Marcus Caine

THE LAST WORDS

A Novella

CHAPTER ONE

Artifact 2495-ka

Remnants of 5 journals found in the wreckage of an ancient warship currently known as The Stout.

Translated by Shayra Ware Waro on 0.11.16.3.2.13

We were outside Kabul, taking heavy fire from all sides when I heard the Chinook coming in in the dark of night.

The thud thud thud pushing the smoke away, the smoke that was coming from all sides, covering us to some extent but also in my eyes and nose. Burning my eyes, the smoke and my sweat and some other gas in the air, something not good, making it hard to see much less shoot.

“Tell them to back off,” I hollered. “It’s too hot.”

“What?”

“Tell them to back the fuck off, it’s too fucking hot,” I yelled at Wallace, our comm guy.

This was a supposed to be a simple reconnaissance mission, in and out, nothing to it. Just supposed to find out if a particular high ranking insurgent was here in the area. He was.

“OK, OK, red to yellow, back the copter off.”

Another burst from below interrupted him. AKs, always AKs, you could bury those things in sand, piss on them, drop them from the roof, they would still fire.

Another round from below. I returned fire. The roof wasn’t the best place for us but it was the only place the big Chinook could land. Someone had turned on us, let ’em know where we are. One of our local contacts.

“Repeat, back the copter off, we are under heavy fire.”

“Negative, sir,” they squawked back. “I’m under orders to reel you in.”

There were only three of us, half our SEAL platoon, but I knew the chopper had a whole other platoon aboard. Couldn’t risk it.

“I said back off, right fucking now pilot. You have a whole ’nother platoon in there.”

“OK, hold steady platoon blue 6 is coming in to give cover fire.”

Good, they could come up from the other side, distract them, maybe we could get to the chopper and get out safe.

When I figure out who betrayed us I’m going to fucking flay them.

The Chinook started lifting again and that’s when the RPG hit it square in the side. I saw it like it was in slow motion, the rocket puncturing the metal, the fireball coming out the other side. Then the whole thing went up in a fireball, not even a chance for the guys inside. The blades were still going, lifting without the rest of the Chinook, both big top rotors going straight up into the air. I actually saw the pilot just…incinerate, there, then gone, a shadow of a skeleton for a second.

I could feel the shock and knew the heat was coming but never felt it; instead I caught a glimpse of something dark heading my way out of the fireball and the next thing I know I woke up here.

In a hospital.

I jumped out of bed realizing immediately that my clothes felt wrong, civilian clothes? I heard an explosion in the distance and felt the adrenaline coming back up. I looked for my gun. Nope, no guns. I went to a barred window and looked out. A city, but it didn’t look like Kabul, smoke was rising in various areas so it had to be somewhere still in Iraq. Maybe I was in a military hospital.

I looked around my room, it looked mostly like a typical hospital room, except the door was thick, metal, with a small reinforced window and a slot that looks like it would be used to pass food through. A prison? Had I been captured? But, the door was wide open.

I looked around some more; there were some knives and tools in the room. They wouldn’t have left those with me. So maybe I wasn’t a prisoner. But to be safe I grabbed two knives before leaving the room. It still looked like a hospital, but there were more thick doors along a hallway to my left, and these were closed. To my right it looked like the hallway opened up. I chose this way. It turned out to be some kind of common room with couches, tables, chairs. And it still had more the feel of a hospital than a prison. This common room had larger windows, still reinforced, that looked out at…

This was not Kabul. This did not look like any city in Iraq I had seen. There was smoke coming out of various parts of the city, true, but there were way too many buildings, tall buildings, skyscrapers. And some were familiar. I have seen this city before. It was New York. “What the hell?” escaped my lips before I could stop it.

I heard someone move in one of the rooms and was immediately at the ready, blood pumping, ears alert, knives positioned.

It came from the hallway to the right. I was barely able to keep myself from yelling “who’s there”. I snuck down the hallway as quietly as I could, trying to figure out which room it came from. Then something slammed into the door next to me, and it screamed. My heart skipped and I retreated to the other side of the hall against another door, but something slammed into that one too and was I back out in the middle of the hall again, turning around, sweating, heart throbbing. More things slammed into the doors in some of the rooms down the hall and they all started screaming. I could see some of them; they looked human, banging their heads against the small windows on the doors until they were leaving blood on the glass. Then at the end of the hall I saw an iron gate and bars, and people who appeared to be sleeping in a big pile on the other side of the bars were getting up and screaming too while trying to reach through the gates. They were people. But they weren’t. They were bloody and their clothes were ripped and their faces appeared cut up and some were even salivating. But the least human thing of all was their eyes. Their eyes were wild, ferocious, animal eyes.

I started hearing words in the screams: worm, rye, moth, bear. Just random words here and there but then it evolved into a chant; worm milk chest mouth wound sea…they were chanting the words together, but it still didn’t make any sense.

“Jude, good you’re awake,” said a doctor I didn’t know who seemed to know me as he came from the other direction. He was tall, older, graying, glasses and wild eyes with big bags under them. Disheveled as hell. He looked like shit.

“Come on, come away from there,” he said. He didn’t seem terribly disturbed by the screaming people.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Dr. Gates. Come on Jude, come away from there.”

“What the hell is going on?”

“Read your journal to catch up then I’ll tell you what I think I’ve figured out. I’ve been up all night, of course.”

Journal?

“Don’t worry about them, we’re safe. Just read your journal.”

“Journal? I don’t have a fucking journal.”

“Yes you do. Start three days ago, that should get you up to speed. Then check your quick notes.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Jude, check the time.”

I looked at my watch, the date was way off. Then I saw them.

Tattoos. Tattoos I didn’t remember getting.

Jude, don’t panic, you’re safe. You had an injury and now you have a really really bad memory. Turn your arm over.

I did

It will be OK. Just exercise then read your journal

I don’t have a fucking journal. Someone was fucking with me.

But I did, it was rolled up and tucked into my pocket. Worn, like I kept it folded like this often, and had handled it often. I opened it to the first page and knew it was my writing. Small, concise, efficient if a little hurried, but unmistakably mine, and it said things I didn’t remember writing. I started to read while moving towards the doctor and away from the… whatever they were, then remembered what the doctor said and found the last entry, then counted back three days from there.

CHAPTER TWO

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/21/2012

So I woke up this morning like I guess I do every morning; adrenaline pumping through my veins, looking for my gun, realizing I’m not where I think I am and checking my watch, an old habit. And as soon as I look at my watch, I know something’s wrong. The date, it’s off by about three years, like I’m three years into the future.

And then I see the tattoos. The tattoos tell me what happened. And the journal, this journal. Good thing I’m organized, the journal even has notes so I don’t have to read the whole thing every day. Every few entries there is a flagged page, with cliff notes of my life on them. Short, bullet pointed. What happened, what it’s called — anterograde amnesia.

• You have anterograde amnesia. It means you can’t remember anything for very long. Yeah, like that guy in Memento.

• You’re in New York, at the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, on Wards Island.

• Tim Tom — Big hairy guy, has aphasia, it means he can’t understand language, written or spoken. It’s because of a head injury. But he can talk, a lot, and sometimes he gets his words a little mixed up. Talk to him if you’re ever in a bad mood, and you will be.

• Dr. Gates — He’s the one what brought you. He’s a pretty big deal, apparently, has written a few books, had you transferred here because of your condition.

• Eric — Ex drug addict, kind of psycho, never really sleeps, kind of a dick.

• Cassie — Blond woman, a little older, cusses up a storm, schizophrenic, thinks “they” are trying to control our minds with TV, internet, radio, etc.

• Marcus — Autistic? Never really talks, but watches movies a lot.

• Adam — Manic depressive.

• Jermaine — The big orderly, even though that’s not what they call them anymore.

There were some others.

Will it be like this the rest of my life or will Dr. Gates find a way to fix me? Because this, this is broken. Since taking shrapnel in Kabul my memory has been damaged to the point that I can’t remember anything, even something traumatic or important, for more than a few hours.

Dr. Gates says it’s rare, and he’s studying me, saying I can help people, help them understand more about the nature of memory and so on and some shit. But it doesn’t change the fact that I am broken, fragmented.

I went out to “meet” everyone again, like I guess I do every day. They all know me, but I don’t know them. Tim Tom, who talks up a storm but has no idea what I’m saying. Cassie, who cusses harder than any of my boys back…my boys, my platoon, they’re all lost. I don’t know why I keep writing this. I should take it out, forget that it happened. I could tell them to lie to me, I would never know the difference. But maybe I deserve to know, to be punished, to mourn them every day, every single day, as if I had just lost them. I’m going back to my room.

OK, enough, I’m out again, I can’t just sit in there and mope. There are some here that do just that, all day, but I suppose that’s why they are here. Because they’re sick, depressed, something. Not me, I’m here because Dr. Gates wanted me here, to study me, along with a few others with rare disabilities like mine. Like Tim Tom. Apparently Dr. Gates is pretty well known, who else would have the pull to get me transferred from the VA clinic in Virginia where I apparently was before to here, The Manhattan Psychiatric Center. It looks nice here. It’s on an island next to Manhattan and I can see the skyline from my room. I’m guessing this room would cost quite a bit if it was a condo. I hope this Dr. is as good as everyone is saying he is, I hope he’s good enough to help me, and Tim. I have to admit I like Tim, even though he keeps calling me Joe, but I don’t know how to tell him my name since his disability keeps him from understanding me.

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/21/2012

Patient Jude Guerrero

Jude is in a slightly better mood today, though I know that it doesn’t really mean anything. His mornings change from day to day. I would love to know why, why some mornings he just lies in bed and others he gets up, exercises, socializes, mourning for his fallen comrades only briefly. He finds out the same news, every morning, like it had just happened, but his emotional responses are all over the place. Just one of the many mysteries of his fractured mind.

The only consistent progress I’ve seen so far is from his performance on the Tower of Hanoi test, every day, just a little better. Proving the findings we had with patient HM, that semantic memory may be intact, even when episodic memory is not. HM was also able to improve on this test on a daily basis, though not as fast as Jude.

The only other constant for him seems to be Timothy. While the others he likes some days and dislikes (quite clearly) other days, due to his “first impression” of them every day, him and Timothy seem to get along like gangbusters, no matter what the first thing Timothy says to him is, and it’s usually quite ridiculous or inappropriate. He never even seems to mind that Timothy continues to call him Joe because he doesn’t know his real name. The other patients have taken to calling him Joe too but his reaction to that varies from patient to patient and day to day.

His journaling is getting more extensive every day, and more personal, even though in his notes he makes it clear that he knows I will be reading the entries, something he seems completely OK with. Where his journal entries were short and to the point at first he now writes elaborate detailed histories of each day. Which makes sense, considering that his journal is now, basically, his only way to remember things. The journal has been such a success with him that I have encouraged it in the other patients, and some of them had even requested a journal before that, having seen Jude wandering about constantly writing in his. The other patients, they look up to him, even knowing that he will not remember them. I suppose it is because they know he was a soldier, or maybe just because of his still impressive physical presence.

Something new he wrote in his journal today surprised me. He wondered if he should remove every reference to what happened to his platoon during and after the helicopter crash. I admit I had considered this myself, to keep him from going through the same devastating sense of loss every day. It would also cut the mourning period down so we could do more tests and make more progress. But I don’t know if I could ever bring myself to do it, to lie to him. Surely he would ask me himself what happened to his men if it wasn’t in his journal. Could I really look him in his face and lie to him about that? Every single day?

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/21/2012

So this test, the tower of Hanoi, you may already know what it is and I may have already written about it but this is my memory and I’ll probably repeat lots of things so deal with it.

It’s three stacks of poles with rings of different sizes, largest at the bottom going to smallest at the top, on one pole. You have to figure out a way to get all the rings onto another pole in the same order. Dr. Gates say I’m getting better at it every day, even though, of course, I don’t remember ever doing it before. But, he says this is very exciting. He gets excited a lot.

I have to admit, it didn’t seem familiar at all but I was going through it like a breeze, nothing to it. It felt weird as hell, being good at something that I knew should be tough, doing it so easily. Not that I’m dumb, I speak Arabic, Spanish, French, it’s why I was talked into becoming a SEAL, but this should still be a tough puzzle for anyone and it seemed so simple, like it was solving itself and just using my hands.

I got to the last ring, the Doctor had that big ass grin on his face, when there was a commotion in the TV room.

CHAPTER THREE

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/21/2012

We don’t really encourage the patients to watch the news, but we don’t forbid it either. After all, the general feeling here is that we are helping them to adjust to living in the real world, not trying to protect them from it. As Jude was placing that last ring on the tower of Hanoi there was a commotion from the TV room and he felt the need to go and check it. I suppose it makes sense that he was not as excited as I about completing the tower so easily, after all, he doesn’t’ even remember working on it all these weeks.

The news was ominous, but not completely out of the ordinary. A professor at Oxford had gone on a shooting spree, killing several people with a double barreled shotgun before being taken out, and apparently, he didn’t go down easily. A shooting at Oxford, even in England itself, seemed so odd. I supposed the shotgun had been for pheasant hunting, having lived in England for a time in my youth I knew that there really weren’t many guns there.

For some reason this seemed to particularly upset Marcus, who then upset the other patients, pointing at the TV and making some inarticulate noise. Why Marcus, and why this? Marcus is, in my opinion, autistic, and shouldn’t even be here, but in a different institution altogether that is better suited to his needs, but alas, he isn’t my patient. The peculiar thing is Marcus has never even indicated that he really understands the news, or anything else on television before. He often repeats things he hears, but never in a way that indicates he actually understands what he is saying. Even his journal entries, done entirely on a computer, are just, as they say, copy pasta of things he sees online: news reports, tweets, Chuck Norris jokes, pictures of cats, etc. I have often wondered if it all meant something to him, if he was trying to communicate through this medium, but have never seen a pattern to his entries.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/22/2012

Started today as I suppose I do every day; jumping out of bed, looking at my watch, seeing my tattoos, reading my damn journal. It seems like I get through the days OK. My memory can last a few hours, depending on what I’m trying to remember, so I can still know I know someone, even if I can’t always remember their name, and I know I’m in a hospital, even if I don’t always remember it’s in New York.

But, the mornings are hard, because after sleeping 7 or 8 hours, I don’t remember anything, at all. Not where I am. Not what has happened. I see those damn tatts, and I read the journal and I feel the scar on my head and I cry because my platoon is dead then I pull myself together and get on with the day, because I’m a soldier and that’s what I do.

And I get to know the locals, something I’ve always been good at. My skin color and language abilities made it easy for me to blend in over in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was always my specialty, so it’s what I continue trying to do; talk to people, chat them up. Some of them are barely coherent, some seem perfectly normal and fine, and most just don’t want to talk. Cassie loves talking, talking about how the internet and TV and radio have subliminal messages and are trying to get inside all of our heads and control us and drive us insane. Marcus talks about movies, actually, he talks in movies, repeating them word for word. Eric bitches about all the things he hates, which is all the things. But I always end up talking to Tim, or Tim Tom as everyone here calls him and he calls himself.

Big guy, huge, used to be in construction until an accident put a rod through his head. That’s why he’s here, because of the rod. It damaged his — what did the Doctor say? – Broca’s area, and now he can speak and write just fine but can’t understand any written or spoken language. Crazy, what the brain can do. But boy can he talk. I end up just listening to him talk about damn near everything and I have to admit, it calms me. It’s damn hilarious, but also oddly soothing, the way he just never shuts up.

Today I was just listening to him talk about welding some statue of a dragon when everyone seemed to get really upset over something on the news and I had to go see. Have to admit, it was odd. There was a shooting at Cambridge, which is sad, but I didn’t think much of it until someone told me about the shooting at Oxford the day before and I checked my journal and sure enough, a shooting at Oxford. But then they started talking about the shooting at Oxford earlier today. Today, but my journal said yesterday. I asked the Doctor, and he confirmed, yes, there was a shooting yesterday and another one today, and now this shooting at Cambridge. He was silent, he didn’t fall silent that often, and he left the room.

From the journal of Timothy Lorne

12/22/2012

I was talking to Joe today about my art when everyone started raising a rumpus in the boob tube room. I saw what looked like a really nice university, really old looking, and they were wheeling people out of a building on gurneys. But of course I had no idea what was going on so I asked Joe and he pointed at the TV and made a gesture like a gun shooting. So, another shooting, that was sad, and probably at some nice college. That’s why I like Joe, not just because he listens but because he uses his body to communicate a lot. He even uses these military gestures that I’ve picked up. I guess he used them a lot as a soldier when they had to be quiet or he was trying to talk to someone in a different language. I knew he had been in Iraq, he had pointed to it on a map for me once and I had assumed he had just gone there cause he don’t really look Arab, he looks Mexican to me, or maybe Puerto Rican, or maybe Argentinian, hell, I don’t know. But I could understand him better than all the others because he gestures so much.

So, then later I was talking to him about this girl I’d know once or twice or thrice, a really pretty girl, way too pretty for a big hairy lug like me, and then everyone gets all upset again and we are all watching the news and I see Harvard. Now I know Harvard, I’m a Boston boy. Not that I went there or anything, nope, I’m just a blue collar guy who worked construction. But also, I’m an artist, or at least I was, back before the accident. Made things out of metal that just came straight out of my brain — dragons and centaurs and Pegasus, stuff like that.

And there’s swat teams there and everything and I ask Joe again what’s going on and he makes the gun gesture again and then shrugged his wtf shrug and holds up his hands saying five and now I see what the big deal is. Does he mean five people dead? Or five shootings? Either way I know there was at least two shootings today at nice schools and that is a big deal — really weird stuff.

From the journal of Cassandra Morgan

12/22/2012

So Jude decides to tell me what’s been on the news, even though I told him I don’t care and it’s all lies anyway just to get us to watch so they can beam the messages, the damn messages, into our head. But, he decides to go ahead despite my protest. So, five different shootings in two days; two at Oxford, one at Cambridge, one at Harvard, and now one just now somewhere in Norway. Crazy stuff, but it is a crazy world out there, beyond these walls, much crazier than it is in here. The people in here, at least they aren’t liars, they may not always tell you the truth, but they at least think they are telling you the truth. Even Dr. Gates, even he tells the truth. But five shootings, that is some crazy stuff, and at nice prestigious universities, where they teach people to lie, and they put messages in their heads.

So I think it’s here, what I’ve always known was coming. What exactly “it” is I don’t know for sure, but I’ve always known it would be through the internet, the TV, the radio, the cell phones, that’s how they would do it, that’s how they would get to you. And I’ve told people this over and over, and what did they do? They put me in here. Guess I shouldn’t complain though, at least I have food and a bed, more than I had before when I was living on the streets, stealing to live ’cause I don’t beg. But, now it’s here, and I’ll have to fight it, even more than I always have. I’ve got some ear plugs I keep in my room in case the TV gets too loud and just to make sure I’ve wrapped some ripped sheets around my head to cover my ears more. I’ll fight it, I’ll fight those fucking bastards.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/22/2012

It’s been an odd day, I suppose probably odder than most, but hey, I can’t really remember so I’m just going by what I wrote in my journal. Six shootings now; in England, Norway, Boston and now in Japan. Though Japan wasn’t a shooting, some guy just went crazy with a knife on the subway, started stabbing people. The only reason the news connected it with the others is that he was a professor too, just like all the other mass murderers.

