"Maria! Come on now, We have to go." I heard my mother shout to me as we were packing up. The CDC had said that this plague was really bad, and that everyone should move to a safer place. So entire towns packed up, and moved everything to safe houses... That day I remember only the panic in my parents eyes, and the excitement in my brother's eyes. My brother always loved adventure... As we got in the car, I remembered what I heard my father saying about the plague... It starts as though nothing is wrong, but something is... It feeds off of you until you are weak... then it strikes... a fever comes... and you begin to fade... your body is already dead, but your mind survives... until it burns outs... and you are lost to the world... The cause is unknown, and there is no cure... no way to stop it...
We waited a long time for our name to be called. "Contra! Benjamin, Lydia, Maria and Kaden." A man called our names. I looked back at the past for one final moment, before walking into the safe house. As we entered, the doors slammed shut. Through the door, I saw as people began to fight, riot, and try to get into the safe house. Armed guards stood their ground, as we walked away from the doors, I couldn't help but wonder, why we were saved and they weren't... They said that those people were moved to a different safehouse nearby.... But in the end, no one was safe. No one but the gifted few... My father was a gentle man... His heart was pure and kind... and he was always smiling... He would smile at me... his little girl, even though I was fifteen then... I remember his warm eyes, a bright blue color against my green eyes, and he always would call me Mar, or Mari refusing to call me Maria... I miss his voice... his silky smooth, and kind voice... the way he would call my mother "Darling" and would refer to her as his Queen, and my brother and I his little prince and princess... We lived at that compound for a while, not knowing what was going on out in the world that we secluded ourselves from. There was no sunlight or moonlight here... No rain... All I wanted to do was go out and see them, but I couldn't... In the end, another child did such... and caused the fallout.... But... I am getting ahead of myself...
Life inside those walls was almost normal... We had electricity, and other privileges, but we also had school... And as to be expected, school was born from the depths of hell's abyss... The kids were judgemental and rude, and I found it hard to fit in... I have been an introvert for so long... Words hurt... Even back when I was in third grade when it all started... Back when I closed myself off, and became silent... Back when I learned to hide my emotions... As I grew older, and they still attacked me, I learned to close off my emotions completely... Which made me pick up everyone else's to learn to profile... The more you know about a person, the less they can hurt you right? I took a nosedive in mental stability, and began to question, why I was still there... Why I was alive at all, when my soul was dead, and I was just living lifelessly in a body that had no meaning... I lost all control, and began to cut, to starve myself, and when I had given up all hope...
I was going to end it... but I didn't... I met someone... someone special... he showed me the way out of the pain and suffering, his name was Nolan Connors. Nolan and I became friends after that, and we were so close... We became like brother and sister, and he stopped me from doing so many dumb things... Not that we didn't do dumb things... After all... Friends don't let friends do dumb things.... Alone... However... We were seperated that year. He wasn't even in the same safe house that I was... I missed him, and soon, my mind was not in the greatest place yet again... I never fit in with society's standards. I am not a model, and I hate society and it's rules. If the rules did not exist, everyone could just accept everyone is different... everyone is special. You can't judge people by their appearance... that is something beyond their control... I tend to even ignore appearance, for personality is what truly matters... At the start of that year, I met a outspoken, rebellious girl named Jayda Conrad. She didn't care what anyone thought, and even fought against it... Jayda and I get along well... even today... She is still one of my best friends.
Jayda and I hung out when we could, and tended to laugh at the boy crazy girls in our school, as they obsessed over the latest trend, or one of the guys who already had a girlfriend. We didn't see the need to date, much like the guys at our school. They didn't care, and neither did we. Our emotions were not in the open for everyone, so we were labeled "emotionless freaks". No... We have emotions, we just chose not to show them.
Jayda and I have a lot of memories of mischief, and yet.... Many of hardship also. We both have our own dark path, and we profiled each other, gaining an understanding of our minds on a deep level, meaning all of our past was shared, and we knew the pain and suffering that we had been through... Despite what Jayda says, she has had it worse than I have... While I have been verbally abused, she has been physically, and mentally.... I promised her that I wouldn't speak her past, her stories aloud, so I won't. I can't break her trust. Trust is sacred, and should be held in the highest respect. Maybe I'll have her explain later.... Not that she'll listen to me... But that's okay.
Anyway, on the day of the outbreak, Jayda and I had been on the way home from school when the alarms sounded. A speaker sounded, Alert! Alert! Breach Left Wing School System and Hospital. Of course, my mother worked at the hospital, and Jayda and I went to school in the left wing... The panic around us was raging on, as Jayda and I watched the chaos, already accepting the inevitable. We wouldn't be going home, unless it was with the heavenly home with the angels. We glanced at each other, and walked into the hospital, and went to find my mother. Maybe we could help her calm down some patients, maybe we could give them peace before the end.
"Maria! Get out of here!" I heard my mother cry out weakly... I didn't realize why, until it was too late... My mother had caught the disease long ago. Her eyes shone with pain, and I knew that she didn't want me to stay, but I couldn't leave her. Her body seemed to be turning grey, it was killing itself, and keeping her brain alive... Maybe I could calm her down... maybe I could ease her pain before she... I tried to open the sealed glass door she was behind, locked...
I watched her hand drop to her side, and Jayda held me up, otherwise I would have probably dropped to the floor.... My mother died... in agony right in front of my eyes... behind locked doors... I felt tears streaming down my face, and I finally turned away. I knew I had to get home, to find my brother, my dad... Tell them what had happened... Tell them.... Tell... Them... I felt myself grow weak. I fell forward, and Jayda slid her back down the wall, I felt my consciousness fading, and I slowly closed my eyes...