It was just another normal day in Cambridge Massachusetts. Casper walked across the crowded streets on his way to work. Life wasn’t exactly what he expected it to be but it wasn’t all that bad. He made enough money to sustain himself and that was all he could ask in the moment. He was talking on his cellphone clearly not having a very good conversation.

“Mom we are going to have this talk right now?”

“Yes we are. Listen to me Casper. You are a very smart boy. To have all of your potential wasted in order to work in a pizzeria is just plain stupidity. You need to get back to medicine right now.”

“Sorry mom but I don’t feel like going back right now. I still need to figure out what to do with my life”

“I am pretty disappointed Casper. Really I am. I never expected my brightest son to be on the mud. But don’t think this is over. We will have this talk again, and again, until you decide what is best for you. To go back to Harvard and continue studying to be someone in your life.”

His mother hang up the phone before Casper could even say anything else in return but it was alright. He was used to his mother’s temperament and a normal discussion wouldn’t be something that would throw his day off-balance. Arriving at the pizzeria, he was immediately greeted by his friend, Bryan.

“Hey there mate. Whats going on?”

Bryan was a tall man (taller than Casper in fact) that had blonde hair and blue eyes. He was pretty good-looking and was always having a new girlfriend every noe and then. He, just like Casper dropped out of med school. They were both from the same class and knew each other there. When Casper decided to stop with his studies, Bryan followed, as he never wanted to study medicine anyway.

“Pretty much the same.” Said Casper as he walked to the bathroom in order to get changed. “Had a pretty big fight with my mom on the way here, but that’s really all there is about it. The day started just fine.”

“It is rare to see you so calm after a fight. Usually you end up mad and don’t even do your job right. Remember those guys that even complained about your behavior with the manager?”

“I do remember them and I could not care less about their wellbeing in the moment.” Said Casper while inside the bathroom getting changed. “I’m more preoccupied with my family. They are pretty disappointed in me and are going to stop sending me money. In fact if I don’t start studying again, I might be forced to go back to London.”

“Well that sucks. I guess. Unless going back actually works out for you.”

“I’d rather stay here. I have a life here in the moment and I’d like to keep it. It may not be the best, but I am not miserable either.”

After getting dressed and coming out of the bathroom the routine of the day kicked in. It was a pretty normal day and before Casper could notice the day had finished.

Casper went back to his apartment and quickly took a shower and went to bed. He was tired and just wanted to have a nice night. However, little did he know this would be the last time he would actually sleep ever again.


3:25 AM. Sounds of gunfire woke Casper up. He didn’t know what was happening and got up pretty scared. A shootout? He never had seen one in his entire life. He dressed himself with a white T-shirt, a jeans pants and white sneakers before carefully going to the window. Nothing. It was dead silent. A few seconds ago fires were being shot everywhere and now nothing. Not a sound to be heard. Casper went over to the table near his fridge to grab his cellphone to check for any incoming messages. Nothing. Everything was dead. Not even a signal.

“What the hell is happening?” he thought to himself while putting his right hand on his head, thinking about what he should do. He was too scared to simply go back to his bed. He decided to turn on the TV to see what was happening. All channels were dead. With the exception of one. A woman was standing near what seemed to be a pit of fire. Some men dressed in military suits were taking bodies in the ground and throwing them inside the pit. “What the fuck…” Casper said to himself as he sat slowly in the chair next to him. The woman started to talk.

“We have over 500 confirmed dead in the city of Cambridge Massachusetts. The entire city is in a state of panic following what seems to be an outbreak of an unknown plague. The infected are growing exponentially as no information on how to prevent the spread of the infection is given by the government, and the infected are vicious. Apparently this virus, or whatever it is, turns the infected aggressive against non-infected people. We don’t have anymore information to give but as more gets revealed we will…”

The woman suddenly was stopped when the camera was shaken off. “What the hell are you doing!?” the reporter screamed.

“Get out of here now! We need-“

The channel went dead and an explosion could be heard from outside. Casper walked slowly to the window to see a big ball of fire rise from the ground a couple of blocks away. He could only assume that explosion happened wherever they were filming. Suddenly a sound came from the TV similar to a beep followed by a screen that had lines of different colors with white letters on top of it saying “EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM”. A voice came out of the TV.

“All residents of the city of Cambridge in Massachusetts are to wait patiently in their homes while military evacuates the city. Everyone will be evacuated in their specific time. Please, do not go to the streets. Barricade doors and windows and only open when known military forces request your assistance.”

Casper stood there motionless for a few seconds before someone knocked on his door. He opened it and was greeted by nothing less thatn what seemed to be a soldier from the US army.

“Pack everything you can and let’s move out! Right now.! Do it!”

Scared of what was happening Casper followed the instructions to the latter, quickly grabbing anything that was essential and putting it in his backpack. He went out of his apartment and took the elevator down to the main floor were an enormous line was waiting to get inside a bus that was requisitioned by the military forces. In half an hour Casper was inside such a bus and they were going out of the city.

The city seemed completely different and it was inconceivable that such an scenario could happen in so little time. The streets were crowded with lifeless corpses. The stench of death was overwhelming and some people had to do their best not to puke. Fire was almost everywhere. Sounds of gunfire were again apparent followed by screams. When the bus finally reached its destination something unpredicted happened. The bridge was full of cars that were trying to get out as well. A traffic jam.

“What the fuck are those people doing here? Weren’t they told to stay in their homes?” said the soldier driving the bus.

“You know, some people don’t listen when they fall to panic. We need to move fast. Before more infected show up.”

Infected. Infected. What were those Infected, why were they so feared? Casper couldn’t understand very well what was happening. All he knew was that something really bad was about to happen. A man in a car in the front of the bust opened the door and came out. Apparently screaming at the cars upfront to hurry up. However out of nowhere a man came running and screaming and jumped on to the screaming man, quickly biting his neck. The man fell on the ground, blood pouring out of his mouth. Casper closed his eyes and put his hands on his ears. What was happening? What was that he just saw?

