Viral Vacation

Viral Vacation

The Mayan Riviera. Beautiful and enchanting. Families, couples, and singles converge here each year to bathe in the sun and swim in the ocean.

Stepping out onto the balcony of their luxury seaside villa Jim Anderson reflected on his present situation. He had scrimped and saved for almost two years to be able to come on this vacation. His wife Anna smiled brightly while she prepared breakfast for her family like she had done for so many years. The scenery may change, but some things will always stay the same, she thought, not minding playing her role in the fabric of their lives.

Their son, James, was flipping through the channels trying to find an English speaking show to watch. Frustrated he gave up and decided to play Z-Day, the popular Zombie Shooter game.

Bonnie filmed her family's idiosyncrasies with her new video camera. Finding a love for filming, she decided she was going to follow in the footsteps of pioneers like Penny Marshall and Sophia Coppola.

After breakfast, there was a knock on their door which came from the most inexplicably gorgeous Mexican girl Jim had ever seen, as she was dressed in only a pink bikini with an antique heart-shaped locket nestled in the valley of her chest.

Anna greeted their unexpected guest while James, being a young teenage boy, brazenly began taking pictures with his phone, as proof of her existence. She shot him a knowing glance with a teasing smile. Realizing he'd been caught, he leapt from the sofa and ran straight to his room.

"Hola. I'm Mariella. My husband Fernando and I run a small tourist excursion business and we would love to escort your family on a private tour of an ancient ruin that most tourists are never ever allowed to visit."

Jim discussed it with his wife and they accepted the exclusive offer.

Gathering their things they walked to a local market in the seaside town of Bucareas, bought some refreshments, and found the beautiful Mariella waving them over to a rather questionable van. Jim started to have second thoughts about this opportunity, but with a reassuring look from his wife and a lot of begging from his kids, they all piled into the beaten transport and set off into the jungle.

This unofficial excursion to a remote Mayan temple was to be an exciting adventure for the Anderson family. After 45 minutes the van slowed and turned down a long overgrown dirt road. Another 25 minutes later they came to a clearing and Bonnie quickly jumped out of the still moving vehicle, as her mother and father yelled after her to stay with the group. She ran through a thicket of trees and abruptly was caught up in the arms of a very large, very muscular, man. She then let out a terrified screech as she dangled over the edge of a vast valley, suspended only by the man's right arm.

Bonnie's parents along with the guides rushed to her side, then, looking out over the immense landscape, the family stood in shock and awe at the beholden spectacle. Remembering that she still held it, Bonnie raised her camera up to capture the enormity, and the surreal nature, of the panorama displayed before them.

They were perched on the rim of a great impact crater and at its center stood one of the largest, most detailed, structures any of them had ever seen. As their "tour guides" lead them down a path that ran around the perimeter of the bowl, the silent giant was introduced to them as their business partner, Miguel. After reaching the floor of the valley, they walked past a sign that read "Mantener Fuera".

Jim asked, "What does that mean?"

"Mountain of Fire. Legend tells of a curse on the temple and on all who dare enter." the trio then laughed wickedly.

Mariella then whispered in Jim's ear, "It says Keep Out." Jim frowned at the joke told at his expense.

The group continued on through monolithic arches that framed a dark passage carved into the side of the ruins. At the entrance Fernando pulled a large stick down off of the wall and with a flick of his lighter, the torch roared to life.

While the group explored, the torch light reflected off of something metallic, deep within an antechamber which branched off of the main corridor. Bonnie lifted her camera, stepping away from the main passageway, to explore the source of the reflection. She used the camera's small LED light to illuminate the space. Every few steps the light would catch the metallic object causing a flicker leading her down the narrowing shaft. What she found at the end totally astonished her. Lining the wall of this tunnel were a series of hieroglyphs, but more bewildering was the fact the reliefs seemed to be inlaid with a gold gilding.

Realizing she had lowered her camera in her inspection of the find she raised it back up narrating her fledgling documentary.

"The glyphs seem to depict a disaster of some sort. The first one is a landscape with a temple in the background and figures in the foreground. This one I think is showing clouds in the sky above the temple from the first depiction. Then this final panel here is portraying an eerie looking rain falling across the entire landscape, all around the temple and onto the figures." She then moved on to find a second set of reliefs.

"There are some figures who seem to be shown hiding under shelters like tents or huts and even those who were shown in the temple entrance were spared from being covered by the dark rain." Bonnie moved closer to the carved pictures, "But those who the dark rain fell on were maybe being transformed." The scene she was studying was total anarchy.

Further along, as she moved her video camera's light along the wall of the oppressive duct, she filmed another series of glyphs, that became even more haunting.

"It was a massacre." she whispered.

The engraved images depicted the sheltered ones running away from the grotesque and disfigured ones. Those who were fleeing, were shooting arrows and throwing spears at the otherworldly entities, but in each instance the frames were the same. The creatures kept pursuing. She also noticed that the enemies seemed to attack in the most bizarre fashion.

