by P K Stadnyk
I started to run, which was hard in the water. My legs felt like something heavy was tied to them. Soon, I was next to the kid I tried to help. He remembered what he was really scared of and started running so fast I thought for a moment he was running on the water or flying. I got tired from running and tried to swim instead.
Adults were standing on the beach shouting at us to get out of the water, but, surprisingly, no one got in to help us out.
When I was close to the shore, I saw ITS eye next to mine. It was big and scary. It looked like a whale. I’ve seen them in the movies. As I recalled, they didn’t eat people and they looked smaller too. To be honest, at first, I thought it was a shark. Perhaps because of our game.
In less than half an hour, all kinds of rescuers, TV reporters, and journalists came down, and the beach was closed.
The beach remained closed for a couple of days until they directed the whale in the right direction out to sea. They said it got lost and that it was safe to swim again. Maybe. I wasn’t too keen to get into the sea any time soon, though. Nobody was…
After the rescuers helped this poor whale get back to its waters, it came back or maybe it was another one that got lost. So they helped it again, but more and more were coming and getting stranded on the beach, and when somebody reported a shark in the water, they closed the beach. Nobody could explain what was happening and how the whales could get lost but whole families of them were getting beached. Rescue teams had to help them; otherwise, they just lay on the beach to die, but after some time, so many of them came that they couldn’t catch up and some of them did die. The beach, a place of fun, turned into a cemetery. A terrible smell was coming from it. It was the smell of death.
That whale scared me to death, but it was so sad to watch them die and not being able to help them in any way. We watched the news and the same thing was happening all over the world. It was like the animals got crazy and lost their orientation.
CHAPTER 23 - A DISASTER
After few weeks, an international crisis occurred. They called for people to try not to catch fish. Salmon and tuna almost disappeared from the waters all over the world. More bad news was coming every day, calling people to help save different species. Our food chain started to get missing links. Half of all the world’s animals, insects, etc. were under the threat of dying out completely. I couldn’t imagine how millions of animals could die out in just few days.
What could we do? Become vegetarians? We tried, but some always people just don’t care and whatever you do or tell them, they ignore it. News from Central Europe reported problems with their animals, including chickens, cows, and pigs. This was really serious for them, as that was their main source of money and economy. They were asking for help from other countries with money and cure. Animals epidemics were killing most of them. All of the dead animals and their products had to be burned. No eggs, meat, or milk could be used. People doing it were wearing mask. It was unknown if the disease was spreadable to humans. On another news channel, I watched protests of people chanting, “European Union is a traitor not a savior.” Our government tried to prevent the disease from spreading in our country. They stopped all shipments of meat and didn’t let anyone in our out. The borders were closed and Central Europe was left on their own under so-called quarantine. Later, it spread to the rest of the Europe and further east. Our island was one of the last places in Europe left untouched, which led to farmers doubling the prices. That was the reason for massive protest. Police were everywhere, trying to calm people down, but they had to use force and tear gas to make it work.
Everything got dearer. Especially meat, milk, and eggs, but fish was so expensive that it cost almost half a week’s wages for a large tuna.
Something bad was going to happen. Everybody could feel it. It was in the air. It was just a matter of time before the monster would leave the closet. A lot of people said that war was on its way if we didn’t help these poor countries. We even turned our backs on official friends like France.
It was going on and there was no end to it. Nobody even noticed the dark clouds coming and meeting above our heads. More of them came every day until they turned into one massive dark cloud that I had seen twice before, and none of those times brought anything good. It was just hung there like it was waiting for the right moment or for people to notice its incredible size. The sea took on the color of the cloud, which made a black and white seascape picture where white was rather rare.
When nobody took any notice of it, the cloud began to show off. It got completely dark and light yellow lightning came out of it, then another and another. It was raining heavily, and the drops were so big that some people ran to their homes and some to the beach to look at this amazing, holding your breath, scary sight. There was no wind, though. They just stood there, hypnotized soaking wet until the lightning was getting closer to the beach. Then they all started to scream and run. It rained nonstop for more than a week. The animal rescue had to give up because the rising water covering the beach and there was no dry space for them, which I thought would be good for the whales and sharks and whatever else was coming there. As the rain came down, the cloud started to disappear.
When it finally stopped, people came out and found that the rain did unexpected damages. It was more than acid rain could have done in years of time. The buildings and roads were covered in yellow-green moss. The rain also made holes in the roads and buildings, affecting mostly the older ones where quite large pieces fell off. It reminded me of the time when termites ate my chair’s leg when I was little. The view was very similar.
The beach was covered with dead fish of every size, prawns, and other seafood and, unfortunately, more whales. The stench was strong for miles away and made people sick. It left a bitter-sour taste in our mouths.
