The Rabia Anthology - A Collection of Short Stories

Authors Note: Several things have happened in the past month that have gotten be addicted to zombie stories. It started when a friend let me read his copy of the Zombie Survival Guide and shortly afterwards seeing 28 Days Later . I began writing these a few weeks ago on Teenage Writers but decided to bring them here. Let me know what you think. If there is interest I will continue posting short stories.

Enjoy!

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Greg was bored and was looking through his pa's computer for something interesting to read. He saw a file that hadn't been read yet, it was called 'The Rabia Anthology: History and Survivor Accounts of the Rabia Incident'. He had heard about the Rabia Incident, it happened nearly fifty years ago, his father wasn't even born yet. He had heard that the virus made people murderously violent, they lost control over their bodies and had compulsions to bite people. Worse, it could infect you in under minutes and was transfered through saliva or blood. Curious, he double clicked the file and began reading.

[PART 1] History: A Short Biography on Rufus Rabarius and Pre-Events of the Rabia Incident

Rufus Rabarius was a 28 year old genius who inherited billions dollars after his father died making him the most wealthy man on the planet. Hungry and wanting power, he devised a plan. He and a group of close friends researched and created a virus they called Rabia, which is Latin for rage. The virus infects the host and within five minutes they become completely and utterly violent. The virus modifies the cerebellum and medulla portions of the brain, which control actions that humans do not need to think about such as heartbeat and breathing. Thus, the victim loses full control of their body as it hunts and murders other humans. The virus can be spread through saliva or a drop of blood. It can fully take over the host in an average of five minutes, but do to the health of those humans experimented on it may be higher for those with a stronger immune system. But the virus always prevails. Rufus captured homeless people and used the virus on them in his controlled laboratory. He and his team cames to the conclusion that the infected still have higher thinking and know what is going on, they just cannot control their body once infected. The will to murder was so great in the infected, that the body will not stop under any circumstances in its murderous quest even if great pain is inflicted. Rufus even managed to have the virus communicate to other hosts, and during experiments found that the hosts would not attack other infected, just uninfected. Overtime the virus automatically mutated to further suite itself too more advanced situations, some effects completely unknown to Rufus.

The year was 2015, and the current crisis in the world was another Cuban Missile Crises. Cuba had constructed long-range nuclear missiles that could hit anywhere in the United States. All other countries were in aide of the United States but could not do anything, cause any rash moves could have Cuba launch the missiles. Seeing this as his opportunity, Rufus went to the government under a completely different name and secret identity offering the virus as a biological warfare solution. Rufus declined all offers for money, as he did not need it, he just wanted to see how devastating his virus would be. He even constructed a bombshell that would evenly distribute the virus over massive square mileage from extreme altitudes. Although it wouldn’t be as effective it would certainly infect those with weak immune systems and from there it should spread.

On May 23rd, 2015, four planes flying at high altitudes dropped the bombs. Within 15 days Cuba was in complete turmoil. The progress of the virus was monitored from spy satellites. On the 34th day U.S., English, and Canadian forces invaded Cuba. Because the virus was distributed so discretely it was considered a scientifical phenomena and no one new the U.S inflicted it upon Cuba. The only people who knew were Rufus and the higher government authorities. All three armies not knowing how to handle the infected retreated from Cuba and waited for everything to “starve out”. After four months the troops moved back into Cuba and took it over, burning the infected bodies and finding very little survivors.

Rufus was delighted; his virus just took out a small country. People all over the world were panicked by what happened in Cuba. Seeing this as an opportunity to gain support and influence, Rufus began training thousands and thousands of people under his own (and newly founded) Rabarius Corporation to fight the infected. Rufus purposely had isolated areas infected and had his own men handle the infection, using specialized weapon and equipment to handle the breakouts. The Government was not able to find out who exactly gave them the virus and therefore did not know how to get rid of the virus that seemed to be popping up randomly throughout America. The Rabarius Corporation worked alongside the Government and all the citizens just assumed the Government funded it when it was actually a private company.

All of the soldiers of the Rabarius Corporation had no idea that the CEO, Rufus, had invented the virus and was infecting controlled areas for them to fight and gain recognition. Soon after, his group of close friends and co-creators of Rabia began speaking out against his actions. Fearing they would reveal him to the Government, Rufus staged a plane crash that killed every single one of them. People were suspicious but there was no concrete evidence convicting him.

He continued infecting areas, and having his men handle the outbreaks. The Government could not handle the outbreaks on their own, and became frustrated having to rely on them. Finally Rufus was arrested under vigilante and his men were ordered to stop all their work after Rufus refused to lease training and equipment to the Government. The outbreaks continued and soon the Government had no choice but to release Rufus and allow his men to continue handling with the outbreaks. This bothered the Government greatly having to rely on a privately owned third party corporation to handle security of their people but they had little choice. He was in control.

By the age of 33, Rufus was considered one of the most powerful people in the world, with Rabarius Corporations area of protection expanded to several different countries even though they were not receiving outbreaks. The other countries allowed this because their people wanted it, should the outbreaks ever spread out of North America.

Becoming frustrated with the world because so many were standing in his way to become more powerful, he decided that if he ever died, the world should go to hell with him. He had placed in almost every major city a box that upon detonation would send billions of the Rabia virus into the air. He kept his will in a drawer upon a desk that resided in his private apartment. Knowing that upon his death his greedy associates would open this drawer hoping to find they got a cut of his money stores. When the drawer would open it would send a signal to a satellite, which would detonate all of the boxes and instead of leaving a will he left a long note, which ended with the lines “Welcome to hell.”

One of Rufus’s close associates found out the location of his will, and curious if he would become CEO after Rufus’s death opened the drawer. The signal was sent to the satellite but because of some recent meteor showers the damaged satellite only sent signals to the boxes in North America.

Rufus caught his associate twenty minutes afterwards as he was reading the note. At that moment the news came on the television set in the room bringing up the outbreak. Rufus went into his other room, grabbed a pistol and returned to shoot the associate. He picked up his cell phone and ordered that his private jet be ready with full fuel.

As far as we can tell, this is the point where the Earth descended so close to hell everyone could see the sparks.

Ascension? That wasn’t going to be easy.