Jayr POV - Earth, Geia, Atnta's Survivor Camp - 2010

  After the impromt seling session, the time quickly passes and when the day es the group starts to prepare to leave the camp.

  At the same time, Shane gives instrus on how to stay with the caravan, "Everybody listen up. Those of you with C.B.s, we're gonna be on el 40. Let's keep the chatter down, okay? Now you got a problem, don't have a C.B., 't get a signal or anything at all, yonna hit your horime. That'll stop the caravan. Any questions?"

  At this point, Morales steps forward and timidly announces, "We're, uh… We're… we're not going." followed by his wife Miranda who adds, "We have family in Birmingham. We want to be with our people."

  Hearing that, Shane frows before he says, "You go on your own, you won't have ao watch your back." which makes Morales state, "We'll take the ce. I got to do what's best for my family." In response, Rick asks one more time, "You sure?" which makes Morales nod before he looks at his wife, who looks back at him and smiles engily, and then Morales answers, "We talked about it. We're sure."

  Hearing that, Rick lets out a sigh and says, "All right." before he looks at his friend and asks for his opinion, "Shane." which makes Shane also nod and say, "Yeah, all right."

  Shortly after that, the two grab the bag of guns to search for a on to give them so that the family somewhat defend themselves, but before they evehe bag, I stop them by saying, "Wait a moment! I think that Morales and his family are about to make a huge mistake by making a very dumb decision in the rush of the moment."

  Immediately after my words fall in their ears, I feel everyone fog on me as I tinue, "I mean how is it in the best i of your family to leave a group that was able to keep you and your family alive all this time? What the heck did you smoke, Morales?"

  After asking those questions, I don't give them any time to reply before I look at Daryl and ask, "Daryl, you please tell me how far Birmingham is from here?"

  In response, Daryl snorts before he curtly says, "Give or take, 147 miles..." which makes me nod as I mutter "147 miles... 1 mile is 1.6 kilometers, this means that it is 236 kilometers away from here in a car that distaakes around 3 hours and that is excluding all kind of is and forced deviations caused by the current state of the world."

  Then I look at Rid Shane and ask ahing, "And hoeople lived in Birmingham before the end of the world?" which makes Riswer in an uone, "Um... Birmingham is smaller than Atnta but it is still a quite big city so... I think the number is around 200.000..." followed by Dale that nods and says, "I think that's abht..."

  At this point, Morales' wife, Miranda is uo hold herself bad asks, "What has any of this anything to do with our decision of leaving the group?"

  Hearing her question, I let out a sigh and expined, "Give me a little time to expin Mrs. Miranda so that everyone uand just how ridiculous is your decision. Basically, what are you going to do is travel with a single car for 147 miles much further away than both Fort Benning and the C.D.C., and without having any idea of what dangers you will enter to reach a city that while is slightly smaller than Atnta is still a pretty big and poputed one. On Top of that, you have to sider the horrifying ratio between walkers and living where a number between 80% and 90% got turned into walkers. This means that even if your family safely reaches Birmingham, what expects you there are more or less 180.000 freaking walkers in the worst-case sario. At that point, Morales will have to protect his family which tains two underage kids on his own from not only the endless walkers but also from the less savory kind of survivors with a simple "We'll take the ce" as a general pn and single gun with a few bullets for prote. I don't know how everyone feels, but for me, this is simply a master recipe for disaster waiting to happen."

  Shortly after my rant, an awkward silence falls on the group as Morales and his family seem very unfortable at least until Daryl excims, "Damn right! Finally there is someone else to tell these people of fug dumb they are! What kind of reason is "we want to be with our people"? I mean are you even sure there are "your people" that are still alive out there!? Do you want to die so bad? Do you have some kind of sick desire to see your family killed before your very eyes!?"

  At this point, Riotices that Morales' kids are starting to get scared so he steps forward and says, "Daryl! That's enough!" followed by Shane who adds, "You made your point clear enough already."

  I look at the stunned Morales aly say, "Look, I uand that you are shaken and scared after what happened but fear ot be the reason to make such a rash decision, especially when that decision have very serious seguences. I mean, this group was able to keep you and your family safe and alive until now. 't you trust us once more to tio do that?"

  Hearing my word and st question, Morales and his wife look at each other in silence for a few moments before Miranda slowly nods and Morales looks back at us and says, "You viced us... We'll stay with the group a little longer..."

  After that, we all stop wasting time, get on our vehicles, and leave the camp food heading toward the C.D.C. where I'll create a cure for the virus that is causing this zombie apocalypse.

