change and the likes. You should be sucking my blood right now, according to the article.”

  Chelsea looked appalled at first, then understood. “Does this mean-“

  “I don’t know yet, and there’s no reason to get hasty,” I opened the box to make pancakes for breakfast. Thank god I only had to add water. “But I think it would be best if we didn’t jump to conclusions but played it safe. Can’t hurt.”

  Chelsea jumped up and wrapped me in a clumsy, half asleep hug. She kissed me on the neck over and over and over, tears running down her face. “I’m going to be okay then?”

  “I think so.”

  Chapter 9

  “I feel fine, actually I feel pretty great!” Chelsea said three nights after my first encounter with the world map of darkness. “Really, I think I’ll be okay.”

  I checked her forehead out of habit to see if she had a fever. Even if she did, I wouldn’t know what to do about it. My eyes moved from her head to her toe, stalling somewhere along the way, to inspect her appearance.

  She looked fine from my inspection. Color was fully back in her face and lips, she wasn’t clammy or pale, and her eyes were deep blue, not any shade of yellow. There were no signs of any contamination as far as I could tell. The back of my hand rested on her forehead with a slight warmth coming from her, though nothing out of the ordinary.

  “Alright then,” I said, a stupid smile uncontrollably coming to my face. “I think that you might just be okay, although I might still have to tie you up…”

  She giggled like a little girl, “Maybe I should tie you up. You have killed many of the contaminated, and might just be too dangerous to leave free roaming around me.”

  “Woah, slow down there. I still may have to defend us should the situation occur.”

  “Well I think that I can handle it.”

  “I don’t know about that.”

  “Is that a challenge?” she asked.

  A thought occurred to me just then – Chelsea had no experience fighting the contaminated. We both needed to be stronger and more able if we were ever to leave the house, or be forced out.

  “Actually, let’s make it one,” I said. Chelsea gave me a confused look in response. “Well, I doubt that we will be able to stay here forever. Besides, we know almost nothing about the contaminated. What their weaknesses are, the most effective way to kill them, what their strengths are. I mean, I may have killed a few, okay maybe four, but that doesn’t make me an expert slayer of contaminated.”

  She looked up in thought, hands resting on her hips. “I do believe that you are right, though I’m hardly in decent shape for such vigorous activity.”

  “Start running now, then,” I said with my hands extended like claws.

  She stood perfectly still, no sign of amusement or emotion on her face. “Oh fine, have it your way. But you should really start doing something to get into decent shape. After all, you were pretty sick for a while and haven’t been able to do much in terms of exercise, well neither of us have.” I began to pace around the kitchen, thinking up ideas. “Why don’t you run a few laps in the field behind the house?” I finally suggested.

  She gave a sly smile, “Not a bad idea. This can actually work out for the both of us. While I’m running, you can be on guard duty. If a contaminated approaches, you can smash them to pieces,” her smile was oddly wide when she said that. “This might work out better than expected.”

  We put the plan into motion, both of us changing into more comfortable exercise clothes. I put on a cold resistant nylon shirt with a t-shirt over it and sweatpants that were just a bit larger than my body could handle. Fortunately us skinny guys had the wonderful tightening strap to prevent class wide pantsings during gym class. Chelsea dressed much the same but had a sweater overtop the rest of her clothing, and she found fingerless gloves too.

  The weather was a nice mild October weather, in the mid-fifties, perfect weather for a bit of exercise. The sky was cloudy but not dark, although it gave the wind a bit of a bigger chill. Most of the autumn leaves had fallen, but the field was wide open. The only places that had the brown and yellow leaves were the edges where the trees bordered the field. At the four far corners, a baseball field stood, untouched by anyone in the past few months. The baseball season here ended during the last days of men’s softball season in August. Fitting, that the softball games would close out the baseball fields for the year.

  Soccer nets were placed at either end of the field, six nets in total, three soccer fields for rec soccer. Each had the white posts with orange netting. I had thought more than once to go out there and cut a few of the nets down. They could make for good defensive tools.

