2011-09-25 14:01:36 UTC
Then my insides turn to ice. I see one of the Infected.
It’s a man. He looks pretty normal, slender, with dark hair graying at the temples. He’s in the parking lot of the Dollar General beside the school, smoking a cigarette a few feet outside the door. I wouldn’t even be able to tell what he is, if it weren’t for the necklace he wears.
It is several hundred yards away, but I can still see it. They’re meant to be noticeable like that. It’s a tag, like one of those dog tags soldiers wear, but bright red. Like blood. On their surface is the word “Carrier”, the person’s name, age, and the day they became Infected. It’s something they all have to wear, and they have to check in with a doctor once a month. Once the disease they carry becomes severe enough, to the point where their skin sags and their hearts stop beating and their blood stagnates inside their bodies, they are moved to a gated community just outside down.
And by “gated community” I mean a prison. A nice prison, with pretty houses and parks and stores. Even a mall. But there’s a huge fence around it, and once a Carrier is moved there, they never get out. That’s the place they ever-so-slowly go insane and die, locked away from the world.
It’s what’s necessary, to keep us all safe. But sometimes the system fails. Sometimes, the disease will be spread, and chaos and death will follow, destroying lives and families through one bite, one scratch.
I know this through experience.
Sure, it’s not uncommon to see one of the newly Infected. Some people can live fairly normally with the disease for a relatively long period of time. Months, sometimes even years, though that’s pretty rare. But it’s still disturbing to see them, standing so casually as if they weren’t the biggest threat known to human existence. It makes me sick.
Sorry it's so short, and really just description, but I'm just trying to figure out if I should continue to write like this. I normally don't write in present tense, and I'm not sure how it's working.
Note: The "Carriers" are people infected with a disease that slowly shuts down your vital organs, but affects your brain so that electric signals shoot through the nerves and you continue to exist (not "live" exactly). It breaks down parts of the brain and makes you start to crave violence, and the taste of blood. Scientists developed it as a bio-weapon, but some of the bacteria was carried out of the lab through workers and started an epidemic.
Is that a stupid idea? And does the writing suck? Thanks