The Pandemic: A Compilation of Short Stories

By D. Briggs

The Pandemic is a fiction book of short stories that will take you through a firsthand account of a what-if worst-case-scenario pandemic that was released into the world. The Zirus virus that kills its host to a vaccine that mutates within you, and you become something else. The book moves through various times and locations--from a cop in northern New Hampshire to a soldier down in Columbia, South Carolina, going from the very start of the pandemic to a postapocalyptic time well beyond the virus into the zombie-infested cities and towns. Each short story is intertwined in a way that works with the other stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638815648

Book preview

The

Pandemic

A Compilation of Short Stories

D. Briggs

Copyright © 2022 D. Briggs

All rights reserved

First Edition

NEWMAN SPRINGS PUBLISHING

320 Broad Street

Red Bank, NJ 07701

First originally published by Newman Springs Publishing 2022

ISBN 978-1-63881-563-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63881-564-8 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To J. Collins and T. Allen

If it wasn’t for your encouragement for me to continue writing this book, I believe this would have been an idea and nothing more. Thank you for believing in my words in this book.

Pandemic

What do you mean the human race is gone! Didn’t this just happen five days ago? says Steve.

Five days earlier

It is a quiet cold morning in the northern part of New Hampshire. The clouds have rolled in, and the wind is picking up another five to ten miles per hour. There is a thin crust of frost over everything. The morning winter birds are chirping as they search for food in the couple of inches of snow that had fallen two days before. Steven Archer is a local town cop who has worked for the town for the last twenty-one years. He joined the force when he was twenty-two years old. Now at forty-three years of age, he’s a lot grayer and a little overweight from the mornings of picking up fast food and gas station sandwiches. His uniform is slightly wrinkled due to the fact that he has been working the last fifteen and a half hours straight pulling over two people for speeding and one for a DUI. Steve was having a busy night, and now that sunrise is upon him, he is feeling the tiredness coming over him as his last half hour of work is almost done.

Steve has driven back into town stopping to top off his cruiser at the mom-and-pop store that has a couple of older-style gas pumps. He gets out of his car and walks toward the store’s front door. He notices that the lights are not on yet, and he doesn’t smell the fresh scent of coffee or any eggs and bacon. He sees that the closed sign is still up as well. Steve says to himself, This is not like them to not be open. Joe and Claire have been open every day for as long as I can remember. As Steve turns around, he hears a faint sound, almost like a scream; but he couldn’t really determine where it came from. So Steve walks back to his car and gets back in and heads to the Cumberland Farms down the street.

Steve goes in to pay for his fuel for the cruiser. He sees Jacob working behind the counter and approaches Jacob with his credit card. Hey, Jacob, have you seen Joe or Claire?

Not since yesterday, replies Jacob. Joe was looking a little sick. I wasn’t sure if he was coming down with the flu or something. The store has a TV up in the corner going. It looks like a breaking news came up, but the volume is too low to make out any of the words.

Steve says, Well, I may have to make a visit later to see if they’re okay. Right now I have to get back to the station to clock out and head home. I’m really tired. This has been a long sixteen-hour shift, and I’m ready for sleep.

Steve pulls into the police station, grabs all his reports, locks the doors on the car, and heads into the police station. He sees one of his buddies just getting into work, Mark Sable, who’s been on the force for fifteen years. He’s a little younger than Steve but looks like he’s around fifty years old. Time was not kind to Mark. Mark served his country in the US Army National Guard. He did two tours in Iraq and got out last year.

Hey, Steve? says Mark. How was your night?

Well, Mark, mostly uneventful but had a couple of stops, replies Steve. Hey, Mark, says Steve. Hey, have you seen Joe or Claire lately?

Mark replies, Not lately. I stopped in one day last week to pick up some stuff for home, and they seemed good. Why do you ask?

Well, Steve says, I noticed they were not open today. The store is quiet. This is not like them. They usually have breakfast going and coffee on, and when I go in, they seem very happy and cordial.

I hope it’s nothing serious? Mark replies.

I hope not, says Steve. I sure love the breakfasts when I’m coming in back from my shift.

