A/N-I have absolutely no idea where this idea came from, but I really liked it, so I decided to try and write it to see how it was received. If people like it, I'll go on. If people don't like it, I'll still go on.

So this first chapter is a prologue with a few OC's but I wanted to provide my idea on how the outbreak started. They might come up again later; who knows? Also, I tried being as factually accurate about hemophilia and meat factories as possible, but if I get anything wrong, just tell me.

"Welcome home from school, sweeties." Melissa Krazinski said as she ushered her twin sons, both ten, inside. "How was school today?"

"Boring as usual." Peter, the eldest, said as he yawned and flung himself down on the sofa and grabbed the remote to turn on the TV.

Felix, the youngest, said nothing, and instead walked to the kitchen adjacent to the living room. The sound of a crinkling bag told Melissa he had gotten the bag of Apple Jacks from the pantry. She hurried in the kitchen to check on him, and he was sitting safely at the kitchen table with a bag of Apple Jacks and a jug of milk. Melissa breathed a sigh of relief, and stood in the doorway watching him slowly eat his favorite cereal, oblivious to the intruding mother. He looked so beautiful yet fragile, like a delicate vase teetering on the edge of a table. She hated that he, of all kids, had to be diagnosed with Type A hemophilia. Felix was the sweetest and nicest kid Melissa could have ever asked for.

She walked in the room, and Felix turned his head and smiled a smile that lit up his face. "Hey Mom." He said.

She returned the smile and sat down in the wooden chair next to him. "I never got an answer to that question."

Felix looked out the bay window into his backyard, a small green garden where two ducks were presently swimming about in the pond. "It was… Good, I guess. We played dodge ball in PE. Well, everyone else did. Coach Longhorn said I couldn't because of my homophilia… My hungophilia…." The ten-year-old tried to say his genetic disorder but couldn't, and ultimately gave up on the attempt.

Melissa's smile fell from her face. "I'm sorry baby. I know it'll be hard not being able to play with all of the other boys, but…" Her sentence trailed off as she couldn't figure out what else to say. Felix had heard it all.

"I got to finish the third Harry Potter, so it was OK." Despite the statement, his eyes told a different story, one of longing and hatred towards the genetic disorder that hindered his ability to do almost everything.

Melissa, tears in her eyes, pulled Felix in for a hug. "How about we go to Coldstone for dessert while Peter's at soccer practice? We can even take Molly. Remember how she was with ice cream the last time we went?"

Felix laughed as he remembered his two-year old sister flinging a spoonful of blue cotton candy ice cream into the hair of a businessman. "Yeah we should do that." He finally replied.

Melissa smiled and ruffled his chocolate brown hair as she stood up. She thought to ask "Have you taken your medications yet?" before she left the room.

"No, but I'll take them when I'm done with my cereal." Felix replied, and smiled.

Relieved, Melissa walked into the living room where Peter was watching an episode of Phineas and Ferb on Disney Channel. "Speaking of soccer, shouldn't you be getting dressed for it right now?" she asked the ten-year-old athlete.

Peter groaned and got up from the sofa. "You better bring me back a cup of cake batter ice cream." He said as paused the TV. "With M&M's and sprinkles too!" He added as an afterthought and rushed into the bedroom he shared with his brother.

A half-hour later, Peter was at soccer practice and Melissa, Felix, and Molly settled in to their usual outdoor seats. Melissa had cookie dough, Felix had double chocolate and Molly had cotton candy with chocolate chips. It was a beautiful day and the cool breeze provided just the right amount of cooling needed in an otherwise hot day.

"Byoo!" Molly exclaimed as she stuck her spoon in her baby blue ice cream. She shoved the spoon messily in her mouth and shivered. Melissa and Felix laughed at the toddler's growing vocabulary.

"That is blue, isn't it?" Felix said and squeezed Molly's nose, to which she laughed hysterically. "She's so cute." Felix said.

Melissa chuckled through her mouthful of cookie dough ice cream. Throughout the dessert, she and Felix played the red car/blue car game while most of Molly's "byoo" ice cream ended up on her lap. A multitude of people walked by the otherwise quiet strip mall street. It was a very fun outing. The only thing missing, Melissa thought, is Harold. She mentally slapped herself at the thought of her ex-husband that left her for a bikini model fifteen years younger than him. She had ruined the happy-go-lucky feeling of the afternoon.

"Mom?" Felix called through her muddled thoughts. "Your ice cream is all over your shirt."

