Cooking herself some dinner, Valerie ate in the living room as she turned the television on. The news was playing, talking about the new disease and the number of infected.
"There's an exponential increase in the number of infected we see daily.". Valerie changed the channel to something else. A TV show about cooking. Just as she began watching, a knock on the door interrupted her. It was 7 in the evening, and Valerie wondered who it could be.
So, leaving her food on the coffee table in the living room, she rose to her feet before making her way to the main door. Unlocking it and opening it, she was greeted with the familiar face of her neighbour. And old, grey-haired woman. She had a folded page in between her fingers.
"Ah, Ms Johnson. What can I do for you?".
"Sweetie... I was wondering if you're going to the shops anytime soon, would you be able to get these for us too?". She paused for a mere second, looking at Valerie. "We're under no urgency for these. But if you can, the next time you're going out, can you get these items too? I'll pay you at the door if that's okay.". The voice of the old woman was fragile, yet it still contained the sweetness Valerie remembered.
"I'll do that for you, of course, Ms Johnson. I'll be going to the shops tomorrow morning though.".
"Like I said, we're in no urgency...Thank you very much, dear," the woman responded, Valerie saw that she was about to take a step back and walk away. However, she spoke up again. "And... please be careful out there... with the disease and all...".
"Yes, I always was. And I always will be. Thank you, Ms Johnson.". Valerie kept her gaze on the old woman, and just as she was about to turn away again, Valerie interrupted and further asked, "How is Mr Johnson? I heard him have a coughing fit a little bit ago.".
"Oh, don't ask, dear child. Who knows what it is? The poor man has asthma. On top of that, he got pneumonia a few months ago. It's a miracle he is still alive.". She paused for a second. "I made some mushroom pie, but since he's coughing up a lung, I thought it would be better if I didn't bring it out of the house.". She chuckled ever so slightly.
Hearing her words, Valerie looked at the page she held in her hands before placing it into her pocket. "Thank you, Ms Johnson.".
"No, thank you. I am sorry if I am a burden. But you know yourself, it would take me a full day to get to the shops and back...".
Valerie nodded her head. "If you need anything more, you know I'll always be willing to help you, Ms Johnson.".
The old woman smiled. "Anyway, I don't want to be keeping you anymore. You have a great evening, sweetie.".
"Thank you, Ms Johnson.". And with that, Valerie closed the door.
The night further proceeded with no more interruptions. Valerie finished her food and she watched the chefs on the television grill up food that looked almost too delicious to be true.
Not long passed before the camera panned to one of the chefs and with a smile, he said "Good night," and the show ended.
Grabbing the television remote back into her hands, Valerie surfed through a few more channels before one of them caught her eye. It was one of the more controversial channels, as thought out by many including Valerie, however, what caught her eye was the live footage the news anchor showed.
"We are seeing attacks in both the suburbs and the capital city itself, Liß, as shown by the live footage of a Lißian inhabitant.". The footage was taken in the nighttime, so the visibility was not very good. The man was heard to have screamed as he backed away from the hands that tried to grab him. For a second, a face was seen as it charged for the man and that was the end of the footage. The rest of what was shown was static.
"We have more claims that the number of people infected by the PET virus is higher than the authorities make out to be. And with us, to further bring us through this, is an ex-epidemiologist, Damon Hugh. Dr Hugh, you were the one who brought up this claim, and ever since, more and more people have been seen to take your side. What made you think this was to be the case?" the news anchor asked.
"Well... I suppose, initially it was a feeling I had. I don't like to go off feelings, so I kept quiet until I realised there were some... inconsistencies. You here have covered these attacks, however, on the NTL, National Television of Lailin, I haven't seen this mentioned once, let alone covered," Damon spoke out.
"Could it be that they are trying to keep the citizens safe and not have them feeling panicked?".
"Transparency is what will guarantee safety, also they are a national television... It's information that's of such high importance, that the people deserve to know, especially now that we are reaching such a point in the epidemic. Because we don't know if we're going to see tomorrow.". Damon paused. "In all my years of being an epidemiologist, we had to give very factual answers, whether people liked it or not. Because it's the facts that will keep you safe, not sparing someone's feelings by saying something to them that you think might keep them safe. That's a recipe for a disaster waiting to happen," Damon began, rubbing his chin. "However, we can also flip that around and say that the lack of transparency could be linked to something else...".