Steve gets his keys for his pickup and starts heading home after doing about twenty minutes’ worth of paperwork and filing. Steve tells Mark to have a safe shift and heads out. Steve gets in his pickup, starts it, and rolls out of the police station parking lot. He makes a left and heads out of town on Main Street. As Steve is driving, he passes the mom-and-pop store and still sees it closed. No signs of anyone there. Steve shrugs it off as maybe they weren’t feeling well. Either they will open later or take a day for themselves.

Steve pulls into his driveway, shuts his truck off, gets out, and heads to the front door of his small New England-style home. He walks to his front door, puts his key into the lock, unlocks the door, and heads inside. Steve shuts his front door and walks into his kitchen. The inside of his home is a typical single guy’s home, a lived-in feel with a touch of mess. Steve has been working a lot of long shifts and really hasn’t had time for cleaning or upkeep. His kitchen sink is full of dirty dishes. His coffee maker still has some old coffee from the day prior, and his trash can has started to overflow on to the floor. As he walks out of the kitchen, Steve takes his wallet and keys and puts them on the counter next to his coffee maker and heads down the hallway to his bedroom. Steve takes his service weapon and holster and puts them in the lockbox in his closet on the shelf. He starts to undress and gets into something more comfortable.

Steve heads into his bathroom, does his morning ritual, and heads back to his bedroom and turns on his TV. He has no sound coming out of it, and a show is on. Steve draws back his blankets, sets his alarm clock, and crawls into bed; and within minutes, he is asleep.

The phone is ringing. Steve kinda moves a little. The phone stops. The phone starts ringing again, just keeps ringing. Steve starts to wake and suddenly jumps up from a deep sleep. Startled by the phone, Steve quickly picks it up. Yeah, says Steve.

The voice on the other end says, "Steve, get dressed. We need you down at the station now! Something is happening… We found Joe and Claire. It’s not good… I need you to come in now. Hurry up, this is bad." The voice continues as Steve hangs up the phone. He looks around at the bedroom and sees that the light outside is still a dull gray like this morning. He looks at the time, and it’s two thirty in the afternoon. Steve gets up and quickly gets dressed. He grabs his weapon and holster, goes to the kitchen, grabs his wallet and keys, and heads out the front door to his truck. He quickly gets in and floors it down the road to town.

Steve flies into town and sees a lot of cruisers and a couple of ambulances. A whole bunch of people are walking around. Some are reporters as well. Steve gets out, and Mark comes walking up to Steve. Hey, man, it’s bad, says Mark.

What do you mean? Steve replies.

When you go in, you will see. Steve, it’s really bad.

As Steve walks to the front door of the store, he starts to smell a pungent odor of burning flesh and sewage. He sees another officer come darting out, lean over the side of the steps, and throw up what could’ve been his lunch.

The officer looks at Steve and says, Man, you really don’t want to go in there. It’s bad. His voice is shaking. Steve looks back at the front door and slowly walks in. The pungent smell gets even worse as he crosses the threshold into the store. As Steve looks up and across the store, he sees the inside of the store. It’s in total disarray. Shelves are knocked down, and the snack racks are on the floor. Canned goods are all over the floor, and over by the drink coolers is a lot of crimson-colored liquid on the floor. Over by the counter lies what appears to be what was left of a body. Flesh torn and hanging from bones. The head looks partially dissolved, and the skin just melted away around by the eye sockets where the left eye was. As Steve gets closer, he starts to realize that the mangled body was that of Joe Sabre, the owner of the mom-and-pop store. Steve has to look away for a moment to keep from puking in the crime scene.

"What the hell happened here!" asks Steve.

The medical examiner replies, I really don’t know. In my thirty years on this job, I’ve never seen anything like this before. This is really a mess.

Well, where is Claire Sabre? Steve asks.

Well, the medical examiner replies, we’re figuring the big bloody mess by the drink coolers is Claire. Steve walks over to the drink coolers to get a better look at what appears to be a bodied outline of blood and bits and pieces of what appears to be dissolving bone. The other medical examiner is starting to scoop up the soupy mess into clear glass jars.

So you guys think this is Claire Sabre? asks Steve.

Yeah, we’re thinking this is her. We will know for sure with a DNA match.

So what do you think may have caused this? asks Steve again.

