I woke up scared and crying. I couldn’t remember where I was at. Flashbacks of what happened yesterday inconsistently popped up into my head. They made me dizzy and I fell to the ground, grabbing my head. I yelled for the flashbacks to stop. It was like a sensory overload and I couldn't take it. Gunshots went off in my head and each time they went off, my entire brain hit with unbelievable pain. It made me weak.
I didn’t know what was happening, so I screamed as loudly as I could, and they all seemed to die and disappeared. My brother Damien flew into my room saying he understood as he held onto me. Then I saw a journal. He asked if it was mine and all I could do was shrug my shoulders. He got up and walked over to where it was laying. As soon as he opened the front cover, it had my name in it along with the rest of my family.
He read a few lines before closing the book again and setting it on the floor. He got up and went to his room without a word and I stared at the book in confusion before sitting on my bed. I looked around my room and found a folder that had fallen between my desk and wall. I went to go grab it. It read “CLASSIFIED INFORMATION: GOVERNMENT EYES ONLY”. My hands trembled and I instantly felt weak as I sat back down on my bed. Why was the government in my room and why don’t I remember anything?
Damien walked back into the room. He dropped his notebook that he had brought with him and grabbed the document and sat on the bed. I followed him. As we sat on my bed, I watched him take a deep breath and lift up the cover. Turning it to reveal information I knew I shouldn’t be reading. There was information on everything the lettering was small too. Some things were hard to read because there was huge words and things I’ve never heard of before. What was an Illuminati? Or the 5F9 group? There was also all kinds of information about different countries. There was even a part in here that said there was a terrorist country called Gama that got completely wiped out in 2025 and became part of the SAU later on. They also had a few drugs in here. They talked about the thing going on around the world called “Madman”. Which the name was completely different in my journal Damien had said.
Damien and I kept looking through the document and noticed there was a phone looking device inside. Damien turned it on and as soon as he did, it revealed thousands of different people, locations, voice boxes, and videos. They recorded people who had been killed some who were alive, the region that they’re alive in or died in, and how many days since the world-wide catastrophe has taken place.
The voice boxes were in thousands of different languages, even something called “Morse Code”. Which is I guess a series of beeping sounds and dots. It also shows special locations where the government has things set up at and how many creatures are now living on earth. It gave so much information in just one little device that I couldn’t even comprehend what was going on. It was like the secret browser of the internet world. My eyes blurred out and all I could think of is that they’d come back and look for the device and kill us.
“Hey Liz…” Damien said.
“Yeah?” I responded.
“Promise me we'll both keep this confidential, okay?”
“No problem, I promise..” I said laughing nervously a bit.
I took a moment to gather myself. After this morning's news, I felt it was best to start preparing for the worst to come. With a bowl of cereal and plenty of paper, I began driving myself insane trying to figure out every detail. I wanted to figure out the hideouts I would take, what supplies I would need, among other factors. Damien helped out a little bit, but not as much as I wanted him too. He helped figure out some of the hideouts and supplies, but he mainly just found me annoying.
Luckily, because of my last birthday, I already had a car. But I had no license. My mom's ex boyfriend decided to buy me one to “Make amends.” and “Reach towards a better relationship.” But it never actually worked, and a week later, he left after finding out she was pregnant with yet another child. I also started realizing that the more kids she had, the worse her moods got.
Unfortunately, even though the world stopped, school still didn’t. I dreaded February 30th, which was the day I would have to pick my feet off of the ground and drag my dead body off to school. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing all those kids who use to bully me. I hated them, and I know they hated me too. I don’t know how I remembered those terrible years, but if I remembered them, I know they do too.
Not to mention, more important things were happening in our world at this very moment. Like the survivors that were in the Wasteland. I bet they're now lab toys that the scientists test on day after day. Until they no longer have any blood left. Or they get thousands of different drugs pumped into their tiny bodies. Every day they probably get studied on in the tiny tin box community they're allowed in. Their mental abilities probably get tested on to the fullest length. Anthropology is probably at its peak by now. That's the only thing I could think of when I thought about the Wasteland and the government being out there.
