Jormungandr

Prologue

"…the Biological Division had determined the mutagen to be a previously unknown amoeboid protozoa with very specific mutagenic qualities triggered only by Staphylococcus epidermidis, a normally benign bacterium present on human skin. It has DNA sequence altering properties, which allows for the human genome to transform into an ectoplasmic sequence; so-called phantom properties to the average human being. Major physiological changes occur within the first 5 months of infection, with complete bodily reconstruction occurring within two (2) years' time. Survival rate is drastically reduced due to the heavy demands made on the body…."

-Early excerpt of The New Straits Times

Document retrieved from Site 73-004

[Formerly known as Monmouth, Southeast Wales]

The world had ended on 31 August 2006.

While I'm not sure how it happened, or even why it happened at all; I remember sitting in the living room at 3am in the morning. I remember flicking through the channels, finger automatically rested on the remote. I remember the news anchor, professionally reading her lines and the air-conditioned whirring in the background. I remember being numb from the shock of hearing that half of Florida and Cuba had ceased to exist.

In case the world had forgotten where Florida and Cuba is at the first place, it is at the lowermost section of the US. In case you don't remember what the US is, it stands for the United States. If you don't understand what the hell I'm talking about at all, then it's okay. At this rate, I have a feeling I think that this information is going to end up obsolete anyways.

For the longest time, things were kind of sketchy. No one had a video of what happened and the news was frantically scrabbling for information. There were pictures on the internet, but nothing that actually showed what happened. Then, a video surfaced and the news played it for the world to see.

The initial footage showed a bright sky, people relaxing and laughing. The image was shaky at best- I'd imagined that the person videotaping was running. For all intents and purposes, it looked like an average holiday site, with side stall vendors making off money from unsuspecting tourists.

The screen then panned out to the ocean, and it appeared to be a swell in the water. Everyone started running for higher ground- I think at one point, a black dude started clambering up tree. It's all chaos for a few seconds, then suddenly there's this black foaming at the shore. Most people assumed that it was garbage swept from the ocean.

But that wasn't it because the next moment a giant mouth came up and ate Florida whole.

I think I was stunned. Actually, everyone that was watching the broadcast along with me dropped into complete silence for a few minutes- nobody asked questions. Then the president came on next and declared a state of emergency. I think it was two days later when the TV went under full government control and every channel showed the same red screen (Remain calm. Everything is under control). Four days went by and the radio had shut down as well. On the sixth day, the internet was cut off from the main populace- I heard that the upper class still had access to satellite connection. The oddest thing was that life really didn't change much for a while. Bills still came, still had to work, go to school, all that. Just a lot more scared faces, and a lot more weird talk.

At this point, I had no idea what else had happened in the world, though I heard that most equatorial regions had disappeared off as well. Rumors had been going around that most of Indonesia and lower part of Malaysia were classified as no-fly zones. However, Monmouth was a small city and none cared too much about some place on the other side of the Earth.

The official story was that an airborne disease had flown in from the sea. The widely accepted truth however, came from the en masse that flew in from the equator. They told stories of a giant snake and how it is going to 'jump out of the ocean and poison the sky'. The younger ones were crying and claiming that a snake with the head as large as the South China Sea had eaten their parents. Many had come repeating the same tale of how people infected by the disease had come back to life as monsters. This was especially distressing, considering a few had screamed for the locals to kill off those that were already infected. At the time, we didn't know what they were talking about- until people started glowing green, that is.

Honestly, I thought that it was all bullshit. But then, my mother fell sick as well and she's not getting any better. Three months ago, she started showing the final symptoms of the so-called snake poison- she started glowing. Her skin changed from pale to green, and last week, she tried to eat my father. I saw the advanced stages from a friend of mine- her skin turned blotchy and it looked like ulcers had grown from her arms. I think Lucy had lost it when she started bleeding radioactive green and asked for her parents permission to die. Right now, she's still alive, though she lapses into sudden hunger strikes and occasionally floats off the ground. I assume that her parents couldn't bear to kill their own daughter, even if they knew she was suffering.

I know that this is a bit early to write this down, but in case we don't make it, I'd like to leave a bit of myself for people to remember. I'll probably bury this after wards and try to find a marker for it or something. Perhaps, I would try to add something later, but I don't know.

I just don't know.

[21 February 2007]

-End of Excerpt