Sara Hall gave a deep sigh as she watched the news for the third morning in a row, the growing outbreak of a disease that she had no knowledge of having been the only thing the reporter had spoken of during each broadcast. She wasn’t a doctor or a scientist, but she often spent her free time reading articles about the work on any sort of disease or disorder in case she came across a situation with whatever she could end up facing in the world. It had overtaken the city within hours of the first occurrence. Civilians were told to stay indoors and to lock their front doors. Sara had taken the time to call her family that were staying closer to the first accident, feeling peace after knowing they had not been at the grocery store during the attack and had been home the entire day after watching the news.

Sara paced around her living room, having received a text message that was sent out from the CDC about several scientists going door to door to administer a vaccine. The sutle knock on her front door made her freeze in place, hesitating for a few moments before quickly walking to it. She glanced through the peephole, sighing in relief when spotting the signature white coat of the CDC workers. She pulled the door open, being greeted by a man with black hair and piercing blue eyes. He held a clipboard in one hand and a large silver brief case in the other.

“Sara Hall?” The man questioned.

“Yes.” Sara answered immediately.

The CDC worker swiftly stepped into her house, easing her away from the door as he moved. She spotted the few creatures that possibly followed him from his car that was parked down the road stumbling toward them. The man closed the door and locked it as if he knew where the deadbolt had been the entire time without needing to look. He ushered her over to her living room, making her sit down in her recliner before pulling all of her curtains shut.

“They aren’t entirely bright. They go by smell, not sight. If they can’t see you, they’ll go away.” The man spoke as if he had said the same information countless of times, getting down on one knee in front of Sara and opening the silver briefcase.

“Are all of them like that?” Sara asked.

“There have been a few variants showing up, but we have little to no knowledge about them since we haven’t encountered them personally.”

Sara watched as the man prepared a small needle, and her heart began to race as she realized that the vaccination had to be injected. The man seemed to notice her unease immediately, glancing up at her through thick eyelashes as he set the needle down.

“If you’re uncomfortable with needles, Sara, I do have alternatives.” He told her.

“I’ll be fine. Do whatever you have to do if it makes it quicker for you to get to the next person on your list.” Sara let out a shaky breath as she spoke.

Her eyes focused on the sleeve of his lab coat. Disrupting the white color was a red bandana tied around his upper arm. It looked fairly new compared to the black shirt he wore underneath his lab coat, and Sara could barely read what the white lettering said as he moved around.

JAPANESE DIVISION

DEPARTMENT OF DISEASE EXPERIMENTS AND CONTROL

“Are all of you wearing bandanas like that?” Sara asked, trying not to focus on what the man was doing.

“Yes. It’s to help tell who belongs to what department as we try and keep the disease under control.” The man answered quietly, tying a rubber band around her upper arm.

He began to examine the underside of her arm, looking for a vein that was close to her skin. Sara’s eyes drifted over him, focusing on his chest. On his left chest was thin black lettering.

DR. JOSEPH LAKE

“You’re a doctor.” Sara clarified.

“That is one of my titles, yes. If you’re referring to the label on my coat, they couldn’t fit all of my achievements on the space provided.” The man tried to tell a joke to ease Sara’s nerves.

“What do you go by? Joseph or Lake?”

“It doesn’t really matter to me what I’m called. Why do you ask?”

“You’re a doctor in the Japanese Division of whatever your department does. The Japanese go by their last names, don’t they?”

“I’m Canadian as well. I grew up in Canada and moved back and forth between Japan and America as I got older. They put me in the Japanese department because I had been in Japan for a majority of my life at the time I started working for the CDC. I will go by whatever you prefer to call me.”

Joseph kept his thumb in place after finding a vein that was close enough to the surface of Sara’s skin, and he looked directly into her eyes as he held up the syringe.

“I’m going to give you one last chance. I have alternatives that you can take if you prefer to use them.” He stated.

“You’ve already found a vein. Just stick me already, Joseph.” Sara’s jaw locked after she spoke, her body tensing.

“Relax. I need to go over a few things before I inject you with the vaccine.” Joseph gave her a warm and comforting smile. “I am required to tell you every possibility and outcome there is that comes with this injection. The disease that is spreading was under development before it was released. It did not have a cure, and it did not have a vaccine. The vaccine I hold in my hand is not finished. It is still in its experimental stage, but it will prevent you from being infected when you’re attacked. It was tested on a few individuals before we decided to administer it to the public, and we discovered that it does have an evenly divided chance of infecting you with the disease. It will not permanently change you, but it will change you once the sun sets. We have not discovered what causes the change. It may be a shift in the light, or it may be a shift in your body’s reaction to the change in temperature during night time. If you are infected by the vaccine, you will return to normal during the day. I am going to remind you that it is not required that you take the vaccine. You may choose to remain infection free until you are infected by one of the creatures outside.”

“Have you had a vaccine yet?”

“No. I will receive my vaccination once all of the civilians I am responsible for have gotten theirs.”

Sara stared at the man that kneeled in front of her. He raised an eyebrow at her expression.

“If I take one now, I will lose my job.” He told her firmly.

“If you don’t take one now, you’ll lose your life. The sun will be setting soon. If what you said about the vaccination is true, there’s going to be a lot more monsters walking around.” Sara replied. “If you don’t take one, I’m going to force you to leave here without giving me mine.”

“Are you honestly going to act like a child just because someone you’ve never met isn’t vaccinated?”

“Wouldn’t you do the same if you were in my position and someone had to go out there in the dark with monsters that can change them into something they don’t want to be?”

“Look, Sara, I will take my vaccine when I am done with my job. If you don’t let me do this, I won’t get vaccinated tonight.”

Sara huffed as she relaxed her body. Joseph was quick as he injected the vaccine into her, placing a bandage over the needle prick before packing up his supplies and walking to the door.

“If I am unable to return home tonight, I will come here. Don’t wait around for me. There’s a possibility that I will be one of them.” Joseph told Sara before disappearing into the night.