People started to cough and sneeze at first, which looked like a normal cold or flu, but people couldn’t follow one simple hygiene rule to cover their mouth, and everybody with no exception caught the disease. The coughing and sneezing persisted for weeks and was joined by fever and aches before our skin and hair started changing too. Our hair looked dry, damaged, and without color. Our skin became pale, kind of yellow, and was dry as paper. Conditioners and creams didn’t help, and if we wanted to buy different ones, all shops were closed because of sickness. The streets soon were full of rubbish, deserted, and looked pretty much like scenes from disaster movies. They were only missing one thing to complete the view: zombies.
The whole country was on a flu epidemic state of emergency. Our government asked for help from abroad, which I think was arrogant. They of course refused to help. What did we expect?! And closed the borders to us this time. Somehow, Europe’s animal epidemic stopped but very few animals were left, which was a complete disaster. They already were on their reserves with meat. It was critical time for them and soon for us…
It was all about money. It always had been. The world had been ruled by the strongest, healthiest, and fittest. People in their greed changed it. Now the world ruled the richest. Money had ruled the world. What was it anyway? Just a piece of paper. But if you had no money, it didn’t matter if you were good or bad, healthy or sick, smart or stupid, weak or strong; nobody respected you. People couldn’t be happy without it. When I was growing up, I noticed money was bringing food and happiness, but it almost always brought trouble, worries, and wars too. Money could separate best friends or destroy the strongest marriage. Those who were rich always wanted more, becoming selfish and greedy. They isolated themselves from other people, thinking they wanted to steal their money. Of course, some good rich people helped the poor and sick, trying to change the world for a better place. Unfortunately, there weren’t many of them, and, now, nobody was willing to pay the money to cure everyone. Sure, they cured themselves and their families. If I had the money, I surely would try to help cure everybody, but I wasn’t rich…
After their refusal, people were sure war was coming. However, we asked for help from America, who sent u
s some scientist, doctors, medicines, and money and then quarantined us. Who can blame them? We did the same. The doctors and scientist never made it back home, they didn’t let them in. Actually, they were the first ones to die.
They first became sick like us but became worse faster, probably because they had too much contact with the sick.
One day, Dad went out and promised to be back in few days. I didn’t have any contact with my friends or the outside world apart from TV, but I didn’t watch it. There was only bad news coming from all over the world. Mom and Sophie were also infected, but they tried to look good.
The days were passing by, and I spent them in my window, watching the chaos on the streets. I saw people whose hair and skin started to fall off. They were running down the streets with open wounds and covered in blood. Attacks were happening even in the daytime. I couldn’t get the horrible scenes out of my mind. I and other kids at my age or younger shouldn’t have to witness this. Mom spent the days praying and playing with Sophie.
Dad finally came home carrying a small brown paper bag, put it on the table, and coughed heavily with blood mucus. Mom started to cry and hugged my dad.
“Don’t worry. I’m okay. We all are.” He put the contents from the bag on the table: ten syringes. “It’s all I could get.” He gave us one shot each. I hated injections, but this one I took like a man. It didn’t even hurt. “We should go to sleep.”
I felt terrible that night. Shivers and high fever made me hallucinate, but, suddenly, when I woke up, everything was gone, including every symptom of this disease.
“Max, Anna, we’re going out in ten minutes. Please be ready.”
“Where are we going, John?” my mom asked.
“Not far.”
“Is it safe?”
“Yes, it is. Take Sophie and no more questions, please.”
He started running around the house, looking for things and packing. I thought he was still having hallucinations. When he finished, we got into the car.
“Lock the doors and don’t open them until I tell you.”
“What’s going on, John?” Dad got close to my mom, gave her a kiss, held a finger to his lips, and started driving.
Now the city looked like zombies apocalypse. People were everywhere banged at our car windows, some tried to run after the car. People had lots of open wounds with blood coming out of them, some didn’t have teeth, and some were bald. One boy on the corner was pulling skin off his arm and looking at it with interest as if he didn’t feel any pain. Then he pulled another piece, and I couldn’t look anymore.
“Oh, God…” whispered Mom through her tears.
We drove to the airport. It was jammed with “zombies” being held off by military in special protecting clothing with guns, and, this time, they used them without compunction. I could see piles of bodies on the ground, but others didn’t care and kept trying to get in. They just got more aggressive. There was nothing left of humanity, only scared half-dead creatures.
“John, what are we doing here?”
“We’re leaving. I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you before. You wouldn’t agree to leave.”
“But our friends, John. What about them? Are we going to leave them? Just like that?”
“I’m sorry, Anna. I can’t help them. Not this time.”
“But you have a cure. We can give it to them.”
“It’s not enough. Are you going to choose which ones will live and which ones will die? What if we give away all that we have and our kids get sick again? Then we won’t have any left.” Dad shook his head in resignation.
“They counted on you to help them.”
“They’re probably dead by now.”
“Don’t say that,” she cried.
“If I get more of the cure, I’ll come back for them.”
“How are we getting out? The borders are closed.”
“I’ve sorted that out.”
