Chapter 1
My alarm goes on again, so I get up, take a long shower, put on some nice clothes, fix my hair, check myself in the mirror and I'm happy with the result. Today is going to be a special day.
“Ah! Hi, do you come here often?". I roll my eyes and slap my forehead. “Of course, she always comes here. She works here! What's your problem, Althea?!”.
I adjust myself and try again “Hi Alicia! Today is a beautiful day, isn't it?”. “Aarrrggghhhh. The weather talk? Really?! Why is this so hard?! Maybe on the way there I will think of something better”. I get ready once more and leave my apartment.
I start my car and head towards my work “Many still don't know what it is or how it came out, the police are doing everything they can to control the situation, but we don't know how long it will last. We expect everyone's cooperation to stay at home. We don't know if it's a disease, or a virus, so stay at home just in case...”. "Puff, I'm sorry sir, but I'm already going to work, you should have told me that before". I play with the radio.
I arrive at the journalistic building and enter, greeting people as my routine, I enter the elevator and push the button to my floor. I go towards my table “Good morning Strand! Today is an incredible day, isn't it?!”.
"Wow! Someone woke up in a good mood today! What happened? Fell out of bed and hit your head?!”. He responds laughing.
“Haha, very funny! And no, I didn't hit my head, I'm just a little inspired today!”. I answer laughing.
I go to my desk and see her, with that beautiful hair, that perfect face... “Hey Al! You finally arrived! It's crazy here today... why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”. She asks looking at me.
"What? No! There's nothing wrong with your face! Quite the opposite, actually”. Wait. Did I say that out loud?!
She looks at me and gives a shy smile “Wow. Thanks. But seriously, there are a lot of things going on and we need all hands on deck”. She says in a more serious tone.
“Oh sure! Whatever you need”.
I'm answering the phones over and over, because it's crazy, nobody can understand what's going on. I can only hear screams and loud noises. So I take a break and go out to drink water. What the hell is going on with the world?!
"What a madness, right?".
"Jesus! You scared me!". I say with my hand on my chest.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just wanted to get out of there and breathe a little”. Says Alicia.
"It was nothing. I also wanted to get out of there a little bit. I don't understand anything that is happening, this morning I heard something similar on the radio, but I didn't think It was that crazy”.
“It's been like this since this morning when I came to work and hasn't stopped yet. Nobody knows anything and everyone is scared... including me!”.
“No need to worry, I am sure that whatever it is will be resolved as quickly as possible. You don’t have to be afraid". I say trying to reassure her.
"I hope you're right, because I don't know what to do if you’re not." She says.
I look at her and take courage and put my hand on her shoulder “It's going to be okay, Alicia. Trust me".
She looks at me and smiles. Now It's the time Al! This is your chance! "So Alicia, I wanted to...". “Al! Alicia! Come and see this fast!”. Strand screams. Damn it!
We go to him and they are all watching TV with worried and frightened faces, I stop next to Strand and Alicia beside me and watch the news “We are begging the citizens to stay at home! This is not a joke! We are dealing with something never seen before! We don't know what it is or where it started. We have no explanation for that! All we have are images that we are about to show you, be careful they are strong!”.
Then begins an image of a woman recording a video of a man and a child playing in a park, everyone was laughing, when suddenly another man jumps up and attacks him and takes him to the ground. Then the child and the woman start screaming, the woman goes towards her husband and tries to pull the man off him, when the man turns and the image freezes on his face all bloodied and his eyes black as if there is no more life on them.
"Ahh!". "Oww!". "My God!". "What is happening?!". That's all I hear in the room. I'm in shock.
Then I look at Alicia, and she looks at me with her wide eyes "What now?". She asks me. Shit!