The news ticker on the screen runs from left to right. It’s only a long string of A’s. Something must have happened in the broadcast booth… The news reports on screen have been repeating for the last seven hours. But Layne Thomas hasn’t noticed. He’s been away from the television all night drinking in the garage. Now he’s passed out in his room, again.

“The widespread terrorist attacks that have been occurring for the last three days across the globe have come to a halt. Reports indicate nearly forty attacks in all on civilian, government and private science and research laboratories. Hardest hit in the United States were the institutions at Fort Detrick in Maryland, the laboratories in Galveston, Texas and the recently established Rocky Mountain Lab in Hamilton, Montana.

“While official reports vary social media has shown a distinct light on the situation. The National Guard and FEMA have established sixty mile perimeters around all of the afflicted US facilities. This is a necessary precaution as several of these facilities are known to house a variety of infectious agents that are currently under analysis. The vast majority of these agents haven’t any known vaccine and are restricted to the highest biosafety level facilities. Unfortunately those same facilities have been the targets of the recent terrorist attacks.

“While no outbreaks have been reported, it is advised to stay clear of the established perimeters to avoid possible exposure. The CDC and the White House have gone on to assure the public that none of their biosafety measures have been breached and that the majority of the structural damage is cosmetic or entirely removed from the sensitive laboratories themselves.

The news report begins to play again but cuts off halfway through the bulletin. Another report plays and the news anchor’s voice is noticeably distressed. Bouncing cell phone videos play one after the other on screen.

“There seems to be a fault with the water lines through most of the major cities in western Washington tonight. We have received an astounding amount of video clips showing massive flooding on city streets and in residential neighborhoods. City officials have failed to respond to several inquiries made in regards to the issues. The National Guard and Police Departments have been reported on scene at several of the hardest hit areas. Speaking to one officer we were told that some areas were below as much as fifteen feet of water. This is restricting transportation and cutting off large portions of cities, leaving isolated people on figurative islands.

“Is there something wrong with the train lines as well? It appears so. As if official personnel weren’t spread thin already, it seems that several trains have been disabled due to a communications glitch. And this isn’t just a problem for industry and cargo transportation. Out of all of the miles of tracks for the trains to have come to a halt it has been reported that several have stopped in roadways, leaving travelers with no recourse but to find alternative routes to their destinations.

“Emergency personnel and first responders have been unable to dispatch effectively because of these massive road blockages. And scattered reports of looting and civil unrest have been posted to social media. Gunshots and fighting are breaking out in those areas cut off from transportation and phone calls continue to pour into rescue stations. Stay tuned for more details to follow.

The report plays halfway through and cuts out abruptly. The first report airs again, all the while the A’s stream across the news ticker. The sound of the reporter’s voice carries down the hallway and through Layne’s open bedroom door. He doesn’t hear the broadcast stop. It doesn’t come back on again.

Digital pixilation fills the screen as a signal connects to his cable box. The stage on the screen fades from glitching squares to gray. Two men sit side by side in a studio news room. The image blurs to green and finally the signal syncs. The scene comes into focus and the camera view jolts in and out suddenly before resting with the two men in frame.

“Hell.” The anchor says. “Are we finally on?”

The anchor slicks back his hair with his hands and clears his throat. He looks directly into the camera.

“I have with me a virologist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is Doctor Logan Foster.” The benign rhetoric of stage performance is lost to the anchor. It is obvious that he is having trouble producing his well honed candor.

The doctor nods at the camera while rubbing distractedly at his beard. Sweat runs down his temples and he glances to the left and right, worry shading his composed expression. He squints crookedly under the harsh studio lights and takes a large drink from the glass of water in front of him.

“Doctor thank you for coming to the studio tonight. I want to start by asking you about a little known pandemic. A great majority of our audience has expressed interest in the mass suicides spreading across the globe. Some are calling this event…” The anchor loosens his tie and swallows, his Adam’s apple rising and falling. “Calling them, um, the rapture deaths.”

“I’m scientist. I haven’t got much time for religious speculation, especially given current circumstances. I deal in facts. And the facts concerning that specific rash of suicides cannot be legitimately confirmed or haven’t been investigated. The only thing I can assert for the suicides is that it is causing a large vector for pandemic in otherwise symptom-less communities.”

“Excuse me doctor. What do you mean by causing a large vector for pandemic?” The anchor looks grimly away from the camera and at the man sitting beside him.

“I…” Doctor Foster shakes his head and burps out a short snicker, his face conflicted. “I have had a hard time coming to terms with the realities of the situation that we now face. My team and I, in correspondence with what remains of the CDC head staff have spent the last two days analyzing several specimens from the area surrounding the P4 biosafety facility in Hamilton, Montana. This facility was investigating allergy and infectious diseases. An aerosolized version of a fast action prion protein disease was released into the positive pressure air systems when a biosafety cabinet was damaged in a recent terrorist attack. This system is responsible for keeping infectious agents from coming into contact with researchers. However during the attack the system failed and several workers were exposed to the prion disease.

“A prion disease is what is responsible for the infection in Mad Cow disease. A stray prion protein infects the host brain and manipulates the surrounding proteins, causing abnormal folding of the resident proteins and severe brain degradation. Researchers were in the process of utilizing the new methods discovered by University of California Irvine in which proteins could be restored to their original state. This process was widely spread across media as the process that would un-boil a boiled egg. This is the technology they were attempting to use to cure prion diseases.

“In the process of evaluation of the research process several different strains of abnormally folding prion proteins were engineered by laboratory technicians. One of these agents was the one that escaped its safety cabinet and infected staff. A sudden unexpected reaction caused to prion to mutate when coming in contact with human brain matter. Traditionally a prion infection takes several months to manifest its symptoms yet this strain presents itself within a matter of hours. And this is where we get to the crux of the matter.

“As I said, we did exhaustive testing on several subjects from exposed locations. The situation couldn’t be more wall-breaking, it’s nearly impossible to believe outside of a bad horror movie. But this is the situation that everyone needs to be aware of. The reports online are correct. The prion kills its host body and a form of reanimation occurs after death. The recently deceased ARE returning to life. And they are spreading the disease through bite wounds and blood contact. Express caution when in contact with a possibly infected individual. You will certainly be attacked.