Chapter 1: Uncertainty

'I woke up. It was so sudden that I couldn't breathe for a second, but I soon caught my breath. I sat up and then I remembered, the dream I had... it was so vivid. As I tried to understand what my dream was about, I looked around. Then I noticed where I was.

It was a small, steel room. From what I could see, there was just the small bed I was sitting on, what looked like a little clock installed into the wall, and a little built-in 5 inch ventilation system in the ceiling, which was about 15 feet from the ground. There wasn't a source of light anywhere, though the light seemed to emanate from the walls themself. That's when I realized that it wasn't a dream. That it had all really happened. That they were all probably dead.

It all was coming back to me at once. Everything. I couldn't take it. I just broke down. It was just too much for a kid. It was just too traumatic.

After a little while, I tried to control myself. I knew crying wasn't going to do anything. I had to do something. So, I got up and tried to find a way out. But I was still confused on two things: where I was, and why I hadn't changed like the rest of them. Why was it different for me? I kept on looking for a way out, but I just couldn't find it. I triple re-checked everywhere just to make sure I didn't miss something, but there wasn't anything at all. It was just a plain room. So naturally, I got upset. A whole hour's worth of looking at the smallest detail, of staring at a blank wall, all for nothing. I was tired and frustrated, and since I couldn't do anything else I just plopped onto the bed and waited.

After a couple of minutes, I looked at the clock. I saw it just as it changed to 7:00 p.m. Then suddenly, one of the walls vertically elevated up into a crack, where it fit perfectly. I was surprised, since that happened, and since it happened exactly at 7:00 as well. After a moment or so, I looked into where the wall had been, and I found a dark hallway. I thought to myself, "Ok, this is crazy! What's going on here? What should I do?" My mind was going about 100 miles an hour, so I thought of all the things that could happen.

After I was able to finally able to calm myself down, I thought over my situation. I told myself, "So apparently I have two choices: Stay here and wait for something to happen, or go down into the dark creepy tunnel, not knowing if a trap was there or not." I sat there for a few minutes thinking it over. I wasn't really sure which to choose. Finally, I decided on just going forward into the tunnel. The room I was in didn't have anything that would help me survive anyway, like food. Or internet connection.

So, I went in. It was really dark and I could barely see a thing. It was also so quiet I could almost hear my heart's frantic beating echoing in the emptiness. I was so scared that I almost turned back, when suddenly I could see a light at the end of the hallway. I started running towards it to get out of the darkness. Then out of nowhere, I crashed into something and fell down. I swore, and then tried to look at what I fell over and went to check myself to see if I was hurt, but then realized it was still dark.

I got up, and saw the light I had been running for. I started to walk towards it, but after three steps I walked right into what felt like a wall. I rubbed my head, and then outreached my hand towards the light, where I felt the coolness of glass. I turned around, and saw the exact kind of light from where I had come from. I had walked straight into a mirror! I turned back to the mirror, and was able to make out the outline of my body.

I touched the mirror again, exactly where the light seemed to be, and then was blinded by a sudden flash of light. I closed my eyes and fell backwards, almost hitting my head over the thing I had tripped over earlier. After a couple seconds, I slowly opened my eyes, and saw that light was now here. I started to hear mechanical noises, so I turned around, and saw the thing I had tripped over was a metal chair, and past that, I saw the a wall coming down vertically and closing off the hallway I had come through.

By this time, I was freaked out, more than the time I saw The Exorcist. It was hardly comparable to what was happening, but that's my life, nothing exciting ever seemed to happen before, nothing to give my life thrills. But now I was wishing my life would go back to that way. I was scared, I thought I was going to die, though that's what I thought was going to happen to me the couple days before, when it all started. I had survived, only for this to happen to me. Others gave their life -and mind- to help me to get away, and now it seemed all for nothing.

As the wall finished coming down, I got up and saw that the light I had seen was from the mirror, though the light was still there. It seemed to come shining out from beyond the mirror, but I didn't give it a second thought and instead looked at where I was now.

It looked exactly like the room I was in before just a few minutes ago, except this one was smaller, and there was a chair instead of a bed here, and there was also the mirror. As I looked around the plain white room, it looked much like an interrogation room I would see in movies and video games. As soon as I thought that, I started to have a panic attack, but then a voice said "You are safe." "What? Is anyone there?" I asked. "You are safe," the voice said again, "Please sit down."

The voice seemed to come from the room itself, I couldn't see any speakers or anything to where the voice might be coming from. "Please sit down," the voice said, "You are safe now. I want to help you." "If you want to help me, could you let me go then?" I asked. "No," the voice answered, "It is too dangerous out there. If I were to let you out, you would die in minutes." 'So cheerful.' I thought, and then asked "How did I get here? Why am I here?"

The voice answered, and said "We found you, and saw you were infected. We were able to slow down the infection to prevent you from turning into one of those things, just like the rest. The infection is now at a complete halt, and it will stay suppressed until further contact with the infected occurs. We are keeping you here so that you will be safe, and hopefully find a complete cure off of the temporarily treated infected."

"Oh my God..." I said as I sat down in the chair, and realized exactly what the situation was that I was in. This person, or his team at least, were the only ones keeping me from becoming like the rest. I had many more questions, and decided on asking "What are those things out there that were attacking the city, and where did they come from?" There was a short pause, and the voice answered "I'm afraid I can't tell you that right now. You'll know when the time comes, but right now is not the time. But now I have a question for you." 'What is that?" I asked the voice.

It answered me with the question "How did you survive for this long?"