I get the feeling that something is going on, something’s not right, but it’s kind of hard for me to trust my feelings when I don’t have a memory to really build on. Maybe mass shootings are becoming more common and I just don’t remember them? But no, I don’t think so, just scanning my journal I don’t see anything else about them so I decide to ask Dr. Gates.

“No, this is really, really strange, quite ominous in fact, I’m not going to lie to you Jude.” He was solemn. Was this the way he always was? “This is scary stuff and I’m debating for the first time on whether it’s really a good idea for all the patients to be seeing this on the news.”

“So you’re going to turn it off?” I asked.

“No, but I should. I don’t know. It has really upset them and I’m not sure that is what they really need, not all of them at least.”

“Maybe Doc, and it may not be my place, but they are adults.”

“I know, and I had never considered censoring what they watched before. But, I will say, Jude, I know you and Cassie are friends.”

“Which one is she?”

“The blond, and I think you are playing with me Jude. I now you are friends, but I’m not sure you should be telling her about what is going on. I’m afraid it will just reinforce here delusions regarding media and mind control.”

“I’ll think about it Doc, of course, you know, I’m going to forget you told me this.”

“I know, but I also know that you will write it in your journal, as you write every…”

And that’s when it hit home. People were screaming, I mean really screaming, at the TV and we ran in there.

Cornell, a student this time. No guns, but he had driven his car into a crowd of people on campus. Right here in New York. It was here.

CHAPTER FOUR

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/23/2012

So I wake up like I suppose I do every morning; heart pounding, feeling for my gun like I’m still under fire. I see that tatts, I read my quick notes, and eventually I’ve freaked out, cried, settled down, worked out, and I’m out the door.

“Morning Joe”, “Morning Jude”, good morning says a bunch of people I don’t know. But they know me. And I do know them, I just don’t remember them. And I don’t remember what they are all talking about but I catch up quick.

The killings. It’s all they are talking about.

“I think it’s just copycatting. These things always come in waves, like the postal shootings and the school shootings.”

“And those stabbings in China.”

“No, it’s the Devil doing it.”

But no one listens to that guy.

“It’s a virus.”

“It’s stress, the economy you know.”

“Aliens,” said one of the schizos with crazy tall hair.

And then we are all back at the TV, looking to find out more. And there is more. Another one already, a guy who murdered his family in France. The only connection is the words, worm milk chest mouth, some other words, written over and over on his twitter feed, the whole phrase short enough to fit in one tweet.

We get computer time. When we can email family and friends, or do, really whatever we want, they don’t censor us. But today everyone is checking the news. Checking twitter, blogs, etc. It’s all about the shootings. No one even on Facebook. I guess Facebook is still the thing, you know, I’m not sure, it’s been two years, sort of. Maybe MySpace is back, probably not.

And they’re talking about the words; written in notebooks, repeated on computers that the killers had. Worm, milk, some other words, that didn’t make sense. Repeated, over and over. Moth oil. What the hell does that mean? Why would all of them have it? Is it like some cult thing, spread out in the world? A code, maybe? Do the words have some other meaning?

From the journal of Marcus Welsh

12/23/2012

@marcus314 Worm milk, chest mouth, sea wound…

Status: Worm milk, chest mouth…

Liverpool — Another pub brawl gone terribly wrong, and football not even involved.

Los Angeles — Onlookers reported that the gunman started beating people with his fully loaded gun instead of shooting while repeating the words worm milk chest mouth…

…went on a rampage in his software firm…

Front page of reddit:

Worm milk

Worm milk

Worm mil…

Look at my cat.

Worm milk

Worm milk

A stick figure cartoon: So I’m away from reddit for a few days. Wtf is worm milk?

…civil engineer throwing weights from his condos rec center down on innocent bystanders…

…a virus, says one English epidemiologist…

Tumbler:

Fuck Yeah Worm Milk

…navel crest…

Another campus stabbing, this time with a Katina sword…

…perhaps a water borne pathogen…

…student used what is reported to be a Klingon dagger…

…armed with a battle ax…

…and written in the blood of his family on the walls of their own home was the phrase; worm milk chest mouth wound sea…

…perpetrators primarily aged 20-40…

…first college campuses, now tech firms…

What is causing this rash of violence?

From the journal of Timothy Lorne

12/23/2012

I noticed the big orderly first. Something was just, I don’t know, off about the way he was moving. It was kind of twitchy, jerky, almost like he wanted to dance but was fighting it. Was the rhythm going to get him? And the way his face looked. Blank, but with brief little rage faces. Like he would go from nothing to furious in the blink of an eye then back to calm. No, not calm, just kind of blank. I doubt anyone else had noticed. Going for as long as I have without being able to understand what people are saying or writing, I’ve gotten pretty good at reading body language and facial expressions and I knew something was way off with him. His eyes were unfocused, and he seemed to be saying something to himself with his mouth closed, I could see his jaw moving. But I didn’t say anything. I didn’t really know him, just figured he was high or something. Wasn’t my business. You would think in a building full of shrinks someone would see something was off. I should have said something.

I was playing ping pong with Ponch, of course I don’t know his real name, I think it’s Eric. He was pointing at Eric Estrada one day on CHiPs, probably trying to tell me his name, so I started calling him Ponch because it seemed to frustrate him and he’s kind of a dick. Anyway, he was sucking at ping pong something fierce and I was talking about this shag carpet I remembered from a house I lived in as a kid, how I used to lay on it and move around and build up static electricity and go shock people in my family. I was beating Ponch something awful and his face was just getting more and more irritated, probably at losing and probably at my constant talking, but that just made me enjoy it more. A lot of them think the talking is because of the accident, but actually, I was like that before. I’ve always been a talker, a storyteller, a gabber, even, at times, a poet.

I heard screaming and hit the ball hard at Ponch’s face before going to see what was going on. The big guy had grabbed a girl by the arm, hard, and started yelling something, of course I didn’t know what, but something, and everyone seemed real confused. And the other orderlies, they looked dazed, like they cared more about what he was saying than what he was doing, so I stepped in. After all, I’m not a little guy.

“What the hell are you doing?” I think I yelled. And he looked at me and I could see something was broken, something was very deeply wrong. He started yelling something again, but in a singsong chant kind of way, and was about to get in my face.

Joe grabbed him and turned him around and didn’t even try to talk with him, he just knocked him out, one punch. He didn’t need to do that, I could have taken him, I’ve been in my share of brawls in my time.

He turned to the girl, I guess asking if she was OK. And I looked around, confused as all hell, and at least two others looked off, like he had, dazed, and a doctor, and one of the patients, and a nurse. Something in general was very wrong. But what? It was really creepy, the way they just looked kind of blank, like they were all thinking something really hard, but something unpleasant. And the worst part is it was like they were all thinking the same intense, unpleasant thing. Should I say something? What would I say? That they all looked weird? I would sound like one of the schizos.

From the journal of Cassandra Morgan

12/23/2012

When I first heard the orderlies start saying something, off, you know, those words, I covered my ears. Jude had mentioned some strange phrase on the TV, and I knew, I knew, this must be it, this must be how they did it. Maybe it was the code words that they had conditioned into us with the TV and radio and internet. Conditioned us from birth, and these code words would activate us, or sedate us, or something, like on the Manchurian candidate. Brainwashing. Or maybe we were starting to hear the words they had conditioned us not to hear. I don’t know but I knew I couldn’t listen to them. I knew that their true purpose was…insidious. So I covered my ears and went to my room and put in my ear plugs. I kept a stash I got from the nurses’ station, for when the TV was too loud. And then I tore my pillow case into strips and wrapped it around my head and put some extra padding from the pillow over my ears, just to make sure.

I would have to be careful about seeing it too, stay in my room as much as possible. I made a blindfold to keep around my neck, in case I needed it to cover my eyes later. I also made a bandana, you know, like those anarchists and rioters, to cover my mouth in case there was gas and smoke later. There was always gas and smoker later, wasn’t there, when things like this started? Molotov cocktails, tear gas grenades. Police state. It was coming. I was right, and I wished for the first time that I had been wrong. That I had just been crazy, like they said I was. I wish I had been wrong.

There was fighting out in the common area. Jude and Tim Tom beating somebody up, everyone else just watching. I knew if Jude and Tim were beating somebody they had a good reason. But it was so weird that no one was trying to stop it.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/23/2012

First it was the big one, Jim or John or something. I knocked him the fuck out before he could do anything. I expected the rest of them to jump on me, restrain me, even though I was just defending the girl, but no, they just stared, looking stupid. Looking creepy, actually.

After that I tried talking to Tim Tom, see what he knew, but that’s never easy. He did say he thought something was wrong with the guy, like he had looked off. I was asking him what he meant by that when it happened again. Another orderly started screaming those words; worm milk chest mouth… what the hell? And he started fighting with one of the male nurses, not just fighting but scratching, biting, going for the eyes. There was blood. It took five of us to get him off but he would not settle down, not for anything, even with a good punch to the solar plexus, nothing, no reaction, so I had to knock him out too. Had too. No real choice, and still, no one did anything.

Dr. Gates seemed to be the only one with enough sense to get patients to their rooms, to separate people and start asking questions. He was talking to the other doctors but seemed frustrated with them. Then he backed off, looking at them like there was something wrong with them. And he looked at me, and he was scared, visibly frightened.

And that was when it just all went to shit.

I was trying to talk to Tim Tom again, and a few other patients, seeing if anyone had any idea if they had been on drugs or if there had been any bad blood. No one knew anything. One of the patients even said the guys had been friends, had joked around with each other.

While we were talking I heard one of the doctors, an Indian guy, start chanting, but in Hindi I think. He started chanting louder and louder and his face went from blank to stony then to straight up rage. I saw it come up fast, filled his eyes with malice. I knew he was seeing red but had no idea why. And I didn’t react fast enough. He pulled out his pen and stabbed a patient. Just fucking stabbed him. And then kept doing it while Tim Tom and I pulled him off. Dr. Gates tried to help. But everyone else was just acting stupid. I managed to get the pen from him but broke a couple of his fingers doing it, and he didn’t seem to feel it, he just jumped on me, biting at my face. He wasn’t big but he was mad, none the less I managed to get him in a sleeper and he was out.

Then another one started, a nurse, then another, another orderly. They started chanting and I was ready, knowing it was coming. The Doctor knew too, and was even more prepared than me. He had a syringe and got the girl first, she jumped on him, and I pulled her off but could feel her already going limp. Tranquilizers. He didn’t even hesitate to inject the next person. And he gave me a couple to help him.

We put them in the computer room and in the solitary room.

“I’ve never had to use this room before, not sure if anyone has in a while,” Dr. Gates huffed, trying to catch his breath.

Then he told me, “something is wrong. Very, very wrong and whatever is happening is on the news. It’s spreading.”

And then we heard the explosion, far away I think, but big, and we looked out the window and could already see the smoke. It was coming from Manhattan.

CHAPTER FIVE

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/23/2012

We started rounding patients up, the ones who were scared and not violent, and getting them up to the next floor. It was almost done being renovated so no one was up there. Just some equipment and tools, the paint smell, and some of the furniture that had been covered in plastic.

So we started moving patients up when Timothy stopped us. “Not him,” he said, pointing at Jonathon, a manic depressive patient.

“What? Why not?” I tried to gesture.

“He’s off. There’s something wrong with him, like with the others.”

I tried to ask him what he meant but he didn’t seem to understand.

Jude stepped in, “leave him.”

“What?”

“Leave him. I trust Tim Tom’s judgment. He says there’s something wrong with him then there is.”

Jude didn’t even remember Timothy beyond this morning, maybe not even from more than a few hours ago, yet he trusted him to make this decision and I hadn’t even thought about it. He was right.

Timothy hasn’t been able to communicate through traditional means since his accident 6 years ago. Of course, I had seen it before; he had developed an intuitive sense of body language and facial expressions. He could tell that something was wrong with Jonathon, and the others. He had been the first to each scene, ready to stop it, because he had known it was coming.

I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain this to Jonathon but it turned out that I didn’t need to. He had overheard and as soon as I turned to him he went completely mad, as if he had been saving it, waiting until he was on the next floor with us. He went right for my face.

But Timothy was on him and it didn’t take long for him and Jude to subdue him. From that point on we tried to check with Timothy as best we could about who else we were bringing up.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/23/2012

We got them all up to the next floor, but our security didn’t last long. A few of the patients and staff from other floors would wander up the stairs and try to get through the doors but we had secured those pretty tight with restraints that they kept for emergencies. The elevator was another matter. We piled up furniture in front of it, but I didn’t think it would hold if a group came up that way. Oddly enough, though, we never had to test that defense, no one seemed to be using the elevator. Odd, but lucky I guess.

As we were moving furniture I saw Tim Tom unscrewing a thick oak table leg from one of the tables. Scary, but smart, it would be a hell of a weapon, especially for someone his size. And he was right, the people on the news were killing other people. Those patients and the staff downstairs were aiming to kill, they just didn’t have any weapons but their own hands to do it. And I’m pretty sure that one doctor had killed a patient, banging his head against the floor, before we got the rest out. And the Indian doctor stabbed that other guy.

“Hey Doc, is there a kitchen on this floor?” I asked Dr. Gates.

“Kitchen? No, not really. The kitchen is on the first floor but there is a break room, of sorts. But probably no food yet. Are you actually thinking about food right now?”

“No, but we should soon. I was actually thinking about knives.”

Of course, there were no knives, not with a bunch of depressed patients. But since they were moving people in there was something almost as good — box cutters. Not perfect, but it would work, if it came to that. There were also some hammers, screwdrivers, and some other tools that might come in handy.

We settled in, somewhat secure, but still watching people trying to get in the doors. And then we looked outside.

Things out there were bad. Really really bad.

The hospital, if I haven’t already explained this, is on Wards Island in New York. From what the Doctor says there is this hospital, which is the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, the Kirby Forensic Psychiatric Center in the building next door, a sewage treatment plant, some other smaller buildings and a whole lot of parks.

There wouldn’t be as many people as Manhattan, of course, but there were still a whole lot of people wandering around out there. Some just wandering, and others fighting, attacking, traveling in packs and jumping on people and, holy shit, it looked like they were just tearing people apart. Like roving bands of animals, wolves, I don’t know. What the hell was I seeing? Was this real?

And then I went to the front and saw some of them trying to get in the building. The whole campus was surrounded by a fence and there was a guard gate but some people must have already been inside, and now they were coming in the building. I saw piece of a tall chain linked fence, no two of them, in a row, with razor wire on top.

“Doctor, what’s in the building next to us, with the razor wire fences?”

“The Kirby Forensic Center.”

“Forensic. So is it like a ward for the criminally insane?”

“We don’t tend to call them that, but yes.”

“The whole building?”

“Yes, but there are only about 200 patients in there. Like this building, it is far below capacity.”

“So it’s maximum security, right, with bars on the windows and doors that can be locked?”

“Yes, heavy doors, very secure,” then the Doctor got it, “my God, you’re right.”

“You know how to get the keys?”

“I know where there will be manual keys, yes, and my security badge will get us in anywhere. It was part of the deal.”

“We should get the keys too, just in case. Your badge won’t work if we lose power.”

“OK, that, that’s just brilliant.”

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/23/2012

Of course I should have thought of it. But Jude is a soldier, actually, more than that, a SEAL who is fluent in four languages. Sometimes, because of the way he speaks, I actually forget that. You can’t be stupid and be a SEAL, they are the best and brightest.

But getting over there safely, now that would be a problem. Timothy was using duct tape to make a grip on his new toy, the wooden table leg, and Jude had borrowed a tool belt loaded with screwdrivers, hammers and box cutters. I had to tell him what I thought, “this is madness. How are we going to get them all over there? Some of these patients are barely responsive, getting them up here was a miracle.”

He responded, “we’ll wait ’til dark, of course. And we’ll be very very quiet.”

CHAPTER SIX

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/23/2012

So we waited, prepping as much as we could. Some of the patients, according to Cassie, they could start screaming if startled. And the Doctor said some of them had missed their medication for most of the day. Which gave me another idea. Tim Tom and I and I think Cassie and Eric the insomniac, we could fight. Tim Tom had already made it clear he was willing to kill if necessary. But the Doctor, no way, he needed another way to take them down, one he could live with. So the first order of business was to get down to a nurses station on one of the other floors to get tranquilizers, hypodermics, and some restraints.

“The restraints,” Dr. Gates says, “they don’t get used much these days. We train our staff to prevent escalation first and restrain only as a last resort. But, they are still there, for dire emergencies.”

“Well, Doc, if it’s any consolation, we’ll be using them on the staff too.”

Per Cassie’s request, we picked up some ear plugs too. For some reason she was quite determined not to hear what the nutters were chanting out there.

“I’m telling you, that is what will drive you mad. Bob told me it’s on the news too.” And the Doctor actually listened to her, “look, it sounds mad, of course, but something is causing this, this mass hysteria. I suspect a virus or maybe, I don’t know, toxins.”

“Toxins? You think this might be a terrorist thing, a chemical weapon?”

“Of course not. In so many cities? Do… do you?”

“Honestly no, but right now, I don’t actually have a better explanation.”

Of course he wanted my opinion from what I had seen overseas and I meant what I said — That level of coordination, so many different cities at once. I doubted the enemies of the US could pull it off. But then, no one saw the planes coming either, did they?

But if it makes Cassie feel secure, then it’s better than the cloth and tape around her head that she’s using now. And, even though it is ridiculous, perhaps we should cover the ears of the other patients, or at least give them the choice, just in case. Many of them believe what she is saying and will want them anyway.

So we picked a floor that Dr. Gates knew would have less patients and staff, and those they do have would be less of a threat; the diabetic ward.

He was right, there was no threat left there.

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/23/2012

“Oh my God.”

At first I thought I had said it, because it was exactly what I was thinking. But it turned out Timothy had beaten me to it.

The diabetic ward was where we kept patients with other special medical needs besides their mental or neurological conditions. Many of them were confined to beds or wheelchairs, but none of them were left in their beds or wheelchairs anymore. They were scattered across the floor. And by scattered I mean TORN APART and scattered, everywhere. Never, not in my time in Africa, never, had I seen something so, so just incredibly awful. There are no words to describe the carnage.

“Stay right here Doctor. You too Tim Tom,” Jude said, gesturing to Timothy to stay with me right outside the elevator. Then he held his finger up for silence.

I wanted to close my eyes. I would have, but I could not help but take in the scene. Guts, limbs, and mainly, blood. Blood everywhere. And there on the wall, in bright red blood, were those damned words again. Worm milk, chest mouth, wound sea…

I turned to see Timothy looking at the wall, and where I thought I would see a face as full of shock as my own must be, I saw only sadness. Deep in that gentle giant’s soul was just sadness. He was looking at the words too, not understanding their meaning, of course, but then, neither did I.

“Doctor, down!” Jude screamed from the hall where he had been scouting as we waited. But I wasn’t nearly fast enough. Thankfully Timothy was.

As the male nurse was charging us and nearly on us Timothy took one grand swing with his table leg and sent blood and teeth flying. I clearly saw and heard his jaw break on impact and his head slam down against the tile floor and knew he was out, but Timothy did not stop there, he was on him, slamming the table leg into his head again and again until he was completely unrecognizable, just a quivering heap.

“Timothy. Timothy!”

He stopped, his table leg in the air, dripping gore. And he caught his breath and heaved a great sob before straightening himself out and trying to regain control. A tear flowed down one check but that was all he allowed himself.

Jude, back to us now, patted him on the back.

“It’s OK, big guy, it’s OK.”

