Escape to Earth

Chapter 2

June 7, 2019. 20:00. M Country.

Despite the hot day, Klement Mallory had spent the entirety of it under a warm blanket with his daughter, watching cartoons. His daughter had woken up this morning with a bad fever, leaving the single dad no choice but to call in a sick day himself and stay behind to care for her.

Klement glanced over at the little girl. It was her bedtime, so seeing that she had fallen asleep, Klement chuckled softly before picking her up and putting her to bed.

Checking that her fever had not worsened, Klement then tip-toed back to the TV and switched on the eight o'clock news.

"...Doctors are still puzzling over this mysterious phenomenon that has taken over our city. Many of the city's hospitals are unable to accept any more patients due to the large number of people who have fallen unconscious.

"The city will soon become a quarantined zone to prevent the spread of this unknown disease. For public safety, we advise that all civilians remain in their homes until told otherwise.

"As well as this..."

Klement immediately turned off the TV and headed towards his daughter's room. Unconscious patients? An unknown disease?

Klement was not the type to easily panic, but for some reason a strange feeling had begun to twist his gut.

Entering the room, he rushed over to his daughter's side and began to shake her gently.

"Sweetie, wake up." No response.

Klement began to shake his daughter with more force as his face began to show traces of panic.

"Come on now; darling?

"Now's not the time to play games, quickly wake up!"

No, this wasn't right; his daughter had clearly been fine just a few minutes ago.

Quickly making up his mind, Klement gently pulled his daughter into his arms as he grabbed his wallet and keys.

He needed to get supplies as well as medical care for his daughter. The hospitals were full, so his number one priority was currently unable to be fulfilled.

After carefully buckling his daughter into her car seat, Klement began to drive off towards the nearest supermarket. Unfortunately for Klement, however, he lived in a relatively remote area, so the drive to the market would take around an hour.

In the first half of his drive, Klement noticed nothing wrong. The moon was still shining, and the people were still laughing.

The second half of his drive, however, was when everything started to go South. He began to hear the occasional cry for help and even saw a child fall from a tree.

But that was none of his business. Children fell out of trees all the time.

With five minutes left of his drive, Klement came across a blockage. Several cars had crashed together in the middle of the road, leaving him no way to get through. At this point, the occasional body could be seen through a car window or laying on the footpath, but Klement didn't care.

The more panicked Klement began to feel, the more steady and mechanical his movements became. Carefully lifting his still sleeping daughter out of the car, he began running towards the nearest market.

He was almost there.

Bang! "Now you stop right there!" A hoarse voice sounded from behind Klement.

Klement slowly turned, covering as much of his daughter as he could with his arms. He looked in disbelief at the man in front of him. Did this quarantine mean that the laws no longer existed?