Aquarium Quarantine

Chapter 2

After James hung up the phone, all hell broke loose. Everyone started freaking out, calling loved ones in the area to make sure they were safe. Charles was on the phone with his wife in tears, telling her to pick up the kids from school and get somewhere safe. She had been at home all day and heard nothing about anything crazy going on. I heard him telling her, "No I can't leave the building. NO! We don't know what is happening out there right now and its not safe. I will be safe, and I will get to you guys as soon as possible. Get in the car and get off of the island NOW. Please, call me when you get to your parents. No, I am not joking at all! This is serious." I could hear her loud and panicked yelling from across the room.

Sasha and Scarlet called their friends and parents crying, telling them what was happening and begging those who lived nearby to get off of the island and those who were already off-island to go somewhere safe and lock themselves inside.

I called my parents and sister to let them know that some sort of incident had happened at work. I told them that it sounded like some guests were sick and started attacking each other and someone had guns. I didn't tell them about James saying that the man started eating a child, because they would have not taken me seriously at all. They live extremely far away and they hadn't seen anything strange going on. They promised me that they would still stay inside and lock up for the rest of the day and keep an eye on the news just in case. They finally let me get off the phone after making me promise a million times to be safe and keep them updated. A brief chill swept over me when the thought ran thorugh my head that I might not ever see them again…. Madeline had no loved ones or family that she was in contact with, so she started trying to call the police.

She called the local police and all the dispatcher said was, "We have officers dispatched to the area, we cannot give any updates on the situation any further than that."

Scarlet sighed with relief, "Good. At least the police are coming. Hopefully they can sort all of this out..."

All of us were extremely skeptical of the situation. On one hand, James could have truly saw what he claimed, and we were literally in the middle of some sort of monstrous disaster. But we are all rational thinking scientists, and this just seemed too cliché and unlikely. It was highly possible that there was a shooter and James had to witness such horrible c*****e that he somehow convinced himself of a fanciful zombie-style story.

We were all too scared to use the radio again or call any other staff members because we didn't want to put any other people in danger. We figured taking the risk and trying to text would be worth the try though because it usually just vibrated for most people. I texted Nicole, but she never answered. The same happened when Charles tried to text our manager. We all spent the next few hours trying and failing to find some information online on what was going on out there.

The feeling of disbelief and confusion I was experiencing was awful. I was caught somewhere between panic and believing that I was actually dreaming. I halfway expected to wake up to my alarm at any moment. If I ever woke up, I fully planned on calling in sick today…

About three hours after the incident happened, we found a horrifying news video online.

The live interview was on a local news channel, the reporter was standing at a well loved ice cream and coffee shop around the middle of the island. She was wearing a blue hospital mask and her voice was muffled and shaky, "We regret to report, that some sort of incident has taken place on the east end of the island. We have gotten reports of people falling suddenly ill and exhibiting strange behavior at the aquarium, the local college, and several grocery stores. There have been reports of shots being fired in multiple locations. The hospital has admitted over a thousand sick patients this morning, and are running out of room. It is currently unknown what is causing the illness. We do know that it is unrelated to the current ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. It is being investigated as a possible gas attack. We advise everyone to stay home and avoid all contact with anyone outside, especially if you are near the incident locations."

We were stunned to silence. James was right about what he saw. "Well, at least now we kind of know what is happening....I am glad there is someone reporting on it." I whispered, and everyone nodded. ‘A gas attack?’ I thought, ‘Why would anything like that happen here? If it was some sort of terrorist attack, why would they target an insignificant little island like ours?’ It honestly didn’t make a lot of sense.

We were still glued to our seats around the tiny office computer when everything went to s**t. A barista in the corner of the camera suddenly began screaming. He started ripping at his shirt and tangling himself in his apron in an attempt to tear it off. His shrieks turned to cries for help and he clawed at his bare chest in anguish. The reporter quickly ran to the far end of the room in terror. It was obvious that the camera man was backing away quickly as well, but he focused the camera solely on the screaming barista.

“Cut the camera! Cut to the commercial!! Cut back to the station!” the reporter shouted at him, followed by other frightened exclamations from the rest of the camera crew.

The poor man dropped to the floor and began to writhe around, slamming his head repeatedly on the counter next to him. Blood was pooling on the floor from his head injury as he entered a seizure-like state. "Help...….. help me...….. it hurts....." He groaned as bloody foam seeped from his mouth.

"Cut the camera!!" could be heard again from the reporter in the background, and the footage finally went dark. Back at the station the news people were visibly shaken and you could see the abject horror on their faces.

"Uh..... We will get back to you with a live broadcast as soon as we know more about the situation. Please stay safe everyone." And the broadcast cut to commercial.

We all erupted in concerned babbling all at once as the commercial began. Panic welled up inside me like a bubbling pot of worms and I felt like I was going to throw up. My brain could not comprehend what I just saw. I kept trying to convince myself that it couldn’t be real, but there was no way what I just witnessed was fake. The frightened conversations from my coworkers sounded like roaring in my ears as I tried to rationalize what was going on. When the commercial was getting close to ending, everyone got silent again and started watching the screen intensely.

After the commercial break, they carried on with the weather and other trivial nonsense and made no mention of the absolute horror that they just showed on live TV.