• I woke up realizing that I hadn’t packed at all. I quickly threw some clothes in a bag then dressed and groomed myself. As I was rushing around the room, my roommate, Dahlia, woke up. “Prissy, where are you going?” she asked, rubbing her eyes. Dahlia had pale delicate looking skin. She had fluffy blonde hair and manicured nails. She reached for a tissue from her desk and hacked phlegm into it.

    “To my mothers. Are you okay?,” I asked.

    “Oh. Yeah. It’s just a cold or some-“

    I glanced at the clock. “And now I’m late. I’ll see you after break!”

    “See ya!” Dahlia yelled after me as I ran out of the room. I dragged my suitcase at my side. My purse was held on my shoulder and bounced against my arm and my other side. I threw both in the back of my car and hopped in the front.

    ~

    Guns fired in the distance. I hid alone behind a fallen tree, hidden by shadows, silent. I heard footsteps. I smelled blood. I readied my gun. Ready, aim, fire! PEWPEWPEW! I killed two men in three shots.

    That wasn’t good enough. I’d try again.

    Time rewound. Gun fire in the distance, I’m hiding, I’m hearing footsteps, smelling blood. Ready the gun. Ready, aim, fire! PEWPEW! Two shots, two men dead on the ground. That wasn’t good enough, but a man placed a hand on my shoulder.

    “Just give up, son,” the man whispered. His grip tightened, “You can’t help who you are.”

    The two dead men stood from the muddy ground. They laughed and pointed at me, chanting, “How do you like your ‘Big Chicken Dinner’?”




    I woke up with a headache. Truthfully, I didn’t even remember going back to my hotel. I called the front desk, asked for a cab. I remembered going up the elevator then opening my door. After that it was blank. I sat up on the bed. I was still dressed in my normal clothes. Reaching inside my pockets, I pulled out my wallet and the plastic toy and placed them on the side table.

    I picked up the phone and dialed a number. Ring, ring, ri- CLICK. Beeeep. Hi! This is Martha. I can’t get to the phone right now. If you leave your first and last name along with your home or cell number, I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. Talk to you later!

    “Hey. You know who it is. You know my number and email. Look… I’m sorry, okay? I just wish you would forgive me because if my own family doesn’t forgive me, I’ll probably never be able to. So just call me back.” Beep.

    ~

    My mother’s house was pink. Not a pale pink. It was bright and grew even brighter under the sun. The door and window frames were an off white. The driveway had brown pebbles and the grass was bright green. I pulled into the driveway, listening to my car complain about every pebble. The drive way was as empty as I thought it would be. My mother had given her car to me last year. Whenever she needed to go somewhere, which was extremely rare, the hospital assigned a cab to her to take her wherever.

    I left my bag in the car and took my purse. I walked up to the almost-white door. It was unlocked. My mother never locked the door. Walking inside, I took a deep breath. I was just two steps in, and already memories were flooding my mind. To my left, that was where Lottie and I had tried to make my mother breakfast for Mother’s Day. Each time, the eggs had burned. The bacon was too crispy. The pancakes weren’t cooked through.

    To the right was where my family would eat dinner and watch TV; the dining room connected to the kitchen was only used on holidays and when we had company. My mother and father would make dinner and then set up TV trays. We all huddled together on our one couch, watching silly sitcoms.

    I walked farther into the house, down a hallway with three doors and one door at the very end. That one door was the bathroom that Lottie and I shared. We would wake up early on school days, just to be the first one in the bathroom. My parents had their own bathroom.

    The first door to my left was their room. The one on the right used to be my father’s office. I grew older and more independent. I needed more room, so we turned that into my room and Lottie got her own one. But Lottie would wake up in the middle of the night and crawl into my bed, anyway. Our parents never knew that.

    As I reached the end of the hall, I realized that the house was too quiet. I walked towards my mother’s door. “Hello?” I opened it. Nobody was inside. Turning around, I noticed that no lights were on. “Mom?” I asked, a little more frantic. I ran back to the living room then in the kitchen then through every room. I ended up back in the living room. I sat on the couch and took out my phone.

    Beep. Beep. Beep. Hello, you’ve reached (blahhospital). Today is April second, 2011. Our phone lines are busy at the moment. Please leave a message with your name and phone number and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Beep. I hung up. I took a deep breath and reached for the remote, trying not to think about what could have happened.

    ~

    I slammed the phone back onto its holder. I kicked the night side table, cursing. I could feel my fists tighten, my blood boil. My face was growing red. I kicked the table again and collapsed on the bed. I looked at the alarm clock. It was only eight in the morning and I already had nothing to do. Fred’s words slipped into my mind, but I picked up the remote and let the television drown it out.

    I flipped through sitcoms and travel guides. I skipped channels with commercials. I stopped as I hit the news channel. A woman was talking. She was probably in her late thirties. Her eyes were teary. “We have been told that the infection is deadly. I repeat, the infection is deadly. We are not positive where this infection originated or how it is caught.” The lady chuckled sadly, “We don’t even know what it exactly does.”

    I looked at the title: “Breaking News: A Murderous Infection”.

    ~

    My heart race must have sped up to twice the speed. A cold sweat trickled down the back of my neck. My breath caught in my throat. I listened to the lady, but really, I had no idea what she was saying. She looked as frightened as I felt. She wiped tears from her eyes as she whispered into the microphone, “We have been ordered to advise everyone to leave their homes as soon as possible. Drive to the nearest safe zone,” a map popped up behind her with red circles, showing the safe zones.

    ~

    “What the hell?” I mumbled. The information didn’t really sink in. I just lay on the hotel bed, staring blankly at the television.

    The lady went on, now with a map behind her, “Although we are not sure about this infection, we do know how dangerous it is. Take your family and loved ones to the nearest safe zones. Please do not waste any time.”

    “What… the hell?” I repeated.

    ~

    “This can’t be true,” I told myself. “What about…” I started, but closed my mouth as soon as I finished the question in my mind. I dialed the hospital’s number and snapped the cell phone to my ear.

    Ring. Ring. Ring. Hello, you’ve reached (blahhospital). Today is April second, 2011. Our phone lines are busy at the moment. Please leave a message with your name and phone number and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Beep.

    I ended the call and called again. Ring. Ri- “Hello. This is (blahhospital). How can I help you?”

    “Where’s my mother?” It burst out of my mouth. I cleared my throat. “This is Prissy Landon. My mother is staying at your hospital. Where is she? What’s going on?”

    “M’am,” the woman’s voice deepened, she whispered, “all patients are being transported to the safe zone in (blah), France. Your mother is certainly with us. Please gather any family members and loved ones and bring them to the safe zone immediately. I assure you that your mother is fine. And you will be fine.”

    “Wait, but how bad is this, really? How do I not get infected?”

    “M’am, we haven’t been told. Truthfully, I don’t think anybody knows yet. Please, just get to the safe zone as soon as possible.”

    “Y-yes. Of course. Thank you,” I murmured, meekly.

    “Good luck, dear,” she sighed, hanging up the phone.

    I dropped my cell phone to the floor. The lady on the television continued talking, “We will be keeping London updated until this is all over.” There was a pause. She sniffed back some tears.

    I picked up my cell phone and ran out of the house, back into my car. I drove towards my grandparents’ house.