Lockdown: The Arcadia Diaries

Epilogue

Unknown location

June 7, 2020

Third person POV

"I got eyes on the target," A female voice whispers.

"Copy that," A male voice replies. "Going in. Redbeard, take point."

"Copy, moving," A second male voice says. The man in question then pulls out a lock pick and goes to work on the locked laboratory door. The female operative continuously eyes the tall, handsome gentleman in the laboratory coat as he analyzes something on his computer in the rather spacious room.

Once the door is locked, one of the men kicks down the door, startling some lab workers. "Everyone get down on the ground!" The cameraman-a male-screeches while waving a submachine gun around the room. "Get down on the ground! Get down now! Get down on the ground!"

"The hell is this?" One scientist asks, before one of the armed gunmen forces him to the ground.

"Shut up, get down on the ground!" He growls.

The leader of the group of soldiers, a black man armed with an M4 carbine, trains his gun on the lead scientist, a man in his forties wearing a white lab coat like his colleagues before approaching him. "Dr. Greenland. You will come with us quietly."

Dr. Greenland is clutching a briefcase tightly, while keeping his other hand concealed inside his jacket. He stares at the leader of the team of soldiers with a mixture of anger and disgust in his eyes. He speaks in a low growl, "Is this a fucking joke? You think I didn't know you were coming?? This is my life's work!!" before suddenly shouting, "I'M NOT HANDING OVER ANYTHING!"

"We have our orders, Dr. Greenland," The black man replies in a surprisingly calm tone given the situation. "I'll ask you one more time..."

Suddenly, three things happen in rapid succession: first, Dr. Greenland pulls out a Browning 9mm pistol from his jacket pocket with his left hand, while simultaneously reaching for a green button on the wall behind him. The soldiers all open fire, and Dr. Greenland is riddled with bullets as he tries to run for the emergency alarm that locks down the lab. As Dr. Greenland stumbles and falls due to his gunshot wounds, his body crashes into another button on the wall that triggers an alarm and causes a series of doors to the right of the soldiers to open.

One of the soldiers shouts, "Goddamn it! What the hell are those things?" as a cacophony of loud chittering fills the lab.

"Fall back! All units, fall back-!"The black man is suddenly ambushed by a whole swarm of parasitic organisms, one of them latching onto his face and another biting his leg. "Move! Move!" One of the soldiers is heard shouting, while gunfire rings out. The main cameraman-the guy who was named Redbeard, turns to run, but is also attacked by the creatures. The armed female is heard screaming into her radio headset while turning to flee, before being jumped by the creatures as well.

Redbeard tries to shake off the creature attacking him, but it's too fast; the creature kills Redbeard by tearing his throat open in a matter of seconds. As Redbeard collapses, his camera captures another parasite tunneling into a Hispanic woman's neck before exploding out of her throat and killing her.

The creature then crawls towards the camera, as if inspecting it, studying it, like a curious child...

The footage ends. In the small apartment complex, 22-year old Edward Maglio stares at the final frame in awe, horror, and disgust, before looking at his friend Kyle Bates. "When was this taken?"

"The Atlas lab in Arcadia. This was a day before the outbreak in Arcadia happened," Kyle replies softly.

The video screen is replaced with the ZOOM interface; a bald woman in her late forties to early fifties says, "We've been analyzing the footage for quite some time now. It's genuine. Our allies in Europe just confirmed it."

"Excellent. Has the upload been completed?" Kyle asks.

The bald woman nods. "Yes. All the footage from every camera in that town that was confiscated by the government has been successfully uploaded. We've got folks from France, the States, Russia, England, Germany, and even Iceland joining our crusade against Atlas Biomedical. We've got 'em on their heels."

"Not to mention Atlas itself is scrambling to save face," says a short-haired black woman wearing a black hoodie. "They're scurrying with their tails between their legs to compensate for the loss but it ain't gonna matter. They're screwed now."

"Nicely done, Maria!" Edward cracks a smile. "Evelyn, any news from your end?"

"I just read a news report from The New York Times saying that the US government has promised a complete investigation into Atlas Biomedical's activities," Evelyn says with a smile. "They've got nowhere to run now. Atlas is finished."

The next person to join the ZOOM chat is a brunette with green eyes. She is sitting in her apartment. "Hi, guys, sorry I'm late."
"You're fine, what's up, Kenna?" Kyle laughs.
"I just want you guys to know that Facebook has exploded," Kenna replies with a huge smile on her face. "We got people from all over the US asking questions and demanding an explanation from the US government about what happened in Maine that day. In fact I think the US President just ordered a thorough investigation into Atlas Biomedical."

Everybody erupts into a cacophony of cheers and triumphant whooping, before another woman, a blonde in her forties, speaks. "Now that that's out of the way, what do we do now?"

"We go forward with the plan," Kyle says with a smile. "We ramp up the heat against Atlas until they're shut down."

"I have some friends in England who can help us out with that," Evelyn says. "I just got word that some our friends in our counterpart in England are standing by, ready for the next move at any moment's notice. The thing is, Atlas is going to fight tooth and nail to preserve its reputation. It's going to get ugly. Any ideas, Boss?"

Kyle and Edward look at each other, before Edward smiles. "Just one."