Not really sure, the medical examiner replies. This is a new one on me, the ME continues. This one is a baffler. But we’ll get to the bottom of it for sure. As the ME is still scooping up the bloody soupy remains, Steve turns and heads out to the front door to head back out to talk to Mark. As Steve walks out the front door, four reporters start to rush him all yelling out questions.

Have you seen the bodies?

Is it the owners of the store?

Are there any other bodies?

What are their names?

Steve just walks through them not saying a word and starts looking around to talk to Mark.

Mark yells out, Steve, over here!

Steve starts heading in the direction of Mark’s voice. Okay, what is the plan here, Mark? asks Steve.

Well, Mark replies, we need to cordon off this area to include the store and this parking lot. We already have a ton of pictures of the crime scenes. The MEs are getting the bodies picked up, and once we have them gone, we can process the whole house and store to figure out what exactly is going on here. We need to figure out who or what did this to poor Joe and Claire.

As the day gets later into the afternoon, Mark and Steve start marking off more of the parking lot and around the house with crime-scene tape. Then as they finish, they start to look around the house for any suspicious things to include any other footprints or any windows ajar or broken. Any tire tracks nearby. Anything that would point to foul play. But they find nothing on the outside near the house. So Steve and Mark head into the house part again to look for any clues to what the hell they just saw to would make that happen.

Mark? says Steve. What do you think may have caused what we saw?

I don’t have a clue, replies Mark. All I know whatever happened to them cannot be human, if that is what you’re asking. I have never seen anything like that. Not even overseas, man. This is really a new one on me. Mark continues, You know I heard on the radio that there is something similar happening all over the world apparently. This is not an isolated case. There is not a lot of these cases but enough to get the media’s attention.

Chief Parker walks up to Steve and Mark. Chief Parker has been with the department for over thirty years and shows no signs of retiring anytime soon. Carey Parker grew up in Manchester, New Hampshire, and moved up to northern New Hampshire with his parents when he was twelve and has lived up that way ever since. He is a stocky-built man with no hair left on his head and has four daughters. His wife died from cancer two years ago and has been known to frequent the bar to kill the pain of his wife’s passing almost every night.

Hey, Steve? says Chief Parker. Thanks for coming in to help with the processing of the scene. Pretty messed up, isn’t it?

Yeah, replies Steve. Mark says this is not just happening here but all over the world too.

Well, replies Chief Parker, then this can’t be good. Maybe we have some sort of pandemic happening. Do they know where this is originating from?

Not sure, Mark replies, but they will be looking into that as well. At least we know as of right now there was no foul play at this scene just yet. Right, Steve?

Yeah, so far we haven’t found anything just as of yet to say otherwise, but we’ll keep looking into it more to make sure, replies Steve.

Chief Parker leaves and heads back to the station to look into more of what’s happening throughout the state and to get with the state police and the governor’s office. In the meantime, Steve and Mark process the house to try to find any more clues to what had happened to Joe and Claire Sabre. As they reenter the house, that pungent smell hits them like a wall again This time Steve and Mark put on masks to try to dullen that smell.

Man, says Steve, that smell just hits ya, doesn’t it?

Yeah, replies Mark, but after a couple of tours overseas, you kind of get used to some of them. But this smell? You really never get used to. You just try to cope with it.

As they process the house, Steve goes into the kitchen and starts looking around and finds a container that had been opened. He notices a little blood on the counter and then looks around a little more and notices more blood going out of the kitchen leading into a short hall that enters into the store part of the house, and as Steve follows the trail, he sees more and more blood. Then Steve notices that the trail leads in the two directions where the bodies are.

Steve goes back to the kitchen to where he found the container and takes a closer look at the container. He reads the outside of the container: Mrs. P’s Peanut Butter. He looks inside the peanut butter container and notices a hairy substance protruding from the peanut butter.

Hey, Mark? Steve calls out.

What’s up? replies Mark.

I think I may have found something, says Steve.

What is it? replies Mark.

Not sure yet, says Steve. I will get a couple of photos and bag it up for the Forensics Department.

After a lengthy investigation and processing of the scene, Steve and Mark head back to the station to log in all the evidence from Joe and Claire’s place. Steve looks at Mark.