  “I’ll do three laps at least, or until I get tired enough to stop,” Chelsea said. Before I could acknowledge her words, she was off. She ran faster than I expected, with each lap around the field being nearly a quarter of a mile, she was at the next baseball field before I knew it, touching home plate as she went.

  I had brought my trusty baseball bat, the heavy wrench, and a large kitchen knife to fight with. The wrench would give me a bit of better strength in my chest and shoulders, which I figured would work nicely with the bat as well. The kitchen knife was a different story. I would have it with me because I wanted to learn of the penetrating power it had on the contaminated, and if it could be an effective killing tool. I was sure that the bat and wrench would crack open a skull fairly easily, the latter being better for such a task, but I had no idea if a simple kitchen knife was up to the task.

  Since we were in a field of grass and dirty sand, I came equipped in baseball cleats. I figured that I might have to move with a bit more speed if I was to try the kitchen knife, and they gave me better traction over many different types of terrain. The baseball cleats might just be what stood between my life and death.

  I started stretching my leg muscles. I had hamstring issues in my past playing backyard football with my friends, as embarrassing as that sounds. If a contaminated were to attack, I decided that having a pulled hammy would not give me the best possible fighting advantage, and I wanted to avoid that at all costs. I continued upwards on my body, a bit backwards, but who was going to tell me off? Spending the most time on legs, I eventually got to my upper body, back, shoulders, and everything else that needed a good stretching.

  Once fully content with my stretching, I gave the field a long look, interested in the surroundings that I knew so well. Chelsea was already passed the third baseball field and on her way to my position. The rest looked quiet, almost somber, as if the field was depressed. The grass was easily overwhelmed by the weeds scattered throughout the field, and the leaves from the trees covered most else. The baseball fields had always been kept in poor condition, cleaned by the town once each year and raked only when they so desperately needed it. The sand was darker than normal baseball sand with weeds and strange looking growths sticking out at random.

  I began to do small sprints from home base to first and back again. Once back I would stop momentarily to rest and gain my breath. This was for two reasons. 1) I was super out of shape. The last exercise that I had was running from the deli to my house which is only a block, and that was already a few days back. 2) If a contaminated was to show up, I would be useless if out of breath. If I was out of breath and could barely swing a bat, that would put Chelsea’s life at risk, something that she just conquered.

  I got two sprints in before Chelsea made her first round past home plate, “Looking good!” I said as she passed, and she was. Upon closer inspection, I saw that she was clad in a light grey sweatshirt and those trademark gym shorts that girls wear, you know the ones that are so tight on their butt that it’s essentially a different shade of skin. Love those things.

  She laughed at my words as she ran by, a light pant in her breathin
g. She would be sore tomorrow…from the running! (pervert). Fortunately, we had a decent supply of pain medication since my mother started getting head splitting migraines. She used to just be making dinner in the kitchen when suddenly she would shout out for her meds. Dinner was not so good those nights.

  I was surprised that no contaminated had wandered onto our exercise area yet. Chelsea was practically a walking target, or a running one, or a jogging one. I glanced over the field once more before starting up a sprint. This time I decided not to stop after I made it back to home, but go a second round to first and back to home.

  My feet kicked up the sand with powerful strikes from my legs, the spikes in my shoes eight indentations into the ground. Each step seemed powerful in the cleats, my footing more sure than on any other platform. I could cut from side to side without fear of sliding while going at speeds higher than normal shoes would allow on such varying terrain.

  I finally stopped and sat down, my back leaning against the chain fence lining the field. I took a long gulp of water out of a purple water bottle. When I placed it down, I got a full view of Chelsea running towards me, but not in a jog. She was in full sprint mode and covering ground at that. Behind her was a contaminated, hissing and spitting its way behind her, and keeping pace. It was fast, not hobbling or handicapped as were others that I dealt with in the past. This was dangerous.