Memory transcription subject: Zaqun, venlil civilian
Date [Standardized human time]: August 18th, 2148
[Day 11]
My holopad and TV buzzed to life of their own accord, I hadn’t seen anything like this since before the war. The screens displayed static for a moment, before an exterminator wearing his full suit and holding his helmet in one arm, materialized.
“Citizens of Ransu City,” the name sounded edited in, this was a mass address, “humanity has pulled out of our borders. To prevent the further spread of the Skalgan Flu, we exterminators will be securing the city. The sooner this blight can end, the sooner life can go back to normal. We urge you to cooperate,” I was surprised to see the exterminator guild actually in power again.
The distant sounds of the rioting outside took on a lighter tone as hundreds cheered in unison. We were still trapped and dying of the predator’s disease, we were just kept complacent by someone else. At least nobody else will have to die in the name of ‘keeping the peace’.
I toyed with the gun in my hands, my only line of defense if one of the looters picked my house as their next target. I was well into the bad part of town, the place they don’t talk about on the travel brochures. There was once a really big human immigrant population from the poorer Earth countries that were hit the hardest by the war. Now they were nowhere to be seen.
I couldn’t hold the war against the humans, I wasn’t sure how anyone did, but this area was majorly fucked over by them. I didn’t buy a gun because of the rioting, I bought it because of the crime humans brought. Their shitty behavior rubbed off on the other people here, it’s been terrible.
Now they’ve got some virus out and about threatening to kill off entire cities. It’s getting damn hard to sympathize. I coughed into a bloodied handkerchief. I hope the exterminators know what they’re doing. Thousands are dead with no sign of slowing.
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Daniel Stat, human virologist
Date [Standardized human time]: [Subject unconscious, last recorded date: August 18th, 2148]
[Day 11]
I stood before myself. It was like looking in a mirror. He was bound by tape and stuck to the couch. In my hands, I held a fork and a dark orange steak. My hands aren’t my own. My engagement ring was replaced with a less ornate, dull silver Humanity First band.
I had no control over them. A voice came from my throat, “Just one bite.” It wasn’t mine. I jabbed a chunk of meat with the fork and moved it closer to the bound me in the chair. He wriggled in place, I set the plate down and used my newly freed hand to pry open his jaw. Before I could even register what happened, he freed himself, grabbed the fork, and swiftly smashed his fist into my temple.
I collapsed to the floor, everything was spinning and blurred. I tried to right myself, but he had broken completely free and leaped on top of me. I jammed my fist into his gut and then felt a piercing pain in my throat.
A gurgling sound escaped me as my mouth filled with the metallic taste of blood. I coughed, unable to refill my lungs with air, and crimson spurted from my neck and sprayed the carpet.
“You did the right thing,” a faraway voice echoed. The version of me that towered above was covered in blood, but he didn’t look scared. I was grinning. I know that can’t be right- He raised the fork again and forced it into my chest.
Over and over he smashed the fork through me, every stab shot piercing pain through me. My peripheral was blurred, everything seemed moving at half speed as the spurts of airborne viscera caught and reflected the natural light. I felt my whole body go limp, darkness encased me, then-
My hands were warm. Stained red. I dropped the fork, it clattered on the tiled floor and vanished into it. Far away I heard a heart monitor. I was in some sort of hospital hallway. No nurses or doctors were to be seen, and there was only one door at the far end.
I walked up to it, my footsteps leaving red in their wake that slowly shifted to a deep orange. The blood on my hands changed color with it. I took the door handle and carefully stepped inside the hospital room. It was occupied by a single bed, heart monitor, and IV. It beeped steadily, attached to a fluffy arm.
“Silvon?” the venlil sturred and popped open a bloodshot eye. She coughed into her elbow, splotchy blood stained her arm.
“Danny,” she smiled. The effort looked immense. I ran to her side as she coughed again. She looked horrible, gaunt with sunken eyes and unkempt fur. “What did you do, Danny?” She asked. I cocked an eyebrow.
“What do you mean?” I asked, reaching a hand out and cradling her head. “I didn’t do-” My fingers left a trail of orange wherever I rubbed.
“What did you do?” She asked again. By the second she seemed to be getting worse. I watched in horror as the skin practically melted from her face.
“SILVON?!” I screamed as the heart rate monitor’s pace quickened. Her face rapidly became skeletal as she screamed “DANNY!”
I desperately tried to hold her together, dust was slipping between my fingertips. My words were incoherent, her’s went silent and the bed was empty. The blood on my hands was thicker, dripping like it was emanating from my skin. The responsibility for billions of lives weighed me down. The floor felt like quicksand, the space between the tiles frothed and melted into a multicolored liquid that hungrily ate at my lower body. I raised my hands to grab at the bed, it rapidly sunk beneath the waves. I tried to scream, it filled my lungs and silenced my attempts. I fell beneath, gasped one final time for air, and gave in.
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~~~
[Subject conscious]
Date [Standardized human time]: August 19th, 2148
[Day 12]
I woke with a start, I was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.
“Danny?” Silvon mumbled half asleep, “You okay?”
I put a hand on my chest, my heartbeat was rapid. “Yeah, hon,” I caught my breath. “I’m okay. Go back to sleep,” she was snoring softly before I even said it. I sighed and stared up at the ceiling. It curved upward toward the center of the house where the living room was. Painted on were little specks of glow-in-the-dark paint made to resemble the stars.
My eyes locked onto the sun. I let my mind wander to the world I left behind, what it was like before the war when I was a child. When we still looked out wondering if we were alone in the universe. It felt surreal, to see myself represented on an alien star chart.
