Chapter Text
It is not known exactly where or how it emerged, but it can be said that the first reported case was in the USA.
In one of the biggest cities in the world.
But despite being the first place affected, the USA was not the original vector.
A plane coming from Hawaii had to make an emergency landing in New York because a passenger needed to be urgently taken to the hospital.
That's what the pilot informed the airport control tower minutes before the plane crashed onto the runway, invading and destroying a large part of the terminal.
A catastrophe.
Many were injured and many more were killed by the plane's sudden crash.
But the worst was yet to come.
Most of the plane's passengers were strangely well even though the crash destroyed the air vehicle.
At least that's what those present at that moment thought when they saw people leaving the carcass and wreckage of the aircraft.
And then, without any explanation, the passengers on the plane just started attacking like crazy anyone they saw in front of them.
Attacking and sinking their teeth into any possible place of anyone they could find in their path and tearing them apart like wild beasts.
It was complete pandemonium.
No one could understand why an outbreak of cannibalism was happening.
But it's never just that.
During the chaos at the airport, they noticed that whoever was attacked ended up having a cardiac arrest shortly after being injured and like a nightmare, even without a heartbeat, they got up and started acting with the same violence and hunger for human flesh.
Whatever was in those people was quickly being transmitted to others.
At first, authorities just isolated the infected in the primary area and kept the situation secret so that panic would not spread.
The news that was circulating was just that of the plane crash.
The airport became a prohibited access zone.
All of this occurred in a time span of just two days.
On the third day, fences were erected around the airport with heavily armed soldiers shooting at any infected people who tried to leave the quarantine zone, health workers and scientists were taken to the area to try to understand what exactly it was, research tents Barricades were erected outside the fence to prevent outsiders from entering, and many heavy vehicles were circulating through the area.
Four days after the plane crash came the news that what was causing that to those infected was a virus never seen before.It did not belong to any genus or family of any other type of virus ever studied and catalogued.
What could be observed was that it kills the infected host who is immunologically unprepared to deal with it by overloading the heart and reanimates it shortly afterwards as a primitive creature whose only instinct is to pass on the virus that controls its actions.
The person is no longer alive.
All of your internal organs stop working except the part of the brain that controls motor coordination, hearing and vision.
The virus spreads quickly throughout the infected person's body, but in greater quantities in the mouth and fingernails.
Being bitten or scratched by an infected person passes the virus on.
If you get infected, you will die.
There was no medicine that could combat the infection until that time.
There was no longer any way to hide it.
Soon other countries became aware of what was happening and demanded government action.
The airport turned into ashes just a week after it all began.
Just like everyone infected.
However, the worst part of all was knowing that it had already spread.
Destroying the airport did not stop more similar cases from appearing in the US and other parts of the world.
No one could have imagined that this virus would begin to appear on every continent in the world and soon in every country.
A completely unknown virus was on the loose on the planet.
Without being able to effectively resolve the problem, world governments had no alternative but to try to prepare the population against the virus.
Fear and panic settled in every home, every city, every country across the world.
Was happening.
It wasn't like in movies, games or series.
It was real and much worse.
The strange virus named DeadBlue was decimating life with frightening speed.
The end of human civilization as we once knew it has begun.
The apocalypse has begun.
°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
The sun slowly began to come out illuminating and warming the entire environment with its rays of light and heat.
Dan sat heavily on a fallen tree trunk.He leaned forward placing his hands on the large and rounded curve that is currently his stomach and took a deep breath pulling the cool, crisp early morning air into his lungs.
Although the dark and cold are still dominant at this hour, Dan felt his cheeks warm and a drop of sweat ran down the brown-haired man's neck as a result of the effort he is having to make.
In his last month of pregnancy, it is difficult for him to even lie in bed and get up alone in the mornings.Walking such a long distance is obviously like an extreme endurance test.
The child inside Kim Dan doesn't cooperate much either.The baby has been restless inside the uterus, kicking and turning all the time and then being extremely quiet for days.The constant activity within his bowels had made the man uncomfortable, but the lack of it was distressing him.
Dan worries that something has happened to the baby.
That's why he's taking a five-mile hike instead of staying at camp like he has since he turned eight months and his belly grew so big it almost reached his throat.
With a loud sigh, Dan rubs his aching lower back from the extra weight deep in his pelvis.
-The city tower is just ahead.- The low and serious voice makes Dan look up at the man standing next to him.- It won't be long before we arrive.