  Dale is in front of the caravan driving his RV with Carol, Jacqui, Jim, and Glenn who is sittio Dale with a map in his hands, Rick is right behind him driving a car with Lori by his side, Carl and Sophia on the backseat, followed by Shane's car, T-Dog's car with Andrea and Amy, Daryl's car with a motorcycle on it, Morales' car, and at the end of the caravan, there is my cargo truck with Man and Duating beside me and the group of twelve survivor who should have died in the walker attack staying on the cargo bed protected by the scrotg sun by the shade of an improvised tent-like cloth.

  On our way to the C.D.C., the RV's radiator bursts f the caravan to stop, and as everyohers around the RV to check the situation I hear Dale say, "I told you we'd never get far on that hose." followed by Jim who is still looking ihe still fuming RV, "I said we he one from the cube van..."

  Hearing that, Rick 't help but ask, " you guys jury-rig it?" but Dale shakes his head and says, "That's all it's been so far. It's more duct tape than hose. And I'm out of duct tape."

  At this point, Shane who is cheg the surroundings with his binocurs ents, "I see something up ahead. A gas station if we're lucky." before he adds, "Hey, Rick, you want to hold down the fort? I'll drive ahead, see what I bring back." which makes Man step forward and say, "Yeah, I'll e along too and I'll help you gather everything helpful to fix the RV and the other vehicles if needed while also watg each other back."

  Shane nods and thanks Man before he states, "Y'all keep your eyes open now. We'll be right back."

  While Shane and T-Dog drive ahead to find repts for the RV and the other vehicles, I make sure that our immediate surroundings are safe, and at the same time, my mind starts to wander as I think about my current situation and my moves, 'For now, everything is going well, but there are no apparent signs of the other Chmpion's presence or activity, I hope we are at the least on the same ti... Oh well, for the moment the pn remains the same, I'll head to the C.D.d create a cure for the Wildfire Virus and maybe I will be able to hit two birds with a sione. I'll help the people of this world and I'll attract the attention of the other Champion hoping that he or she will make a reckless move or try to tact me. This has already worked ond as the proverb says. if it's not broken, don't fix it. Because of all that, when we reach the C.D.C. I have to focus...'

  Suddenly, while thinking about the C.D.C., I remember a particur detail, 'Oh, I almost fot about Jenner! I easily fool Rid the others, but fooling Jenner about my identity will be a lot harder... sure, my overall knowledge and petence are actually unmatched in this world, but there is the very small detail that in a modern world like this one before the zombie apocalypse it is impossible for a person as petent as me to be pletely unknown, especially for the people in the same field... The only way to make him trust me is by creating an actual identity for myself... luckily Jenner is trapped in the C.D.C. maybe one of the few st pces with a w puter which will make it very easy for me to ask Crateris to transform in its Gunmen mode and hato the C.D.C.'s database and add my information... but that is something that I have to do before I have my first tact with Jenner.'

  ing to that clusion, I do not hesitate to act, I quickly inform Rick that I'm taking a quick bathroom break, and after doing that, I rush into the nearby woods and bring out Crateris before I ask my parto head toward the C.D.d hato its database to add my informations and a solid identity to earrust of the person inside more easily.

  Crateris accepts my request and transforms into Cratergann before it discretily flies ahead and with that done, I calmly walk back to the group and wait for Man and Shane's return and for the RV to get fixed.

  Edwin Jenner POV - Earth, Geia, ter for Disease trol and Prevention - 2010

  I take a seat in the usual station, input the usual codes in the keyboard, and wait for the transmission to start, and soon, on the s the words "Wildfire MSB3417 Active - Begin Transmission" before a new s appears that tells me that I start.

  At this point, I don't waste any more time and start to speak into the camera as usual, "Jenner here. It's day 194 since Wildfire was decred and 63 days sihe disease abruptly went global. There's no ical progress to report. Item… I finally got the scrubbers in the east sector shut down to save power. Wish I could have do a month ago, but it took me that long to figure it out. Too bad I udied engineering. Could have saved a lot of amps."

  After rep that, I take a slight pause before I add, "Item… I'm still not sleeping well. 't seem to keep regur hours. Living underground doesn't help, not knowing if it's day ht. I'm just feeling very off-kilter."

  Shortly after saying that, I decided to close the transmission and on the s, the words, "Wildfire MSB3417 Active – End Transmission" appeared before I quickly put the puter into standby mode to reduption as much as possible before I walked aut on my biohazard suit aoward the boratory but not before I put on some music to keep me pany as I'm the only o here and I to keep my sanity.

  I walk toward the boratory while listening to the Spring of Antonio Vivaldi thinking, 'I am more a rock type kind of guy... but dace loved cssic musid this is one of the few things that make me feel close to her...'

