The Unfinished Tale

Puffy, dark, gray clouds scudded across the dismal sky. Rea hugged her torn windbreaker closer about herself. The air was frigid; it felt like it was about to turn into a thousand shards of ice as it whipped her dark hair around in miniature cyclones. She felt another wave of hopelessness surge through her, and put her head in her hands.

On the ground in front of her was a small orange, bottle. “Poor Micha,” her voice came out in a croak, her throat closing over with grief. She sniffed helplessly in the cold and looked closer at the small bottle. On the Front was a sticker; in ink it read, ‘Vaccine’

She snuffled again, it came down on her like a brick wall. Tears splattered across the hard plastic of the bottle. She broke down into uncontrollable sobs, tears overflowing her eyes. It wasn’t Micha’s fault; she had done it because she had too. Images of her friend being dragged away tore at her mind.

Rea didn’t even notice that she was lying splayed across the cold hard earth, her hands clutching the vial tightly. Micha! It wasn’t fair; it wasn’t right! Why did this have to happen? Rea continued to weep, as her mind flashed to the beginning, before everything went so terribly wrong…

The year 2009, many had called it the year of hope. The war was over; the world was turning, and changing for what seemed like the better. They said that everything was going to be all right. Of course, that was before the plague came.

Rea had been in 8th grade then, her life was that of a normal teenager, she went to school everyday, ate, slept (far to little), dragged herself out of bed each morning, talked, and of course she had her acquaintances. It was what was called the ideal, life. At least that was what other people called it.

To Rea, her life hadn’t seemed the least bit special or privileged; but now as she lay on the cold hard ground, where once upon a time sat the city of Niles’ graveyard. She felt her grip on everything slide away, her old life was like a bitterly sweet dream. How could the world have gone so wrong? Everything for her was gone now. Her family, her friend, she was all alone in the cruel world.

As the disease quickly swept through America, the government had fallen into Anarchy; or just about. The disease was so devastatingly fast spreading, it didn’t take long. Soon enough almost every 1/3 of the people were infected with the pandemic, the side effects were horrible to say the least. The illness took effect only a few hours after being infected, and the symptoms were excruciatingly painful. Fevers, chills, horrible coughs, like a cold, but far worse. The worse part about it was that it took forever to run its course, putting people into a stasis like coma.

The hospitals couldn’t compensate for so many people sick; they built centers for the diseased. However, they became too full; the sick were so many. The government was no exception, the pandemic had no bias, it just infected. The government began to cave with the sudden loss of people; there was no more order. So in an effort to do what it could, America was put under a state of emergency. As this happened, the president became violently ill with the disease, to such a degree that it killed him. The vice president, the cabinet; all of them sick. They all caught the disease despite all the care they took to prevent catching it. So, the great United States of America crumbled.

Everyone was left to fend for himself or herself, as states struggled to survive with a semblance of order, they became estranged from each other. A cure; that is, something that would ease the disease, was found. The states fought over it, trying to get as much as they could. However, it wasn’t for the people they fought anymore. It was for those who held power, or they who retained authority. So that, in hopes, they would not fall like the national government had. So many people replaced, fighting to gain power, to be cured. The rights of the people disappeared; replaced by suppression, the power said, to help keep the order that was left. The individual states militia grew, in order to stem the flow of riots of the peoples. However, for something taken for granted for so long, was hard to gain back.

Other countries tried to help, they did; but they also had the plague. It was all over, if people tried to escape it, they would only infect where they went. The world had changed for the worse. Some now called this the new black plague, Rea thought it ironic. When the people of the future would study this, (If there were any) and think how stupid the world was back then. That something so destructive was caused by something that we never thought about checking on. How people stopped thinking, and believed what they were told, frightened so easily that nothing occurred to them.

Rea pushed herself off the ground; it was pointless to keep weeping. Even as she thought this, the tears falling down her cheeks dwindled. She felt cold inside now, not even the chill registered; she was too depressed to cry now. Micha was her first friend in this new, or rather broken world. Micha was different from the rest of the people she had known. When their eyes were hollow with sadness, and brokenness: Micha pushed on, never giving into the weight pushing on all their shoulders.