"Are they… biting the victims?" prompting an absurd thought to enter her mind. Maybe they were fighting vampires.

"I got it. The Bloody Fall of The Mayan Empire. This stuff is film festival gold."

At the very end of the hall was a depiction of what seemed to be the final battle between the Mayans and the apparent Bloodsuckers, so she stepped closer to get the money shot.

Bonnie's mother had an overwhelming sense to turn and make sure their son and daughter were following close behind. She found her son in the low light the torch provided, but she couldn't see the bright LED light of her daughter's camera. She placed her hand on her husband's forearm. "I don't see Bon honey." Jim turned around to call out for his daughter.

Back in side tunnel, at that very instant, the shaft Bonnie had entered began to fill with the sound of popping and cracking. Between the echoes of the growing noises she was hearing, as well as her own screams, she couldn't pinpoint the source of the deafening sounds. As she backed away from the final relief she felt that sick in your stomach feeling of sudden weightlessness being the only warning she received as the passage floor gave way and she fell.

Hearing the commotion and fearing the worst Jim Anderson turned and ran back thru the hall screaming for his little girl. Dust was flowing out of the side tunnel and Jim shot down it with alarming speed. Arriving at the vacant spot where his daughter had been standing, he barely caught himself just before tumbling into the blacked space below.

"Give me the torch!" Jim yelled threateningly.

Seeing the rage-fuelled fear in the fathers eyes, Fernando quickly passed the flaming stick and as Jim pointed it into the opening, the horrific sight that met him was beyond any fear he had ever felt. His daughter was lying on the floor of a vast stone chamber, at least thirty feet below, her arms and legs pointing at unnatural angles.

He forcefully grabbed the supposed tour guide and in an almost inaudible whisper spoke thru clenched and gritted teeth.

"Go get whatever help you can. I'm going down there to save my daughter." His breath was hot in the young man's nostrils.

"But Sir, we have no ropes or anything." spoke the hulking behemoth.

"Bring me whatever you can find. Now GO!"

Anna leaned over the rim of the opening but didn't notice the slight shimmer of a viscous substance resting on her daughter's bruised skin. The light of the camera, which was still recording, was casting a pale-blue sheen of light across the ancient hall.

Minutes ticked away, infuriating the helpless parents because of their inability to do anything but pray in that moment. Then suddenly, bringing a fresh wind of hope, they heard sirens afar off coming closer to the temple.

Jim ran furiously to the entrance and practically dragged the EMT's to where his daughter's lifeless form rested. As the rescue workers hurriedly got prepared for the attempt to save their child, Anna held her son close while the father scrutinized everything they did. The EMTs dropped a safety ladder and secured it to the stone floor, then, in succession, descended into the darkness below. Reaching the floor, the first tripped over a basketball-sized stone turned and gave it a kick out of the way. As it scraped across the floor, they all became aware of a low humming coming from somewhere within the expansive area.

Kneeling beside the girl's gentle frame, they found her neck, which like her legs, was contorted into a fear-evoking graphic.

Without warning her eyes shot open revealing a milky white retina, sub-layered with a primal rage, staring back at them. A supernatural shriek reverberated as she lunged forward with the strength of a linebacker, tackling the EMT closest to her, sinking her teeth into his neck.

Two Federales, who had entered the chamber while the medical personnel began the initial examination, drew their side arms and fired on the ravenous girl. Having little affect, the girl turned and attacked the first of the officers while the other one, as well as the second and third EMT's, retreated to a stone slab altar on the opposite side of the large space.

Saying a prayer and crossing his chest, the lone federale stood, using the large stone as cover, took aim and fired three shots, the second of which penetrated the ghost of the Anderson daughter directly in the center of her forehead dropping the girl to the ground, once again, lifeless.

Amidst the chaos no one noticed the girl's family and Fernando enter the carnage-decorated hall. The anguish-laden screams of the mother filled the space with an echo that chilled the remaining members of the rescue party to the bone. Seeing an opportunity, Fernando slowly and deliberately, moved towards the dead girl's camera lying on the floor. He knew the footage of this event could be worth millions. As the "guide" reached for the camera, the now undead EMT reached out and put a small bite in the arm of the guide. Fernando recoiled, now with camera in hand, and quickly made his way back to the ladder.

Still in shock, none of the remaining noticed Bonnie's victims grotesquely began to rise to their feet and with lustful purpose creep towards them.

James was the first to address the blood-soaked apparitions. The Federale turned and on instinct alone drew his firearm, pulled the trigger, and deftly slammed three rounds into the cerebellum of his fallen comrade. Jim grabbed the police issue flashlight that had fallen from the dead federal and with a primal rage, beat a reanimated EMT over and over until the creature's head was liquefied.

After the ordeal was finished, everyone gathered close together to survey the unimaginable situation. Everyone except the guide and his companions, which were nowhere to be seen.

Within hours, Bonnie Anderson's video appeared on all the major news outlets as well as every video sharing site across the globe. Unedited and graphically charged, every grotesque, chaotic, frame was available for the world to see. Her video went… Viral.

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