She looked down, and indeed the brown and white ice cream had spilled a little bit on her shirt. "Aww, dang it!" She said loudly.

"I'll go get you some napkins, Mom." Felix said.

"No!" Melissa exclaimed. "I-I'll go get them."

Felix rolled his eyes and said "Mom, come on. They're just napkins. I'm not going to get stabbed by a murderer or anything."

Melissa bit her tongue as her hemophiliac son entered the store and expertly avoided any dangers. He came back safely with a handful of paper napkins, and Melissa let out an involuntary sigh of relief as she scrubbed the dessert off of her blouse. "Come on Felix. Let's go pick up your brother." Felix got up and threw all of their stuff away while Melissa walked to the car parked just in front of them

Felix walked to the car, and just as he was passing through the chained area outside the store, he felt a sharp pain in his hand and looked down in horror to see a long, clean cut across his wrist where it had brushed past a broken chain. Already his hand was covered in blood.

Melissa was settling Molly into her car seat when she looked out of the van to see her son yelling for her. She could see uncut hand trying to cover the wound, ruininghis dark blue jacket.

She was there in an instant. "Felix! What happened?"

The small boy was crying and said "Th-there was a broken chain and it brushed past m-my hand…" Already the loss of blood was affecting him.

Melissa picked her bleeding and crying son up. She ran to the van, and remembered that she left her cell phone charging at home. She swore and ran into the store, yelling "I NEED A PHONE-NOW!"

The teenager behind the counter did not question the profusely bleeding boy's mother as he said "Here ma'am, there's a phone on the wall here."

She rushed behind the counter and furiously punched in the numbers 9-1-1. "Did you take your medications today, Felix?"

He coughed in her arms, and then said, "I-I was going to, but then I had to go get Peter's kneepads from the garage…"

Melissa swore again and finally the person on the other end picked up. "911 speaking." A young woman's voice said.

"I need an ambulance at Coldstone now!" Melissa yelled hysterically in the quiet restaurant. "My son has hemophilia and he cut himself on a broken chain!"

There was typing and yelling on the other end of the line before the woman said "I've just sent an ambulance to your location ma'am. It should be there in two minutes." Melissa thanked her lucky stars that the hospital was so close to the strip mall and then thanked the woman for her help and hung the phone back on the wall.

Just like the woman said, the ambulance pulled up in two minutes and the driver jumped out and rushed over to the desperate woman with two children in her arms. He helped her into the back of the ambulance where she laid Felix on the bed in the back. She strapped herself in to the chair next to it. Two nurses waited for her, and the first one, a short and squat woman with fiery red hair, asked "What type o' blood does 'e 'ave 'ere?"

"A positive." Melissa replied. The redhead prepared the blood transfusion while the black woman prepared a tourniquet for the ailing boy. By the time they pulled into the Lima, Ohio hospital, Felix already had his tourniquet applied and an IV in his arm. The nurses wheeled him in the bustling hospital, up an elevator, and into an empty room.

Melissa nervously helped Felix into bed that night. It was nearly 11:00 and she had just picked up Peter from her friend Patty's house. She yawned loudly. "Are you all set, Felix?" she asked the boy, who had an IV drip still attached in his arm, slowly dripping the necessary blood into his bloodstream.

Felix still looked pale, however, but replied "Yeah I'm fine Mom. I just want to go to bed." Already his eyes were drooping after the events of the day.

"Alright, good night honey." She leaned down and kissed the young boy on the forehead before turning out the lights.

She walked down the hallway to the kitchen, where Peter was working on homework because he did not have it at Patti's. He was currently cutting out pieces of construction paper for the 100th day of school the following day.

"Do you need anything, Peter?" Melissa asked.

Peter yawned and said "Can you get me a hot dog please?" He set the scissors down and reached for his glass of water.

"Sure thing honey." Melissa reached in the refrigerator, grabbed a hot dog from the hot dog bag, and put it and a plate in the microwave. Five minutes later, she handed her son the hot dog with mustard and ketchup. He gratefully wolfed it down. "Thanks Mom. I'm going to bed. Night."

