Chapter One

The 12:09 Virus
Written by: Derrick Spears

I’ve read all the stories, watched all the movies, I even had a small stash of supplies. Did I think it would ever happen? No, who would of? It did though, and I find it pretty ironic that it happened on the first day of spring. When nature is coming alive, they did to. It’s been over two years since they showed up, and now I have some time to document everything that has happened.

My name is Derrick Spears. I lived in Norman, Ok when the crisis started. I call it a crisis, because that what all the talking heads on the TV called it. At first it wasn’t that bad, a new flu bug that was making some people sick. No reports of death and definitely no reports of un-death. Then it happened, the virus mutated. We know exactly where it started. It happened in an Oklahoma City hospital. A man, terminally ill with cancer contracted the flu virus. Somehow the chemotherapy along with the fact that the man was dying quickly gave the virus the push to adapt, it mutated and what happened after that changed the face of the world forever. I wonder sometimes if the man, his name was John Wilkins, had any idea the horrors that were happening in his body.

He died at 12:09 PM on March 20, 2012. Almost instantly the 12:09 virus went to work. (12:09 was the name given to the mutated virus courtesy of Fox News.) John lost his fight with the cancer, and the nurses were busy removing various machines from the man so he could be moved to the morgue. A nurse name Janet (last name lost) was leaning over the recently deceased man to remove a needle from his arm when John reanimated. In an instant he had opened his eyes, and had taken a chunk out of the nurse’s cheek. This was the first bite, the first transfer of the virus. How I wish it had of been stopped there. John was restrained by the other nurses, and Janet was taken to another room to have her wounds treated. The doctors simply thought that an error had occurred, that John hadn’t died, and simply suffered a stroke which caused him to become violent. They restrained him and tried to take some vital measurements. In the mean time, Janet had been sent home to recover from her wounds. Little did they know that the only chance of stopping the virus from spreading had walked out the door with Janet.
I later found out that Janet actually lived just a few blocks away from me. I discovered this on my way home from work. As I pulled into my neighborhood I was blocked by a CDC (Center for Disease Control) truck. The neighborhood had been quarantined while they searched for the nurse. I waited in my car for about an hour talking with a police officer that was helping to block the street. I heard the call come in on the radio ordering the search of the nurse called off. They had found her car in South Oklahoma City. I went home thinking that maybe she was just really sick with the flu, and they were trying to stop it from spreading more then the flu already had.
I woke up the next day and since it was a Sunday, I intended on just being lazy at home, but Chelsea (my girlfriend) had to go finish some stuff at work. I threw on some clothes and we left, the streets were pretty empty but I just attributed that to being Sunday. It was only a couple miles to our work, so we got there pretty fast, only to find the parking lot empty and the doors locked. We worked at a call center that operates 24 hours a day. Neither of us had ever seen it closed in the 3 years we worked there. It not being super important we decided to just go home and relax. On our way out of our office addition was when we noticed that something wasn’t right. Not only was there no traffic, but all of the buildings in the addition were closed too. I tried calling my boss on my cell phone to see exactly what was going on, but my phone went to a recorded messages saying “per order of the President of the United States all communication devices have been suspended in this area”.
Needless to say, we were both starting to get a little freaked out. We realized that not only was there very little traffic; there was none, not a single car on the road. In a building panic I started to drive home. I had made it about half way when an army transport blocked off the street in front of us. We were ordered at gunpoint to vacate our vehicle. After being thrown to the ground, handcuffed, and placed in a troop carrier I was told that the entire area was under Martial Law. We had violated it by being outside our home. I asked why my cell phone wasn’t working, and why Martial Law had been declared. One of the soldiers called me an idiot and asked me where I had been. He informed me that the flu virus had mutated, and that it had the effect of animating corpses. At which point another soldier joined in “Animated corpses my ass, we all know what those things are, just say it, Zombies”. I thought he was joking, so again, I asked, why my phone wasn’t working. I was informed that the president had ordered all communications in the area cut so that it wouldn’t induce panic outside the area. No phones, no internet. Why I asked? “Didn’t you just fucking hear him”? Another soldier added. “Zombies everywhere man”. Zombies like Dawn of the Dead zombies I asked? “I fucking wish” he said. I started to ask another question when the transport truck came to an abrupt stop. We were told to get off the truck. “Why can’t we just stay with you guys?” “We are under strict orders to only assist civilians to shelter. Under no circumstances are we to in any way endanger that, and having you guys with us would put that in jeopardy.” “What are we supposed to do then?” “Lock your doors” he said as the truck pulled away.
We were both in a state of shock, standing there in front of our house, watching the army transport drive away. When the truck disappeared around the corner, it was enough to put me into motion, I grabbed Chelsea and we went inside. Chelsea was still in shock, and wouldn’t even talk to me. She was just sitting there, crying, trying to adjust to this new warped world. I did my best to comfort her, and she fell asleep about 20 minutes later. It was at this point I snuck into the living room and turned on the TV. I tuned into CNN, and all they were talking about was a power black out impacting the entire state of Oklahoma. They said that due to the power outage all phones were out, and that it was expected to be fixed within the next couple of days. “Bullshit” I thought to myself, and turned it to the local news, only there wasn’t any local news on the usual channel, it was just a splash screen declaring technical difficulties. I quickly checked another local station, and that was when I saw my first zombie. There on the screen, gorging on someone, right in front of the camera. At first I couldn’t believe my eyes, it looked like a normal man, sitting there eating another person.
The human mind can’t adapt to that sort of thing quickly. I thought that I would react fast, be ready for anything after all the movies I watched and books I had read on the subject. Instead I sat there, terrified, trying to make sense of what I was seeing on the screen. The zombie seriously looked like an everyday Joe. After a minute I noticed a chunk of skin missing from his leg. Why that of all things woke me up I’ll never know, but instantly I started vomiting violently. I thought I was going to die right there on the living room floor. I couldn’t stop vomiting long enough to even get any air, but after a few minutes I laid back on the floor exhausted and was able to catch my breath.

Chapter Two -->