Chapter 1

Essentially Isaac going into the time machine to prevent the outbreak.

Today was going to be different. He could feel it. This morning, the dread that usually accompanied his waking up was nowhere to be found and the hot water for the shower was lukewarm, a rarity. He put on his clothes and took a nametag, the name Isaac Catcher, printed on it and pinned it to his shirt pocket. Opening the door to his modest apartment, he stepped out into the world.

Isaac made it to the gate that would lead him into the building he worked at and greeted Gabe, the security guard at the gate. “Hey Gabe. Nice day today isn’t it?” Gabe looked up from his newspaper and gave him a faint nod. Isaac smiled and made his way into the building. It was like this every day, with Isaac greeting Gabe and him barely acknowledging him. All part of his daily routine. Right now, he would enter the building he had been working at for over two years and sit at his desk, which would most likely be a complete mess. He would pretend to be working and go for his fifteen minute lunch break in the canteen, where he would have a sandwich and water or a Coke if he was feeling frivolous. Then it would be back to his desk until it was time to go home where he would fall onto his bed and wonder where it had all began. His being here and working at a dead end job at the most secure research facility in the world. The news reports? The first confirmed sighting of a Freak? Seeing his entire family torn to pieces in their house? He could never pinpoint the exact time it had all gone down the drain but one fact remained, he was here and he would try to make the most of it. Then he’d enter a dreamless sleep and wake up the next morning, ready to begin the cycle anew.

Not today though. Today felt different from all the other days. Like the last ten years had just been a terrible nightmare and he would wake up, in his bed and simply laugh it off. But Isaac knew better than that. This was very real and as much as he wished otherwise, the harsh reality still remained. It felt as if something big was going to happening, some momentous task. He couldn’t really explain it but Isaac had learned to trust his intuition. It had kept him alive for the past ten years after all. Why start doubting it now?

After thirty minutes of ‘working’, Isaac saw Doctor Friedman making her way to his desk. He whispered “s**t” under his breath and began to get to actual work. Doctor Friedman was the lead scientist of the facility and she was notorious for being very vituperative, something Isaac definitely did not want, especially since he was having a good day so far. Isaac always thought that if it weren’t for her personality, she’d be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, with her blue eyes and long, wavy brown hair that cascaded down her shoulders. But as it stands, she was Isaac’s boss and held the fate of the world on her shoulders, which would explain the caustic personality. She made her way to Isaac’s desk and he kept his eyes fixed forward towards the computer monitor, determined not to look at her until she talked to him first. They remained like this for a while, with the doctor almost daring Isaac to look at her and him remaining fixed to the monitor as if it was his only life line. Finally, Doctor Friedman made a sound as if she was clearing her throat and Isaac broke. He looked into her eyes and realized not for the first time the bright blue of her eyes that reminded him of a clear summer afternoon, a contrast to his dull brown eyes that only reminded him of what he’d lost. He swallowed and asked, “Yes ma’am?” Her lips curled into a wry smile and she raised an eyebrow. “Ma’am? Do I really look that old to you?” This was the first time she had ever spoken to Isaac but he hadn’t really cared, noticing the way she spoke to the other employees and feeling bad for them and also relieved that it wasn’t him on the other side. Now, it was his turn to feel the pain many others had fallen prey to. Isaac stumbled to find the right words, not used to talking to anyone and the look on Doctor Friedman’s face told him he should just stop trying. He looked back at his monitor and began typing on the keyboard, not really sure of what he was doing but appreciating the distraction from the tense situation he was in. She tapped him on the shoulder and again Isaac was forced to look at her but this time, there was a gentle, almost sad look on her face. He didn’t know what to make of it and when she motioned for him to follow her, he still couldn’t figure it out.

“When did you start working here-”, there was a pause as she checked Isaac’s nametag, “Isaac?” He replied, “Two years.” She nodded her head and they proceeded in silence for a while. She broke the silence again with, “Do you have any family?” Images flashed in Isaac’s mind and he quickly began to push them away. He shook his head and the sad look returned on her face again. “I’m sorry. I’m assuming they died the day of the outbreak?” Words didn’t seem to be working for Isaac at the moment as he nodded his head. He could still remember the way he had found them. Every news station had been playing the same thing. “Virus outbreak.” “Epidemic sweeps the nation.” But Isaac knew this was no mere epidemic. People were being attacked by…things. Flesh hanging off their bones like loose clothes. Blood dripping down their chins as they tore into human flesh, like a lion attacking a gazelle. Isaac had been thirteen at the time and had barely escaped with his life. Naively, he had thought home would be a safe haven. That somehow, the virus had skipped his house and he would be safe there, with his mom telling him it was all going to be alright. How very wrong he had been for the first thing that greeted him when opening the door was an arm on the floor and blood on the walls, painting them a bright red. The only way he knew it was his mother’s was because her body was a few feet away, with the arm itself having been mutilated and fragments of bone showing. He had covered his mouth, vomit threatening to come out. He swallowed it and it left a bitter taste in his mouth. Her eyes were glassy and her right arm socket had been viciously ripped apart, with the left arm barely hanging on with pieces of skin. His eyes filled up with tears and he rubbed them away, determined not to cry no matter what. He made his way throughout the entire house and found the rest of his family in various forms of mutilation, with his older sister being the worse one. The left side of her head was missing, with pieces of her brain falling out. Her tongue was severed and the rest of her body had bite marks. Isaac couldn’t take anymore of it and he ran out of the house, tears streaming down his face.

