I'm not sure where to begin on what was essentially the worst day of my life. The only place that I suppose I can start is as the beginning of that day. Though I suppose I should also introduce myself before I get into my story. My name is David I'm twenty-six years old, I lived a pretty luxurious bachelor's life. My job was disease research, to be more exact I developed vaccines.

I awoke late that morning, my alarm had gone off, but I forgot to set my back up alarms, and when I hit the snooze I snoozed. I had about a hour to get to work, which gave me no real time to do anything, but take a piss, and get my clothes on. I still remember thinking that I was so dead, because we had a very important presentation that day, on a latest break through on a more aggressive flu vaccination, something they were almost willing to call a cure.

Somehow I got there on time, but it wasn't without nearly killing myself to do it, and even then my boss was jumping down my throat asking me what the hell kept me so long. Brushing my blond sweat drenched hair I explained to him briefly that I had overslept before I quickly ran to my lab to get my research notes, and that's when everything went south.

The research notes had vanished, someone had opened an email, that released a virus that crashed the entire network. This was rather ironic in hindsight, a virus crashed the vaccination company. A saving grace was the fact that I had, had the foresight to save the data onto a backup hard drive.

I had darted the halls running to the meeting room, and that was when it happened. Safety protocols for release of a contaminate is bright flashing lights, an alarm, and sliding glass doors that seal every room in the building. Simple enough contain any diseases from escaping the facility, and prevent any employees from spreading the released cotangent.

What we didn't know was that these containment protocols were basically a night light, because there were no actual safety protocols. In order to save some money the company had invested in some faulty equipment, mainly in the air filtration systems. As well as the doors that were supposed to seal the rooms to prevent cross contamination.

As I stood there waiting for things to cool off I felt a little funny, dizzy, as if the room were spinning. My green eyes tried in vain to focus on a single object, sweat saturated my forehead, and then the lights went out. I could hear noises, or maybe they were in my head, I wasn't sure all I knew was I felt as if I were floating for a few moments, maybe I was conscious and it was when the paramedics had picked me up and taken me on a stretcher.

The next thing I know I'm waking up to the smell of industrial strength cleaning agents, and bright fluorescent lights. My head was pounding, I felt like I had just gone through a night of extremely heavy drinking. The room would spin every time I tried to sit up, so I found it best to just lay there with my eyes closed. I had nearly dozed off again when I heard someone entering my room, the SHHHHTTTT of the door opening and closing told me that the door sealed itself, which could only mean I was in a hospital, and possibly in quarantine.

“Hey, doc I'm awake,” I say without opening my eyes.

“Well, that's good, but I'm not the doctor, I'm just a nurse coming in to check up on you, the doctor should be in shortly,” replied a deep male voice that I didn't recognize.

“T-Thanks sir, could, could you get me some water?” I ask in a cracked voice, my throat and mouth feeling like the Sahara.

I could hear the sound of water being poured into a cup, and knowing that I would have to see it, I opened my eyes. I grasped onto the smooth plastic pink surface of the cup, the water sloshed a little as I sat up in the warm light bed sheets. I brought the cup to my lips and began to rapidly drink the cool water. The liquid soaked and helped wet my parched mouth, I could feel it sliding down my throat making me feel better.

The nurse had walked out of the room not too long after he'd handed me the water. I sat there alone in the room, with only the sounds of people walking around, the only other sounds I hear were the occasional beeps of the heart monitor I was connected to. After what felt like hours, a middle aged woman with short, raven black, hair walked into the room.

“Ah good, you're awake,” she said as she walked over to me her brown eyes scanning over my body before she pulled her stethoscope.

She then began to check my breathing, heart rate, pulse, and then she pulled out a flashlight to check my pupil dilation response. Once she was satisfied with my over all health, she told me that I was going to have to spend the week in the hospital for observation as I had been exposed to an experimental virus, and that I should probably get a lawyer.

“Why is that?” I asked her curiously.

