Apocalypse- Chapter one
I walked down the street towards school, it was late summer, and the heat of summer was still in the air. I walked my shirt dancing in the wind, I remember I was wearing a skirt that day, it wasn't something a usually did, but I guess I just wanted a change. I walked, with red headphones covering my ears, it was peaceful, there was no breeze allowing the air to remain warm. I walked minding my own business, then suddenly, I was jolted forward, in a panic I turned to see my friend standing behind me her arms out in front of her. She was a tall skinny girl, with nothing much to her. She had short blond hair, she stood wearing the same shirt and skirt as me. If it wasn't for my long brown hair people might have mistaken us for twins. We looked identical except she wore flat dolly shoes, where as I proffered my grey knee high military boots. She smiled at me and gript her satchel strap that was slung over her diagonally. Again another thing that was different about us I had a black and red checked rucksack, which she despised.
"Not waiting on me." She joked, I smiled, feeling slightly guilty. "I've been shouting on you for ages."
"Sorry, guess I had my music too loud." She giggled and flung her arm over my shoulder.
"You're too easy, I was joking silly." I giggled along with her, but her facial expression changed suddenly.
"You okay?" I asked. She nodded trying to hide it, I just stared at her unconvinced. "You sure?" She smiled slightly at stared at me.
"I can't hide anything from you can I." I shook my head frantically and smiled. "It's my treatment, I just don't feel so good, guess it might take time to kick in." I nodded, trying to reassure her and to hide my own concerns.
Ever since we were kids she's had a problem with her blood, it was only now that her parents have enough money to pay for her treatment. This was the time that Tempest the new miracle cell was being manufactured. Katie was being given it as tester, it seemed to be working but since a few weeks ago the treatment had been making her worse. I guess she was right, it just needed time to kick in or her body was maybe just getting use to the change.
"So do you know how Tempest works?" Katie nodded, with a smile on her face.
"Oh Lily it's amazing, before I was offered the Tempest treatment they took me to see a man who had lost his leg in a car accident, her had been on the treatment for only a few weeks, and already his leg had half grown back. It was cut off at the knee, it was amazing though, and the only thing he had left to grow was his foot." I shiver slight, grossed out by the mental image of someone's leg growing back. "Although only a few days after I had seen him, the doctors told me he took a fit and died, they assured me it wasn't the treatment. Apparently because the Tempest cells were busy healing his leg they failed to heal his heart problems or weren't working as well on his heart than his leg." I nodded, just to keep her happy, she was glad of the treatment, but there was something about Tempest I didn't like. It all seemed too good to be true. We walked, for only a few minutes before reaching the school, she talked mostly about her treatment and was more than happy to share it with others at school. I was just glad that things were working out okay for her.
It wasn't until we got in the class room that the true effects of the treatment began to show. Katie sat at the window breathing heavily, the occasional cough slipped from her mouth. I wasn't really concerned that much at the time, she had previously told me that the treatment was taking its toll on her, so I put her coughing and fever down to those factors. Sadly I was horribly wrong. As the teacher was finishing writing something on the board, Katie rose rapidly to her feet as if some unseen forced and yanked her onto her feet. Her eyes were wild and visible sweet drops were sliding down her forehead and cheeks. I looked over at her my concerns finally rising within the pit of my stomach.
This was how it started. She stood there blood gushing from her mouth, her eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed to the floor. Then the fits happened, the teacher rushed over to her and turned her on her side. Then it got worse, I'm surprised the classes next door to us didn't hear the noise of her back snapping. Then her arms went, both snapping out of place. Then it was her legs. And finally her jaw snapped out of place. Her whole body stopped shaking and everything in the class room remained still and quiet. I stared from my desk, shocked and hurt by the scene I had just witnessed.
Then Tempest took control.
All of a sudden her body lunged forward at the teacher her jaw open and teeth ready, she clamped her mouth down on the teacher neck his cries filled the room, every pupil darted across the classroom, as did I. I heard screams as students tumbled and fell trying to escape. Katie by this point was grabbing them and tearing into their necks. It wasn't just Katie though, there were others in the school who had been receiving injuries from playing football, to having the cold, and they had turned manic as well.
Somehow I got out, how I don't know, I guess I just ran, and hoped that those things wouldn't gript me by the leg and drag me down with them, that I wouldn't trip and become a victim myself. By the time I had reached my house, my legs had become numb and weary, but I didn't care I darted through the front door, and to my horror and dismay, I found both my parents lying in our living room dead, their blood stained the carpet, walls and furniture. The truth behind what had happened struck me all at once, my neighbour, a kid old woman, who usually stopped by to drop of cake or pies that she had made for us. She was receiving the Tempest treatment for back problems. The suddenly a dreadfully terrifying hiss came from behind me, I turned to see Mr Lambent on all fours, her body was twisted and deformed and just like Katie, nearly all her bones had broken. Her once curly white had, was now only a few strand on her head, her clothes draped of her a looked to hardly fit her anymore. I stood rooted to the spot. I had accepted my fate, but it's in humans nature to survive and as she lunged towards my limbs movement rapidly by themselves. I dived out the way of the creature and darted up the stairs, at the time I thought it was somewhere I could run and hide, but my body knew better than me. I ran straight into my mother and fathers bedroom, and there mounted on the wall was my father's Japanese Katana. I stared at it, in almost a trance, I didn't know whether to take it and fight or leave it and hide. The just at that the creature barged thought the door, without thinking I yanked the Katana of the wall and just as she lunged at me again, I drew it, I swiped furiously at her.
I must have closed my eyes, or black out. I stood in my mother and fathers room holding the Katana, my blade and clothes soaked in blood.
And that's how it began. I was later found by a patrol officer who had been sent to sweep the area, turns out it had happened all of the world, I was taken back to a camp that was run by the scientist that had made this now deadly virus. They explained that the only way to kill someone infected with tempest was to kill the brain. Tempest attached to the brain and turned the body into a killing machine, Tempest wanted to spread, it wanted to live and breed. The scientist explained to us that Tempest made those infected with it into deformed creature, due to the fact it manipulated cells, bone marrow and blood structure. They then told us that Tempest couldn't be stopped, unless one person was unaffected by Tempest, or was a match to the DNA structure of Tempest. They warned that if you were infected with Tempest it could take a matter of seconds for you to turn or a matter of months.
They promised that they would find the human cell that could cope with Tempest, they said that would be their cure, they promised us that they would find that cure.
Since there promise over 60,000 people contracted Tempest, 60,000 of those victims became what the scientists called Necros.
