by A. M Martin
A new
W O R L D
O R D E R
Nikki’s Story Part One
A.M Martin
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2019 by A.M Martin
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of quotations in a book review.
Book cover design and interior by Infinity Book Covers
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F O R W A R D
It all started with a virus. It unlocked a world of pure make-believe. It drove us down to our knees, and what we all believed to be pure genuine fiction escaped into the world - a nightmarish fairytale of vivid nightmares made of flesh and blood.
It didn't take long for our world to go down in flames. Cities were decimated. Family and beloved friend’s dead. Our society became dominated with howls, screams, bloodshed, and destruction. Blame rested on our shoulders for this global carnage. Yeah, we were at fault for it.
The creation of what became known as the R-V-4 Virus took place in our own labs. The government wanted a super soldier with a pack mentality delivered to them. They decided to play mother nature and mix wolf DNA with that of a human. With it, the R-V-4 Virus was born, and they got what they wanted.
With time, it found its way to populate. It somehow got loose and wiped out more than 80% of the world's population. What it didn't kill, it turned.
The government has denied any involvement with it. They claimed it was just some strain of a virus that mutated. The end result, people, either turned into creatures or dropped dead. Playing Mother Nature had nothing to do with it. They lied. Lied about so many things.
They once again took things into their own hands. They assisted with the destruction; to kill the infected and isolate the plague, they bombed city after city. It didn't work. It didn't help. Mother Nature prevailed.
Soon the rules and laws ceased. The military and government are a thing of the past. It was everyone for themselves.
A new society was born from the ashes of our own destruction - Lykens. Some humans chose to live within the territories, others within their own communities. Some run.
I'm Nikki. I'm eighteen years old. And this is my horror story.
1
DAY ONE
Walking into the living room, I stopped in my tracks. I bite my lip as an uneasy feeling engulfs my body. The lady on the news looks like death is pounding at her door. Her makeup has run down her ghostly pale face, and her eyes are wide and frightened. The look of them even scared me. I walk further into the room, gaping at the TV screen, standing behind our brown couch.
"This is just coming in folks. Live footage of what is happening in many cities across the world. Please if you have small children in the room remove them."
The lady disappears and is replaced with absolute utter chaos.
You can hear people screaming in the background as cars crash and buildings burn. The streets are full of kids and adults running from something. The camera zooms in to the right. I jerked back, and my cereal bowl full of fruity pebbles falls onto the floor. Filling the camera screen is something right out of that movie The Underworld.
It's a werewolf, standing up on two legs, a limp, lifeless person hanging from its black clawed hand. Blood is smeared across the creature's face.
The screen changes and a different city appears. More of the same destruction rained down upon it. Dead bodies are all over the place. Houses and buildings burn.
Another city, this one has fighter planes dropping bombs on areas. There's a loud boom, and the whole scene goes up in a roaring fireball of destruction.
The now black T.V. screen flickers and the news lady from before reappearing, tears streaming down her face: "It's some type of mutated rabies virus. It's spreading faster than anything we've ever encountered before. More than half the states have been overturned or are on the verge of being completely infected. It infects the human host, and within minutes they turn into the same wolf-like creature you see on the live feed. The government has issued Marshal Law for all citizens. Stay in your homes. Do not go near other people and help will be coming. Other than that, we don't know much more. We will continue to bring you updates as we get them. This is Anna Lee with your world news."
As the video changes from one thing to another, I see that the infected wolf people come in different sizes. Some are huge. Some skinny. Some look more human looking than others. The colors go from the deepest black to the brightest white.
"Mum," I whisper and grip her shoulder, "Call Dallas.”
A skinny, lanky-looking wolf uses its claws to slash the belly of some poor kid running by. I shut my eyes right as tears formed and streamed down my cheeks. I wish I could keep the image out as quickly as I can close my tearful eyes. But wishes are made of fairy dust and fairy dust isn’t real.
I lean over the back of the couch, and my heart pounds hard in my chest. Mum sits there with tears streaming down her face in waves. She has the phone gripped in her white-knuckled fist, and my little sister is curled up on her lap asleep.
"Mum." I snap my fingers in front of her face. Her brown eyes look up, "Call Dallas." I repeat, this time breathlessly. This is a huge joke. It has to be.
She slowly shakes her head.
My eyes widen, "What?"
"The..." She clears her throat, "It was bombed."
I look at her, not seeing or hearing her. Bombed. My eyes flick up to the T.V. just as the screen goes black and stays that way.
It can't be. No. I start to shake my head and back away from the couch and step into the cereal I dropped earlier. The milk soaks into my fuzzy socks.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I mumble under my breath.
My older brother, Dallas attends college in New York. Why would they bomb New York? This is not happening. Stuff like this isn't real. I race to the front of the couch and rip the phone from her hand. Mum clutches Amy like a lifeline and rocks back and forth.
