Seattle has always been an encasing city of drug dealers and hookers. Around every corner, there's someone with a secret, and a story to hide. During the day, this was less than visible. It would look like a normal, functioning city, with your businesspeople in suits, and your expensive coated ladies carrying heavy shopping bags to a taxi. But once the stores closed, and everyone was safely tucked into their apartment housing, a new shadow would appear over the city, and the crooks and bludgers that would hide in basements of a day would rise out of their stinky cells and roam the streets, hungry for destruction and chaos.
Everyone knew Seattle had hit it's most horrific point. The problem being that everyone was too scared to stand up for themselves. Too scared to go to the police because a gunman had robbed them blind in their own home, or even held them at gunpoint to do unspeakable things. Aside from the crazy storms, and harsh rainfalls, Seattle wasn't getting any better.
That wasn't until drug dealers started dying. Murdered, was probably the better word for it. Hung, striked in the chest, ripped apart limbs, cuts to the throat, and their insides ten feet away from their bodies. The dealers were decreasing, one gang at a time, and everyone around Seattle, though fearful of talking publicly about it, were curious to know what was going on behind the strange killings.
One person, one curious young girl, eager with a thirst for knowledge, wanted to find out more than anyone. Mary Undergale heard about the killings when her mother was washing up dishes after dinner one night. As she sat at the table, doing her complicated math homework of algebra, her ears perked up at the words 'murdered drug dealers' and 'Seattle' and her eyes instantly glanced to the TV set across the room.
Grabbing the remote beside her on the table, she increased the volume on the set and listened carefully.
"Reports of a murder case have risen from Downtown Seattle, where a gang of accused drug dealers have been found mutilated in the back alleyways. Police have yet to comment on the situation of the murder, but for what we can tell you, no one is yet a suspect..."
"How terrifying!" Her mother gasped, while wiping a dinner plate.
Mary stared, smirking to herself. "How terrifying indeed."
The next day at school, word had quickly travelled fast in the hallways. It seemed that everyone had heard the news of the mysterious murders, and the rumours began to pile up like the dead bodies themselves.
"I heard the murderer has a shaggy beard and a terrible lazy eye..."
"My dad told me that the police haven't revealed any leads at all, nor have they made any comment. He's a journalist, he should know...
"Apparently, he choked one of his victims with his own spit."
"Ew! Tiffany! That's disgusting!"
But aside from all the tales that spread out, Mary was only interested in one person's opinion: her boyfriend's, Ken.
Since they were kids, they had been best friends, doing everything and anything together. And a year ago, they upgraded that title to couple. Between the two of them, they hardly needed anyone else around. Sure a few acquaintances here and there, but no one was close enough to talk about the kind of stuff you wouldn't talk about win your own mother, like murders.
Mary walked into Science Room 3, finding her boyfriend studying hard at a desk, with his back turned to her. A perfect opportunity to sneak up behind him and give him a nice smooch on the cheek, which she did well enough to make him cringe.
"Gah!" He cried, wiping the spit from his face.
Mary giggled, before seating herself across from her boyfriend.
"Morning!" She spoke cheerfully.
Ken raised an eyebrow at her. "How come you're so cheery this morning?"
"What?" She pouted. "Can't I be happy to see my boyfriend?"
"Considering you've been looking at the same face for the past ten years, I doubt there's anything to be happy about," Ken spoke.
Mary rolled her eyes at his comment.
Ken chuckled. "I'm joking, of course. But really, what's with the happy smile?"
Mary smirked. "Have you been hearing the rumours lately?"
"About the five guys that got turned inside out?" Ken questioned. "It's been floating around in my domain."
Mary gasped. "You know what happened?"
"Barley," Ken defended. "But if the police are protecting a case this much, I guess it's got to be too gruesome to report on TV."
Mary sighed.
"What did you expect?" Ken asked. "It's not like it's any different to any other murder case."
But it is different, Mary thought. I can feel it. In fact, the thought stayed with her for weeks on end. Even as more murders began to roll out, becoming less and less informant as the last, and strange men began to appear around the city in uniforms labelled with the letters 'D.U.P', with everyone refusing to give her answers, Mary knew she had to find out for herself.
So when a murder was reported three streets away from her home, Mary saw this as her opportunity.
"You're crazy!" Ken nearly screamed over the phone.
"Relax," Mary said reassuringly. "I just want to see what all the hype is about."
"Have you not been listening to what the police have actually been saying?" Ken asked, with a small hint of anger in his voice. "Whoever is doing this is dangerous, and you should stay home to stay safe!"
"Baby, please, I can look after myself," Mary spoke.
Ken sighed heavily on the other end, before eventually saying, "Fine. I can see there's no way of talking you out of this. But if you're going anywhere tonight, you at least have to take me with you!"
"Baby, I would love to," Mary said. "But Mum would get pretty suspicious if you just showed up to our apartment randomly."
"Just leave that to me. I'll be over in ten." And with that, he hung up the phone.
