The Road Not Taken

[COsurvivor]

Here you begin your journey down a road not taken by our creator, no not him but Kc Wayland... I hope to give you what I think will be some very interesting and thought provoking sub stories to the WA Universe. The stories will start on May 8, 2009, just as it did for us all.


My name is Dr. Joshua Tree, PHD, if you are reading this then I am mostly likely dead. God I hope I am dead and not one of those things... I truly hope it is the former. I never believed in GOD before, but this makes me want to believe in the DEVIL more...

To begin, I write this not in hopes of meeting someone or having someone to find this and it helps them to survive this HELL that we, benevolent creatures, must have created, but in hopes of keeping my own sanity. I have seen what happens to those who cannot grasp what has happened and what it means, and what it now takes to survive. No more mocha lattes or even rush hour commutes, hell any distance more than a mile will probably have you end up dead or worse. The roads are chocked with abandoned cars; even the sidewalks are full of cars and other impassable debris.

Enough on that, more on me, right? My name is in fact Joshua Tree, now I changed it as I my given name was Tree Joshua. My parents were True Believers, I am happy to state they have been dead for a few years now. I hope that whatever this is cannot raise them. So far, from my observations of the local cemeteries has not turned, LA has not turned into a Real Thriller scene...

I am a tenured Professor at a local college here in LA, does it matter which? I doubt it as no one will want to go there, as that is where I begin my story...

Beginning of Hell

On May 8, 2009, I was in my office preparing for my 10 am class, I was trying to decide if I want to give a surprise quiz. As I was just about to decide what I wanted on the quiz, my TA or Teachers Aid barged into my office, something I never cared for from anyone even the President of the University. But the look on his face stopped me from yelling at him at proper respect. Billy Waters, was not normally someone quick to hysterics, he was always cool even when I would go over some very unhinged personalities. I knew he would make a great PHD, before all of this.

Billy’s face had a look like we all had when we heard and/or saw the recorded footage of the Twin Towers falling. I reacted like anyone would now, that fear is so deeply ingrained in all of us, even if we don’t want to admit it. “Not again? Which city was hit this time?”, I said softly feeling weak.

Billy stated as he gasped for breath,” No Professor, it is not them! LA is rioting, but there are no rioters...” He gasps for more air. “People are attacked at random and it seems once anyone is attacked, after a minute or so, they join with their attackers. It is spreading fast, it makes no sense.”

I looked at my assistant with a blank stare, not comprehending what he had just told me. ‘If it is not terrorists, then what else could it be? Militia? Gang War?’ I thought to myself. As I write this, if I only knew what this meant, I would have planned and then maybe Billy would be with me today...

What happened next is not important; we grab what we thought was important, some papers, cell phones, car keys, a single bottle of water each and our shoulder bags. We thought we would make it home and watch this on the news. As I think now, a single bottle of water? How laughable, that bottle didn’t reach past the campus, let alone to the cars! As soon as we exited the Psychology Building, I wish we were the tortoise and not the hare...

As soon as we stepped out of the Psychology Building the world I lived in changed and I still don’t know how it has fully changed... I remember the moment vividly as Billy and myself stepped outside and our lives were instantly changed. No sooner had the door closed than Billy and myself heard a scream: a student was being attacked, or so we thought. On the far side of the quad we could see someone atop a student...

Biting? That still did not make sense to me, why would an attacker be biting?

Everyone in the quad heard the scream and everyone stopped... Imagine a Bee Hive with all its drones stopping at the same moment. Now imagine those same drones, moving in a chaotic manner. That is how it all started for me, Billy and myself stood motionless, watching for a moment. I did as I could not comprehend what was truly happening, I thought it was a simple assault, but what happened next made ensured I would never make that same assumption twice. It was this inaction that would cost me more than I like to think about...

All I could see was a single attacker and not these so-called mass “Rioters” Billy told me back in my office. I could see 2 men, probably on the football team from the looks of them. They pulled the “rioter” off the victim, by the looks from our vantage point, was a student who had been jogging. Just as they pulled the rioter off, he took a bite of flesh out of the joggers neck. I don’t mean he bit the jogger in the neck, I mean he TOOK A BITE OF FLESH right out of the neck. I could see the arterial red spray coming from the neck.

Screams and calls for police, 911 went up. I even saw some people grabbing for their cell phones and then look at their phones like they were playing a practical joke. At this point two students, probably pre-med, ran up with a first aid kit. I could see them go through the motions of a pre-med student, checking vitals; applying a bandage to the neck and I swear a tongue depressor was used.

There was no hope for the jogger, in a minute he was dead from the bite into his neck. As the pre-med students gasped at their first dead patient, the rioter screamed, no, roar better describes what came from the so-called rioter... If I only knew what was going to happen next I would have ran and not just watch the scene unfold. I swear to what ever GOD will listen and watch over me, but the rioter broke his own arm to bite the hand of one the football players. I did not see what he did, I just focused on the rioter, not yell in pain or even grab his arm in a protective manner. He simply pulled the other player closer to him and took bites out of his forearm. As he SWALLOWED the chunk, I heard the roar renew, but this time from the other football player? He changed, but into what? In under a minute? What disease or bacteria can replicate so fast in a human body?

I swear it was no more than a single minute before he went from protector to aggressor. People screamed and just ran in all directions. Billy’s assessment was correct.

At this point I felt Billy pull my arm and point as the newest “rioter” was changing, his skin was boiling? Bubbling? I wish I had a better and safer vantage point as I would liked to determine how much time it took for people to change once exposed to blood from these “rioters”. We no nothing and have no time to figure anything out. I have never heard of any infection or chemical weapon that works this fast. And at the rate of infection, Billy and I determined to leave before being overwhelmed ourselves. We ran to the employee parking area behind the quad...

How stupid I was to think we could drive away in the LA! I should have taken a second or more to think, but there was no time!!! I am sorry Billy....

(to be continued)