"Outbreak Tablas Survivors: Love"

"Outbreak Tablas Survivors: Love"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

(My name is not important. I have been sent to seek out the survivors from the Outbreak on Tablas. It has been proving to be difficult because there are so few of them. After months of tracking I have found one survivor in a squatters area near Quezon City. Her name is Love)

I was 15 during that time. I really had no idea of what we were about to see out there in Canduyong that night. I was out there in the most Northern Point of Odiongan, the biggest town proper in Tablas. The beaches there were beautiful after the Governors development plans worked out. Dugong Point was a great place to look for the migrating mammals during the summer time and there were a lot of tourists in the area. It was also a place where a lot of the young people go to meet these same foreigners. I was there to meet him...

(You mean your lover and High school Teacher Hernan right?)

Yes. We knew that Dugong Point was deserted on Wednesdays night because it had to be cleaned. It was the only place we could meet in peace because though Tablas was a large place , it was small enough that people always knew someone from one end to the other. From Calatrava to Santa Fe , which is the southernmost part of the Island.News travels fast when you are underage and having an an affair with your married High School Teacher.  He knew the custodians at Dugong Point and we had the place to ourselves during Wednesday nights. I have told my parents that I was at a friends house out here in Canduyong for weekly research. Simple folk that they are they believed me. 

I went ahead of Hernan in the cabin right next to the peak. We have done this so many times in the past year that it was all routine. I went out to the viewing platform all by myself and relaxed. The gentle sound of the waves. The song of crickets in the dark. The Sun barely setting in the clear water that was right in front of me. First I heard that sound , a whistling sound that came from a distance. 

Then I saw it. It was like a huge fireball from the sky. At first I did not know what it was. The sound that it made was getting clearer. Tearing metal. I knew it had to be a plane. I saw it crash into the sea. Its flames set everything ablaze. The waters were a brilliant orange. I think it was all the fuel that was leaking from it. Then as if this was not strange enough I saw what looked liked a burning man open a hatch before the flaming plane sunk deeper in the water. He stood up. Jumped in to the water and was gone. How could anyone survive that?It seemed like hours before I could move. Did I really see that? Did I really see a plane crash into the sea? Was that really a man or a shadow? A trick of the light. 

I heard footsteps from behind me and I turned in time to see Hernan , a look of concern on his bearded face. I told him what I saw. He said that it was not safe for us to be here because a lot of people would be going here soon to investigate that crash. We decided to leave. 

We went down from Dugong point to the base to see that some people with torches were already beginning to gather.Some fishermen were able to bring burned corpses ashore. 2 of them. The caretakers of the place were looking at them as we passed by. I was afraid but I glanced at them too...I swear that with all those burns they should not have been moving but one of them moved and moaned. One of the caretakers thought that the burned person was saying something so he crouched low and lowered his ear to listen. 

The thing happened so fast. It grabbed the caretaker and bit his neck. The caretaker struggled to break free  but the burned corpse just held on. The people who were holding torches started to bash the reanimated corpse. In their panic they snuffed out the only light they had in the place. I did not know that I was witnessing the first bite that would infect the whole of Canduyong and the northern part of the Island. All I know is that I was scared. I was unable to move and afraid what would come from that darkness. 

Hernan grabbed my hand and we headed for his motorcycle.We ran. I started to complain that I had to get my own bike.  He said that he would get us out of here much faster. He would just go back for my ride tomorrow once things are more settled. I heard the other screams as we rode away from the compound. There were about ten men around those burned things. What was happening to them? 

We rode as fast as we could to reach the town proper. When we passed by the old abandoned Day Care Center we knew we were safe. I swear I saw a girl and guy  who looked like my cousin Peter go in at the back but that could just have been my nerves playing on me. Hernan brought me straight home and that was the last time that I would ever see him. He didn't even kiss me , he didn't say anything. He might have been worried about his family. I would never know. 

I went into the house and I was met with chaos. All of our house help were busy packing things. One of them , an old woman was glad to see me and asked me to pack as much of my clothes that I could. I asked them why? " It is your father. He said to pack. We will be picked up by the next copter."

It did not make any sense to me. My mother and father were already gone the old woman said. They were picked up by someone within our clan at the Plaza. The help was instructed to look for me and to make sure that I was on the next chopper that would be arriving soon. I did not understand. I still had school in the morning and there was Hernan. I had to follow.But what about my friends? My teachers? Were they being evacuated too? The household help did not answer me and just kept on packing.

When the chopper arrived it brought us to a big ship off the coast of Aklan. Apparently most of our family was already there. My parents would not tell me what was going on , they did not even ask why I came back to the house.They just seemed so relieved to see me alive. I kept on hearing them saying "Thank God for Peter".

Peter was a computer Technician. How could he afford to move us all out of the island? It is still a mystery to me how the guy could have done it all on a Computer Technicians salary. When the outbreak was over and it was time to rebuild Romblon , an Uncle of mine ran for Governor and won. Most of my family are back there now but I never went with them.I ran away.

I never went back because there was nothing to go back to. Everyone I knew was dead. My teachers and my friends. Eaten or Turned into Yawa. I did not know anyone. And Hernan. Hernan kept his promise. He went back to Canduyong to get my motorcycle and never came back. Romblon was nothing but a reminder of my idiotic childhood. why should I go back there? The world has changed and so was I. Sometimes people could rebuild their lives and move on. They say that you could go back to what things were. I knew the truth though. There was nothing for me there. There was nothing for me anywhere and that island would only remind me of people who should have still been alive if I was able to do anything for them. 

I may not have faced those monsters because I was safely tucked away but they took everything away from me as well. I ran away from my family because they did not do anything for those people that I cared for as well. 

(The sound of a baby crying at the back broke Loves thought.)

I am so sorry. Maybe we could continue this some other time. My baby needs me.

(I showed myself out the door.This girl knows nothing about Peter and his involvement. It is better that way for her and her family.)

(I put the safety back on the small gun hidden in my skirt. I would not need it tonight.)