"A WHOLE NEW WORLD"

Silence.

The surrounding forest was in a state of complete silence.

Where there should have been noise there was none.

The chirping of birds, the chorus of early morning insects, the cries and calls of forest animals, all were amiss, none of this could be heard.

The soft blowing breeze and the rustling of leaves, grass, and branches were all that could be heard.
These very sounds were so defined it was ominous.

This once lively forest was now deathly silent and still.

This foreboding emptiness could be seen as well as heard.

No insects dotted the air, no birds lined the trees, and no animals darted through the woods.

The chilling reality of this forsaken forest would make even the most steely-nerved individual feel unsure and unsafe.

But is normality now.

The world is silent, and dead.

Now, even the most basic sounds of life, be it the chirping of a bluejay or the cry of an elk, were the most precious things in this cold, empty world.

The light through the cracked window shone directly across her eyes causing her to stir. She groaned as the pain shot through her head, the light making it worse. She rolled slowly over turning her back to the window. She put her hands to her head as she sat up trying to catch her breath as the pain caused her stomach to clench with nausea. She knew throwing up would make the pain worse, so she forced deep breaths in through her nose and out through her mouth.

She struggled to her feet her lack of balance sending her stumbling into a wall where she leaned heavily for balance while she got her bearings. She looked around and saw a room she didn't recognize. It was a place that had seen better days, the wooden furniture in splinters, the windows broken, and the walls bearing cracks where it looked like the furniture collided before crumbling.

She drew in a deep breath managing to take a few steps before leaning against the extended mantle of a fireplace. She knew she needed to figure out where she was.

"Lets start with what I know. My name is..." She paused her eyes rolling around the room trying to find a clue. "My name is..." She gasped in shock, she couldn't figure out her own name.

"My name is..." She repeated again stumbling towards the remains of a broken window and stared outside. "I don't know my name, but I will figure this out." She whispered softly.

The silence of the forest was suddenly split.

The loud snapping of a branch being the culprit of this, the cause being the heavy black boot which had stamped down upon it.

This black rubber boot adorned the foot of a tall and rather leanly built figure.

Clad in dark clothing as well as being armed rather heavily, this individual posed as a rather intimidating form.

His clothing consisted of a pair of solid black rubber boots and a matching black rain slicker. On his hands he wore brown leather gloves and his faced was adorned with a rather menacing gas mask.
The hood of his rain slicker was pulled over his head, this combined with the gas mask kept his identity completely hidden.

He was armed with a Remington 870 shotgun, which he carried down at his side with his right hand alone.
At his left side, he had a rusty hatchet with a wooden handle which he had slipped down between his belt and his pants waistline.

He carried a green Swiss Gear backpack on his shoulders which bulged from the contents inside, which were predominantly food and water rations as well as spare clothing and other basic survival gear.

The mysterious man stood still and solem, his head turning slow and carefully as his eyes scanned the surrounding forest from behind the mask.

The dead silence and eerie stillness of the forest bothered him not, as this had become normality for him. That, and he had witnessed far more chilling instances in the past many weeks, things that belittled something as trivial to he as a forest abandoned by animals.

He finally took a step forward after at least five minutes of surveying the surrounding area.

As he walked, branches and leaves crunched loudly beneath his feet.
He steadily pushed brush and branches aside with his left hand as he trudged forward, while he tightly gripped his shotgun with his right hand.

The noise seemed to echo through silent woods as he tramped and slogged his way onward.

As of now, the mans' goal was simple; make his way out of these woods, which he planned to have done no later than this afternoon.

She pushed away from the window. She had to find answers. She stumbled to the corner of the cabin lowering herself to the ground where she began crawling on her hands and knees looking through the rubble. She hissed softly as she felt a sliver slide into her finger as she ran her hands over the rough floors. She stuck her finger in her mouth sucking on it while she continued sorting through the remains of the shattered cabin.

There were torn newspapers, the headlines hinted at something happening, something big, but none of the papers were complete enough to tell her the whole story. She bit back a scream of frustration as she crumpled the paper in her hands throwing it in the direction of the fireplace. It would do her no good as anything but kindling now.

She reached for the remnants of a pillow, she studied the slashes in it, it looked like everything in this room had been torn apart on purpose, as if someone were looking for something. What she did not know.

Crawling through the room she found nothing but more questions. She could feel the tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried desperately to find answers.

