The Vordox

Chapter 1

It was the year 2100, all was lost. Humanity which was once known on planet Earth had completely disappeared. Mars was the only home left for humans except for some billion people who didn't survive the apocalypse. Since then not much has changed on Earth. The buildings, all destroyed, the neighborhoods, all wrecked. Utterly there was nothing left. There was not a single sign of life. Animals used to hide from humans; scared that they would kill them. We had lost over 100 species and yet millions are unknown whether they are present. We are a part of the worldwide operations, more commonly known as the WWO's. They had set up 7 bases all around the world: Russia, China, Italy, Colorado, Brazil, Niger and Australia. We were in the 3rd province, Italy. Our base was not as prominent as China and Russia, as they were the central hotspots yet we were strong enough to transmit and receive signals. It all happened 18 years ago, Earth was struck by a virus known as the Vordox. The result of this virus makes people go insane and do bizarre crazy stuff which was not done in perceptive. It made us humans wreck our own homes killed billions of families and caused havoc everywhere, the infected turn wild, taller, more fit, stronger and bulky. They were aggressive all the time and they even grew in size, their longer legs made them run way faster than a normal human being. Myself and other people from around the world who were left on Earth as a team but divided in sections to search for more survivors and lead them to mars where all the other humans were. Mars turned out to come in the habitable zone in the year 2970. We started off with 50 people in our base... over time now there are only 12 left, me and my squad of 5. Alison our squad leader: Margot, Schenon and Jane we were on board with Jayla our mission specialist and her 7 crew members. I on the other hand was boycotted by all because I believed that Earth could be brought back to as it was before. The humans, animals, forestry now that all is lost we just hope for the best yet we all fear that we'll be a part of the 38 people we lost and it's this fear that holds us back as a team and work as WWO's survival agents. The virus had officially affected over 10 billion lives even though we are vaccinated and immune to the virus it mutates every 4 months.

"wake up, you're late again" I opened an eye and stretched asked, "how long was I sleeping?" Alison replied, "about 2 hours, Jayla has been looking for you" Alison my mentor and crew leader was the best on the base. She loved the desk work as well as field work. Even though I was one step ahead of her on the field, she was always given credit as she did the paper work flawlessly, while I on the other hand I hated paper work and wanted to go out and explore. I jumped out of the shower into my uniform, went downstairs and met Jayla. She was sitting Infront of the control center desk monitoring and searching for signs. David, the last survivor who we had found last week was in a bad condition but after the diagnosis was sent him to mars back to his family, from then we are yet to find another survivor.

Somedays I wake up missing my daughter. She was only 2 when we parted and I was a single parent. I haven't met her since she was sent to mars, I guess she's mad at me because of that. She has an old picture of me, holding her in my arms which is torn on the side. I gave it to her as she was leaving. Tomorrow is her birthday she's turning 20 now that I try really hard every day of catching a hold of her it's getting tougher for me to focus on my work. I haven't had any answers from her side. I don't know if she is even receiving my messages or not.

"yes captain, you wanted to see me?" "oh! you're up already? it's been 4 days you've been getting up late, what's the matter? is there something you like to share with your crew?" She said in a rather taunting way, loud enough so that everyone could hear her. "Nothing captain, give me one more chance it won't happen again" "okay but! I want the files that I handed out a week ago on my desk by midnight" "yes captain" I replied with a sigh I haven't even started a single file how am I going to do 2 files by tonight I had no idea. I looked over at Jane and thought of taking her help. I walked over to her cabin. I was about to knock on the door as I heard a voice coming from inside ,"I think Harison is not good for this part maybe you can take a look" I tried hiding behind the door as it opened I saw a lady, she was tall, wearing a black overcoat that stretched down to her legs standing holding the door open and saying one last time "do not let Harison know about this". Jane replied "trust me it's between you and me" as the lady came out and closed the door behind her, she noticed me, bent behind the door which was no longer covering me. She said, "oh! Harison didn't see you there. What do you want?" I replied rather sweetly, "nothing, I just wanted to talk to Jane" "sure go in she's free at this moment" I rushed in and closed the door behind me slamming my files on the table, "was that me you were talking about?" "uhm. No" I gave Jane a glance and said, "anyways, can you help me with something? Can you perhaps" pushing the file towards her "help me?" Jane replied, "what's in it for me? you know I don't do stuff for free" I replied, "you can have what I always do for you" Jane said, "make it 2 days" "okay but you need to do this by tonight captain wants it" she said, "I'll give it to you in an hour why don't you start doing what you promise" "ohh okay" Jane and I always share our work. Jane is like my best friend she usually gets me out of trouble and I'm always there for her too. We started about 3 weeks earlier that I will clean up her room and work space and in return she'll get my files done. She's good at paperwork but not good enough as Alison, she's the best but whenever I go to her with my files, she always declines I guess it's because she's mentoring me. Maybe that's why she doesn't want me to cheat on my work, but little does she know Jane and I have been doing this for about a month now.