The plague | Teen Ink

The plague

March 26, 2018
By Anonymous

The nightmares.
I’m always having, mostly because i’m all alone, but because of how of how i’m alone- they scare me so bad I can barely fall back to sleep.
The few days that have gone by have killed more than half the world’s population from the virus that had originated from California. I keep thinking about my baby brother- he was only six. Right now i’m hungry and I need food. The world as we know it has been covered in radiation.
There’s a small group of us hiding out in an abandoned bunker that was found off the coast of California and it had a radiation decontamination room right when the radiation attack took place. A thankful coincidence.

Just then Travis walks up  and starts talking to me.
“I make all the gear we wear outside, that provides us with protection from radiation poisoning. We go out every so often mostly when our supplies get pretty low, but we’re doing alright as of right now.”

We’re going to do a supply run by the end of the week so in the next couple days, I’ll come get you and we’ll go get supplies. Why not right now? I’ll show you around. It’s a somewhat big base we better get moving if you want to get to bed tonight.

The next morning Travis woke me up, and we got breakfast.
“Why don’t we go a few days early to get supplies sound okay to you?”
(headshake)
“Good, then I’ll see you in a few hours and remember you don’t have to be shy you can talk but remember nobody’s forcing you to.”
In those few hours, i got an extra nap and all I could think of was the day the apocalypse happened. “It was like a bullet it hit most of my family fast, and they didn’t survive the night.The only ones left were my dad and I, we were both happy to be alive and together, but then eventually it took my dad, and I was left alone in Kansas by myself. Eventually, it was starting to get dark and we had to get our supplies and get back to the bunker.” I told Travis.

After dinner which consisted of hot dog and leftover pizza. I went to  my room and laid down. I laid there thinking about all I told Travis, and how I felt lighter somehow like a really have weight has been taken off my chest. Then I dozed off and woke to several screams. It must have been a few hours I had to sleep because it seemed lighter out even tho there were no windows but, I eventually got up and discovered what the screaming was about. I see that Ross, the guy that founded our little survival group at least that’s what Travis told me, was laying on the ground with a pool of blood beneath him.

With my mind racing I figured I should start to try and figure out who might’ve done this, but I couldn’t think of anything because Ross was a nice guy. With everything going on my body still somehow managed to daydream all I could daydream about was when my dad who was a detective always had these types of cases and usually took him weeks to figure out what happened and who killed the guy and everyday after school I would see him in his study and I would usually help him. I still remember the day my dad figured out who the serial killer was that wiped out nine entire families, the joy that my father had, I’ve never seen him happier. Back to reality I was standing there looking like a complete retard. I found Travis later on and saw that he heard the news and he wasn’t to happy but that did make him the new leader of the group. I told him that my dad was a detective and I always liked to help with his cases and could help see who the killer was that killed Ross. He liked my idea but when we got to looking for items like fingerprints or shoe footprints nothing was found and Travis lost hope.

With Travis sulking in his room I figured I would have to do this by myself and stated to search for clues anything that would help to see who killed Ross, and the first stop was his bedroom/office. In there was many things including toys for toddlers like he was a father, a bunch of files on random people that I didn’t see in the bunker, and an old computer hidden under his bed with a broken screen. I then took off the plastic casing and saw that it was opened and that there was a piece of paper in there. I took it out and all it said wass 28-16-45. I then realized that this was a combination and began to look for anything that had a combination like a safe or a bike lock. I couldn’t find anything that had this type of stuff. Soon I began to lose help as well as there was no evidence at all that could point me to what had happened except for that combination lock. I go to tell Travis about the combination and find that he is nowhere to be seen and that he just got up and left. Before I gave up I thought that since Travis was Practically second in command that Travis might keep some stuff so I searched his bedroom as well and found that deep in his closet was a safe that was really tiny but big enough to  hold many things. I knew that wherever Travis might be he would eventually come back so I put everything back but kept the safe and went to my room. I noticed that the combination 28-16-45 worked and it had an unlocking click sound. What I found inside was a usb and thought that this was very weird because there weren’t that many computers around and remembered that there was one on Ross’s desk. I then hurriedly got over there without trying to be too noticeable and I see that the door was left opened and specifically remember that I shut it when I left. When I get in there I see Travis standing in the corner eyes red and holding the computer and he says “ I think it’s time you find out the truth”. He then started explaining that Ross had created the radiation virus and the bunker way before this happened. He did it because his wife had cancer and the doctors haven’t seen anything like this and thought that this was way more advanced and thought that the only thing to fix her was with medical radiation to fight the cancer but there was not such a thing created that it was still in the development stage. Ross would do anything to save his wife so their kids could have a mom but they both knew she might not survive, so him being a billionaire he got to buy stuff that would help with the advancement of the drug. This bunker use to be the research lab he bout to do the drug advancements. He thought he finally figured it out on how the drug would help. He was so excited to get to the hospital he was very nervous. California was really busy and he had to keep the drug safe and he tried to do anything to keep it safe but there was a bus and he got scared by almost getting hit by it and dropped the drug and it broke open and was released into the air. Those who made it to safety or those who were immune were likely the only ones that survived. Unfortunately his wife never got the treatment and died and him being immune he thought his kids would be too but he found them sprawled on the living room floor holding hands with tears coming from their eyes suffocating from what he created.

He knew that to help the immune and ones that were not safe a place so he got his research lab cleaned up and made a survival group. He knew he couldn’t live with himself for creating an apocalypse, so he did what he could to continue human life instead of getting rid of it. He didn’t know how to progress with his life with him killing half the world's population and his family he wanted to be with them. So he injected himself with the poison and nothing happened at first so he thought it was harmless, but as days passed on he felt weaker and weaker and he knew something was happening and then early this morning that's when it happened he was slowly dying from the poison and was puking up blood then he died on the floor.
I knew it was a lot to tell and a sad story, but it had to be told and I was grateful it had been told. I had finally got some closure on what had happened and i'm not mad at Ross for killing my family. I knew he was truly sorry and he tried to save his wife and if someone else thought of it I know they would do the exact same thing if it was trying to save their loved ones too.



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