I carefully clambered out of bed, the floor creaked gently beneath my weight. Silvon’s ears twitched, but she remained peacefully asleep. I exited the guest room and made it to the kitchen, light was gently filtering in through automated blinds that simulated early morning light. My holopad told me it was about 4 am, I didn’t fret over losing sleep.
I got myself a glass of water and sat alone at the table drinking and reading. My hand was still shaky from the nightmare. A throat clearing broke the silence, I flinched at the sudden noise.
“Daniel?” Silvon’s dad asked.
I breathed a sigh of relief, “Good morning, sir,” I greeted, taking a sip of water.
“What’re you doing up so early?” He asked, his grainy voice had notes of sympathy. He popped open the fridge and dug out some leftover salad.
“Just catching up on some reading before Silvon wakes up,” I said nonchalantly.
“Mhm,” he grumbled, sitting at the opposite end of the table. “You’re wuhtroot red, shaking like a pup, and soaking wet,” he observed. “Tell me something, Danny,” he said, “what has been eating at you? You’re engaged, you’re heading research I can’t begin to understand, and since you got here you’ve constantly looked like you’re on the receiving end of an exterminator’s flamethrower.”
I sighed, “I’m telling you, I’m okay.”
“Bullshit,” he stabbed at the salad with his utensil. “I can tell when someone’s been through some shit, and you definitely have. Now you can tell me, get it off your chest, or you can keep bottling it up and let it tear you apart,” he explained then jammed a blue leaf into his mouth.
His dead, glassy eyes stared up at me from the pool of blood surrounding him. The life I’d taken flashed through my peripheral vision. “A couple paws ago,” I began, feeling the fear creeping in with every word, “someone left a threat on our door- he threatened Silvon,”
He nodded, “That’s why you shuttled her here, yes. Something happened after,” he said.
“Yeah… I got home from work, he was in our house-” I choked, nausea tugged at my stomach, “I- I did what I had to- to protect her-” My voice broke.
He stood up and put a paw on my shoulder. “You’re a good man, son. I can rest easy knowing you’d do anything to protect her.”
I tried not to whimper as I asked, “How do you know so much about how I feel?”
He paused a moment, then smiled. “I had to protect her too, fought a whole damn war on the losing side terrified I’d lose her. I’m glad I didn’t, and I know you won’t either.” he went back to his salad, the blinds had slowly been opening to let more light in. Silvon would be up in a few hours, I didn’t want to worry her.
“Thank you, sir,” I nodded.
He waved a paw, “Please, just call me Nulon.”
I finished my water, washed the cup, and headed back to bed. As soon as I slid into the blankets, Silvon wrapped her arms around me. “Love you, Danny,” she whispered.
“I love you too,” I responded, “I won’t ever lose you.”
~~~
Memory transcription subject: Captain Reivaan, of the Ransu City Exterminator Guild
Date [Standardized human time]: August 19th, 2148
[Day 12]
We took over the tents the UN left. They didn’t even pack up, just vanished. We were commanded by the governor to be very over precautious in our sterilizing procedures. We couldn’t risk an outbreak among our own ranks. It was risky business being susceptible to what you’ve got to stop. We kept our suits on at all times, they were air-tight and filtered microbes very well thanks to in-suit oxygen generators. I was upgraded from an office in the old building to an office in a tent without air conditioning. The computers were hellish to use while suited up.
I kept my radio handy on the fold-up table I used as a desk. Every now and then it would light up with reports of a couple rioters showing up, causing a ruckus, and then leaving again. A couple of daring ones tried to break through the perimeter and make a break for the nearest city. We had a containment area, quarantined from the rest of the camp, that was going to hold them until we could shuttle them off to a hospital.
Every single venlil in there was infected with the predator’s disease. It made them delirious, they barely registered we weren’t human when we took them in. Their fevers were so high it was pressure cooking their brains. I’d looked at the public statistics from time to time, over half the city’s population was infected, and Beiton wasn’t much better.
Right after the UN pulled out, a ton of them made their way to cities like Dayside and Qrekso. Both had high human populations. Dayside was largely following the procedures from what I’d heard. The rioters who took to the streets were arrested and quarantined almost immediately, the outbreak there is still very small scale. Qrekso is a bit more iffy. It’s far more rural than the big cities, so the spread will be slower, but it’s also almost entirely venlil and hasn’t gotten much attention from the local guilds.
It’s a mountainous town, likely to fend for itself since its residents rarely come and go. I shook my head and typed out today’s report. A couple of rocks were thrown at us, and we confiscated several weapons, but nobody was shot or killed.
I finished it, an hour or so late to clock out because of the damned bulky gloves. I signed off and closed everything then made my way down the ‘sterilization corridor’ as we called it. A long row of interconnected tents ended in a sectioned-off parking lot. You walked through, got blasted with superheated air, doused in bleach, beamed with UV light, and finally a light spritzing of high-pressure steam. It was intense enough that it was mandated you had to get a new suit after the third or fourth cycle. Lucky us they’re cheap.
I crawled out of the suit in the locker room and tossed it in the ‘used’ bin. All the material would be recycled, and tomorrow I’d just grab a new one. I strolled over to my car, clicking a jaunty tune with my tongue. I was gonna go home, have a beer, and pass out to celebrate a hard paw’s work.
As I got home, I suddenly felt off. To quell the anxiety building in my chest, I went inside and dug through my medicine cabinet for the flu tests. I coughed heavily into my arm while waiting for the results I already knew. Positive.