Hey, says Steve, I’m heading home if you don’t need me right now. I want to get a nap in before I come back in tonight. Plus I need to eat something soon. I’m starving.

Mark replies, Yeah, take off, but keep your cell phone handy, in case they call you back in.

Yeah, replies Steve, will do. Stay safe, Mark.

Will do, Steve, replies Mark.

Steve heads back out to his truck, gets in, and leaves to head to the Cumberland Farms. Christine is working the counter on the second shift. Steve picks up a couple of egg salad sandwiches and a Diet Sprite and walks up to the counter.

Christine asks Steve, Hey, what’s going on over at the mom-and-pop store?

Steve replies, I can’t go into detail, but Joe and Claire are gone. They had passed away.

Together? Christine asks.

Steve says, Yeah, together.

Murder suicide? asks Christine again.

No… I can’t tell you right now. It’s just weird, replies Steve.

Steve gets back in his truck and heads out of town past Joe and Claire’s place as the state police are now there finishing up on their investigation. Steve pulls back into his driveway, heads back into his house, sits at his kitchen table, and eats his sandwiches and then heads back to bed.

At eleven thirty at night, Steve’s alarm goes off. He wakes up, heads for a quick shower, gets dressed, grabs his gear, and heads back into town. He passes the store again on his way in and sees it completely black inside No one inside or out. All the investigations are done there. Steve pulls into the police station and heads inside. Mark has been out of the office since Steve headed home. There has been no sign of Mark the rest of the evening. Steve looks at Cpl. Carl Peters, a ten-year officer. He is looking at being promoted to sergeant in another town but hasn’t heard anything yet.

Hey, Carl, what’s been going on since I left earlier; and where is Mark? asks Steve.

Not much, replies Carl. He left shortly after you, Steve. He went out on a disturbance call, and he hasn’t been back since.

Anyone checked on him since he left for that call? Steve asks Carl.

Carl replies, Not that I know of. He hasn’t checked in either.

Okay, I will grab a cruiser, says Steve. Where was the call? asks Steve.

Carl replies, Out on Leavitt Road, along the creek there.

Okay, says Steve, I will go and check on him.

A little after midnight, Steve gets up to Leavitt Road. He drives down the road and sees Mark’s cruiser. No lights on, completely black. No one in or around the car. Steve pulls up to the Crown Vic and stops, gets out of his car with his flashlight on looking around the area of the car, and sees no one at all.

Steve yells out, Mark! Where are you? Steve starts to walk around a bit and sees a small house up in the woods and sees a dim light coming from the picture window. Steve walks up to the small house and starts looking in a couple of windows. He notices a pool of blood in the living room and immediately calls on his portable radio for backup and an ambulance as well as the medical examiner.

Steve goes to the front door, pulls out his pistol, announces, Police! and opens the door. His pistol is drawn and at the low ready waiting for something to happen as Steve checks and clears each room before entering the living room. He finds Mark in a bedroom. His body is partially dissolved onto the floor and is making a fizzing sound, and it gets louder as Steve gets closer to Mark, and that pungent smell is building in the bedroom.

Steve calls over the radio, Officer down! Get here quickly! Steve quickly gets out of the room and leaves the house. Steve waits outside shaking really bad seeing his friend lying on the floor being dissolved or eaten by some sinister thing that he just can’t see. Steve throws up on the ground in front of him. Sirens are blaring off in the distance and get louder as they get closer to the house. Steve is mumbling, Why, Mark, why? Why, Mark, why? What the hell. What is doing this, and why and why, Mark.

As Steve rambles, Chief Parker walks up to Steve and asks, What the fuck happened?

I don’t know, replies Steve. This shit is crazy.

Well? asks Chief Parker. What did you see?

Steve replies, "A pool of blood in the living room, with what looked like meat chunks and some bones. Mark is in the bedroom off from the living room decomposing, like he’s been there for weeks. There was the Sizzling sound coming from his body. The smell just like at Joe and Claire’s place, just really, really bad.

I need a minute, says Steve.

Okay, Chief Parker replies. "Take a few… But I need you on this, Steve. Carl and Tom are coming out as well, and I will have the state police out with their crime scene truck. So in the meantime, rope this place