Over the course of several years, I ended up losing some of the most influential people in my life. Many family members and acquaintances I knew were gone in an instant. This life, and everything it once was, had vanished. The livelihood of these people's souls became destroyed. Life’s invaded with the worst plague of mankind, with the unimaginable even. Things one only sees in movies, videogames, and comic books. But never in real life, it was never pondered on of becoming real. This plaque to be, was brought on by the government. Those bastards had to let this world become what it is today, and what it will stay for centuries. The lose everybody's endured is more than phenomenal. What we will continue to lose is even greater if this continues. Hell is the new Earth.
The government had many secrets they desired to keep from the community over the years. Before anybody in this generation was born, their lies poisoned our minds. But there was always a flaw in keeping their secrets, secrets. Somehow, somewhere, something went wrong and We the People soon found out one way or another. The ones who leaked information were no longer seen as insane. But informational and brave. Once, there was a woman who worked for the government, for years she leaked information out to the public. She named herself Anonymous H., the government tried to track her down, but it was to hard of a task. She knew everything that they were doing, and that gave her an advantage. Until, like most criminals, whether for good or for evil, she slipped up. She was cocky and thought she would never get caught. That was her mistake, that's always the mistake. She created a tiny clue, and within the next day, she was found, then vanished as if she never existed. Soon, the news had the story covered, “Missing, Government Employee, Ms. Tallulu Reagan.”
The government's plan to keep what happened a secret, crumbled. People rioted, then when it got out of hand, the government disappeared for awhile. Creating lack of order, making people afraid, and beyond destructive. They became terrified and unable to control themselves. They watched us crumble, doing nothing. When they thought we’d had enough, they came back to fix everything and all was forgotten. Because truth be told, we needed them. We needed order, and they were the best to get it from. We were like a wild pack of vile animals, feasting on the meaning of freedom, letting it kill us where we stand.
Alas, the world has never been good since it became plagued with humans. The one's who destroyed the natural order of things, we are weak, but yet, we survived. I use to believe that we, intelligent beings could fix what we are breaking. After all, our intelligence got us pass ever other obstacle we've come to know. I was young yet, foolish. I thought everything was great all the time, what imagination I had. But now, that was no more.
It’s foolish to think this, but perhaps this plague was created because life needed order again. And this was nature's way of creating a natural thinning, an order again. Though, I believe the government employees were just miserable. Causing them to cause pain to the world. After all, they’ve been doing it for generations. They realized that therapy doesn’t actually work. The pills don’t work, friendship doesn’t work to keep this unbearable pain away. From festering up inside and causing unbearable pain. Maybe that’s why they caused hell to become so tangible, so imaginable. It's the only thing that could take the pain away momentarily.
Little did I know the house I lived in since I was eight, would be the house I started my journey in. I remember the first day I had moved into this new house. I was scared, and around midnight I had woken up from a nightmare, I ran into my mom’s bedroom crying. She asked with a tired voice, "Sweetie what’s wrong?" as she picked me up to give me a big hug.
"Mommy I'm scared, I had a bad dream." I had told her, as she comforted me with a kiss while letting me know that no one was ever going to hurt me. At the time, I didn’t know that could ever be farther from the truth. She was my superhero in every aspect back then. If only she could be the same now in this hell hole, because I truly miss being told that everything will be okay. Being held by somebody so warm.
Now that I'm older, twelve to be exact, and I’m not a little kid anymore. She doesn’t comfort me the same way as she did before. She pushes me to be an adult, she pushes me away. Because of this, I became more lonely, and our connection wasn’t like it used to be. We'd fight, and sometimes I just wanted her warm touch instead. If you ask my friend Jared about my mom and I, he'd say that’s complete bullshit. He thinks we have a great connection. But that’s because his dad beats him and his siblings and his mom gets high. He has had to step up for so long and be the man of the house.
The reason why I'm telling you all of this is because I had a dream that I'll die very soon. When I do die, I want something that everybody can remember me by. I want everybody to remember the good memories. So I write in this journal hoping one day will be a book that children can learn from. That people can teach kids this valid history. This is my autobiography, my journey, my story. But where's my manners? I never even introduced myself and I'm already telling you I'm going to die so soon.