It was almost purely on accident they had met; Micha had been running. Running from them, the cops that is, she had stolen something from a store. She had needed it; her family like Rea's, was dirt poor. But even though Micha labored hard for well earned cash, it wasn’t enough. Rea still had her mother and father, somehow the disease passed them by; but Micha, her father passed away from it, and her mother, was terribly sick with it.

So Micha was reduced to steal when cash ran thin, in order to take care of her mother, and little brother. Rea wondered how Micha could stand the sadness of losing her family to the plague. Rea’s parents were still alive, so they had enough money to get by.

Rea was standing, standing where her old school had been; imagining that she was back in it again. When finally she was too depressed to remain, she turned to go; when Rea got up to leave, Micha ran into her. Caught up in the moment, she ended up hiding with Micha behind a bush.

Rea and Micha became fast friends, Micha’s family moved in with hers, and neither of them had love for the police; in fact Rea secretly hated them. They were keepers of the order, but they would do anything they wanted; they beat her brother up when they found a knife on him. Only to show off how much power they held over others. When he crawled home, and she learned what had happened, she was furious, one of the things that had changed when the government broke down.

Then, when Micha’s mother turned for the worse, she began stealing the Vaccine. It was difficult for anyone without money, to get enough rations of it; the Vaccine was heavily guarded; so the poor were left without help. So to take care of her family she took the Vaccine. It was nerve wracking for Rea every time that Micha went out. So one day for no reason at all Soldiers in the, local militia decided to make an out post of Rea’s home.

They could do nothing to stop them, if they spoke out it would be ignored, or they were punished for their impertinence. They were forced to provide for the soldiers staying in her home. This was even more scary because then Micha was forced to take extreme measures when she went to steal more of the Vaccine. On one such excursion, Rea was afraid that Micha would be caught, so she went with her friend to help distract anyone who might try to stop Micha.

That was earlier, Rea followed Micha to the supply station, making sure that the soldiers in her home were unaware of their plan. Rea and Micha found what they needed, as they were sneaking away; someone noticed. So, Rea and Micha began running as fast as they could, taking short cuts and back ways to a safe hideout.

Then she was running for her life, there were no side paths of escape near by, and the police were hot on their tale.

Right as the rounded a turn Micha tripped, sending the Vaccine flying, Rea barely caught it before it hit the ground. She turned to Micha who was struggling to stand up. Rea could hear them coming, the precious time they had, was slipping away. Quickly she ran over to Micha and tried to help her up, but Micha stopped her. A painful grimace on her face as she coddled her ankle, “Run, take the antidote to my mother, I’ll be fine; you need to leave.” Micha steeled her breath as she tried to stand, But Rea shook her head.

“No, you can’t give up, not now!” she said frantically trying to pull Micha to her feet. Micha shook her head and fell back to the ground.

“Take care of yourself, I’ll be fine. If you don’t go my mom will be the one hurt.” Rea gritted her teethe trying to pull Micha up, but the truth of her words made her falter. She could hear the police coming, and Micha wouldn’t stand up, wouldn’t run away. Her fear of being caught was too great, Micha spoke once again. “

If you stay, no one will be there to help my mother when she needs it; please take it to her. I would rather be taken prisoner than have my mom die.” This broke Rea’s nerve, she began to run, the antidote in her hand. She turned down an alley, and found the cops surging around her. Brutally they lifted her to her feet, and dragged her away. Micha looked up right as she turned the corner and stared Rea right in the eyes. It was enough to make her run again this time blind to where.

Rea sighed, and stood up; this was not what Micha would want her to do. If she had rights, this wouldn’t have happened. However, she would have to make due for now; Rea began the walk back to her home where her friend’s mom waited for a cure. If she had too, she would fight to get her friend back.

Rights Violated:

1. Second Amendment

Right to bear arms; when her brother was attacked for carrying a knife.

2. Third Amendment

Quartering Soldiers; when they are forced to take care of them and house the soldiers.

3. First Amendment

Freedom of speech; when they would speak up about the unfairness of the soldiers there they might be punished for it.

4. Fifth Amendment

Rights of the accused; when they captured Micha they intended to throw her into jail, without trying her first.