| Empty Graves Written by Nicholas Thomson AKA MinionZombie "King of the Undead" 31.10.2001 Part One: Winter's Emergence Fort Severn is a peaceful Canadian bayside town that is home of a deadly infestation. The community mainly gains its profit from the fishing business, which is considered one of the largest in the bayside area. Business' come from far and wide across the United States to trade or buy the fish caught in Hudson Bay. The people are proud of their economic independence as well as their overall well being as a community. However, in the summer of 2001, Fort Severn fell victim to a deadly virus that was sweeping the immediate area. Fort Severn was in the immediate 30-mile fallout radius of the first occurrences of the new plague for the new millenium. Unlike anything anyone had ever witnessed before, this new disease was spreading like wild fire. The doctors and medical professionals across the entire country, and even the world were baffled by this sudden and remarkable discovery in the small town of Greggor's Pass, Churchill. Churchill, like Fort Severn was a fishing community on the same side of the Hudson Bay of Severn. It also enjoyed economical piety as well as opulent trawling business, which brought even more success to the community just north of Fort Severn. The first occurrence of the new deadly disease was discovered in Greggor's Pass Community Hospital, a mere 3 miles from the water's edge. At first it was a fisherman who was brought in after a disaster at sea lost him his life. He was pronounced "D.O.A," Dead On Arrival after having fought for his life all the way from the Davis Strait, where they were fishing, to the hospital, just 3 miles inland from the docks at Greggor's Pass, Churchill. His condition was severe when the boat ran aground near an uncharted spot of land in the middle of the Strait. Nobody had ever seen this land before and it was estimated to be situated some 150 miles east from the coast of Nain. The boat had ran aground on some rocks near the small patch of island that could not have been more than a few hundred metres wide and deep. The boat was able to make it back to Greggor's Pass, but when the boat had initially struck, the fisherman who was injured received a large and deep slice to his right leg when he fell against the fishing equipment at the read of the boat. The equipment was coated thick in the blood and guts of the fish they caught and it was later found to be infected with a bizarre and previously unheard of bacterium which was only common in radioactive waste at best guess. It was later discovered that a nuclear power plant in the neighbouring Greenland was spewing dangerous, experimental toxins into the ocean. The chemicals were in fact being engineered for chemical weapons testing, however when the funding was lost, the contents of the large containers of the chemical had to be emptied. On confession of the man in charge of the power plant the chemical was extremely dangerous, especially to humans. It was dumped at night in a region which would be absent of any prying eyes. It was a nationwide cover up. The fisherman who was killed managed to survive the entire journey back to the bay. For two days he suffered in his bed at the heart of the swaying fishing trawler. It was at the dawn of the third day that he died on arrival to the Greggor's Pass hospital. The Coroner's report stated that the man had in fact died some two hours before his arrival. However, to all staff working at the hospital that tried to save his life, he died on immediate arrival to the hospital. He was extremely cold, but due to the conditions, in which he survived for two days, nobody questioned it. The Coroner ran his examination again and when the same results were found, another was called in. However, everytime the same results were found the people involved were stunned with the findings. They didn't want to believe it. But on the morning of July 16th, the fisherman awoke from his cold slumber in the morgue of the hospital. The orderly who was working in the room at the time was shocked and quickly opened the door to the rack on which the fisherman lay immediately. He pulled out the tray and he found the fisherman awake and writing. The fisherman who still looked as if he should be dead lurched toward the young orderly, tearing his neck to shreds on his attack. The disturbance soon alerted the attention of the cleaner who was busy mopping the floors outside. He too succumbed to the wrath of the dead fisherman. By the end of the day another member of staff was dead, murdered by the fisherman who was restrained soon after the initial attack. Three more were dead and the fisherman who had died so violently and painfully was left writhing on the operating table as members of the scientific community were called from across the country. Within two days a seminar of sorts was set up and a study of the fisherman's writhing dead body was begun. By the end of the seminar, the chief medical officer in charge of the study was dead, the room was sealed off and another two men's lives were claimed in the orgy of death that struck an almighty blow. The FBI was called in and within the same day an investigation was underway. The team in charge of such bizarre occurrences was called in. A man and a woman turned up to investigate, wearing suits and long, flowing coats they proceeded to bounce ideas off each other as to what was happening, one refusing to accept and the other refusing to dumb down his hyperactive imagination and conspiracist leaning. They both were shocked by the events and they both were killed on duty when investigating the morgue where the bodies of the orderly, the cleaner and the other member of staff lay. An investigation of the recently dead bodies of the victims of the fisherman lead to their death. They were studying the body of the fisherman, but as they did, the other fresh kills laid out behind them rose from the cold steel gurneys and attacked without warning and without prejudice. Gunshots could be heard across the area. For a brief while the man survived, but the extensive tissue damage as a result of multiple savage bites soon brought about his demise. The hospital was sealed off and soon a curfew was set up in the immediate radius of the attacks. All persons in the immediate area were told to stay in their homes and only venture out when absolutely necessary. It had begun. Two days later, the hospital was crawling with the distorted figures of the undead, including the two FBI agents who walked from the building still adorned in their expensive suits and coats, gripping their guns and badges as they clawed at the air in front of them. The madness that followed shortly after was a shock to all and its horrific nature was purely and simply evil. It swept across the area like wild fire or a pair of murderers on a spree. It was a deadly virus contracted on contact with anyone infected. It began as an accident at sea and soon descended into a case of mass-murder and infection. The country was set to red alert. Missiles were at the ready as army officers struggled to retain their excitement to bomb something. All social activity was ceased. Children were ordered to stay at home, schools were closed. Shops were closed every single social institution or building was shut down temporarily, or so it seemed at the time. Before they knew it the situation had gotten out of hand. That was how the cold grip of winter's death clasped a hold of an entire nation in under a month, and eventually the world in under a year. It was unheard of, never experienced before, and it terrified every living man and woman on the face of the planet. This was war with a new enemy. An enemy people did not know how to fight. |