Prelude To An Apocalypse

Ever wondered what could cause zombies to walk the Earth? Here is just one way it may happen...

Prelude To An Apocalypse

 

It began in a University in Scotland. It was here that the discovery was made.

That discovery was the cure for the common cold. With all the advancement in medical facilities and equipment it seemed baffling why it had taken so long, but here it was at last.

The cure came in the form of a rather chalky pill.

It had been tested on 50 people of varying ages, male and female. All were cured within two hours of taking the pill.

None of the 50 people showed any signs of suffering side effects.

 

6 weeks later…

 

The drug, Eibmoz, was now readily available to the general public. Unsurprisingly it sold well.  £6.99 to get rid of a cold that would normally have lingered for at least a week was a pretty good deal.

The corporation that created Eibmoz was making a fortune, every day, sales seemed to be going up. Shares in the company were record breaking.

Those involved in the creating the drug could be forgiven for expecting the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

How quickly can people go from heroes to villains?

 

The answer in this case is approximately 7 hours. Three deaths were about to change humanity, maybe even destroy it completely.

 

Jurgen Sommer of Stuttgart, Germany was the first reported case. He died at 12.39 pm. At 12.56 he was up viciously attacking his neighbour, who was out in his garden, according to a report he was trying desperately to bite him. By the time police arrived the neighbour was dead, several bite marks on his body, blood pouring from his shoulder, where a deep wound, complete with bite marks around it was clearly visible.

 

Alfredo Nunez was victim number 2, from Madrid, Spain. Alfredo died after a long battle with illness. Similar to Jurgen, within 15 minutes he was up attacking his wife and 2 sons, who had been at his bedside, his 2 sons had eventually managed to drag their late father off of their mother, However, the immense shock of what they were witnessing meant that their mother had had to fend her husband off single handed. The three of them managed to leave the house. Maria was suffering from shock and confusion, but physically fine. Hector, the eldest son had the beginnings of a black eye, the result of an elbow in the face. Fernando seemed ok, until he noticed what appeared to be bite marks on his forearm.

 

The third victim was the one that would help send the world into meltdown.

 

Glenn Carpenter of Adelaide, Australia had died after being bitten by a highly venomous snake whilst camping with 2 of his friends. Glen  had wandered off early morning, having awoken with a bad hangover. His friends had split up to search for him, it was Clive who had stumbled upon him after about 40 minutes. Glenn was lying face down, Clive carefully turned him over, and checked for a pulse �" nothing. He leaned over him so that his right ear was next to Glenns mouth, no breath. Unable to accept his friend was dead, Clive began to give him mouth to mouth resuscitation. Nothing happened, he tried again �" nothing.

Glenn rose up a few feet and took a bite out of the side of Clives face, taking part of his left ear with him.

Bruce heard Clive yelling in the distance, he ran towards it, he was sure he had been heading in the right direction, the yelling had been replaced by silence. He kept walking, unsure of whether he was heading in the right direction.

He eventually found his friend further on up the path he was following. Upon his approach Clive turned to face him, Bruce had time to notice only 2 things before being attacked: The blood dripping from an open wound on his face , and the look in his eyes, it was not the look of somebody seeing an old friend, it was the look of a wild animal who had just seen it’s prey.

 

Locals of a nearby town had reported 3 men in their town trying to attack and bite anybody that they seen.

 

Australia was the first country to go into lockdown.

Indeed, its was the Australian government that told the rest of the world what was going on.

The recently deceased were rising from the dead and attacking the living. They seemed to have a need, or perhaps, a desire to eat people. Furthermore, if you were bitten, you become infected, and soon you would become one of these monsters.

 

What caused this freakish phenomenon to occur?

 

The Australians, Germans and Spanish had already discovered the answer, one that had been tested, confirmed and then sent to all major nations the world over.

Everybody who had taken Eibmoz were infected. It was only once a person dies that the virus for want of a better term kicked in.

 

Over 800 million people had taken Eibmoz. With no cure, an army of the dead, over time would take over our world.

Reviews

[Author Gus]

Cool take of the genre. Generally speaking there are two kinds of zombie story.
1: Search for a cure (I am Legend)
2: Survival (Walking Dead)
The origin is usually a backstory within the main plot. This is a fun short that lets us dip into a world a focus strictly on the cause of the outbreak. Well done!

[Chris Rankine]

Thank you, much appreciated.