Devan Shah

Devan was a business man. Nothing special there. He lived in a small

apartment in New York and worked for a bio-chemical business. He had
some friends, but was mostly working on his career. He was one of the
most ordinary persons on the planet. Apart from the fact that he was the
beginning of the end.
It all started when he had gotten a mail from his boss, saying that he had
to go and inspect a laboratory in New Jersey. This wasnt strange, for he
had to invest such laboratories more often, and then report to his boss
whether he should tell the executives if they should buy the laboratory.
The mail also said that if this study would be big, Devan might get a
bonus. Devan had been looking saving up for a trip to his parents in India,
and the bonus might be just enough to go to them for Christmas.
The laboratory was investigating common colds and the possible cures.
They had been working on it for a couple of months and had said that they
had manipulated a virus from the corona family that would cancel out the
effects of the regular common colds. The regular common cold has the
effect of reducing alertness and productivity, and the one they had
developed would boost these effects, so it would cancel everything out.
They had tested it on lab animals and said that during the period the
animals were a bit agitated, but were otherwise perfectly normal.
The next day he got up early, took shower and got dressed. After a good
breakfast he walked to the metro station and went to Jersey. He had a bit
of a hunch that something would happen that day, but he thought that it
would be his chance of a promotion. Upon arrival, he was greeted by the
leading scientist and got a deeper explanation of what the study was
about and what it would mean if they could further develop their study.
This all didnt mean much for Devan, all he had to do was see if the study
was promising, and that meant that he had to see the results. He was then
told that they had already started human testing. This was quite a surprise
for Devan, but it would also show whether the results were any good.
Upon inspecting the test persons nothing seemed wrong, and Devan was
confident that the study would lead to something big. How right he was

When Devan talks to some other scientists, one of them sneezes and
Devan gets infected by the virus, although he isnt fully aware of it. It later
turned out that the researcher hadnt sealed of his suite properly when
inspecting the test persons. During the next couple of weeks Devan has a
slight cold, but it is the one the scientist had invented. The virus continues
to spread through New York, which goes exponentially.
Seeing that the incubation period of the virus through the air pipes and
mouth takes way longer then when injected directly in the blood, it takes

quite a long time for the virus to develop and reach its more serious
state, the state the scientist hadnt thought of yet. Although the virus
made the lab animals only slightly agitated, it had a far worse effect on
humans. Throughout the incubation period, the carrier of the disease gets
more and more aggressive, but this is all not noticeable. Devan travelled
to India, and being exposed to a new sort of climate, the virus within
Devan evolved faster. After a month the virus sort of snapped, and the
virus started infecting the brain, boosting alertness so much that Devan
got sort of animal instincts, and became quite paranoia. This happened
during Christmas dinner when Devan was with his parents in India. When
his mother wanted to hand him a plate, Devans brain snapped and he bit
his mothers hand. Seeing that when he did this, the virus was injected
directly into the blood, it only took about 20 seconds for the newly
infected person to snap, making this person as aggressive and paranoia as
the first person. Seeing that the entire family of Devan had been present,
the infection took quite fast. From this point the entire family spread
through the city, and started infecting more and more people. At this
stage, the government and the army noticed the outbreak and needed to
take action. They came to the conclusion that the outbreak was so serious
and rapid that curing it wouldnt solve it. Suggested by one of the most
radical generals in the army, the decision was made that they had to
bomb the entire city, thus taking down the virus. Soon multiple planes flew
over and dropped the bombs.
For some time, the important people thought it was over. Everyone was
going back to their normal business, the UN accepted that the actions of
the Indian army had been for the greater good, and the world moved on.
But then the virus which was still in New York moved to the second stage,
just like the virus that had spread to the rest of the world. Seeing that New
York is a big city, and the virus wasnt detected until a couple of weeks
after Devan had left the city with quite some infected people, it had had
the time to spread to Europe and other parts of the world. During this
period the president of the United States had also been infected.
Then in the time of a about a week, everywhere around the globe the
infected people started to snap. It was absolute chaos everywhere. The
South-Asian countries started noticing that not all the infected people,
who were classified as ZOMBIES, had been killed during the bombing. It all
went very fast. The ZOMBIES started attacking more coordinated, and
moved to higher populated areas. Most of the not infected people moved
to camps, which in the beginning were ran by the government. Yet after
some time the people started to rebel against the government, because
they hadnt been able to stop the outbreak, and what was left of the
governments either turned on each other, or on their selves, and
collapsed.