We drove closer to the airport, but people stood in our way and wouldn’t move out. My dad tried to shout and motion at them to move away from the car, but they wouldn’t listen. These creatures started banging and hitting our car. I could hear shots and dead bodies falling on the car staining it with blood, but others just pulled the bodies away and took their place.
A soldier shouted, “Come on! Push the accelerator as hard as you can. We’ll try to hold them off! Hurry!”
“Are you kidding me? What about these people?”
“They’re not people anymore! Go!”
When we finally broke through, a plane was waiting for us. I got out of the car and noticed helicopters and a smaller plane not far from it. Standing next to the plane was Tom.
“Tom! I thought you didn’t make it,” said my dad.
“Surprise, surprise!”
“Sir, I’m sorry, but I need to see your documents,” said a soldier. My dad showed him a red card. “Thank you, doctor. Have a nice trip.”
“Are you not going?” my dad asked Tom.
“We’re leaving right after your plane. There is nothing to do here anymore.”
“Good luck.”
“We’re going to need this. Your plane is ready. They’re waiting for you,” said a soldier to Tom.
The plane was bigger and looking very similar to the one that fell in front of our house. It was almost full of people. I was looking for a place to sit that wasn’t close to a window. I didn’t want to look outside, especially at our car or what was left of it. Thankfully, all the windows were covered.
“Max!”
“Alvin? Oliver?”
“Hey, buddy,” cheered Alvin.
“Why are you not dead?” asked Oliver.
“Nice to see you too, Oliver. Why are you not dead?”
“My mom’s a scientist and was part of the project.”
“What project?”
“I don’t know. It’s top secret.”
Alvin started to cry.
“His mom didn’t make it. There’s only him, his sister, and his dad.”
“Why my mom? Why couldn’t it happen to my sister?”
“Don’t say that,” I told him. “She’s not so bad. You’ll feel sorry for that later.”
“No, I won’t,” he said and walked away.
I noticed Mary and Bob sitting in the back of the plane. They looked terrified. I went to look for my family. The plane was starting, and I found them arguing.
“John! What is this? Why are they helping us? Who are you?”
“Anna, please calm down. I’ll tell you later.”
“You’re a doctor! You’re supposed to help people, not abandon them!”
“Yes, I am. Would you prefer me going out there to try to help them and give my life for them?! They’d probably tear me apart and eat me alive before I would do anything, and you wouldn’t see me anymore! Is that what you want?!”
“No. I’m sorry. I’m scared…” She cried and put her head on Dad’s arm.
When the plane started, we heard screams coming from outside. Somebody opened a window.
“Oh, my God…” they exclaimed.
“That encouraged more people to look, and, finally, my dad opened our window.
“John, don’t…”
“It’s okay. Just for a minute.”
Wave of these monsters flooded the runway, engulfing the poor soldiers, and those who were still alive ran to their helicopters. One pilot didn’t even wait for his passengers and tried to take off without them, but before he did so, he was pulled to the ground. The monster tried to fly away but got shot by a soldier who showed more heart and waited for his friends as long as he could.
Dad covered the window and hugged and kissed my mom.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we should be landing in approximately eight hours. Please make yourself comfortable.”
I got a pillow but couldn’t go to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw empty, sour faces with some parts of the skin missing on their foreheads, cheeks, or noses. That, however, wasn’t as scary
as their eyes. Few weeks ago, eyes with happiness, color, and life now turned into dead, light-gray, empty holes in which the light of life was already gone.
CHAPTER 24 - THE TRUTH
I was in a car with my dad driving to the store. I went to look at the toys and new game magazines as I always did. When I finished and started to look for Dad, the shelves were endless. It felt like I was walking in place, so I started to run. That didn’t change anything. I started screaming and calling for help but nobody was coming. I wanted to stop running, but I couldn’t, and now, I was moving backwards where zombies were waiting for me. They reached to catch me and already grabbed my coat…
When we landed, soldiers took us to white tents for a health check to make sure we didn’t bring the virus. They left us in there for quarantine even when the checks showed we were clear. Couple of weeks passed before we were allowed to go outside and see New York.
We weren’t far from the water and could see the Statue of Liberty. It was the biggest city I’d ever been to. We saw it at night time, and I noticed lots off high buildings where almost every window had a light on. It looked impressive, but did they all really need to have all their lights on?
I remember they taught us even in school about saving energy and living “green.” Not long before we left, some people were blaming humanity for the disaster because of poisoning the environment and global warming. I felt guilty when I fell asleep and forgot to turn the light off. Maybe it wasn’t so global after all.
Mom almost didn’t speak with Dad, and I noticed everybody had respect for him. I didn’t know all of these people, but it looked like we didn’t move to Weymouth by accident. One day, when we were having dinner-still in the tent, a guy came over dressed in a dark-blue uniform.
“John, how are you doing?” he asked.
“I’ll be better when I get out of here.”
“Good because we got you the house. My people will take you there whenever you want. I’m sure you’ll be ready to get back to your work by tomorrow. Same as you, Tom.”
