by Frank Slagel
Dean didn’t even know. He thought he was dreaming of the president being there. After all, why would the president come and see him. Dean always napped in his lab. That and jerked off in cups to check on his own sperm and make clones of himself because at that point in time no one else would reproduce with him.
George had the killer virus.
Dean went on with his work.
That is the end of Chapter Two. I’ll tell how George got the virus out there even though I sort of told you before. I’ll give more details in the next chapter. I’ll call it Chapter Three because it comes after Chapter Two.
CHAPTER TWO – DEAN
Okay, first let establish that I am a highly educated and intelligent man. I graduated from high school at fifteen and finished college by the time I was twenty-seven. That’s all of my school, bachelor, masters, doctrine, it was then I enlisted in the Army.
Well, recruited. Because of my special talents. Frank can shoot a weapon like nobody’s business; I can create viruses and cures.
We both have our perks.
Although I believe I can be more deadly.
One thing is for certain, without a doubt, I am the more intelligent of the two of us.
So there is no way, no how, I would ever say something lame like, “I’ll never tell you the secret code is one, two, three, four.”
That’s just bad story telling.
Of course, that’s Frank writing it.
In an essence there is truth to what Frank said. Yes, I created a weapon they buried in the desert, yes, the virus that wiped out the world had my signature, but I haven’t a clue how George got his hands on it.
In any event, before getting into my life during the plague and after, this chapter will be on the virus. So you as a reader, really have an educated feel when you read the book.
First we’ll deal with the molecular breakdown of the virus and how it travels and mutates within the DNA, along with red blood cells—
CHAPTER THREE
Boring.
Consider me being the senior editor for that chapter and cutting shit that wasn’t needed.
It was boring. I saved you a lot of heartache reading that shit. Nineteen fuckin’ pages of science. What the fuck Dean.
Just don’t tell him and pretend. If he asks you what you thought of his ‘virus’ breakdown chapter, say it was interesting, and use one of the three lines. I never knew about the swirl effect. It really did that to your eyes? Or are they really that color.
Just say it. He’ll be impressed. He’ll say, wow you did read that chapter.
Now I’m gonna write my chapter the way it should be written. Like Ernest Hemmingway.
He was some sort of God of a writer. I think he wrote the first apocalyptic novel. I’m not sure.
These things are fuckin’ hard to write. I wouldn’t think they would be, I mean, hey, I live in an apocalyptic world.
But it’s not like the movies say.
My favorite end of the world movie is a classic. Omega Man with Charlton Heston. He survived a plague and was the only survivor, sort of like me. But he wasn’t me. He was the same height as me, had a hairy chest like me but his name was Robert Neville. Mine is Frank.
He was a survivor living in Los Angeles.
I live in Pittsburgh. okay, not Pittsburgh, for this story I live in Pittsburgh,
So George got the plague and he found some Arab looking people. Back when the plague started, people didn’t like Arab looking people because immediately people thought, ‘terrorist’. Not this book plague, but the real plague. Everyone said, ‘hey a fuckin’ terrorist started the plague’
So George found terrorist looking people.
Come to think of it. Why would he do that?
I mean if I was going to plant a virus somewhere I would use an old lady. That way no one would notice her. I mean, who the fuck would think some eighty year old lady with a shopping basket was dropping the plague. Think about it. Some eighty year old woman leaves a green flowered shopping bag in the subway. People shrug. Think, ‘oh, well, she’s fuckin’ senile’. But throw a terrorist looking guy in there leaving a bag and all hell breaks loose. You get guys like my dad tackling you. For sure my dad wouldn’t have chased and tackled an old woman. He may have. Who knows? Maybe not.
All I know is if it were me ending the world via a bag full of plague, I’d find an old broad on social security give her fifty bucks and tell her to leave the bag.
Drop the bag. She walks away. World ends.
My dad wasn’t so lucky.
Of course, the terrorist looking guy my dad tackled wasn’t trying to end the world, he was just trying to save it. My dad got confused because he is a visual racist.
What the hell is a visual racist?
So George released the virus.
What the fuck.
Anyhow, no one really thought anything about it at first. I didn’t. I was just a soldier holding my post.
People were sneezing, coughing, fucking’ allergy style stuff. It was allergy season.
No one paid attention until Dean got on the TV.
He made this press conference about how the virus was gonna wipe out the world. You’ll cough, sneeze, then die. Not necessarily in that order.
Fuckin’ great. Nice thing to tell the public.
Thing was he never mentioned it was George’s fault. He probably thought that was a dream.
Then he told everyone if you don’t die right away and you aren’t immune, then you turn into a psycho, blood thirsty, monster.
Sweet.
That … I could handle.
All the fuckin’ talk about a cure, containing it. It was all bullshit.
They couldn’t do anything about it. People were dropping left and right. Turning into the crazies in a blink of an eye. Hospitals were filling up.
I was moved to Pittsburgh to hold a post there because that was the central monster virus hub.
Fuckin’ entire Hockey team coughed, sneezed, and three minutes into fuckin’ overtime, turned into monsters on the ice and jumped after the fans. Good thing they were still on skates because as monsters they couldn’t move very good in them, so people got away.
