Chp. 1 Infection Rate: 0.1%
Alex Mercer shoots up from his metal bed. His torso is covered in blood, with bullets surrounding him. He inspects the room around him, noticing body bags and deformed human corpses everywhere around the room.
"They're all in the morgue sir," Alex heard a distant voice say. From the two swinging doors, a doctor and four armed guards walk in. The four guards don't hesitate, and raise their rifles to Alex's head.
"Doc, I thought you said they were all dead!" screamed one of the armed guards. Instinctively, Alex rose his arms above his head, and from his torso shot out for black tendrils. The tendrils stabbed into the solar plexus of the four guards, and they began firing wildly at Alex.
The guards were dragged into Alex's body, then completely wrapped in black tendrils. Their bones cracked and broke as they were smashed together, than consumed as a whole into Alex's body. As their body's disappeared into Alex's the bullet holes in his chest sealed, and memories from the guards flowed into his head.
Alex stood against a wall with a group of doctors. Around him was chaos, malformed humans ran around, scratching and biting at soldiers. He and the doctors were facing a firing squad, and Alex held a syringe with a viscous black liquid. As Alex stabbed the syringe into his heart, the firing squad unleashed hell upon him and the doctors.
"What have you done to me?!" Alex screamed as he jumped from his bed to the doctor. He pushed the doctor against the wall behind him, holding his left forearm to the doctor's throat.
"Whatever happened, you've brought upon yourself. I was only here, to remove the virus you injected into your system," the doctor answered. Alex loosened his grip a bit, and the doctor dropped to his knees.
What are you doing Mercer? That doctor is going to kill you! You need to get out of there! A female voice ran through Alex's head. Alex swayed back and forth, feeling power flow through his muscles from the consumed guards. He thought about doing the same to the doctor, learning what he knew.
Alex placed his hands upon the doctor's arms, and lifted him easily form the ground. His eyes met the doctor's, and Alex knew consuming him would be a waste. So, Alex began to pull his arms apart, and the doctor screamed.
The doctor's shoulders gave first, being ripped from their sockets. As Alex pulled, the doctor's body fought to stay together. His tissue gave way, splitting like rubber, his muscles stripped from the bone, and his bones split in two. Alex now held two portions of the doctor's body in both of his hands.
"I could get used to this," Alex said to himself as he left the morgue.
A radio within the morgue began to pick up chatter five minutes later.
"Dr. Koenig, how is the extraction of bio-weapon ZUES?"….."Dr. Koenig"... The radio tuned out for a second, before returning to chatter in a much greater force.
"Attention all Blackwatch soldiers, and GENTEK doctors, codename ZUES is free and upon NYC. Be cautious, and shoot on sight, you will get a picture upon your desktops momentarily."