Uprising

Josie gazed at the building that stood ahead of her. Her excitement twitched to get inside and look around, but she kept her feet firm for a little longer, giving her eyes time to take in the beauty of the building. This was her favourite thing about life; finding these fascinating abandoned buildings, exploring their secrets and wondering about what they once were. This one was tall, built with sand colored stones of different shapes and sizes. There was no door left in the door frame, and there were open holes half way up the walls, but the ceiling remained intact. When she'd taken in all she could from the outside, she began the short walk towards the entrance, giddiness dancing in her tummy as she approached the stone steps leading into the building.

Something on the floor reflected sunlight into her eyes, distracting her from her path. She shielded her eyes and looked down to see a silver piece of jewellery laid atop the dusty earth. She was used to seeing remnants of pre-virus life, usually she would ignore them and continue with what she was doing, but this one stopped her. It wasn't like the other discarded items she'd seen. This didn't look like it had laid there for years or months or even days - this was dropped recently. She crouched down for a closer look and picked up the heart-shaped locket. As she dangled the silver chain from her fingers, she felt the virus that inhabited her cells surfacing. The virus could smell fresh human scent in the breeze that caressed the locket as it swung. This was the part of her life she did not like; the virus that overpowered who she was, replacing thought, choice and desire with its instinctual demands: find the human, attack the human, eat the human. She tried to placate it, forcing her eyes away from the locket and back to the building, but her efforts were wasted by a faint human gasp nearby. Rational thought was gone. Her desire to explore the building was gone. Josie was gone. The virus was in control. She felt her bare feet racing across the earth, her heart thumping in her chest. She could smell the human scent getting stronger. She saw the stray strands of human hair that the wind waved above the wooden crate, signposting the humans hiding place. Her mouth watered ready for the feed.

A sudden thud into the side of her body knocked her off course, and her other side collided with the earth. The virus jerked her body, trying to fight free to continue the hunt, but there were to many hands, to much weight, pinning her to the ground. She didn't know how long she'd been there when she finally felt herself returning to her body. Josie was coming back again. Her mind, no longer dominated by the virus, was now able to identify the source of the restraint, but it didn't make any sense. Three other scavengers were holding her down, watching her. Why had they gone for her instead of the human?

"What's going on?" She demanded.

"What's your name?"

"Josie. What's going on?"

"What year is it?"

"3719. What's going on?"

"What are you doing here?"

Josie felt anger growing inside her. Not virus level aggression, just Josie level frustration at her question being ignored. She twisted, trying to shake her captors off, but they were unrelenting.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was going to explore the building. I like buildings."

The scavengers exchanged glances, as if speaking without words, then relaxed their hold, allowing Josie to sit herself up.

"Why did you attack me? What is this? Why did you not attack that human?"

"We live with these humans, Josie. We live alongside them, and we protect them."

Josie laughed involuntarily. How ridiculous?! Scavengers couldn't live among humans! The virus inside them wouldn't allow it. It would make them attack, make them kill, make them feed. She looked at the woman who'd spoken as her laughter continued. She didn't look like she was joking. She was older than Josie, in her 40's, maybe. It was hard to tell the age of other scavengers. Technically, they were whatever age they had died at, but all those affected by the virus carried on aging as the years passed after their death. Josie had died when she was 5 years old, but she was 25 now. Most died before their 10th birthday. The virus would come alive within them, they would die, then return, as this - the same person they'd always been, but with the virus forever lurking within, ready to take control whenever a human unaffected by the virus was nearby. The woman continued to watch Josie, her expression blank.

'You can't live among humans. That's impossible."

"Really? Is it possible for a scavenger to be near a human and not kill them?"

"No." Josie answered without pause for thought, but her brow furrowed as she realised she had just witnessed these scavengers not killing, or even trying to kill, the human that was now far enough away from her that the virus was subdued again. "Why didn't you attack the human?"

"I told you. We live among them. We protect them."

"How? How is that even possible?"

"Come, sit with us, and I'll explain."

Josie's interest was piqued, and the woman was gesturing towards the building she'd been on her way to explore, so she nodded and followed the scavengers inside.

She resisted her urge to immediately go investigate every inch of the building, and took a seat next to the woman who'd spoken outside. The other scavengers left them, disappearing behind a door at the far side of the building.

"Do you have any family"

"No. My parents were killed by humans." The thought of her parents ached Josie's heart. Part of her hated the humans that killed them, but another part of her understood that it was self defense. The virus had made her parents attack the humans, the humans fought back, and won.