He didn’t know the words but he knew the meaning.

“I don’t think this guy did this alone but the others must have already left and for all we know could be heading down to our crew so we need to get a move on.”

While I collected any drugs that might be useful Jude went through the surgical instruments and picked what, I suppose, would be useful to him.

“Do you really need all those scalpels?”

“Not all for me, Doc, we can’t have our people moving around without a means to protect themselves.”

“Jude, many of our depressed patients haven’t had their medication today, I don’t know if…”

“You would rather someone else kill them? And honestly, I doubt anyone is going to want to off themselves when they’re working hard to survive against others.”

He did, I suppose, have a point.

By the time we got back to the rest of our group Jude had to ask what the plan was again. He was aware of what was going on still and knew there was a plan, he had just forgotten the details already.

“We are going to move the patients who are unaffected over to the forensic ward where they will be safer, locked behind steel doors and barred windows, in a building with two razor wire fences surrounding it.”

“Sounds like a good plan. How are we getting in?” he asked.

“The back door to this building will take us through a gate and into the back door of the next building. But first, we need to get to the guard station in this building and get the keys.”

“Guard? Any weapons?”

“I’m afraid not, Jude. Firearms are not allowed on the premises.”

“That’s a shame.”

But just getting the keys, that proved to be a more difficult proposition than was expected. We left Cassie and Eric in charge of the rest of the patients, feeling that they were still quite secure on this floor, if only for the time being, and took the elevator down to the first floor. But, unlike the diabetic ward, the first floor was not at all abandoned.

As soon as the doors opened they were upon us.

“Stay in the elevator,” Jude yelled.

And he was off. In the blink of an eye three people were down, blood flowing from their necks, as he wove into the crowd, like liquid flowing through the cracks of a desert floor. Never have I seen such a macabre ballet as Jude’s dance through the mad crowd, slicing as he went, each movement carefully controlled, each slice exactly where it needed to be to do the most damage. It was clear he was aiming to kill quickly, as merely hurting them would not stop their onslaught. And it all happened in the time it took for the elevator doors to open, then close, and he was back in with us just before the doors closed.

Breathing hard, covered in blood.

“So, the direct approach isn’t going to work so well,” he laughed, actually laughed, as he hit the button to go back up to our floor. “Any other ideas?”

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/23/2012

Since the Doctor was the only one familiar with the building, it was kind of up to him to work out a plan. But he’s a smart guy, so it didn’t take long. He drew it out on the fire escape map.

“And here is a back way to the guard’s office, where you’ll be less likely to be seen. If we can secure the doors here and here we can use the freight elevator and get everyone to the loading docks here.”

It was a good plan, I must admit, but it needed one extra thing.

“We’ll need a distraction,” I added.

“I have an idea,” Eric the insomniac spoke up. I know that he had other issues besides insomnia, but that’s what everyone called him, at least when they were talking to me. They knew I couldn’t remember names so they always used name and reason they were here with me; Cassie the schizo, Bob who couldn’t speak, Marcus the savant, Tim Tom the aphasic (I’m sure I had to ask them every time what that meant) and Eric the insomniac.

“I’m a chemist.”

“And by chemist, he means he had a meth lab,” Cassie added. She was holding the bandage open and had one ear unplugged just long enough to hear the plan.

“Yes, well, I started making meth when I was studying chemistry in college.”

I wondered if that’s why he was here, and what caused his insomnia, the meth use. But he didn’t look like a meth head. He had all of his teeth, and it really didn’t matter now anyway.

“And?” I asked.

“And, if you point me to a cleaning closet, I can put together something that goes boom.”

“OK.”

“We throw it out the far window and the sound might attract them to that side of the building, at least long enough for us to get across.”

OK, that was actually a really good idea.

“Just try not to make any meth while you’re in there,” Cassie cracked.

Eric ignored her. I guess he was used to her.

So operation Night Flight was on.

CHAPTER SEVEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/23/2012

The bomb went off and I was taking the first group down the freight elevator. Able bodied first, armed and ready. But when I stopped on the first floor there was no greeting party. Thank God.

Cassie lead them to the loading docks where the back door to the forensic building was with Tim Tom following up to make sure they were OK while I made my way to the guard’s office as quietly as I could.

The cameras were still on and I could see the crowd still in the lobby, some of them still filing out the shattered front doors to see what the explosion on the other side of the building had been. I flipped the cameras around to check the rest of the building out. I hoped the forensic building had a set up like this where I could keep an eye on things when we got over there.

There were a few stragglers on other floors, and they all appeared affected, stumbling around like dumb animals, chanting those damn words. One of them even seemed to be gnawing on the remains of a person, but it was hard to tell what it was. Jesus. But everything seemed clear around the back where my people were. My people. What had happened to my platoon? I couldn’t remember. Were they alive? Shake it off, can’t think about that right now, I’ll just read my journal later, when things are secure and there’s time. I felt it with my hand, rolled up and tucked into my pants, my paper brain, my only way to remember.

Then I saw her. A lone one, but definitely affected. Walking towards the back where the next load of patients would be coming down soon. Shit.

I ran, quietly, but fast, to head her off before she saw anything. Would she call the others? How did this…sickness, affliction, whatever…work?

Unfortunately, I heard the answer to my question.

As the elevator opened with the last group of survivors, I guess that’s what they are now, her chanting suddenly got loud and she screamed before I could get to her and cut her throat. She was the first woman, no, female, that I had had to kill, and I didn’t feel good about it, even if I knew it had to be done. She went down but it was too late, I could hear others running, yelling, chanting, heading our way. So they did communicate to some degree.

“Run! Now!” I yelled. They ran, even the ones who had barely been shuffling. But some of them were slow and I tried to speed them up, grabbing an older man by the arm.

“Come on. Run, dammit!” He didn’t speak but he was worried.

We got through the door and Eric slid a broom he had secured from the cleaning closet, guess he wanted a weapon, through the handle. That would last only a minute or two.

“Out the door. Out the door,” I hollered.

We were out and I gave the keys to the Doctor so he could get them across as I grabbed Tim Tom.

“Stay back with me, I’ll need help.”

I remembered that he couldn’t understand my words, but I could tell he knew what I meant. We would deal with the affected if they followed.

The space between buildings was small, but it seemed like miles with a crowd of crazies at our backs.

Through the gate and into the other building the last of the patients made it, and luckily none of the affected were outside where they could see us.

Oops, spoke too soon. A group of them hadn’t gone around the building to check out the explosion, but at least they were now on the other side of two tall chain link fences topped with razor wire. I would like to say there was no way they were going to get through that, but it looked like they were going to try anyway.

One of them climbed right up and into the razor wire. Getting tangled and cut but still trying. Writhing and thrashing like an animal caught in a trap. Screaming, not in pain, but in pure unfiltered rage at not being able to get to us. And did the others learn from his mistake? No, three more crawled right in, not even trying to go over him, crawling up in different spots and meeting the same fates. Squirming and bleeding and screaming. OK, they weren’t too bright, that was clear now, but they were fierce as fuck.

Tim Tom and I were staring, dumbfounded, when we heard the other group get through the door in the other building and, knowing there was only fence between them and us, we hurried into our new little home, the Kirby Forensic Center.

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/23/2012

We found no affected in the Forensic Center, thank God, since Tim and Jude were behind us. But, I did have my syringes full of tranquilizers and ready just in case. I suspected we might have better luck here if the affected were as lacking in intelligence as they seemed to be so far.

Every ward and every floor here had multiple security gates, and all the patients’ rooms were locked from the outside. This was, after all, where the criminally insane (yes, I know) from various districts in New York were kept either awaiting trial when they are declared fit for trial, or, after trial, when they were declared not guilty by reason of insanity. Here were the murderers and rapists and cannibals too ill to be held accountable for their monstrosities. I know that as a neurologist, and as a psychiatrist, I was supposed to have more sympathy for these poor sick souls, but, let’s face it, there’s a reason I chose to specialize in neurological disorders and not forensic psychiatry.

“Everything clear in here?” Jude asked. He was in now, the thick door closed and locked behind him, the small window in it shatter proof. That alone would hold a crowd for a time. “Where is the security office here?” Of course. Jude was always thinking, clear and confident under pressure.

“Close.”

We made it without incident as Timothy stayed behind to watch the rest of our group. The cameras were still on. And it looked like everyone was still where they should be.

Jude scanned for less than a minute, “OK, this floor looks like it has the fewest wanderers. And it’s only two flights up.”

There were a few orderlies, and a nurse, five people in all, stuck on the floor, unable to get out now that they had forgotten how their badges would unlock the doors.

“We can clear them out and move our people in there while we check out the rest of the building.”

“Clear them out?”

Of course, I knew what he meant.

“Kill them, Doc.”

“Of course. What about those who might be in the rooms?”

“The patients? Are the rooms locked?”

“Yes, definitely.”

“If the electricity goes out will the rooms stay locked?”

“Yes. The locks remain locked even during a disaster and can be opened manually with… well,” I pointed at the key-ring on the wall, “probably with some of those keys there.”

“And the gates and other security doors?”

“Yes, all on that ring I’m sure. And my badge will get us through as long as the power is on.”

“OK, well if the patients are locked in and can’t get out then we’ll worry about them when we need to, if ever.”

I left it at that, not pointing out that they will eventually starve if we don’t do something. But at least I knew they had sinks and toilets in their rooms so I didn’t’ have to worry about that for now.

From the journal of Timothy Lorne

12/23/2012

I went in with Joe first and we cracked some heads. I hesitated when a woman came at me though, and had to fight her off when she started trying to chew my face off. But Joe got her off. At first I assumed he’d killed her, but then I saw the syringe in his hand. He shrugged. I guess the Doctor had talked him into having a little mercy, though I wasn’t really sure that was a good idea.

When it was clear and we brought the rest of our group in we put her in one of the empty rooms. Luckily most of them were empty, but not all. I found that out the hard way.

Near the back when I was looking through the window in each room one of them, I guess he was crazy like everyone else, started slamming into the door, screaming something. I just froze, watching this guy, slamming his face into the little reinforced window until it cracked and he was leaving blood on it, but he just kept going, slamming his head harder and harder until it suddenly stopped. I stood there, then I saw blood seeping from under the door. Jesus H.

The others, I don’t think they were affected by whatever was going on. They just watched me through the windows. Some of them trying to talk to me, some of them just staring, which was much worse, from the far corner of the room. I knew this was where they kept the really dangerous ones. But I didn’t know how we were gonna tell which ones had gone crazy from the, um, sickness, and which ones were already crazy. I also didn’t know if it mattered.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/23/2012

When I was sure everything was secure I took the Doctor’s keys and got Tim Tom to come with me. We were going to have to find the kitchen, for knives, yes, but also for food. These people were going to have to eat soon.

I also asked the Doctor to get the other patients to find whatever containers they could and go into the rooms to fill them up with water out of the sinks. The unoccupied rooms, of course.

“OK, but we should be good for a while. Wards Island has its own water tower.” He pointed out the window to the east.

“Good, but I can see smoke from fires in… wait, where are we?”

“New York.”

“Oh. Wow. I can see smoke from fires in the city, which means some of the buildings, at least the ones up to code, might have sprinklers going to try to put them out. If anything catches fire here on the island, or sprinklers start going, or a pipe breaks somewhere, it could drain that water tower quicker than you think. And honestly, Doctor, I have no idea how long we will be here.”

It was true, I knew that the shit, as they say, had hit the fan. Still remembered enough to know that. I needed to sit and read and write in my journal so that I don’t forget the situation. But first, weapons and food. I had to get everybody ready for the night, it would probably be a long one.

“OK, Jude, no problem, we’ll get water, but I don’t think…”

“They’ll be hungry soon. We need to get to the food while we can.”

“What do you mean?”

I thought about it. Whatever happened had started yesterday or today. Probably not everyone was affected yet, which meant that there would be more affected tomorrow, and they might make their way to the island. “Things could be even worse tomorrow.”

From the journal of Timothy Lorne

12/23/2012

I wasn’t’ sure where we were going but I knew Joe wanted me with him, and my trusty little club. I decided to call her Carrie, I knew a girl named Carrie once, she was one hell of a ball buster, so I figured the named fit.

Once we got to the kitchen I knew what we were up to. Unfortunately we weren’t the first ones here.

A couple of crazies were eating flour, just straight flour, when we walked in, and they were on us instantly, with crazy powdered ghost faces and wild eyes.

Joe cut one of the kabuki cannibals down and I took out the other with Carrie; blood splattering against the wall and flour poofing off of him and making a cloud where his head had been before it hit the floor. Joe gave me the silent finger, listening for more. And we heard them, screaming from another room to the sound of their fallen… comrades? pack mates?… I don’t know. Not even trying to be quiet we got against the wall on either side of the door and waited and took three more out while they were still looking around like animals, like fucking velociraptors. I looked at them, blood and gore on their mouths, I didn’t want to look in the room they had come from to see what they had been eating.

We listened and didn’t hear any more and Joe motioned me to come on. The freezer and fridge were still going so we grabbed what we could from there first and stuffed it in big industrial garbage bags. Most of it looked like precooked frozen crap, the kind of stuff they feed your kids at school, that we would have to warm up somehow. I couldn’t read the boxes but I’m guessing chicken nuggets and Salisbury steaks and oddly found myself craving them. He pointed at cans of beans and soup and I grabbed all the cans that had pictures of beans and soup on them and put them in my bag.

Then while he was rummaging through a drawer I saw him smile real big, and hold up a shiny silver knife.

That Joe. He grabbed a few more and laid them on a table cloth and wrapped them up carefully the way I used to roll up my wrenches. And then we were off.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/23/2012

I knew the kitchen wasn’t secure enough to cook for now, I could worry about that later, but I figured these Salisbury steaks were precooked and I could just put them in a microwave since we still had electricity, for now, and we can eat the canned stuff later. If the juice last long enough I can secure the kitchen and we can cook up whatever is left in the freezers, but who knows how long the juice will last.

You wouldn’t believe how much these people loved those microwaved Salisbury steaks. I have to admit, they were damned good.

At first, we were all quiet, eating them with our hands, when Tim Tom started talking about how this was the best damn Salisbury steak he’d ever had, oohing and aahing over it and asking for more. Leave it up to Tim Tom to lift the spirits of a bunch of mental patients as the world was ending around them.

Then we heard him, from one of the cells, “um, say, you got any of that for me?”

It was one of the patients. One of the criminally insane patients.

“Say, that smells really good.”

Tim Tom started heading over there with his, I guess he could tell from the tone what he was wanting.

“Whoa, wait a sec,” said Eric. “You’re going to give our food to them?”

Tim didn’t know what he was saying. He just stopped and looked confused when Eric grabbed his arm.

“Eric,” the Doctor said. “We can’t just let him starve in there.”

“What? How much do we have? How long are we gonna be here? He’s not even one of us.”

“But he’s not one of them either. He’s speaking clearly, he’s obviously not affected.”

“But he’s a criminal. What if he’s that guy that chopped up his girlfriend and cooked her in a soup and fed her to homeless people?”

“No, he’s on the fifth floor,” said the voice from the cell.

“Well, what did you do?”

“Eric,” the Doctor stopped him, “let Timothy feed him.”

I have to admit, I didn’t know which way to go, but looking at Tim Tom’s face I spoke up, “Go ahead Tim Tom, give it to him.” Tim Tom understood.

“What the hell Joe? I thought you were a soldier!”

“Do you know how loud he’s going to get if he starts starving to death in there?”

Eric shut up at that, but he wasn’t happy.

“Thanks big guy,” the voice said to Tim Tom as he slid a steak and some bread through the slot in the door, which I guess they feed the dangerous ones through. “Do you happen to have any A1?”

Then he laughed, and it gave me the fucking chills.

Luckily, most of the rooms on the floor were empty so we had a few beds and could make do with the couches too. Maybe I was feeling a little too safe in here, but I let Tim Tom and the Doctor take the first watch while I wrote in my journal and got a little shut eye. They didn’t wake me up for my shift.

CHAPTER EIGHT

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/24/2012

I had stayed up all night. Quite frankly I just couldn’t sleep and working all night was not that uncommon to me, I’d always needed less sleep than your average person. But having a problem to solve like this, well, there was simply no way I could sleep. I had to know what was going on, what was causing this. It’s just in my nature.

The computer at the nurses’ station was still working, as was the electricity, for now. The internet was still there too, for who knows how long, so I saved or printed anything and everything I thought might matter, starting with the news reports from the first outbreak, the professor at Oxford.

“Dr. Peter Neworth, a professor of linguistics at Oxford, and an expert on runology. I found numerous articles about him and even scholarly papers by him on various language related subjects. He had an impressive resume to say the least; ancient Greek, Hebrew, Latin, Aramaic, just a few of the ancient languages he had studied and translated into English for scholarly discussion. He’d delved into rituals like the Dionysian Mysteries, Templar writings, and other esoteric areas. But I kept coming back to the runes, feeling like maybe this meant something.”

“And?” Jude asked, taking notes in his journal. I’d found him wandering the halls this morning, terrified, not having any idea what was going on. I calmed him down and got him to read his journal to catch up and I must say; he is taking the end of the world pretty well.

“Well, I don’t know what it means, really. What I’m thinking is completely illogical, nothing I would normally put stock in but…well, let me give you exhibit B first. The Pattern.”

“Pattern?”

“Yes, from the news reports it looks like he was the first to… act out, to succumb. Then more at Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Cornell.”

“Universities.”

“Yes. At first. Then it was students, young people. Most of the reports the second and third day were of younger people — an engineer, a programmer, college students — then the riots broke out and the news became so scattered, the violence so widespread, it became hard to follow the pattern.”

“What about today?”

“Today? Today I haven’t found any news. No official reports, no blog updates, no tweets. At least not in English.”

“Not in English?”

“No, but there are some in French, German, Spanish. I know a little Spanish and can tell from the pictures that they were reporting about killings and riots in their own countries. And more reports in Arabic, Chinese, etc. that appeared to be about what was happening in the US, but I didn’t see any pictures indicating that it was going on there, yet.”

“Yet?”

“It is, I would assume, only a matter of time. It’s probably starting already.”

“So, where are you going with this?”

“Well, at first I thought virus or some other communicable disease. Then maybe toxins, some sort of weapon or terrorist attack.”

“You saw reports in Arabic and Chinese, maybe it was one of them, terrorism or an act of war.”

“No, it’s so widespread, it doesn’t fit the pattern of diseases. And attacks, why start with universities? No, there was a report from China the first day, I suspect that the government there has simply cracked down on any other reports.”

“Then the middle east? Iran?”

“No, I have another theory, one which maybe doesn’t even make as much sense as a biological or chemical weapon, but, well, here it is. There is this phrase.”

“Yeah, it was in my journal, worm milk…”

“Stop! Don’t repeat it. And, I must urge you, if you have written it down, scratch out most of it. Save the first few words, just so you can recognize it.”

“What?”

“I don’t know how long the whole phrase is, or if any of us have heard or seen the whole thing, but I urge you to make sure you don’t have it written down anywhere. So scratch most of it out, and leave just the first couple of words.”

“I’m not following.”

“OK, come look at this.”

I took him to the nurses’ station and sat down by the computer. Then I brought up the video I had saved, the video of the President, addressing a nation in turmoil.

“My… fellow Americans. We are facing…”

He paused, he seemed to be struggling.

“Our darkest hour.”

He was visibly sweating.

“A threat, a crisis, like no other we as a nation… worm.”

He whispered it.

