Chapter 2: IT STARTS
Brown eyes shot open as the girl sat up in bed. It took her a moment for her to realize that it was all a dream. Brushing a strand of hair out of her face, she laid back down to get some more sleep. Just as she dozed off, a small black, tortoise cat started pawing her. The young woman pushes the cat away and threw the blankets over her head. It would have been a nice wake up call if the young feline didn't use her claws all the time. Not wanting to take no for an answer, the cat jumped down onto the floor and nudged at the blankets that hung over the bed with her nose. When she was able to get her head up underneath them, the cat continued with the rest of her body, burrowing onto the bed and began to paw at the girl in various areas causing her to flinch and squirm until she gave up trying to sleep.
"Fine. I'll get up," said the girl as she threw the blankets off and got out of bed, mumbling something about the cat.
After getting cleaned up for the day ahead of her, she went down stairs into the kitchen where she met up with her mother for breakfast. Soon after they ate, they left for town. It didn't take long for them to reach the grocery store and all seemed like a normal, peaceful day. Until some people dressed almost like a S.W.A.T. team, save for the lettering and they wore masks over their mouths approached the two women. The women asked what was going on, as the soldiers started escorting them and everyone else in the parking lot and store, but they didn't answer.
The civilians were escorted into several cargo vans. Once they were all in and the doors closed, the vans pulled out of the parking lot. The windows of the vans were so darkly tinted that the passengers couldn't see out of them, so they had no idea where they were going.
"Please tell me what's it going on? Where are we going?" The mother asked, looking at the soldier that sat across from her and her daughter.
The soldier didn't say anything. Just looked at the civilians around him. Not long later, a man from the store snapped. "Tell us God d-"
Just then the van stopped and the doors soon opened as the soldiers began helping people out. The sudden bright light stun the girl's eyes. Once they had adjusted, she saw that they were at a medical camp. There were several large tents in the area along with some travel trailers. What the girl found odd, was that the entire camp was surrounded with barbed wire fencing.
There was a high pitch screech of a intercom before a woman's voice echoed from speakers as the soldiers began lining people up in front of a desk underneath an awning
"I thank you all for coming and I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but this is a mandatory vaccination for a new strand of flu. Please do not be alarmed. This is just a precautionary. Thank you for your cooperation."
The crowd started to protest when the announcement ended.
"Mom, I have a bad feeling about this." The girl whispered to her mother.
"I know," said the mother as she pulled out her phone. "I'm calling to see what's going on."
The girl watched as those at the beginning of the line took the medicine that was being offered and then taken towards the tents. As the two got closer, the girl could see the contents. Light blue liquid almost like Powerade in sample cups. Everyone seemed worried about what it was but no one questioned it. Until there was shouting..
"He's not taking anything you give him until I know what it is!"
A man had knocked the cup out of the nurse's hand as she offered it to his son. The nurse in turned signaled for the security. More of the S.W.A.T. looking soldiers grabbed the man and forced him to the ground while another nurse injected him with what looked to be the same liquid.
The girl grabbed her mother's arm as the mother watched in shock, her phone still to her ear.
"Mom, we need to go. Now."
"Y-yeah."
As soon as they turned to leave the line, the soldier from the van stood to block them. "No one is going anywhere. Please stay calm." Just as he said that, half of the line scattered. Some jumping the guard while the rest ran. More soldiers came to his aid. Some even fired of shots which froze the crowd, but the two women kept running. Running past the trailers hoping that they could lose the guards. Though, something caught the girl's attention. Behind the trailers, there were something she thought were tents until the wind made the fabric dance a little and she caught a glimpse of metal.. Bars?
The girl didn't have time to think as she and her mother ran. Only coming to a stop when they reached the locked barbed wire gate.
"Aw damn it," panted the mother, scanning the fence for a way to escape. She then noticed the wire was gaped where the fence met up with a gate, allowing it to swing open. It wasn't much of a gap and either one could get cut by the razor wire, but it was either that or stay here. She didn't want her daughter to stay here. "There. Come on. I'll give you a boost." Looking back at her daughter as she spoke, but didn't have time to react as the girl had already backed up for a running start. Without a word, the girl sprinted for the fence, running half way up it until her hand was able to grab a good hold and she pulled herself up, throwing her leg over so she was now straddling the fence in the center of the gap, while be careful not to touch the wire. She then held out her hand to her mother, who was now doing a running jump. She didn't make it as high as her daughter, but high enough to take her hand.
Making sure her mother had made it, the girl threw her other leg over and jumped down. Her mother followed suit as they heard shouts from the soldiers growing louder and they began running once again.