I hit the talk button waiting for the dial tone so I can enter the number to hear Dallas on the other end. Like any other typical day. This is like any other average day. Stuff like this does not happen in real life. It can't. I won’t let it happen.
Nothing. I look at the phone. I gasp for air, nothing. I dropped to my knees and keep checking the phone. Over and over and over again. There's no dial tone. No matter how many times I check, the dial tone isn't there.
The lights flicker, the lit lamp on the stand table snags my attention, and I stare at it. Once. Twice. A third time and it hasn't come back on.
"I'm hungry." Amy's hoarse voice sounds like a gunshot going off in the living room.
I look at my sick ten-year-old sister curled up on mum’s lap. This can't happen. I jerked back as the realization of this situation truly strikes me in the gut.
Amy is sick like really sick. She has a white blood cell disease that makes her weak and looks like a starved six-year-old. She has to go to the hospital four times a week. More tears are pouring down my face as I see the world for how it is. How it will be. She won't survive this.
"I'll get you something, Amies." I smile like usual, well with tears and go back into the kitchen. Leaning up against the wall, my breath comes fast and loud. What the hell is going to happen to us?
Hearing a car start outside, I move t
oward the small window above the sink. Slowly, carefully I open the curtain. My eyes lock onto the yellow house to the right of us. It's the Johnson's. Mr. Johnson is loading bags into his car as his wife straps their two-year-old twins into the back seat.
I just stare and shake my head. They shouldn't be leaving. The news said to stay in your homes. Don't go near people. Help will come. They shouldn't leave.
I grab an apple and a knife and proceed to slice it up, ignoring what was happening across the street. Once all the apple pieces are on the plate, I grab the tub of creamy peanut butter and dump a huge scoop on the plate as well.
"Here hun," I say to get Amy's attention when I’m back in the living room.
"Why do you have a knife?"
I look down at my right hand, and sure enough, the knife I used to cut up the apple is clenched tight in my fist, my fingers turning white. Again, I stare at Amy and shrug my shoulders. I don't know why I self-consciously brought the knife, but my heart is no longer trying to beat itself out of my chest, so I'm keeping it.
Dropping down on the other side of the couch from mum, I look out at the big windows behind the flat screen T.V. Nothing moves outside, and that's a good thing. Maybe?
2
DAY ONE
"Mum, what are we going to do?"
When no answer comes, I look up at her. She’s vacant. What else did she see before I walked into the living room with my evening cereal?
“Your dad, we need to wait for him," she whispers, eyes trained on the blank T.V.
“Hey, why did the electricity shut off?" My twelve-year-old sister, Cora, asks as she rushes down the steps.
She stops dead in her tracks, eyes wide, looking at the three of us on the couch. I bet we're a sight.
I still clutch the knife and the phone that is still not working. Mum continues to stare at the blank TV, tears streaming down her face. Amy’s eating apples and peanut butter, her gaze switching between mum and me.
“What’s going on?" Cora asks, strolling into the living room.
“Just sit-down Cora," I mumble, still looking out the window. My eyes are moving around like a ping-pong ball on everything outside.
I should tell Cora about what's going on. What our world is turning into, but I don't think she will believe me. Hell, I even saw it with my own eyes and I still don't really believe it.
A virus attacking people, turning them into things from the Underworld. Massive wolf-like creatures are destroying the city and to top it off the government bombing places. Would you believe something like that? It's a horror movie coming to life.
I freeze, as I hear a knock at the front door. My hand gripping the knife even harder.
I hold my breath as I look at our door. Please no. I bite the inside of my cheek, eyes drilling holes into our wooden door. Please no. Go away.
The sound of two faster raps on the door fills our silent house. I shake my head; don't these people know they’re supposed to stay inside their homes? That they don't understand how the virus is spreading. It could be in the air we breathe in. More people. More chances of catching it.
"You guys are being weird," Cora mutters as she stands up.
My pulse jumps in fear. As I scrambled to my feet, the knife held out with a hissed yell. "No." At the same time, mum waves her arms around.
What the crap is she doing?
Cora eyes the knife and slowly sits back down, "Crazy. The whole lot of you."
I giggle. If only she knew what was going on. If only she knew the crazy going on outside these walls.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Go away.
"Mrs. Lewis, it's Tom from next door." Tom’s old rusty voice whispers through the thick door.
Ah dang. I like the old man. I'm going to have to see what he wants.
I see mum's arms start to fly again as I move to the stable oak door. I ignore her, standing on my toes. I peer out the small diamond shaped window of the door. Old man Tom is shifting from foot to foot looking around. His hands wringing together.
I tap on the glass with my french tip nails. Old Tom jerks around looking slightly up at the window. What's left of his greying hair, seems like he ran his fingers through it non-stop. It’s sticking up every which way.
