Day 0
#2 of Days
Wanted to get the story going so posted both day -1 and day 0 together, read them in order, please! :)
I woke groggily, sitting upright in a chair, my arms still weak on the armrests, in an empty room. A tv with a dvd player and some other metallic boxes were piled on the end of a table in front of me, things were a little hazy, my vision was still a little off.
"Hello? Anyone there?" I called, trying to make heads or tails of the situation.
I managed to lift an arm to my head, and saw a red light illuminated on one of the boxes. The tv snapped on with a very ordinary man's picture looking right back at me.
"Ahh, you are awake, then it is time for your briefing." The man said.
"You will find yourself feeling a little poorly, this is a problem for you, you see, we have chosen you to be among the first to bring our new order to the world. You have been infected with a very, very fatal virus, no, don't try running yet, hear this out, your life depends on it." I was starting to freak now, I did indeed feel like shite, my muscles were sore, my vision still a little bad, and my sense of balance was skewed.
"Now, we are not completely heartless, while we want you, and a select few others, to spread our plague to the world, we do not wish to punish you for it, you will in fact, be the last few to die if, and I need to be very clear here, IF you follow our directions." The voice continued. I sat mesmerised, this really can't be happening.
"On the table to your right, is a stack of the drug azathioprine, it will not cure you, nothing can, but it will stop the virus from killing you, the dosage there is approximately six hundred milligrams. That is a lot for a human, in case you are wondering. But it will hold the blessed plague from killing you for two days per dose, you have exactly two doses there." I looked down, sure enough, a pair of pill bottles were on the table to my right. I picked one up, there was no label. The voice started again, pulling my attention away from the bottle.
"On your left, you will see a plane ticket, it will take you on a lovely trip to the beautiful city of New York, now, I know you are on holiday around Europe, but I think you will have time for my little side trips. With the ticket there is a locker key, it is on concourse five, within the international area, you will not have to worry about customs, in that locker, you will find another four days dose of medication, a plane ticket and yet another key."
"You have sixteen days worth of trips to make, in the final locker, you will find a key to a shipping container full of that medication, it will not last forever, but you should be able to live a few more years with it at least. Along with a million dollars, its a gift, an incentive."
"To conclude, you are a dead man walking, there are more of you, so if you decide to be a hero and just die in this room, nothing will change. But, if you follow the instructions and do as we say, your life will be measured in months, not hours. Au revoir, David, may you live your life well and your soul be judged by God as fit to pass on to better pastures." The man seemed finished.
I was about to get up from the chair when the tv crackled to life again, "Oh, I wouldn't dawdle, there is a movement sensor at the door, once activated by you leaving a timer will start on a fire-bomb in this room, no trace of this will be left by the end of this day."
The tv snapped off and a red light started blinking on one of the big boxes on top of the dvd player.
"What the fucking fuck is this... fuck..." I commented, unable to cope with this.
I should go to the police, take the disk from the drive, they would be able to help me, if I did really have a deadly virus, I shouldn't try spreading it. But the man said there were others like me, infected, all it would take is one of us to comply and the rest would have died for nothing.
I fell to the floor and started crying, this wasn't happening, it couldn't be happening. I thought the worst I would have to deal with is the occasional pick pocket after some cash, this was too big. I sat I-don't-know-how-long there, crying and whimpering, felling worse and worse about my situation, when I jerked back from my arms, I had them in front of my face, and now they were blood stained. I wiped at my nose and looked at my fingers, more blood, dark coloured blood. FUCK.
Without thinking further I grabbed a pill bottle, opening the cap and looked inside, there were a ton of little tablets in there, what the stuff does, I have no idea, I was an engineer, not a doctor.
I swigged the bottle with a resigned sob, gulping the tablets down, my throat was so full of mucus that getting them down was no problems. I went back to feeling sorry for myself.
About an hour passed, or so I thought, with no clocks time seemed irrelevant, I know I was hungry because my stomach felt empty, but I was feeling much much better, tablets worked quick it seems.
It was then I noticed the drawer on the table, just back from the edge, I stood up and opened it.
"Congratulations, you are a thinker, that is a good thing, you have a chance to survive a little longer if you can think." The same voice, now coming from a small mp3 player bolted to a reed switch inside the draw. "In the envelope in this draw, you will find ten thousand dollars, this should be sufficient to get you to New York, also there is another ticket inside, that is business class. No one should be forced to endure at the hands of 'cattle class'." The voice let out a dry chuckle, "Also a key for a locker in the airport here in Paris, it has a change of clothes inside, they will be your size, do not fear. Safe trip, young monsieur."
I looked in the envelope, and indeed there was a new ticket, a fair bit of cash, four disposable credit cards, likely with the remainder of the money on them, and another locker key.
A small suitcase was in the corner of the room, I grabbed it and threw the money and the tickets, threw them along with the drug bottle into the case, closed it, and made ready to leave the room. I managed to clean the blood off my face, there had been a little sink and a mirror near the doorway, I still looked like shit, but at least now I didn't look like I was dying. I was though, apparently.
The door did indeed have a sensor just above it, which lit up when I reached the door, a small audible click issued from one of the metal boxes behind me. I gulped.
"This is it, no way I am taking one for the team when it will mean nothing anyway." I said as a prayer, opened the door and stepped outside.
I looked around, trying to get my bearings, there was a chalked arrow on the pavement in front of me, "The airport is 'that' way, monsieur." It read.
I followed my directions and within half an hour of walking in the cool Paris weather I reached to main terminal. Walking around, I must have looked a little lost as I had a nice lady with an 'Air France' blouse on approach me, she had noticed the English spelt tshirt I was wearing, because she started with, "Can I help you?"
"Uh, yeah, A friend booked my ticket for a flight, and I am not sure where I need to go, I am sorry but I don't speak French..."
"Oh, zat is no problem sir" She looked at my proffered ticket, "Ah, that is concourse C, head down this hall and its on your left, second from the end."
I thanked her, then suddenly worried about my passport and visa. I hurried to a phone booth and opened the case again, and found said documents were inside a little pocket. "Phew, that could have been bad.".
I found the locker, and after a quick change in a bathroom managed to look much more respectable in a cheap suit, likely worth more than all the clothes I had in my now forever lost backpack though.
I found my planes boarding area, showed the people at the counter my business ticket, and they escorted me to the sky-bridge that got me onto the plane, apparently the ticket was not a cheap one, the nice lady who escorted me made sure I was seated and the stewardess knew I was on board.
"Ma'am? Is there any English books I could read?" I enquired of her when she asked me if there was anything I would like.
"Ahh Oui, we have today's newspaper from New York, if you wish to read that?" At my nod she made off to fetch it, non-fiction, the worst thing to read, and news at that, so depressing.
"Here you go monsieur." The stewardess returned.
I picked up the paper and started reading the funnies first, best to try and get into a good mood before tackling the real world problems.
After reading about yet another reality tv show that had been canned because of poor ratings, a bit of a high point, I started laughing to myself, if what the man on the recording had said was right, these were all going to be meaningless in a short while.
Again, mods, I know theres no fur in it yet, working up to it :)