[Edward POV]
The news announcement shook my soul. Immediately after, the country's president called my personal phone number.
"Did you see the news?" He asked, his tone still calm.
"What's going on?" I asked quizzically.
He sighed and said, "I've been preparing for this, but I didn't think it would come so fast."
"What?" I grimaced. Then, I remembered in the setting of the future I uploaded into his mind, there was one part about a plague which killed half the world's population.
He thought this was the start of it all.
"The US government structure is so complicated that I didn't realize the instrument of humanity's demise, was built inside our own military base." He added solemnly.
"Edward, will you help us? We need a team that will study the cure to this thing."
"I will join in, but I need more explanations than this. Like what is going on. What's the situation?"
"General Beckman will brief you about the situation when she arrives at your place with the sample." The President said before adding on, "The public will need some hope in this dark time. Using your research capability, name, and fame as the immediate course of action to placate the masses will help the country tremendously. Do I have your permission for that?"
"I have no objection if you mention me in passing rather than putting all of the pressure on my name. I might be able to carry some hope, but I might break if it's too much for me to bear." I replied after thinking about it.
"Got it. Travel will be limited soon. Since your lab is in your house, my suggestion is, don't bring people to your place. This thing is highly infectious and needs great amount of caution and care, otherwise you will be infected to, and may infect the others around you."
I joked slightly to tease the tension, "Again, I need more context to understand the whole situation, but I guess it's really a pressing matter huh? Although you have taken Halloween– the holiday I love the most from me, I will still help you… but I'm going to do it spitefully."
As I cut the call and turned around, I saw the pale faces of Haley, Luke and Alex.
"You guys better go back to your place." I told them. "I need to go home now since I have involved myself in something serious."
Alex stepped in and said, "I listened a bit. Hope-- what hope? Did the President call you about what the news said? Do you need assistance in researching– whatever it is that's going to be sent to you now?"
"Hmm.. Alex, you're getting sharper." I said proudly. "And no. I mean, yes, but not in the way you are… physically…there. I might need some assistants with the data so just keep your laptop with you."
"What if I stayed at your house, and I promise I won't go to the lab section." Alex asked.
"Alex, shouldn't you ask mom and dad first about this?" Haley interjected, worried.
Luke was the only one who found humor in this matter, "Edward. Is this a zombie apocalypse? Can I beat people up with a bat now?"
I rubbed his hair vigorously and laughed, "Luke. You can always beat people up with a bat–"
"NO!" Alex interjected, not wanting me to give the wrong lesson to her brother.
"I'll go to your place on my own later." Alex said. "You should go there first."
I nodded and then left the house. I called my dad, Pepper, Frankie, Taylor, Ness, halted every tour and movie production, let people go home for now.
"Robin. Bring Han to my place. We're going to need help with the research." I called as I returned to my place.
I also called my mother and aunt in Cuba, asking them to go to Sado and return to the United States before international travel was banned.
"This reminds me of Covid," I muttered to myself. "Except Covid has a lower death rate."
Like I expected, there was a toilet paper shopping frenzy, with superstores running out of stock and even firearms being sold at an alarming rate as the quarantine news came out.
Unlike Covid, where the stay-at-home orders were used to flatten the curve, this one was for their family's survival.
The 2012 end-of-the-world prophecy was in full swing. There were already 10,000 deaths worldwide from the virus in just two days after it was released to the public.
The patients would have blistering pus all over their bodies, lose consciousness, and begin sleepwalking before falling to their deaths—just like zombies.
General Beckman and a team of military researchers were waiting for me in my driveway with the information docket and the virus sample.
"We need to talk somewhere private. This information is highly classified and, under normal circumstances, would never see the light of day. But now, we have to share it with everyone all over the world to ensure humanity will survive…"
The General was solemn, and so was everyone else. I casually said, "Do you want some tea?"
"Yes…" the General replied, before snapping out of her dazed state and saying, "No… There isn't much time. I'll leave you with these researchers; they are the best researchers from our military—"
"I'm going to stop you right there. It's fine. I have my own team. You guys should help with the quarantine instead," I interjected. I also didn't want people snooping around my stuff in case I needed to use advanced technology here.
They looked disappointed and then left, as they had a lot of work to do, leaving only the General and me in the living room.
General Beckman told me about the fallout between the President and the U.S. military, also giving me some confidential information about the virus.
"Extra-terrestrial origin?" I was shocked. My mind went blank for a bit; I almost missed the General's explanation.
"After World War II, research on a mass-destruction biological weapon was conducted. They were shut down within a few years because of the moral implications, but it turned out the research was secretly continued in collaboration with a private company."
'Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.' My mind went a thousand miles per hour. 'I know in my past life the government confirmed some UFO existence, but no one really cared about it… Which… story is this canon from?'
'Chuck?—No, that's just an advanced-technology spy flick. Although the one who created the virus could be someone from it.'
'The Blacklist also dealt with viruses and plagues in their storylines.'
'Modern Family? Brooklyn 99? 2 Broke Girls?'
I kept racking my mind to see if I knew of something. Suddenly, I realized something.
"It's The Big Bang Theory."
