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Section 1: The Outbreak
Jace had never been one for superstition. He’d grown up in a small, sleepy town where the biggest event of the year was the harvest festival. Life was predictable. Until that morning.
He'd been in the kitchen, brewing a pot of coffee, when the first reports hit the radio. The news anchor’s voice, frantic and shaky, had warned of a rapidly spreading virus. The government wasn’t yet calling it an outbreak, but it wasn’t hard to guess that something was terribly wrong.
"… citizens are urged to stay indoors. Avoid contact with the infected…"
Jace had turned off the radio. It wasn’t the first time a scare like this had been reported. Bird flu, swine flu, the countless outbreaks that always ended in nothing more than empty warnings and public hysteria. But this was different. The strange look in his neighbor’s eyes, the unnatural stumble of a woman down the street, something wasn’t right.
By noon, the world was already changing. Sirens began wailing, emergency broadcasts flooded every channel. By 3 PM, it was clear: the virus had spread rapidly across the country, and it wasn’t just another flu.
Jace’s phone buzzed. It was a message from Sarah, his girlfriend of three years.
"Jace, I’m scared. I’m at my apartment, I don’t know what’s happening. Please come get me."
