The Scourge System

CHAPTER IX

Chapter IX

Morning came and nothing felt newer, everything seemed to just get worse and worse, felt lonelier and scarier at the same time. No more crowd, even the birds aren't present. It's like another day living in a place without no one else.

Almost six days they spent in that apartment complex and nothing that signs as rescue stopped by or even knocked on their door. No signs of those things too. The dusts and the scattered junks were being blown by the air.

Their rations that are not that healthy seem not to fill their stomach much aside from the heavy canned goods without any rice. Asians can't live without it though.

"Why does 911 still isn't working?" Brenda clicks her tongue for the ninth time, holding the phone almost want to crush it.

"It you could just gently press the numbers, maybe it'll work." Jeiger commented when he noticed how Brenda aggressively uses the phone wearing that deep frown on her forehead.

She gave him a fake smile and handed him the phone. "Why don't you try it?" She asked him and instead of taking it, he turned his back on her and joins Gavin, listening to the news on the radio.

"What's the news?" He asked to his friend who has been taking the radio next to his ear.

"Countries who have records and positive cases, riots, lockdowns, isolations and just that. Nothing says about what are those things, they're just treating this virus as some kind of a cold flu virus, or some kind of a treatable disease." Gavin answered before changing the station but other than a couple of local stations that serves as a news source, the others are just another repetitive reminders and announcements to the people to stay indoors and store their food.

"What the hell is happening?" Rohana who didn't had any sleep asked and massages her head with her hands.

"Don't people see what's going on outside? I mean, we're in the middle of the city, those stations are just near us, why aren't they scooping this? I mean those things are probably everywhere!" Jonixa exclaimed, finally taking a point about what's happening.

"Don't you guys think that maybe... they're covering up what's going? I mean, all the media sources are denying what Dr. Ramona's talking about and they even threatened him to shut up or they'll press charges of libel or slander on him." She gulped and lowered her eyes. "This Mollo Corporation might be... manipulating the media and the people." She added.

Gavin says nothing about the corporation, for he is very much familiar with it. Him and Jeiger shared a look before breaking it or the others might get an idea that they know something about the company. Not really known to the company yet they are just familiar with it.

"Guys, we're out of canned goods and there's only chips and chocolates left. We won't be full with just snacks." Jessa told them, looking at their stock inside the cabinet before turning head to them.

Clarissa sighed as Rohana massages her forehead. "We're doomed." Brenda commented as she already gave up with contacting the emergency number and hearing what Jessa said just made her more... mad.

"Busy?" Jonixa asked her, talking about the call.

"Well after so many tries, I just figured out that they cancel all services. We still have the load but we have no freaking signal." Brenda replied with a tight smile that doesn't mean anything but being so irritated with whatevers happening. "Keep the radio running, I believe there's no spare battery for that one." She added and throws the phone on the table leisurely before standing and throwing herself on the bed with her stomach, making her bounce on it.

Rohana joins the three of them sitting on the square table and took the phone to check it. "That's just too ironic, looks like they're really going to isolate all the people left in the whole affected area. They're probably thinking about erasing us in the world." She chuckled sarcastically and take glances on every Laura of eyes looking at her.

"That's impossible, to make it happen, they must have so much money to spend with to shut us down. And erasing us... this place is too wide to just be deleted like some kind of a file from a computer." Jessa commented, leaning on her side at the sink next to her. "Only if... they're really planning to make it happen." She added finally got the calmness she needed to make her mind process.

"MolloCorp was also the company where the drug used to win against the COVID Virus almost a decade ago, it only means that that company has a high possibility that they can do it. That drug was exported in every country for being the most effective medicine to take, making billions of dollars in return. The people involved in that company must be aware of what they are doing now." Rohana made a hypothesis, sharing it to others while the two straight men kept their mouth sealed and quiet, glancing at each other from time to time, like they're talking telepathically.

"Possible, but let's not jump into conclusions." Clarissa took a step of caution. "And let's not bring back what has been done. The history of this corporation could be an addition to what they are projecting right now but... releasing this kind of virus, Scourge Virus, whoever made that name, he or she already knows that this kind of disease could cause wide spread of... high numbers of death."

All of them made eye contacts to each other except of course Brenda who's on the bed but still listening to them. Everybody couldn't help but agree, Clarissa can be right or wrong, but in the situation they have right now, it looks like it's how it is.

"From what I heard from the news, Mollo Corporation released and was approved that this drug to treat cancer was highly effective. And that drug was released like months ago..." Clarissa tuck her hair behind her ear and frowns, piecing what she knows about the virus.

"Yeah, many of the cancer patients survived and was treated like they just got a common cold." Jessa added while looking at her hands she's playing with just before her belly. "Many people bought that drug, it was world wide."

