Seven

Chapter One

On September 11, 2020, there were eight billion people in the world.

Now there are seven.

Ace, Allissa, Katriona, Wendy, James, West, and I used to be an average team of scientists, working on a miracle drug to cure cancer. This was our big break. For days on end, we shut ourselves into our lab and worked on the cure without a wink of sleep. Tempers were high during that time, but after four long weeks of working, we were done.

We tested a very small dose on our lab cat Watson, who had a cold. Even though we weren't fond of testing on animals, the dose was too small to do any major damage. We waited patiently with bated breath. After a few minutes, Watson stood up and pranced around, weaving around our legs as if to thank us for making him feel better.

I was elated, as were the rest of my colleagues. We did it. We finally made the cure. But would it work on bigger diseases? The incurable? Ebola, cancer, Marburg, influenza? Could it even one day save the human race from some horrible disease? Mortiferum Sicarius, we would call it. Deadly Assassin. But we never knew that it was real. We never knew it would come to us, right now.

It started out small at first. The children and the elderly in poorer areas became ridden with disease. But no one thought it was a real threat. "Things like this happen all the time with the homeless and poor. There's nothing to worry about." But when the sickness spread to more homes and families, people started to panic.

The plague spread so fast. Millions died in their sleep, and many more during the day. News headlines flashed with the spreading epidemic. Doctors and scientists everywhere tried to find a cure, but none of them were prepared for what was coming. Everyone except us. We had the cure before there was even a sickness. We tried to warn everyone about the impending threat, but no one listened to our facts, not even giving us a second glance. Our lab was put in danger from people suing us for placing silly ideas into other people's minds and scaring their children.

But when Mortiferum finally came, people rushed to us for answers, coming to us for the cure.

We couldn't help them.

We weren't there.

Abandoning all hopes of saving humanity, we rushed to our safe house with a few belongings and the cure. We didn't have any living relatives, but we did have Watson that we brought with us for companionship. It was inevitable that the plague would soon spread across the entire world, but for now we just had to lay low. The transistor radio was always running. We'd know when the sickness had spread completely when the stations stopped playing.

James leaned against the dirty cement wall and slid down to the floor, placing his head in his hands. "What are we going to do now? What do we do after the disease has spread? There's no use for us staying here anymore."

Katriona glanced at him as she tuned the transistor radio to a talk station. The two hosts seemed to be in a heated discussion about nothing other than the sickness. "...need to find those AWOL scientists as soon as we can! They have the cure, and that's what we really need right now..." She sighed as she threw the radio down onto the bed beside her and lay down on the uncomfortable mattress. "I don't know, James. What can we do besides wait?" Her Scottish accent was even more prominent than usual. She must've been really worried. Watson jumped onto her lap and she stroked his ears, making him purr.

West shook his head. "There has to be something we can do. We can't just sit here and do nothing while out there are millions of people dying." The silence he received from his friends seemed to just fuel his anger. "DYING! Are you listening to me, Ace?"