“Isaac? Isaac? Are you OK?” He snapped out of his reverie to see Doctor Friedman looking at him with concern. “You just got this blank look on your face. Is everything fine?” He considered telling her, of how he had seen his parents, how he had barely survived since then and decided on the always reliable, “I’m fine.” She looked at him as if she was trying to read his mind but sighed and continued on. Isaac wondered why she was being so nice to him. Every time he had seen her talking to someone, it was to berate and criticise him. What made him the exception? To break the silence as to prevent himself from thinking, he asked, “Where are we going? I don’t think I’ve ever been in this part of the building before.” It was true. Isaac didn’t have clearance to over seventy percent of the building and often wondered what it was exactly they did. No one ever told him and at some point, he had stopped asking. She looked at the ceiling, as if she was considering telling him and finally said, “This stays between us. If a word of this leaks to anyone, I will hold you personally responsible and make sure the appropriate punishment is carried out. Understood?” Isaac was almost too scared to agree but his curiosity got the better of him and he nodded his head. She kept the stoic face and began saying, “This facility was set up ten years ago, the day the Event occurred.” The Event is what everyone called the virus outbreak that started this new world. Isaac had never thought it properly conveyed the entire situation as it made it seem like they were simply throwing a party or something but this wasn’t the time to be thinking about that. “It was meant to gather the most brilliant people around the world to find a solution or rather, a cure. A cure to turn every Freak back into a normal human being or at the very least make them docile. But this didn’t work. Freak DNA is far too complex for any cure to be made to reverse the process. It seems as if the virus changes the very nature of a person, down to their last hair follicle.” Isaac didn’t know any of this. He didn’t need to know any of this. All he needed to know was that Freaks were bad and that when you saw one, run the other way. Fast. “But I’m sure you already know this. What you don’t know is that a single person caused this.” She motioned her hands to represent the Earth, emphasizing to Isaac just what she meant at this. This caused Isaac to stop in his tracks and look at Doctor Friedman with wide eyes. His brain was trying to process this information and he was sure he would have collapsed to the floor had it not been for the wall. He said, breath heaving at every word, “You mean to tell me one person caused the Event?” Isaac found himself using the colloquial term but he didn’t care. His mind tried to wrap itself around the idea that a single person could cause eighty percent of all human life on the planet to turn into creatures that feed on human flesh and force the remaining survivors to hide and scavenge to live. It was all too much at once for him and he felt nauseous all of a sudden. Doctor Friedman sighed and said, “This might be too much for you at once. Which really makes me sorry that I have to tell you this next part.” Isaac looked at her and almost laughed. What could be worse than discovering that a single human being essentially unleashed a super virus on the planet? He said, “Hit me.” She looked at the floor and said in such a low voice that he had to lean closer to her to listen, “You have to go back in time and prevent the Event from ever occurring.”

Now Isaac was sure this was all some elaborate prank. Go back in time? Prevent the Event from occurring? It was beginning to sound like some nerdy teen’s fanfiction. Before he could say anything, Doctor Friedman began, “Look, I know this is a lot. Scratch that, f*****g crazy. But it’s the only way to prevent this from ever happening. We have looked at every possible solution and I mean every, but this is the only one that’s plausible.” At first, Isaac was silent. Then a low rumble came from his throat that later turned to laughter but not the merry kind. The this-is-batshit-insane kind. Doctor Friedman let him continue like that, almost like she thought he needed it. And she was right. He had to laugh at this crazy situation. This wonderful predicament he was in that him go back in time to prevent the worst catastrophe to ever hit mankind.

