Chapter 1: The Containment
Helicopters circled the city's skyline as truck after truck of armed soldiers poured out onto the streets with guns at the ready.Terrified citizens froze and watched as Soldiers began walking into buildings and removing medical equipment, supplies as well as rounding up staff. Many civilians looked on as this happened until bystanders started to intervene and ask questions....questions were what the soldiers disliked and as a result, they began hosing down windows of shops and buildings with bullets until all citizens had fled for their lives.
Shortly after, a guy who identified himself as the commander of the soldiers, announced that they would be controlling all medical facilities and the regulation of medical supplies and administration of any needed drugs. The commander also stated that martial law had been declared and all amendment rights could be redacted if necessary and that an 8 pm curfew would be strictly enforced. This seemed very odd but citizens were highly persuaded by the semi-automatic weapons being pointed at them, to be quiet and follow the rules.
I was lucky enough to have just got in from school when the soldiers arrived however as confused as we all were, my parent's first instinct was to turn on the television and the first thing we heard on all stations was a news reporter saying " as the war with Korea rages on, the chemically weaponized virus known as "pax 10" has been confirmed here in Kentucky, as precautionary measures to limit the spread, the state is now on lock Dow-"; suddenly the broadcast dropped and the screen read: "broadcast interrupted". Me and dad were startled by shouting and gunshots a few houses down; it was the soldiers and they were knocking on doors asking at the top of their lungs "is this the Bowman family residence?" my heart sank and I shivered with fear and as I turned around my parents were already off packing.
I stood there in shock, gazing out the window at something I've never seen before - I mean I would expect this if we lived in a poor neighborhood but we lived in the wealthy part of town where it was so quiet that me and my friends would often stir up mischief just to make things less boring... of course our parents didn't appreciate it but who cares, it was fun. I continued staring until mom grabbed me and drew the curtains and sent me to my baby sister's room to pack her bags. Shortly after packing, my parents rushed me and my sister to the car before taking one last look in the house and making sure it looked as no one had ever been home.
Dad put the car in drive and slammed the down on the gas pedal so hard, the tires screeched but lucky for us the soldiers were too preoccupied with looting houses and harassing random residents to notice. The sun had begun to set as well, revealing fires in the background and more helicopters circling as our once beautiful city now looked like an apocalyptic wasteland. I asked dad" where are we going to stay" and he said, "were going to head to grandmas house, its on the other side of town that hasn't been touched yet and should give me and your mother time to figure out what to do".We drove hours on end, undisturbed until we ran into a checkpoint of some sort but this checkpoint was run by cops who had already pointed guns at us before my dad could reverse and drive away.
Dad felt something wasn't right so he opened the glove box and handed me a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and 4 clips. I asked my dad in a shaky voice" w-whats t-this for ?" and dad turned and looked me in the eyes and said, "if they try something I want you to shoot them son" and I said, "isn't that illegal?" and dad said, "son its martial law it is every man for himself and many will abuse their powers to survive, so we can't trust anyone but each other, so each of us must be prepared". The cop signaled with his gun for my dad to step out of the car with his license and registration and dad did as the officer asked. The officer walked over to his car to run my dads ID and as he did I thought that maybe the officer was just profiling my dad due to my families Hispanic background, which was normal for us until the officer drew his gun and pinned dad to the hood of our car with the gun to his head yelling "YOU"RE ALL UNDER ARREST, DON'T MOVE!!! as another officer approached his partner.
"DO IT. DO IT NOW!! dad yelled as I froze up but somehow as I blinked again, the gun was in my hand; aimed at the officer. My mother covered my sister's eyes as I squeezed off several shots before watching the officer fall to the ground in a pool of his own blood. Before I had any time to think, I squeezed off 3 more shots and watched as the second officer tumbled to the pavement; blood pouring out of his mouth and neck. Tears began to run down my face as my dad hopped back in the car and said"good shot son" but despite all of this, I could only think about those 2 officers and their families who would be fatherless Thanks to me. I've never taken a life before; except in video games but the feeling in real life was much different and harder to bear. Dad stopped at a nearby gas station and refueled before we continued the long journey to grandmas house and little did I know, shit would hit the fan in a matter of hours.
