Psychological Warfare // Dr. Alexandra Nivens (mind_overmatter) wrote in forgotten_gods, @ 2011-11-04 18:11:00 |
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Entry tags: | psychological warfare |
Who: Psychological Warfare
Where: Small Town USA, Emery County, Utah
When: October 31st - November 4th (Backdated)
What: Idle hands are not always the Devil's playground, per se.
Warnings: General Alex-creepiness, zombies and a really big boom.
Her timing couldn't have been more perfect. With the onset of a wintery front, no one would question a few strategically placed fallen trees that morning would bring, no one would worry once things began to progress and the inevitable radio silence here in the middle of nowhere would not seem so sinister as perhaps it should be.
But first things first, it was Halloween. Young families and old, children bouncing excitedly from house to house in their shiny new costumes, a community gathering at the local American Legion later in the evening for those who didn't have to worry about the young'uns. The small town was too far off the beaten path to invite any out-of-town visitors, save for the pretty young thing that had shown up with a blown radiator earlier that afternoon, but despite the chill in the air, there was a festive atmosphere.
The children went to sleep that night like any other, as did everyone else as they always did. But when the sun finally began to creep over the horizon, things were far from normal. It struck the youngest and the oldest first, the ones with the weakest immune systems were the most susceptible to the invisible demon loosed upon the small town, but no one was safe.
Fever.
Nausea.
Vomiting.
Hallucinations.
Hemorrhagic fever.
Death.
Over the course of three days the virus ripped through the town, claiming one after another. Three days of worry as the unknown illness swept through without prejudice, perhaps a mutated strain of the flu? Then shock, as word of death after death passed as quickly as the virus itself spread. Fear came next as symptoms developed, and the first of the dead began to walk again even as their loved ones mourned. And then nothing as cognizant thought broke down entirely into a mindless need to sustain lifeless bodies and nothing more.
All the while, no one paid mind to the silent on-looker, found comfortably settled in on one's couch one moment, fingers gracefully dancing over her keyboard as she made her notes and jotted down her observations, or sitting at the counter of the cafe another, curiously watching the last scurry about in a vain attempt to escape. She was there at the overcrowded morgue, hands clapping gleefully as the first reanimated corpse shakily rolled off of it's slab. In a moment of boredom, she herself borrowed some of the local sheriff's arsenal and went hunting with a few of the last to fall.
From the time Alex had set foot into that small town that could have been one of any thousand small towns, the population of 267 souls had been decimated into a bloated and decaying army of undead. Those that perished early on fed the surviving corpses, flesh and desiccated limbs littered the streets; and those that still walked grew restless and all the more lethal as their food supply dwindled towards the end. But Alex had been careful, cordoning off the small town from the rest of the world, telephone lines and wireless signals cut off assumedly due to the foul weather save for her own secured lines, courtesy of her silent audience.
Precautions for the last act had been set in place even before she stepped onto the scene. Nothing was left to chance, and Alex was always the most thorough in her dealings. Her choice of location had been carefully selected with a bonus of a nearby coal mine, a vast underground network that had been the town's lifeblood since it had come into existence. She cared not for the people who had made it their home, cared not for the people who had worked on that land and in the man-made caves below. Something nuclear would have been ideal, of course, but too many questions would be raised, and that wouldn't have been ideal. There were other options for a complete incineration, but then there was something about an even bigger explosion that made the War Goddess's heart beat a little faster. Nevertheless, she had peppered the zone with incendiary devices, under and above ground in preparation to make a graveyard where there was once life.
As the night gradually bled into dawn that fourth morning, Alex was propped up on a goodly sized boulder far enough from ground zero with a bag of forgotten M&M's. Her laptop was pointed towards the horizon even as her finger pressed down on the handheld detonator, offering a premium view as a blinding light lit the early morning sky. Soon enough reports would start hitting the wires, such an unfortunate accident! But at least it was one that wouldn't be examined too closely. There were hundreds of similar 'accidents' to lesser extremes, this would go down as one of those more notable careless mistakes that could have been prevented like any other incident, and really, these old coal mines were so unsafe and unstable after all. The crater that was once a town would stand as a memorial and a reminder to always expect the unexpected.
All in all, her experiment turned out rather successfully, and proved far more enjoyable and amusing than sitting at home, tormenting any of the unwary who came to her doorstep in search of candy. Bouncing up from her seat with a jaunty little wave for the camera before folding her laptop shut, Alex strolled off to catch the flight back home. She had reports to complete.