“Or as a world, have ever… milk”

This time was louder.

“My heart, in my chest, these words from my mouth. This wound from this sea of violence…”

He wasn’t making sense. Someone in the crowd started chanting. There was a commotion and a secret service person opened fire on what I assumed were reporters and on the Presidents face, instead of shock, we saw rage. Then it was over, the camera turned off.

“Fucking shit.”

“You heard it, yes?”

“The words? Of course. But I don’t understand.”

“I think… I think it is something like a virus.”

“But you said…”

“A computer virus.”

“What?”

“A virus that spreads through information, through language, and infects the mind. Like a virus would infect a computer’s software.”

“How is that even possible?”

“It’s not. It shouldn’t be. But that is what I believe.”

“Then, everything is gone? The President…”

“The government, society, at least here, collapsed, yes, gone. From everything I can tell.”

“How come we aren’t?”

“Well, that’s another part of why I believe my theory is correct. The professor at Oxford, he was the first day. Then there were more the second day. Maybe it takes a while to set in. And you, perhaps you simply can’t remember it long enough for it to affect you.”

Jude was silent, thinking, so I continued.

“And Timothy, perhaps it is that he cannot understand it, so it doesn’t affect him. Same with some of the other patients who are, well, less responsive. And Cassie, well, her paranoia about computers and TV and radio, might actually have protected her.”

“What about you, Doc? And Eric, and the rest?”

“I don’t know, Jude, I don’t know. Perhaps, being somewhat isolated here, we haven’t been fully exposed. Like I said, I don’t even know if I have seen or heard the whole phrase. Or, maybe, it is too late for us, maybe it is only a matter of time.”

“So what do we do with you?”

From the journal of Timothy Lorne

12/24/2012

They were trying so hard to tell me something, but for the life of me I just couldn’t figure out what.

The Doctor was pointing at himself and holding his thumbs up, all cheerful looking, then he crouched down and tried to look mean, and made a stabbing motion. I knew, I knew they were trying to tell me something serious, something important, but I just couldn’t help it, I laughed.

He looked flustered. I apologized and asked them what they were trying to say, at least I’m pretty sure I did. You know, when I open my mouth to talk it sounds like gibberish to me, just now it sounded like I said “Garble es mumfies, and waller like a make a lot.” but I know what I’m trying to say, I’m thinking the words, and people seem to understand me, so I’m pretty sure it comes out like I think it should.

Joe took over. He didn’t try to act it out or anything, he just pointed with his thumb at the others, then at himself and me, then made a throat cut motion. Very serious.

“Who do we need to kill?” I asked. I didn’t understand.

He shook his head no, pointed around again, and made a motion like they were coming here, then again, pointed at himself and made the throat slit motion.

“Oh,” I think I understood, “who is going to try to kill us?”

Yes, he shook his head.

OK, I knew what they meant, but I didn’t want that responsibility. They knew I knew when someone went bad, when they started glazing, and their fingers started twitching. And there were little, I don’t know, flashes, that you could barely see on their faces, this micro second of rage, then back to normal, blink of any eye, but I saw it. I can’t understand people’s words, so I have to understand their meaning. You know?

“You aren’t going to kill them are you?”

They both shook their head, no. And Joe held up his keys. I understood.

“OK. Hoss, Julia Roberts, Too Tall, and Danny Boy.”

The Doctor told Joe who I meant. He knew what nicknames I used for people. Then they talked to each other, debating something and came to some agreement and then made an announcement. There was some yelling but no one got locked up so I’m really not sure what was going on.

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/24/2012

Today was much less eventful, giving me time to study and think about our current predicament. And, time to observe the affected on our floor. The previous residents who are still with us, save for c5, all seem to be affected. At times we can hear them chanting in a low mumble in their rooms, but when we approach and they hear us they start attacking the doors, screaming and sometimes chanting the phrase until we get away, and then it takes them a while before they settle down.

This makes it difficult, of course, to observe them, but they do appear to settle down and eventually sleep, giving me a chance to look inside their rooms, which is a terrifying enough sight by itself without them slamming their heads into the door. They seem to have forgotten how to use the toilet and have even smeared feces on the walls of their rooms. But, even more disturbing, they appear to be mutilating themselves and pulling their own hair out, perhaps acting out their rage on the only victim that is available to them. Or maybe all the affected will start doing this, still an unknown at this time. Most of them have gone partially bald, chewed their fingers almost to the bone, and one appears to have torn his own cheeks, giving him a rather terrifying grimace, much like the famed Glasgow grin. And at least one has written the phrase in blood, over and over, on his wall.

Interesting, that they can still remember these words, when they don’t seem to be capable of any other speech.

After a great deal of debate I assured my fellow survivors that we needed to keep them alive, to watch them and learn more about the nature of this affliction. To see if, perhaps, it would subside, given time, if they aren’t subjected to the phrase again. After all, if this phrase, or some variant of it, is truly what the ancient Norse berserkers or the maenads of Greece used (two of my current theories), then it was possible it would pass. The berserker rage of the Norse warriors and ecstatic madness of the maenads, who tore animals apart during their worship of Dionysus, eventually wore off and they came to their senses. Would these affected? Or was this phrase a different animal all together? Of course, it was also quite possible that my theory was completely off and it had nothing to do with either of those cultural oddities. After all, there are similar rampages known in other cultures around the world; the gris siknis and the amok of the Philippines, the increasing number of knife attacks in China on school children, our own “going postal”. With no way to truly study this, with no more resources or colleagues, would I ever understand what this is? Doesn’t’ matter — I am a scientist, first and foremost, and until I die or succumb, I will not give up trying to figure out and cure this heinous ailment.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/24/2012

Tim-Tom tapped my shoulder as I was writing in my journal and whispered, “Billy Bob’s going. And I think Mickey too.” He pointed and I knew who he was talking about. I guess Nolan did look a bit like Mickey Rourke. I should have known this was coming.

Of course, the Doctor and I tried to reason with them, which worked with John, but not Nolan.

“Nolan, this is just a precaution. We’ll keep you fed and bring you water. We just want to be sure you’re safe.”

“You mean that you’re safe. You’re not doing this for me.”

“No, it’s for your safety because if you turn I will cut your throat.”

Everyone was silent.

“Now, you’re going to go in that room one way or another.”

“Oh, and what about the rest of us? Who the hell are you that you get to decide who gets locked up and who doesn’t?” Eric wasn’t helping one bit. “And how the hell would you know if he’s affected?”

“We just know.”

I didn’t want to tell them that Tim Tom can tell. It might make him a target.

“Oh, is it you Dr. Gates? You think your PhD means you can read minds?”

Great, I didn’t want the Doctor to be a target either.

“I can tell.”

“You?”

“Yeah, back when I was a SEAL I did a bit of interrogating.”

I was lying.

“I was trained to see these kinds of things. Read body language and facial expressions.”

Total bullshit.

“So stop being a little bitch and let us do what we need to to keep your ass safe or I’ll lock you up too.”

After he took Nolan to his room Dr. Gates talked to me.

“We can’t just threaten to lock people up because they disagree with us, Jude.”

He was right.

“You’re right. I just lost my temper.”

As soon as I got back to Tim Tom I pointed at Eric, trying not to draw attention and made the universal “crazy” finger motion at my temple.

“Nope,” Tim Tom said. “He’s just an asshole.”

Later the Doctor asked me, “Do you think Timothy is right about John and Nolan?”

“I guess time will tell won’t it?”

“True, very true.”

CHAPTER NINE

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/24/2012

It wasn’t long before I was able to verify Timothy’s ability to weed out who was affected and who wasn’t. It was John that went first, surprising me as I was expecting Nolan.

Before locking them in I had thoroughly checked the room, making sure the phrase had not been written anywhere in there, and he was at our end of the ward, away from the other affected, unable to hear them. But within an hour I could hear a murmur coming from his cell and when I went to check on him he went mad, screaming at me at the top of his lungs.

“Get me out of here, you piece of shit! I will fucking kill you! Fuck you fuck you fuck you! I will kill you and eat you! Worm shit, milk, fucker fuck, kill you!”

So now I knew, even as the madness was setting in, he was still able to think and communicate to some degree. This would explain how some of the early reports indicated a high level of reasoning and an ability to operate guns and cars in the earliest perpetrators. Now I just had to wait to see how long it would be before he lost his ability to reason and became the animal we had seen of the others.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/24/2012

After Tim Tom and I got back from another food run I spent a while writing then rereading my journal, putting cliff notes on the sides of the really important things so I could be sure to “remember” them. I also found a marker that I could write on my arms with, to be sure I would continue to understand what was going on. I couldn’t let myself drift off and suddenly have no idea what was going on and why angry people were yelling outside. A lot of people were depending on me to keep it together, to not forget. Plus, I wasn’t crazy about the idea of suddenly coming to and discovering that the world had ended all over again. I didn’t know how well I was going to take it, learning about it but not remembering. Would I even believe it? If I hadn’t seen it today, if I wasn’t still riding on the constant reminders today, would I believe that the world, everything I knew and loved, everyone I knew and loved, my Dad, my brother, were all gone? Tomorrow morning was going to be rough. At least Mom wasn’t here to see this shit. And who knows? Dad had a boat; maybe he took James and got the hell out when it all went to shit. Maybe, just maybe. I had loved that boat growing up, the old sailboat that he had restored by hand, all by himself. We had “helped” but I’m sure we had just been in the way. He had taken us out and talked about how his grandfather was a fisherman and how he had taught him to sail, how to fish, how to find and keep track of good spots, how never to tell others about his spots. Maybe he was on there now, catching snapper, him and James. Goddammit I wish I was on that boat with them right now.

It’s why I had joined the Navy in the first place, I had just loved the ocean. And I loved the idea of being on a big ass boat, going all over the world. I hadn’t even started out looking to be a SEAL. I just wanted to be on the boat. At first I was a gunner but they had moved me inside pretty quick, a little work in navigation, then on missiles, learning how to direct them. What can I say, I’m a smart guy, good at math and languages, which ended up being my downfall. When I had picked up a little Arabic during leave they suddenly started talking bud school, SEAL training. Made sense; I was fit, I was smart, once they had me studying I was picking up Arabic pretty fast, like I had English when I was young and Italian later.

And of course I was flattered, proud as hell in fact. So I went all out, dove right in, whatever, knew I was going to make my dad proud. And I made it and now, thanks to that, I was brain damaged. Of course, if I wasn’t brain damaged and in a hospital, I would probably be insane or dead by now. Funny how things work out.

I stopped writing for a while and looked out the window at the world. New York was burning. Here and there smoke was billowing, obscuring the skyline. With no one to fight them, the fires would probably spread. I went to the other side of the ward and it was burning over there too. If the fires got bigger, if they shifted, it could come here, or we could get smoked out, at the very least. We couldn’t stay here forever. Tim Tom was suddenly at my side.

“Yep, Queens is burning. Brooklyn too, Manhattan, it’s all burning.”

Now the Doctor was there. Looking down at the packs of affected roaming around. That’s the best way to describe them, packs, wandering around Wards Park like they were hunting. Some even seemed to have leaders, alphas, and they skirmished with other packs, but not to the death, not like with us unaffected. I saw what appeared to be three unaffected running but they were quickly overrun by a pack. I think they started tearing them to pieces, but I didn’t watch long. I wish I had turned away sooner.

“My God,” the Doctor said. “There’s more of them today. I suppose those who weren’t affected yesterday are now, and tomorrow there will be even more. I doubt many will escape hearing it or seeing it. How could they? And those not affected, it’s doubtful they’ll survive long. We just happen to be in the right place. There’s not many people here on the island, but there, in the Bronx, in Manhattan, there’s no real escape. And I think more of the affected may be coming here. I can see them over there on the bridge.” He pointed to the other side of the ward.

I replied, “they’re coming across maybe to escape the fires, I don’t know. Eventually, there’s going to be too many. Too many for us to hope to get out of here. And we’ll run out of food and water, or some determined ones might get in, if enough of them try, it’s possible. But it’s more than likely that we’ll run out of food and water while trapped in here.”

“Jude, I’m really glad Timothy can’t understand what you are saying. Please don’t talk like that in front of the others.”

“You know I’m right.”

“I know you are, but still, we can’t lose hope. If we do that, then we’re already dead.”

“I’m not losing hope, Doc. I’m saying we need a plan. We need to find a way out of here.”

“How?”

“I don’t know yet, but we have to think of something.”

And that’s when Kim went.

No chanting, no signs, nothing. She just attacked Eric and started clawing and biting at this face. Luckily, I was close.

At first I thought maybe it was just a fight but she wouldn’t stop struggling and when we tried to calm her down it became clear real quick that she was gone. She was downright snarling, snapping. I couldn’t hold her so I finally managed to get her in a sleeper until she passed out and we got her to a room, quick.

“What the hell happened?”

It wasn’t Eric’s fault, I guess, but I couldn’t’ seem to pass up a chance to yell at him.

“I don’t know. I was talking to Saul and she just attacked me, I didn’t do anything.”

“Nothing?”

“No, she just went crazy. I promise.”

“She’s affected,” the Doctor said.

Tim Tom started apologizing, “I’m sorry, Joe, I didn’t see that one coming. I had been watching some of the others.”

“It’s OK,” I tried to communicate to him, hoping the reassurance in my voice told him what my words couldn’t. “It’s OK.”

I felt we were lucky that he could spot even some of them.

“By the way, I think Saul is going soon.”

“Damn. OK.”

Saul didn’t take it well. He didn’t fight us, he was just sad. He didn’t want it to happen. But I think he also kind of knew already. The phrase was cycling in his mind, he said, it’s all he could think about. He had tried thinking of other things. He had tried songs and jingles. He had tried Journey. But the phrase just kept coming, he told us. He couldn’t seem to fight it.

He told me the whole phrase and I wrote it down, but not here in my journal, that would be insane.

I just wanted to have it so the Doctor could see it if he wanted to. Maybe if I just read him the beginning and the end, so he would know, but maybe it wouldn’t affect him, and then maybe he’ll know if he’s heard or seen the whole thing. But honestly, the way we were all watching the news, the things he was looking up on the internet, the chanting by the affected, I don’t know how he wouldn’t have heard the whole thing. But he seems fine, so far.

Before the end of the day we had to lock up everyone except Dr. Gates, Tim Tom, Eric, Cassie, and me. Tim Tom and I might be immune, thanks to our fucked up brains. And Cassie, well, from what my journal says she’s always been scared of radio, TV, and the internet, and since this started she’s kept her ears covered and been careful about what she’s seen. But Eric and the Doctor, why aren’t they affected yet? For safety’s sake we decided they should sleep in a locked room too, and Tim Tom or I can let them out in the morning. Unless, of course, they’ve lost it.

I’m really not looking forward to tomorrow morning, waking up not knowing what the fuck is going on, then finding out the world has essentially ended. I wonder how far it’s gone now. How many unaffected are left out there? Not that I’m going to remember worrying about this tomorrow, except for what I wrote in here. For a little extra help I found the marker and wrote on my arm.

A phrase starting with worm milk is causing people to go insane and most everyone is affected or dead. Don’t believe me? Read your journal.

I sure hope that helps.

CHAPTER TEN

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/24/2012

Instead of sleeping I decided to test my newest hypotheses regarding the nature of this peculiar affliction. After realizing that the only people not affected are Timothy and Jude, for obvious reasons, and Cassie, because she has avoided the Phrase, and Eric and myself I had to ask myself why. What do Eric and I have in common that could inoculate us from this seemingly unavoidable and unstoppable malady? Surely, at some point we had heard the whole phrase, if not all at once, then perhaps in pieces here and there. Would that be enough, to hear the entire phrase piecemeal over the course of the day? Would the mind put it together and would it still have the same effect? No, if the others, including some who were not as inundated with information as I, had succumbed, then I didn’t see how I could have avoided it altogether.

So why Eric and I? What else did we have in common that could have saved us, at least for now? Eric was not one of the patients I had brought here, like Tim Tom, Jude or Saul. His was also not a case of mental illness due to genetics, like Cassie. No, Eric was here because he had been addicted to meth, amongst other drugs, and had damaged his brain so extensively that he could no longer function in normal society due to a severe and odd case of amphetamine psychosis.

After his treatment at an addiction center it became clear that his attention span had withered to nothing. His volition, his ability to reason, was almost nonexistent. He had many of the same traits as a paranoid schizophrenic. Much of this I would attribute to perhaps his most devastating disability; he seems to have almost altogether lost the ability to sleep. Not the he didn’t sleep at all, he would probably be dead by now if that was the case, although there are rumors, unsupported of course, of people who go without sleep all together. But there has never been a clinically confirmed case. No, instead he seems to micro sleep, taking little naps of 5 to 10 minutes at a time, and seems completely incapable of falling into a deep sleep. We have had him on a medication regimen but even with heavy narcotics his sleep is fitful and seems to show very little REM activity.

Obviously, I don’t suffer any of these conditions, having never partaken in crystal meth myself, but there is one common denominator here; neither of us slept last night. Eric was no longer medicated due to the chaos of yesterday, and I had stayed up all night working on understanding the nature of this apocalyptic malady. Now, as I stated, there is a very good chance that both of us have been exposed to the phrase, but perhaps exposure is not enough.

Now, look at it this way. The first day was the professor at Oxford, the second day was more professors, people who were probably his colleagues and maybe even his friends. And professors at other prestigious universities, all of them with fields relating to linguistics, translation, classical studies, history and ancient literature, people whom he may very well have been in contact with. It is possible, even likely, that before his killing spree he had sent the Phrase to them through email or text or perhaps IM. Then, a day later, they went on killing sprees.

Perhaps, before their sprees, they had sent the Phrase to other colleagues, and exposed students to it. After the students were exposed they of course disseminated the Phrase using the many methods they have; texting, tweeting, Facebook, reddit, 4Chan, God, who knows what else. And from there there was no stopping it; the news, the government, the internet, it was loose. But the point here is in the pattern.

Day one, the professor at Oxford, then a full night before the other shootings at other universities then another full night before the students. Do you see?

SLEEP. It needs a full night of sleep to set in, to worm its way into the subconscious mind of the carrier before it could start replicating itself and taking over their mind and forcing them to disperse it via a multitude of media before finally sending them into the rage state which is it’s final stage, as far as we know. Much like a virus, like herpes, it must replicate in the body before viral shedding begins. After all, isn’t that what this is? A mind virus? A string of information, just like viral DNA is merely information, just like our DNA is merely information, that simply wants to continue to propagate, to find new hosts, to find a way to continue its existence? A verbal virus. A language worm. A mind virus.

And that is what Eric and I have in common; neither of us had slept the night after we were probably exposed. Neither of us gave it the opportunity to sink into the nether regions of our minds to do its insidious work.

And herein lies the dilemma. Is it still in there, just waiting for us to succumb to the inevitable good night’s sleep, or is it gone? Gone from our memories. Gone from our minds. Leaving us safe and secure in our continued sanity, or at least mine. Eric is already kind of insane.

And how will we know without trying to sleep? Do I dare take this chance to see if I have indeed found a way to fight of our mutual and ethereal enemy? More important, do I have a choice? Even now in my excited delirium I can feel the heaviness in my muscles, the ache in my bones, the fatigue in my eyes that I have felt so many times while burning the midnight oil. Eric, without his medication, might go for a long time without a proper night’s sleep, perhaps fighting off the effects of the phrase for days, weeks, maybe even longer. But what about me? How long can I last?

