Categories > Original > Horror
Juggernauts (Prologue)
0 reviewsWhen a pandemic evolves into a rage inducing apocalypse, a few survivors must band together to reach safe haven. The survivors have to be on their toes at all times, the beast only come out at nigh...
0Unrated
I'm going to tell this as best as I can, as fast as I can because, I
honestly don't know how long I've got.
It started somewhere in the ice cube known as Siberia, we don't know what caused it or if there will ever be a cure ; all we know is that we have to keep our guard up.
We were all unprepared, everyone thought it was another flu "pandimic" spurred by the media. It started with a headache, fever, and soreness. It spread at first through typical mean coughing and sneezing. After a few weeks of the flu-like symptoms the aches went away and the fever spiked unnaturally high, and the victims became extremely violent. That's what made it so deadly, that and it evolved so quickly that it started skipping the flu stage and straight to what we took to calling the juggernaut stage. From this point transmission came in the form of a scratch, exchange of victims body fluids (blood,spit, etc.). The victims became nearly unstoppable when they reached this point; you could kick, stab , beat and maim them but they would keep coming. The only way we've found to stop them is spinal cord or cranial trauma, aka beat the head in or break the neck. Which in itself is nearly impossible because of their strength and how fast they moved.
The only thing thats let some of us survive this long is awareness and a small band of us with an immunity to the disease. We can tell much easier now the infected from the non, Juggernauts tend to be active only at night due to heightened light sensitivity (the high fever seems to have burned or at least weakened their retinas), also the J's give off a strange smell, it's not all that disgusting but it's unpleasant enough that we can sense it now before wandering into a den of them while looking for supplies. We've taken to traveling by day and keeping a full stock of ultra bright lights on hand, but things are running low. We been picking our way north from the gulf coast of Texas for a few weeks, we've heard rumors via sporadic radio reports that there are survivors somewhere to the north and east somewhere along the Mississippi river. We've even managed to find some places with gas and electricity, at least enough to get a message out. I'm sending this from a nearly destroyed hotel lobby in Carthage, Texas.
This all started a few months back maybe close to a year , it was December of 2010 when the first reports of what was then called H-something-or-another and I was just regular old, Tyson Grey. I worked at a chain home improvement store, went out with my boyfriend and enjoyed life. I was never really worried about getting it, I even cracked jokes about getting vaccines, and the everyone must wash their hands speeches at work. But towards Christmas I started taking notice, people would stop coming in, first a few here and there then down to just a few of us and new hires they had to help with the slack. One night after closing down my area I was hanging out with some of the people from around the store when, of course the subject of the new flu came up. Jim one of the team leads had missed a few days of work over the past week or so and he told us that he had been really sick and now he was on the finally stretch to a full recovery.
When I got up the next morning the news was showing a breaking story about a murder on the north side of town "the killer apparently beat their victim and..." I looked at the clock and realized I was going to be late if I didn't leave soon. When I got to work our store manager called the regular morning huddle, and told us that the night before Jim had gone home the night before and apparently killed his neighbor, no one knew where he had gone but a witness saw him go into the neighbors house and never come out. He was one of the first in the town to change. From then on reports came in every day of grisly murders, by the time we figured it out it was too late and we were essentially screwed. Towards the end of all normalcy(aka mass hysteria, and total outbreak of juggernauts) the implemented a policy at work : buddy system at all times and the store would close an hour before night fall each night. At least we figured out their nocturnal habits or no one would have been safe. (Although there were and still are some daytime attacks.) We stayed open despite sagging sales and even more widespread violence. But it all changed two weeks after Christmas, from what we found out before mass communication went down, a band of infected destroyed three towns on the East coast. From there it was a free for all, planes were grounded, curfews were enacted, and marshal law was declared. It broke down further as non-infected became violent and the infected spread the disease even further and faster.
honestly don't know how long I've got.
It started somewhere in the ice cube known as Siberia, we don't know what caused it or if there will ever be a cure ; all we know is that we have to keep our guard up.
We were all unprepared, everyone thought it was another flu "pandimic" spurred by the media. It started with a headache, fever, and soreness. It spread at first through typical mean coughing and sneezing. After a few weeks of the flu-like symptoms the aches went away and the fever spiked unnaturally high, and the victims became extremely violent. That's what made it so deadly, that and it evolved so quickly that it started skipping the flu stage and straight to what we took to calling the juggernaut stage. From this point transmission came in the form of a scratch, exchange of victims body fluids (blood,spit, etc.). The victims became nearly unstoppable when they reached this point; you could kick, stab , beat and maim them but they would keep coming. The only way we've found to stop them is spinal cord or cranial trauma, aka beat the head in or break the neck. Which in itself is nearly impossible because of their strength and how fast they moved.
The only thing thats let some of us survive this long is awareness and a small band of us with an immunity to the disease. We can tell much easier now the infected from the non, Juggernauts tend to be active only at night due to heightened light sensitivity (the high fever seems to have burned or at least weakened their retinas), also the J's give off a strange smell, it's not all that disgusting but it's unpleasant enough that we can sense it now before wandering into a den of them while looking for supplies. We've taken to traveling by day and keeping a full stock of ultra bright lights on hand, but things are running low. We been picking our way north from the gulf coast of Texas for a few weeks, we've heard rumors via sporadic radio reports that there are survivors somewhere to the north and east somewhere along the Mississippi river. We've even managed to find some places with gas and electricity, at least enough to get a message out. I'm sending this from a nearly destroyed hotel lobby in Carthage, Texas.
This all started a few months back maybe close to a year , it was December of 2010 when the first reports of what was then called H-something-or-another and I was just regular old, Tyson Grey. I worked at a chain home improvement store, went out with my boyfriend and enjoyed life. I was never really worried about getting it, I even cracked jokes about getting vaccines, and the everyone must wash their hands speeches at work. But towards Christmas I started taking notice, people would stop coming in, first a few here and there then down to just a few of us and new hires they had to help with the slack. One night after closing down my area I was hanging out with some of the people from around the store when, of course the subject of the new flu came up. Jim one of the team leads had missed a few days of work over the past week or so and he told us that he had been really sick and now he was on the finally stretch to a full recovery.
When I got up the next morning the news was showing a breaking story about a murder on the north side of town "the killer apparently beat their victim and..." I looked at the clock and realized I was going to be late if I didn't leave soon. When I got to work our store manager called the regular morning huddle, and told us that the night before Jim had gone home the night before and apparently killed his neighbor, no one knew where he had gone but a witness saw him go into the neighbors house and never come out. He was one of the first in the town to change. From then on reports came in every day of grisly murders, by the time we figured it out it was too late and we were essentially screwed. Towards the end of all normalcy(aka mass hysteria, and total outbreak of juggernauts) the implemented a policy at work : buddy system at all times and the store would close an hour before night fall each night. At least we figured out their nocturnal habits or no one would have been safe. (Although there were and still are some daytime attacks.) We stayed open despite sagging sales and even more widespread violence. But it all changed two weeks after Christmas, from what we found out before mass communication went down, a band of infected destroyed three towns on the East coast. From there it was a free for all, planes were grounded, curfews were enacted, and marshal law was declared. It broke down further as non-infected became violent and the infected spread the disease even further and faster.
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