In one of the camps, which was by then ran by one of the so many chosen
leaders, a boy was on guard. His name was Rufus Smith.

Rufus Smith
It was cold. So very cold. It was one of those days where in the old days you
would get inside, wear warm clothes and take hot chocolate. Where you would
just get cosy and try to shut out the cold weather. What you wouldnt like to be
doing is scouting an as good as frozen wood for ZOMBIES. The person we are
talking about is called Rufus Smith, a nineteen year old boy from Seattle. Rufus
wasnt tall, but also not short. He was slightly more muscular then the average
boy, although he hadnt been going to the gym as much as he used to, with the
zombie outbreak and all. Back in the day when there were schools, he went to a
public school in the outskirts of Seattle. He had a couple of friends, and he
considered himself quite likeable. Back then he thought that the virus would be
contained, or at least, that was what the government had told him and the rest of
the school during a meeting. Because America had better healthcare and we
would constantly protect our borders for any sign of the virus. Surely they
wouldnt get infected. Idiots, Rufus thinks out loud for about the tenth time that
day. Of course it would spread. How were they going to contain it when it spread
so massively in India? He had been thinking these things over the last two years
every day.
He had been laying there, on the edge of the forest, for about two to three hours,
and nothing had happened. He should probably go back and report. Then his
watch would be taken over by someone else. Just when he was about to stand up
and go back, he heard something. It was a bit further, but it certainly wasnt the
wind. He checked again to hear if what he heard could be a zombie. In that case
he would get up and run as fast as possible. Yet somehow he knew that this
wasnt a zombie. You could always hear their screams and their rasping breaths
even before you heard their footsteps. And this was none of that. It sounded like
a quad. Then he saw it, coming straight at him. Thats the moment he grabbed
the hunting rifle he was carrying and got up. He made sure he was visible, and
yelled: Stop! The driver noticed him and slowed down. Rufus came to him, and
signed the man to give him the pistol he was carrying. He handed it over without
hesitating and immediately raised his hands. When he wanted to say something,
Rufus told him to shut up and come along.
When he came to the camp, it became clear that the man he had brought in
wasnt expected. As soon as he came in to sight, they told him to step away from
the man, and get closer for questions. The first question was of course, was if he
had been bitten. Seeing that the man was still standing, not screaming, and that
he had been driving all this way, Rufus was fairly sure that he hadnt been bitten.
After being looked at for quite some time, they let him in. He was guarded heavily
though, and the guards held him at gunpoint. Rufus took him to the elected
leader, where he left him.

It later turned out that the guy had been Professor P. Valdez, one of the scientists
who had been working on the virus. He had realised that the virus, and had
stayed behind in the lab to do research. He had started to get a clue what had
caused the entire catastrophe, and had done enough research to figure out why

the virus behaved the way it did, but hadnt figured out what to do against it. He
had heard of the camp from some other people in the city and had stocked up on
enough bullets and petrol for his quad and had come to the camp for shelter.

Twenty years later

During the twenty years that had passed since professor Valdez had come to the
camp, researchers around the globe had slowly started to get clue on how to
beat the ZOMBIES. The only way to cure them, was to produce a newer and
heavier bio-weapon. This weapon would reduce the alertness and therefore the
aggression, and cure the people. It took the first 15 years to develop the new
weapon, and it had taken over 5 years to properly cure the people. During this
period, the virus had infected about 5 billion people, and over 2 billion died in the
process of applying the cure, for some viruses had individually become immune
to the cure, and were too much of a threat to humanity. There are still believed
to be some ZOMBIEs left living in caves and hideouts, but mankind wants to
think that the illness has been defeated.