"Hey, that doctor Ramona from the radio believes that the drug has this side effect, right?" Jonixa might be all brushing his hair, checking himself out in front of the mirror and sleeping and eating but sometimes his ears are still working.

Clarissa nodded her head. "When the medicine takes effect, it's slowly starts to show it's side effects... hemorrhage, aggression and choking of blood. Shuts the whole system in a person's body before bring them back to life, but only that they're not going to come back alive... but half dead." She mumbled yet enough for everyone to hear it. "Rather say like what he doctor from the radio said, Zombies."

"Ladies, let's not make this too creepy, okay?" Gavin tried to stop the spine chilling stories they're starting to build up with what they know. Letting out an awkward chuckle while scratching his head, making him look like an i***t.

"I saw how it happened." After a merely second of silence, Brenda broke it, she's now sitting at the edge of the bed, her back is hunched and looking like a soggy sandwich she bought and store it inside her bag for three days before she decided to check if it has mild in it.

"Huh?" Jonixa displayed his confusion with his wrinkled face, looking at her.

"That Scourge Virus was said to be highly contagious either by bite, by blood or by scratch. That's why they always have their hands clawing in the air, that's why they throw themselves to a healthy host and bite their skin out and make them bleed out all good cells and pass their unhealthy bacteria from their spit to the circulatory of the body, mixing with blood and turned people into those monsters. By blood, by taking those pills, those drugs that Mollo Corporation made, they're making monsters." She explained, not exactly expected from a girl who doesn't like going to school and pass her grades.

"Wow." Jonixa mouthed, also not expecting a whole lot of explanation from her lazy and tardy friend.

"I saw-- I saw how a person shuts down when he was infected by that virus. I saw how those bacteria spread through his vein from the bite towards all parts of his body. Changing his eye color from a normal colored eyes to blank white." Her eyes began to water, reckoning what has been stuck in her mind that she can't erase like a written sentence in the blackboard using a permanent marker. It keeps replaying in her mind, whenever she closes her eyes, the way that person changed into something horrifying just makes her shudder so bad. She can't forget it. "Wriggling on the floor to stand up and act like this crazy, psychotic person banging his head on the doo--"

"That's enough." Jeiger shuts her up, realizing what she's explaining about. It's Amando, he knows because he saw it too. He saw how Amando slowly turned into those things and it still hurts him to know the fact that Amando still thinks of them before turn. Before he became one of those things.

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"We're out of choices, it's either we're safe here inside wait for a rescue that seems not to come and eventually we will starve ourselves to death or three of us will take this suicide mission to find goods and food to eat and come back here... alive." Rohana stood up in front of them with her hands on her hips.

"It's easier said that done, young lady. The car we have needs to be hotwired everytime you have to start the engine. And the nearest convenience store is a couple blocks away from here. This is a city, there were many people living here, and that only means there are many of those things are outside that door." Jeigwr made his point, esperanza to the only instrument they have of their get away might cause themselves being stuck and be surrounded by those things.

All of them fell silent, until Gavin groaned loud with both of his hands yanking his hairs.

"Those things, they're drawn to noise." Clarissa remember back when they were still inside the mall. "Do you guys remember when we were in the escalator? They are hunting in a form of group. They were walking pass by us, but when Jonixa sneezed... that was just when they started to see us." She explained to them, and most of them nods their head, like a toy placed above the dashboard of a car.

"So what? Like they're the ugly versions of daredevil?" Jonixa commented that's actually not needed.

"Yeah, maybe they can see through... vibrations." Jessa's tenacious expression whenever she's thinking suddenly turned on. "Their eyes were clouded, like the lens of their eyes to see were faded, like they formed cataract in their eyes." She touches her nose and curves her lips up. "I saw they're eyes, and it seemed like it's close to it. So they uses vibrations to see. Any sound that could make any vibrations through every atom in every matter like the floor or in the air, it could attract their attention." She added before meeting their eyes.

"Just like when I sneezed?" Jonixa asked, still dumbfounded. Being stuck in the middle of bright friend could give you a real massive headache and your eyebrows could form a question mark. Take Jonixa for example.

"Just like when you sneezed." Rohana answered, confirming his question in a form of copying his question.

"Wow, that's just great. We're in the middle of this some kind of zombie outbreak sprinkled with their special abilities to see through science of atoms and all headaches my science subject gave me headache. Real great." Brenda grunts and lie back down on the bed.

Jeiger glanced at her and just shook his head. "So what's the plan now? The car is not actually a big help when we're escaping though, just only if we have the key. Who's the three suicide committee to go out their and be the target of those freaks?" He asked and no one even moved a muscle.

"Rock, paper, scissor, anyone?"