My name is Elizabeth Ryans, but a lot of people call me Liz, I live in Myrtle Creek, Oregon near the Pacific Ocean. It’s not a very popular area in the United States. Maybe six or seven thousand people live here in this city alone. The year is 2086. Everybody hates it here, including me. The system's fucked up, they treat us like dirt compacted onto their shoe. The educational system is worse than it's ever been in the last 300 years and we’re known as the Defectives. We have so called 'bad genes', a plague that walks among the rich. Either we aren’t smart enough for the rest of the world, we aren’t rich enough, we aren’t human enough, or we aren't rude enough. But that can’t be farther from the truth. By us being pushed to the dirt, we've risen to be stronger than ever. We've learnt the ways of the land, fed from the hands of nature, became rich with friendly company. We've become more human than those who wear a money clip to say the least. Most of us aren’t heartless like the ones who scream for death to the 'poor'.
Let me give you some information on how the system works, in 2017 the worst president in American history took over. He started changing everything we built... He divided us on wealth, color, religion, and whether we liked him. He took away most of human basic rights. Most of America became rioting, thieving, killing, bullies. The others were forced to suffer and endure the consequences of these actions. The one's who live in the west or called Defectives or 'without money and colored', the one's living in the middle have some money and are labeled as tactical. Those were the people who have the ability to be in a higher position, there's also tactical tier one and two. Tier one are those who are of color or atheists, but have money. They're seen as less importance than tier two. Tier two like the president, are white, and Christians. If you were in the north you were given extra special treatment because you liked this president. South were treated better than us, but worse than north. Now the east got treated perfectly. They had money, ‘brains’, were of 'correct' color, and did whatever the president wanted.
In the North, people got treated like slaves, and yes. white people lived here too. We worked for food, not money, and we couldn’t leave Defective under any circumstances. The only way we could change where we lived is when the government decided to give us a chance. Which was every five years. One person from the rich section, would take the five people we picked as the smartest and most promising. Our people would learn in a school for three months. Try them in a different life with a bunch of other kids who wanted to move up in factions, and give them a bunch of tests. Almost all of them failed and came back to Defective. Which is understandable. It’s a huge change from what we are use to, with a lot more pressure and responsibility.
If our people came back, they would then teach the rest of us their knowledge so we could do better next time. But most of the time, the students would forget what they learned because of the stress. Every once in awhile, one of our students would make it pass and live a better life thought. Sometimes they'd even send money to their parents so they could have a better life. But that’s the only way you got out. Once every five years.
After the president ended his term of four years, a few years later they had to change the system up a bit. They had to start giving us more food, more chances, and more money to live. We started getting more. but limited rights. A girl named Sasifa saw us, didn’t like how we were being treated and became the first Black Lady to be President. We’re still called Defective and we still have to go through tests, but life's changed so much now. But for the better because of Sasifa, we even have a day dedicated to her.
I apologize for my stalling, I want to remember how life was for a moment. How, even though it wasn't the best, it was still better than this. It’s hard remembering what I once had, but this journal helps. The thought of even being able to write this down about this makes me tear up. After years, I still can’t believe this even happened in the first place. I should start from the beginning when the issue was first brought up...
It was August 28th, 2085, I can remember everything almost perfect. I had woken up in the dead of night, as fast as a firecracker going off in my room. Sending me shooting up in the air from a deep sleep. I gasped for air as my nightmare began to subside from my thoughts. A headache appearing in it's place. I was dreaming about running some place, or going someplace? I was running fast, like I was in a hurry, I couldn’t breathe at all. Then I remember bombs started going off behind me. The loud, disoriented sounds woke me.
Though I was drowsy, I turned on my TV, I had hoped it would wake me up, and in fact it did after awhile. I wanted to watch something funny or entertaining, but that was far from the reality. I became possessed by the news. It was like some force drawing me to this channel. Which, if you ask anyone I know, I'd never watch the news to save my life. Although, watching the news on August 28th, actually saved my life in the long run. There's no doubt about it.
They're talking about a new drug that people were creating. The scientist did a study on this drug a few months back when an incident first occurred in Miami. Everyone was concerned after hearing the report on it. But no other incidents were reported until now. On today’s news, they were doing a follow up on their research. They had said that only a few scientists in the entire world had access to some of the types of drugs used. It had them concerned that scientists were illegally distributing drugs to people. Or giving civilians the access to make this powerful and destructive drug.
They did a biopsy on the victim, and the man who attacked the victim in Miami. The scientists determined some breaking news that they weren’t allowed to release yet. But they said they had a list of symptoms that this drug does to a human body. Most symptoms are mind-altering.
