BREAKING NEWS! A deadly virus has been released out of a secret government facility at 9:34 a.m. on this bright sunny day in Miami, Florida. This virus is reported to be categorized as a level eleven out of ten; it broke the scale! It couldn’t get any worse, the CDC advises you to stay inside, practice extreme hygiene, and to stay away from the sick. Residents of Florida, the state has been placed on lock down, do not come close to the border, otherwise you will be shot.
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Whoa, I guess I better get ready, I thought. This couldn't get any worse. I can’t imagine what it does. I mean a virus of all things? We’re supposed to be more advanced than this. Well, I guess I need to pack my things, I hope I can do something to help out. I started to pack my things and double check them in my head. Laser rifle, check. Dried provisions, check. Water purifier, check. Portable kitchen, check.
As I stepped outside I noticed it was surprisingly humid for a Florida day. After the government tested the “Scorcher”, a deadly incendiary bomb, it leveled a 5 mile radius of wildlife, turning it to ash. After the testing, Florida was always dry and hot, it killed thousands of animals and wildlife, changing Florida’s weather forever.
I decided I was going to try to go to the border, I have a permit level 8 because of my history with the government and my expertise in the sciences. I think if I get past, I’ll try to go to the CDC. Maybe I can help find the cure, if there is one.
I unlocked my hover bike and got on, slowly pushing it out in the sun when I noticed, the nearest sky village was on fire. Wow, I thought, I wonder why it’s on fire, maybe people are already raiding other homes to prepare for the upcoming epidemic.
I started down the road and while I was driving I was super anxious and stressed until I realized almost every sky village and sky tower was on fire or already burnt to the ground, then I was afraid. I drove past group of agents in flamethrower gear, they were the ones burning the houses. I heard screaming and turned around seeing entire families being executed, I noticed they all looked like they were sick. I got back on my hover bike and sped off. I heard gunshots and sped up even more. I turned around again and saw they were shooting at me, too. Luckily, I have the bulletproof plating on my hover bike. I wonder if that’s the way to defeat the virus, flamethrowers? No, it seems too simple, but could it be?
All of a sudden another rider whizzed past me. It freaked me out for a second until I realized I would’ve been dead already if that was somebody who wanted to kill me. After a while, I realized the rider was going to the same place I was. I decided to follow him.
As we neared the gate, the rider slowed and said to me, “Pretend you’re with me, okay? Otherwise we will both be shot, and you don’t want that, do you?”
“No, but who are you?” I asked.
“That’ll have to wait until after we pass the gate, okay?” the rider said.
“Okay, but don’t get any smart ideas. If you do,  I’ll tell them you’re lying.” I remarked.
“Alright, but you’re going to have to trust me.” the rider said.
As we slowed and got off our hover bikes, a man in riot gear and a flamethrower on top of the watchtower in front of the gate yelled, “Show me your IDs or you'll be torched.”
“Alright, alright.” the rider said as he handed the ID to the agent, “Here’s mine and he’s with me.”
“Oh, so you’re the one who started all this. Well, I guess not every captain has to go down with their ship. Go on through.”
As the gate started to open, a hover bike gang sped past us, straight through the gate, and the watchtower agent mumbled something in his wrist communicator. A tank drone rolled over the hill on the other side and opened fire on the gang. I saw a kid being flung from one of the hover bikes into a ditch.
After the drone finished off the gang I told the rider, “We should save the kid, it would be inhumane not to.”
“Alright fine, but don’t be angry at yourself later on if he dies.” The rider said to me, as he turned to the agent and said, “Hey agent the kid is with us, I need him to perform experiments.”
“Okay but for that purpose only, you’re lucky he survived,” The agent said.
As we walked over to the ditch where the kid was, I asked the rider, “Okay, so what’s you’re name, and explain to me why I would trust the person who started all this?”
“First off, my name is James Heep and I started the nano virus program because our government was afraid of all the other countries that started other virus programs. Our government wanted something to show that we had dangerous things, too. When I requested a container to contain the nano virus, they sent me the wrong one, and not knowing that I put the nano virus in the wrong container, I left, and came back the next day and it was gone, I am lucky I didn’t get it.”
