Virus Free

by Elias Zakkas

Everything was silent, the only noise came from the old grandfather clock in the corner of the room. I slowly got up from my chair to stretch. I walked off to my bed and flopped myself onto it. It had been a long day of homeschooling and I was tired and fed up. My door burst open. 

“Hey Elias, want to come to the track with me?” asked my little brother, Costa. 

I hopped off my bed, grabbed my bike and followed him down to the bike track behind the train tracks. We were there for hours riding and having fun with the neighbourhood kids. It started to get dark, so Costa and I grabbed our bags and bikes and began to head off when out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash come from the train tracks. The flash pierced the sky like a banner and lit up my brother's face like a light bulb.  

I called my brother and we walked over slowly. Costa picked up a long stick and was glued to me like a shadow. As we approached the tracks, a rectangular phone box of some sort seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. I picked up a rock and tossed it.

CLANG! 

We hid behind a tree to see if it would react.  

WOOSH!

A big, foggy glass door opened revealing two figures. One tall and one slightly smaller. The figures walked out, one wearing a black vest and the other a blue T-shirt.  

 “Is this the right year?” asked the tall figure.  

“I think so, this is the year I put in,” said the other. 

SNAP! I had stepped on a twig.  

“Hey! Who’s there?” 

My hair stood up and my brother began to shiver. 

“Show yourself!” they demanded.  

I began to emerge from behind the tree. A blinding light shone in my eyes.  

“Please don’t hurt us. We did nothing wrong. We were just curious,” pleaded Costa.  

“Don’t worry, we’re not going to hurt you. We have come from the future and we are here to stop the plague from destroying the world as you know it.” 

“What?!” my brother and I said in unison, curiously. 

Two lights in the distance began to appear from around the bend, the train was hurtling towards us. The two figures started to freak out.  

“What are we going to do?” they squabbled. 

“Get in the phone box!” said the shorter figure, as fear loomed in their eyes. They hopped in and started dialling something into the number pad. The train was catching up to us. WOOH, WOOH, sounded the horn. 

“Quick, hop in, no time to explain,” shouted the figures. I was hesitant. 

“Hurry, the train’s coming!” 

I grabbed my brother by the hand and pulled him into the phone box. The doors closed behind us. The train was right in front of us and then WOOSH!  

I held my brother tightly in my arms, were we dead?  

One by one, I opened my eyes. A glowing blue light was flashing right in front of my eyes. 

“Wow, we ARE dead!” I said. 

“No dudes! You’re in a time machine. Here, let me introduce myself. My name is Ted,” said the tall figure. 

“And my name’s Bill,” said the shorter figure. 

“We are time travellers, and we are here to save the world, and now you are going to help us!”

“… and how are we going to do that exactly?” I asked. 

Suddenly, the blue flashing lights surrounding us stopped. We were at the Sydney Opera house. The doors opened and we squeezed out one by one. Everyone was staring at us in shock as they had just seen a phone box appear from nowhere. We started to run towards the Opera house. Ted guided us around the back where he lifted a sewer lid. I was expecting a foul smell from human waste but there was none.  

Down below was a long ladder that led to someplace that was the sewer. Bill and Ted hopped on and slid down the side of the ladder as if it was a fireman’s pole. I followed and then my brother. At the bottom was a huge tank filled with a green, bubbling liquid. 

“This is it – this is where all of the virus was created,” said Ted. “The Russians put this here so it can’t be tracked. It will then be sent through water tubes, first to Wuhan and then the rest of the world.” 

“So, you’re telling me this is where it all started… under the Sydney Opera house?” I asked in shock. 

My brother was in awe. He couldn’t believe his eyes.  

“Putin already has the cure, but he won’t use it for a long time so that he doesn’t look suspicious. But when he does, he will rule the world.” 

Suddenly a red siren began to flash. INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! 

“Quickly, follow us! We need to hide,” they demanded.  

Three people in white coats came rushing out with what looked like guns. I felt my blood drain from my body. I was frozen with fear. Loud Russian voices yelling at each other from across the room sent shivers down my spine.

“What the heck dude? I thought you said the Russians were on their break,” Bill said to Ted. 

“Sorry dude. I thought they were. I didn’t know there was an alarm system,” replied Ted. 

The Russian yells began to get louder and louder. They were getting too close for comfort. My brother began to whimper at the worst possible time. I wrapped my fingers around his mouth and began to quietly shush him and he calmed down. We had hidden behind a row of large pipes and I could see one of the guards through the gap between the pipes. I tapped Ted on the shoulder signalling to him that there was a guard right in front of us. He nodded. He slowly stepped out from behind one of the pipes whilst the guard was faced the other way. He pounced on him, grabbing his arm and his mouth. 

BANG!

The Russian had shot a round of bullets missing Ted by just an inch.  

PSSSSSS! A hissing sound was coming from the pipe in front of me. It was leaking gas. Ted knocked out the Russian guard and yelled “Go, go! Get out of here. Run!” 

All the noise had attracted the other guards.

BANG! BANG! BANG! Bullets flew past us at a million miles an hour. Everything seemed to be moving in slow-motion. 

“Elias, come on!” yelled my little brother who was already halfway up the ladder. I began to climb. I looked down to see Bill following me with a matchbox in his mouth. We got to the top, panting. Bill took a match from the box, struck it, and proceeded to drop it down the manhole. As I watched it fall it seemed to take forever. The match hit the floor.  

WOOSH!

It ignited the gas causing a massive explosion. A fireball shot past our faces, singeing our brows. We all looked at each other with exhaustion. 

“We did it, dudes! We just saved the world,” said Bill.  

“Yes, we did!” replied Ted. 

My brother and I gave each other a huge hug of happiness and relief. 

“Wait, what do we do now?” asked Costa.  

“We will send you little dudes back to where you came from.” 

“But won’t our parents be really worried by now? We have been missing for ages,” I exclaimed. 

“No worries my dude. We will send you back to the time we picked you up. It will be like you never had left,” said Bill reassuringly. 

We hopped back in the phone box and travelled back home to the same place at the same time. 

“Ok little dudes, thanks for saving the world with us,” said Ted and Bill. 

“That’s it?” I asked in confusion. 

“Yep.” 

“You’re not going to tell us why you chose us?”  

“Ah yeah! It’s because you were the only people there,” said Bill.  

“Oh, ok. Well then thanks, I guess,” I said hesitantly.  

“Ok bye dudes!”   

A big bright flash and they were gone. Just like that, we had saved the world, and no one would ever know about it. My brother and I grabbed our stuff and started to ride back to a Corona-free home.