Prologue -
No one knows where it come from or how it started. They only know the year: 2022. The first cases arose within a single month, and then it started spreading like a wildfire. Those who contracted it early on called it Seraphim, not sure why it was given the name of what is perceived to be an angelic figure from the Bible of all things. Maybe the religious crazies saw it some message from God... or a sign of a coming apocalypse. To each their own, I suppose. But there was nothing angelic about this virus, this disease, this syndrome, this plague.
I'll say this much; everyone's got their notions of who, what, when, where and why, including me. This is my story.
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SERAPHIM'S RUN
Chapter I
The first sound was that of a faint heartbeat. A short, labored breath follow. There was initially nothing more beyond save for a near pitch black darkness. Then, everything started to flood all at once. His eyes snapped open. A deep breath left his lungs followed by more labored gasps. He shifted his eyes from one side to the other to get some semblance of his surroundings and in doing so, fell straight down a short distance. Hitting a hard surface but managing to get his hands in front to cushion the fall, he laid there for a moment without moving. Then he attempted to lift himself back up, but he felt sick in his stomach. He unexpectedly vomited onto the floor, leaving a disgusting mess of whatever he had last eaten. After that ordeal, he rolled all the way onto his shoulder and just laid there.
He then spoke his first words as though he was a newborn. "Hello? Hello, is anyone there?"
After what seemed like an eternity, he started to move and brought himself up to a seated position. His breathing normalized and his eyes focused upon a dark room the appeared to be a part to a hospital. His lower body felt cold and that was when he realized that his only article of clothing was a hospital gown. He wasn't even wearing underwear, so his bare skin was nearly freezing. Finally getting up to his feet, he stumbled around and found a series of cabinets nearby. Opening a few revealed some articles of clothing, all hospital made. He didn't have the luxury of picking and choosing, so he threw on the first pair of pants he saw and a shirt to go along with it.
Once he was dressed, he stumbled around to find whatever reflective surface he could find. The face of a young man in his mid 20's stared back at him, a thick beard on his face and a full head of dark brown hair on his head down the length of his neck to his shoulders. He noticed a metal bracelet on his wrist that read, GAVIN, SCOTT F. It started to come back to him; his name was Scott Gavin and he felt like he was just waking from a nightmare.
"How long has it been?" he asked himself.
Scott walked over to the closed blinds and pulled the string down. The blinds raised up and Scott eyes widened in pure astonishment. The sky was dark and awash of darker cloud coverage, but that wasn't what caught Scott's attention. It was the sight of destroyed buildings and ruined streets as far as the eyes could see, and it was like the breath left Scott's lungs. Scott backed away and stopped by a cold surface, and he turned to see he'd awakened from inside some sort of resting chamber rather than a simple bed.
"What the hell is this?"
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Scott was able to gather himself enough to leave his hospital room and took the halls. The lights were out everywhere he went, and he'd gone room to room and even by the first receptionist desk he found. Scott instinctively checked the phones on the desk. None of them even had a dial tone. Scott brushes his beard in mild frustration and looked around for sign of life.
"Hello," he called. "Anyone here? Hello?!"
No replies came from anywhere within the halls, and Scott started to worry that he was the only one there. He continued on, focusing his efforts now on finding whatever supplies he could. Room after room, he found very little if anything except for basic things like masks and gloves and anything sterile. There were the typical hospital machines, but they were no longer operable. Scott didn't really need those to know he was alive, but that did nothing to quell his confusion about his current situation.
But it seemed that luck would finally be on his side when arrived at the next room. Scott looked inside and found a similar chamber to the one from which he'd awakened with a blanket over it. Under the blanket appear to be the telltale shape of a human. Scott breathed a sigh of relief when he thought he wasn't alone in the hospital after all. As he came closer to the chamber, he noted the lack of movement from the would-be occupant. Scott felt his heart start to sink but he wanted so badly to believe the occupant was alive. He pulled back the blanket and recoiled at the sight of skeletal remains and a tarnished gown.
Any hope Scott had in finding another living human was washed away before he heard some faint noises outside the room. He returned to the ruined hallway and searched for the noise. Further along, Scott thought he'd seen movement but he wasn't about get his hopes up a second time just for more disappointment. But as he reached the corner of his current hall, the faint sound of some kind of commotion gave him Scott some of that hope.
"Please, let it be a living human being." Scott pleaded to himself.
