Lockdown: The Arcadia Diaries

Outbreak

One year ago...

Arcadia, Maine

July 4, 2019

Kyle Bates

"Mind if I join you?" I look up to see Charles standing behind my chair as I gaze out into the ocean, watching the boats. I smile. "Sure, go ahead."

He sits down with me on the bench. "Having a pretty good fourth of July?"

I take a deep breath. "As a Brit I'm finding it oddly mesmerizing to watch you Americans celebrate your independence, considering this country used to be property of the English crown."

Charles just clears his throat before continuing. "Anyway, I wanted to show you something." He pulls out his phone and opens up a text message from a friend. "This was from our guys back home. Some kind of video concerning a strange animal attack."

"Okay," I say as Charles opens up the video attachment, then plays the video file on his media player.

The footage begins with four divers-two women and two men-going for a swim in the ocean. "Where was this?" I ask, my eyes glued to the footage.

"Chesapeake Bay," Charles replies. "Right off the coast of the town. Supposedly these guys were military divers performing some kind of underwater training exercise."

"Is there a military base here?" I ask.

Charles shrugs. "Just watch."

As the two of us observe, the divers are seen navigating towards some kind of....object on the bottom of the ocean.

It looks like a piece of coral of some kind.

Upon closer inspection, it looks more like an underwater anthill or termite mound. I glance at Charles, then back at the screen, which is now showing one of the divers' cameras looking at a male colleague.

"Is there any volume?" I ask. "Or is it just muted?"

Before Charles can reply, the male diver's colleague's goggles are suddenly fractured as a small object suddenly tears into the man's eye. There is a muffled screeching sound as the others attempt to escape, only to be viciously attacked by a swarm of blurry objects swarming out of the undersea anthill-shaped mound and tearing into the other divers.

The video then cuts to black, signaling the end of the footage. I look at Charles, at a loss for words. "Underwater training exercise gone wrong?"

"Looks like it," Charles says.

"This can't be real," I reply. Charles responds by handing me a newspaper that displays the headline: TWO DIVERS DEAD IN APPARENT ANIMAL ATTACK!

"So there were survivors..." I muse.

"Yeah," Charles says. "Except they're in critical condition."

I take a deep breath. "Can't this get any worse?"

Present Day

New Orleans, Louisiana

May 24, 2020

Terra M. Kimbrough

"So when did the actual, uh, outbreak begin?" Clorinda asks me. "At least, when did you remember seeing the outbreak begin?"

There is a moment of silence. "Well, we were all over the town, doing different things."