OutBreak Intro

OutBreak
By Vortex Kyuusoku

    A Leather Bound dairy had this letter inside and was found placed in the pages of a survival book with a small receipt shaped of paper with a long list of letters and numbers with no spaces, nothing, just a long string of numbers and a postal address to a building somewhere in Scotland. This package was placed on the center of the desk where it would be in plain sight for all to see.

    The unexplained mysteries of life are numerous and difficult for the human mind to grasp and place into a meaning full context in which we can  understand them. Probably the most amazing changing mystery I think that I will ever see is the one wrought over me and my now close companions. It’s a mystery that only started in the brink of summer only a few short months ago. It changed me and others in ways that cannot be explained or imagined.

    It’s these amazing changes, that came about those in completely unrelated places and situations, who were brought together just to survive the ordeal and maybe we are destined for greater things. Who can tell? As one of my old teachers used to say, “It is not what the future is or how you get there, but how you adapt to whatever is thrown at you.” It is the adaption to what is to come that truly makes a man great in the eyes of others.

Reese Matterson,
Aged 19
UK, England, Suffolk, Culford
On the turn of the 21st century January 2100




        The clouds came in behind us forcing us back towards the snow bound city as the heavy rain became nothing more than the world’s largest hail storm. I mean that it was not the heaviest of hail storms; in fact it could have even been pleasant, apart from the hail stones being an eighth the size of Volkswagen Polo.

The world’s weather had really gone crazy since the outbreak; there had been heat waves in places that should never have those kinds of temperatures, the arctic regions for instance. Some of the world’s hottest places had completely frozen over; the deserts had been turned into huge ice fields covered in ice particles.

A boy stood watching from the window of an old ornately carved stone library as the hail stones fell and obliterated small buildings and damaged buildings in front of him. “Catherine” the boy yelled “how are you holding up? Are you sure you can manage this?” a short whimper of pain reached his ears as again the side of the library was struck yet again by the falling ice causing no damage to the building itself.

“Get back in here George and finish bracing the roof of this room. Now!!” Catherine barked. George continued to star out of the window in awe of the short circuiting sky, as lightening flashed and the unfurling clouds crashed into each other with loud rumbles and crashes.  “Hurry Up!!” She screamed.

The room was domed and structurally the safest they could find in such a short space of time since the first ice blocks began to fall. There were deep red, almost crimson, curtains hug from the top of the tall sash windows. The windows had ornate carving from which paint was peeling.

They had manage to board up the windows of the circular room with doors and tables that they found in the library, each window pane had been tapped up with crosses to hold the glass together.  As the last of the roof support was placed they both collapsed onto the floor, utterly spent, as blissful sleep claimed them.



        George woke up first. It was still dark.  It was then he began to hear odd scratching noises the other side of the thick heavy library doors. At first he was scared. what manner of creature could brave this kinda of storm and still be able to carry on as if nothing was wrong, but as he listened something didn’t sound right. It sounded as if whatever was scratching was getting weaker and weaker. After one more pathetic scratch the noise stopped.

It took a minute for George to be galvanized into action. He ran to the door and opened it as fast as he could. Nothing. he continued to gaze around into the distance for whatever it was once he had heard. he sighed in relive and as he began to close the heavy door he heard a small whimpering. again he looked around, nothing. puzzled George scratched his head with his covered hand. again came the whimper. bent his head down to look at the floor and what should he see but a small shivering animal bundled up a piece of fabric no bigger then a tea towel. seeing the pitiful creature struggling he bent down and scooped it up and brought it inside.

He dried its fur with a dry rag of clothing and gentle unmatted its coat. it wasn't until he reached the tip of its tail he what and who this creature was.

"i cant believe it" George muttered in disbelief "he actually may have found the others" made a nest for him out of all the scraps of jackets and fleece clothing that was part of his bed and placed the him into it, partially covering him up with a blanket. he then stood up and closed the door and went to the window to keep watch till morning.





“Wakey wakey sleepy head” George said softly as Catherine opened her eyes “it seems that Reese actually made it“

"What, where is he?” Catherine mumbled as she rubbed sleep from her eyes and sat up. “You’re serious?” She yawned.

“Yup, and he’s sleeping there.” George Points down at the floor at his bed close to where she lay. “Right there. Beside you.” Catherine looked down at the bundle of clothes next to her and there snuggled up between all the clothes there was a large lump and from that lump a little Foxes head poked out.

As Catherine slowly stroked the sleeping fox’s fur she examined this ball of fuzz was amazed as usual that something that looked so natural had a color variation that made it hard to believe that it was real. For as she looked its tail swished to the side and uncovered and unusual patch of fur that caught the sun and reflected it in such a way that it seemed to depict a shimmering golden paw print on the fox’s right flank. This strange fox also had a golden brush tip that looked as if the end of its tail had been dipped into liquid gold, also a golden strip originated from the base of it skull and traversed to its tail tip.

Again the little fox moved and Catherine moved closer to it and curling herself up around the small  warm bundle of fur inside the pile of clothes and whispered to George “I’ll take care of Reese till he awakens you might as well find a way for him to communicate with us.”

“Okay ill go and get looking all though I doubt that he will be moving about much, let alone be conscious, for the next couple of days.” George replied over his should as he walked away for the fire light and into the darkness that was the library.