"Yeah?" I murmur while looking down the street.
"Is your father home Nikki?"
I shake my head no. What is that? I squint my eyes past Tom, pressing my nose into the glass, trying to see further down the right side of the street.
I gasped and was shocked at what I’m seeing.
"Go back home, Tom. And be quiet." I whisper harshly as the grey spot moves closer. It's on all fours, it's snout in the air.
I can't wait for Tom to answer nor do I stay to see if he listened. I'm already moving back into the living room.
"UUP UP!" It runs together into one word as I tug Amy on my way past the couch, mum and Cora on our heels.
"What…" Cora's voice is cut off by a menacing howl echoing throughout our street.
I twitch and shiver from fear. Sweat beads on my forehead.
Oh my god, oh, my god. I freeze for a split second and then start to run down the hallway, hooking a right turn past the downstairs bathroom. Amy and Cora's voices run together in whines and words I don't make out.
This can't be happening. How is it here so fast? I thought we would have more time or the government would do something before it reached us. The news lady said it was happening in every major city, but this is not a major city. It's a decent sized town but no city. We're an hour and a half away from any major city in any direction. How can this be happening so damn fast?
I look behind me as I skid to a halt in the spare bedroom.
Everyone's behind me. It has me breathing easier until a scream fills the evening air. Shit! My eyes close and I swallow hard, old man Tom. He didn't listen.
3
DAY ONE
"Mum, help!" I yell, not caring to keep my voice down as more howls and screams are heard outside. People should have listened. They should have stayed in their homes. How stupid could they be? Why does nobody ever listen? It’s not that hard to freaking listen to the damn rules!
I think Amy's cries and Cora's yells bring her back to the here and now.
She rushes over to me, where I'm bent over in the back of the closet, hands roaming the old wooden floor for the hatch.
"Yes." I do a fist pump and grip the barely-there dent in the floor. If you didn't know what you were looking for, you'd never find it. It's almost entirely level to the floor. There's nothing to give it away but a tiny indent on the side.
I grunt and tug, mums grunts join mine as we slowly slide the hatch across the floor, just enough for everyone to slip in.
I'm out of breath, and my arms are shaky from the thick slab. Usually, we'd push a button and the slab slides on its own, but the power being off that was so not happening.
I move my hand motioning for Cora and Amy to go first. I drop down next, with mum following.
Grabbing the steel bar attached to the bottom of the hatch, we pull until it snaps into place. It used to be a rope, but mum had dad replace it.
I grunt as the light from the setting sun disappears, and it's entirely black. There's a clicking sound, and a small flame lights up the dark. Cora grips a pink lighter and looks guilty.
"We'll talk about this later." Mum snaps at Cora as she moves on to the cement stairs which lead down into the basement.
It's not safe. It's still not safe. It runs through my mind. Hurry mum, I want to yell. I don't. I chew on the inside of my jaw instead.
Mum and Cora move to the right side of the basement, and I hurry to the far left.
We live in an old two-story house. That's not why mum loved it though. She liked the history of the place. Liked the hidden basement for one. It was used as a hideaway during prohibition days and alcohol was illegal. They used the basement to store and run it. That's all I know, not really paying attention when she tried explaining the
beautiful history of the old house. Her words, not mine.
I flip on the computer monitor, booting it up. Mum must not have been down here today, or everything would already be on.
I'd like to say mum's one of those ends of the world preppers and that's why we have a solar power monitoring system that links to four cameras outside the house and why we have all kinds of canned foods, water, toothpaste and pretty much everything stashed in the basement. She's not, though.
Mum has three hobbies she sticks to religiously. History. Extreme couponing and being nosy. Yep, my mum is so curious she had four cameras hooked up to each corner of the house. She said it's for the protection of her girls and her. It's good to know what's going on but that's not her real reason. She's just really nosy. Which was a good thing during the summer. Our school star pitcher mows yards during the summer. I smile. It's such a good thing to watch.
"Reed. Reed, can you hear me?" Mum's English accent is definitely more present than usual.
It pulls me away from my daydreaming. My smile fades, and I’m dominated by anxiety and fear.
My eyes lock onto the high-frequency hand radio she's on. Come on, come on. Please, Dad.
Nothing but static comes from the small speaker. My heart drops into my tummy.
"Maybe he's busy." Amy's voice is full of tears.
"Ahh! What is that?" Cora screeches into my ear.
I twist around in the low-back computer chair and follow her shaky finger with my eyes. The monitors are finally on.
The wolf beast person is slowly walking up onto our front porch, on two animal-like legs. My breathing turns into pants like I ran a marathon full throttle.
"A virus." I gasp while watching the grey creature. It's tall, maybe six feet, something tall, not really that big from what I've seen on the news. It's slim with hardly any muscle, and black drool drips from its razor-sharp mouth.