They look up at me, the girl’s hand clasping my ankle tightly; they both shake their heads back and forth with eyes wide and begging. A snort echoes down toward us as rapid, heavy, footsteps move in our direction. I raise the gun, the thin lance of light catching something, lighting up the yellow eye of…

The boy had always had a strange, violently cruel side to him, and Don found himself thinking about the kind of men who he’d seen in the war, read about in reports for decades. Egos greater than skill or intelligence. Men born of entitlement and expectations, believing that their lack of accomplishment was someone else’s fault. In war, it got people killed, and Don had harboured a particular disdain for those commanders and leaders… but still raised Spencer.

The picture was of him. Lying unconscious in a hospital bed, a huge bandage over most of the right side of his head, swelling disfiguring him, black and blue bruises spread across half his face, and small cuts the rest. There was a date at the bottom followed by a brief story about his being found in a ditch.  He scanned the story for the details. ‘John Doe... white male... early to mid-twenties... severe head wound. January 21, 2001. The unidentified man is believed to have been hit by a car, though police are not ruling out the possibility of an attack.’

2 Days Before There had been things happening in the US, mostly in places like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and other major population centres. At the same time reports started coming in from Europe. Canada, blessedly quiet, forgotten Canada, was spared a few days. Three days after the first major, confusing reports, the biggest cities were lost..  

 It spread slowly, like a whispered rumour, at first not nearly as interesting as the latest celebrity scandal. Not long after, the major governments started talking about it like it was a flu. Canada closed its borders soon after the CDC started blocking off small towns in the central United States. Then, like a fire that’s been burning underground, it exploded and was everywhere. Major population centres would report a few cases, and then be completely consumed.