Jonesboro, Arkansas – picturesque example of a growing city in the making. Everything was in the works for Jonesboro to grow to be the size of Memphis, Tennessee within several years, and being only an hour and a half drive away, the two almost melted together, as it was.
The small city was one of the last to be overcome by the disease that struck the world. They were lucky, and they were sheltered by the ridge that surrounded them, but when the disease hit home, that ridge became their downfall. That ridge became a sort of barrier, keeping the dead in, and the living out. The living within? Food.
With that luck, came an equal spout of bad luck. Memphis is already a place of devastation. Between the unemployment rate and the crime that plagues the city, people have been looking for an excuse to escape; to find something better and smaller. They finally found their reason, when the city was taken over in a matter of days.
At first it was just weird attacks on the news: bath salts, children attacking cops and social workers, men and women eating their dogs in what seemed to be senseless violence. The mayor was murdered by one of his guards…who proceeded to eat much of his brain in the process.
Then the violence became more immediate. It became more real. Humans who were being killed while looting were quickly reanimating, and attacking others. Hospital patients in the morgue began to rise up, filling the morgue to almost breaking point, terrifying the nurses and patients that walked by, hearing the growls and moans of the dead trapped within.
Even worse was that the CDC had no idea what this was. The government wasn’t prepared. Hospitals that were renowned all over the world were not ready to deal with such a massive outbreak of a disease that seemed to not even be infecting the humans it killed. It was simply a harbored disease, and humans were its vector. The only point the medical professionals could make is that it was a virus. Viruses need a strict path to spread from vector to host, and back to vector. The dead rising up and moving, and possibly infecting others with their bite was a perfect example of this. However, the study was cut short, when the doctor on the case was infected, while attempting to extract saliva from one of his ‘subjects’. He later wiped out the entire lab area of the NEA Baptist hospital, adding to the chaos within.
With Memphis overflowing, the refugees will reach the city in a week…or a bit more. The city will be plunged into chaos all over. Fires will destroy what is left of a once beautiful classic town of prosperity and the American Dream.
This is the world we’re forced to live in. This is Jonesboro, after the dead. Can what’s left be saved? Can we come back from this madness? Can the world survive, or will it burn?