It was actually kind of funny to watch. Monsters hobbling on ice skates. Fuckin’ awesome.
We went in and shot them. Was a shame. They would have won the Stanley cup if they didn’t get the plague and turn into monsters.
Then again, wouldn’t it have been fuckin’ sweet to see a monster team play a monster team?
Well, that day was the start of the great pandemonium pandemic.
How about that line? Was that fuckin’ good or what?
I’ll write it again.
The great pandemonium pandemic.
Sweet.
I’ll cover the … great pandemonium pandemic in the next chapter.
That would be chapter four because this is the end of chapter three.
CHAPTER THREE – DEAN
The Great Pandemonium Pandemic. I actually like it. Sort of. But for easy read purposes for this story, I’ll refer to it was the GPP.
I was in Pittsburgh the day of the GPP, and right before hand is when I met Frank. But probably unlike Frank who was out in the field, I was knee deep in the onset, I saw it coming before he did.
As you know by my previous chapter and the education, I gave you, the virus changed, and the rate of change, caused acceleration in the mutation. Therefore, breeding two strains, the killer strain and the well, monster strain—for lack of a better word.
It went from a seven day process to a fifteen minute process for the monster strain.
And still even if they didn’t mutate right away, we still weren’t clear whether they would eventually.
My first contact with the new mutated strain was frightening.
I was examining a patient, when a fellow doctor I was working with, seemingly healthy, started to cough. As if he had a tickle in his throat.
“You Okay?” I asked.
He nodded, coughing a few more times.
“As I was saying,” I continued. “Look at the patient’s neck.” His coughing deepened and it caught my attention. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
He nodded, held up his hand, stepped back and turned his back. Keep in mind; at this point, I wouldn’t have even thought he had the virus.
Not that fast. It started with mild symptoms, a slight fever.
When I saw him remove his mask, I worried. “Dr. Stevens, what are you doing?”
He continued to cough, one hand on the wall for support. I moved from the patient and toward him. “Dr. Stevens?”
He stopped coughing.
He was silent, not moving, his shoulders bounced heavily.
“Dr. Stevens?” Closer I moved.
Then suddenly, he spun with the most horrendous of noises. A growl sort of more damned if that makes sense. His eyes were blood shot, boils exploding on his face as if his skin was burned, and with his mouth agape, he lunged for me as if he were going to bite. Like a hungry animal.
I did what anyone would do in their shock.
I said, “Oh, fuck.” And darted from his way.
Fortunately, my small stature allowed me to miss his reaching arms; he turned fast, too fast, and in attack mode once more came for me.
Fist closed, I gave him everything I had, but it didn’t affect him. He was like a madman, nothing was stopping him. He grabbed on to me and we wrestled, me fighting with everything I had, while trying to call out for someone to help.
Round and round on the floor, luckily missing his snarling bites at me, a colleague unfortunately responded.
I say unfortunately because when he ran to us and grabbed Dr. Steven’s arm, Dr. Steven’s attention turned to him and with a jolt of his head, took a huge chunk out of this guys arm.
I was free. The other doctor screamed, blood shot out like a fountain and Dr. Steven’s kept attacking him, biting, ripping. I grabbed a chart from the bottom of a cart, and rammed Dr. Steven’s in the back of the head.
It took five hits and the metal chart to break before Dr. Steven’s fell to the floor.
My colleague at the point was a convulsing mess. Help did finally arrive.
At that point, Dr. Steven’s was the first mutation I had witnessed.
But it scared me, I felt inwardly it was the first of many, of possibly the way it would be.
So I called my general. It was there we had the first meeting before the GPP.
CHAPTER FOUR
The great pandemonium pandemic. Not GPP. What the hell does that mean? Why in the world would he call it that? GPP. Try to pronounce it. When you use initials or the first letter of the word for people who don’t know what I mean, you’re supposed to make a word with it. Like ELE, Extinction level event. Or FIG. Meaning, Frank is great. You can’t say it, if you say it, it sounds like, ‘Gapapa.” GPP. It’s easier to just say the great pandemonium pandemic.
I call it that because pandemonium was great during the pandemic. See, imagine sitting with your best buddy. They have this coughing fit, their eyes go dark, they look at you, suddenly their like a cross between a fuckin’ zombie and vampire.
Oh, by the way, you don’t have to shoot them in the head to kill them.
Pittsburgh was the first place to really get the virus, it mutated there because of left over steel mill stuff in the air.
Fuckin’ all hell broke loose.
Before that, I was on road patrol looking for sneezing people, dealing with fuckin’ shit. Thinking you know, just a plague, it’ll pass. I was hearing from my father telling me it was the end of the world.
Now, my dad always said it was the end of the world.
I believed that until I was sixteen when I figured out that if the world hadn’t ended yet, it wasn’t really the end of the world. Maybe the beginning to the end of the world, or pre end of the world, but not the end of the world.
“Dad, it’s not the end of the world,” I said.