  Ohere, I pass through the airlod ehe boratory, turn on all the monitors, and the puter, and start the analysis program, then I head to the safe fridge and carefully pull out the sample with the bel TS-19, Test Subject 19, open it up with surgical scissors and the tissue into a petri dish.

  Very carefully I cut a very small piece of it before I gently pick it up with small surgical forceps and put it into a gss test tube that I then fill with a fluid full of cell debris so that I purify the virus and once again study it to find a way to deal with this thing tht ao the world as I k or at the very least uand it a little bit better so that someone else do it.

  Ohe test tube is ready, I put it into the boratory trifuge where the mixture of virus and cell debris are subjected to low-speed trifugation, which is around 5000×g, to pellet cell debris, but not the much smaller virions.

  At this point, I have to wait for the trifugation process to be pleted and for the sample to be ready for examination, I decide to take a nap inside my safety suit as I'm truly too tired as the idea that I'm about to e all the emergency fuel and my ck ress prevent me from peacefully sleeping.

  Suddenly, I wake up to the beeping sound of the boratory trifuge whiforms me that the low-speed trifugation is pleted.

  So with a start, I get up, pull out the test tube from the boratory trifuge, and save the liquid supernatant taining the virus while discarding the pellet taining the cell debris.

  After that, I spread a small part of the liquid supernatant taining the virus on a coverslip and quickly used the microscope to examihe virus.

  After seeing that the virus still acts as usual, I reach for a beaker but actally knock a graduated der of corrosive fluid oissue sample ihe petri dish.

  Seeing that, I unsciously try to the sample with my hand but immediately realize my mistake as the corrosive fluid is now corroding both the glove of my safety suit and the protective glove beh.

  At the same time, the arm sounds as Vi's voice is heard from the loudspeaker as it alters everyone, "Alert status. Air qualifiers indicate corrosive fumes. All personnel must clear the room. Corrosive element is deemed poisonous if inhaled."

  Hearing that, I run to the deination chamber but before entering, I pull the shower cord that switches on the shower just outside the door which quickly washes off the safety suit before the deination chamber's door opens.

  Seeing that I rush inside and start to disrobe as water sprouts from all the angles washing my body and I spread my arms open to allow the water to wash off every area of my body.

  Suddenly, I again hear Vi's voice from the loudspeakers as it annunces, "All personnel clear. Full deination in effect."

  Hearing that, I snap out of my daze and turn around shouting, "NO!" but I only watch helplessly as everything in the b, including all of the remaining TS-19 samples is engulfed in fmes by the automatic safety protocol before Vi's voice states, "Full deination plete."

  Devastated, I remain there half-naked, motionlessly watg the still fuming remains of the boratory my mind a total bnk at this point.

  I don't kily how long I stood there still, but then I started to move almost on autopilot walking out of the deinatiooward the cafeteria with only ohing in my mind at the moment, 'It's over... It's all over... I need a drink...'

  After wasting some time drinking away my sorrows, I e up with a decision a up with a gss still full of red wine in one hand and a half empty bottle iher before I walk toward the headquarters to give what is likely going to be my st report.

  Once again I sit in the usual station, input the usual codes in the keyboard, and wait for the transmission to start, and soon, on the s the words "Wildfire MSB3417 Active - Begin Transmission" before a new s appears that tells me that I start.

  Then a little tipsy I speak into the monitor, "The TS19 samples are gohe tragedy of their loss ot be overstated. They were our freshest samples by far."

  After saying that, I take another sip from the gss of wine in my hand before I sigh and tinue, "None of the other samples we gathered even came close. Those are ic, useless dead flesh."

  At this point, I take a pause as I realize something and then I say, "I don't even know why I'm talking to you. I bet there isn't a single son of a bitch out there still listening, is there? Is there?"

  After not receiving any kind of sign or response, I start to get up while saying, "Fine. Saves me the embarrassment." before I sigh pletely empty of any hope as it is clearer thahat the world is truly over and with that realization, I let out another defeated sigh and state with crity, "I think tomorrow I'm gonna blow my brains out... I haven't decided. But tonight, I'm getting drunk."

  After saying that, I again pour the wio the gss, emptying the bottle and notig that, I ask to no one in particur, "Speaking of which, how far do you think I chuck this, huh? Pretty far I bet."

  At this point, I just want to release all my bottoled feelings in some way, and without aation, I carelessly throw the bottle away, shattering gss which makes me excim, "Oh! It is out of the stadium!"

  As I tio waste time drinking away my sorrows, I suddenly hear the proximity arm going off.

