The Anna Strain
by Matthew C. Herch Jr.

The Anna strain: it was one of the most lethal viruses known to man. Developed by Gallagher Research Group during 2001, it was the first form of life 'created' by mankind. A virus of unbelievable strength; it caused death within seventy-two hours, then it reanimates the host's body, causing the subject's most vital systems to activate. This, in turn, re-establishes life. An organization contacted us, wishing to buy the virus, but for what reason, we do not know. We knew the virus was perfect from a theoretical standpoint; however, we had no way of knowing the side effects of such a promising new creation.
My name is Dr. Philip Johnson. I was the lead researcher at Gallagher Medical Research Group. What we did is completely inexcusable. We tried to play God, creating life from scratch; but in the end, we were responsible for one of the most horrific events in human history. I know I'm going to burn in hell for what I did, we all knew.
It all started on September 20, 2007; a dull Monday morning. All the morning crew had arrived along with me at the lab. I enjoyed a good nights sleep, knowing that today, we would finish the tests of the virus, and finally test it on a human subject. Mrs. Anderson, my secretary walked through the main door of the building, and into the dark laboratory. I followed her in and switched on the flouresent lights. The bright light strained my eyes, causing them to pulsate with an almost painful sensation.
Mrs. Anderson walked over to her desk and immediately took off her long overcoat. She was a beautiful woman of only thirty-five. Her long black hair and beautifully tanned skin made me wish I could be with her. If only I could get rid of her husband, I thought to myself.
I wasn't too bad a looker, myself. I always kept myself clean and well groomed. My brown hair, I kept combed over to one side. My face, clean shaved, was always kept washed. But that was of no relevance now, after all, we would soon all be millionaires. She and I both could move on to better things.
I slowly walked to my office and entered my pass code into the small input panel.
The panel let out a loud beep, then the large wood doors slid open quietly, as if by some magical force. I walked into my office and took off my black leather jacket. My office was quite large as far as offices go. It was well furnished and clean. Several book shelves filled with the most interesting works of shakespear, and other books by various authors. On the other wall, was a series of large cabinets, filled with research papers and reports written by my associates and I. In the middle of the room was my antique oak desk and leather office chair. I spent my most rewarding nights here, reading and learning all I could. Soon, it would all pay off.
I sat in my chair and laid my head on the cold desk. The cold numbed my head, but the sensation did not last long. The intercom on my desk began to ring. I reached over and pressed the small button labeled “Answer”.
“Yes, what is it?” I asked.
“There are two men here to see you.” Said Mrs. Anderson with a nervous tone in her voice.
“Send them in.” I answered, wondering who could be visiting on such short notice.
The large doors to my office opened and two men entered slowly, one of them carrying a small black briefcase. The men were the scariest beings I had ever seen. They were tall, yet very muscular. Their heads were shaved bald, and they wore black sunglasses and black suits. They slowly walked over to my desk and set the briefcase on its surface.
“Can I help you?” I asked hesitantly.
“We have a business proposition for you.” Said one of the men.
“What kind of proposition?” I asked.
“We know you are developing a new type of virus here at this lab. We wish to buy it from you.”
“What? Buy it?” I said.
“Yes, we can beat out every one of your contracts by at least a million dollars.” Said the man.
“A million?” I said, sitting stunned in my chair.
One of the men leaned over and opened the briefcase on my desk. Inside was a stack of hundred dollar bills. I picked up one of the well stacked bundles and shuffled through it with my fingers.
“What would you be using it for?” I asked.
“We cannot disclose that information to you. By the way, if you don't accept the money, we can simply take the virus from you.”
With that, the men left my office, and the building. I heard their car's engine start and slowly move down the driveway. I sat starring at the stack of money. I knew I had no choice but to accept it. My mind was made up, we would accept the money and cancel our other contract with Tetron Pharmaceuticals, a corporate pharmaceutical producer.
The rest of the day went fine. We completed many final tests on lab rats and a small chimpanzee. They all had the same effect. First we killed the subjects, with a medical hammer. Then we injected the virus, mixed with an incubation liquid, directly into the subject's body. We waited, and after five minutes, the subject's were alive and well in their cages. The tests were a complete success. Now, it was time to test the virus on a human.
We obtained a fresh corpse from the Gallagher city morgue a few nights before. We kept it in cold storage until we were ready for the tests. Now it was time to bring it out. I walked to the back of the hallway and up to a pair of large steel doors. I entered my pass code into the panel and received the confirmation beep. The large doors slid open with the same quietness as my office doors. As they opened, a blast of cold air rushed onto my face. Inside the stone cold room was a small case which contained the virus viles, and a medical stretcher which was the resting place of young Anna Montgomery. Anna was the victim of a horrific murder. Her father killed her, and her entire family in their sleep, using a crossbow. In honor of the poor girl, I decided to name the project and virus after her.
I grabbed the case of viles and pushed the stretcher out of the room and down the hall. The storage doors shut behind me with a loud slam. I entered the test lab and wheeled the body up to the test equipment. After connecting all the equipment to the lifeless corpse, I called for my assistant, Dr. Jack Hunter. He arrived in the test lab with a large syringe.