“You’ll see, Frank. You’ll see, you idiot.”
Why he called me that I don’t know. I guess some parents have pet names for their kids.
So I called my brother Jimmy. “Jimmy,” I said. “Did Dad call you and tell you it is the end of the world?”
“Yes,” Jimmy said. “I don’t think it’s true. I think Dad is senile. I think all those wives went to his head.”
“Okay,” I said and called Hal. “Hal, did Dad call and tell you it’s the end of the world?”
“Yes,” Hal said. “So I need to go pray and repent and hope that someone will have sex with me before the world ends.”
“I doubt that but good luck.” I told him.
Thinking about it, if everyone was believing the world was gonna end, Hal might get laid.
I called my little brother Robbie, who was also in the Army. “Robbie, did Dad call and tell you it’s the end of the world?”
“Yes,” Robbie said.
“Do you believe it?” I asked.
“Yes.” Robbie said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because Dad said he started the end of the world,” Robbie said. “If Dad said he started it, then I believe it. Dad hates people and Dad always wanted to world to end, so it’s the end of the world if Dad says it is and he started it.”
“Fuck,” I said.
It was the end of the world.
My mind started racing.
That’s a first.
I started thinking about everything I didn’t do. What I wanted to do. All the game shows I had been on and wanted to be on. I didn’t get a chance to be on Deal or No Deal, and I had an audition in a week.
Just my fuckin’ luck.
Then I got a call. They said I had to go to Pittsburgh and lead an army of men in there because the great pandemonium pandemic was starting there. It hadn’t got bad yet, but it would get there and only I could control or try to control it.
Pittsburgh? I lived in Pittsburgh. I know Pittsburgh. Not well, but well enough to write about it in this book.
So I went to Pittsburgh.
When I got there it hadn’t spread to the suburbs yet. It was inner city. Some general said, “We can contain it. This city is on three rivers. Blow up the bridges. Seal it off.”
Fuck. Just like a fuckin’ officer to make that suggestion. Yeah, seal the city, but seal us healthy people in there too.
No escape.
I guess I could get out of the city if I wanted to. It’s not an island. I could take a boat or swim. But who wants to swim in the fuckin’ river.
Anyhow, they blow up all bridges in the city of Pittsburgh. About that point in time the bridge blowing up happy general did that to every city.
It was like a new fad or something. Have a plague, blow up bridges.
Me and my soldiers had to make the best of it. We had pandemonium to fight, or we were going to. People got pissed when they blew up the bridges. So that started things right before the monsters.
The monsters.
The pandemonium pandemic monsters.
CHAPTER FOUR – DEAN
When I first met Frank he was undaunted by all that was happening and tainted with reality. He was one of eight soldiers called into the meeting with General Green. I didn’t really know why he was there, who he was. He was an infantry soldier, E-9, highest ranking enlisted man. Heard he held all kinds of records for marksman, and to see him, it’s frightening.
Frank is a big guy. Looks like a big Italian. Not so much that he’s tall, he is, but his presence and attitude makes him seem taller.
When he interjected in the meeting, I thought, ‘Holy shit, this man is militarily brilliant. Why is he an enlisted man?’ I did, I thought Frank was a genius. Are you laughing? I found out later how wrong I was.
Now don’t get me wrong, when it comes to military and strategy, Frank is a genius, but life . . . well, we’ll leave that for another chapter.
So there we are in the meeting. I’m watching, listening. General Green has
a map of Pittsburgh on the wall.
“This is the hub of the infection,” General Green said. His hand smoothing over the image of the city. “It started here and it will end here. Containment is the word of the hour.”
“What do you propose?” Asked another in the group.
“Simple. We couldn’t have asked for a better city for the virus to break out. We can contain it within the walls of the city, until it burns itself out. We seal off the city.”
“What does that entail?”
“Killing the bridges,” replied the General. “Yes, Sergeant?”
Okay that was the moment. That was the moment I really paid attention to Frank. He had his hand raised like a school boy and when called upon, he snapped to attention, staring strongly ahead.
“Thank you General, sir. Permission to speak freely?”
“That’s why you’re here.”
Frank nodded once then shifted to a parade rest, or rather relaxed mode. “I’m not a scientist,” Frank said. “I won’t pretend to be one. So anyone in this room with more knowledge than me, please correct me if I am wrong. But when did we first have the symptoms of the virus?”
General Green looked at me.
I answered. “About ten days ago.’
Another strong nod from Frank. “Ten days. Blowing up the bridges right now, in my opinion is useless. Any shot of containing the virus went out the window ten days ago with the first car that rolled across one of those bridges you want to seal off.”
“Well what do you suggest?” The General said. “What brilliant solution do you have?”
“Look for signs and symptoms in other cities.”
“There’s been no report,” said the General.
“What is the incubation period?” Frank looked at me for an answer.
“One day to ten days.” I answered. “Hard to say.”
“It’s out there.” Frank said. “You know that, I know that. Sealing us in here with this thing that is making people violent is shutting us off. I say, admit defeat on this battle, but not the war, wage the war elsewhere and bury this battle ground.”