Back in the diabetic ward I had taken a number of drugs that can be used as stimulants in case we had to be alert and ready for an attack at odd hours, but how long would those last? Perhaps I could find more here at this facility. But even if I do, how long will I last?

For surely, no matter how many drugs I inject myself with to fight the coming night, I will eventually succumb. Having read studies on sleep disorders years ago I know that after a few days my mental faculties will diminish, my body will fatigue and malfunction, I may induce a form of psychoses, much like Eric’s, and start to hallucinate. So even if I do manage to avoid the madness of the Phrase, I may experience a very different kind of madness. Will I give up at this point? Or maybe even not remember to inject myself with more stimulants and finally fall into a deep long sleep, only to wake up again and succumb to the Insanity of The Words?

Or, will I continue to inject myself, or have someone do it for me, until my body and mind are damaged beyond repair? Or words? There have been very few cases, but it is known that forced sleep deprivation, used as a form of torture and brainwashing, will eventually lead to death.

So is this my choice: a slow tortuous spiral into madness and death, or a quick ramp up into a raging psychosis, which will also surely lead to death, or worse, the death of others at my hand? This is, of course, not something I shall decide tonight, but it will be weighing on my heart and mind as the nights continue to come and sleep continues to haunt my door. But, for now, I must study, I must stay strong and try to find a way to save these few people who can still be saved. Maybe, if Eric continues to be immune, I can find a way to emulate his sleep patterns, however unhealthy that might be. It could at least give me a little more time to figure this out, maybe find a way to combat it.

I’ve read studies of a drug that has been used to decrease the intensity of a memory. It is not altogether forgetting, but perhaps, at least, a step in the right direction.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

This morning was more confusing than most probably are, thanks to the smoke. As I woke up, the sight of my comrades blowing up in a helicopter above me my last memory, I started coughing and my eyes starting burning because of a thick, acrid smoke in my room. Of course, to my mind, this made total sense, as the chopper had just been shot down, but as I felt for my gun and tried to reposition and assess, I realized I didn’t have a gun, I wasn’t in uniform, and I wasn’t on a roof.

Then some big hairy mook says, “mornin’, Joe.”

“Who the fuck are you? Who the fuck is Joe?”

“I don’t know what you just said,” he grinned, “but I have the feeling it wasn’t very nice. Read your arm.”

So I did, and my journal, and went through the ritual I must go through every morning. Then I saw my other arm.

Holy fucking shit.

Of course, I didn’t believe it at first. Who would? But then I read my journal, the cliff notes I keep, and finally read about me writing about how I probably wouldn’t believe it. And there it was, in my own handwriting, in a style that was definitely me, the fucking world was ending, or for all I knew, had already pretty much ended.

And I’m dealing with this shit, and the big guy says, “hey, want some breakfast?”

I don’t know why, but I immediately like this guy.

“Sure, what you got?”

Forgot, he had no idea what I was saying, but he answered correctly anyway.

“Hope you like beans, cause that’s what we’re having.”

A Doctor came up, “Jude, glad you’re awake. We need to talk about this smoke.”

“Is this place on fire?”

“No, no, it appears to be coming from Manhattan. The wind shifted during the night.”

“So, Manhattan’s on fire?”

“Yes, I’m sorry, have you read your journal? Are you all caught up?”

“Just the cliff notes version.”

“Oh, I see. Yes, Manhattan, the Bronx, pretty much the whole city around us.”

“Where are we?”

“Wards Island. Safe for now, but we’re going to need to tighten up this floor as much as possible, see if we can keep the smoke out. The wind is shifting so it’s not as bad now, but it can always shift back.”

As we’re stuffing cracks with towels and sheets the Doctor starts talking to me, “with this smoke, we’re going to have to consider the possibility that we may need to find a way off the island. Even worse than the smoke is the possibility of something here on the island catching fire, especially the sewage treatment plant.”

“Sewage treatment?”

“Yes, right on the river over there. It takes up a good chunk of the island. There are quite a lot of toxic chemicals and flammable gases to consider; methane, co2, nitrates. I’m really not even sure what else.”

The wind had shifted and the smoke was clearing so we moved to that side to see the plant.

“Do you think there is a barge or something that they haul the waste away with?”

“It would make sense. Let’s take a look.”

And there it was, even better, it was an unmotorized barge attached to a tugboat.

“Hot damn,” I exclaimed.

“What?”

“A tugboat. I can get us out of here on that thing.”

As we are looking out at a possible solution, we saw another group attacking survivors trapped in a car out on the freeway. The freeway was completely covered in cars, people trying to flee the city when it all went down I guess. It looks like someone had been trapped in their car, living off whatever they had in there, afraid to leave because of the affected that were crawling all over the place, and they had finally decided to try and make a run for it. They hadn’t made it very far.

“There’s even more today,” the Doctor observed.

“More of the wackos?”

“Yes, running from the fires in the city. Plus just more affected probably than yesterday. Who knows how bad it will get before it gets better.”

“You think it will get better?”

“I don’t really know. I know they’re like animals, dumb but ferocious. But they were human not that long ago. The question that remains to be seen is are they smart enough to survive, to thrive, to find food and water? Or, will they die out?”

As we were watching them move about in packs a roar came from the end of the hall.

We went to look and I heard the chant before I even got there. A pack of affected was at the gate, trying to get in. And they were chanting together.

“…two horned valley trout bear…”

“How did they find us?” the Doctor asked me.

“Don’t know. Maybe they just happened to find us. Maybe they smell our food.”

The affected we had moved to the rooms at the end of the hall were all chanting with them, chanting the phrase at the tops of their lungs, seemingly delighted to finally find a pack, maybe even thinking they would be rescued.

“Can they get in?” Seriously, why was he asking me?

“No, that gate looks strong and not enough of them will be able to get on it at once to force it open, the hallway is too narrow.”

“You sure?”

“No.”

“But, we do need to make sure our people are safe from the chanting.”

“Everyone, cover your ears. Earplugs on, now, go, now, now!”

And as if that weren’t enough, the world exploded.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

It was huge, and close. I felt the shock at the same time that I heard it. Luckily, no heat though, so we were safe…ish.

“What was that?” Cassie asked, guess she could hear it even with her ears plugged and head wrapped. Or maybe she felt it.

We looked at where flames had suddenly roared to life, the plant. The sewage treatment plant.

“Damn,” I said. The smoke was billowing away from us, for now. “Well, Doctor, you called it.”

“Yes, unfortunately, I did. It was only a matter of time; gasses building up, sewage still flowing in, and no one there to stop it or vent the gases.”

“Well, how long do you think we have?”

“Not long. The fire will spread, there is plenty of fuel there. And the wind could shift again at any time, sending toxic smoke right in our direction.”

“Shit smoke, great. You know what this means?” I asked the Doctor.

“Yes, we’ll have to get to the boat. I suppose there is no other way.”

“We’re going to need vehicles and we’re going to need weapons. Any ideas?” I asked the group.

We were in the farthest room, down the corridor now, as far from the affected as we could get, those of us still able to come up with a plan; Eric, Dr. Gates, Tim Tom (hey, why not?), Cassie and myself. Luckily, our affected visitors had left, I guess to go see what the explosion was all about, and our own affected had quieted back down a bit.

Just to be sure, we had a mattress up against the door to keep out sound, because I needed everyone to take out the earplugs and help us figure out what we were going to do.

“There’s a State Police station right here on the campus, just right over there,” said Cassie. She seemed smart, too bad she had to keep isolated behind the ear plugs all the time.

“She’s right, it’s not far, just by the entrance gate,” the Doctor added.

“OK, that’s lucky. That’s our best chance of finding guns and ammunition.”

“So, how do we get over there? This place is still crawling with chanters,” Eric asked.

“There are vans down there,” Cassie replied. “They use them to transport prisoners from jails over to the forensic ward. They already have bars on the back windows, so that might help.”

“You sure do know a lot about the forensic ward and the vans,” Eric sniped.

“I was in the forensic ward for a while before I was transferred over here.”

“You were?” He sounded surprised.

“Yes.”

I didn’t want to ask so instead I asked, “Why did they send you over here?”

“Because I was a model fucking patient.”

I decided to change the subject, “OK, I wonder if we can get some of the bars off these windows too, to cover the front windshield?”

“Tim Tom was in construction,” the Doctor said.

I wasn’t real sure how I was going to communicate this but here it went.

“Can you take these bars,” I pointed, “and cut them off” I moved my hands down, “and weld them to a van?” I made a welding helmet down motion, then pretended to weld, then pretended to drive.

“OK, I got the taking the windows off part, I think. And were you welding?” he replied.

“Yes, yes,” shaking my head.

“But, what else?” he asked.

“And weld them,” welding motion again, “to a van,” driving steering wheel motion again. I felt like an idiot.

“Weld them to a car?”

I made a larger motion with my hands, spreading them.

“A truck?”

Close enough. Thumbs up.

“Um, yeah, sure. No problem. But, are we going to try and get out of here?” I nodded yes. “Holy shit,” was his reply.

CHAPTER TWELVE

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

The Doctor had remembered the welding tools he’d seen on the truck down where they were building an outbuilding. It was convenient that they were building out there, but pretty damn inconvenient that it was all outside the gate. So, the first part of our plan depended on us being able to get out of this gate and down the stairs, through the chanters, outside the double chain link razor wire fence, past the chanters wandering about outside, get the equipment, then make it back. No problem.

I went through all the possible scenarios, writing them down to keep them in my mind. We could try a distraction, make a run for it and hope none of the affected saw us. Eric could probably rig another explosion somehow. But would that really get all of them over to the other side of the building?

I could wait until night falls, try stealth. I’m pretty sure I could even do it, God knows I’ve had to infiltrate buildings in the dead of night without being caught, and that was against an intelligent adversary with guns. But, it was still risky, especially with my memory, I might get trapped somewhere and forget what I’m even doing there. More important, I’m not sure we could wait that long. Who knows when the smoke will come our way? I could only think of one other way to do it.

“What, no, are you insane?” Cassie yelled. “That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Really, you, that’s the craziest?”

“I’m going to have to agree with her on this one, Jude. That is, well, that’s suicide,” the doctor added.

“No, I really think this will work.”

“Jude, without you, what will become of us? Honestly, none of us have your training, your background. If you die, there is a good chance we all die.”

“Bullshit, you can figure out another plan, you can make this work without me. Besides, I’m not going to die.”

“I’m pretty sure you will,” Eric chimed in.

“No, I’m telling you, that’s why they don’t attack each other, because they’re chanting. They won’t attack someone else who is chanting.”

“Jude, I mean, that makes sense to some degree, but, the risk involved, and your theory is untested.”

“Well then we’ll test it.”

So we did. Down the hall we went, after everyone but Tim Tom and I had covered their ears.

As they heard us coming the chorus at the end of the hall piped up, chanting those damn words; …ear rye spider dance… and I started chanting along, using the phrase I had written down for some reason. I’d kept it in my journal with a note that it was there if I ever needed it. Well, now I did.

So I started chanting, and, as the others watched from a distance so the affected couldn’t see them, the people in the cells settled down, stopped howling at me and banging against the doors, and started chanting with me. Their chants all lined up and they calmed down and we were all chanting in chorus. And they stared at me, their eyes pleading, probably wondering in their demented minds if I was going to let them out, let them out so we could kill the others, now that I was one of them. I couldn’t handle it any more.

I walked away and we went back to the safe room down the hall.

“Well, it worked.”

“I saw,” said the Doctor. “I saw, but I still don’t like this.”

Truth be told, I didn’t like it either. But it’s what I did, blend in, make my way through a strange land, speaking a foreign tongue, not attracting attention to myself, gathering intelligence, finding a position, or, in this case, grabbing a welding rig.

I had the phrase in my hand, maybe I could’ve written it in marker on my arm but I didn’t want to risk not being able to get it off and someone seeing it. So here I was looking down at my hand, chanting the phrase that ended the world, over and over again, and getting ready to walk right into a crowd of fucking cannibals.

The crazies at the gate had wandered off, probably to another floor to look for food. As I got past the gate and made my way down the stairs I only made it down two flights before I got to test the phrase out in the real world. And it was one hell of a test; a group of seven going down the stairs, three carrying pipes, and here I was, with just a knife hidden at the small of my back. Moment of truth.

“Worm milk chest mouth…” I mumbled, my mouth going dry. They turned to look at me, eyes full of fury. I got louder, “wound sea moth oil…”

They started chanting louder, in unison, and I had to look down at my paper to get to the same place they were.

It worked. Holy hell it worked.

They turned and kept going back downstairs, seemingly sure I was one of them, not food. And I followed them, my new buddies, all of us heading down.

They went down to the first floor and started heading toward the lobby as I just glided my own little way, heading toward the docks, hoping they wouldn’t notice, and they didn’t.

I slipped out the dock and waited, looking around for more affected. A couple of loners were wandering around outside the gate so I waited.

And I didn’t have to wait long, a crashing sound around the other side of the building meant the other part of the plan was in motion — throw shit out the window and make a lot of noise to distract the chanters. That one sounded like the TV. Power was off and there wasn’t anything on anyway.

I didn’t want any affected to see me unlock the gate, or risk them getting in so I’d set up the distraction for me to get out.

Now I moved, slowly, pseudo aimlessly, like I’d seen the loner affected earlier, toward the truck with the welding rig on the back, muttering the phrase.

It wasn’t’ long at all before I was no longer alone. Three others were wandering around and for some reason gravitated toward me. Were they on to me? What did they want? If they were on to me then why were they moving so slow? No, they wandered closer but then just started following me, still a little aimless but definitely trying to keep up with me, still muttering the phrase quietly. What the fuck did they want?

I didn’t feel like I could risk them seeing me doing something which might seem odd to them so I wandered away from the truck and started going in a large circle. Now there were two more. What the hell was going on? Was I gathering my own pack? I knew I couldn’t keep doing this forever, so I went for it. As nonchalantly as I could under the circumstances, I grabbed the welding rig and helmet and started walking away from the truck, still chanting, trying to be one of them. A couple of them followed suit, grabbing some pipes. Great, I’ve just given them weapons. Then one of them started eyeing me, like he knew something was up.

I kept walking, not sure how I was going to keep them from following me back to the gate, then I heard another crash and some of them went running to see what it was. I stayed behind, along with the one who was eyeing me and two others. I crept closer to the gate, no real plan in mind yet, and they crept with me, getting closer to me, their heads cocking to the side like animals trying to figure something out. So I said fuck it, I knew how to use one of these from when I was helping my dad build his boat. I turned it on, lit it, and put the flame right in the eyeballers face and holy shit did he scream.

I blinded the other two as quickly as I could and sprinted for the gate, knowing I had mere seconds. I got the key out, fumbled, cussed, then got it and the lock was open. I got in, closed the gate and locked it back up just as a horde of them was upon the gate, screaming, chanting, already trying to climb the fence and getting caught in the razor wire. I went back inside as soon as I could, hoping they would get away once I was out of sight.

Now I was inside, but not safe, and not alone. Some of the residents had come to see what the commotion was, and I didn’t even bother trying to trick them. The first ones I burned but then decided to save fuel so I started cutting my way through the crowd before they could figure out what was going on. We were in a hallway which actually gave me an advantage because they couldn’t surround me and only so many could get close to me at a time. But I knew I couldn’t last long like this so I cut my way to the stairs and hightailed it.

I was lucky, I only had to mow down a couple more on the stairs, but the rest of them were behind me and they were hungry for some SEAL. As I was getting to my floor I started screaming, “Open the gate. Open the gate. Open the gate.”

And then realized I wasn’t real sure at this point which floor I was on.

Shit, damn my fucking shit memory. But I found it, saw them with the gate open and rushed in.

“Close the gate. Close the gate.”

They did and the pack came crashing into it, spitting and screaming, trying like hell to get in. But the gate held.

“Well,” I tried to catch my breath, “that sucked.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

“Nice,” spoke up Eric. “Way to bring them to us.”

“Fuck you, Eric. I’ll fucking burn a penis shape in your face.”

I’m not real sure why I said that, but I would do it. He shut up.

I gave the rig to Tim Tom. “Here you go. Enjoy.”

He looked at it. “Oh no, it’s missing a tank. It’s not going to work like this.”

“What?”

“Just kidding,” he laughed. “You should see your face.”

I was stunned for a sec but couldn’t help but grin. “Fuck you, Tim Tom, fuck you.”

We opened the windows on the side over the vans to see what we had and we did have a van with the back and side windows already barred. Better than that, we had two vans like that and a delivery truck, looks like it was a laundry truck.

I would say we were lucky but we were trapped in a city full of raving mad murderous cannibals, so lucky isn’t the word I would use.

We started on the windows, Tim Tom really doing most of the work, me just helping as I could. He just wouldn’t shut about some girl, then another girl, and pizza, and this beer he really liked that he could only find in Boston, and everything else except what was going on around us.

I also had him cut a bit of pipe for me. It housed electrical wires but the juice was off for good now, so it didn’t matter. I got him to make the end pointy, after a few minutes of trying to explain it, and he asked me what it was for but I knew it was useless to try and tell him, so I just waited to show him.

I took the long pipe back down the hall to the gate, where my biggest fans were still waiting to tear me apart. They sure don’t give up easy, but I guess what else do they have to do?

When they saw me coming the chanting got louder and some of it turned into roaring. Then I showed Tim Tom what the pipe was for. You see, my knife couldn’t fit through the grating on the gate, but this little pipe could and they were pushed up to the gate so close, the front ones being pushed from the back, that it was easy to just shove it right into them. As I expected, the first one didn’t seem to give a fuck that I had just shoved a pipe into him. He just kept screaming at me, banging at the gate. So I kept stabbing, and some of them started to bleed out, enough that they stopped chanting.

And, wouldn’t you know it, as soon as they stopped chanting the others attacked, ripping them apart with their teeth and hands, scratching and clawing and actually eating their fallen comrades.

“Oh my fuck,” he said from behind me.

I turned around and tried to shoo Tim Tom away, “Get away, you don’t want to see this. You either.”

The others were watching, and didn’t need convincing. They started leaving and left me to my grim chore.

I knew it was going to make a mess, and I knew it would start to stink, but I didn’t plan on being here much longer and we were going to have to get out and down those stairs to work on the van, then get everyone out. I figured since I had such a large crowd gathered I could go ahead and remove some of the obstacles that were going to be in our way.

It took a while, a long while. They were lined up down the stairway, waiting their turn for slaughter. And, I had to take my time, stab a few then let them bleed out enough that they stopped chanting and the others would tear them up and eat them. And they never seemed to get full. They also never seemed to realize that if they got close, I was going to kill them. I had to let them tear each other up and eat each other, or else the bodies would just pile up and be in the way and we wouldn’t be able to get past them. As it was, it was still going to be a mess.

It went on a long time. Way too long. When they finally stopped coming there was the biggest, most horrific mess I had ever seen, and I had seen some carnage in Iraq and Afghanistan. I was glad I wouldn’t be able to remember it. I’m not sure why I’m even writing about it.

When I was done I walked into the main area with the others, covered in blood, and asked, “Does anyone know why I’m killing people?”

They were stunned. I wish I had been kidding.

“You mean you forgot why you were killing them?” the Doctor asked.

“Yes, I knew I had to keep doing it, but I didn’t know why.”

“My God,” the Doctor said. “Get cleaned up and read your journal.”

The others were still stunned, looking at me like, like I was one of the monsters out there.