“Is she all connected?” Asked Jack.
“Yeah, she's prepped.” I replied.
“You ready to inject her?” I asked, handing Jack a vile of the green incubation liquid which contained a strain of the virus.
“You do the honors.” I said, after all, Jack had done some of the most tedious work for me. I thought it was only fitting that he take the honor of changing the world.
Jack grabbed the needle and stabbed it into the rubber top of the vile. He pulled back the plunger, and extracted a small amount of incubation liquid. He then pulled out the needle and walked over to the corpse, which was beginning to smell quite horrid. Jack held up Anna's arm and injected the liquid into her limp arm.
“Now, we wait.” I said.
“We'll have to wait until tomorrow.” Said Jack.
“Yeah. I'm staying here in my office. So I'll monitor her through the video screen.” I said.
“Alright, I'm staying in the test lab with the body, so just keep an eye on me.” Said Jack, for he was prone to moving in his sleep more than normal.
“Will do.” I said.
Jack sat in a large black chair in the corner of the room; he immediately fell asleep. I walked down the hallway and into my office. I sat down at my desk and turned on a large monitor in one corner of the room. On the screen was a survelliance camera view of the test lab. I was so tired, all the excitement of the day had worn me out. I laid my head on the desk and closed my eyes. The next thing I knew, I was asleep.
I woke up to the sound of horrible screaming. I looked around the room for the source of the screams, but to no avail. The monitor which was displaying the test lab was only showing white noise. I immediately grabbed my 9mm pistol from a drawer in my desk and ran out of my office and down the hall toward the test lab. When I stepped through the doorway, I was greeted with a horrible sight. Anna was on top of Jack slowly eating through his chest cavity. A large pool of blood was collecting on the floor around him. I saw as Anna bit the flesh, how it tore and snapped with every bite. It was morbid and sickening. I raised my gun to Anna when I suddenly noticed something. The virus vile was on the floor in pieces, green liquid slowly evaporating into the air. The virus spreads easily through the air, and even easier through the ventilation system and into the town surrounding the facility.
Anna slowly stood up from her feasting position on the floor and stepped slowly toward me. Her body was rotting away; her skin was slowly peeling off of her face and arms. She opened her mouth wide, tearing her cheeks around her jaws and let out a horrible scream. Blood began to trickle into her putrid mouth. I raised my gun once more and finally pulled the trigger, hitting her in the lower abdomen. A spew of stomach acid poured out of her abdomen falling onto the floor and mixing with the blood. Anna was momentarily stunned, but quickly recovered. She looked up at me and began to run towards me, stomping on the ground with extreme force. I looked back and watched the bones in her leg crack and buckle under the force of the impacts. She continued to run towards me, unfased by the extreme pain.
I ran into my office and activated the door locking mechanism. The doors quickly shut and locked with a loud bang. I could hear Anna outside, ramming her body into the doors, trying to break them open. That's when I realized that I had windows in my office. Just as I thought of this weakness, Anna came bursting through the window, shattering it to thousands of pieces. The glass sliced through her skin and tore it open, revealing the bloody mass underneath, but she was still immune to pain. I raised my gun one final time, and fired the last bullet in my gun. The round pierced her skull, sending bits of skull and bloody masses flying through the air and onto the wall behind her. Her body went limp and fell onto the floor. It began to twitch as blood pooled on the hard floor.
I was relieved that one problem was solved, but then I realized that the virus was traveling through the building's ventilation system. I ran toward the exit of the building and opened the door. I walked slowly out into the sun. My body suddenly became weak, my arm twitched as I experienced a terrible pain. I looked down at my arm. It was slowly rotting my skin, the blood bubbling underneath. I tore open my shirt and revealed my chest. It's skin was also rotting away, I could even see my ribcage.
I fell onto the ground and began to uncontrollably slam my head into the pavement below me. I felt my pounding skull crack, then everything around me went black. I awoke in a dark room, where I was, I didn't know. As I regained consciousness, I realized that I was chewing on something. I looked up and saw a dead body in front of me, with its eyes and hands missing. I reached in my mouth and pulled out a slimy object. To my horror, I realized what it was. I was chewing on the bloody finger of the man in front of me. I wanted to stop chewing, but an unquenchable urge erupted inside me. I bent back down to the body and sank my teeth into the bloody mass. It was then that I realized, I was a zombie.

Ok story. Keep it up.

i think that was very good .

I enjoyed the story and the premise, but here's my un-professional critique:

1) It moves too fast, even for a short story.
2) Viruses are generally not considered to be life because they're not made up of cells, but that's just a technicality.
3) This kind of story has been done before, a lot, especially in movies (28 days later, for instance). I'm not accusing you of ripping them off, but I think you should make it a priority to somehow differentiate your story from the usual zombie virus plot. Not saying you should get rid of the virus aspect completely, but you should try to work in some unusual plot twists as well.

I'd love to see a continuation of this where the virus spreads into the town.

You are quite creative man! Keep it up. I like the concept very much.