“Get us out of here corporal!”

The bus started moving again. “Thank God.” Casper thought to himself. As the bus went back from the way it came and went deeper into the city to find another way out his thoughts quickly went over to Bryan. Where was his friend and what had happened to him? Was he okay?

The bus stopped once again. What was happening?

Casper looked out of the window to see a multitude of people running in the opposite direction of the bus. They crowded the bus and started slamming their fists onto the bus, demanding that the soldiers let them on. The bus could only walk ever so slightly without hurting the people all around it. However another bus came at full speed and collided with the bus Casper was in. Everything went black.

When he woke up and regained his consciousness he stared around him. All the people that were around the bus, dead. Some squished, their insides painting the streets whit their blood. He felt something hot falling across his cheek. He put his hand on it and saw what it was. Blood. He had struck his head somewhere and it wasn’t looking good. He tried to stand up from the wreckage but he was feeling nauseating. Did he lose to much blood?

All of his questions were halted however as he saw someone come into the bus. He thought about screaming for help but saw that the person was strange. His clothes were all tatters, and he had blood all over his mouth, dripping in the ground. The man quickly turned around sniffing the air, his eyes meeting Casper’s. The man ran at him screaming savagely. Casper tried to run away but was pinned down. The man tried to bite him again and again, but Casper managed to keep his head away by holding his throat. The man started punching and kicking Casper. One punch hit him in his head, and everything started swirling. Was this the end?

No. Something happened. A man came behind the assailant grabbing him by his neck, choking him. After a few seconds the “man” stopped fighting He was dead. Casper regained his consciousness once again to see that the man that just saved him was Bryan, his friend.

“Casper? Holy shit, are you okay!?” he said as he ran closer to Casper, examining his wound.

“I am fine. Bryan what is happening?”

“You don’t know? Something is turning people into mad dogs. They are running around biting and chewing anything they see! They are killing people Casper. I don’t know what this is as well, but these people… They aren’t human. They are beasts. They are killing us. We need to get out of here right now!”

“Wait this… this makes no sense.” Said Casper as he managed to get up and follow Bryan out of the wreckage.

“It doesn’t matter whether you believe in this or not. It is happening. And we need to get out of this city for good. You hear me?”

An explosion was heard followed by screams. Suddenly the empty streets were crowded with people running from whatever was behind them. Some people were tackled by others and bitten and chewed.

“The infected are here. Run Casper! RUN!”

Casper quickly turned around and ran alongside Bryan. He just couldn’t stop. He didn’t want to stop. He ran taking a left into the next street hoping to evade the infected, but most of the crowd seemed to have taken the same path. They kept running until a car came out of God knows where, hitting a gasoline tank. An explosion ensued sending Casper flying backwards. Hitting his back on a wall, he felt the air coming out of his lungs. As he went to the ground he tried to quickly regain his posture but he was feeling dizzy. He couldn’t help himself but stare at the shocking scene that was presented In front of him. People were on fire, screaming, some calling out their parents, God, whatever they had to cling on to. Bryan quickly grabbed Casper by his arm.

“What are you doing just standing there!!? Move!”

Casper started running again as a person just next to him fell to the ground. Upon closer examination the person had lost one of his feet. A mob of people quickly came around the fallen woman and started tearing her to pieces. Casper decided to stop looking at whatever was happening behind him and ran as his life depended on it.

They took a right into a building and quickly took the elevator.

“Where are we going?” asked Casper.

“As far as we are in the street we are dead meat. We need to find an upper level, get a sense of the situation. We’re going to the roof.”

As the elevator finally reached it’s destination in the last floor they took the fire escape ladder up to the roof. Once there, a man pointed a gun at them.

“Woah woah, hey hey. We are not infected.”

The man hesitantly put his gun down. “We don’t know what is happening. We have a man bitten in the arm but we don’t have anything to treat him with.”

“Those things bit him?” asked Bryan.

“Yes they did.” The man said.

Casper walked to the edge of the roof to get a sense of what was happening. He could only see death and destruction everywhere he looked.

“We heard the military are evacuating people north of here but we have no idea how to get there.” Said the man with the gun.

There were three people. One man was pretty big and strong and had a gun. He was black, his head was bald, but he did have a beard and a moustache. The other man was smaller in size and had a bit in one arm. He was white and seemed to be around his 25 years. The last person was a woman, around her 17’s. She was white and had a beautiful blonde hair and striking blue eyes. She was pretty but was covered in what seemed to be guts and blood.

“We heard the same thing.” Said Bryan. “Listen, we need to get there if we are to survive. Lets wait a few hours for things to settle down, and then we move.”

“We can’t move with him hurt.” The woman said.

“If we don’t he dies either way. His only hope is to get where the military is at.”


“He’s right. We need to get him to the military. They’ll know how to treat his wounds.” The big black man said.

“I am fine. You don’t need to worry about me.” The hurt man said as he got up.

“You are not fine. Since you got bit, you seem to be losing motor functions. You are getting worse by the minutes.” The woman said, clearly worried about him.

“We are in a race against time. We need to find the military. It is our only hope.” Said Bryan before turning to Casper. “Casper?”

Casper remained silent. He put his left hand on his mouth in an attempt to hold back his tears but he couldn’t. He started crying. It was all too much to take in so little time. So many innocents dead. And for what?

Bryan couldn’t find any words to calm Casper down, and neither did the three strangers. The world was going to shit around them, and they had no idea what it was like around the world.

They waited for hours for help to come but the city fell dead. It was clear that any hope of survival and rescue were up to them. But would they make it?