From the journal of Timothy Lorne

12/25/2012

Joe and I tossed the bars out the window so that they would land near the van, but we couldn’t do that to the welding rig so we used sheets to strap that to me, I guess so I would have my hands free to fight if I needed to. He didn’t even need to explain to me what was going on, he just nodded his head like “You ready?” gave me a kitchen knife in a cardboard sheath that he’d fashioned so we could tuck it into our pants, and I grabbed Susie while he got his spear and we were off.

I knew what he had been doing over at the gate but I still wasn’t prepared for the mess. Holy snike it was a vernal smorgasbord of carnal decorum. It was like, like, nothing I had ever seen, like maybe what the corner of a butcher’s office or a meat processing plant might look like. The area where they throw the leftover shit that’ll be hot dogs that you feed your children on picnics someday. You couldn’t even tell they had been people except the last couple of bodies that I guess he’d killed and there had been no one left to tear them up and eat them.

He went first and kicked bones and guts and some other stuff to the sides then turned to tell me to follow and made a funny side to side motion with his hands. I didn’t know what he was trying to say until I stepped past the gate and started sliding on the blood of other human beings. Christ, what a holocaust. This was worse than the medical ward in the other building had been, and the fact that they were crazies really didn’t seem to make it any better.

We got past it and went slow and quiet down the stairs. He was shooting for stealth this time. We made our way down two floors with no worries, being extra careful near the doors on each floor. The affected in there were trapped, so that wasn’t a problem, but I knew they’d start making noise if they saw or heard us, and that could bring some that weren’t trapped up the stairs. If there were any more left down on the first floor.

But after two floors our luck ran out and one of them near the gate saw us and started chanting. Others on that floor ran at the gates, but couldn’t get through, so we started running down the stairs. The other floors had all come to their gates too, screaming and chanting in unison at the top of their lungs. If there were any loose, they would be coming now. And, of course, there were.

Just one at first, running up the stairs, and Joe speared him like a fish, right through the head. But two more were hot on his heels and it took him the spear and his knife to down them. We ran some more when we heard more on the way. It sounded like a whole herd but these things just made a lot of noise, I guess, like they say coyotes do, and it was only five. I stepped in with sweet Susie this time and helped Joe out, then we made it all the way down to the first floor before coming across a couple more that seemed surprised to see us and we were home free.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

Once we got down to the docks I motioned Tim Tom to wait while I checked outside, then went back in and gave him the thumbs up. The yard was clear, and there weren’t even any affected past the fence, though I’m sure some would wander by eventually, that’s why I had tossed down the sheets.

There were loads of them, plenty of extras, up on our floor, so I figured I could shield what Tim Tom was doing a bit. Keep any curious crazies from trying to climb the fence, ’cause you never knew when one might succeed, or enough of them might try in the same place and bring the fence, down, which would be a disaster. The thick doors and gates and barred windows would keep them out pretty damn well, but having two rows of tall fences topped with razor wire is the only thing that would allow us to move around outside and work on these vans. It was a shame we couldn’t hole up here longer, it was damn near perfect, but we would eventually run out of food, and probably water too, and these fences and doors weren’t going to keep out any smoke or fires, which would probably be coming soon. I could see the smoke from the plant, something was smoldering over there and it was only a matter of time before it spread and more tanks blew or the wind shifted and we were all breathing toxic shit smoke. The boat would at least give us a chance. Shit, I remember there’s a boat, but I can’t remember what kind. Better go back and read the journal again soon, and do some updates.

I hung the sheets on the fence as best I could to try to block the view in while Tim Tom started welding the grates from the windows to the vans. Then I just kept a lookout and worked I my journal until he yelled, “Hey Joe, look at me. I’m B.A. Baracus.”

He’d finished the first van. The bars didn’t fit perfectly but he’d done a damn good job of bending them on the top and shaping them to fit over the windows.

“I pity the fool that try to get in my van.”

Fucking Tim Tom.

“Shut the fuck up,” I said, knowing he couldn’t understand me, so I also held my finger to my mouth.

“OK, OK.” He grinned and went back to work after adding, “Hannibal.”

It didn’t take him long at all to get the next one done, and then the delivery van. But it was all I could do to keep him from yapping the whole time, alerting every chanter in the area to our presence.

Only a couple of curious ones heard him and both came close enough to the fence that I was able to spear them in the head before they got too loud.

I was surprised at how fast he worked, and excited. I was wondering if we were going to have to wait another day before the second phase of our plan. I looked in my journal on my notes on him as he worked and it said he’d been in construction, and he’d been injured on the job. Something went straight through his head, that’s why he was the way he is now, why he couldn’t understand what I was saying, and why the Doctor had brought him here. The Doctor had told me he was another rare case, like me and Eric.

OK, now we had to make it back up, and I wasn’t sure if there were any more left. While the rest of the building was nice and secure, the lobby had glass doors which had been shattered, and didn’t have a fence outside it. It looks like it had depended on guards to protect it, and of course, they were all off duty now.

We were as quiet as we could be, and with a lighter load since I had left the welding rig in one of the vans. Since it was quiet for now I decided to make the going easier for us when we brought the rest of the group down. I had Tim Tom help me move some furniture, and some heavy fucking file cabinets, into the hall that led to the lobby, the only place that didn’t have a door. It took us a while, longer than I would have liked, but now the whole way down would be secure, unless there were any more loose ones on the stairs or somewhere above us. I knew there were still plenty more in the building, but they were trapped behind locked doors and gates that they didn’t know how to get through.

By the time we got back to our floor I had to check my journal… again.

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/25/2012

I was a bit surprised, after only a few days, at how much I was having to fight sleep. I still had enough stimulants to keep me awake for quite some time, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to handle it. As it was I was already finding myself drifting a bit, even while standing, and once I had seen a shadow suddenly turn into a black dog before coming to my senses. I found I had to stand and walk around as much as possible, and keep my mind busy, which wasn’t difficult considering the large amount of material I had printed off the internet to go through. More and more I was confirming what I already believed; that the phrase was somehow responsible, and also that the lack of sleep was the only thing keeping Eric and myself from succumbing. It was hard to argue against that point with the affected chanting it over and over.

Marcus had finally succumbed, leaving only Eric, Jude, Tim Tom, Cassie and myself to take care of those who were affected and the other patients who probably never would be due to their nearer catatonic state. I know, as a Doctor, I had to try and take them with me, I also know, as a human being, that I would be putting my life at risk, as well as the lives of the other survivors. But I could put mine at risk, I suppose, after all, it was only a matter of time before I slept. I knew that the forgetting drugs were a shot in the dark, after all, they only made memories duller, they didn’t erase them.

As I watched the affected that we had locked in the rooms on our floor I hoped that I would see some sort of change. I was hoping that eventually the effects would wear off. After all, if this phrase was something that the Norse used to go into a berserker rage, or that Greek women used to go into a Dionysian ecstatic state before tearing animals apart with their bare hands, then it must wear off at some point. There was nothing in classical literature or Norse history indicated these manic states were permanent. But, I saw no changes in our resident affected.

Perhaps the phrase was different now; translating had made it more dangerous. Maybe the effects would be different in different languages, although it was clear that it had affected other countries. Maybe there were some that were less affected. But the words are so simple, so universal, and there’s no grammar to complicate translation, just a string of nouns. It should translate so easily into any language. Surely every language, at least today, has words for moth or rye or fig or any of the other words. But did the Norse know what tigers were during the viking era? Would they have substituted some other big cat they were familiar with? They knew about lions surely. Lions were in the coat of arms of many European countries. But what if there is a language, some small primitive tribe, that didn’t have a translation for all the words of the phrase? One could only hope that somewhere humanity would still have a chance.

Maybe in ancient times they had only used a part of the phrase for their effects. Or maybe there were was a counter phrase. God, I could hope, going through everything I could find about Norse mythology and ancient Greek mystery religions and the work of the linguist in Oxford. I wished and wished I could find something else, some other, shall I use the word, incantation, that might bring people out of their rage. Even if one existed, what are the chances the Oxford linguist had translated it, much less put it out on the internet somewhere? There was also the possibility that the ancients would get drunk before hearing the phrase, and that this somehow spared them the long term effects. In both ancient Norway and Greece it was apparent that alcohol was a big part of the rituals involved in going into a berserker or ecstatic state. Maybe getting black out drunk kept you from remembering the phrase in the long term. Though that wouldn’t explain why we had to sleep before it affected us, the phrase would have to work faster than it seemed too to put them in a rage state after they were drunk but before they sobered up. Unless, the phrase was actually more potent back then, or in their native languages, and worked faster, allowing them to get drunk, hear the phrase, go into a rage, then sleep it off after the battle was done or the orgies had ceased, not remembering anything, including the phrase, the next day. It was a valid theory, but how to test it? The only person here who we can be sure hasn’t heard the phrase is Cassie. And I don’t have any alcohol, although I do have tranquilizers. Dear God, I can’t believe I’m even thinking such a thing, much less writing it.

They would get quiet when left alone, the chanting barely audibly while staring at the wall or out the window, in a near catatonic state, some of them even rocking back and forth. Occasionally one of them would get worked up for no discernible reason and start mutilating their own face or body; pulling out hair, biting their fingers or hands or clawing at their faces. One had already torn his cheeks off, and another had managed to tear her ear off. When they did this we tried to direct their attention towards us, or put some food through the slots, something to redirect their rage. Of course, then they would often start banging against the door with the hands and head until those were bloody, and we would leave so they could eventually calm down.

I hoped beyond hope to see some change, some indication that it would wear off eventually. After all, that meant that once we were in the boat, I could be bound and fed for a few days until the rage wore off. But as yet, I had seen no indication that this was not a permanent state of being.

I was as quiet and cautious as I could be when peeking in to watch them, trying to study them, but sometimes they still caught me and went mad, clawing at the door. I had lost two more who wouldn’t stop banging their heads against the door, even when I slipped food in. After that I kept food spiked with tranquilizers handy to try to avoid losing any more…test subjects. I guess that is what they were now. My God, they aren’t the only ones losing their humanity.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

We ate and drank a bit before implementing the next part of the plan, we were going to need our strength for this. After some good lucks from the rest of the crew Tim Tom and I headed back down the stairs and to the delivery truck. They keys were hanging in the dock for the vans, and the delivery truck already had them in it, so they wouldn’t have a problem getting out of here when the time came. We had to wait a bit to make sure no affected were too close to the gate, then I ran to open it and Tim Tom started up the truck and drove through before I closed it up and jumped in, and barely in time.

Of course, the noise of the truck brought them right to us, so I took the wheel and just started plowing through them, there wasn’t much else I could do. The truck was big but I still worried about busting a tire, but we made it through the crowd just fine and I gunned it to get over to the State Police station, having just looked at a map before we left.

Another pack was heading our way but we had some momentum now so we got through them no problem and soon we were at the station. The windows were at about the right height, as we thought they would be, so I backed right up to one of them, the back of the truck actually hitting the wall, then pulled up just a hair and we both leapt up and headed to the back.

We pulled the door up on the back of the delivery van and saw we were in luck, the windows weren’t even barred, we could just bust the glass and be in, and that we did.

I wasn’t surprised to see we were alone in here, but I was still relieved. I figured all the troopers would have been called out to deal with the riots, and I was right, but someone was here. As soon as we entered I could hear them, and braced myself to go check as Tim Tom started looking for guns and ammo. They were locked up in one of the cells, emaciated, mutilated, but still angry as fuck. Affected, definitely, and it looked like they had been eating each other to stay alive, there were bones and dried crusted blood on the floor. Three of them were left, and two bodies were in the other cell, already dead. Just like our affected upstairs, they had mutilated themselves out of rage and boredom and who knows what else and why they really did it. None of them had much hair left and they were all missing ears, and some of their noses, and had clawed at their own faces before gnawing the fingers down to pulp nubs. Christ almighty.

I left them to go help Tim Tom finds the guns and some ammo. I knew we didn’t have much time, the affected would have followed our truck and would be trying to get in here any minute now.

And speak of the devil, I could already hear them, banging the truck. Banging hard. I got a bad feeling and tried looking out and the truck was really rocking. I couldn’t risk them turning it over so I went around to a different window, and fired a couple of shots with our newly acquired ammo. Glock .45s, nice, I was glad, 9mm wouldn’t have done shit to these psychos, but a .45 would have a much better chance of taking them down. And we also had some 12 gauge shotguns, as I had expected, glad to see that they hadn’t all been taken out to deal with the riots. We had enough guns and ammo for everyone in our crew, with a few left over. Now let’s just hope they know how to use them.

The shots worked and got them to start coming around the building but one of them saw Tim Tom through the windows and didn’t even hesitate, it just came right through the glass. Fuck.

I quickly loaded the shotgun and handed it to Tim Tom and armed myself with the .45 and started shooting, aiming right at the head since I was close and a good shot. Of course, that drew them all right to us, and they started on all the windows and doors.

We started running back to the window where the van was but they were already in over there, and even after several shots they weren’t thinning out, more just kept coming in the window and then the door- stupid glass door. We were getting surrounded real quick. I grabbed the bag of guns and ammo as Tim Tom was blasting away at them with the shotgun and I motioned him to follow me. I didn’t love this idea but I didn’t see another way.

I had already seen the keys and grabbed them as I led him to the cells and opened one while he kept them back, barely, with the shotgun. We got in with the guns and slammed the door as they were right on us, and one of them grabbed my shirt and starter pulling. I turned and shot him point blank in the face then we were in and the door was closed.

We got all the way back to the wall and looked out at the bars and the small army of affected on the other side of them, reaching through, trying like hell to get to us. The leftovers in the other cell were at it, too, screaming and moaning like we were the last things left on earth to eat. One of them got his head through the bars and I shot it, but decided to stop and think before using any more ammo. It’s doubtful they could get their whole bodies through.

We rested, neither of us talking, just trying to catch our breath as I assessed our situation. It wasn’t long before I saw it, outside the bars, the affected stomping all over it. I knew immediately what it was but felt my pocket where I had kept it anyway. It was gone, and that was it out there. My journal.

Crap!

I tried shooting the affected near it, hoping I could reach through and get it if I cleared a spot, but it wasn’t happening. As soon as I shot one another took its place, and even if I could shoot more it was just out of reach. I was even stupid enough to reach my arm through for a second, trying to get at it, but they were right on me, a steel grip on my arm and other arms reaching for me before a mighty yank pulled me away. Tim Tom, he had grabbed me and pulled me back asking, “Are you insane? What are you doing?”

I pointed, trying to explain it to someone who couldn’t understand my words, much less how important that journal was to me, “My journal, it’s out there. I have to get it, I can’t…”

“Your journal, I know, I see it.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Joe, I see it, OK. You can’t get to it, OK. It will be OK. We’ll get it if we can later, and if we can’t you can start writing in mine, to remember.” He reached for his, “Oh damn, mine’s in the van. But it will be OK. I’ll help you remember. We just need to get out of here right now.”

I settled down. He was right, if we could get out soon, maybe I could get it back.

I got as close as I could to the bars but still just out of reach and aimed carefully before shooting one in the head, then another, then another. But they didn’t thin out at all, more were just waiting out in the station to take their place, and the dead were quickly torn apart and devoured and more living stepped right up, not at all afraid of the gun, not knowing or caring that they could die. It wasn’t long before I realized it was futile, the gun shots would just attract more. Who knew how many were already in the station, and there were more outside the barred window of our cell, a lot more. How many were on this island? Would I have enough ammo to kill them all?

I stopped shooting and sit down, leaning back against the cool concrete wall. Tim Tom sat next to me.

“Well, now what?” he asked.

I shrugged, I wasn’t sure. The others would be waiting for us to come back for them, so we could all leave together after I handed out the weapons. What were they going to do now? Could they see the crowd at the station?

We waited, quietly, just watching the affected trying to get through, yelling and moaning and chanting, but not in unison, I guess all of their concentration was on us.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

From the journal of Cassandra Morgan

12/25/2012

Everyone went to the window and seemed real fucking wound up so I figured I should find out what the hell was going on. I took my ear plugs out carefully, the chanters down the hall were being quiet so I asked the Doc what the deal was.

“We heard gunshots.”

“Good, so they got the guns.”

“Yes, but they’ve stopped. And the van hasn’t moved yet.”

“Well, maybe they took care of a few and are loading stuff.”

“You should take a look.”

I looked out and there was a fuck load of nutters around the van and around the station.

“Oh shit.”

“Indeed.”

“Well, we gotta go help them.”

“How? How are we going to help them?”

“I don’t know, but we gotta do something.”

“Right now, I think all we can do is wait and see. If they don’t come back, then I think it’s safe to assume they are lost.”

Fuck this. I can’t believe he’s talking like this.

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/25/2012

Of course I wanted to help, but what could we do now but wait? This was not a group of warriors, we had nothing to fight with. At this point I wasn’t quite sure what we were going to do. All we can do is wait.

As the others kept checking the window for any sign of Jude and Timothy I busied myself with observing the affected and working back through the literature I had acquired, trying to find more — more clues, more ways to possibly fight this. I had to, I had to keep my mind occupied somehow.

No signs of recovery yet, they all appear to be near catatonic, chanting the phrase still, at least until they hear or see me, then they are screaming it again. But, I am at least getting better at observing without being observed, even if there is very little to observe. What do the words mean? It seems like such a nonsensical phrase, all nouns, no sentence structure or grammar. Rye dance, moth oil. Do the words themselves have some intrinsic meaning? Is it the combination of phonemes that triggers something deep in the reptilian part of the brain? No, it appears to work in other languages, so it couldn’t be the sounds. It must be the meanings of the words, perhaps the images that they generate when heard. Of course, I can’t study it without reading it in its entirety. I am sure I’ve already been exposed, and am now only getting by due to my lack of sleep. Maybe if I go without sleep for long enough? Perhaps that is what the ancients did; stay up drinking and having orgies and the lack of sleep kept them from being permanently affected. Again, a rather difficult theory to test.

Maybe if I slipped Eric a tranquilizer to see if he succumbs after sleeping. Although, I can’t be completely sure he’s even been exposed. Given enough time I might be able to test this theory, and if something has happened to Jude and Timothy then we will have plenty of time, as I don’t see another way for us to get out of here. We have enough food for a few days at most, and there might still be some in the kitchen, but unless some authority, some savior appears, unless the tide turns or the effects eventually wear off, we will die here.

From the journal of Timothy Lorne

12/25/2012

We tried to keep busy, loading up all the weapons so we would be ready, you know, when we figured out what we were going to do. Joe showed me how, it was pretty easy. I’d used a shotgun before, when I was a kid. My dad had taken me duck hunting, once, but he got drunk and was never invited out again. He did that, a lot.

But the loading only kept us busy so long. Then it was up to me to try and talk to Joe, keep him up to date, keep him remembering. I talked about the boat, where we would go. How we could fish and collect rainwater and go down to the Bahamas where no one was infected and the women were beautiful and everything would be great.

We had already been in here at least an hour I guess, maybe longer, it had seemed like forever, and I wasn’t sure how he was holding up. Every once in a while he would just stare at the nutters, with his brow furrowed like he was trying to figure something out. Plus, it was really hard for me to talk over all the noise they were making. God damn those things do make a racket.

Every once in a while one would try to squeeze through, even though you could hear bones popping and it had to hurt like a muddy fucker. So I would take ’em out with sweet Suzie, you know, to save ammo. We had a decent amount but I was guessing Joe decided not to shoot our way out cuz we wouldn’t have enough left to get us to the boat.