Yet, it was amazing that the same lab that the infection started at was still up and running. The lab on television was a diversion from what was actually going on. The only way I know this, is because in the documents, it gave a radio station to tune into. They made jokes about how the television lab was a complete joke. I learned a lot more than I ever have about this epidemic by the radio than I should have.
I learned how the disease passes on among humans. It isn’t airborne, it's from saliva and the black blood passing on when the infected bite the healthy. Drinking infected water will do little to the healthy. But, there is still a possibility of the healthy carrying the disease and passing it on through sex. I also learned how the disease affects the brain. The disease feeds off on all parts of the brain it doesn't need, including memories.
This disease is extraordinary in its abilities and intelligence. It's like it knows when something happens to the host's body, causing the host to flee during danger. Example, if the infected start to bleed out, the disease will make it flee while it repairs itself. But they said the disease continues to advance. That its ability to adapt is remarkable and not like anything seen before. Making it harder to create a cure. Somehow it's making the body stronger, it seems like it's creating a replica of a superhuman.
At one point or another I even had a few thoughts of my own on how to cure the incurable. That was until I heard the disease continues to advance itself. Not to mention, I’m not good at science, I'm sure they’ve already thought of my ideas.
I dreaded every waking moment of this bright and exhausting morning. Why did we have to go to school? Why was school a priority? Why weren’t the adults adventuring into the wasteland to go and figure out why the president didn’t want us in there? Why were the adults making us advance in our education when nothing would happen once we got out of school. We wouldn’t be able to adventure or take our own path in life. The only place to go is here, and at some point, this place will once again become overpopulated. I'm sure at that point, people will throw the ones they don't like over the wall to clear space.
I’d like to think going to school was unfair, and cruel punishment. But what was more cruel was the fact that I couldn’t tell anyone what was happening. Each new piece of information I heard ate me up inside. I became so overwhelmed that I stopped eating or doing anything. My mind was only focused on these secrets. I couldn’t sleep, and when I did, I had nightmares that made me scream. I had notebooks full of valuable information I wasn’t even suppose to know about. And the only person I could share it with, didn't seem to care. He seemed completely fine that we were allowing people to their excruciating death.
On this strange morning two weeks later, I had arrived to my school. There were ten students that had to go home from some kind of strange sickness. But no one thought anything of it. They were puking and had a high temperature. Some kids passed out and their eyes became bloodshot. They even had a harsh cough that left blood in their hands.
Later that evening, twenty more students from my school had to go home due to this plague of sickness. The kids that came into contact with the sick ones, began getting into fights. They became aggressive and restless. Some kids decided to bite each other, causing wounds.
In other cases, some kids laid on the ground completely motionless and unresponsive. The obvious part was, when students got asked about their parents, some of them said they've been sick for a week. They said that their parents started acting strange and locking themselves in a room. Upon further discovery, it was found that several of the students had insect bites on their body.
The teachers started seeing a pattern. The only thing all these kids had in common was the fact that they had got bit, and their parents were already sick. And the kids were passing on their sickness to each other, leaving a trace of saliva and scratch marks. The other kids acting normal and healthy had some bug bites on them but had no reaction to it. They were almost the opposite of the other ones, aside from being scared. It seems like whatever's happening here, some kids seemed to be immune.
Everyone was getting sick faster than the blink of an eye. I felt like I was standing in the middle of chaos as everything was happening around me. My mind couldn't comprehend everything that was going on. People were becoming lethargic and hungry to the point that they couldn't focus. Others fidgeted with things and were aggressive. Everything you could think of was happening.