"Good night honey." She replied stiffly.

~~~6 months earlier, in the CDC in Atlanta~~~

"I can't believe it. We've finally done it." The female doctor said to her male assistant. "We've finally found a cure for death itself."

The man smiled and nodded. "Undertaking such a project seemed wasteful at first-and to think it was behind their backs even! But seeing this turtle alive has shown my folly." Indeed, a once deceased turtle was now walking around as if awaking only from a deep sleep. Presently he was munching on a piece of lettuce in a ravenous manner.

The man was named Edwin Jenner, and his wife Candace Jenner was the woman currently staring at the turtle with as much admiration in her eyes as a mother looking upon her newborn infant. In a way, it almost was. Both Edwin and Candace had been working at the CDC their whole lives, and Edwin had known Candace long enough to know that she was fascinated with death. And that she just found a cure for it.

Edwin smiled at his wife, who was writing down notes on a clipboard with fervor. He loved it when she got engrossed with her work. He heard a buzzing, and realizing it was only a mosquito, he swatted it away. He cleared his throat, and Candace looked up from her notes to her dear husband. "Yes Edwin?" she asked.

"Do you have any idea of how we're going to present this data to the world, Candace?" he asked.

She frowned. "What data might you be talking about? We need to study brain waves, heart rate, speed, and everything in between!"

"I know all of this Candace. I just… I think it's a monumental discovery, yes. But imagine what might happen if news of this "death cure" got out. It would be chaos. Do we really-"

Edwin was cut off by his wife, who was now observing all of the turtle's movements. There was only one (the constant reach of the head for lettuce), but she seemed to be gaining a large amount of information from it. "We could reanimate the world's greatest historical figures! We could reanimate William Shakespeare and ask him how he was feeling the day he wrote Romeo and Juliet, or we could reanimate Abraham Lincoln and ask him how much tea he drank in office." She stopped her observing and walked over to where her husband was standing, and she held up the miniscule vial in his face. Candace leaned in close, whispering directly in her husband's ears. "We could learn anything." She whispered, no more than a gasp of air in his eardrums. She swat at a mosquito and went back to her observations.

Edwin, however, was not satisfied, but said nothing as his wife finished her notes for the night. As she reached for her pencil, the vial was knocked over, and although it had a small amount of the liquid in it, it soaked Candace's notes. The two looked at each other in horror, and dashed out of the room and into the decontamination chamber, where Vi instantly began soaking them down. She also decontaminated the infected room, and in five minutes, it was over.

The two exhaled breaths that they did not know they were holding. Candace chewed on her lip and said "Well… I know what we need to-"

"No, Candace." Edwin said, a sense of authority in the assistant's voice. It's far too dangerous to be handled again. We need to never let anyone else know of it. Ever." He said, finalizing the topic.

Candace wanted to protest, but did not. Together, the couple left the CDC.

~~~Melissa's House, 2 days after Felix cut himself~~~

Melissa rubbed her bleary eyes and glanced at the clock-7:13 AM. It had been two days since Felix's accident, and they had not left the house since then. Melissa hadn't slept much either, and opted instead to watch the TV when she couldn't sleep. Suffice it to say, the TV had gotten a lot of use over the weekend.

She slept in a fitful state somewhere between consciousness and sleep for an hour. Dimly in the back of her head she registered small outside noises like a bird chirping or the microwave beeping, but she ignored them all. It wasn't until the cries of Felix that she woke up.

Felix bolted down the hallway, tears streaming down his face. He ran into the den where his already fretful mother as standing up. "What is it sweetie?" she asked.

"It's Peter!" Felix exclaimed as he gulped down his tears. "I think he's hurt or sick!"

Grateful that at least Felix was not injured, Melissa ran down the hall to check on her son. When she got there, she nervously pushed open the door to see Peter lying in his bed, the sheets strewn haphazardly around it. The pillow was soaked with his own seat. Melissa's heart dropped at the dire state of her son. "What's wrong Peter?"

Despite his sickly pallor, Peter spoke as if nothing was affecting him at all. "My head hurts, and I'm really hot."

"Can you walk?" Melissa asked, biting her lip.

"I think so." He took a long, shaky breath and swung his legs off of the bed. Felix and Melissa reached out in case he fell, and although he was shaky at first, his stride became firm. Melissa let out a sigh of relief.

"C'mon Peter, let's go get you to the hospital." Melissa said.

The three made their way to the den. Felix went into the kitchen to grab the car keys, Melissa went to get Molly, and Peter took off his shirt and began to fan himself with it. Melissa and Felix returned, and together the four went out to the car.

Everyone first noticed the silence of the neighborhood. Not a car passed by, not a dog barked, and no people could be seen anywhere. It seemed completely desolate. Molly whimpered in Melissa's arms, and Melissa held the child closer to her.