First, this drug was doing nothing to the user, except making them hungry, like marijuana does. But then the hallucinations come, the rage soon after, and you lost all control over your body. Essentially making you numb. You no longer feel pain, no matter the extent or extremities. A truck could hit you and you’d walk off as if it were a scratch. Then this drug made the user start consuming other humans that they saw from first sight... One right after the other until the creature got decapitated, or shot right between the eyes. Blood spraying everywhere as each bite was consumed by the beast.
When the incident occurred, the man who attacked, completely consumed the body until there was nothing left. The man ran towards another person who was standing close by with her phone. He was fast, she couldn’t go anywhere. She got bit, but as far as everybody knows, all she did was get sick. She's been under scientific observation ever since.
The scientists say that it destroys the user's mind, it destroys the cells that tell your brain you’ve had enough food. You could eat as much as you wanted, but it would never be enough. The food inside your body would disintegrate within an hour. This drug disconnected and reconnected you're brain's signals to alter how you’d act to the way it wanted. They said the body also had regenerative cells. Over time, the body would heal itself. Anywhere from healing a wound, to acting as a youth elixir. Keeping the body young and strong. Almost as if a little, tiny, alien was controlling you.
The last thing they determined is after the person got to the last stages, there was no going back to their original state. In the last stages, the drug has already planted itself so deep, that the only way to stop the effects is by death. You're body can't handle any type of treatment and rejects anything given to it. The last thing they said before they went back to the news anchor is that they would continue to do more research until further notice.
“Hopefully this thing won't be the end of humanity.” One person murmured from behind the camera by accident.
Soon, other reports started coming in, other attacks started taking place, and I watched it all. All TV channels displayed the same image during that time, live. Nothing would make them stop sinking there bloody stained teeth into another humans screaming flesh. Not until they had consumed the victim’s body completely down to the bone. Their anger spewing out of them like a rage of never ending fire. Casting over their crying victims. They hollered and pounded on their chest as if like a gorilla, attracting more like them, like some kind of call. They sometimes even ate the bones of the body, guts and bones still hanging from their mouth. Blood dripping down their mouth, hands, and soaking into their clothes. I watched as these human's ripped apart flesh and cracked bones, opening their mouth wider than I thought possible. I wondered how such thing could harbor such ability. These images passing through my eyes, like a horror film.
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I felt my body aching, I got physically sick, but I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. My body stung as I watched these monsters bite into people, and feel as if it was happening to me. I couldn't imagine being in their position. I couldn't imagine going through their pain.
The creators of the drug had called it Madness Destruction or something of that sort. It recently came to my town and has been sold all over the streets. Supposedly the story is that he created it in a lab and seemed quite happy from his work. He was like a mad scientist who had escaped from his leashes. Confusion struck by the fact that he confess to the police of his crimes. Or so they said on TV. He was supposedly a part of the secret government and only people who are truly crazy, or scared for their life would do such an act of confessing. Police were trying to hunt this thing down and keep it from spreading, but it was impossible. Soon, cops started shooting anybody that acted abnormal, right on sight. Police brutality got worse than ever. Which lowered the population by five percent in just three months. It was now December 16th, 2086.
This drug was giving people powers they would of never been able to obtain otherwise. I wasn’t able to sleep for what felt like weeks because of fear. Every sound made at night scared me to death. My heart was always pounding in my chest, insomnia making my brain to be dysfunctional. I started hallucinating, which only made things worse. I had to go to the doctors and they basically put me in a sleep coma for a few days. When I got home, it didn't get better, my imagination was getting the best of me. I became paranoid to say the least. They thought they would have to put me in an insane asylum. But I started battling my mind on my own, and ignoring what I couldn't win.
Unfortunately, I don’t believe he was from the government, or at least the actual cause of this thing. Rather, a mere cover up for what’s actually going on. A cover up so the police would stop looking for the actual person. Otherwise, the drug supply would of eventually came to a stop. But at least he made his packaging make a statement. It came in a goldish-silver clown package. I have a feeling the packaging was meant to say the government are money greedy, and they love to play tricks on you. Or, that they're golden clowns. In reality that is basically what they are and what they do to you.