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I believe the reason for why I didn't get sick, was due to the fact that I was stuck in a room with Jaried all day. Considering I tried fighting off another student. He attacked me first, I punched him in the gut and he ended up throwing up all over the ground. He went home, the only reason why I didn’t go home is because I had an important test I had to do in History, and I wasn't ill. My friend Jaried also never got sick despite coming in contact with many ill students. He spent most of his day washing off in the sink from countless encounters with sneezing and coughing kids. Jaried had a phobia of getting sick, at the first sign of illness, he would do anything he could to get rid of it. I noticed he started developing a cough as the day went by.
Finally, the faculty couldn't handle it anymore and the entire school got sent home. On everyone’s way out, the principal sent a letter home and called all the students families. He made it very clear that I quote, 'Every student is not allowed to come back until they're seen by a doctor. As well as, fighting is not tolerated on school grounds. The next time any student fights, he or she will be suspended indefinitely. Furthermore, testing hasn’t ended, all children are advised to continue studying outside of school until further notice. Please get your children seen as soon as possible. Thank you, and have a wonderful day.’
I didn’t know whether to feel scared or happy at the fact that I wouldn’t have any school for awhile. I believe I became both at the time. As for my mom, she was more scared than happy, not to mention, furious by my actions. In fact, I don’t believe she was even relieved that I'd be away from the chaos. She was only upset over the fact that there would be no school for who knows how long. Along with the rest of her several children she’s produced over the years. She’s been waiting for us kids to go to school since she could remember, which no one's memory dates back very far now.
The first day everyone realized they didn't remember anything, they freaked out. As they should have. But as time went on, they acted as if it wasn't that big of a deal and went on with their days as normal. Whatever normal meant to them anyway. Which I guess was understandable, but I would of wanted to know what was going on. However, memory loss didn’t stop her from still going off on me all the way home about fighting.
When everyone got home, the T.V. was turned on faster than our book bags could be put down. We noticed an emergency broadcasting of what happened in the last few years. A doctor was present and told the viewers everything that had happened. He told us why our memory was lost. He told us about the plague that was going through our town, and just about every other secret that was being kept. Mom didn’t like us watching what they were saying on T.V., she thought it was a hoax. But I believed him, in fact, I knew he was telling the truth. It gave me hope after watching what he said.
Unfortunately, people went on a riot, they even went outside the walls. But the only thing you could hear was distant screaming, which made a lot of people afraid. So some people started going after the military that was staying here. That was, until guns started showing and shots started going off. The non-rioters just sat and watched as this public terror took place.
Mom had enough of all these people's actions and decided to stand up for what she believed in, but it didn’t get her far. All she got was sex, which I'm sure led to another pregnancy. Not that she particularly mind that it seems. Maybe this pregnancy will get us a better house. I didn’t like having to share a room with anyone else and neither did my brothers.
But I'd rather not stray to far off into the future and instead get back to today. Luckily, all this free time gave me the benefit of studying as much as I needed and wanted. Not that I’d actually study, I was more of a ‘get it done whenever’ type of person. Or ‘wait until the last minute’ person. I had procrastination as bad as Jakecub had cancer. It was never leaving, and I was going to have it until the day I die.
Jakecub, if I haven’t already said before, is another one of my older brothers. He is older by a year, but loves to believe he is the adult in the family. He bosses everyone around. Including our mother when he isn’t in is room all day long like a depressed, soulless, cydly. I’d say emo, but that died out back in 2036. Now cydly is the new slang word meaning “lifeless being of nothing”. Basically, it's become the ultimate insult to call someone. Don’t get me wrong, I love my brother, he is just lazy and useless sometimes. He always justifies the reason he can't do something because of his illness. Yet, he has legs, he has arms, and he gets around just fine now. But that doesn't stop him from being in his room smoking pot all day.
Damien shares a room with Jakecub, he also stays in there all day until he gets called to work. When that happens, Jakecub stays in there by himself unless to get food. That's what's happening right now and after school, I like to play video games. But today, my mom started to interrogate me with questions instead of letting me be in peace. She was asking them faster than the speed of light, and since I was the only one in the living room, I was obligated to give her an answer. But every time I tried getting a word in, she started to ask another question and bitch at me for not letting her finish. Then bitch at me more for not answering anything she had asked previously. She took a break for a moment to tell me that we were going to the grocery store to pick up some food. But as soon as my siblings and I got in the car, she started up again.