The only thing she found, was an old dull rusted letter opener. She toyed with it in her hands as she sat in the middle of the devastation. She was so absorbed by the reflection of the light off the blade that she was oblivious to everything else around her.

Outside, there was an intense sound of rustling and crunching as the black-clad man forced his way through a mass of brush and high-grown weeds.

His boots crushing briars and branches beneath him, and his gloved hand harshly yanking away vines and branches that were level with his face and chest.

As he forced his way through the last bit of growth, he raised his gaze to the lodge before him. It was decrepit and appeared to be abandoned, though this was not a certainty.
He gripped his shotgun with both hands and raised it to waist level, with the muzzle pointed forward.

He took long yet careful steps, trying to avoid stepping on the clumps of dried leaves and the scattered dead branches.
He made little avail though, as with every few steps a snap or crackling would split through the air, each time this happened he would wince behind his gas mask.

If there was anyone here, they surely heard him coming, which was why he kept his shotgun at the ready.
He had faced many surprises and even ambushes since everything went to hell, and he had to stay vigilant as he had all those times before.

Vigilance is what had kept him alive for this long, and he did not plan on forsaking it now.



He approached the front steps of the lodge and took in a deep breath.

He kept his weapon ready, and took slow, deliberate steps up onto the porch and toward the door.

As he was passing through the doorway, the stock of his shotgun clipped the doorframe, resulting in a loud THUD.

He grunted loudly in frustration and, thinking he had given himself away, leaped through the door, his boots clopping down onto the wooden floor.

He jerked his shotgun up to chest level and firmly held the trigger, ready to fire.

He immediately saw the young woman, though he kept his weapon raised and said nothing.
His breath whooshing out from the exterior of the gas mask he wore.

The noise of the gun on the doorframe, and the loud thudding of the boots on the floor made her look up. She saw the man standing there with a shot gun pointed at her.

She opened her mouth to scream, but that action caused pain to shoot through her head so badly she couldn't even see. She grabbed the sides of her head turning her head away from him.

"Just fucking do it, and do it fast. Anything has to be better than this headache." She growled making no move to escape. She was beginning to suspect that she had been brought here to simply die. It was better it happen now, rather than later if you asked her.

"Huh?"

This simple questioning sound slipped from the black-clad mans' mouth, sounding raspy and gruff coming from the gas mask.

She would not resist? She wanted to die?

Why?

A slight tension suddenly squeezed his stomach as he realized why she might wish for him to shoot her.

He gripped his weapon tighter, and with his left hand pulled back on the pump.
The chik-chik sound of a shell being shifted into the chamber literally echoed throughout the ram shackled lodge.

He spoke back to her, his voice harsh and muffled from behind the mask he wore.

"Are you infected? Is that why you want me to go ahead and shoot you? Do you have the virus? Because if so, I will grant you your wish."

She winced again as the sound echoed through the cabin. She managed to focus enough to hear his words. "Infected? Virus? What are you talking about?" She demanded as she turned to face him still not getting up.

"I have no idea what you are talking about, but for Christ's sake could you not breathe so loud? My head is killing me."

The man kept his gun trained on her, not speaking a word.

What the hell is wrong with her? How can she not know what I'm talking about? Is she out of her mind?
He thought to himself.

"Hmmmm..." He grumbled aloud, consumed in his thoughts.

The severe headache she claimed to have was indeed a symptom of the Virus, but the symptoms did not begin to show until the final stages of infection, and they were all crammed within a three hour span.

He did not know of any freshwater pools immediately nearby, be it ponds or streams. While he had never passed through this forest before, he was familiar with its geography.

This meant that if she was infected then it would have happened far from this lodge, and by now other symptoms would have been showing.

She did not seem seriously disoriented, she had no bleeding from her nose, ears, or eyes, nor noticeable paleness of the skin.

She must be clean.
He thought to himself.

He released his grip on his shotgun and lowered it down to his right side.
He did not move however, staying where he was.

Still...

Could this be some form of trap?
Was her purpose to throw him off balance so he could be ambushed?

Instinctively, he regripped his shotgun in both hands, but kept it at waist level and pointed off to the left.

He finally addressed her after what seemed like an eternity.

"Alright, I'm going to ask you this one time," he said intensely,"who are you and why are you here? And, tell me why you lie about not knowing about the Virus. There's no way possible that you can't know about it and what it has done to this country, to this world, these past four months. I want you to answer me, and answer me honestly."