Right at the corner, Scott peered around and could plainly see two apparent life forms. They didn't appear… normal. Or human. They were clearly bipedal, but they seemed to tower up to at least seven feet or more. They had bone protrusions jutting out from their backs, like someone tried to tear their bones out while they were still alive. What wasn't alive was the corpse of another human, and Scott could clearly see the remains spread around the floor. In his attempt to get a better look, Scott lost his grip and dropped to the floor. He'd knocked an old note board to the floor and it hit with a light crackle.
The noise drew the attention of the bizarre creatures, both of them holding strange guns in their clawed grips. Their faces were themselves of skeletal nature, but they seemed aware of their surroundings. Now, they were aware that they weren't alone. Scott had only just hidden himself around the corner, holding his breath to keep from making a sound. He waited for the right moment to move and when the creatures shifted away, he quietly slipped away.
One of the creatures turned toward where Scott had previously hidden away, finding nothing there. Scott managed to get to the far corner adjacent from his previous hiding place. He sighed and moved on, and it was by sheer dumb luck that he walked into a disheveled wheelchair that fell over with a clatter. The creatures heard the sound and quickly rounded the corner, finding nothing still but a swinging door into a hospital room.
The creatures stormed into the room where once more, they found nothing. They investigated, unaware that Scott had hidden himself in a closet. He watched them through the crease and waited again for a chance to move. One of them was standing right next to the slightly open closet door, the other near the broken windows. Scott made no sudden moves with the creature standing there… until it seemingly looked into the crease.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Fuck. Scott thought.
With no choice left, Scott pushed the door as hard as he could and slammed it into the creature's skull-like face. He bolted out for the exit before the other creature could react. The first recovered and fired a sort of laser-like blast at Scott as he ran, missing him by inches. Scott ran down the hall as quickly as his feet could carry him. The two creatures gave chase, taking several shots at him. The shots hit the surrounding area and sent all kinds of shrapnel flying around Scott as he ran. It was then that Scott made his way into a stairwell.
He tripped and tumbled down the first flight of steps and coming to a hard landing at the base. Scott couldn't waste a second to recover and got up fast. He started a mad dash down the next few flights of stairs as the creatures entered the stairwell. Scott kept moving until he reached the next door, and he burst right through it such force that the momentum carried him into the opposite wall of the new hallway. Not wasting time to rest, Scott bolted down the hall toward the next corner. He knew he'd be home free once he rounded the corner. Then he frantically tried to halt his run.
Someone or something walked around the same corner. Scott tried and failed to stop, slipping and falling backward and nearly hitting the back of his head on the floor. The new arrival stood over him, apparently attired in full body tactical armor that otherwise looked high-tech, from head to toe and brandishing an apparently advanced rifle. The one takeaway for Scott was that this new individual seemed to be human. At least, that was Scott's hope. But he wasn't about to take that chance, springing to his feet and running back down the way he came. That turned out to be a mistake as those creatures emerged from the stairwell. Scott was caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place. But only one of the two threats to his life raised their weapons on him.
"Get down!" the armored assailant shouted in a deep tone that sounded like a disguised voice.
Scott didn't hesitate and threw himself to the floor just before the armored assailant opened fire on the creatures. One of the creatures to the first volley of apparently energized pulse blasts and was dropped to the floor before it could react. The second returned fire, forcing the assailant to take cover behind the corner. The assailant fires back while grabbing Scott by the arm and dragging him around the corner. The creature tried to move in and the assailant fired their rifle, missing the target. The creature was able to close in and fired again, forcing the assailant out of hiding.
They came together and struggled for a moment. The creature, being the larger of the two, pushed the assailant against the far wall and held them against it. The ensuing struggle saw the creature claw at the assailant's helmet, cleaving a fragment from the right side. Scott knew he had to help somehow and he found a moderately sized shard of metal on the floor. He grabbed it and charged forward, driving the shard into the creature's back. The creature knocked him back to the floor, but the assailant found an opening and took the shot. Three seconds later, the creature was shot dead. Scott looked at the dead creature with bated breath when his would-be rescuer stood over him.
"On your feet. We're leaving." the assailant said.
"Who the hell are you?" Scott asked.
"If you want answers, you'll get on your feet now and follow me out of here."
Scott managed to get up and that was when he got a good look at the assailant's face through the broken part of the helmet. He caught the image of a single greenish-blue eye and a slightly angular facial structure. Their voice sounded slightly accented as well. The assailant apparently wasn't in the business of answering questions and started moving back the way they came. Scott saw not another option but to follow this person whom he didn't know… or trust.
