The Infection

The year is 2010, the month is May. The TV in an old New York apartment flickers to life and the news flashes onto the screen.
"A Russian scientist, named Gregorikov Hurtz, has created a top secret chemical destined to be the super-cure to all mankind's diseases. The general public has reacted with enthusiasm to what could be the greatest scientific discovery known to man."

Welcome
You are a citizen of Planet Earth and you were visiting the city of Havana, Cuba, when the Event happened, wiping out all known human life on the surface of the planet. You are one of the few survivors that have found themselves alone and with the world dead around you. You must search the area around you and hopefully find some more lucky, or unlucky, survivors and work out what has happened to cause the Event.

Rules
1. No superhuman or godlike powers.
2. Your character must start in Havana.
3. Your character must be realistic.
4. Your character must not have any resources or weapons on their person.
5. You may write in first or third person.

Your Character
Name:
Date of Birth:
Nationality:
Place of Residence before the Event:
Occupation before the Event:
Personality:
Brief Physical Description:
Short Biography:
Reason why you are visiting Havana:

Example
Name: Sebastian Manning
Date of Birth: 14th of September 1983 (Age 27)
Nationality: English
Place of Residence before the Event: Hong Kong
Occupation before the Event: Lecturer on Ancient Chinese History
Personality: Intelligent, Sarcastic, Twisted, Eccentric, Passionate, Humorous and Loyal.
Brief Physical Description: Tall, Slim, Blonde hair, Blue eyes, Clean shaven.
Short Biography: Was born in Kielder, Northumberland, and spent the first twenty years of his life living there. Began researching Chinese history when he was 16 and decided to take it up as a profession. Has a passion for his work and has lectured at Cambridge and the University of Hong Kong.
Reason why you are visiting Havana: Holiday

Name: Adrian Wood
Date of Birth: 7th of November 1984 (26)
Nationality: English
Place of Residence before the Event: Moscow
Occupation before the Event: Director of the Pendulum Corporation, devoted to investigating the super-cure.
Personality: Ambitious, Smart, Driven, Skeptical, Wary
Brief Physical Description: Dark-haired, slender, tallish, clean
Short Biography: Adrian was skeptical of the super-cure from the first moment it was announced. After failing to believe how such a thing could he exist, he founded and developed the Pendulum Corporation.
Reason why you are visiting Havana: was meeting with a contact who apparently had valuable info on the super-cure.

Name: Jack Harber
Date of Birth: 12/5/75
Nationality: American
Place of Residence before the Event: Virginia
Occupation before the Event: SSGT. In Washington DC Defence Armed Guards.
Personality: Hard Tough Rugged Aware of Surroundings.
Brief Physical Description: Meduim Muscular, Dark hair, Medium Hieght, Clean for the moment.
Short Biography: Serving out his days from a early age in the regualar US Marine Corps then moving on to trials for the Navy SEAL's. He worked for them for 12 yrs before being moved to being a commander in the forces that guard the president. Medium height and strong in mind and body, Jack is the right choice for the job.
Reason why you are visiting Havana: Undercover by order of the president to watch the factory where the new curing chemical is being processed.

Name: Jaime Hurtz
Date of Birth: 5th of July 1989 (21)
Nationality: Cuban/Russian
Place of Residence before the Event: Havana
Occupation before the Event: Chemistry student at the International University of Havana
Personality: Intelligent, perceptive, skeptical, down-to-earth
Brief Physical Description: Slightly muscular, slender, dark hair, blue eyes, tanned skin, clean shaven, wears glasses
Short Biography: Jaime is Gregorikov's son. However, his parents split when Jaime was just a young boy and Jaime moved with his mother to her native country of Cuba. Contact with his father from then on consisted of two phonecalls a year, always initiated by his mother. As Jaime grew up, he started following his father and his work over the internet, finding himself disagreeing with his fathers way of experimenting and opposing most of his "finds". Being interested in chemistry himself, Jaime also conducted many experiments of his own. When he read about the miracle cure his father had discovered, he felt alarmed to do something.
Reason why you are visiting Havana: Living in Havana

Name: Kate Ryan
Date of Birth: 07/08/1983
Nationality: French
Place of Residence before the Event: A studio flat in Nice
Occupation before the Event: Air Stewardess
Personality: Bubbly, determined, flirtacious, practical thinker
Brief Physical Description: 5'5"
Short Biography: born and raised in Paris, a true city girl who wanted to travel the world. Her parents wanted her to be model from a young age but she rebelled and left home aged 16, she found work as a waitress before going into college to futher her education where she decided upon travel courses.
Reason why you are visiting Havana: Came with the flight and stopped off for 2 days.

