Unprepared

A lone piece of paper reading "Wash your hands. Wear your mask. Don't touch your face. Protect yourself and others." flies in the wind over what appears to be a city covered in a thick layer of dirt and trash. A city once beautiful and bustling with people is now deserted. On the floors inside the long-abandoned buildings are evenly-placed stickers so worn out that one can just barely read the warnings: "Stand here. Stay 6 feet apart." These stickers lay underneath the glass of broken windows from past riots.

Farther out from the city are mass graves mixed with landfills where disease-riddled, dead bodies have been dumped. It wasn't just this city, but everywhere around the world too: deserted, overgrown, with the last remnants of pandemics the world was unprepared for.

I wake up, breathing hard. "Just a bad dream..." I lie to myself. But it's the same dream I'd had every night. Every morning, as the cold concrete wakes me up to reality, I lie to myself that it was just a bad dream, wishing my nightmare would be over. My name is Kendra. I'm fifteen years old, and I have never been to a place that didn't look like my dream, and my worst fear is that the entire world is like this. I know there used to be better days, a better life, and I hope it still exists. I was just born after the world went downhill.

I wait as my eyes adjust to the brightness shining into the abandoned store. I roll over on my stomach, looking around to see if anyone else is awake yet. Why we couldn't just sleep on a bed in some house is beyond me- but I'm not the leader, I just survive. I'm not even sure why someone would have chosen to bring a child into this world.

Darnyl, who I call my father even though he hates it, is still asleep. He is the leader. He is an old man at forty-five years old, and he still remembers when society still operated normally. He has so many stories to tell- or, at least he used to. He doesn't tell those stories anymore as he says it makes me delusional. But I ask him what the point of us constantly searching for a better life is if we also can't be a little bit delusional.

Darnyl is the oldest person I've ever met, and I am the youngest out of our small group of five. I've met people younger than me, but they rarely last too long as little kids just love to secretly pick their nose. I secretly think Darnyl might be the oldest person still alive. I sit up and lean against the aisle of the old store we've been sleeping in. Today, we'll be moving to another new location- searching for whatever it is we're searching for. We're pretty low on supplies like hand sanitizer, alcohol, soap, masks, batteries, and stuffy hazmat suits, like the one I currently wear. Airborne viruses are so prevalent that not wearing a hazmat suit is basically suicide. Not only are we to wear a hazmat suit, but a mask as well. Alcohol is the most precious commodity there is- it's literally what we bathe in if we have it.

Abby, whom I call my mother even though she hates it, stirs near me. The suits make a distinct noise as one moves. She suddenly wakes up with a gasp. We all have nightmares all the time. No one is going to feel very empathetic for another about it. Her heavy breathing fogs up the plastic in her suit. When it clears, I squint at her and see some tears running down her face.

Abby is thirty-eight years old. It's sad to think Abby and Darnyl will probably die soon. I appreciate they've always made a point to keep track of everyone's ages. Abby and Darnyl found me when I was four and have taken me under their wing ever since. I don't know what happened to my parents. I call Abby and Darnyl "Mom" and "Dad" because they taught me everything I know and told me of a world they claim was only twenty-five years ago- and now tell me to not be delusional.

"I dreamt of that locket again..." Abby's voice broke me from my thoughts. Abby's recurring nightmare was of her as a child where her parents supposedly gave her a special locket as they died. Right before she can open it, she always wakes up. Not much of a nightmare if you ask me- not like dreaming of reality, of a world so desolate it's beyond repair.

"I again dreamt the entire world was just like this store." I replied, without much emotion.

"The world is entirely like this, Kendra." Darnyl said in his booming voice.

"Glad you're awake, Dad." One day, he would accept me calling him "Dad". Today, I just got a stern look. I did say it to annoy him somewhat- so what could I expect.

"Sae and Mae." He called firmly to the twins. Sae and Mae are twenty-four. They are resourceful twins who are useful to have around.

Sae stirs in their respective corner of the store.

"Dad says it's time to get up." I call to them both again.

"I'm not your dad, Kendra." Darnyl said sternly.

None of us move near each other because all of us want to, for some reason, live to see another day. Despite all our safety precautions, one can never be 100% sure that they do not have and cannot catch a virus. Apparently, there used to be vaccines that protected people from things like COVID-19, but the world turning so anti-safe in response to the year 2020 made viruses mutate and spread quicker than a vaccine could be prepared. Self-cleaning hazmat suits like the ones we were wearing with internal battery-powered radio communications had been invented to slow the spread; but, a lot of people refused to wear them. A mask was one thing, but basically mandating a uniform of sorts? I often wonder what the anti-hazmat and pro-freedom movements would think if they could see the world now: perhaps they wouldn't consider it a violation of their freedoms. There was no government to oppress them now because the majority of people, in every position in life, had died. There were many reasons that contributed to this, like untested vaccines; riots for supplies and for human rights; and, selfishness. Abby and Darnyl have been giving me full history lessons.

"MAE!" Darnyl shouted. I roll my eyes, annoyed as my thoughts are constantly interrupted. Thinking is my favorite thing to do. I glare over to where Mae is and realize the other twin has still not moved.

Sae gasps first, and then bursts into tears. They don't run over to their sibling, instead Sae checks her suit in a panic while trying to hold back tears. And then I see what the fuss is about: a big tear in Mae's suit. Whatever virus she was exposed to in her sleep killed her quickly and silently.

"Everyone- check your suits!" Darnyl commands.

We all check our suits.

"Good!" Abby yells.

"Good!" A hyperventilating Sae yells.

"Good!" Darnyl yells.

As I check my suit, I see a very small puncture. My mind panics- I could be exposed.

"Kendra, are you good?!" Darnyl yells.

"Good!" I lie, my heart pounding.

"Let's move out!" Darnyl commands.

And just like that, without checking Mae's body to see if they were really alive or dead, we gather all our supplies and leave. We've done this before- just not to one of our central members. And, yet, we treat Mae as if she were a stranger we hadn't spent years with.

As we walk, at a safe distance from each other in our tried-and-true formation that now had one less member, I think on what just happened. But we don't have time to cry. It obviously isn't safe here.

THREE DAYS LATER

We were coming upon another new city. Abby and Darnyl used to tell me stories of each city we went to- this one used to be called "The Big Apple", it was The City That Never Slept; this one is where Motown music came to life; this one is the home of Frederick Douglass...And, then, one day, they became harsher.

"What's this city?" I ask, trying to capture that magic again. Couldn't we all use a little joy?

"Don't be delusional, Kendra." Came the familiar response. I suddenly don't know who said it- any of them could have said it. Why am I so confused? And then the worst thing imaginable happened: I cough. A real cough.

Everyone stops dead in their tracks. They all slowly turn to look at me. I try not to, but I cough again.

"I- I just need cough medicine!" I lied, as those I considered my family back away from me.

"Kendra, don't follow us." Sae said.

I run after them as they run away from me. They give me no supplies.

"Stop!" I yell to them. I trip and fall, and they don't look back. And then I hear the static of a radio no one is on.

THE END