“Okay,” I said. “So, I guess I can trust you. My name is Jaxon Parker, and I have been in biotech ever since I was little. I have had quite the experience with the things we are dealing with right now.”
I heard some shuffling when we approached the ditch where the kid was. I looked down at him and he looked pretty scrawny, he didn’t smell the best either. He looked pretty weak and dirty after being thrown down the ditch. He had a normal gang outfit on, an old bandanna, synthesized jet black leather jacket and pants, and a white undershirt.
“Hey,” I said. “You don’t have to be afraid, we’re here to help. You’ll be okay with us we will protect you.”
“Okay, what’s your name?” The kid muttered when he took my hand, “My name’s Max.”
“My name is Jaxon, and the man next to me is James.”
James didn’t look to happy to be helping, or even being in the presence of the kid. To lighten up the mood I told Max where we were going.
“Alright then, so I was thinking we can head to the CDC and set up a fort there.”
“Okay, that’s what I was thinking,” James said. “I hope you brought a weapon of some sort, because it might get a little bit rough out there. The nano virus has already spread to the Midwest.”
“What exactly does the nano virus do to you?” Max asked.
“It eats away at your brain and turns you into a zombie like state,” James replied.
“Wow, sounds intense,” I added as we got on the hover bike.
“Pretty much.” James said as we started to move crossing the barren, dry, scorching hot landscape of the Florida and Georgia state line. I heard screaming in the distance.
“Should we head over there?” I asked in a nervous tone.
“No, it would be a waste of effort.” James said without a care in the world.
“Are you serious? It could be somebody who needs help!” Max exclaimed.
“There would be nothing we could do for him or her from that point on, they would be a dead weight.” James brushed away the problem like it was nothing.
As we passed the scene of whatever happened, I heard Max gag. The infected were tearing the guy apart, blood all over the ground, the corpses clothing was tattered. But the smell was the worst part. It smelled like an uncleaned port-a-potty mixed with some stale garbage.
Jeez, I wondered, why would the government want to have this sort of virus at the ready to infect another country?  Have we lost our humanity? If we have to confront a whole group of those things, I don’t think we’ll have a chance of surviving. Unless James has some crazy weapon that destroys them with a press of a button.
As we approached Atlanta, I looked around and there wasn’t anybody in sight, just an empty dark city.
“Wow, have you ever wondered if anything could’ve been dangerous enough to scare people enough to evacuate a city in one day?”  James said in a sarcastic voice.
“Why did you even agree to do this “project”, besides the government telling you to?” I asked.
“I thought it would be fun,” James said.
“You know what, you’re sick,” Max interjected. “I just watched the only family I had gunned down in front of me and the reason, some jerk decided it would be fun to create an extremely dangerous virus? What went through your head? Oh, that’s right nothing, you selfish, idiotic, excuse for a human being! You know what, how about you slip into something more comfortable like a coma!”
James ignored him as we stopped, left our hover bikes in the middle of the road, and decided to walk the rest of the way. After an hour of walking around the empty streets, we heard a groan in the distance. We all dashed to the scene and saw a bloody dismembered man.
The man grunted, “You better be prepared *cough*, the infected are definitely not normal people, they sprint, jump, and are way stronger than the normal person…”, and then he keeled  over and died.
I grabbed Max’s shoulder and said, “We’ll be safer if we get moving, and chances of that happening to us are small, because we have weapons.”
We started walking again and finally, we could see the CDC, it was just over the horizon. We picked up the pace a little bit and then realized a group of infected were blocking the door to the CDC.
“Well, I guess we’ll have to fight them,” James said as he aimed his rifle and started unloading on the infected.
“Max!” I yelled over the gunfire, “Don’t be afraid, just stand behind me!”. Then I turned and started firing at the infected, too.
They started dropping like flies, it was just way too easy. I wondered why the government was so geared up. After we downed them all I looked at James and asked, “Are they supposed to be this easy to kill?”
“Nope, at least I don’t think so. I engineered the virus to be almost unstoppable,” James said nervously.
I grabbed Max's hand and we made are way to the entrance. As we walked up to the elevator I heard shuffling noises from the corpses. I jumped back and motioned to Max to step back.  James raised his laser rifle and started firing on the corpses. They all started to get up and walk towards us through the laserfire.
