Excerpt from an interview with a man brought to quarantine

TIME OF ARREST: 07:32
AGE/GENDER: 34/M
NAME: Marcus Stanton
NATIONALITY/LINEAGE: American/Italian
NOTES: Displays no sign of infection despite possible contact with contagion; ordered to quarantine for 72 hours; interviewed by Henry Pierce

“I knocked and opened the door a crack and said ‘Hey boss, you need me to do anything else before I clock out?’ the way I always do before heading home. I was looking at the floor, not wanting to invade his privacy or nothin’, and this blue smoke starts pouring out about six inches deep on the floor.

“That was strange enough, but it looked like it was starting to crawl up my leg. I stepped back out of it, but it was like it clung to me. Not a second later, something slams into the door and starts clawing at it like a dog was scratching to be let out but if it was a dog, it was a damn big one because the scratching sounded like it was at shoulder height.

“I was freaked and took another step back. I looked down again, and that smoke was winding up just below my waist like something out of a movie. The scratching was furious, and now sounded like two things were clawing the door. The night time darkness, the animals, the smoke climbing me...it all just seemed too weird, so I booked it out of there.

“The smoke stayed with me for a couple steps, then seemed to wash behind me in the breeze.

“I ran down the steps, out the door, and jumped in my car. I looked down to put the key in and turned the engine over. When I looked up, there was a military dude in front of the car with a big gun pointed at me. Another one was outside the driver’s door, tapping on the window with the barrel of his gun hollering for me to ‘turn it off and get out of the car NOW!’

“I did what he said and he told me to lean on the car with my hands visible. He didn’t frisk me, like for weapons or nothin’, but he looked me up and down real good and told me to turn around.

“He asked if I had been attacked by anyone, and I said no, I had been working the machines all night but somethin’ strange was going on in my boss’s office on the second floor and I wanted to get the hell out. He told the other guy to stand guard and wait for backup, and then led me back here at gunpoint.”