Steven woke up in a cylindrical container. He was chained on all of his limbs suspended in the air. The container was blurry except for a space around his face, to which he could see an eccentrically thin man scurrying around outside pushing buttons and pulling levers. He hurried over to Steven and smiled as he saw him awake. He hurried back and pressed a button before rushing back to look at Steven. A gas filled the compartment. Steven held his breath, but eventually expelled it and took in the gaseous substance. He felt a burning sensation all over his body. His looked at his shirt to see the gas was eating away at it and the rest of his clothing. Suddenly, he was unconscious.
***
Steven woke up again, this time in a bed in a room not belonging to him. He stood up immediately. He had been clothed into a white undershirt and boxer shorts. He lifted his shirt up and saw that nothing had changed.
Steven looked around his cell. It was grey and a door prevented him leaving. There was only one small light.
Steven sighed and laid back down. He was too stressed to worry. He didn’t really have much going for him anyway. Summer at his parents with no friends but two twin younger brothers. Oh well, he thought. Not to much worse.
There was a knock at the door. It was opened by the eccentric scientist. He was wearing a hazmat suit. Steven sat up and stared at the professor.
“Can I go yet,” he said boredly.
“Oh ja Shteven,” the scientist said in a German accent. “Immediately, if you don’t mind.”
The hazmat suit man guided Steven out of he room and down a hallway. At the end was a door with light coming through a window. The man opened the door and shoved Steven out before slamming it shut.
Steven was in a shopping mall. People hustled around him, some staring at the boys inadequacy. And everyone was coughing or sneezing. Steven approached a man sitting on a bench, who subsequently started to wheeze.
“Excuse me sir,” he asked politely. “Where exactly am I?”
“You...?” he wheezed. The man was not an older man but still he struggled out the words. “You...*hack*...you’re in the downtown mall,”
The man stood up and hobbled over to the bathroom. Steven sighed. He knew where the downtown mall was. Not too far from his house actually, he just never chose to go inside it.
Steven walked out, as more and more people started coughing. A woman looked very pale as she tried to soothe her sneezing child. Steven grew worried and left quickly. After he left, he simply walked a few blocks and found his house. Steven quickly walked inside. One of his brothers sat on the couch watching tv, looked up to see it was Steven and gave a half hearted hey.
Steven felt relieved. At least he wasn’t gone for too long. He heard his brother give a coughed he walked upstairs, but didn’t really care. His brothers had asthma, they cough all the time. Steven entered his room and turned on his pc to play video games.
Shortly after, his mother entered the room in the late evening around 10. She looked pale.
“Terrence isn’t feeling very well,” she said. Her voice was slightly raspy. “Neither is Miles so I’m taking them to see a doctor.”
She coughed and left, adding to not stay up too late. Steven suddenly was overcome with a wave of fatigue. He turned off his computer and crawled into bed.
***
The next morning, Steven woke up with light pouring in his room. It was almost noon, much later than he’d ever been able to sleep in before. Steven cautiously stood up. Still wearing his t shirt and boxers, he nervously opened his door and looked around. The house was quiet. He walked down the upstairs hallway. His brothers had separate rooms, and he entered Terrence’s.
Sitting there on Terrences’s bed was a strange sight. A man at least 7 feet was lying on top of Terrence’s bed. They were completely naked, but had no dick. They were rather muscular and attractive, ten packs of abs, large pecs. As Steven got closer, he had to jump back in surprise. The man shared his face and hairstyle. It was as if someone had replaced Terrence with a buff clone of Steven.
The man was lying with his eyes open, and he turned his head to face Steven. The man quickly stood up, causing Steven to jump back with alarm. The man simply stared down at Steven. Steven backed up and walked into his brother Miles’ room. In there, he saw an identical replica of the man in Terrence’s room sitting at his desk reading a book. Upon Steven’s entrance, it turned around and stood up, again staring down at Steven.
“Who are you?” Steven asked tentatively.
“I am at your service,” replied the man quickly and in a voice similar to Steven’s, only deeper.
Steven grew annoyed. That didn’t answer his question.
“What can you do then?” Steven inquired.
“Anything you wish,” the man said.
Steven, now a bit creeped out, exited the room and walked to his parents bedroom. There lying in the bed (somewhat predictably) were two carbon copies of the two men upstairs sitting in his parents bed.
Before they could get up and stand in front of him, he left and went downstairs to the living room and turned on the tv. It was the national news service, they were reporting on a story labeled “Breaking News.”
“A mass epidemic is currently sweeping this country and has been found in every continent spreading from airports,” the female anchor explained. She coughed horrendously. Her co host took over.
“As many become more and more sick,” the man said taking a moment to wipe his nose. “We eventually have lost communication with areas. We implore you to stay indoors as this disease is potentially extinction causing.”
The man made a belching face and suddenly started to convulse. The female host looked horrified but didn’t seem to be able to move. The man suddenly broke out of his formal attire, exposing a pair of pecs and an 8 pack. His face reformed to match that of the two men upstairs and he suddenly sat up calmly now identical to the rest of Steven’s family. The female host soon followed. A mic fell from over top of them bouncing off the former man’s head. The clone remained motionless as another clone appeared half off set, supposedly the microphone person.
Steven was very intrigued by this disease turning the population into him. It must have been caused by that scientist dude from earlier. Steven walked back upstairs and into Miles’ room to see what these men could do.