The Quarantine - Short Story

The Quarantine

He woke with a start; it was pouring outside, and the thunder raging.

"It started when the city first went under quarantine…The school was the last to know, but the first to be afflicted. The students were being infected one by one, while the surviving students were barring up classrooms, gathering potential weapons, and retrieving usable resources…”

“Hey Erik, pass me the chair,” said Anne. “We need to make sure nothing can get in here until help comes.” Erik and Anne both started to work silently once more, making sure that they would be safe. The fiends that were infected were constantly ravaging the rooms, and more and more people were being lost by the hour.

“How are we going to get into contact with the other people?” Joseph asked.

“We’re going to need to use the phone – here, there’s a list of all the rooms and the phone numbers!” said Erik.

“Hello?” Anne called. “Is anyone there?”

“Anne? Oh thank goodness, you’re the only ones we’ve been able to get a hold of!” Anne quickly recognized the low, raspy voice that belonged to Clyde.

“Yeah, listen. We’re trapped on the 4^th floor, is there anyway to set up a rendezvous point?” Anne replied.

“We’re in room 20 – *bzzt* *crackle*”. The power started to flicker, and the phone lines were down. Anne somehow knew that this was just the beginning of what was to come. She dragged the back-up generator out of the utility closet and hooked it up to the television, and to her dismay, she heard, “Broadcasting live from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, the city has been shut down and quarantined due to an unknown disease that has suddenly spread. No further information is known at this time.” It was then, the news station went off air, and the television was dark once more.

The three continued to set up their defenses once more slowly becoming aware of their situation. The dismal afternoon provided no tangible salvation, and to make matters worse, they were becoming cut off from the rest of their classmates, the city, and, even the country. Joseph went to go stack another chair behind the doors, but then he heard a very strange noise. It sounded like a low moan, almost like a growl. He ignored it and went to go get more chairs, until the strange moaning turned into scratching noises. Slowly, the scratching turned into small thuds, and progressively, into deafening, pounding noises. Annoyed, but curious, Joseph drew back the curtains, and the sight he gazed upon was evidently the worst he’s ever seen. He jumped back in horror, speechless; pointing with a clenched jaw, hoping that the “thing” he saw wouldn’t see him. He motioned to both Anne and Erik to come look at the door’s window.

The sight was sickening; it looked like a mutilated, mutated version of Clyde. The “thing” had a broken pair of horn-rimmed spectacles, jeans that were ripped off at the knees, and a loose grey T-shirt, stretched beyond belief.  It slobbered a green ooze-type substance from its nose and mouth, while screaming seemingly incoherent words and groans.

“Wha…What is that thing?!” Erik exclaimed. “It looks like a bad nightmare gone worse.”

“Just slowly back away from it Joseph,” Anne said. “Maybe it’ll lose interest and just run away.”

Joseph started to slowly back away from doors, step by step for what seemed to be an eternity. As he turned to Anne and Erik, the creature suddenly smashed through the door, going through the door and the barricades as if it were a thin sheet of paper. It barreled into the room, franticly looking around as if it were trying to located a certain object or person. Joseph, Anne, and Erik all spread out around the room, positioning themselves by the door, the far wall, and by the television. It set its eyes on Anne, then Erik, and started to move towards them. Right as it got a couple meters away from Erik, it swiftly turned around and runs towards the door it came into the room from. As the creature pounced towards the door, it hit Erik and the impact threw him out into the hallway. Lots of the Infected started to pour out into the hallway, smelling Erik’s scent. From there, it was a race – the Infected pouncing towards Erik while Erik would sprint back into the classroom.

Anne reached out and grasped Erik’s hand as he dived into the classroom. Before Anne could close to door again, an Infected managed to get through to her, and bit her arm before being pushed out the window by Joseph. She staggered towards the middle of the room, and collapsed on the floor of the room. She started to sweat vigorously and was squirming around – the virus must be getting through to her faster than expected. One by one, the Infected started to pile up at the doors, and proceeded to try and break down the doors. Erik and Joseph prepared themselves, as the last remaining barricade was to fall soon.

113 students were considered missing after the pandemic was contained. Erik and Joseph were not found.