"And what's that, Dr Hugh?".
"It gives them the space to lie. To hide things that they don't want to be shown. One of these things, in my mind, is the number of infected. We saw the clip there, and on top of that, we've heard stories of these kinds of attacks going on," Damon explained.
"Alright...".
"They reported, how much today?... 1.2 million infected. What we have witnessed so far, to me, doesn't look nor does it sound like 1.2 million people. It sounds like many more were involved in these attacks.". And then, he continued, "I know that riots happen, I understand that quarrels occur out on the streets of every capital city. However, the national television gets on it just like that...". He clicked his fingers. "But what about this? I don't see anything about this and why is that so?... Why isn't this talked about more?".
"We've also interviewed a man, an employer, saying that a few of his employees who reported to be sick failed to come back to work, even 3 weeks after they've initially showed symptoms of the disease," the news anchor revised the interview.
"And imagine how many more could be just like that?... And yet, nothing. No coverage of this on national television...".
"They could also be dead, the virus, as you may know too, is rather fatal," the news anchor stated.
"That could also be true," Damon responded.
There was a moment of silence before the camera panned back to the newswoman.
"Well... with that, we will conclu-".
"Do you also know what the PET virus stands for?" Damon asked, interrupting the news anchor.
"I- I am sorry...".
"The PET virus, do you know what it stands for?" Damon asked his question again.
"I- I know it's a name derived from the Latin language," she responded.
"Yes, meaning pale cough," Damon elaborated. "And I don't know about you, but that one frame we saw of the person's face... it's a pale face, alright. We can argue it could also be the lighting, but I don't see nor hear the cough. On top of that... if you look into their eyes, to me, that does not look like a person. Yet like a zombie... do you know what zombies are?".
"We thank you for your time, Doctor, but we must end the show now. We've run out of time.".
"But, the people deserve to know the truth! They de-". The show was cut, with the screen showing the studio, which was almost instantly replaced with a 'Signal Lost' sign.
"What the fuck?...". Valerie furrowed her brows in confusion at what she just watched. 'Zombies...' her mind rang the doctor's claim around her head. 'Zombies.'.
So, she stood up and quickly went to her laptop where she opened the search engine. She searched for the word 'zombie'. Just over half of a million results.
She pressed the search bar and added to her search, 'Are zombies real?'.
An article at the top caught her eye. 'Do Zombies Exist?'.
The very first sentence read, 'Though nothing is impossible, it's highly unlikely that zombies might exist, at least in humans'. Then the article went on to talk about the zombification that occurs in the animal kingdom before it moved on to the requirements needed for such a scenario to actually happen. 'A disease would have to control the nervous system to achieve this, along with a few other things to allow it to survive with the limited foods it can eat. That being human flesh.'.
'What if there is such a disease that can do this?' she thought to herself.
Valerie suddenly stopped what she was doing when she heard a loud buzzing from the outside. It only grew louder before a light source showed her where the object in the air was coming from. With Valerie propping herself to the window, a helicopter caught her eye followed by another one, which was then followed by another one, all going in the same direction.
With her rushing out the front door and down the cemented steps, that was when two fighter jets rushed overhead.
It left her, along with the rest of the neighbourhood that came out, confused. A worried neighbour, a woman in her 40s, came rushing toward Valerie.
"Do you know anything about this?? Y-you work with the police, don't you??".
At first, Valerie nodded, before she shook her head. "I- I don't know anything about this, I am just as clueless as you are...". She paused for a mere moment. "But stay inside, it'll be much safer there than out here.".
With some hesitancy, the woman nodded before turning around and rushing back from where she came from.
Just before Valerie was about to walk back inside, another fighter jet flew low, leaving nothing but a loud hush behind it.
The last time three fighter jets and three helicopters were spotted in the sky, seconds separating them, it was before a war started.
Valerie's intuition was correct, and it's no longer the case of whether something was going to happen, but when. Furthermore, where will it begin? Or perhaps, maybe it had already begun...
... And they ran out of time.