Jaekyung offered a hand to help Dan up and he readily held it knowing that it would take a long time for him to change position on his own.
Standing up again, Dan's swollen and painful feet as well as his back complain about having to continue working.
Supporting the base of his spine and taking deep breaths, Dan does his best to follow in Jaekyung's footsteps.
Because of Kim's condition and slowness, the sun had already completely risen in the sky when they left the protection of the trees and saw the great walls that protect what little was left of humanity.
The great city G, with its walls 30 meters high and nine meters thick, was previously nothing more than a small rural village around a river.
Just under eight months ago this place was a melon producing area.
Now, it is the largest concentration of humans for miles.
Three days up the river there is another fortress city, but not as fortified as city G.
When the ancient cities fell, what remained of the government and people set out to fortify small villages along uncontaminated drinking waterways.
Looking around at the desolate and wild landscape surrounding the great wall, it's hard to believe that it hasn't even been eight months since a microscopic being nearly wiped out human life on Earth.
Looking at the large, heavy gates and stroking his belly, Dan can't stop himself from remembering how things suddenly became a complete catastrophe.
Just hours before the human annihilation began, Dan was crying locked inside the bathroom, a positive pregnancy test in his hand and only a door preventing the other man who was frantically banging on the wooden surface from entering the room.
Kim hadn't made a single noise since she saw the results of the pregnancy test and just turned the key in the lock, locking herself in the bathroom alone.
Her crying was just thick tears falling from her eyes and sliding down her cheeks.
But every time Jaekyung dangerously called the physiotherapist's name, knocking harder and harder on the door, Dan shivered as if he were naked in the middle of a blizzard.
The knocking on the door got louder and louder.
The call of his name louder and louder.
The small, slightly thermometer-like object indicating that Dan was three weeks pregnant ended up on the floor as he covered his ears and huddled against the tub.
The noise around him was suffocating him.
This whole situation was suffocating him.
Dan felt so tired, so overwhelmed and scared.
Without thinking much, Kim closed her eyes, wishing it was all just a bad dream.
Sitting on the cold bathroom floor, Dan squeezed his eyes shut. He repeated to himself several times that it wasn't happening.
Totally overwhelmed by the avalanche of emotions that fell upon him, the brown-haired man's consciousness left him.
When Dan opened his eyes again he was slightly disoriented for a couple of seconds.Looking around he was startled to see the sun low in the sky and the darkness of early evening coming in through the large glass windows.
The glass windows in Jaekyung's room.
The memory of the champion brought back other memories for Dan.
He quickly gets up from the bed he's lying in and almost trips over his own feet as he runs out of the room.
The sound of his footsteps echoing loudly in the silent apartment.
With his heart pounding wildly in his chest, Dan entered the bathroom and his eyes searched frantically for any sign that his last memory had been real.
When he found neither the box nor the test anywhere in the bathroom, Dan leaned on the sink counter breathing heavily.
It had been a dream.
He almost laughed.
Not a dream, a nightmare.
Dreams are good, fun and a little nostalgic.
A positive pregnancy test could only be classified as a nightmare.
Without any sign that it actually happened, Dan turned on the tap, running water on his face to wipe off the cold sweat.
The physical therapist kept muttering to himself that it wasn't real, that it had been a bad dream, that he didn't take a pregnancy test, that he did NOT have a baby in his belly.
Dan kept repeating these same lines until he raised his face to look in the mirror and saw in the reflection that Jaekyung was standing next to the door right behind him.
Jumping in fright, Kim Dan turned to the champion who was watching him in silence.
Kim stared at the taller man for a moment before lowering his head to avoid those black eyes that stared at him with such intensity.In a flash of seconds as he performed the movement, Dan saw the white and blue object in Jaekyung's hand and felt his entire world collapse.
Jaekyung, with a face completely devoid of emotion, twirled the small object between his fingers.
Instantly, Kim's eyes widened in terror.
Dan felt his throat tighten and his eyes burn as he realized it wasn't a dream.
He tried to open his mouth and say something.Anything.But all he achieved was to equal a fish dying out of water.
The athlete, distractedly playing with the pregnancy test, didn't take his eyes off Dan for even a second. He didn't say a word.He just stood there and watched the physiotherapist.