God wrote:

The year is 2010, the month is May. The TV in an old New York apartment flickers to life and the news flashes onto the screen.
"A Russian scientist, named Gregorikov Hurtz, has created a top secret chemical destined to be the super-cure to all mankind's diseases. The general public has reacted with enthusiasm to what could be the greatest scientific discovery known to man."

Don't mean to ruin anything, but I definitely saw this in a film... I can't think which film it was that started out this way, but there definitely was one.

Edit: I remember, it's in I Am Legend.

Neither of have seen the film and it's not like we're going to be sued so fuck I Am Legend.

Name: Adrian Wood
Date of Birth: 7th of November 1984 (26)
Nationality: English
Place of Residence before the Event: Moscow
Occupation before the Event: Director of the Pendulum Corporation, devoted to investigating the super-cure.
Personality: Ambitious, Smart, Driven, Skeptical, Wary
Brief Physical Description: Dark-haired, slender, tallish, clean
Short Biography: Adrian was skeptical of the super-cure from the first moment it was announced. After failing to believe how such a thing could exist, he founded and developed the Pendulum Corporation to investigate and possibly shut down the science team behind the cure.
Reason why you are visiting Havana: was meeting with a contact who apparently had valuable info on the super-cure.

The Nightcrawler wrote:

Neither of have seen the film and it's not like we're going to be sued so fuck I Am Legend.

I didn't mean it that way, just thought it sounded familiar

Yeah well Viva La Vida sounds similar to I Wish I Could Fly, and Coldplay never got sued.

Well, they did. But shush.

Cool stuff Its a bit like a futeristic game type EG. Half life 2 or something... :L
Try selling this to a game designer it could work.

Quote :

Cool stuff Its a bit like a futeristic game type EG. Half life 2 or something... :L
Try selling this to a game designer it could work.

Try joining in with the game you peanut

Just type up a Character Sheet, like me and Lewis have, and we'll probably start the game then.

Name: Jack Harber
Date of Birth: 12/5/75
Nationality: American
Place of Residence before the Event: Virginia
Occupation before the Event: SSGT. In Washington DC Defence Armed Guards.
Personality: Hard Tough Rugged Aware of Surroundings.
Brief Physical Description: Meduim Muscular, Dark hair, Medium Hieght, Clean for the moment.
Short Biography: Serving out his days from a early age in the regualar US Marine Corps then moving on to trials for the Navy SEAL's. He worked for them for 12 yrs before being moved to being a commander in the forces that guard the president. Medium height and strong in mind and body, Jack is the right choice for the job.
Reason why you are visiting Havana: Undercover by order of the president to watch the factory where the new curing chemical is being processed.

Name: Jaime Hurtz
Date of Birth: 5th of July 1989 (21)
Nationality: Cuban/Russian
Place of Residence before the Event: Havana
Occupation before the Event: Chemistry student at the International University of Havana
Personality: Intelligent, perceptive, skeptical, down-to-earth
Brief Physical Description: Slightly muscular, slender, dark hair, blue eyes, tanned skin, clean shaven, wears glasses
Short Biography: Jaime is Gregorikov's son. However, his parents split when Jaime was just a young boy and Jaime moved with his mother to her native country of Cuba. Contact with his father from then on consisted of two phonecalls a year, always initiated by his mother. As Jaime grew up, he started following his father and his work over the internet, finding himself disagreeing with his fathers way of experimenting and opposing most of his "finds". Being interested in chemistry himself, Jaime also conducted many experiments of his own. When he read about the miracle cure his father had discovered, he felt alarmed to do something.
Reason why you are visiting Havana: Living in Havana

I awoke slowly, my eyes burning. I searched the deepest archives of my mind to work out what the hell had happened. Small bits of information slowly trickled into my mind's eye, and I became distinctly aware of a blinding light.

I sat up slowly, very aware of a cool breeze washing over me. I looked down. I lay down on a small, cheaply made bed in my boxers. I tried to stand, staggering slightly, and looked at my surroundings. I was in a dark room, the only source of light coming from a broken window. The lightbulb above me had been broken.

I walked over to the smashed window, peering out slowly. I was at least thirty-feet high and I had a fantastic view of Havana. Havana! I was in Havana. I could remember that much, at least.

Most of the city looked relatively untouched, apart from the smashed windows. Every building and every car was left without It's windows. The buildings, as I mentioned before, seemed to be OK, and nothing like the brickwork had been destroyed or damaged.

I looked around the room once more. Where are my damn clothes? I looked out the window again, realising something before I had even seen it for myself. My clothes had blown out of the broken window.

"Balls", I uttered.

"Something tells me that my contact isn't around..." muttered Adrian to himself. He strolled through the dusty, neglected street, beneath the blazing sun, unsure of his next move. He had been too late to stop the super-cure's spread. Super-cure? It was a killer, a calamity. It was the cure for existence, not death.

