My Brother's Keeper (a Superman story)

Chapter 17: Haunted by the Past

Clark's POV

After Lois wrote her article on the tainted COVID-19 vaccine from L-Corp, and a scathing one at that, it started to become more and more obvious that people were becoming Meta-Humans, and cases of such were popping up in various parts of Smallville, as well as Metropolis, Central, City, Los Angeles, National City, and in various other parts of the country.

The Meta-Human situation was not a new one, as well as alien life and refugees from other planets. But, the fact, that the vaccine had done this to people because of Lex, was bad in several ways and also because my little brother was one of the ones who received the tainted jab.

It was hard for me to understand how Lex and I were ever best friends. I never imagined he would have become this kind of person, a power-hungry monster who was willing to hurt others to fulfill whatever endgame he had planned, and I had a feeling there was a solid reason behind why he tainted the vaccine when the whole world was desperate for one to combat the infections the coronavirus was causing.

Hospitals were beyond capacity, people all around were dying, and all because it was such a new virus that even a vaccine was lacking.

The authorities were also looking to see all the commonalities that existed between those affected and those who weren't. And so far, everything pointed to L-Corp because everyone who became a Meta as a result of the vaccine had taken the L-Corp jab.

I looked at Omar, who was sitting in the living room, somber, and I gingerly decided to get him to say something but it was obvious he had a lot on his mind.

He had his eyes closed, with noise cancelation headphones. It was the only thing helping him so he did not go crazy with all the sounds that were assaulting him from all over.

"Omar, why don't you go get some rest!" I said but he was unresponsive, as he could not hear me because of the headphones. I then blew a bit of my freeze-breath, to alert him.

"What?" he looked up.

"Go get some rest. We'll continue with this later."

Our mom walked in and hugged him, as did Lois.

He walked upstairs, and my mom started to cry.

"He's in so much pain" she said, as Lois held her hand. "I haven't felt this helpless since Omar and your father caught COVID, and I eventually caught it regardless of how much we isolated from one another."

"I know, mom" I felt bad for her.

"This pandemic affected Omar in so many ways. It ruined his relationship with Rüya, though his friendship with Ozan remained more intact."

"He and Ozan were very close. He was like a brother to him and losing him, I know it affected him badly. The distance really did a number on them" said my mom.

"COVID upend our lives. Relationships changed drastically" said Lois. "My relationship with Lucy also changed, though as kids we oftentimes clashed but we always had each other's backs. After the pandemic, our relationship improved and we became closer, after everything we witnessed."

"Siblings can oftentimes clash. I know Omar and Clark always clashed over who would get the final slice of pizza, pie, or even who would catch the chocolate chip cookie" my mom laughed.

"Yeah, Omar loves his chocolate chip cookies" I laughed.

Lois started crying, which made me realize everything that had caused her both stress and trauma during the pandemic, was still affecting her even now.