Chapter 1: Spread
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! Scott groaned and rolled over to turn off his alarm.
"I could've sworn you got home three hours ago," his girlfriend, Jess, mumbled groggily.
"Because I did get home three hours ago," he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, "That's what I get for setting my alarm for 6:30 AM every day."
"They need to stop calling you in for late shifts."
"People need to stop calling off so I don't have to take those shifts."
"Do you think it's that bug that's floating around?"
"It has to be," he sat up slowly, "Why else would so many people call off at once?"
"Because they're assholes." Scott couldn't stop himself from laughing.
"You're the best." He bent down to kiss her and then proceeded to get up. The only reason Scott got up at 6:30 every day (sometimes earlier on weekends for opening shifts), was so that he could catch his bus and make it to his 8:00 AM class. Even then, he was sometimes a tad late. It was quiet on this particular Thursday morning, which was no surprise to him. There was a bug or a flu that had been going around, and anyone that was paying attention could see that it was hitting Seattle and any major city pretty hard. On top of that, the east coast had been quarantined and all forms of travel and trade from that area had been suspended. Everything after that was pretty much a given: stock market on the verge of crashing, less people showing up on the bus to go to work or to school, less students on campus, everything. A lot of the professors had been cancelling classes as well, but Scott never seemed to be that lucky. It was almost a miracle that he got through his first class without falling asleep. He was so exhausted that he didn't even bother skateboarding across campus to his next class; he had twenty minutes to kill anyway. He heard the rolling of wheels coming up on his left and turned to see his friend, Raven.
"Yo!" she said as she stopped and flipped her board up, "What's eating you?"
"Exhaustion is what's eating me."
"Didn't sleep well?"
"Ha! I didn't sleep enough; work called me in to close. I didn't get home until 3:30."
"Fuck! And you're an early riser."
"Mhm…." He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and pulled it out to look at it.
"Well, fancy that."
"What?"
"Our class is cancelled until further notice." Raven pulled out her own phone and read the email.
"Sick! I can go home!"
"I still have another class, but it's not until later tonight."
"Aw, that sucks. Well, do you want to get a coffee or something? My treat."
"Well, if you're buying," he smiled.
"No, Brian, this is getting ridiculous. This is the tenth day in a row that I have worked and the fourth time in the past week that you've asked me to cover a shift."
"I just need you to do an inventory count. Please, Scott. We're slammed and we need to have it done tonight." Scott sighed deeply into the phone.
"Alright, fine. I should be there around two if traffic isn't too bad."
"Thank you so much! I owe you one."
"Yeah, you do," he grumbled after he had hung up.
"Again?" Raven asked.
"Yeah. Again. At least it's just inventory," he took one last swig from his cup, "I'll still go to the park today, but I'll probably be late."
"A'ight. I'll see you then."
"See ya. Thanks for the coffee." He stood up and rode his skateboard to the nearest bus stop. On the ride to work, he managed to get in a short nap, but it only made him feel more tired. The inventory count was a disaster. Nothing had been organized and there was practically nothing in either of the walk-ins; the whole process took a little over an hour. After organizing and counting everything, he emerged from the cooler and knocked on the office door.
"Okay," he walked into the open door and shut it behind him, "With any luck I'd say you have enough to last you through the rest of tonight and quite possibly half of tomorrow." Brian shifted uncomfortably in his seat and hummed a response.
"What's going on?"
"We were supposed to get a delivery yesterday, but the guy never showed up. I called again today and got a busy signal. I've tried calling corporate and they've been getting more calls than they can handle." The two of them were silent for a while.
"Well, I'm going to head out now."
"Um," Scott turned back towards his manager, "Do you think you could help close tonight?" Anger bubbled up in his stomach.
"You're kidding me, right? Brian, you know that I have class on Tuesday and Thursday nights! You also know that I have eight AM classes every day!"
"I know, but-"
"And do you realize that I have worked ten days straight?!"
"I know, but I really need your help. You're the only one available." Scott shook his head.
"No. I'm done. You've done this to me too many times. The people that keep calling off need to either be fired or written up, and you can't keep doing this to the people that actually show up for their shifts. I quit." Scott was too angry to ride the bus to the skate park, so he rode his skate board all the way there. His friends looked puzzled as he skated towards them.
"You're here early," Raven said.
"I'm technically late, but yeah I'm early I guess."