This is even worse than the Gorilla virus that lasted all the way until 2020. Killing off twenty-seven percent of the world at the time, and slowing down the next generations from arriving. That virus was no picnic. The ones who were sick, lived in camps away from the rest of the population. Which, being divided into sections made it easier to control the virus from location to location. This drug is even worse than that virus called 24. It hit 2022 after World War Four. Because of all the pollution, and nuclear particles flying in the air, it caused this disease that spread like wildfire. Killing off people in twenty-four hours. Which in result, killed forty-five percent of the people.
However, with the twin and triplet gene, it wasn't hard for the population to regain its numbers. Having a single child is almost abnormal. It’s nearly rare to have a single child, except in Defective. But that doesn't stop us from having lots of children anyway. Most people who live here have at least six kids. It’s hard finding a home that only has one kid living in it.
But back to the current state of drugs and disease... Four months later after the drug got out of hand, the government started to block off the infected states. The goal was to stop infection from spreading. The population was now ten percent infected, five percent dead, and eighty-five percent healthy. But I heard from a friend up in Portland that containment wasn’t working. The infected people were becoming more aggressive the less they were able to roam around. My friend also said that some of the homeless people were becoming infected by the mice roaming around at night. On his illegal journey through the states, he saw one guy get bit in the face. Afterwards, he got up and walked away, unresponsive. It was as if the infected were spreading their disease at this point instead of eating the healthy. The only thing that ran through my mind were those mice passing on this... Whatever it is, to here in Oregon and infecting my home.
After they started blocking off states, the government went house to house to collect electronics. Things like phones, pagers, tablets, cameras, laptops, computers, even the latest Watmin. That's a watch that has portable TV, music, radio, reminders, and in special cases, has a security option. The government also had taken certain people from different states, into their headquarters. If two people from Defective were taken in. No one knew what was going on at all. But we did know a war was coming. Whether it was going to be between the drug users and non users, or other countries looking to kill us. We'd been through this enough to know the signs.
News stories started popping up about this drug, and other countries started preparing for the worst. Around May of 2087, Great Britain began cutting off access to and from the USA. But that was only the beginning. Three weeks later, other countries began doing the same thing. Other countries started getting their military ready for what was about to happen. America was alone on this thing, and our food source started getting lower and lower. We began begging for food from other countries as we grew more hungry. But no one helped. So, some people started building farms as food got more limited. But the farmers never got any of the produce because others would steal it. In result, people started buying guns and finding ways to secure their property.
The worst part was, Defectives were even starting to turn on one another. Riots among the people started everywhere, and guns were banned from civilians. But that didn't stop blood from being spilled and guns being bought.
For the scientists, they had no clue whether this was spreading or not around the world. Which made their job harder and Americans more unpredictable. Scientists worked around the clock and no help from outside sources make a cure harder to obtain. At one point, the scientists thought they were close to a breakthrough. But it seems as soon as they thought they were, this mind-altering drug changed. Scientists aren't even sure if this is even a drug anymore.
With scientists working around the clock, so did the military now. They had to control two different outbreaks. The apocalypse on the east side, strolling it's way west, and a huge riot everywhere else. Rioters rapidly took down everything keeping us and the infected separate. Including the gates and walls. Everything was going down hill. People started burning buildings, killing people, and stealing whatever they could get there hands on. July, they announced the population of the world, it was fourteen billion and decreasing. Oregon was realizing we needed to protect ourselves, and joined with California and Washington. We created our own 'empire', and blocked ourselves off from everyone else. We were once again working together to save ourselves.
August 1st, 2087, the three states started putting up a wall so the rioters wouldn’t destroy what we had left. We were building ourselves up again. We wanted to maintain civilization and have resources again. Without the government's orders, we built farms, crops, and freshwater streams. We actually had some sense in us to not share our food source with anyone on the outside of our wall. Nobody, not even the government knew what we were doing. The more people who knew we had food and running water, the more they started attacking our wall. Even the cops wanted to destroy what we had. But we defended what we had and even traded with the cops for guns. When the rioters accomplished destroying everything, everyone realized it wasn't safe out there. It was now named the Wasteland. When the outsiders started realizing it wasn’t safe to live in the Wasteland, the worse the crimes got.
I remember one time my brother and I were running. We had food in our bags and water bottles in our pockets, we were trying to get home before dark. But trying to stay hidden from everyone was almost impossible. On several occasions, Damien and I had to fight to protect ourselves and food. Our knives killed people, our knives bathed in blood of those who tried harming us. When we got home, it was an amazing feeling of relaxation and safety. I remember sleeping threw my birthday, which was June 6th. I was only thirteen when I had to learn to protect myself. When I had to learn to survive.
