Gina Harlow lay on a bed, tears streaming down her face. She was sure that there was almost no one left in the world and found it ridiculous that she, a 14 year old girl, would survive the apocalypse. Her face was puffy and red. Gina had been crying for the last hour ever since her mother dropped dead. The virus, its name Xeno Dècés, came swiftly. The only symptoms were an abnormal amount of sneezing and coughing, all of these showing just an hour before death. Just before the victim died, they would have a horrible and painful seizure. The seizure would cause the infected person to bleed from their eyes, nose, mouth and ears.
Xeno Dècés spread through pollen when the first form of the virus spread through crops. It was a mutated form of a plant disease called blight. Instead of only infecting the plants and killing them, it also spread into flower pollen and the seeds of other plants. Breathing in this now poisonous pollen, you would become infected and killed within the time of a week. Plants everywhere died and the population declined from both starvation and the virus. Even touching an infected plant would lead to catching Xeno Dècés. That very reason was why it spread disastrously fast. It originated in the Amazon Rainforest and spread at an alarming rate. Animals, such as birds, would touch an infected plant and spread it to other plants and animals. It was rare, but you could die almost ten minutes after catching the sickness, flopping to the ground and seizing and bleeding. On the news, sometimes the broadcasters would talk about grey fluids leaving the body through every single orifice. In plants, the same fluid would come out but only after a certain amount of time, estimated at around four months.
Of course, this virus broke out in the spring (for the Northern Hemisphere) at the height of pollen being released. Millions were dead within the first month of spring, and reached one billion in May. Now, it was October. Gina was the only remaining survivor in her family after they all came to live with her to escape the depths of Vancouver to move to Victoria with the rest of the Harlow family.
Gina finally sat up, wondering what to do. She couldn’t go outside because there was strong wind blowing, probably carrying the poisoned seeds and pollen in the air. Sure enough, when she opened her blinds, dandelion seeds were floating about in the sunny air. Animals lay dead on the ground, rotting away. The beach in her backyard looked calm and peaceful. Little waves lapped against the sand. It would have been picture perfect if not for the dead seagulls and fish being washed up on the beach. Other things that disturbed the scenery were the dead plants everywhere. Trees dead and hanging into the water, the grass brown and crispy, Gina’s mother’s prized garden completely dead but one flower that was slowly withering away.
“What am I supposed to do now. . .” Gina whispered to herself, pressing her hands against the window and wishing she could be outside in the sun, maybe on the beach knee deep in the cool, ocean water. Just touching water outside could get her sick too. The algae and other cyanobacteria within the ocean were carriers of Xeno Dècés.
She turned around and wandered out of her room into the hallway, looking for her mother’s body. Her father died two weeks earlier, and then her younger brothers were next only a week ago with her grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. This had happened after Gina’s family went outside to empty their waste. Maybe the layers of sheets they had put over each other were too thin or there might’ve been a whole in their clothing. Gina was lucky enough to not go outside and had stayed within for fear of getting sick. Even though she had desperately wanted a breath of air that wasn’t humid with sweat.
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Gina stared at a family portrait hanging in front of her. She screamed at the picture, picked it up, and threw it at the ground. Its glass shattered and the frame snapped. Debris skittered across the floor, and several shards of glass cut her bare feet. She could care less for the injuries and walked into her parent’s room. Or what used to be her parent’s room.
On the bed lay Gina’s mother, blood crusted around her eyes, ears, and mouth. Gina wrapped the body in bed sheets and tried to turn it over. Being malnourished and dehydrated, trying to move a 167 pound body proved difficult. Gina yelled and pulled at her hair in grief, falling to the ground. Her long and sweaty brown hair stuck to her eyebrows. She got back up and continued wrapping up her mother’s dead body.
“Why, why, why, why.” Gina said quietly as tears streamed down her face.
She remembered being four and going out on the beach with her family, watching the sun rise or set. She remembered being scared during thunderstorms and then having her mother hug her during the entire storm, shushing her tenderly as the ocean waves lashed upon their dead beachfront property. Everywhere seemed devoid of life.
Gina dragged the body through her bungalow, past the others that were neglected to be buried or sent to see. She gently set her mother on the ground and went to grab a mask on the counter, putting it on. Over it, she put on a balaclava and another mask. She would rather have a sweaty, hot face then get sick and not know until the last hour of life. Gina picked up the rather warm cadaver and went outside for the first time in three weeks.
Gina set her mother’s body down and cried into the sheets.
“I love you, mama.” Gina dug her nose into her mom’s hair, smelling the sweet smell of her shampoo.
Gina went to one of the rowboats and placed her mom in it. Walking back inside, Gina took the other bodies lying by the front door. Flies buzzed around them, a sickening stench emanating from the ever-growing pile. She picked up her youngest cousin, only 7 years old, and dragged her uncle behind. Her aunt, who had been dead the longest for well over three weeks, smelled of sour fruits and milk.
After trudging miserably across the sandy grass for thirty minutes, she finally got to the row boat and put the other bodies in. Later, she would get a blanket and cover the rest of her family so that the bodies would still be honoured. Gina clambered back into her house and got the last three bodies, her grandparents who were both skinny and easy to carry, and her aunt who weighed only about 90 pounds. Abnormal amounts of blood were painted across them.
Gina set the bodies gently together in the boat and moved to her equipment shed to find the gasoline and a tarp and sleeping bags. She found what she was looking for and came back to the rowboat. Gina put the two sleeping bags over her dead family. She then wrapped the tarp around everything.
The wind suddenly picked up and Gina ducked low to the ground to avoid any possible airborne plant seeds or pollen. She untied the rope from its post.
“Goodbye, my family. I love you.” Gina called out as the waves pulled the boat further and further away.
After two minutes, the boat seemed no more than a small speck, more miniscule than an ant.. Gina wiped her brow and turned around to go back inside. She was worried she got sick from all that outside exposure. The only thing keeping her from spiralling into madness thinking she was going to die was the fact that there was almost no pollen or seeds in the air at all with crisp winter wind coming in. It was a wonder how her family even got sick in the first place because everyone was only outside for less than ten minutes, but in those ten minutes Gina’s entire life was ruined without her knowing. Even just brushing against the grass could’ve gotten her family sick too.
Gina opened the creaky front door and just stood under the door frame, staring into space. She had no one to talk to anymore. Her mother was gone and her little cousins, which were like a form of entertainment and the only thing making her happy, were dead.
When the first snow comes, I am out, I am going to search for people, Gina thought, I will journey through the dead forests, the dead gardens, and I will do no matter what to survive. No matter what.