“I assume there’s a time machine if I’m going back in time,” Isaac said after he had stopped laughing. She nodded and motioned with her head at the door they were standing in front of. “It’s in here. Of course, I don’t have to tell you how confidential this has to remain.” He shook her head and she entered in a code on the keypad that was next to the door. Isaac heard a beep and a click as Doctor Friedman opened the door. Inside, it was all hustle and bustle as people shuffled about. There were people at computers and boards had been erected everywhere, with diagrams and equations on them. Isaac didn’t understand any of it and besides, most of his attention was on the large machine that had the most activity around it, with people around it and checking clipboards. Two people were arguing about something but it was too far for Isaac to catch anything. He felt a nudge and saw Doctor Friedman smiling at him. “Beautiful isn’t it? An actual working time machine. Theoretically at least.” The last part caught Isaac’s attention. “Theoretically? Haven’t you people tested it?” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, as if she found his question uncomfortable. Why would she find his question uncomfortable, he thought? Unless…. Then it all made sense. Why Doctor Friedman was being nice to him. The sad look on her face. It was him. He was the test subject.

A dry smile had formed on Isaac’s face. Doctor Friedman was still shifting uncomfortably and only stopped when a worker came up to her and whispered something in her ear. After they left, she looked at Isaac and opened her mouth but he raised his hand. “I know what you’re about to say. I’m the test subject. I’m going to test the machine and see if it doesn’t rearrange people’s anatomy right?” She didn’t respond and simply nodded her head up and down. Isaac sighed. His intuition had been wrong. He wasn’t meant to undergo anything grandiose. Instead, he was to serve as a guinea pig.

They made their way towards a desk and Doctor Friedman began fumbling around on it. She took a file and handed it to Isaac. I-“What is this?” DF-“It’s everything you need to know about your mission.” Isaac almost smiled. She said mission as if she didn’t know this was essentially a quick way to die. “Inside it are details regarding the Patient Zero. The one who caused the Event. And a syringe that you are to inject her with.” Isaac perked his head up. So a woman caused the Event? “What’s the syringe for?” DF-“The syringe is..a cure of some sorts. It will supress the virus that is currently in her body and stop her from transforming, therefore preventing the outbreak.” I-“I thought you said a cure was impossible? Why not just use this now?” She sat down and took a deep breath. “The liquid in that syringe won’t work on people who have already turned into Freaks. Like I said, the DNA is too complex for any effective cure to be made. So instead, we attack the problem at the root. We stop the virus from ever getting out in the first place.” Isaac slowly nodded his head, clarity forming. There were a bunch of other questions he wanted to ask, notably about the time machine and the consequences for using it. He didn’t like to call himself smart but he had a fairly apt understanding about time and time travel in particular, mostly due to him being a huge fan of science fiction. If he wasn’t about to test a device that could theoretically send him back in time or disperse his atoms, he would be psyched as hell. But before he could get a chance to ask, an alarm began blaring in the room. It caused everyone to stop whatever they were doing and Isaac knew it all too well. It had been drilled into his head the first month he had started working here. It signalled a Freak had entered the facility.

“A Freak?!? In here??!” Isaac heard this statement in different variations in the room and he was as shocked as they were. This was a secure research facility. How could a Freak get in here? The only feasible way was if someone got infected from the outside and brought the virus inside? But the scanners would catch them. All of this thoughts spiralled in Isaac’s mind and he saw Doctor Friedman gesturing wildly at him. He didn’t get what she meant at first but then he saw that she was gesturing at the machine. He took a step towards it and stopped. What if it didn’t work? What if it blew up? The sound of the door being hit by what could only be a horde of Freaks snapped him out if it. He steeled himself and ran towards the machine. Doctor Friedman came and helped him get inside. “Now remember. 6 December 2020 is the deadline. Any later and the Event still plays out. The whole world is depending on you, Isaac.” Isaac thought about how she didn’t realize she was putting so much pressure in him. And besides, he already knew this. If the machine worked, and he prayed it did, he would do everything in his power to stop it even if the very thought of attempting it made his head spin. “I’m sending you to 17 March 2020. That gives you a little under nine months to track down the Patient Zero and give her the injection. If I give you a short time frame to work with, you might not be able to find her so let’s be safe.” All Isaac could do was nod his head, close his eyes and hope for the best. “And Isaac?” He opened his eyes and looked at her. She was typing away at a keyboard but he could tell how tense she was. “You have to stop the outbreak. At any means necessary.” Isaac took in a sharp breath and said, “You don’t mean-” DF-“I mean exactly what I said. Any means necessary.” The last thing Isaac saw was the door breaking open and Freaks charging in. Then it was all white.

Author's Note

tell me what you think of it. all critiques are appreciated.

Reviews

[Angela Boyko]

This is an intriguing basis for your book. I find it odd that his boss has never spoken with him in two years? Why is that? What is his job at the facility?

You have a talent for description, I think you need to work on how you introduce the characters.