“Well, as it turns out....” she said as she checked my vitals. “That VitaCorp, has been doing a lot of illegal biological weapons,” she finished as she wrote down the readings.

“I assume you mean viral weapons,” I said as she looked back up at me.

“Yes,” was all she replied with as she walked out of the door.

I sat there for the longest time, mulling things over my hand constantly going back and forth between calling my lawyer, and trying to ignore what the doctor had advised me on. I had been with the company for nearly most of my adult life, sure their safety practices were a little lax, but to be creating bioweapons, that was something I just couldn't accept.

I set my phone down and off to the side and turned on the in room television, flipping through the channels I soon came to rest upon the news. There wasn't much about what I hadn't already known, they talked about the accident at the lab, how that some people were being quarantined, but they made no mention of illegal bio-weapons, but did say that a full investigation would be underway.

It was at this point that my phone begin to ring, I picked it up and smiled as a single word flashed on the screen. I flicked my thumb to the side unlocking the phone and causing it to answer.

“Hey mom,” I said smiling even though I knew mom couldn't actually see me.

“Are you okay, I just saw on the news that there was an accident at VitaCorp!” came her panicked voice over the speaker.

“Yes mom, I'm fine,” said almost laughing as I attempted to reassure her.

“Where are you? I'll come and get you right away!” she said panic still strong in her voice.

“I'm at the hospital, they have me under quarantine until they've cleared me,” I said feeling it best to not bother her with some of the things the lawyer had told me.

“I've told you, you should've just taken a nice teaching job here at the local high school, or even became a professor! It would've been much safer,” she says scolding me now that her panic seemed to have subsided.

“Mom this job was perfectly safe, it was just an accident,” I say trying to justify my career choice.

“And if you had been a teacher, or professor you would have never been exposed to whatever viruses that, that place was working on, and if I were you I would call a good lawyer, from what I just heard on the news that place's safety protocols were shit to begin with,” she said sternly.

“Yes, Mom, I will make sure to call a lawyer,” I say laughing.

“Well you let me know when you're released from quarantine, I'll be right over to fetch you,” she said in a tone that basically told me I wasn't allowed to argue.

“Yes ma'am, I love you too,” I say as I got off the phone.

The next thing that I did was take her advice and called my lawyer, I told him what had happened, as well as what the doctor had informed me of.

“Well, how would she know about something like that before it had been investigated?” asked a male voice on the other end of the line.

“I don't know, but I do know, and I agree it does seem rather fishy,” I reply.

“As your legal consultant, I would advise against taking any legal action against them for creating biological weapons until we're certain that, they have been doing illegal activities, but we can still get them for the faulty safety systems, or lack there of,” replied the male voice.

“Sounds good to me,” I replied.

“Also I would suggest not returning to your house, if what this doctor said is true they may try to silence you, and I would suggest that you stay with someone you trust,”

“I have some family that are out of town, I could stay with them,”

“Perfect,”

I found myself sitting in the passenger seat of my mother's car, the scent of french vanilla enticed my nostrils. The A/C blasted me with cool air as she drove me down the road. I couldn't help, but feel a little humiliated by the fact that I was restricted from driving myself until they were sure that I wouldn't have any hidden side effects from the virus, or viruses.

“Oh stop looking like you lost your best friend,” said my mother seeming to have read the look on my face.

“I'm twenty-six years old Mom I don't I should be able to drive myself home,” I say glumly.

“Yeah well, you probably can, but the doctors, and I don't want you to end up in a ditch somewhere,” she said with her no nonsense voice she gives me whenever she feels I'm acting foolish.

“I wouldn't end up in a ditch,” I say laughing, “I'd end up alongside the road somewhere,” I say smiling at her.

I just took in all of her features, her blond hair, brown eyes, pale skin, she looked more like she was in her early thirties then like she was forty-five. I hadn't seen her in about six months due to my job keeping me at work nearly seven days a week. As I sat there and watched the scenery change from a town to a suburb then to a wooded area. All the while I could only think about what the doctor had told me, that the facility had been manufacturing bio-weapons.