"What happened?" a boy with flaming red hair named Kyle asked.
"I went in to do inventory, they had jack shit, and then they asked me to stay and close. I said no and I quit."
"Good for you," Kyle smirked, "Stick it to the man!" Scott chuckled.
"Well, I have to find a new job now."
"I'm glad you quit," a chunky male named Chuck said, "You look like a zombie half of the time we see you. All pale and dark circles under your eyes and shit."
"Fuck you, Chubs," Scott laughed, "Stryker, you got a light?"
"Yup," Kyle pulled out his lighter and tossed it to Scott. The small group lit up and sat along the edge of the pool.
"Why do we call Kyle Stryker again?" Raven asked, inhaling deeply.
"Because it sounds cooler," he grinned.
"It's your last name, dumbass," Chubs snickered.
"It was most definitely that," Stryker smirked thorough his cloud of smoke, "Why doesn't Scott have a nickname?"
"I have one," he smirked, "It's Scott Pilgrim." The other three laughed.
"Jesus Christ. I will never forgive you guys for that nickname." He shook his head and took another drag.
"It was funny," Raven smiled.
"For two weeks." Once they were done with their cigarettes, they skated around the pool for a while before Scott and Stryker had to go to class.
"How do you think Jess is going to react to you quitting?"
"Eh," he shrugged, "She'll forgive me."
"Hey, did you hear what's happening in Cali?" Stryker asked suddenly.
"No….what happened?"
"LA got quarantined."
"What?"
"Yeah! The whole city got quarantined last week. No one's heard from them since." Scott pondered what he just heard for a moment.
"So…the east coast….then LA. What the hell is going on?" Who's next?
"Who knows?"
Scott could never understand why he found this particular class so boring. He had always liked history; maybe it was the professor and the way he dragged on and on in a dull, boring voice. He rolled his head to his right, stretching out the muscles in his neck. A few seconds later he heard a helicopter flying overhead; another one soon followed. Curious, he looked out of the window next to him and saw they were flying towards the I-5.
"Is something distracting you, Scott?" the professor asked loudly. He quickly whipped his head back toward the front and sat up straight.
"No, sir." Jesus Christ, seven pm can't come fast enough. Later, when his class finally ended, Scott was greeted with Stryker skating up towards him.
"Dude, the professors are going to bust you for skateboarding inside the building."
"I don't give a fuck, bro, this is urgent! Watch this!" He pulled up a news clip on his phone, "This happened while we were in class." Scott watched without much interest; it looked like there had been an accident of some sort on the off ramp, and there was someone lying on a stretcher ready to be either airlifted or put into the ambulance on scene. He only began to gain more interest when he saw a police officer struggling and then being thrown to the ground by the victim.
"Crazy right?" Stryker asked excitedly, "Watch this next part." Scott's brow furrowed slightly and watched as the attacker was shot multiple times, but still advanced toward the other officers.
"Kill shot, bitch!" A bullet ripped through the man's skull and he collapsed to the ground.
"What….?"
"I know right! The dude had to have been using some pretty hard stuff."
"No…..that doesn't make any sense," he took Stryker's phone and rewound the video to the body shots, "There's no blood….."
"Dude, there are so many drugs out there now-a-days, who knows how they can affect your body," he took his phone back, "Do you need a ride home?"
"Nah," Scott shook his head, "I need some air to clear my head."
"Alright, be careful."
"You too." Scott's mind raced as he skateboarded home, the cool air stinging his cheeks. What was that? How did that guy stay standing after so many shots? Why did he only die after just getting shot in the head? Was it related to the bug going around? A man stumbled out of an alley right in front of him. He swerved out of the way, but the rainfall from earlier had made the sidewalk slippery. His board slipped out from under him and he fell onto a car that was parked on the street.
"Hey, man," he groaned as he straightened himself up, "I almost hit you; you need to-" He stopped midsentence; the man was just staring at him, moaning softly.
"Hey, uh…..are-are you okay?" The man moaned again and began to stumble slowly over towards Scott; he quickly moved toward his board and began to back away, spitting out a quick apology.
"Anyway sorry I almost hit you have a safe travel home." He turned and sprinted a few yards before throwing his board down and jumping back on it. By the time he got home, he could feel a large bruise forming on his back and the rest of his upper torso ached from the wipeout.