The four got into the car, and in silence they drove to the very hospital they were at two days ago. The large parking lot had many cars in it, but it didn't feel the same. A couple cars were parked askew, as if the driver didn't care about how many parking spaces it took up. Trash fluttered around on the ground, a telling sign of desolation. The hospital was incredibly precise about its sanitation, but trash floated around aimlessly nonetheless. Most disturbing of all were the lights-of which there were none-in the multitude of windows on the façade of the building. Every light was turned off.

Melissa silently pocketed her fears and drove to the wraparound entrance. She stopped in front of the six glass doors, but there were no signs of anyone in the hospital at all. All of the lights were off, and most of the furniture in the lobby was arranged in a haphazard array of armchairs, sofas, and tables. Melissa exhaled in frustration and settled back in her seat. Something was wrong here, but there was absolutely no telling what happened. Peter whimpered in the back seat, and Melissa's frustration escalated to a breaking point, where she slammed her fist on the steering wheel. A long, loud honk echoed across the empty lot, and something stirred inside the hospital. Melissa leaned up hopefully.

Inside the lobby, a lone figure emerged from the hallway. It shuffled forward very slowly, not picking up speed until it saw Melissa's car. She could not tell who it was because of the darkness, but when it emerged she gasped in complete revulsion.

The figure pushed open the door with its shoulder, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it was a door at all. It was dressed in a green gown, one that a patient would wear. Its skin was a sickly pale color, and its nails were horribly discolored and disfigured, most of them broken off in pieces. The worst part was its face, with eyes that had no depth to them and a bloodstain around its purple lips.

Molly burst into tears at the sight of the shuffling corpse. Melissa, who was transfixed by the gruesome sight, snapped back into reality and pulled out into the parking lot. She was met by two more of them, each shuffling toward her from a side exit of the hospital. All three children were in hysterics in the back of the car. Scared senseless, Melissa nearly hit the two figures that were now a yard from the car. She slammed on the brakes, then put her car into reverse-

Right into the corpse that emerged from the lobby. The body thudded on the trunk from the impact, and a small crack appeared on the rear window. The corpse, momentarily stunned, was now on its side, beating the window with clenched fists.

Felix and Peter screamed. Felix yelled "Mommy, pull out!" and held his bawling sister.

Melissa gritted her teeth, put the car back into drive, and bolted forward, avoiding the two other corpses by inches. The one on the trunk flew off in a crumpled heap. Despite the tears streaming down their faces, the boys cheered and settled easier into their seats.

They pulled out of the parking lot, and as if alerted by the honk, a few other corpses were emerging from other buildings. Melissa swerved past them all, and turned onto the highway.

"What were those things?" Peter asked after he settled down. He then had a long coughing fit.

"I… I don't know, baby." Melissa replied. She had seen all of the George Romero zombie movies, sure. But she had a hard time believing that any of it was real.

They drove in silence, passing more abandoned buildings along the way. Peter curled up in the back, his coughing fits becoming more severe. Suddenly, Felix asked "Where are we going?"

Melissa slammed on the brakes, and stared at the sign in front of her: West McKinley High School.

~~~Mosquito, six months earlier~~~

When Jenner swatted at the mosquito, he missed. When the vial was spilt, the mosquito was there.

As Candace and Edwin rushed out of the room, the mosquito landed in the spilt liquid. It flew away, into the ventilation shaft, just after decontamination began. It had ingested some of the liquid, and now carried it.

The mosquito flew, and finally it emerged out in the cool night air. It flew away promptly.

The mosquito was pregnant, and soon after, it lay eggs in a birdbath in an abandoned house's yard, all of its offspring carriers as well. This cycle continued, with more and more carriers hatching every day. They infected a few along the way.

One such carrier ended up in Arkansas, near the Tyson meat factory. It flew into enormous chicken holding facility. There it lazily bit many hens, all of which were pregnant.

Soon after, the eggs hatched, and the chicks, as well as their hen mothers, were carriers also. The chicks had chicks, and soon many carrier poultry ended up in Tyson bags across the country. Some were in chicken breast packages, others in hot dogs, and even more still in drumstick packages.

By this time, the cure for death itself had mutated. It was now a disease that was, in most cases, airborne. Doubled by the infected poultry, an epidemic soon began. It didn't take long for the infected to die because of the sickness, and they rose, as zombies, to infect other living people.