They stayed like that for a while that Dan, in his moment of panic and confusion, was unable to count until Joo stopped playing with the pregnancy test and put it in her pants pocket.The champion gave a single command for Kim Dan to follow him and the brown-haired man obeyed automatically even though his legs were shaking.
Staring at the world champion's broad back, Dan held back the urge to cry and, all the way there, he kept pinching his own arm in the vain hope of waking up even though he already knew he wasn't sleeping.In silence, Jaekyung led him to the living room and took the remote control.Joo turned on the TV and Dan saw that it was a news channel.
It was on that day, during the chaos of having just discovered she had become pregnant, that Kim was informed of the pandemic that was making the dead walk under the influence of a virus.
It didn't matter which channel they switched to.
There would always be a news broadcast giving information about the virus and those infected.
Until that moment, four cases had been confirmed within the capital.
The government imposed a fifteen-day total quarantine order to prevent contagion with fines and imprisonment for those who did not follow the decree not to leave their homes.Just four years after a pandemic that killed millions worldwide, no one wanted to take any chances.Much less with a virus that looked like it came out of a science fiction story.
Dan, still feeling as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders, remained quiet inside the room.He and Jaekyung didn't talk more than necessary and never brought up the subject of the pregnancy test. It seemed as if they were ignoring the giant green elephant in the middle of the room.The physiotherapist was unable to assimilate the situation.Every time his thoughts strayed to what was growing inside his belly, Dan ended up shivering huddled in a corner.
Trying to avoid the inevitable, Dan began to focus his attention on the pandemic.
In the first few days, all TV channels continued to repeat and update the situation about the virus in the city and the country.
Dan has listened and read all the information available to date very carefully.
After a week of isolation, military personnel and health agents began making daily visits.They were examined and tested to ensure they were not infected every day.
After ten days, more and more cases were being announced in the news.
At that moment, Dan only saw Jaekyung when they had lunch and dinner.Silence was rarely not prevalent in these short meetings.
After two weeks, all TV channels were reduced to a single black screen with many rules being repeated in a loop.More and more infected by the virus.More and more military personnel patrolling all areas.
Dan was still hiding in the room.
When the initial fifteen days of quarantine came to an end, another one began.However, this time without an end date and with a single warning for those who did not follow the order: The soldiers who were throughout the city were authorized to shoot transgressors who were caught in the streets.
Twenty days later, the TV signal went down.Loudspeakers were installed throughout the city.Every thirty minutes guidelines and protocols for dealing with infected people were transmitted.The internet, which was still working at that time, was full of videos and news of infected people attacking people in different parts of the world, end-of-the-world prophecies, conspiracy theories and people sharing how terrifying it was to lose a family member to the virus.
At that time, Dan was crying at the top of his lungs after vomiting into the toilet.
He finally looked at the green elephant.
Kim had finally accepted that he was pregnant.
And with this acceptance everything got much worse.
He realized was pregnant in the middle of a pandemic of a virus that kills people and then uses their dead bodies to kill more people.
Like in a horror movie.
Exhausted from all the pressure of the last few days, Dan just curled up in the fetal position and cried until his tears ran out.He lay there sobbing softly until he felt his body being lifted from the cold bathroom floor.Without offering any resistance, Dan just sighed when he smelled the champion's body and enveloped him until he was deposited on the bed.
Forty days later, the internet also went down.The growing number of infected people stopped being reported.The power went out frequently.The supplies were delivered by the military after an exhaustive examination to ensure that there was no infection.There was no news of a possible cure.
Dan and Jaekyung were still living in that silence.
The most time they spent together was during meals and during the daily exams they were required to take.
Kim was working up the courage to start the conversation they had to have.Over the past month, Dan has had a lot of time to think about everything that was going on.
He wanted things to go back to normal so he could resolve this pending issue between him and the athlete.
But nothing went back to normal.
Two months.
Two months was how long the world as they knew it lasted.
Even with the majority of the population following all protocols and with a global scientific task force committed to stopping the spread of the virus, human society only lasted two months.
One day, a shrill warning echoed early in the morning.
The mechanical voice echoing over the speakers warning that an evacuation was being carried out and that everyone should head to the evacuation point.
