DAY Z

          It’s been five years since the virus escaped. In those five years, life changed drastically. At first, there were only a few reports of minor outbreaks. We had managed to get those outbreaks under control in a timely manner, but, unfortunately, we did not work quickly enough. After about two months, outbreaks ravaged the country like wildfire. The situation had become uncontrollable. People evacuated the second things started to look ugly; they panicked. The moment news of a refugee center surfaced, people rushed to their deaths without a single thought about the consequences of their actions.

          These centers quickly became overcrowded. Quarantine procedures were not properly followed, and soon enough, the sick were mingling with the living in an unharmonious game of cat-and-mouse. For those who had rushed into the situation, there was no escaping. Traffic had jammed the roads both going to and from the cities. Those in their cars were sitting ducks. Maybe traffic will clear, they thought. Maybe we’ll start moving soon! I often wonder if they ever stopped to ask themselves what and where they would start moving to; another refugee center?

          Not everyone had been as ignorant. Some banded together and left the caravan of cars and headed west to the plains, south to the desert, east to the sea, and north to the arctic. Unfortunately, two of those options would not wield the results that the travelers were anticipating.  The virus had been tailored to withstand extreme conditions. The blazing heat would not kill it, nor would the icy frost of the north. The only way to kill the virus is to eliminate its host, but even then, that is only in one unit, not in a mass. There is no way to kill the virus, and I’m beginning to wonder if there ever will be.

          My name is Lucinda Gray, and I am the reason why the world has gone to hell. I am the one who created the virus, Z-126.

          Even in the beginning, the creation of the virus never had any good intentions to it. I, along with another leading scientist in the world of biological warfare, Thomas Jenners, had been commissioned (I suppose you could call it that) to create a virus that would reanimate a fallen soldier so that the body could continue fighting. Thomas had no qualms in participating in the production of such a virus, but I, on the other hand, was very skeptic. While I had intentionally gone into the world of biological warfare with no prodding, the thought of reanimating the dead seemed like it was going too far.

          My commissioners did not like this at all. They had never intended to take no for an answer. At first, they tried to convince me to join their team with material items. Large sums of money and lavish accommodations were amongst their favorite options. When they saw that such things were not working, they moved toward blackmailing me. Fortunately, I had nothing to hide other than the fact that I worked to develop weapons of mass destruction. While that seems like quite a large secret, it wasn’t a secret in the first place. For reasons just like this, I made my name public. What did the name Lucinda Gray mean to anyone though? I had never actually developed a weapon, only researched them.

          Next was kidnapping and abuse. I would not break though, and since they needed me, serious damage couldn’t be done. Finally, they threatened my family. As cliché as this is, that is where I finally agreed to work for them. From that point onward, the time it took to develop the virus dropped drastically. Thomas and I were unstoppable. Soon enough, we experimented with our first subject. It was a woman. I had learned that from the very early age of twelve, she had been in the sex trafficking industry. She had been taught all of her life that she was nothing but a shell of a person; that she would never amount to anything. She was the perfect subject. Her name was Lucille (Test Subject A1), and she was only twenty-five when she was killed in the name of science.

          We did not have to sacrifice anyone else after Lucille. Much to my chagrin, she rose again. That night, everyone in our team celebrated. Everyone but me, that is. In the midst of the party, I slipped away. It was a cold December evening, and the cold wind cut right through me. I didn’t feel human anymore. I felt like a monster. For the longest moment, I considered throwing myself off of the cliff I was standing on. Someone stopped me before I made the leap. That someone was Thomas.

          He and I had grown close, and we were verging on too close. No . . . we had crossed that line many months before, but neither of us had ever admitted it. We had simply accepted it. After slipping his coat cover my shoulders, he put his arm around my waist and pulled me close. “We’ve done it, Lucinda. We’ve created the weapon that will revolutionize the world of war. It’s too bad that it’s going toward such a petty cause. Wouldn’t it be interesting to see our creation go towards something far more significant, Lucinda?”

          At first I didn’t understand what he was saying, but the truth soon became apparent. Thomas never had the intention of creating the virus for the military; he didn’t even do it for the money. I don’t think anyone assumed that his real intentions, but now that I look back on it, everything was so painfully obvious. He had access to everything that he would ever need to create a virus that would lead to world domination. He had an advanced laboratory, plenty of “minions”, and now someone to rule it with. I should have said something; I should have asked more questions, but I didn’t . . .

Colored Version

          About a week later, Test Subject A1 was released into the world by none other than Thomas himself. I was the first one to discover that she was missing. By the time units moved out to secure her, it was too late. The dead were walking, and only Thomas knew how to permanently put them down. Luckily, one soldier found out rather quickly that an attack to the brain would put the bodies down for good. After all of the infected were put down, we assumed that everything was under control.

          We had no idea how wrong we were.

          Soon, reports of bodies that had been officially announced as dead were rising. It was then that we understood there was no going back. The virus was airborne, and we assumed that almost everyone had contracted it. It didn’t take a bite or physical contact to change someone, but bites definitely speeded up the process. While soldiers fought to keep things as under control as they possibly could, my remaining team and I were rushing to create a cure. Unfortunately, we did not have Thomas. A large portion of information was with him in his mind.

          It had been decided that I was the only one who could possibly get into his head and get him to cooperate with us. About a week after things started turning ugly, I went to him.

          “My love.”
          “Thomas.”
       
          It seemed that my disinterest had pained him. He narrowed his eyebrows and crossed his arms. “If you’re here for the cure, there isn’t one. You and I both know that.”

          I leaned forward, “What man decides to try and take over the world with a virus he has no cure to?”

          “A very desperate one,” he muttered quietly.

          “Cut the crap, Thomas! You’re not fooling anyone!” I barked as I shot up from my chair. Perhaps my actions hadn’t been the best for negotiation, but I was desperate. The world was desperate. “The whole world is relying on your cooperation, and you can’t even see that this could be your one and only chance to get what you want,” I whispered as I looked him in the eyes.

          It seemed that under my gaze, things became more difficult to him. Perhaps it was because he couldn’t lie to the one and only person he loved when she was looking at him with such a deadly glare. “As tempting as that offer is, I have to refuse. If I said it once, I’ll say it again. There is no cure, Lucinda. The dead cannot be brought back to life. As for the living . . .” he grinned grimly and looked back at me, “our extinction is far overdue.”

          After that day, I never went back to see Thomas again. When other scientists saw that one of their best chances of creating a cure was not coming back, many left. Some even “opted- out”. Eventually, our team dwindled down to just one: me. I now work alone almost all day and night working towards a cure. It’s proving to be almost impossible. We did not do enough experimenting. I have no idea how the virus works in living humans, and I no longer have the resources to find out.

          I’m pulling at loose ends that I don’t even have.

          Most days I consider just giving up. What’s the point? Why should I even bother when I don’t even have a clue as to what I’m doing? I haven’t found the answers to those questions yet, I don’t know if I ever will. All I can do now is try and hope that the virus will either die or I’ll find a cure. Odds are, though, that neither of those will ever happen.

          I have destroyed the world and I don’t even know how to fix it.

          I sighed and took my safety goggles off and set them down. “That’s enough for today . . .” I mumbled.

          “I wouldn’t say that just yet. It’s happening again, and this time, there’s a kid involved.”

          I turned and looked back at my partner, Theon Winters. “Well then, we better hurry.”