"Do you travel with anyone?"

"No, I travel alone." Josie realised she was, again, giving answers whilst still not having received any. "How do you live among the humans? Why do you protect them?"

"We've learnt how to control the virus, to an extent. We still have the urge to feed on humans, but we can stop it taking over."

"So you don't feed on humans?"

"We do. We have to. But we only feed on the recently dead."

"How? I don't understand. No one can control the virus."

"You just saw us control it, out there."

That was true. As much as Josie's mind couldn't comprehend anyone controlling the virus, it also couldn't refute what she'd experienced first hand.

"Why do you protect the humans? Why control it?"

"We protect them, and we control it, so we can live alongside each other. In return for our protection, they give us their recently dead."

"But why? Why not just kill them?"

"Josie, do you like your life?"

"It's ok. I like finding buildings and exploring them."

"Do you like the virus?"

"No." It was starting to make sense to her now, why they controlled it. She didn't like the virus, not because she cared for the humans at all, but because she didn't like the feeling when it took over her. She didn't like losing herself. She'd never considered how others felt about it, but maybe they felt the same as she did. "How do you do it? Can you teach me?"

"I can. If you join us."

"What? Like, stay with you?"

"Yes. Stay with us, and join our quest."

"What quest?"

"We plan to overthrow the Elite."

The involuntary laughter burst from Josie again. Who was this crazy scavenger? She controlled the virus, that was crazy enough, but now she was talking about overthrowing the Elite?! Josie wasn't sure how long the Elite had ruled, but she knew it was since well before her parents' lifetime.

"I'm sorry. You're mental. How are you going to overthrow the Elite?"

"With an army of scavengers and humans."

Another laughter bubble burst from Josie. "Humans? Against the Elite? No, thank you. It's suicide. I'd love to control the virus, really, I would, but taking on the Elite is suicide, and I'd rather live with this virus than not at all."

She stood up to leave, but stopped as the woman continued speaking. "We're creating a new world, Josie. A world where no-one is victim to the virus. A world where every scavenger can take back control. The Elite know how to do it, but they keep it secret."

Josie turned back to face the woman. "If the Elite can control it, why would they keep it secret?"

"Because they like how things are. They like being the Elite. They enjoy killing and feasting on humans. They make games out of it."

"How do you know this?"

"Because I was one of them."

"You're an Elite? Why are you out here then, with us scavengers?"

"I was an Elite. I worked in one of the farms where they breed the humans. How do you think they do that, by the way, if they can't control the virus?"

"I didn't know they did. I just presumed they had humans living there like we do out here, but loads more of them."

"They have more because they breed them. They create humans to eat, and they control the virus so they can do it. I wanted to change things. I wanted them to teach everyone to control the virus, so we can live alongside the humans, but they didn't want to. So, like they do with anyone that doesn't fit with their ways, they kicked me out."

Josie didn't know how to respond. She felt like her mind was being taken over again, but not by the virus this time, instead by the avalanche of information coming from this woman, information that contradicted what she'd known and accepted her whole life.

"So, you want us and humans to coexist, peacefully? All over the world?"

"Yes."

"Why not just teach the scavengers you meet how to control the virus? Why bother overthrowing the Elite?"

"Because they need to be stopped! What they're doing to those humans they breed isn't right. They're evil." Josie's face clearly gave away her lack of concern for humans, as the woman stopped and changed her approach. "And they're wrong for keeping how to control the virus a secret. No scavenger likes the feeling when the virus takes over. Nobody should have to feel that, especially when there's a way for them not to. I tried before, when they first kicked me out, to teach scavengers how to control it, and do you know what the Elite did? They killed them. They found out what I was doing, and they killed the scavengers I'd taught. I managed to escape, and now, I teach scavengers that agree to join me, so we can overthrow the Elite, and create a new world, together."

Josie didn't know at what point she'd sat back down, but she realised now as she felt the cold hard wood supporting her - the woman had managed to pull her back in. She didn't care for the humans, but she did care for the scavengers. If her parents had been able to control the virus, they would still be here now. It wasn't fair that scavengers went on losing themselves every time they were near a human when they didn't have to. It wasn't fair that the Elite had knowledge of how to control the virus and chose to withhold it. If it was true that all scavengers shared her hatred of the virus, then maybe this woman could get enough of them together to actually defeat the Elite. Maybe they really could create a new world.

"Ok. I'll do it. I'll join you."