She sounded like an annoying, demonic, train wreck sent from hell. And for her torture of choice, ‘to never shut the fuck up’. It was quite effective if you ask me. The worst part was that the store was a two hour drive and I neglected to grab my Gegiboo and headphones before leaving. A Gegiboo is a multi-user, friend device, for music, video's, game's, hologram T.V., along with many other functions. It’d be the ultimate device if Trigumi 2500x didn’t come out two years ago. Unfortunately, the government disabled most functions except for my music on the Gegiboo.
While riding home, we saw two kids walking down the street, acting abnormal. We slowed down, and as we did, they ran towards our car. They attacking it, and my siblings cried out of fright. Unfortunately, I was demanded to save the day once again and calm them down from freaking out. The children on the road acted exactly like what the broadcast had said earlier that I was listening to. Except these kids had a green circle around their iris I noticed. I guess that was a new symptom? Mom even mumbled something about what the television had said earlier as well. I wanted to believe they were faking it, but I knew otherwise.
I didn’t want to tell my mom what I was thinking, especially with all the younger kids being around. I already knew what she was going to say anyways. That I’m delusional, that I’m crazy to believe that such things existed. Especially ones who eat human flesh for lunch. But it didn’t matter, I knew she was thinking the same thing that I was, she just didn't want to admit it. All she needs to do now is trust in herself and believe in herself. But she would never do that without what she's denying being put directly in her face.
Then again, sometimes you have to trust someone, especially someone who is as trustworthy as me. As well as someone who knows as much as I do, I know as much as the top secret governments. The only difference was, I wasn’t suppose to know. Even if I did tell mom everything I knew, she wouldn’t believe me. So it was hopeless, I blame my father for her feeling like she can’t trust anyone, me especially. My father left her a long time ago, I wished I could change that for her, but I knew I couldn’t. So it's her decision to change, and actually feel like trusting people again. Only she had the ability to change herself, but I don't think she wants to. I think she finds a bit of comfort in her misery.
To make this rambunctious city worse, my mom ran over someone when she wasn't paying attention. She was looking for something in her purse. I yelled and thought this person was going to die. My mother started crying and pulled over, she slowly got out of the car with all of us peering out the windows at the man. The guy she had hit was completely oblivious to what had happened and got back up, limping off. I was terrified he was going to attack us. I was grateful in being wrong. However, he seemed out of it, he didn’t even notice us, at that moment, I believed it was a good thing.
The description was spot on if nothing else this time from what the scientist said. He had saggy eyes and he looked like he hasn’t slept in days. He was visibly dehydrated and very pale, as if he’s been sick for awhile. He also frantically twitched his body, and his eyes were bloodshot and green. Within twenty minutes of our drive, there had been three sightings of the illness. And again, I was the only one who was listening. I hated this feeling of knowing something but not being able to say it, or no one else paying attention with me.
I yelled at my mom to get back into the car as the man turned around and began to leisurely walk toward us. The way she looked at us, you could tell she was terrified at what was happening. She was shaking and her eyes were blank, she didn't know what to do as she was frozen in place. I jumped out of the car and ran to her, I kept trying to push her into the car and telling her to get in. She started to sweat, I could hear her loud breathing. I yelled at her again and she snapped back into reality. I finally got her in the car.
I went to run back the same way I came, but the man was already there. I bumped into him and fell to the ground. His facial expressions immediately changed to anger and he reached for me. I got up as quickly as I could and ran the other way, hopping into the car, hoping he wouldn't grab me. He started hitting the window as we sat there, frozen. Her panicking didn’t make my panicking any easier either. I started to cry and yell for her to drive as I watched the man hit the car window. I looked at my siblings, who were all curled up in a ball on the floorboard crying. I watched as I hoped nothing else would happen on our way home.