Chapter 13: End of Days

BEFORE

Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado

It was three days after Christmas. Doctor Samuel Gordon Chase was made an honorary guest and brought to the Air Force Base for the revealing of his Quantum Wormhole Catalyst. As a precaution they kept it away from Dr. Chase during its construction. His reputation preceded him.

But Samuel was no beast, he knew the only way to do this properly would be to wait until all the pieces were in line. The Tachyon Resonator was different; he needed to know what it felt like to be in the midst of the tachyons. He must understand the course fully before he travels it.

Since he did not make it himself, Samuel could not wait to see his designs in real life. According to the people at the base it was just as portable as the Resonator and the Time Collider, and they were all three being analyzed to fully optimize their integration with the air-space vessel they were developing specifically for this mission.

Samuel walked around the assembly hall with the General after the presentation and met the members of the secret government sector. One of the men he met was a Lieutenant Atticus Roth, two years out of flight school and recruited to start the pilot program for space/time travel. General Saarsgard made sure to tell Samuel that this was going to be his first pick.

Atticus Roth was the best pilot the military’s seen in over ten years. He can keep conscious at over 9 G’s and hasn’t had the opportunity to be tested any further by modern technology, until now. Atticus greeted the now infamous Dr. Samuel Gordon Chase, who turned out to be a friendly regular guy. Atticus was tall. And being military, even more clean cut than Samuel. His hair was black and so short on top you could barely tell it was curly. It also faded along the sides and back. Although the Lieutenant’s features were dark and stern, something about his eyes showed some vulnerability, some hidden warmth under the hard shell the Air Force hammered out.

During the conversation General Saarsgard coughed a lot.

“You know they got a thing for that now…a supplement.” Dr. Chase suggested, “I don’t personally believe in it, but anything's worth a try these days.”

It was not late. Everyone seemed to be leaving the cocktail hour and not coming back. When Samuel caught wind of it he followed a soldier out of the assembly room. He caught up to him and found out there was a crisis happening in Washington D.C.

The soldier led Samuel to a desk where TV was playing on a desktop computer and others were gathered. From the network news the crisis was shrouded in mystery. Thousands of people were dying from what appeared to be the super-flu or the swine-flu. Whatever it was it killed quick, fever coming over them rapidly until it was untreatable and fatal.

Some treatments even seemed to make the fever worse. It didn’t make any sense. The news teams were blatantly confused, giving conflicting stories about the epidemic. Samuel had enough of cable news and searched around for a military broadcast channel.

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He pushed the MP aside and brought a browser up on the computer, tapping into a Pentagon stream…all facts verified…the speakers flickered on, once the people die from the fever their corpse re-animates, repeat, fevered corpses come back to life...

People around him gasped. Trained professionals were brought to tears and turned into the petrified pedestrians hanging on every last reported word. Samuel could not believe his ears. The information continued…

…There is no part of the reanimated dead that is still human. Just like the zombies of folklore, the undead only exhibit two functions…walking and eating… So far field examinations have concluded there is little to no pulse and no breathing…

...There is no reason determined yet, but all the dead eat is living flesh, repeat, the walking dead will try to bite you. Experts have only really concluded in one area of agreement...

...It's a scientific phenomenon...

A break in the reporting gave Samuel a chance to think. The man broadcasting sounded desperate, as if he was trying to get all the intel out before people could begin to doubt him. Samuel listened carefully, the man on the radio wasn’t desperate…he was scared. To Samuel's dismay that conclusion proved there was no way in the world this was a government ruse.

...The outbreak first sprang up mostly between Virginia and Maryland, our nation’s capital, before thousands of cases poured in around every major city on the east coast and over to Ohio.So far there is nothing besides this to indicate a lead to the source right now.

They had to concentrate on containing it.

...If the virus is not stopped in the next seventy-two hours the entire country will be compromised…

There was no way to tell if it was terrorists. The contagion was not only being transferred through bites and scratches, but it was in some everyday household item…

…The bodies have to be permanently put down by severing the brainstem and examined in order to help trace it back to patient zero…

Once they could identify a source that might lower the rate of infection. But it was too late for that. The dead were hungry and were going after the living.

…If you are bitten, you are contaminated. There is no doubt. In a couple of hours, the infection from the bite will kill the victim and raise them from the dead, creating a hostile out of a corpse...

The broadcaster might have been getting hysterical. He began repeating himself over and over again, just in different ways. After thinking about it Samuel realized it was the confirmed news he was getting that was hysterical. There was pandemonium in the streets.

Everyone’s worst fears had finally come true. This was the zombie outbreak that would bring about the elimination of mankind, their ultimate undoing.This was the end of days.

All venture and auxiliary programs in the military and government were immediately dissolved to focus on preemptive salvation, including 1) quarantining the epidemic before it spreads over the entire world, and 2) tracing the disease back to a source in order to stop it, better understand it, and possibly cure it.

Every prominent mind in the country would be called to help save the world. Doctor Samuel Gordon Chase would ignore his calling until the bitter end of humanity’s salvation. But Samuel could only think about one thing and one thing alone when he first found out: getting back to New York City.

Samuel did not flinch when looking straight into the heart of the festering darkness.

It did not matter that he was already in the safest place in the world.

Nothing can stop him from saving his family.