  Hearing that, I stand stunned for a few moments before I move closer to the security monitor and watch as a group of around 30 people sloroach the buildiing closer and closer to the stutters as they walk through the tless corposes outside ahat, I only mutter in horror and disbelief, "No."

  I watch as one of the men leading the group, a tall and buff Caucasian man with bck hair and brown eyes, is carefully looking around ready to shoot at anything that moves with his shotgun as he tio ence the others, "All right, everybody. Keep moving. Go on. Stay quiet. Let's go. Okay, keep moving. Stay together."

  At the same time, a Caucasian man in his mid-thirties with dark brown hair and clear blue eyes wearing a poliiform is also doing the same as he leads the group toward the C.D.C. building while carefully watg his surroundings armed with a rifle and saying, "Keep moving. e on."

  Of course, the reason why they are encing the people in the group is because at the moment they are walking among the hundreds of rotting dead bodies lying outside whose stench I guess is truly unbearable sidering how almost anyone in the group is uo move without c their fad nose in some way.

  The only ohat are able to bear it are the two men leading the ground, another Caucasian man with very short brown hair, blue eyes, facial hair on his lip and armed with a crossbow, and stly, the oh the most eye-catg appearance, a very tall and athletic Caucasi young man with strange, messy dark blue hair and eyes of the most intense green I have ever seen in my life.

  This st one, different from the other three who seem to be able to ighe smell through sheer will, looks like the rotting dead bodies's stench has no effect at all on him as he tio calmly walk slightly behind the other two while casually carrying a wooden staff on his shoulders. Soon they reach the building which is still locked and shuttered which makes the buff man with the shotgun pound on the door while exg in disbelief, "Nothing?" which makes the buff Afri Ameri bald man in his mid 30s with hazel eyes ent in a defeated tohere's nobody here."

  Shortly after that, the the man in poliiform argues back, "Then why are these shutters down?" but before they tihe man with the crossbow warns the group, "Walkers!" before he shoots the walker in the head.

  After doing that, the man with the crossbow pins, "You led us into a graveyard!" which makes the oh the shotgun argue back, "We made a call." but that upsets the other man more as he shouts, "It was the wrong damn call!"

  In respoo his words the people of this group start to get more and mitated some are even showing signs of hysteria.

  But then the young man steps forward and intervenes, "Calm down, everybody. Even if there is no one alive left iructure, it is still fihe reason why we came here in the first pce is because you needed a new safe location as the st o promised while I he facilities to test my hypothesis. As long as we are able to enter we will have at the very least a safe pce to rest."

  Hearing that the people start to calm down makiter, "No, just go away." while thinking, 'This pce is also doomed, it only has enough fuel to run for just another day... and this world is already doomed... there is nothio do if not uselessly struggle...'

  While I'm thinking that, I notice that the man in poliiform is now looking straight at the camera and shortly after he excims, "The camera… it moved." which makes the buff man with the shotgun reply, "You imagi." but the man with the poliiform shakes his head and says, "It moved. It moved."

  Before the man with the shotgun say anything else, the young man stops him by putting the hand on his shoulder and shaking his head before he steps forward and loht in the camera givihe impression that he is looking right at me.

  Then with a smile he says, "Good evening. You may not know me, but I know the Head Stist of this structure Dr. dace Jenner as I've meet her before during a medical ference. My name is Dr. Jayr Pucd I may have a possible solution for the Wildfire Virus but to prove my hypothesis I need a structure to safely duct the experiment. Please, if Dr. Jenner is iell her about me, I'm sure that she will allow me and my group inside."

  Hearing those words, I 't help but feel my eyes widening while a little spark of hope once again lights up in my heart, but before I actually trust that young man words, I decide to be careful and ask to the virtual intelligehat is partly in charge of operating and running the C.D.C., "Vi. Does the C.D.C.'s database have any information about a certain Dr. Jayr Pucci?" Shortly after that, Vi's femminie voice is heard from the loudspeaker, "Yes. Dr. Jayr Pucci, born in the 1989 in Italy. A rare medical genius who graduated from UCL Medical School at record time. Sihen he was a very active and successful doctor who revolutiohe medical field with his discoveries. He was scheduled to take part in the HIMSS Global Health ference & Exhibition to reveal the result of his revolutinary resear a effective cure for cer."

  Hearing that brief review I 't help myself from enting, "Holy shit... not only he is from dance's alma mater but he is also such a monster... why the hell I never heard of him before."

  But then I focus on the s where more detalied information appeared and focus on the photo and immediately realize that the man standing in front of the C.D.C.'s doors is indeed Dr. Jayr Pucd without any other hesitation, I press the button that will open the door while thinking, 'Maybe there is still a little bit of hope in this world.'

  Odyin