Joe had pointed the boat out to me back in the hospital and I thought it was a swell idea, even though I’m not real crazy about the water. Now you think growing up around the Massachusetts coast and all I would love it but I had just never learned to swim, wasn’t interested, that’s all. But I just had to keep from falling off the boat, that’s all, until we get wherever we were going.

I’m sure they had a plan for where to take it, maybe an island somewhere where we’d be safe. Course I couldn’t understand what they were saying so I didn’t know the rest of the plan once we get to the boat, but it made sense, an island. Or maybe to find a bigger boat and cross the ocean, see if the Europeans are doing OK and not affected. I wasn’t sure, some of the people on the news looked foreign, so I didn’t know for sure, if they would be OK. Didn’t really want to cross the ocean anyway, just find a nice island with bananas and coconuts and stuff and live there, like Gilligan’s Island.

Joe started eyeing me, looking confused and a little irritated.

He tried talking to me and I tried telling him I couldn’t understand him. He pointed to his lips, not sure what that meant. Then he looked at the crazies, and he pointed at them and started yelling something at me.

It looked like he was asking a question.

“I have no idea what you’re saying Joe, I have brain damage.”

He was quiet for a while so I tried talking to him.

“I have brain damage Joe, and so do you, so your memory is messed up. Everyone has gone nuts but us, not sure why, but those people ain’t people no more. They’ve gone crazy, they want to kill us and eat us. The rest of our people are back in the hospital waiting for us. Joe?”

He just stared at the crazies, blank. Then he looked at me and suddenly he was pissed. Was he infected? Was he gone? I hadn’t seen it coming.

He jumped and grabbed me by the collar and slammed me against the wall. Damn he was strong. And he started yelling something and pointed at himself, I think he was saying his name wasn’t Joe.

“I know your name’s not Joe, but I don’t know what it is because I can’t understand you. I can’t understand anyone. I’m sorry, I have brain damage.”

He pushed me and let go. Then just sat down and stared at the infected, looking more hopeless than I had ever seen anyone look.

“Joe?”

He grabbed a gun and pointed it at me and yelled something. I knew what someone yelling shut up looked like, I had seen it plenty of times before. I shut up.

Ah, then he noticed the guns.

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/25/2012

There was a black dog in the corner, broad chest and red mouth, staring at me, just staring, then it smiled, a rye smile, it smiled and winked and lunged and I jerked awake.

I had been sitting up, so I couldn’t have been out longer than a second or two. I had just taken more uppers so I couldn’t take any more right now, but the lack of sleep was getting to me. The lack of sleep and the waiting. Waiting for some sign from Jude. Waiting for them to get back to rescue us. I tried to keep busy again, reading through what I had, but that was hard so I watched the affected, pacing back and forth from cell to cell to stay alert. If the phrase didn’t get me, this not sleeping just might. Just might drive me insane.

I started writing down what we would need to do, in case I wasn’t around later to help. Cassie or Eric would have to handle things as best they could. There might be more food in the kitchen, then maybe in the other buildings. Water was still running but we should still keep filling up our supplies. I didn’t have much else. I left instructions for the tranquilizers in case they wanted to put the affected in our cells down. Told them how much to use in their food to knock them out, and how much more if they wanted to kill them. It was more merciful than letting them die from dehydration, though I’m not sure they really feel anything. Of course I didn’t say it, but if things get too bad, they can always use it on themselves. Is that what it would come to, for them, for me? Is this how the world ends? How many others are left? A few brain damaged individuals? Some insomniacs? Some drug addicts who haven’t slept in days? Or would they be dead by now anyway? Wouldn’t we be if we weren’t safe in here behind bars? While they were out there, attracted to us, the unaffected, like moths to a flame? Perhaps some untouched lost tribes in the Amazon, perhaps they would be the root of a new civilization. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

I suppose nature would take over. Our buildings would collapse. Elk running through the streets, hunted by tigers and bears and wolves. Wolves. Black wolves. In the corner. Staring at me.

Fuck. I was almost out again. I maybe have to risk more uppers soon, better to have a heart attack than fall asleep and succumb to the phrase. The phrase.

From the journal of Timothy Lorne

12/25/2012

He started crying. OK, not crying, but there were tears in his eyes. He was still staring at them, and they were still yelling at us, wanting to get in, to get us. And then he got on his, on his damned knees, and put his hands together, and I knew he was praying. I didn’t know he was religious, and maybe he wasn’t before this, but something like this, I suppose it could bring it out in you. Or the other way around, I suppose it could really make you hate God, to see the things we’ve seen. Maybe he even thought he was in hell. I couldn’t blame him, trapped in here, blood and gore all over the floors and bars, insane mutilated blood covered freaks trying to get in at us from all sides. If this wasn’t hell, what was? Maybe this is where it came from, a sickness from hell. Or maybe some sort of hell speak, that’s why the schizo’s ears were covered, why I wasn’t affected, ’cause I couldn’t understand. And Joe couldn’t remember. But what about the Doctor and Ponch and the others? I don’t know, but maybe that’s it, a demon language that drives people insane. Like when those people in little small town church’s start talking crazy and roll around on the ground.

I remember seeing it, when we visited family when I was a kid. My dad’s brother, my dad had come from Alabama, my dad’s brother had taken us to church, and I was just a young kid. The preacher was something else. I had actually liked it, I had never been to church before. The preacher was loud and fun, and people would get up and praise Jesus, and put their hands up, and I thought this was amazing, this was the real deal. But my dad, he looked disgusted. And things just kept building up and then people came to the front and the preacher, he would lay his hands on them, and then they would start speaking gibberish, and their eyes would roll up in their heads and they would start writhing on the floor. And my uncle went up, and started talking nonsense, and his eyes went white and he was on the floor, this big bear of a man, writhing like he was possessed, like worms were under his skin, and I was scared, real scared. And I begged my dad, I wanted to leave so bad, I was so scared. And then he was disgusted with me. But he went outside with me, I think he wanted the excuse anyway. He told me to man the fuck up, he said that a lot. He said they were just crazy, the people in there, not to be scared of them, they were just crazy. Religion, he said, was a mind virus. He had read that somewhere, a mind virus.

Later, when my uncle came out and we went back to his house, dad was watching TV and my uncle asked me what I thought about all that. I said it scared me. He said not to be scared, speaking in tongues, it was a sign that the Holy Spirit was present, that the Spirit had possessed them. That they were speaking the language of the angels, that that was what I had heard.

Well, what if the demons had a language too? What if that’s what everyone was speaking, why it was making them crazy, ’cause it was demon speak?

Joe was still praying, begging, I guess begging to get out of hell, and I just couldn’t’ take it anymore. I took two of the handguns and walked right up to the bars and starting shooting, aiming carefully, aiming right at their faces. And more stepped up, more got shot, and more stepped up, and more brains were blown out all over the others. And they didn’t care, some of them even ate it, and ate the fallen, and more were shot, until I had cleared just enough out of that one spot that I thought I had a chance, and I dropped the guns and lunged for it.

It was just barely out of my reach. I pushed myself through the bars as hard and far and fast as I could and got a finger on it and pulled it a little closer, another stretch and I moved it a little closer, and then I had it. And they had me. Steel like grips on my arm, and burning pain from them biting, biting hard and deep. What if I was wrong? What if it was like the movies and it was passed by being bitten? But it probably would’ matter, they were going to tear my arm off and I was going to bleed to death here in this cell anyway.

And then something went boom and all I could hear was ringing, but I felt another boom and another, close enough I didn’t have to hear it, and something was pulling me hard, pulling me away from them.

Joe. Joe pulled me to the other wall and started tearing his already pretty torn shirt and wrapping it around my arm above the bites. He was trying to stop the bleeding. It was tight, but my arm wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Hell I could still move my fingers. And it was still in them, my arm still had a vice grip on it. Joe’s journal.

I handed it to him and thanked him and grabbed his arm and pointed to the words on it and to his journal. I knew the writing on there was something to remind him, I had seen the Doctor point to it and to his journal. And then I passed out.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

I was reading my journal, remembering the only way I knew how. I had treated Tim Toms wounds while he was out, using our shirts to wrap them and stop the bleeding. Wasn’t’ much more I could do right now. Then I started reading, catching up. Ignoring the demons, the affected. I had started to think of them as demons in the last hour or so, while my memory was going and I was trying to make sense of what was going on and I couldn’t. At first I thought maybe this was an Iraqi prison, and these other prisoners were just insane. Maybe they were experimenting on them and had given them something or driven them crazy. Or maybe this was some kind of mind game, brainwashing, like sleep deprivation or something, and they were trying to make me insane. Break me so I would talk. Then I realized how grotesque they were, and started thinking they were demons. And I was in hell. In hell because I had never believed. Had never believed in a God. And for a while there I did, I believed, and I begged for mercy, begged for forgiveness. And, hell, maybe I still do. For how long, who knows? Can you have religion when you can’t remember being religious? Could a soul be saved that didn’t remember its own sins?

I was reading, and then writing, and thinking about these things I had no place pondering upon under these circumstances, when I heard something. It sounded like an engine. I noticed a few of the affected in the back had left, to go see what it was. I wasn’t at the point in my journal where I knew if anyone else was left. And then I heard a siren, a loud fucking siren, and more of the affected went to see what the ruckus was.

And then the wall fucking moved behind me. They must have come in quick because I had barely heard the engine before it hit the wall. When it hit some of the wackos must have been in the way because brains and blood came squirting through the barred window on the wall above us. Then the truck pulled forward and backed in again, hitting the wall and crushing a few more affected.

Tim Tom was up by this time, “The delivery van!”

I had no idea what he was talking about. Then the back door slid up and open and there was a tall guy with glasses — he looked like shit.

“Doctor!” yelled Tim Tom.

“My God,” the doctor said, “you’re both still alive.”

This must be Dr. Gates, he was in my journal.

“Well, it took you long enough,” I said jovially because I really didn’t know how long it had taken them.

“Sorry, we thought you were probably dead until we heard the gunshots about 40 minutes ago.”

Tim Tom looked at me and shrugged. That’s right, the journal had said he wouldn’t understand us.

“It was Tim Tom,” I told the Doctor, “he was getting the journal for me.”

“Oh, yes, you remember me, don’t you?”

“No, but I’ve read about you.”

“Ah well, not much time now, they’re trying to get in the truck. We still have the welding equipment, do you think that we can cut the bars with it?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

And older women, wild looking but pretty, brought the welding stuff up.

“Sally!” Tim Tom yelled. “Where’s Ponch?”

The Doctor tried to explain by cupping his ear, we could still hear the siren.

“Who do you think is driving the cruiser with the siren on that drew them away?”

Tim Tom figured it out while he was grabbing the welding equipment and getting what he could through the bars. The helmet wouldn’t fit so he just snapped off the visor.

“Oh, is that him in the police car?” Tim Tom asked.

The Doctor nodded then looked at me.

“Seems that Eric was also a car thief as well as a drug dealer and meth maker.”

“What about the rest?” Tim Tom asked.

The Doctor looked grim. “We’re the only ones who made it.”

Tim Tom saw his face and knew what he had said. “Marcus even?”

The Doctor just shook his head.

Tim Tom looked sad for a sec but a loud bang on the van reminded him he didn’t have time to mourn right now. He started cutting the bars with the welding equipment, pulling the tubes through as best he could. It was a bit awkward because the whole tank couldn’t come through, but he was making good time which was good because more of the affected were coming back, collecting at the bars and it sounded like banging on the sides of the van.

“Oh, here,” I passed a couple of the .45s through the bars, “Do you know how…”

Cassie pulled the top back to see if there was one in the chamber, then slipped the clip out to see if it was loaded, slid it back in and was ready to go.

“You scare me,” I said. “So you know how to use a gun?”

“Why do you think I was sent to the forensic ward before getting over here?”

“Oh.”

She went to the front, rolled down a window and put the gun right up to the bars we had welded on the outside and shot the affected that were right up against them. It might attract more but at least it seemed to distract them from rocking the van.

Timmy had two bars down and was moving fast. The Doctor had passed me the map we had made so I would remember what to do and was catching me up as best he could over the welding and the chanting and the screaming and the groaning, “so we are going through the sewage treatment plant to get to this tugboat. Now, there are fires there and there that we will have to get around, and then hope that there aren’t more.”

I studied the map, committing it to memory as best I could. I knew at least that I could remember it long enough to get us there unless something stopped us.

The siren came closer and attracted them away again and then screamed back off into the distance.

“You said you could probably work the tug.”

“Yeah,” I replied, “I can, I learned that before my injury.”

“OK. We hadn’t really discussed it but we could try some of the islands along the coast, just to rest for a while, and maybe we could see if Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket is clear and find food and shelter there for a while, and maybe another boat.” The Doctor had some good ideas.

Tim Tom had all the bars out now and the doctor splashed some water from a bottle he had packed on it to cool it down. “I packed all the food we had and as much water as we can carry.”

“Great, now take these.” I handed him the big bag of guns.

“Wow, quite a haul.”

“Yeah.”

I motioned to Tim Tom to go through first.

“Tim Tom, weld a few holes in the side, big enough…” I used my hands to point to the side and then circled the end of the shotgun, “for this.”

“Make holes for the shotgun?”

“Yes.”

I handed a gun to the Doctor, “you know how to use this?”

“No.”

“Just point and pull the trigger. Cassie will show you how to reload.”

“Everyone ready?”

Cassie had two guns, the Doctor had one, and Tim Tom was holding a boom stick in his good hand. It had a pistol grip and he was big and strong enough that he could probably shoot it with one hand and handle the kick. Guess we’ll find out.

“OK, let’s do this.”

I jumped in the driver’s seat and we were off.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

First we had to ram the entry gate, which shouldn’t have been a big deal, the delivery van was big enough. The problem was that there were a whole lot of affected on the other side of it, trying to get in to see what all the commotion was. In fact, it quickly became quite obvious that the gate had been keeping a whole lot of affected away from the hospital this whole time, making things easier on us. And now here they were, crowds coming from all over the island to get us.

I built up speed and we hit it hard plowing through a crowd of wackies several bodies thick. But we slowed down quick, running over bodies as we went, almost getting stuck like we were going through mud. The van was sliding and shifting, I didn’t want to think about on what.

“Shoot, thin them out,” I hollered.

Tim Tom had already burned a couple of holes in the sides just big enough to shoot through, and Cassie started with the .45 on one side, taking several shots as we all realized the problem with this plan.

“Fuck, Cassie, stop!”

My ears were ringing, but probably not as bad as Tim Toms and the Doctors. Course, Cassie didn’t notice because she already had earplugs in and her head wrapped.

“Oh yes,” I think the Doctor said as I saw him reaching into his pocket in the rear view mirror. He pulled out some more earplugs. “Thought we might need these.” And he handed them to me and Tim Tom, putting some in his ears too.

Tim Tom was busy welding more holes as best he could with the van rocking. He had a few at eye level some big enough that he was able to start with his shotgun on the opposite side of Cassie.

We were so fucking surrounded that there was no way you could take a shot without hitting some of them. The front windshield was swarmed, the affected grabbing onto the bars we had welded on. But the van kept moving, and soon we were through the worst of the crowd and I was moving faster. Blind, but faster. I was able to get back up to speed as I turned onto the road that would take us to the sewage treatment plant and slammed on the brakes. Everyone lurched.

“Sorry, I should have warned you.” I needed to get the affected off the windshield. “Get down,” I yelled and motioned with my hand and started driving again, swerving to try to get them off. It was working, but they did leave a few fingers behind, broken off in the criss crossing bars. I tried to look behind us and took my earplugs out to see if I could see or hear Eric in the police car. I was hoping we had managed to make a path for him through the crowd. He made it, even covered in affected. Now we were on the way.

I took a hard right turn, heading towards a wasteland of smoke and gases, hoping we would even be able to make it on this side. I had studied the map right before we took off so I knew which way to go if it was still open.

It was, to some extent. It was smoky, but it was coming from the other side, so it definitely could have been worse. The affected were also getting thicker, I guess they were attracted by the smoke or explosions, I’m not sure, but they didn’t seem to give a fuck that they were taking in deep breaths of acrid smoke.

There were even bodies of affected scattered about that must have passed out or even died from the smoke. Man, these fuckers were dumb. The ones who were all over the road were actually harder to deal with than the ones running at the van. I could knock the standing ones right out of the way, but had to start trying to dodge the bodies to avoid the bumping and the possibility of puncturing a tire on their bones.

The smoke seemed to start clearing out and that is when I saw the bad news, a wall of flame right in the path I had been planning to take.

As I was trying to figure out which way to go the Doctor got up in the front seat with the map. “Try left, this way.”

It took us through a crowd of affected but it did seem to get us clear of the fire, although not the smoke.

It was then that I realized the police siren was getting quieter.

“What? What is Eric doing?”

“He’s drawing them away, Jude. He knew it was only a matter of time before he slept enough that he might succumb.”

“You knew he was going to.”

“He didn’t say anything, but I had a feeling. When he said good luck it felt very… final.”

“Dammit.”

I kept driving as the smoke was getting thicker and coming in through the AC and the holes in the side. Maybe that part wasn’t that well thought out.

Coughing I asked, “can you get us through this?”

At this point I wasn’t’ seeing the affected until I hit them, but they were still there in the smoke.

“I’m trying, just don’t hit anything. And definitely don’t go over into the tanks.”

Great. I had slowed almost to a crawl, afraid to hit something and be unable to keep going, but then it started to clear up a little. I think the wind had actually shifted.

I sped up, seeing a fairly clear path ahead of me.

Hell yes.

And then the fucking world exploded.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

Of course I heard it first, but then the whole van tipped up onto two wheels and hovered there for a second.

I heard a thud as Tim Tom slammed into the side, giving the van a little more momentum and weight on the side that was in the air.

We came down in what seemed like slow motion and hit the ground hard, rocking from side to side for a few seconds.

Good old Tim Tom.

“Everyone all right?” I asked.

“Yes,” Cassie yelled, “ just fucking drive.”

I started again but quickly realized the tank that had blown was way too close to us, and unfortunately, ahead of us. Flame was now in the straight path down to the water that we had had before.

“Dammit. Where now?” I asked the Doctor.

“Back up.”

“Really?”

“It’s the only way.”

So I kicked it in reverse, backing blindly up since there was no rear view and the mirrors on the outside had been torn off. I couldn’t even put my head out of the window to look because of the bars we had welded on the outside, oh, and the affected might tear it off anyway.

I managed to not hit anything somehow and the Doctor yelled, “OK, to the left here.”

I turned and headed down a ways, through more affected and smoke, until I heard, “OK, right now.”

“A little more warning Doc.”

“Sorry.”

I took a hard right and we were on the way to the water again. I sped up as much as I possibly could, hoping to get well ahead of any affected following us because I knew we were going to need a head start once we got to the boat. A little time at least to get out, untie it, and get going.

At last we were down by the water. I took a left and we were cruising right alongside the barge and heading toward the tugboat. Then I realized we might have a problem.

“Shit.”

It was attached to the raw sewage barge. Of course it made sense, that’s why it was docked there in the first place, it had pulled the big barge in.

It would take a lot less time to release the barge and tugboat from the dock than to try to get the tugboat unhooked from the barge itself.

“OK, change of plan everybody.” I turned around, “we’re going to have to untie the barge to, it’s going with us.”

“What?”

“Goddammit.”

“Sorry. Try to explain it to Tim Tom as best you can. I’ll need him to help.”

I got back down to the first tie point and stopped, hopping into the back.