She stared at him wide eyed, her eyes filling with tears. She wanted to answer him, she just didn't know how. "I wish I could tell you what it is you want to know. I don't know who I am or why I am here. I just woke up, my head bandaged, alone, and in pain. My name, location, or anything about well anything outside these walls is unknown to me." She said wiping her tears with the back of a dirty hand.

"Please... Please..." She begged. "Tell me what is going on."

The man stood silent for a minute or so before responding to her, her words swirling around his mind.

"Amnesia..." He finally said, his tone tinted with sympathy.

She must really be telling the truth. If this were some sort of trap or trick it would have been sprung by now. Still though, I'll keep my guard up until I have heard more from her.
He thought to himself.

He turned and walked across the room toward a raggedy looking recliner chair.
He slowly lowered himself into it and laid his shotgun across his lap.

He motioned his hand toward the couch nearby and spoke to her,"You might want to have a seat, for I have some shocking...revelations, for you. And this story is going to take a while."

He shifted himself comfortably as he could in the ragged, spring ridden chair.

"So,"he said,"I'm not even sure how to break this to you gently, so I am just going to be blunt about it; the world has ended. Civilization has fallen. Mankind is back to the food chain again, at least, what bit of food chain there is left. It all began about six months ago, when the outbreak happened, when that godforsaken Virus first appeared and spread like wildfire across the world. Omega-13, that is what they called it, they being the politicians who swore we would be safe, and the hundreds of thousands of scientists who pledged to find a cure. It was all lies. By the time the death toll was in the millions, and the scientists all had absolutely nothing to show for their weeks of testing and experimenting, we all knew there was no hope."

He stopped his story for a minute, allowing what he had said so far to sink in, and to see if she had questions.

She slowly stood, making her shuffling way across the floor to the couch, which she sank onto gratefullly. It had taken almost far too much effort to make it this far.

She listened to his story, her brow furrowed in concentration, as she listened to him tell her how the world had ended.

"I... I don't understand it. There should have been methods for containing the illness, on average at least 30% of any given population is immune to any pandemic, it is how we have survived for millenia. Did they locate patient Zero?" She asked shifting to look at him better.

"What do the epidemiological studies say?" she demanded. She couldn't tell you why she wanted to know this information, but she apparently needed it.

She stood up off the couch her head still pounding. She leaned over grabbing the arm until her head cleared enough for her to stand again.

"It can't be that dire... what is the transmission vector?"

The dark man listened to her response patiently from the recliner, and when she finished, he then simply shook his head intently before responding.

"This is no ordinary virus. You see, late in May, just before the last of the broadcasts were made, the scientists did make one discovery, and that was that this was a hybrid pathogen, a hybrid that had also had tampering done to it's genetic structure, and on top of that, it had been uniquely mutated."

He leaned forward slightly from his chair, his muffled voice dropping to a gruffer tone,"This strain of Virus was man-made, by scientifically educated minds. The big question after that discovery is by who, and the next primary question was if it was accidental or intentional. Did they intend on purposely developing an apocalyptic strain, or was Omega-13 simply a highly costly freak accident? While many speculate that the creation of a deadly virus was intentional, it's fair to say that whoever pioneered it must have lost control, and had no intentions of creating a planet-killer."

He then leaned back in his chair, exhaling loudly, before speaking once more.

"As for this 'patient zero' and 'transmission vectors' business, I don't know what to tell you. All I know is that I first heard about it in early April, around the sixth I think, the news said that it was running rampantly across Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and the northern nations of Africa.
By April twenty-fifth, all of Asia, Africa, Europe, and parts of Australia had been exposed and the death toll in every country was skyrocketing by the day as infection spread.
I remember the first case was identified in the United States on May sixteenth. By that time, South America and many Caribbean nations were also infected. Come late May, the death till in the United States by Omega-13 infection was up to almost a hundred million. After that, the broadcasts began to stop all across the country, and after that, the darkest days came. Rioting, nation wide blackouts, looting, plundering, mass slaughter, insurgency and survivalism, the signs of the downfall of modern civilization."

He stopped realizing he needed a breath, and inhaled deeply, remaining in his sat-back relaxed position.

She couldn't believe what he was saying, a created virus that spread so quickly. It didn't make any sense. She narrowed her eyes and spun on him in frustration as he couldn't answer her questions about patient zero or transmission vectors.

She waved her hand in front of her face as she tried to think of the words. "transmission vector... how.." She looked up at the ceiling and growled in frustration. "How does it spread?" She finally managed, her hand pressing against her forehead trying to hold back the pain that seemed to come and go in waves. The harder she tried to think, the more it intensified the ache.