When the rioting had finally died down, you could hear and even see bombs and missiles going off around other countries. This was no longer a war in only our country, this had now become world war five. People started fleeing to us, but ended up killed on sight anyway. We even killed people trying to get to safety on our side. The next month was non-stop shooting and death until there was no longer any ammo and piles of bodies. The interesting thing is, no one attacked America… The ones who started everything… Or the civilization that was safe. I guess everyone was to busy attending to their own situation to harm the source of the issue. Which of course was a relief.
But we didn't worry about it to much. We tried getting back to a routine and normal lives. Guards walked around the wall twenty-four/ seven, and there was water patrol. Then we elected somebody to be our leader, he started up school again and gave people jobs to do. But one thing was certain, anybody who was a suspect of doing drugs was thrown into the wasteland. Anybody, in any way, who could jeopardize what we had, would be thrown into the wasteland. And I recorded it all in my journal. Each person who was thrown out and what they did was written in my book. James Pitalsky was the first person out. He was a meth user, and there was no place for drugs here.
To my amazement, DC, and a few other states were still completely intact. Those places were where the more important people lived, so I’m guessing that's where more military reinforcements were sent. Plus, I'm sure the structure of the building was top-notch. However, in February of 2088 our president came into contact with us. He asked if we could send food to the government and other places in the United States that were still alive. He said in return, we would get lots of ammo and some of the basic recruiters would come and reinforce our wall. He said in the next week, the first set of bullets and guns will be sent in exchange for crates of meats, fruits, and vegetables. At first, we declined, but as the days passed, we realized how much we actually needed those supplies, and we gave in.
After we accepted, five days later we had boxes of weaponry waiting for us. They even brought us some unusual food, said to be brought down from another country. The person in charge of our empire renamed us Ashva. The leader of Ashva was confused by the food and asked the president what was going on. The president said it was a peace offering. A means of friendship. So, our speaker gave in and let us have the food. We chowed down and the adults began loading their guns and packing ammo into their coats. I knew this wasn’t going to end well, it was to suspicious. But if we didn’t follow orders from the president, they might kill us.
Unfortunately we also have fifty more soldiers to feed as well. Not even good soldiers. They couldn’t shoot for shit, and most of our villagers had to teach them how to shoot, wasting bullets. Most of these soldiers were young, scared, and wanted to go home. But this was their new home.
Then something strange started happening, people started having amnesia. If it weren’t for my journal, I would of completely forgotten everything. I struggled to remember what was going on each day, where I was at, and what had happened previously. One of the young soldiers told me to stop eating the food. When I did, things became more clearer, and I started gaining some knowledge again. My journal, and the soldier helped keep every day focused, and we help others. Unfortunately, there wasn’t many people who still remembered everything, nor wanted to believe us. When a commander saw what the boy was doing, he disappeared that day. When I was him the next day, he was gone, he wasn't him anymore.
When everyone was loopy, a man came in and gave us a speech. He claimed to be our president but he looked nothing like him. He told us where we lived and who we were and retaught us everything we use to know. He told us to never go outside our walls because a great danger laid behind them. And nobody questioned him or who he was. He said to walk straight and not hungover and to make sure we don’t goof off. We were to never let what was outside in, and our entire military changed. He said several other things too, telling us to not try and remember our past, that it was a dream. But I was the only one who decided to question it. This wasn't normal, in a few weeks the government had gained control of our new civilization. It felt like we had became slaves.
The last thing he said with a big, bright, smile, was to go about our daily lives and build towards a better future again. He wanted the children educated to the highest degree. Then before I had bat an eye, I was back in my bed sleeping, knowing nothing seemed right. And even though I stopped eating the food everyone else was eating, I still felt in a haze. Everything seemed different, and everything I got taught, was retaught to me. It might of even been taught better than previously. This feeling was strange, knowing you don’t remember anything, that something had happened to you, but you don't know what. I felt violated. My mind was in a major mind-fuck and I didn't know if I'd ever remember what happened.
I heard for some, the programming didn’t work. They'd sit in the center of town screaming what the military was doing to them. But nobody listened, and eventually men made most of them disappear. The men would say they were delusional, and that was a symptom of what laid beyond the wasteland. We were made to believe to be afraid of those kinds of people. Which was obviously a scare tactic to keep you from discovering the truth. But my journal kept the truth alive.