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Friday - September 17

Not wanting to be here any longer, I decide to leave and take that shower I desperately need. When I'm about to exit her office, I see the lights in Jeff Hollister's office come on. I quickly close the door and crouch down behind a chair in the corner. A door shuts, and then I hear voices. I can't make out what they're saying, as I listen intently. Damn these walls! They're so thick! Then I hear the voices coming nearer. Shit! They're coming in! I try to hide myself as best I can, hoping I'm invisible. The lights come on.

"Where do you think it is?" I hear a man ask.

"Who knows? Check her desk," says another man.

I stay as still as I can. While I want to see who these men are, I don't dare take a look for fear of getting caught.

"Damn!" says the man checking Julie's desk.

"What? What's wrong?" asks the other man.

"It's locked, damn it!"

"Well, force it open, asshole!"

"Screw you, dick!"

"Hey, I found something in the closet."

The man at Julie's desk goes to the closet and takes the envelope out of the other man's hand.

"Hey, you dick, I..."

"Shut up, you dumb ass!" yells the man holding the envelope I had discovered earlier.

"Is that it?"

I can hear the envelope being ripped apart when the man says, "Yep, this is it. Let's go."

The men leave Julie's office. I stay behind the chair until I see the outer room go dark and I hear the door shut. After waiting a few more minutes to make sure the coast is clear, I hold on to the back of the chair to help me stand. Once again, I'm all alone again in a dark room. I want to turn on my light, but instead, decide to get the hell out of here and get to the second floor where I should be. I take a deep breath and grab the door handle and peek out the hallway, making sure no one is there. I secure the door and scurry up the stairs so I can get back to the elevator and take a shower. I finally reach the second floor and dash to the showers before another bizarre thing occurs.

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These last five days of the world have been the worse to be recorded in Earth's history. The death toll continually rises as scientists, worldwide, work non-stop to discover some antibody... anything... to halt this ravaging pestilence that devours anyone it desires. How such a strain can attack everyone, regardless of who they are, what they are, and where they are, continually baffles the scientific community.

The death toll continues to accelerate to astronomical numbers. The religious sector is convinced that this is the end of the world, and humankind is being obliterated due to disobedience to God. As a scientist, I, of course, dismiss the latter. But one thing is certain, time will continue as we know it. Time itself may be unaware that its existence with humanity may soon be at its end, but that end may not be far off from the near distant future.

The military continues to patrol the streets looking for any person, or persons, who may be linked with this atrocity. Citizens trudge the streets in misery through windswept hills of snow, landscaping every inch of Atlanta, hoping they're lucky enough to find food and shelter so that they can continue to survive another day.

Bodies piled upon each other, adorn the streets with the stench of death, waiting for dump trucks to haul them away to be burned in massive gravesites outside Atlanta's city limits, where none of the entities will be recorded, marked, or visited.