DISCLAIMER: I don't own IZ, or the Flu.
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Chapter One: Just Another Day
"During the year of 1918, Influenza killed twenty-five million people world-wide in a single year. Everyone on the planet was at risk of this disease, as it was spread by coughing, sneezing, or even talking.
"The first cases developed in Camp Funston, Kansas, on March eleven of 1918. A cook named Albert Mitchell went to the infirmary with typical flu-like symptoms. By noon of that same day, 107 soldiers were sick. It spread so quickly that 225 were sick the next day. It then spread with the soldiers when they went to Europe to fight in World War One.
"Even remote and isolated places soon became infected with the disease. Within one week, every state in the US had the VIRUS floating around in the air."
I yawned and took out a piece of paper. Doodling pictures of me exposing Zim, I paid little attention to Miss Bitters's lecture, which had turned to telling of how a pair of lungs from a man killed by Influenza was found and the virus isolated.
Zim was paying attention, though. He was the only one that actually stayed awake and attentative through all of Miss Bitters's daily lectures. What was going through his head? What kind of evil, alien plans was he making inside that large, green head?
"Because you are required by the state to go on a field-trip once a month, we will be going to see the man's lungs. Everyone line up and go outside."
The class cheered at the thought of getting out the classroom, but I saw past that. If the lungs still carried the virus, then Zim could....
"Miss Bitters!" I shouted, raising my hand high. "We can't go on a field-trip to the institution! The lungs are still dangerous, you could end mankind!"
"If you want to stay here, that's fine with me." She growled back. "I don't want to have his trip any more than you do, Dib, you children are even stinkyer when outside."
Seeing it hopeless, I sighed, defeated, and followed the class out to the skool bus. Maybe I was over-reacting. There was no proof that Zim had seen the connections there. Perhaps there was a chance that he didn't have any intention at all of extracting the virus from the lungs and using it against humans.
It was a long boring trip. I sat at the front of the bus, alone as usual, and Zim sat in the back, also alone. He was grinning maliciously at me, and I knew he was working something out in his mind. Please don't have plans to destroy mankind with Influenza. You can do anything to me as long as you don't use Influenza!
When we had arrived, everyone filed out of the bus and were led by Dad's security guards to the location of the lungs. I lingered in the back of the group to talk to Zim.
"What are you staring at, Zim? Are you trying to see if any of your alien diseases would kill humans, because I doubt that they'd be strong enough to wipe us all out." Yeah, real smart, Dib, just give the alien ideas.
"Oh, no, there aren't many diseases where I'm from. We've eradicated many, many viruses and, uh, bacteria." He said, in his usual tone that suggested I was crazy to even mention it.
All I could do in response was raise my eyebrow curiously. Before I could say anything, though, Zim had closed his eyes and sped into the bulk of the group, whistling innocently.
He was up to something, that was for sure. I'd have to keep on my toes and watch him very carefully.There was nothing else I could do, unless I was able to expose him right on the spot in a room littered with Dad's guards.
Subconciously, I stopped walking and pushed my way into a room on the left side of the hallway. It was my dad's dressing room, and he was inside.
"Who's there?" He called, then turned around. "Did you get lost on a tour, little boy?"
"Uh, no, I'm not lost. Just took a wrong turn, Dad." I explained. "If you don't mind, I'll just-"
It was too late, he hadn't recognized me. Dad pushed a button on the gearbox on his arm and talked into it. "Would you mind doing a fan clean-out in here?"
"Wait, wait, wait!" I cried as, instantly, two guards jumped out from nowhere and tackled me down. "Let me go, I have to protect mankind!"
"I remember you." One guard said. "I thought I told you not to come back in here. You're going right outside, where you belong!"
Countless times, I've been dragged out of Dad's room, kicking and screaming. He NEVER recognized me as his son. "Let me go! Let me GO!"
As I'd found out before, it was a hopeless case. There was no stopping Zim now, no matter how hard I fought. But I couldn't just let him take over without a fight.
"You have to let me back in! You're dooming yourselves! The world will die from Influenza, and it will all be your fault!" I screamed as soon as I had been dumped outside, pounding on the door over and over. "It's all your fault!"
Only, it wasn't their fault. It was my fault for walking into Dad's dressing room in the first place. I was trying to save the human race, but now I had wiped it out. No matter how hard I tried now, there would be no stopping Zim.
Miserably, I began to head home. No one, not even Miss Bitters, would even notice that I was gone. If I could successfully sneak into Zim's lab tonight, Earth just might have a chance of survival....
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There's the first chapter. Not too angsty yet, but it will get more in later chapters. For now, just R&R. I'll get the next chapter up soon, I promise.