“Run! Get around that car over there and run from here as fast as you can!” I said, as I pushed Max in the opposite direction of the infected and started to fire at them.
James and I slowly started to walk back as the infected advanced towards us. It was useless, James really did make them invincible. But just as our rifles overheated, I looked back and I saw Max driving a tank, but instead of a laser cannon it had a monster flame thrower.
Max screamed, “Get out of the way! I’m going to incinerate them!”
Just as James and I sprinted to the nearest car and dove behind it, the humongous flamethrower shot an enormous jet of flame at the infected. It was so bright you could barely tell what went on. After a minute, I opened my eyes and saw ash covering the place where the infected were standing.  There wasn’t a sign of where they had gone, probably in the ash or completely disintegrated, I thought. That flamethrower was insanely hot.
“Well that was exciting,” James said as he brushed off some of the ash on his clothes.
“You could say that again,” I said.
Max got out of the tank and walked up to us.
“That was close!” Max said.
“Holy cow! Yeah it was! Where did you find the tank?” I exclaimed.
“Don’t ever do that again, you could’ve killed me!” James yelled, “I am the most important person in the world right now, do you hear me?”
“Aw shut up James, you’re just jealous,” Max fired back.
I struggle to suppress a laugh as our little group walked up to the door. I opened it as we heard gunshots and screaming in the distance. I turned towards Max and ushered him inside the elevator doors before James could weasel his way through.
He glared at me, then I smirked and said, “Be glad I held the door for you, you seriously need to work on your people skills.”
It was a long awkward ride up to the virus cure and research facility but when we made it, there was a group of men and women ready to kill us when the doors opened.
“If you move we will torch you,” An older man said in the back.
He was smaller than me but just as strong. He had dark blue eyes and a scowl on his face. He was wearing a top of the line hazmat suit with a laser pistol in his hand.
He came up and ushered all of us to a sealed room and threw us in.
“You can talk now, but first we are going to ask you some questions,” The older man said. “Have any of you touched or been in contact with an infected one?”
“No,” James replied sternly. “You are talking to the person who created the virus so can I have a little breathing room?”
“Is he always this self centered?” The older man asked me completely ignoring James.
“Sadly, yes,” Max said, shooting a glare at James.
James rolled his eyes as the older man said, “My name is Charlie and I have been working with the CDC for years. I have been assigned to work on the cure as you created the virus, so when an event like this happened, we would be prepared for the worst. But we’re not! So know I need all the help I can get on finding the cure, we have both a living and dead specimen for experimentation. Are you in?”
“Why not?”, all three of us responded at the same time.
“Good, let’s get started. My team get back to work, I’ll show these guys around!” Charlie said as he walked us over to the lab area and grabbed three identical little boxes. “These are nano hazmat suits, top of the line equipment. If you don’t want to get infected then put these on. It’s kind of a no brainer.”
We all put on our hazmat suits and walked into the testing zone. Charlie tried to teach Max how to run some of the equipment, but that was helpless. Max was told to go set up his bunk in a dorm room down the hall. After James and I were taught we started to try to find the cure right away, but it took months. James gave up and sat outside and watch the commotion all around lab with Max. We got so close to the cure, and then utterly failed some of the other times.
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We all heard the words we wanted to hear as I yelled, “I GOT IT!! I FOUND THE CURE!”.  As I got the feedback for the test I ran, I said, “All you had to do was put a freezing agent in the blood stream, surrounded by a capsule which detected when the virus entered the body, so it will freeze it instantly, rendering the virus useless!”
“That’s funny,” Max said. “Considering we killed the infected we encountered with flamethrowers, we have to freeze it to render it harmless.”
“Alright, let’s get the synthesizer going, make about a million copies of the cure, and send half of it to the distributing team for them to distribute it across the continent.” Charlie added, “Looks like we just stopped an epidemic.”
“What an interesting week, this might’ve changed the United States forever don’t you think James?” I said.
“Yeah, I guess so.” James muttered.
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BREAKING NEWS! Exactly one year ago today, three scientists and a kid cured one of the most dangerous viruses ever known to man. It permanently changed the way the U.S. citizens lives, from hygiene to the way scientists conduct experiments. Our government is taking new steps in securing and upgrading the technology in the science and medical fields.
Nothing like that should ever happen again!