Mary hates Monday mornings worse than any other. Not that she loves her weekends all that much. She goes home to an empty house and a television with her name on it.
Her mother often questions her about her dating situation and whether she has found any friends. Mary goes out every once in a while when she tails along with Celeste, the super attractive blond secretary that reminds the guys of the movie stars of yesteryear. Mary goes to the club with Celeste and ends up watching her dance as the guys fall over themselves trying to date her.
It is the same thing at the office as the nerds grab quick glances of her as she walks by their cube.
It is not that Mary is unattractive. She is pretty, but she doesn’t desire to put on the makeup and skirts and fashions. She would rather put on some jeans and come dressed like all the rest of her co-workers.
Money wasn’t a problem for Mary. She is a retired military officer who decided to study computer programming and had Uncle Sam put her through a PhD in computers. She eased into the private sector with a plumb job while sitting on a full retirement and a full salary.
This Monday morning she came into the office a little later than usual. “Hello, Mary,” Celeste said while glowing. Her hair was perfect as usual. In addition, her perky voice irked Mary.
“Hey, Celeste.”
“You do know what’s going on? It appears that there is some kind of sickness going around. You got in on time. The police are about to close the roads to traffic in and out of town.”
“Ok, Celeste, whatever…” Mary half listened because Celeste was either getting her story half right or totally wrong.
Mary walked back into the area of cubicles. Many of the workers were standing and talking. That was not a surprise on Monday morning. Perhaps they were talking about the home team or something.
Mary walked back towards her office. Some people were talking. This talking sounded a little like Celeste may have been half right instead of wrong this time.
Dexter from sales came to her door. “Mary, there is some way contagious virus going through Atlanta now and the governor is shutting down airline travel into the area.”
“What? Shutting down air travel? We are one of the major hubs.”
“Yeah, they are going to reroute traffic elsewhere. I am about to get out of here and head home. And you ought to go home as well.”
Mary chuckles. “Our vice president wouldn’t close this shop if the president of the United States told him to.”
There was a sound of shock coming from the break room. Mary and Dexter both walked over to the room. There were about 50 people standing in a room that seated 10. They were all looking at the television.
“Wherever you are, we want you to stay. Later this afternoon we will dismiss different areas…” The television reporter said. “Do not worry about your children in school. The school district is taking them to shelters near the school. Please help us by staying where you are,” the reporter continued.
As one would expect, people started leaving to head home. Someone said that they were going to pick up their kids from school and someone else talked about going to the grocery store.
The television reporters made it seem like it was important, but not dire. Like it was a temporary thing. Mary couldn’t figure out what was going on. She figured she would sit down and do her job.
The boss walked into the area and yelled. “Hold on, they said to stay put. If you leave, you are going to have to take a vacation day. Plus you need to get authorization from me.”
“What did I tell you? It will take an act of congress to get us a day off. But it does sound serious,” Mary said to Dexter.
“Are you going to come now?” Dexter asked.
Mary had to admit that it was a good time to leave, plus she’d had a secret crush on Dexter for a while. But she decided to program. She said, “Hold on, let me get back to the office and do a few things.”
“Tell me if you are coming…”
Mary walked back to her office and started programming. She attacked a programming issue that she was working on when a co-worker sent her an email with a MyTube.Com video. She often ignores those kinds of emails during work. This time was no exception. She went back to programming.
After about an hour, it was like a ghost town in there. Dexter stood at Mary’s door and had Celeste with her. “Last call. I am taking Celeste to my house out north. We are leaving now.”
Mary decided to stay. “I have a problem that I need to fix and my mind is working on it. I will see you tomorrow.”
“OK, take care,” Dexter said.
Mary popped up her email and decided to look at that video that someone sent her. Mary clicked the link and a video popped up. In the video an angry man ran after another man. The running man took a bite out of the other man’s arm. The cameraman did a close up of the bitten man, who, after a few seconds, jumped up and attacked the cameraman. Mary recognized the location in Atlanta. It was about 10 miles south of town.
Mary reasoned that this couldn’t be real, but what if it were? It was obvious to Mary that someone had doctored the speed of the video. But it did look real in every other respect. She yelled, “Hold on!” and ran to catch up with Dexter and Celeste.
The boss yelled out the window, “Not you too?” and he walked back into his office and shut the door.
It wasn’t long before Mary caught up with Celeste and Dexter. They were waiting at the elevator.
“Changed your mind?” Dexter asked.
“If we are wrong, I’ll only have lost one vacation day.”
When the elevator opened on the car level, sirens were blasting all around. It appeared that emergency personnel were out and about and many were blasting their sirens.
“Let’s get to the car,” Dexter said.
“I need to get something out of my car first. It is over there,” Celeste said as she walked over to her car.
“OK, but please be quick about it,” Dexter said as Mary and Dexter walked to Dexter’s car.
Celeste walked over to her car opened the door. From behind, a man in a dark coat grabbed her and bit a chunk of flesh from her neck. The blood spurted from the open wound and she yelled.
Dexter began to run towards Celeste when a woman came out of the shadows. She was a worker in the office, but now she came at Dexter. Mary kicked her down, but she got back up. A sound to the left informed them that another co-worker rushed towards them.
“Get in the car and let’s go,” Mary said.
“But what about Celeste?”
“Celeste is dead.”
Dexter jumped into the car and backed out of the parking space when another man came at the car. Dexter turned to the right to leave the parking garage.
“You were right, Dexter. We needed to get out of there, but where did you say we are going?”
“I’m going home outside of town. The last thing you need is to be in the middle of a city when it turns into hell.” Dexter hit the gas.
Chapter 3 - Jeremiah Jones