Trees, and bushes flashed before my eyes as mom drove us down the street, another thought kept echoing in my brain. The entire time that I had been in the doctor's office, I hadn't seen hide, or hair of that doctor that told me about the bio-weapons again. Even when they finally released me from the hospital, and I asked them about the doctor they told me that they had several people that fit her description, but that I should've grabbed her name off of her tag. It was at this point that I realized that she had no name tag.

So the real question that has been going through my mind is should I even take what she said seriously? Before I could continue my train of thought the car turned on to a short paved driveway, to a two story house. The roof is covered with black slate that adorns most houses, the outside walls are a white paneling, a long porch that stretches from one end of the house to the other caps off the front of it. I got out of the car and walked up the wooden steps onto the hardwood floor of the porch, it seemed smaller somehow, but I figured it was just because I hadn't actually been there in six months.

I walked in through the red door and into the living room, the gray carpeted floor looked as clean as ever, a typical sign that my mom was in one of her O.C.D. moods. The walls are an off white, the roof is bright white. There is a long sofa that stretches along the wall close to the door, ending just perfectly before a wall sized window. In front of that was a single round chair, this had always been my chair whenever we would have family movie nights.

“And you say I hate change,” I say teasing my mom.

“Hey, if it ain't broke,” she shrugged as she took off her shoes and headed out of the living room past another wall in front of which sat the t.v. and into the kitchen.

While she went into the kitchen to do whatever she was doing I headed upstairs, I couldn't help, but feel very nostalgic. Remembering running up and down these very stairs with my little sister, all the fights we had, all the times we'd played video games together. A smile curled on my lips as I then walked into my old bedroom, it looked almost exactly as I had left it.

My bed was made, with the covers of the sports team I used to like, below the bed was my dresser. To the left of me as I entered the room was my t.v. stand with my older consoles that I didn't take with me when I left for college. I smile as I just stare at the clean room, and then my vision is blacked out. I feel something soft press against my back and then I feel a warm breath in my ear as a female voice says.

“Guess whoooooo!” fairly loudly in my ear.

“Hello, Gwen,” I say laughing as I pull my younger sister's hands away from my eyes and turn to face her.

My sister is a head shorter than I am, she dyes her hair dark red, almost mahogany colored, her nose was much like mine, and our mother's, little buttoned nose. She had also inherited our mother's eye color of brown where I had the green from our grandmother. Her hair is shoulder length, she's wearing a striped shirt and a pair of pretty tight jeans. She has a hourglass figure, but by today's standards she would be considered pretty thick.

“Well blondie, I see you're still about as tall as Smurfette,”I say teasing her as I hug her in a bear hug.

“Oh shut up you ass,” she said laughing.

“Make me short stack,” I say messing up her hair which earned me a shot to the arm.

“Keep it up and I'll kick your ass, I've been working out quite a lot, and I'd bet I could probably put you on your ass,” she said with a teasing threat.

“Sis, you can work out as much as you want, but you'll never be able to out muscle me,” I say laughing as I grab her arm which causes her to try and pull away.

I could tell she was indeed stronger then what she had been when I last saw her, but she still wasn't stronger then I was. I pull her into a tight bare hug which caused her to squeal out and push away at me, acting like she was a cornered animal trying to escape a predator.

“Well, come on sis, you're supposed to be Super Girl now,” I say teasingly as she groans

“Okay, okay, you win, now let me go!” she said laughing as I give her a quick back cracking squeeze.

“One day bro, I will be stronger than you!” she said as she had dramatically fallen to the floor and raised her fist to the air.

I laughed as I helped her to her feet, but as I did I couldn't shake the feeling that something was a little off about myself. I push the thought to the back of my mind for now and figure it's just my imagination as I follow my little sister downstairs as mom had just yelled that lunch was ready.