Virus V

The River

Present Day

It was bad. Kaid didn't think it would get this bad, but it had.

Streets were abandoned, houses were boarded up, and it seemed that there were more of those things than there were humans—especially in the cities. The cities were where it had gotten really bad, really fast. Humans had been forced into hiding. It was only eight months ago this started.

The doctors had promised a cure for cancer, and then a cure for all diseases, and then a way to heal faster and be stronger than ever. It seemed too good to be true and it was.

The first patient's body rejected the cure and he turned into something else completely. He attacked the doctors and those doctors changed and attacked more people. It was just a bloody wave of madness until it seemed like there was no one left.

Kaid stuck to the woods and the country. There were less of those monsters out here and he liked trees over buildings anyway. He had packed a large camping backpack and headed or the woods weeks ago and has been on his own ever since. He was lucky his father taught him survival at a young age.

Before Kaid was eight he was taught how to build a fire, find water and shelter. At age nine he could shoot a gun. At ten he could kill, gut, and cook a deer. When Kaid was ten and a half, his father died.

It must've been his survival instinct that told him to flee the city, but now, he regretted it. After countless sleepless nights of being on guard, he needed human contact and a partner. He was one sleepless night away from befriending a volleyball.

He tried to keep busy by taking hikes every day. He told himself that he was checking the perimeter for any signs of those monsters, but it was more like an excuse to keep him from going stir crazy in the small cabin he occupied.

His camp consisted of an old abandoned cottage, so he walked about a mile radius around it every day. He would look for any rouge Infected, collect supplies, and get water while he was out on these missions.

The cottage was great. Small, but great. It had two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a fireplace in the living room. The electricity was spotty and he didn't risk using anything brighter than a lantern after dark. Light attracted them. They seemed to be really good hunters, which was a terrifying thing at night when they had the upper hand. 

During Kaid's time spent running from the Infected, he had gathered a list of things that attracted the Infected. He made a mental list of things to avoid to keep himself alive.

1.  No smoke, or lights that attracted attention at night. The Infected didn't need heat or light to survive so they looked for things like this to pick out humans.

2.  No loud noises. Their hearing was extraordinary and they could hear things from miles away. They also seemed to be especially reactive to screams, almost like it triggered something in them to attack.

3.  Bathe regularly. This one Kaid picked up from hunting. Animals could follow your scent more easily than you realized. Except this time, instead of Bambi, it was a predator that would rip your neck out with its teeth. They could smell your sweat and blood--the one thing that makes us undeniably human. 

4. Never, by any means, get cut and bleed. They can and will track you, even if it takes a matter of days. They will find you.

5. Don't get bit. A bite from an Infected would turn you into another one of those bloodthirsty monsters, and the only way out was ending it before your completed the transformation.

Kaid had been extremely careful and mindful of his moves. He made these rules and lived by them. That's why he was still alive. He wasn't stupid. He was smart.