Viral Pandemic

Chapter 1

A man with a body of a weight lifter came into the living room of a mansion. In his hands, he had a bowl of Caesar salad and the remote control for the television. He turned on to a news channel and settled down on the couch. Ladies and gentleman, meet Harry Jones.

Mr. Jones is a man of 36 years old, still single, multi-millionaire, and used to be a top officer in World Health Organization. For the sake of avoiding too many formalities, our lead character wants to be known simply as “Harry”. Anyway, back to his career life. After spending 10 years working with WHO, and generating wealth beyond anyone’s wildest imaginations, he decided to retire. He also agreed to be at service if ever needed.

Whilst enjoying his salad, he turned his attention towards the news, which was anything but special. The newsreader was reading out things that you hear every day. Harry was barely listening when the newsreader read the news of the Syrian war. However, he was surprised by the news that came next.

‘It is a new type of virus that is infecting people in Asia, mainly in China. Chinese and South Korean scientists detected the virus two weeks ago and reported that the virus is novel.  The origin of the virus is still unknown but it is believed to have spread from North Korea.’ The newsreader read with a concerned look. Harry, however, was not too concerned about it. China was a world away from Washington D.C, the place where he lived. This could be only a normal virus that infects people and disappears over time.

Had he been at the WHO headquarters now, he would have been frantic with research to find a vaccine but those days were over. ‘Let the guys in Geneva do their work. I’ll rest here.’ he thought. He turned off the television, put his salad back into the fridge, bid goodnight to his dog, Logan, and went upstairs to his bed. As soon as he hit the mattress, he was asleep.

 The next morning, Harry awoke with a start. His phone was ringing. He got up slowly and picked up the phone. He looked at the name. It was a friend who works at WHO. He answered the call.

‘Hey, pal! How are you doing?’ Dr. Naismith who was on the other side said. Harry just said that he was fine.  Dr. Naismith was better known as Smith. He was a good friend of Harry and his ex-colleague in WHO.

‘Listen, I didn’t call you for a nice chat. This is something serious. You know about the new virus, right? It is spreading around like hell now. We took a record of infected people recently, and the results are not good. The thing has spread to Europe now and we also have a few cases in the Americas. You better be careful.’ Smith said.

‘Have you got any idea what it is?’ Harry asked.

‘Goddamn, with brains like that, you should be dead by now. Didn’t we declare its “novel”? You sure got a problem understanding what people say.’ Smith said. Harry nodded and after a few moments, they cut off.

Harry was a bit concerned now. His instincts told him it was nothing like SARS, Covid-19, or anything else. It was something that no one has ever seen. Concerned, he prepared his breakfast while planning to do some research about the virus later. After finishing his sandwich, he ordered a coffee from McDonald's, the famous fast-food chain.

Hours passed on. Harry was still on the computer, reading articles, sending e-mails, and doing some random stuff. He had finished his third coffee since he started and he wanted more. As far as he knew, this new virus was nothing that humans had ever seen before. There is no vaccine, no detailed information about it, no cure, no symptoms, no nothing. No effects of the virus had been recorded yet.

Harry started to panic a little. What if this virus shows some really dangerous effects and no vaccine or cure was ever found? Harry closed his eyes and put his head back. Suddenly, his phone vibrated. He took his phone out of his jeans pocket and turned on the screen. It was a personal message from Smith.

‘Watch BBC news right now. We got something about the virus, and it’s not good.’ The message read. Wondering what it is, he opened up BBC’s website on his laptop. The first headline was terribly horrifying. It said: “New virus development, humans turning into zombies”. Harry opened the article instantly and read. It said that every patient in Asia has started to bite people around them. WHO is currently in full speed to know what the virus is doing to the infected people. The virus also has an official name now, Zo-20. Members of the public are advised to stay indoors. China has declared a state of emergency. All this was too much for Harry. He closed his laptop and went out of his study. In his opinion, eating was better than scaring himself.

He walked to the fridge, opened it, and saw that it was nearly empty. He could see some vegetables, a watermelon quarter, and some junk food. He reached out and grabbed the salad he saved from last night, making a mental note to go to the grocery store as well.

Hours passed on, and Harry was still walking around the house, thinking of the virus. His “doctor-ish” spirits had come back, and he had a strange hunger for wanting to do some hardcore research. Realizing that he does not have the right equipment for them, he lowered his hopes. True, he did have a personal lab for himself in the enormous mansion, but it was still not enough.

Harry decided that it was time to get his legs stretched. He took his wallet and car keys, said bye to Logan, and went out through the door. He drove his Audi to the nearest supermarket which was situated approximately two kilometres from his home.

As he parked the car, he was trying hard to remember what he needed desperately. Failing himself, he grabbed a trolley cart and went inside the air-conditioned store. As he walked to the aisle where the dairy products are stored, he realized that he had left his wallet in the car.

Frustrated, he walked back to his car, hoping that his trolley cart and the few items he had picked would stay where he left them. He got back inside with his wallet safe in the pocket, only to find out that his trolley was missing. He took another cart while muttering curses, and went to pick the items that he needed.

Harry was checking the expiry date of a pack of Gouda cheese when it happened. In the distance, a woman started to scream followed by a few more screams and loud, rapid footsteps. Harry put the cheese in his trolley and went to look at what was causing all that commotion. He turned around the aisle just in time to see a man biting a supermarket staff in the neck.

Instantly, everything went slow-motion as Harry tried to process what was happening. The man who had bitten the staff was acting like crazy. His eyes were pitch black where they should have been white. The man was running around. As Harry looked on, he saw the supermarket staff jerking a bit and finally arose and started to run around too before biting an old lady.

The first man who was running around as crazy stopped in his tracks. He saw a man. Very fleshy. Very muscly. Delicious. Before you know it, he was running towards his unknowing target. Too bad for him, his target had suddenly spun around and run away but he wouldn’t give up hope. I want blood, he thought.

Harry had seen the man run at him just in time to turn around and save himself. In his mind, it was clear what was happening. It was a zombie attack.