"None of this makes any sense." she muttered to herself. If she were walking better, her movements might have been classified as pacing, but all she was managing was slow shuffling circles. "If it is manufactured, there should be a kill switch, its what every responsible researcher on the planet does."

She turned her gaze to him again. "How long?" She wanted to know. "How long has it been since the infections first started? What are the symptoms?"

The black-clad stared at the young woman for a good minute or so, taken aback by her words and her questioning of his statements.

She asks me for answers and when I grant them she disputes my word? Little...

He immediately cut his thoughts.

After all, if she had only just come to and was truly suffering from amnesia, he imagined how the things he told her sounded, even though they were true.

All he could do was be patient with her and explain as best he could.

If she chose not to accept his word, then she would soon discover this new realityfor herself.

He suddenly moved his arms and lifted his shotgun from his lap and lowered it down toward the right side of his chair and laid it on the floor next to him.

He then turned his eyes back to the woman before him and spoke.

"The Omega-13 Virus is spread through freshwater contamination. Basically, if you drink tainted water or it should come into contact with say your eyes, ears, or nose, then you have infected yourself with it. Or, if you consume any water based or water dependent food that is based in tainted water, you will be infected. This means things like fruits and vegetables hydrated with tainted water or food prepared with tainted water.
In such case, you will be dead in roughly eight hours, unless of course you commit suicide or someone else puts you down. The other method of infection is contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person, saliva and whatnot. The reason the Virus basically spread across the country so fast is because somehow or another the water supplies of our nation and other nations were contaminated enmasse, and no one knows how the hell that even happened."

He adjusted himself in his chair and cleared his throat loudly, the sound was coarse and rattling.

"Now," he said,"as far as symptoms goes, they are as follows; a severe, throbbing headache, blurry vision, and ringing in the ears. However, these symptoms are then followed by a new set of symptoms, which basically consists of blood pouring out of your eyes, ears, and nose, still accompanied mind you by those first symptoms. The final symptoms occur within anywhere from one to two hours prior to death, and they are disorientation and hallucination. After that, as I said, comes a slow, agonizing death."

He suddenly stood and paced quickly across the room, his heavy rubber boots clopping across the wooden floor.

He stood before one of the broken out windows and stared out into the quiet, empty forest outside, his arms crossed over his chest.

"I've watched it happen." He said suddenly, keeping his gaze out the window and his arms crossed.

She listened to his words, you didn't have to know anything, to recognize the pain in his voice as he talked about the symptoms of the illness, and that he had seen it happen. She approached slowly and stood next to him. She ached to reach out and comfort him, but knew that wouldn't be a good idea right now.

"I am sorry you had to experience that." She said quietly. She stood in silence for a few more minutes. "Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions."

She sighed and rubbed her eyes trying to rid them of the gritty exhausted feeling they had. "It's hemorrhagic." She told him. "Those come from Africa, so everything you have said so far makes sense, at least somewhat. Marburg, Ebola, Lassa..." She turned her head to look at him.

"I have more questions, a lot more..." She chewed her bottom lip, she needed more information. "I..." She sighed deeply. "Tell me more about you, ya know... before the end. I have lots of questions, but I only want to ask what you might know."

The man uncrossed his arms and turned around toward her.

"Alright." He simply said.

He stepped past her and back over to his recliner and slowly sat back down.
He then reached up and pulled the rain slicker hood from his head, revealing short-cut black hair.
He then reached behind his head and un-strapped the black gas mask and finally pulled it from his face, revealing his appearance.



He dropped the mask down to his right, next to his shotgun on the floor.

He spoke, his voice, though still a lower pitch, was no longer muffled and gruff sounding, but clear and broad.

"My name is John Marlowe, before the outbreak, I was a car mechanic and a weekend handy-man. I'm from Harrison, Sioux County. I am thirty years old, I'm unmarried and single, no kids, and my parents both died during the outbreak.
Since the downfall of civilization, I have done many things to survive, many things which I'm not proud of, and will not discuss with you or anyone else."

He paused for a minute, allowing his words to sink in before continuing.

"I have more or less been on my own since midway through June. Your the first person in months I have not had to kill, as grueling as that sounds."

He stopped once more, looking her straight in the eyes and once more letting his words sink into her mind, before finally asking,"What about you? Do you truly remember absolutely nothing about yourself or why you are here or what happened?"