Locked Down | Epilogue
“Ladies and gentlemen! Wait wait… Calm down! We come in peace!”
Reid surveyed the crowd in front of him. The men had flooded out from the office building, holding baseball bats and pans. The women and children stayed back inside, peeking through the windows at the ongoing scene.
“Now now, you must be crazy to think your toys can beat this.” Reid pointed behind him, at his army of thwarters. Each one held a rifle or a pistol. “But we come with no intention of harm!”
“How did you find us?!” shouted a man with a cooking pan.
“A little birdie told us we’d find you next to Gladison Square!” announced Reid. “But now that little birdie is dead, her sacrifice will not go in vain.”
“What the hell do you want, Reid!” shouted another man holding a wooden log.
“That’s the spirit!” said Reid. “I have fulfilled my promise! I promised you all we would find a vaccine, and finally, we have found it! A chemical, medical miracle that will kill any parasite that tries to claim your body! And here’s my proof!”
Reid looked back at his men and nodded his head. From within the crowd of thwarters, Mr. Danny came running, pushed out by one of them. He toppled to the ground and lay there, motionless.
“Daniel? Daniel, is that you?” asked someone from the crowd.
“Sorry people, he’s not really in a position to talk. But you’re right! I bring to you Mr. Danny, the first person to survive a parasite infection!”
Everybody stared at Mr. Danny as he lifted his head. Reid thought he was in decent shape. He was dressed in a blue shirt and black tracks. His sandy hair was so long that it fell over his eyes. His beard covered the remainder of his face. It was kind of hard to make out any facial features, but you could tell that he maybe had a pointed chin and thin cheeks. His cracked toenail had healed, and the phalanx itself was in a cast. Around his neck was a support. His throat was still swollen, and he couldn’t speak yet. He looked like his soul had been sucked out of him, even though it had been around a month since his little incident. Yeah, Mr. Danny was in decent shape, much better than a lot of other cases.
“He looks horrible,” said someone from the front. “What did you do to him!”
“We saved him!” exclaimed Reid. “He was attacked by a leech, and we saved him with this vaccine! We, the thwarters, will save you all! We will show the world that locked our city down, that we don’t need their help to get rid of these parasites!”
The crowd of anxious men buzzed, trying to decide if what Reid was telling them was actually the truth. The women in the building seemed ready to believe him, as long as it promised their safety from infection. The children, some who’ve witnessed their friends and family being dragged away by the thwarters, were wondering why they hadn’t been attacked yet.
Giving the survivors a bright, reassuring smile, his attention was turned to a loud grunt coming from a distance. In the middle of Gladison Square was a stray deer, but something was clearly wrong with it. Grey skin covered the deer’s body where brown with white spots were supposed to be. Some of the flesh in its neck and legs were rotten green. One of its antlers had broken off. Its eyes were clouded and two black worm-like things stuck out from its mouth.
Reid stared at the creature curiously. His quest was far from over.