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They were able to make the lobby of the hospital without further incident. Scott stayed close to his rescuer but still maintained his guard given he was still so unsure of who or what his savior actually was. The lobby itself was wide open and there was air, but it was foul smelling. It smelt so rancid that Scott thought he was about to pass out, as if someone emptied all the raw sewage into the world all at once. Scott put the stench out of his thoughts and focused on his rescuer setting their gun aside. He also took notice of the numerous crates spread around the lobby.
"I'm guessing we're not the only ones here." He said, but his would-be rescuer ignored him.
"This is Lt. Johansson; anyone on this frequency?"
Another voice could be heard on the other end of the call. "Johansson, it's Conrad. The other teams have completed their sweeps of the building. No survivors."
"I'm back at the lobby with only one survivor. Awaiting next set of orders."
"Standby, we'll rendezvous with you at the lobby, so keep that survivor alive until then."
"Copy that. Johansson out."
Scott slowly approached this Lt. Johansson and said, "So Johansson is your name? And this Conrad; is he in charge? Does he know what's happening? Can he fill me in on everything?"
Johansson didn't respond to Scott's inquiries and merely dropped to the floor by one of the crates. Johansson then removed the damaged helmet. Scott was slightly taken aback to discover that his would-be rescuer was a woman. She appeared to be around Jason's age with shoulder length auburn red hair, a light brown complexion and light blue eyes that looked like the shimmering surface of the oceans. She appeared almost angelic in a way, but the way she glared at him was anything but angelic. Scott knew the look, like the person had lost something important to them. Johansson picked up her gun and went to work on adjusting it.
"I'm uh, Scott. Thanks for saving me from those things," he said, but she barely registered his response if at all. "So, is 'Johansson' your first name or do I have to guess?"
This time, Johansson looked up at Jason and replied in her normal voice, "Please be quiet."
Johansson's tone was cold and aloof, like she didn't seem to care. Scott asked, "What were those things? They weren't human," Again, Johansson was silent and focused only her gun, and Scott was growing frustrated. "Could you tell me something? Anything. Where are the other patients in the hospital or the staff? What happened?"
"They're dead. Everyone is dead." Johansson snapped.
"That's enough, Johansson." a new voice spoke out.
A small group of people, four in total and all wearing similar armor to Johansson, approached and were led by a burly man looking to be in his late 40's within chestnut brown hair and some gray across the sideburns. Johansson immediately stood at attention and said, "Capt. Conrad…"
"At ease, Johansson. Same goes for everyone else," Capt. Conrad said as he moved to Scott. "You okay, son?"
Scott looked unnerved but also at ease with the new arrival. "Aside from being talked down to by the Doom Queen here, I'm fine."
"Don't take it personally, man. Johansson's like that with everybody." said one of the other people, a fresh-faced young man appearing in his early 20's with a messy head of black hair.
Another young woman in the group of apparent soldiers, who appeared in her early 20's and sported brunette hair in a ponytail, added, "That's an understatement if I ever heard one."
"Wait up, who are you guys exactly?" Scott asked.
"Right, sorry. I'm Pete Marcus and that's Michelle Chang. The big boss here is Capt. Terry Conrad and you've already met…"
"Capt., we should call for extraction. The Marauders will be on us before too long." Johansson said, possibly intentionally interrupting Pete.
"Marauders?" Scott asked.
"Yeah, what she said." Pete claimed.
"The Marauders are a hostile race of aliens that hit Earth after the Seraphim Virus wiped out nearly 2/3 of the world's population. The United States alone are nearly devoid of living people, so it's harder to tell if there's anyone else alive anywhere on Earth." Conrad stated.
"Wait, did you say the Seraphim Virus? I was infected with it and I was put into cryogenic sleep until a vaccine could be made."
"Oof, that was a long time ago, lad. You got some catching up to do." A second soldier of a more rapidly graying head of hair replied, appearing to be roughly within his early 50's.
Scott got up to his feet and said, "It's Scott Gavin."
"Sam Duncan."
Scott replied, "Nice to meet you, but what did you mean when you said I have some catching to do?"
"What year do you think it is, Scott?" Conrad asked.
A bewildered and confused Scott replied, "2022."
Johansson replied, "2022 was 33 years ago."
The look on Scott's face spoke volumes of shock, astonishment and most of all, despair. "Could… you say that again?"