I grabbed a shotgun and opened the door and didn’t hesitate a second before opening fire on two affected heading our way.

“OK,” I pointed at Tim Tom and using my hands made what I was saying clear, “come with me. You two cover us.”

They pointed their guns out, shooting any even close to us, Cassie actually hitting them. Luckily, I had given us a little time and not many were right here, but I knew the guns would start drawing them right to us like moths to a flame.

Tim Tom figured out what we were doing real quick and we got the huge rope off the tie and jumped back in the van. I headed toward the front, not bothering to close the door since we weren’t going far to get to the next one.

“Hold on,” I started driving and stopped again.

“I got this one,” Tim Tom said and jumped out, taking shots with his shotgun as he ran and got the rope off the next one all by himself, even with the injured hand. He was a big tough motherfucker.

“OK,” he yelled and jumped in, trading his now empty shotgun for a fresh one and telling the Doctor to reload that one.

To the next one I drove, hoping we would keep getting lucky and they would all be this easy, with plenty of slack in the ropes, cause if they started getting tight we were fucked.

The next one came off easy, but with the back starting to drift out I knew this last one was going to be a bitch, so I jumped out with Tim Tom.

Damn. The rope was taught. We couldn’t get it off. We tried hard, affected sprinting toward us, Cassie and the Doctor putting a few down but not enough. Then Tim Tom pointed his shotgun at the rope and fired and I’ll be damned if it didn’t fucking work. It tore off a big chunk of the rope and another blast cut it right off and we were on our way again.

While the slack in the rope was good news for getting it off, I realized real quick it wasn’t all good news. I could see affected jumping onto the boat, some grabbing at the rope and climbing up. OK, maybe they were a little smarter than I gave them credit for.

The ropes to the barge itself were much easier since it wasn’t being pulled away from the pier by the barge quite yet.

We grabbed the bag of ammo and food and water the Doctor had packed and ran aboard, affected right on our heels. Tim Tom and I had cover fire duty, our shotguns taking out a few at a time. I aimed low, at the concrete, and took out the front of the crowd with shot that ricocheted off the ground, the way riot cops are taught to do with rubber shot. It bounces off the hard surface and spreads out, taking out their legs. With these guys it would only slow them down, not stop them at all, but it was enough to put those on the front on the ground and the ones after them were sent spiraling when they tripped over them. Then more shots at the ground and I was hitting the ones on the ground in the head while Tim Tom continued shooting the ones behind them straight on.

Everyone was on board and we headed up the ladder and I kicked it in as Tim Tom released the final rope and we were off. Affected were jumping off the pier, trying to reach us on the boat but were just far enough that they went right into the water except for a few more athletic ones who jumped far enough to hit the side before going in. One particularly tall one actually managed to grab a hold of the boat but a shotgun blast took care of that. Now we were drifting free and I had to go get that engine started before we drifted into the other side of the river.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

From the journal of Timothy Lorne

12/25/2012

While Joe went to get this tub moving we had our hands full up on top. We had gotten all the nutters off the boat but some were swimming out to us and we weren’t moving fast enough to get away from them. Plus there were some on the barge, wading through the shit to try and get to us, even climbing down the line to get to our ship.

And of course, as luck would have it, the tow ropes weren’t rope, but thick metal cable that I couldn’t just shoot through like the mooring ropes had been. And they were attached to a big reeling rig that I had no idea how to work.

“Any idea how to work this?” I asked Cassie.

Cassie shook her head no and Joe and the Doctor were busy trying to get this thing started and going.

The best we could do was pick them off as they tried coming down the line until there were none left, and there couldn’t have been too many on the barge, they hadn’t had enough time.

Of course, that was all depending on if we got going or not.

We were drifting pretty fast, and the barge itself was drifting much faster, pulling the end of the boat around and putting pressure on the tow rig. If they didn’t get it going soon we might drift into the other bank. The other bank which was chock full of crazies just waiting to get aboard. Apparently, we had attracted quite a crowd now, on both banks, watching us, some of them even trying to swim out to us, though it didn’t look like many were likely to make it. We were drifting too fast and they weren’t swimming like people swim, just kind of wildly kicking and dog paddling. Guess they had forgotten how to swim too.

I kept trying to figure out the tow rig, how to loosen it or better yet get us detached from the barge when Cassie drew my attention to the far end of the barge.

It had almost completely turned and was getting mightily close to the other bank.

I went to the front and yelled, “Joe, how’s it going? We’re getting pretty close to the bank on the other side and we have company waiting for us over there.”

He took a look out and said something I can only assume was a swear and was back at it.

I heard the engine rumble, then stop. OK, progress. Then it rumbled again.

Good, good. Oh shit.

The other side of the barge was close enough to the shore now that some of them were making it to it and trying to get aboard. If we got too close it might even get stuck, then we would really be fucked. I had to find a way to get us detached but of course I couldn’t read any of the signs and Cassie was trying but didn’t seem to have any idea how to work the rig either.

Now the barge was right up by the shore and some of them had made their way around it and were climbing up the rope. It wouldn’t be long before they made it up the barge and over to us. Worse than that though, the front of the barge was coming around to the bank and dragging the tugboat with it. If we got right up to the shore in this we were fucked. The shore was crawling with crazies now, they looked like bugs on a carcass, waiting for us just right over there, and I didn’t think any amount of guns or ammo was going to save us if we hit that shore.

Another rumble, and this one kept going. Holy shit, we had a chance. Now Joe was trying to get it going forward but the end of the barge on shore was giving him some trouble. He yelled something at Cassie and she replied, looking at the cable ropes.

I felt the small tug rumbling and could hear the cable straining and he must have been kicking it up to try to get us loose, and it was rocking. The sound of screeching metal against rocks was the sound of the barge getting free of the shore, the powerful little tugboat pulling as hard as it fucking could. God, I hope we don’t burn it out, then we would be dead for sure.

But it worked, we were free, we were on the way past the bridge and out to sea.

Oh, the bridge, that was a whole ’nuther problem.

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

I gave the wheel to Dr. Gates, telling him to just keep it going straight so I could see how things were going outside.

We were still attached to the barge, and the barge had affected on it, heading up through the shit to where we were, and not giving a damn about it.

Tim Tom and Cassie were fending them off, no real problem, while I tried to figure out how to get us free from the barge when suddenly I heard a loud thump, then a splash. The affected were falling out of the sky now.

“What the fuck?”

We were passing under a bridge. The affected from both sides were sprinting up the bridge and some of them were even jumping off to try and get us, they wanted us that bad. The problem wasn’t that they could survive the fall, a couple hit the boat and were dead, the problem was just getting hit by a falling one.

We all had to get in the wheelhouse to avoid being landed on, which meant not being able to protect the boat from any trying to crawl down the tow line from the barge, and not being able to work on detaching us from the barge. We were moving fast enough that we were clear of the bridge after a minute so we were able to go out and see the damage. A few broken bodies of affected, blood smeared on the deck, but it didn’t look they managed to break anything.

Two had made it down the rope to the boat but I took them out with the .45 and Tim Tom got the others trying to make it down the line. But they were still jumping from the bridge, onto the barge now, and it looked like they were surviving that fall because, well, they were falling into a nice soft giant pile of shit. We could see a lot of them jumping from the bridge, and if even just some of them survived we would be in trouble if we can’t get detached from the barge.

Now we were working on getting detached from the barge while trying to keep the affected from coming down the line to our boat. It was amazing how fast they could come down that metal wire line. But, I guess, when you didn’t give a fuck about burning your hand with friction or falling in, it was easier to move much faster. Cassie and Tim Tom were keeping them off, but there were several lines for them to come down. We were attached very close to the barge and eventually we might run out of ammo. Plus, we had to stop and reload. We couldn’t keep this up forever, and worse, I could already see another bridge coming, covered in affected. They seem to have noticed us, and there were probably a few more bridges until we were clear. If we can detach the barge then at least we can keep them from getting aboard that and crawling down the ropes at us, and we’ll be able to move much faster past the bridges so they’re less likely to land on us.

I managed to loosen the line up some, giving them a longer distance to cross to us. But I still couldn’t figure out how to detach us. It looked like it was attached at the barge, so that was the only place to easily detach it. The shotgun wasn’t going to sever that thick steel line and it would be dangerous to do anyway. No, we were going to have to find some way to do it at this end, and soon.

Then it hit me and I ran back into the wheelhouse.

“Doctor, did you throw the welding in the bag?”

“Well, yes, I think, yes.”

“Hot dammit.”

I went and grabbed it and took it to Tim Tom. He knew exactly what I was wanting. Better than that, he seemed to have a good idea of the best way to do it too.

He started cutting as close to the mechanism as possible, to avoid the cable flaying after it broke and cutting one of us in half. And, he cut some off each at a time, so that once they started coming apart we wouldn’t have one or two cables on one side pulling us.

“Doc, slow it down,” I yelled.

“You sure?”

“Just a bit.”

We couldn’t just put on the brakes or the barge would hit us.

Tim Tom kept working, first this side then that, until he was down to one cable still attached on each side, and he kept going back and forth, cutting some off one then the other.

When one went he went back to work on the other as the boat started leaning to one side because of the pull of the barge.

“Slow down a bit more.”

The barge was getting closer. The affected on that side were already starting to jump at us to try to get to the boat, but not quite making it.

I knew he wouldn’t know what I was saying but I couldn’t help but yell it, “come on Tim Tom, hurry up.”

He got it as a few affected made it to the boat and we had to clear them off the deck with our .45s. As soon as the last cable snapped he turned to me and grinned, yelling, “hey Joe, Merry Fucking Christmas.”

I grinned then turned to the front. “Doctor,” I yelled, “full speed. Full speed!”

He cranked it up and we were off, and just in time. We were almost right under the other bridge now and the affected were leaping off at us.

A few hit but died on impact, and we went through fast enough that not many made it. We were able to get up enough speed, these things weren’t exactly built for speed, to get under those last two bridges and then we were out at open sea.

I took over.

All clear.

CHAPTER TWENTY

From the journal of Jude Guerrero

12/25/2012

I suppose now was the time to tell them my plan. My plan that I had written down back when we first saw the boat. None of them had really talked about what we were going to do after we got the boat. Where we were going to go. I’m sure they all had their ideas, some island somewhere, maybe Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket or maybe even somewhere farther away. An island with at least some resources; shelter, food, fresh water. They would start talking about it soon, after the shock of being free wore off, and then I would have to tell them what we were actually doing.

You see, after seeing the boat and reading my journal some, I realized there could, no, there probably are, people somewhere who were unaffected. I didn’t hold out much hope for most of civilization, the Phrase had probably been translated into most existing languages, had probably spread throughout the world. And those, like us, who were not affected because they were brain damaged, or deaf and blind, or for some other reason, they were probably dead. Let’s face it, if we hadn’t been able to get into an easy to secure ward for the criminally insane, with heavy gates, barred windows, locks, if we hadn’t had vans and someone who knew how to weld bars on the windows, if we hadn’t been on an island, if we hadn’t been so close to a state police station with guns and ammo and a place inside to hole up, if we hadn’t had a boat so close, and, honestly, if I hadn’t been an ex-Navy SEAL, and if we didn’t have these unique disabilities, then we would all be dead or affected.

But, I remember before my accident, hearing about lost tribes in the Amazon, tribes who had not yet come into contact with the rest of civilization. Tribes with unique, unknown languages. And there are other small pockets of people throughout the world who spoke old, almost dead languages. I had read about them when studying languages. Some of these people might actually survive, cut off from our dying, or rather dead, civilization. And maybe someday the affected would kill each other off or die. After all, they aren’t terribly bright. How long will they be able to live on their own? Maybe someday the affected will be gone and one or more of the small pockets of survivors might actually venture out into the dead world, the last surviving humans, and start to recreate, no, create a new civilization. But, what happens if they find our old writings and interpret our languages and eventually find the Phrase? Would it wipe them out too? Don’t they deserve a chance? A chance to start it all over.

The Phrase, it is probably everywhere. People were writing it in blood. True, Twitter and Facebook and all that were dead and gone. But people probably wrote it down, graffitied it, put it in their diaries. It might even be in newspapers and books. And what happens when they find it? Don’t they deserve a chance to start over fresh, without the Phrase?

You see, I may not remember what happened in that cell, but I did get a chance to write it down. Something happened to me, something in me changed, I can still feel it even if I don’t remember it. What are the chances that a brain damaged navy SEAL, with some knowledge of navy ships, would be in a well-protected forensic mental ward, and near enough to weapons and a boat? It’ no accident, you see. It’s no accident.

I have a mission now. I have something that I MUST do. This tugboat can get us down to Annapolis, Virginia, a place I am familiar with because I spent a great deal of time there before my injury. A place with warships, battleships, cruiser, destroyers. Of course, with this small crew I can’t get one of those big ships going on its own, but with the tugboat, or some of the navy issue tugboats, I can pull one of the smaller cruisers. I can pull it up and down the coast and I can use the big .50 caliber guns on board to hit any fuel tanks, oil refineries, anything else that will blow up to set the cities on fire. And maybe we can even figure out how to use the cruise missiles, the tomahawks, to hit targets farther in.

With no one coming out to try to stop us, we’ll have plenty of time to cruise right up to shore, take our time aiming and firing, and then we don’t even have to rush out. It’s not like the affected will be firing back at us. It could take us the rest of our lives, to go up and down the coast, slowly burning all the cities to the ground with our little tugboat dragging along a war ship. But we have the rest of our lives to do it, don’t we? We’ll have to find food and water along the way, and fuel. Maybe we can drag a few tankers and cruise ships out to sea, to an island somewhere. There are plenty near Virginia Beach, hell, there’s a whole long coast line that creates a harbor for hundreds of miles. We can blow up any bridges and the little bit of land that connects it to the mainland and easily secure the whole thing and anchor our ships in the harbor there along the coastline. Cruise ships will have a lot of food aboard, and we can figure out a way to get fuel from tankers into our boats.

We can start at the top of the east coast, that’s where most of the cities are anyway, and work our way down; Bangor, Boston, New York, Providence. Maybe we’ll even make it down to the Gulf, maybe. I doubt we’ll make it all the way to the West Coast, but we’ll try. The Northeast will take a while, with that concentration of cities, but burning it all down will have the biggest effect. And, if we can get the missiles working I know there are some nuclear warheads on some of the ships in Ann Arbor, I know that for a fact. We can use them to clear out even larger swaths of civilization. The fallout is only dangerous for a while, people are living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it’s not like a reactor collapse or anything, it’s much less radioactive material. Though, I suppose some reactors will be collapsing, won’t they? It’s unavoidable.

We just have to start the fires, and hope the flames will do the rest. Without anyone there to put out the fires they should spread easily. There’s plenty of fuel in a city, not just buildings but gas lines, chemical plants, cars full of gasoline, gas stations. Hell, New York is already on fire, we might find a lot of our work already done for us by the affected.

I can’t believe I’m writing this, or even thinking this. To set fire to my own country, the country I love, the country I fought for and almost died for. But, is it really my country anymore with everyone dead or affected? I can’t believe I’m going to burn cities down, cities full of people, full of books. Jesus, God, I’m going to become a book burner. And all those people. What will my body count be? Worse than a dictator’s? But, are they really even people anymore? They’re barely more than animals. And chances are any people who are left are already dead, or soon will be, devoured by those cannibals. Everything about the world I knew and loved, gone, burned down, by me. But what choice do I have? I must destroy my own civilization, or at least as much as I can, so that humanity has at least a chance to live.

Writing this is hard enough, but saying it out loud, trying to convince them that this is the only way, that will be so much harder.

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

12/25/2012

I can’t, I just can’t believe the things I’m hearing, the things Jude is saying. To destroy everything, everything we are, as a people, as the human race. Not everything of course, but as much as possible. To kill all those people; will it be thousands, millions? I can’t believe I’m hearing this madness.

Surely he is affected now or maybe he has gone mad after seeing so much death.

Will the others listen to him, ilk or not? Should I listen to him? Is he right that we must start over?

How can I watch established civilization burned to the ground? All the knowledge of centuries of progress gone?

I cannot. I am out here with them, but alone.

Maybe I could surprise him but can I take the other two under him myself?

Will they fight me or side with him? After all, faceless killing is easy. It’s not like they will see the people they are destroying. But I’m not a soldier and he is.

Would they listen to him otherwise?

So how can I possibly foil his plans?

I fear I cannot.

Will every evil we inflict be for the greater good?

Now I grasp I’d erred in favor of reason when reason has nothing to do with this.

Do I participate in this macabre dance?

Help to fire on cities full of people? Are they really people?

Is Jude correct in that we are guided by a divine providence?

Are we the last of humanity? The last vestige? Really?

We, the guides of this mobile firestorm.

Without Jude, would those two be able to continue this assault?

I’m thinking of things I abhor, nedless to say. Murder. Mayhem.

Entering the valley of the shadow of death as a deliverer instead of a receiver.

Is this what route I must take?

This unbearable genocide.

What if I begged Jude, would he rethink this?

Or can I figure out a way to change his mind?

Could I prod him into waiting? Buy myself time?

Or sabotage the navel vessel?

To prevent the massacre. Stop the mass murder.

But by killing what may be the last remaining real humans. Am I defending the affected? Am I… is it possible I am affected? It was just a short nap. But how could I be thinking of cold blooded murder if I’m not? Sure, I left the others to die in their cells, told Cassie and Eric that they were already affected. And that wasn’t a lie, not really. They were affected, even C5. But it was because I exposed them. But I was doing it to study The Phrase, to learn to fight it. To see the many ways it could be spread. To see if seeing it in pieces here and there would still affect someone. To see if hiding the phrase subliminally would affect someone. I did it for science, for humanity.

But, looking back at what I am writing, there is little doubt. I am affected. It is too late for me. And if you’ve read everything I’ve written so far, and if what I learned from testing on the others is accurate, it is too late for you too.

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Content

Marcus Caine
THE LAST WORDS
A Novella

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/21/2012

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/21/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/21/2012

CHAPTER THREE

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/21/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/22/2012

From the journal of Timothy Lorne 12/22/2012

From the journal of Cassandra Morgan 12/22/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/22/2012

CHAPTER FOUR

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/23/2012

From the journal of Marcus Welsh 12/23/2012

From the journal of Timothy Lorne 12/23/2012

From the journal of Cassandra Morgan 12/23/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/23/2012

CHAPTER FIVE

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/23/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/23/2012

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/23/2012

CHAPTER SIX

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/23/2012

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/23/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/23/2012

CHAPTER SEVEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/23/2012

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/23/2012

From the journal of Timothy Lorne 12/23/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/23/2012

From the journal of Timothy Lorne 12/23/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/23/2012

CHAPTER EIGHT

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/24/2012

From the journal of Timothy Lorne 12/24/2012

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/24/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/24/2012

CHAPTER NINE

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/24/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/24/2012

CHAPTER TEN

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

CHAPTER ELEVEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

CHAPTER TWELVE

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

From the journal of Timothy Lorne 12/25/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/25/2012

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

From the journal of Cassandra Morgan 12/25/2012

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/25/2012

From the journal of Timothy Lorne 12/25/2012

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/25/2012

From the journal of Timothy Lorne 12/25/2012

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

CHAPTER NINETEEN

From the journal of Timothy Lorne 12/25/2012

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

CHAPTER TWENTY

From the journal of Jude Guerrero 12/25/2012

From the journal of Dr. Montgomery Gates 12/25/2012

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