CHAPTER 1

The Green Flu. The Sickness. The infection rate. Casualties. CEDA. Evacuation. I had been hearing these words and phrases in a near-constant stream for the past two weeks or so. It was completely drenching every media outlet to the core and there was no way to escape knowing about it. You could always ignore it, of course, as I usually did to anything the news spewed forth from its venomous gut, especially when it came to big-hype deals like the Swine Flu. West Nile Virus. The Bird Flu. And now, the Green Flu. So why should I treat this any differently?

I remember where I was the first time I heard about it. The breakroom at my workplace was crowded with employees, including myself. I was actually on break from my repetitive job of waiting tables. They, however, were putting their duties on hold to huddle around the television screen as a swanky newscaster delivered her story.

"Thank you for tuning in," she began. I took another grateful drag off of my cigarette, happy to be off my feet for the moment and turned my back, rolling my eyes.

"Sarah, you might want to watch this," my boss, who also happened to be crammed in this very tiny breakroom, hissed in my direction. "My son called me from New York today telling me about this. It's scary shit. I knew there would be a story about it sometime, shit like this doesn't go unnoticed, it doesn't just get swept under the rug. It's the gov - "

"I don't care, Karen." I snarled back at her before she could ramble any further. "You can watch. This isn't what I get paid to do."

She grumbled an inaudible string of words and turned back to the television, lighting a cigarette of her own.

"Our top story this evening comes from the heart of the north, the city of apparent brotherly love: Philadelphia. Many cases have been reported of individuals coming down with what appears to be a mutated strain of the rabies virus. CEDA, the Civil Emergency and Defense Agency, has coined this the "Green Flu" due to the bright green mucus that the individuals who have succumbed to this infection often have. According to CEDA's latest reports, they believe they will be able to contain this virus to the quarantined areas. However, merely as a precaution, CEDA has begun to evacuate Philadelphia and the surrounding areas, believing this virus is spreading rapidly and is considered to be very dangerous. Preparations have been made..."

I stubbed my cigarette out in the dirty ashtray and stood up, heading towards the door. I would have much rather been on my feet again instead of finishing out the rest of my half hour break listening to the scaremongering on the tv. No one even batted an eye as I made my exit; their eyes were drawn to the telivision like a sunflower to the sun.

Now, two and a half weeks later, I would give anything to go back to that sweaty breakroom and hear the rest of that story, so I could atleast have an inkling of what to expect when the infection hit my hometown of Savannah, Georgia. And, boy, did it hit hard.