So I’m 15, and I lived in a rather small yet affluent town in the middle of nowhere. Everyone was friendly, and although we’re rich, we did our best to give back to the less fortunate. That was how my parents raised me. My dad was a medical doctor and my mom was a police officer, so we were relatively well off.
Around June of last year, I started to notice oddities around the neighborhood. My old neighbor, Mr Smith, wasn’t coming out as often as he used to. And when he did come out, he was blistering all over his face. Apparently, I was the only one who saw him come and go, because no one even mentioned his condition. I just assumed he had shingles or something (a rather stupid assumption on my part) and continued on with my day as usual each time.
As the weeks went by, I noticed more noticeable changes. My school reverted to virtual learning following a spike in flu cases, even though it was June. Mr Smith was getting more and more blistered up, and the local hospital was receiving more patients. My dad came home tired as ever, and didn’t even have time to talk to us. All the while, the spike in patients surged, each reporting having blisters that burned when you popped them, and that emitted a black pus when popped.
Eventually, my mom was getting more and more calls, and each reported being stalked and injured by “blistering individuals”. The rumors went around in my friend group. They assumed it was a zombie apocalypse or a government test. However, I felt really uneasy about the entire situation, so I didn’t say anything. The spike in calls continued, and it got to the point where both my parents weren’t sleeping at all due to being on call all the time.
One night, I came home to see my parents sitting in the kitchen, just blankly staring at each other. I uneasily approached them, but I stopped when I saw my dad was holding a kitchen knife, with blisters all over his face. My mom had her baton out, and I slowly backed up. My dad suddenly ran full sprint at me, holding the knife high into the air. I screamed and ran into my parent’s bedroom, barricading the door behind me. My mom banged furiously on the door, shrieking. I rushed to my father’s closet and took out his pistol, fumbling with the bullets as I loaded each one into the magazine before cocking it back. I was a lousy shot, and during my time on the shooting range, I only managed to shoot the target once. But this was life or death right here.
My dad broke open the door using the axe, and I pulled the trigger numerous times. The first shot missed, making a mark on the door, but the second one opened a blister on my mom’s face. She shrieked in pain as another bullet hit a blister on my dad’s face. Using the opportunity, I ran past them and the wide open door. There was no one on my street, but there were signs of chaos. Upside down cars, trash fires, dead bodies. My parents ran outside to try and catch me again, but numerous gunshots suddenly rang out. I turned and saw soldiers wearing gas masks approaching my parents, gunning them down. I held my ears and cried softly as my parents fell to the hard pavement, making a large thud sound as they did. A soldier roughly grabbed me and checked my face.
“Clear!” He yelled out. the soldier escorted me to a jeep with other soldiers, and there were audible shrieks getting closer and closer.
“Crap! Drive! Go Go Go!” The soldier yelled, slamming the side of the jeep. I turned back and saw hundreds of blistering residents chasing us, shrieking. I screamed as the jeep sped off towards the town’s high school. As we approached the high school, I saw buildings on fire, cars overturned, dead bodies, and blistering people violently destroying dead bodies lying on the street.
Once we reached the high school, a large fenced gate opened and the jeep sped through. There was a giant plane on the football field, and I could see some of my classmates and people I knew being put on the plane. I heard audible gunshots, and turned to see soldiers shooting wildly at the infected residents. I began crying again as I was escorted onto the plane, and the last thing I saw was the soldiers rushing to another plane as the infected breached the gate.
A week after the incident, the government nuked the town. All that remains now is a giant crater in the middle of nowhere. They gave me $10000 to keep my mouth shut about the incident, but I felt like I needed to let this out to the world, to give closure to the people who lost a family member to this. If they kill me, at least some people saw the truth.
I’ve been developing a blister on my face though, and I don’t think it’s going away anytime soon.