"Pardon?" The General was confused by my sudden declaration. "Your—your sitcom?" she stammered, looking at me with disbelief.
Realizing that I had blurted it out loud, I waved it off and said, "Oh. Nothing, nothing."
There was this episode in The Big Bang Theory where the guys were designing a message to send to outer space. Then, at the ending, there was a short comedy bit about a tentacle alien wanting to eat Sheldon Cooper, saying that he looked soft and delicious.
'So I guess aliens are canon in this universe?'
I listened to the General's explanation, and there was also something about The Gorge, where the site of the first biological weapon facility was located.
I also learned some insider information about a spaceship that crashed in Area 51 decades ago—that was even before that place was called by that name.
After the General left, I rubbed my face in frustration.
"Oracle, run a predictive algorithm," I muttered with a heavy tone.
"What's even going on right now? This isn't going to develop into a full-blown end-of-the-world issue, right… Sage?"
My guardian appeared out of nowhere, with Gong Shin—the Afterlife Supervisor—tagging along with her.
"Oh god. You're also here. And you both have really scary faces." My heart jumped a bit.
"So, all of us are going to die?" I asked solemnly.
Sage shook her head and said, "The first cure will come out in six months."
"So we can develop a cure. How many people will—"
"Four-fifths of the world. It will take down four-fifths of the world," Gong Shin added.
"Is this my butterfly effect? Did I have something to do with this?" I asked, my hands trembling slightly.
Sage shook her head and said, "No. Even if you weren't here, it would still happen, since the guy who made this had his mind broken from isolation a decade ago."
"Who is he?" I narrowed my eyes slightly.
Gong Shin sighed and said, "I guess… He's you, from a different era."
"Excuse me?" I was startled.
"Check his docket," Sage said. I opened the file and read it.
"Henry Hargrave. When he was fifteen, he designed the first compact phased-array dish antenna that could send encrypted transmissions across continents."
"His prototype was decades ahead of its time, and it terrified the military because it meant no message, no matter how classified, could be intercepted. They kidnapped him, faked his death, and buried his name. His parents never knew the truth."
"He also built an early neural-interface prototype—what you would call a brain-computer link. The military took it apart and re-engineered it for drone operations. Every UAV strike in the past twenty years has roots in his stolen research—this guy is pretty terrifying."
Even the Intersect creation in Chuck had his shadow behind it.
"Thirty years locked in a bunker," Sage said softly. "No sunlight. No family. No freedom. Only equations and experiments. They kept him alive because he kept inventing: energy storage systems, stealth composites, predictive algorithms… all classified, all erased from public knowledge."
Gong Shin added, "All of his achievements were robbed from him, and that bred a deep resentment in his heart."
I felt my throat tighten. "And now… he's the one who made the virus?"
"Yes," Gong Shin replied. "His mind broke after three decades of captivity. His parents… also died. He turned his genius into vengeance."
I watched the footage where he broke free of the military research facility. He started a fire, and when the staff opened the door to his lab to put it out, he shot them with a small blaster, which left gaping holes in their bodies.
"Is that alien tech too? I think I have a similar one in my arsenal," I muttered.
The holographic screen flickered as the calculation were done, streams of numbers racing across it before settling into a projection:
Week 1: 100,000 deaths.
Week 2: 400,000 deaths.
Week 3: 1.2 million deaths.
Week 4: 3 million deaths.
My hands trembled. The graph spiked upward like a mountain.
Month 2: 40 million deaths.
Month 3: 300 million deaths.
Month 4: 1.2 billion deaths.
Month 5: 3.7 billion deaths.
Month 6: 6.2 billion deaths.
I couldn't breathe. Four-fifths of the world.
"Damn." Sage cursed, "Seeing the numbers itself, this is quite frightening."
"I'm here. Can't the cure be created sooner?" I asked.
Gong Shin replied, "Two months. You will be able to synthesize the cure in two months."
"That's still 40 million people," I muttered, my throat tight.
Covid took the lives of 7 million people over the span of two years. This virus… it would kill more than five times that number in just eight weeks.
It wasn't a slow burn pandemic creeping across borders; it was a wildfire roaring through every city at once. Hospitals would collapse within days. Governments would dissolve under the weight of panic. The social order wouldn't erode gradually — it would shatter like glass.
I clenched my fists.
Suddenly, I received a call from my father. I picked it up quickly.
"Edward, did you leave Vader behind at my place?" he asked.
"Yeah. My house is going to be a no-go spot for everyone, and I'm afraid Vader will poke her nose into a dangerous situation," I replied.
"I understand that. So, I guess I should tell you the good news. She just gave birth to five healthy little kittens. I'll send you pictures."
"Really?!" I brightened up before falling back into deep worry. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I said, "Don't go out right now. I'll send you supplies if you need them. Stay at home at all times."
"Okay. I will," he replied.
I cut the call and turned to Sage and Gong Shin again. "You're not going to come if you don't think there's something you can do about it. So, is there a way for us to fix this thing earlier?"
Sage sighed and glanced at Gong Shin.
"Well, there is this." Gong Shin reached into his inner suit pocket and took out a piece of paper before handing it to me.
