Clover's Utopia, Chapter 1

A loud fit of coughing had caused Clover to look up from her breakfast. Her father wearily glanced in her direction and then muttered an apology. Clover was used to it; her father had contracted the recent form of influenza that had quickly reached epidemic proportions and infected a large majority of the population. “How do you feel, dad?” she asked timidly.
Her question was answered only by an inaudible mumbling causing her to sigh as she headed up to her room, her shoulder length, light brown hair bounced with her steps. There was no school now, there hadn’t been since the epidemic emerged. Clover’s days were empty now, she liked school. The gossiping in the hallway between classes, talking to friends, scoring admirably on an exam. she loved it. She missed it. Now she spent her time watching TV and playing checkers over the computer. Defeating most opponents, as she had gotten fairly good at it. When she lost she learned, and when she won she celebrated.
As she turned into her room she tripped on a pair of her pants that had resided on her floor since she’d last worn them. She laughed as she plummeted into her unmade bed. In her solitude she had learned to enjoy such things. She turned onto her back and grabbed the remote for her small television, flipping it on to reveal a reporter in an anti-infection mask. “I’m standing here in front of mercy hospital, where several ‘super-flu’ sufferers have fallen into comas or experienced violent, seemingly random, cardiac arrest. Nothing is certain at this point, but it also seems as if the spread of the ‘super-flu’ has also slowed, or come to a complete stop.”
Clover sat up immediately knocking several pillows off her bed. “Comas?” she asked aloud, as she jumped out of bed. She ran downstairs to where she had eaten breakfast with her dad just minutes earlier. “Dad!” the shriek left Clover’s mouth the moment she saw him, standing in the corner, breathing heavily, facing the wall.
“Dad?” she asked, “are you alright?” Her dad quickly turned at the sound of her voice, grunting before he sprinted towards her. A loud scream erupted from her as she noticed the red in his otherwise white eyes she turned and broke into a run, not looking at the horror behind her. While beginning to head for the back door a cold hand grasped her wrist. She spun sending her assailant forwards into the ground in front of her. She let out a gasp of pain as her father relinquished his grip too late twisting her wrist.
Ignoring the pain she continued to run for the door. Tears began to pool in her eyes. She flung open the door and continued her sprint stopping only when she reached the fence. She sank to her knees and began to cry, not letting her eyes leave the door where her father could emerge at any minute.
What seemed like minutes later; but was much more likely far less, a large crash erupted just up the street from where the girl sat. Immediately she leaped up to see what was causing all the commotion. She had to stand on her tip-toes to see over the fence. Before her was a disturbing site. In front of her she noticed evidence that a car had collided with someone at an alarming speed. Clover gasped at the site of her mangled neighbour. She’d often watched her walk her dog in front of her house, now she lay lifeless on the ground.
Clover opened the gate to check on her neighbour, and signal for help. She ran up to the old woman and noticed the blankness in her eyes, the same blankness that had been in her fathers when he’d first attacked her. “Help! Somebody, I need an ambulance. Help!”
Then she glanced back at the victim of the terrible car accident. Her eyes twitched and Clover took a step backwards. “What the fuck?!” Clover yelled, too frightened to censor her profanity. With a loud moan the elderly woman began to pick herself up, her bones crunching into place. As the shocked teen retreated to the sidewalk, the would-be-dead woman limped towards her. The woman seemed to have aged incredibly, her hair had turned completely white and the wrinkles on her face had deepened and became more than noticeable. Clover screamed as her once friendly acquaintance wrapped her in a deathly embrace. The woman’s head moved towards Clover’s neck and she stopped moaning.
Clover futilely tried to withdraw and as she was about to give up she heard an almost-familiar sound. The roaring of an engine. A car! Tires screeched causing the assaulter to drop its victim and turn its head. As the car abruptly stopped the door flew open immediately and out stepped an angry looking driver.
The driver had a cricket bat swung over her left shoulder. She had brown straight hair that reached down to her chest and bright blue eyes. She began to approach the victim of the car crash quickly yet cautiously, revealing her jeans that had been roughly cut into shorts and her blue, designer tank top. She placed both hands on her bat and wound up. Clover shielded her eyes as she knew what was coming.
The next thing she heard was a loud smack and she opened her eyes. “Get back!” yelled the mysterious girl placed her sports shoes on the neck of the grounded attacker. Clover quickly complied standing up and running towards the car. One final, violent bang was sounded before the girl spun around and asked, “Have you been bitten?” in an urgent tone, revealing a strong English accent.
“N-no,” replied Clover.
“You’re sure?”
Clover just nodded.
“Good, the name’s Allie, and you can thank me for saving your life in the car”
“You just killed that woman!” Accused Clover.
“It was either her or you, got that? Now get in the car we don’t have much time.”
Clover reluctantly got into the passenger seat of the car. It was a Japanese model, silver, and resembled a compacted mini van.
Once in the car Clover continued to press for information. “What the hell was wrong with her?” she asked sharply.
“She had the super flu, by now everybody with it is like that” And then Clover remembered her dad, and the other several million that had it.
“But the news said that it had began to send people into comas and cause heart attacks!”
“Yes. It does seem that way,” Allie replied, “But those symptoms are short-lived precursors for what you just saw.”
“Didn’t’t the flu stop spreading at least?”
“All I know,” Allie informed “is that it is now transmittable through bite, and quite possibly the sharing of all other bodily fluids.” At this she chuckled. Clover remained solemn.