"Love you too," Mary scoffed, before throwing the device onto her bed.
Nine minutes later, the Ungergale ladies had a knock at their door.
"Why Ken, this is a surprise!" Mary heard her mother say from her room. "Mary! Ken is here!"
Mary took a quick, deep breath, before exiting her room and putting on a smile.
"Hello!" She pretended to be surprised at her boyfriend's arrival. "What are you doing here?"
After enveloping in a hug, Ken confessed, "Can't I surprise you with a nice visit every once in a while?"
"Oh come on, I'm sure there's a reason you showed up," Mary played, poking his chest.
Ken smirked, but admitted, "Well, I was thinking we could go for a nice stroll to the pier. We haven't done that in a while..."
"Ken, do you really think that's such a good idea?" Mary's mother asked, concern in her voice. "With all of these murders happening, you don't think it's a bit dangerous?"
"Oh, don't worry Georgie," Ken smiled. "I feel a lot safer knowing that the D.U.P is floating around the streets, and I'd like to see a murderer go through these!"
He flexed his arm muscle under Georgie's nose while grunting, which made her chuckle like it was a good joke.
"Oh, I suppose you're right," she said. "I'm sure the D.U.P are working hard to protect the citizens..."
"Well, in that case, let me just grab my jacket," Mary announced, and headed quickly to her room, where a black jacket was already picked out, along with two small LED flashlights in her left pocket, and her phone in the right pocket. She sighed, feeling the rush of excitement in her veins as she exited her room.
"Alright, let's get going," Mary suggested.
"Please, be careful Mary," Georgie called to her daughter. "You too Ken!"
"Always am, Mum!" Mary called back, and shut the door behind her.
As the two walked towards the elevator, Mary whispered, "Nice acting skills."
"You didn't do too bad yourself, Short Fry," Ken responded, which resulted in Mary playfully punching his arm for making fun for her height.
As they stopped in front of the elevator and pushed the button, Ken lifted his girlfriend's chin to plant a soft kiss on her lips.
As they parted, he whispered between them," Are you sure you wanna do this?"
Mary thought for a second, before nodding. "I am."
Even though she didn't want to admit it, she was nervous about what they would discover tonight. She forced a smile up at Ken's face as the elevator doors opened.
Taking a grip on his hand, they walked in, before pressing the button for the ground floor.
3 Months Later
BREAKING NEWS: It's been three months since the defensive unit 'Department of Unified Protection' had its doors forcefully sealed by a bio-terrorist known as 'Deslin Rowe'. But due to this destructive call from the individual, the citizens of, not only Seattle, but also the globe have demanded better protection to the U.S government from the now released bio-terrorists.
The Department of Unified Protection (D.U.P) was an organisation ran by the U.S government to properly secure and detain bio-terrorists. It was used as a secure location, heavily guarded to hold the conduits in their natural state, away from civilisation and humanity. As of three months ago, Delsin Rowe, a bio-terrorist, with various supernatural powers, had murdered the leading lady of the program Brooke Augustine, after draining her own conduit powers from her body. He then soon after released the hundreds of bio-terrorists from their home known as Curdan Cay into the world around us.
The U.S government has fallen under extreme pressure, as letters, emails, phone calls and faxes, sent directly to the head office, from around the globe, have expressed their distaste and anger from letting Delsin commit such a selfish act. Until now, the world has learnt of the power that comes from sharing our communities with bio-terrorists, and has pressured us into being fearful of the world around us. Until now, the world has demanded a solution.
Tonight, we have witnessed that solution first-hand. Here in Seattle, the government has released a statement this morning to all conduits, asking them to meet with the mayor of Seattle to come up with a solution to how bio-terrorists and humans can live together in peace.
Reporting live from Downtown Seattle, we have Amber Gale standing by for further news. Amber, what is happening down there at this moment?'
'Unfortunately Heather, I can't reveal that information for the moment, but I can tell you that police officials, government officials, and even members of the C.I.A have surrounded the area, and are asking citizens to stay away from the area, and watch from a safe distance. I can defiantly inform you that everyone in the vicinity of Downtown Seattle has been asked to leave the area over the past three weeks. Shop owners have been forced to leave their stores and relocate to the bigger city, families have been asked to move, jobs have been shifted to different companies in the city, and even the homeless have evacuated the area.'
'But why, Amber? Why is everyone being asked to leave? Why is no one allowed into downtown?'
'I'll be able to disclose that information with you shortly, Heather. I have guards standing behind me right now making sure that no one enters, and the only people I've seen enter the area this afternoon are handfuls of police and about four or five trucks have entered and exited Downtown Seattle...I'm hoping, within a few minutes, I'll be able to tell you all about this -'
'...'
'...'
'...Amber? Are you still there?...Is everything okay?'
'Sorry Heather, but I've just received word that I'm allowed to announce the great news. Operation 'Contain All Bio-Terrorists' has officially been put to the test!'