What would have otherwise been a beautiful day was ruined by the state of the city. It was empty and quiet, devoid of life. Adrian sat himself upon the dusty bonnet of a once yellow car and yawned. He was shattered. It was then that the topless figure of a man caught his eye. He seemed to be hanging out of the window. With both relief that he wasn't alone, and confusion as to what the hell was going on, Adrian marched over.
"Are you alright?" he asked.

I watched as a reasonably tall man walked over to a small yellow car. He sat on top of the bonnet and sighed heavily.

Whatever had happened, I thought, at least there was someone here who could tell me about it. Suddenly, the man looked up from the car and directly at me. I could feel his eyes watching me. He shouted something, barely audible, towards me.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

I didn't know where to start. No would be an obvious answer. I'm half naked in a room - no, strike that - CITY without windows and everybody seems to have pissed off and left me without a memory. All I can remember is some sort of blinding light which seems to have burnt my retinas to a crisp and taken my fucking clothes at the same time. Am I alright? What a stupid question to ask.

"Yes. I'm fine." I retorted, rather annoyed.

Adrian didn't quite believe the man when he said he was alright. He looked like fucking hell. Strolling over the sun-swept road towards him, Adrian grinned, happy to see somebody alive.

"Good to hear," he said. "And this is the part were you tell me how the fuck you're alive."

The tallish man started walking towards the building I was in with a grin on his face. Happy because I was party naked? Yeah, It's most likely.

"Good to hear," he said. "And this is the part were you tell me how the fuck you're alive."

How was I alive? I'm not quite sure. I don't even know what I was supposed to have survived yet. Either way, I guess I should be thankful that I am still alive. I mean, after all, whatever it was, it had wiped out Havana.

"I don't know. I don't even know what happened. There was a light..." I paused to allow myself to think. Or for dramatic effect. Probably the latter. "And I woke up."

I pointed down to the clothes on the pavement, "I'll come down and get them."

I left my bombsite of a room and began sprinting down the concrete stairwell, taking the steps two at a time.

When the man was dressed, the pair exchanged names. Adrian was shocked to learn that Sebastian really had no idea of any recent events. He had either been drugged, given amnesia or had been sent down to earth from space. He doubted all three of those possibilities, but still, Adrian was amazed. There, in front of him, was living proof that the human race is undefeatable. However this man had survived, Adrian was in awe.

"So tell me about this light?" he asked.

The man, named Adrian it seems, asked me questions about my name and where I had come from. If he wasn't from the Police then I'd eat my fucking hat.

The hat that I don't have.

"So tell me about this light?" he asked.

I thought for a moment, trying to gather together all the bits of information I could find in my mind.

"I came to Havana on holiday, you know, to get away from the monotony of work and such. I came for two weeks and I think this is the middle of my second week. What day is it anyway?" I continued, not allowing him to answer, "Never mind. I went to bed last night and slept pretty soundly. Well, as soundly as you can sleep in Havana, what with the occasional gunshot ringing through the air..."

I stopped to tie my shoelaces.

"Anyway... Oh yeah, I was asleep. A blinding light filled the room. Actually, I don't know if it was a light, it was that blinding. If you get me? No, you don't. Errm... Basically, when I opened my eyes it was pure white everywhere. Not a single speck of any other colour everywhere. I guess that's the definition of a blinding light."

"I closed my eyes rather quickly and I could feel my retinas burning. I could still see the light trying to break through my eyelids. Then it all went dark, there was a deafening crash, and I woke up. I'm guessing the crash was the sound of all the glass smashing. I was a bit dazed at first, and I couldn't remember a thing. But I guess It's all coming back now..."

Adrian sighed as the man retold his story. If only his was that simple.

"I don't know about the light," he began. "But what you see in Havana is what you'll see everywhere."

Suddenly, he stopped. A cocktail of sadness and guilt washed over him. He could have stopped this. If only he had been less thorough, less deliberate... Sebastian eyed him, silently asking him if something was the matter. It was. Adrian could have stopped everything. But he had been too late. The world had already died.

"Sorry," he said with a pretend laugh. "As I was saying, everything is like this now. Only the 'lucky' ones survived." He kicked a rock against the wall of a building. "It was a sonic bomb, employed to wash the taint away from the world, only, it washed away everything else as well."

Name: Kate Ryan
Date of Birth: 07/08/1983
Nationality: French
Place of Residence before the Event: A studio flat in Nice
Occupation before the Event: Air Stewardess
Personality: Bubbly, determined, flirtacious, practical thinker
Brief Physical Description: 5'5", short blonde hair, slim
Short Biography: born and raised in Paris, a true city girl who wanted to travel the world. Her parents wanted her to be model from a young age but she rebelled and left home aged 16, she found work as a waitress before going into college to futher her education where she decided upon travel courses.
Reason why you are visiting Havana: Came with the flight and stopped off for 2 days.