"Travel order?" I was confused when I read it.
Gong Shin said, "Remember what Sage told you about the trip? The Afterlife Corp puts a lot of importance on the mental well-being of their agents, so you can get free travel tickets from them."
Sage added, "You need to be a level 4 agent to do it, but your karma is ballooning really high from the lack of Afterlife sessions. I think we can promote you straight to level 4."
"Eve also smoothed out all the documents, making this a special promotion for you. But you're on probation for now. If you mess it up, you might fall down to level 3 again," Gong Shin added.
"Mess up, as in…" I trailed off and let them finish my words.
"Empathy, compassion, and so on. Just be human, and you'll be fine," Sage replied.
I nodded in understanding.
"You'll be in the world for a month, but only a day will pass by in your world. This is a special perk for agents," Gong Shin said.
"Oh." My eyes lit up. "So I can shorten the research time to a month. One month there, one month here."
Sage added, "If you went to a technologically advanced world, you might be able to finish the research sooner."
My mind raced with the possibility of a technologically advanced universe I could venture to. But before I could get excited, Sage said, "You wouldn't be able to venture into an 'alive' universe."
"I'm sorry?" I was confused.
Gong Shin added, "You can only travel to a dead world. That way, your existence wouldn't cause catastrophic damage to the timeline. If it's a dead world, your being there won't have any effect on the world."
"What's the difference between alive or dead?" I asked.
Gong Shin replied, "Apocalypse-type event."
"I see."
Sage explained more about the trip. It wouldn't happen right away. I might need to wait two or three days, maybe even a week, before the travel order got approved.
Secondly, I could bring stuff to that world—whatever I could carry—but I couldn't bring anything back here. There would be a thorough filtration process upon my return to prevent me from carrying any ancient bacteria or viruses back to this universe.
So I had to plan what I was going to bring there: a supercomputer, an energy core, the virus sample, my sword, and an iron armor suit—not Iron Man armor, just something I'd cooked up myself.
The world would have a high danger level. Sage said I could die there, and she was the only person who knew for sure my current combat capability.
If I died, then I died only in that universe. I would return home, but I would never be able to go back there again.
"Sometimes, an Afterlife agent will roam these dead worlds to see if there's a chance for them to be rebuilt. The agents can farm karma, and the inhabitants there might get some help in their survival. So win-win," Sage explained.
"I get it. Alright, see you tomorrow. I'm going to get a head start analyzing this virus," I said, waving the two of them goodbye.
Wearing full PPE, I finally took out the virus from the silver case and inserted the sample into my analyzer. On the monitor, a kaleidoscope of shifting structures appeared: crystalline spikes wrapped in a helix, protein sheaths interlocking like gears, and a volatile core that shimmered with instability.
I zoomed in, watching its surface proteins writhe as though alive. Each fold, each strand, seemed designed to defy every known antiviral mechanism.
I pulled up the chemical compound breakdown — nucleic acids spiking in chaotic sequences that didn't resemble anything recorded in Earth's databases.
"What type of alien did the virus come from? Why is every information redacted? Fucking military…" I cursed as I saw a lot of information from the docket was blacked out.
As I was studying the virus, the world outside was undergoing a huge turmoil.
The virus didn't just stay in the US. It was as if the plague carrier visited every major cities on Earth.
New York, London, Paris, Beijing. The death toll was increasing faster than my initial estimate.
A day passed by quickly. The chaos had turned into deathly quiet. The street was empty, so were the stores all over.
Nurses and Doctors weren't enough. The morgue began to fill up. The dead bodies were cremated to prevent the virus from mutating.
Another day, another 10,000+ deaths.
"Alex, I'm going to focus for about a day." I told Alex as I took off my PPE once I got out of the lab. Sage told me that the travel order was approved early, so I was making some preparation.
"Okay. In the meantime, don't check the internet. Don't do it, not even for a minute. Promise me?" Alex said, which intrigued me, but I replied, "Sure. I'm not going to anyway since I have work to do."
Alex breathed in relief. Suddenly I received another call. It was from Enid. I added her to my video call with Alex.
"Hey, Edward. Is this the virus? There's something growing on my face!" Enid said tearily.
"That's a zit." I replied with a smile. "Just pop it."
"I'm not going to pop it!" Enid shouted.
Jenna also called, and I widened my eyes when I saw her face. Enid chuckled nervously and said, "Jen, you have zits growing too?"
"No. I caught the virus." Jenna said with a heavy expression.
"God damnit. Jen! I told you to stay inside." I scolded her angrily. Everyone was shocked by my sudden outburst.
Alex interjected, "He hasn't been sleeping for 40 hours. He's really stressed out. Jen, how did you get the virus?"
"I don't know. My mom got it I think. She came back from New York yesterday." Jenna replied before looking at me with shaky eyes, "Edward. Am I going to be okay?"
Everyone already knew that the virus would claim a life within the 14 days period. People with weak immune systems would die in one or two days of getting infected.
"I'm going to send you some antibiotics. Make sure to eat it every two hours. I'm going to find the cure soon. I promise." I said with a solemn expression.