"Fuck me…..I'm going to be sore tomorrow." Other than having a sore back, the video clip kept Scott tossing and turning for most of the night. He didn't fall asleep until the sky went from a navy blue to purple.
Scott took a deep drag from his cigarette, aimlessly watching the other skaters. Last night was definitely rougher than the night prior. He still had a tired feeling in his eyes despite the number of coffees he had downed that day during and in between his classes. The coffee wasn't the only thing keeping him awake at that moment; the two minute video clip that he had seen earlier was still playing in his mind and the phrase "Kill shot, bitch" still echoed.
"Not skating today, Scott?" Raven asked as she rolled up next to him and flipped her skateboard up with her foot.
"Nah," he shook his head.
"Another rough night?"
"Yup," he took another drag "Last night was worse. I wiped out on my way home last night, and just had a hard time sleeping overall. My whole back is stiff today."
"Ouch," she let her skateboard drop back down, "Make sure you snuggle up to Jess extra good tonight."
"I will," he chuckled, "I'll probably ask to share her blanket when she gets home. Or build a pillow fort. I need a nice break after this hellish week."
"Don't we all," she sat down next to him and lit her own cigarette, "Have you ever thought about quitting?"
"The thought has crossed my mind," he shrugged, "Why?"
"Just curious," she blew out a cloud of smoke, "I might quit after I'm done with this pack."
"Cold turkey?"
"Maybe. I'll probably get gum and patches to ween me off."
"You could vape."
"It's not the same though." The two of them sat in silence for a while, taking a puff every now and again.
"You're awfully quiet," she said finally, "What's going on?"
"Have you seen that video of the guy getting shot on the I-5?"
"Yeah. And?"
"It…..I don't know, it just doesn't seem like he was normal."
"The guy was obviously on something, Scott. You saw the footage. He attacked and the cops unloaded on him. There's nothing to talk about."
"No, Raven. The bullets went through him, but did you notice that there was barely any blood? If you shot a live person, the wound would be spewing out blood. There wasn't even a trickle from him. And he only stopped moving when he was shot in the head."
"What are you trying to get at?"
"I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but I think all of this bug that's going around and this event are connected. I'm not sure in what way." A large helicopter flew overhead, heading north. Scott watched it until it was out of sight, anxiety beginning to bubble up in his stomach.
"Well," he took another puff and put his cigarette out on the concrete, "I'm headed home. Tell Chubs and Sunni I said hi."
"Will do my friend."
Scott was surprised to find that all of his roommates' cars were parked as he skated up towards the house. It was only a little bit after four o'clock, and usually they were not home until five or later.
"I'm home!" Scott called out as he shut the door behind him.
"Thank God," Jess rounded the corner, gave him a tight hug, and kissed him, "I tried calling you, like, ten times."
"Oh, really?" he checked his phone, "I guess they didn't go through; I don't have any missed calls or messages. What's going on? Why are all of you home so early?"
"The CDC ordered that everyone head home and stay there until further notice a few hours ago. Amy said that they've shut down some of the freeways; she just got home a few minutes ago. Jen said that her work didn't even open today."
"Oh," he furrowed his brow as he set his backpack and skateboard down, "That's not good."
"Nope, it sure isn't," Amy popped her head out of the kitchen doorway, "I was on the road for three hours. Just trying to get on and off the freeway was hell."
"Seriously," Jess remarked, "I'm surprised your classes weren't cancelled for the day."
"Anything exciting happen to you today, Scott?" Jen asked from her seat at the table.
"Not really," he sat down next to her, "Quite a few helicopters flying around, but other than that nothing."
"I noticed that. I wonder if it has anything to do with that freeway shooting."
"I hope it doesn't," he muttered. They didn't bring the subject up again until much later, when they heard truck engines and could see flashing lights outside their windows.
"What's going on?" Amy asked. Scott stood up and opened the blinds to get a better look. Moments later, there was a knock on the door and he answered it; a police officer stood outside.
"Sir, we need you to gather everyone in your household and come with us. You're allowed to bring a few items."
"Why? What's going on?"
"We're placing the city under a major quarantine. All of those that haven't been infected are to be escorted to a safe zone. That's all I can tell you at this point in time." Scott looked over his shoulder at his girlfriend and two roommates; they looked just as scared and confused as he was.
"For how long?"
"Until the CDC clears this area."