Dan, who was starting to prepare breakfast, was confused at first, but when he came to his senses he quickly ran around the penthouse in search of Jaekyung. When he found it, Joo was finishing zipping up two backpacks and a large exercise bag. Jaekyung gave Dan a look full of something that the physiotherapist couldn't say what it was.But before Kim could say anything the alert was heard again. Joo went to Dan and handed him a bag with clothes inside and told him to go change quickly. Blinking blankly, but not knowing what else he could do, Dan changed his clothes as quickly as he could. He put on the pants and shirt along with a hoodie similar to what he normally wears. When wearing the last piece, Kim felt that it was made of a strange material. A thicker fabric than it would normally be.
Without giving time for any questions, Jaekyung returned, handed one of the backpacks to Dan and dragged the brown-haired man out of the apartment.
As they couldn't trust electricity, the loudspeaker warning told people in buildings not to use the elevators to leave and so they did. Dan and Jaekyung, as well as the other residents of the large and luxurious building, used the stairs to go down to the ground floor. It was a long descent since they were on the top floor and combined with the rush to get out and the incessant noise of the sirens resulted in a place full of nervous and terrified people.
When residents finally arrived on the top floor, a group of at least five heavily armed soldiers and two health workers were waiting for them at the reception.
The order was clear: Everyone must line up to be tested to detect whether the T-C3X virus, popularly known as deathblue, was in their bodies.
Those who refused would not leave the building.
"Those who are infected will be eliminated" was not said, but everyone felt those words in the air.
Dan quickly got in line with Jaekyung right behind his back.
One by one people began to be tested.
A drop of blood in contact with a reagent.
Red for clean, blue for infected.
Everything was going well.
All people tested were quickly directed to go to the extraction point.
Until it was Dan's turn.
The brown-haired man's finger was pierced and his drop of blood dripped into the small vial with the reagent liquid.
When the health worker saw that Dan's result was a red liquid, which proved that Kim was not infected, a person at the end of the second test line fell to the ground with a loud noise that caught everyone's attention.
Immediately the soldiers aimed their weapons at the fallen person and almost everyone else moved as far away as possible.
The only one who didn't move away was a woman who was struggling to lift the fallen person from the floor at the same time as she tried to explain to the soldiers that they didn't need to raise their weapons. That he was just tired.
What happened next is what defined Dan's view of what this pandemic really was.
As quickly as the blink of an eye, the person who was lying on the floor jumped on the throat of the woman who was trying to help him and without the slightest difficulty tore out a piece of her throat.
The screams and sounds of gunfire filled Kim's ears.
The large amount of blood on the white floor left him frozen in place.
A large, heavy hand grabbing Dan's waist was what made him react.
Still anesthetized, Kim let himself be guided among the people who were running for their lives.
Out of the corner of his eye, he managed to capture the exact moment when one of the soldiers fell to the ground.
Dan turned his face away in reflex and that single second of distraction was enough for someone to hit him directly in the body. The impact was enough to knock Kim off balance, causing him to move away from Jaekyung and fall to the ground.
A sting directly to his abdomen made him flinch.
Taking a deep breath, Dan instinctively touched his stomach as he struggled to sit up.
Rubbing his stomach in an attempt to alleviate the discomfort, Dan noticed that he was just a few meters away from one of the most macabre scenes he had ever witnessed in his entire life.
The woman from before, who had had a piece of her neck ripped off, was on top of the fallen body of one of the soldiers and with horror Kim saw her sink her teeth into the man's face.
Until that moment, Dan had not yet seen an infected person, he had never opened the videos that people made available on the internet, and he had no real idea of the destructive power and ferocity of these creatures that were once human. Kim couldn't move. He just froze as he watched that thing take a chunk out of the soldier's face.
The scene before his eyes caused vomit to shoot up the brown-haired man's throat. Being on an empty stomach, all he put out was a large amount of bitter yellowish liquid.
The noise produced by the action caught the woman's attention.
The infected left the soldier's body aside, getting on all fours on the ground like an animal and looking directly at Dan. The contorted face full of blue veins bulging through the skin with white eyes staring at the man on the ground seeming to ponder whether he was prey or no.
Blood mixed with a blue liquid flowed from his mouth as she screamed.
The most inhuman sound Dan has ever heard in his life.
The hole in her throat rocking with the unnatural force of her scream.
She advanced on him with frightening speed.
Mouth wide open and hands outstretched to reach him.
For a split second, Kim saw that thing hover over him and was sure it was the end.
You know that story about how life passes before your eyes at the moment of death?
Dan found it to be a big lie.
Everything he saw before the eminence of death was the one that would end his life.