Kate stumbled forward, climbing to her feet.

"Fuck" she muttered, realising dust all over her short skirt turning the shiny blue a horrid grey.
The hotel room was a mess, Kate's heels lay about four feet to her left, one heel had been completely broke off. Dust covered almost every surface like the heavens had emptied a vacuum cleaner's contents into the room.

"How am going to explain this?" Kate said frustrated.
Her head was furiously pounding. Hangover.

I looked long and hard at Adrian. He looked like a fucking loony. I thought about the sonic bomb and I thought about everyone who must have died. Billions of people... My family...

"Who set off the bomb? Why, in fact?"

Kate walked over to the suite's walk-in closet only to notice the doors were hanging loose. Everything inside was either destroyed or missing. Picking up a pair of mock Roman sandals lying upside down inside she walked into the bathroom and tried to turn on the water to clear the thick, sticky dust covering them. The tap turned with little resistance but no water came gussing forth. Kate hit the side of the sink and picking up and dirty towel she wiped most of the dirt away. Only when she'd strapped on her sandals did she realise all was deathly quiet...

"Where the hell have you been living?" Adrian laughed. It was no laughing matter, but it felt good to add an element of humour to the situation. "Shall I start from the beginning?" Sebastian nodded nervously. "A while back, a 'super-cure' was unleashed upon the world. It promised an end to all of mankind's diseases." Adrian spat on the ground. It wasn't professional, but it felt good. "Did it end all mankind's diseases? No. And I knew it wouldn't. I set up the Pendulum Corporation to stop exactly what happened, but we weren't quick enough. Just like I thought it would, the super-cure turned out to be a deadly virus that mutated anybody who foolishly took it. Was it accidental or deliberate? I wish I knew. I tried so hard to tell the world, but nobody would listen. Now look what happened."

Adrian turned around and backed away. "Obviously, the mutants had to be gotten rid of. The catholic church designed a sonic bomb that would specifically target the freaks and finish them of. The idiots didn't test it, so it finished everybody else of, too." The acid was clear in his words as he spoke. As he turned back around to face Sebastian, a dark glint arose in his eyes. "I hope to God that Gregorovik survived, because if I ever see him, I'm going to make him pay."

Jaime needed some time to adjust to his surroundings. It felt like he had been sleeping for years. "Where am I...?", he whispered into nothingness. As the ability to think slowly came back to him, he noticed he was in the lab of the university of Havana. The lab with its clean white walls and six long tables was like a second home to Jaime, yet this time he hadn't recognised it straight away. Jaime startled as he realised just why this was; the three windows in the right wall had disappeared. Was this the result of a failed experiment? What had he been doing in the lab anyway, and why had he fallen asleep? Still half dazed and confused, Jaime took his phone out of his pocket to check the time. Eleven am, no signal. Eleven... eleven..., wasn't there something he was supposed to do at ten? "Oh no!" Jaime shot up. The meeting! He had missed the meeting! As fast as his legs could carry him, Jaime dashed out of the lab, through the cold, empty corridors and out onto the deserted, silent streets. Maybe the man would still be there...

I nodded as I listened to Adrian's harrowing tale. A sonic bomb? I had read about them in action novels. I didn't really think they existed. And the Catholic Church? Well, I knew they were always mad.

"So why did we survive? And how come there are no bodies around here?"

Kate peered out the window. Half the panes were missing and another of the remaining four was cracked. Outside she could see the streets were littered with the same dust in the room, trees had been uprooted and the lampost where she'd snogged that Italian guy last night was nowhere in sight. She grinned remembering the feel of his lips on hers.

"Shit. What is going on?!" she exclaimed.

Jaime didn't stop running until he got to the bar. His eyes closed, he lowered himself against the wall to catch his breath. He so hoped the man would still be inside. He contacted Jaime a few weeks ago. He had claimed to know all about his father and the research Jaime was doing. He had mentioned something about a corporation and how they, if they put their heads and information together, could really make a difference. But when Jaime had asked his name, he had said he'd rather meet face to face first. Jaime really hoped he wouldn't be too late now, why had he been so stupid as to fall asleep in the lab! He'd better go in. Jaime slowly rose to his feet and opened his eyes. For the first time since leaving the university he actually took in his surroundings. His jaw dropped. Around him was nothing but an empty, dusty, damaged world. Suddenly he remember the missing lab windows. It looked like that hadn't been a failed chemistry experiment after all. What happened? And where was everyone? Did this mean...? Jaime shivered. He couldn't even bear to finish that thought. He turned around and took a deep breath before he slowly pushed open the half broken door to the bar, scared of what he would find behind it...