"Our world is bad, but the outside is much worse, Axelle!"
In the confines of Veridonia, surrounded by hills and streams, a deadly plague has claimed the lives of every child under the age of 18. For years, three teenagers-Axelle Henderson, Wylan Co...
Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Alissa Henderson and I want to thank everyone for being here today. I know today is a wonderful Saturday afternoon, and the last thing you want to be doing is listening to a 19-year-old give a speech. (laughs in the crowd)
Professor Clinton told me that the only way a group of adults would listen to a teenager would be if I had something worthwhile to say. Today, I want to thank the University of Vancouver for allowing me to stop here and share my story. This is my first stop, and tomorrow I'll be in New Jersey so check the link on your dreampads for more dates when you can see me.
I'm here today because my story is unique. There was so much that I had not known, and so much that I'd very recently understood. Sometimes, there were small memories in my mind of the first few years of my life but it became ever so descriptive, and so much more beautiful when I pieced it all together like a pretty puzzle.
Now, believe me when I say I'm very bad at puzzles. Some pieces are so random that having them together doesn't make sense. (giggles)
My story, or Veridonia's, is more than a puzzle. It was the story of three strangers, who had no reason to be around each other. Three strangers who knew that Veridonia was not what it seemed to be, and fought to escape from it.
There were three parts to this story, told by three different people. Wylan Cooper, my weird brother, told me his story with the science-y humor that he found incredibly hilarious. My brother is the reason that I'm a speech-giver and not a scientist by the way. He put it off so much that arsenic's chemical composition is embedded in my mind forever now. (laughs in the crowd)
Keira Brooks, who my brother finally got married to three years ago...I know! I have been trying to set them up for half of my life, trust me (loud laughter in the room) Keira was in charge of my bedtime stories. But she'd read me classics to bed. Then, pieces of her story. I used to think it was all a made-up story until I found Axelle Henderson's reports.
I never knew why I was Alissa Henderson when my brother was Wylan Cooper. I used to think that it was a parental thing—maybe my mom's surname. But when I came across this diary in my brother and Keira's room one day during one of my adventures across the house, I found something sinister. Something wonderful.
I didn't remember much. I thought that Kaz was my uncle or something. When he died when I was younger, I never knew that the reason he was so close to me was because of Axelle.
I read the journal and everything in there, and then...slowly...I remembered parts of Veridonia.
As you may know now, Veridonia's experiment was disbanded immediately after my brother and Keira told the Vancouver authorities of the way inside. The history books were descriptive enough for me to understand. My brother and Keira became celebrities. I didn't understand their whole story or Axelle's story fully until I pieced her journal together with my brother's recounts, and added to that...Keira's bedtime pieces.
That's why I wrote this story. 'The World's End' is a biography. A story of survival, a story of resilience. The people whom I'd called my family had stories. Stories that involved me. I don't want to spoil it for you, but I was absolutely delightful as a child. (giggles)
The hardest part of it was realizing that I'd forgotten Axelle. Entirely. No part of me remembered how she looked or talked. I remembered a name— Axy, but I never knew who it was. My subconscious knew her, even if my brain didn't.
This story saved me.
This story saved the entire country. This is a story of how three teenagers managed to save thousands of people. Those thousands are living among us now, in harmony, but not away from their harsh realities. They still remembered the pain and the suffering.
Therefore, every cent made from the purchase of this book is going to be invested in a charitable organization that provides mental and physical health services for the victims of Veridonia. Please also donate from your dreampads for this worthy cause. You won't just be helping, you'll be saving lives.
This book isn't a work of three years. It's a work of 85 years. 85 years of struggle, generational trauma, pain, and everything that Veridonian power stood for.
It's also a book about sacrifice.
Veridonia is now commemorated as history, a history that showed humanity that power can corrupt. Power will kill and power will drown. We learned so much about this from history. But why are we still making the same mistakes? Why do we entrust power to corrupt people?
It's because humanity is corrupt. We're greedy. We have a psychological instinct to help ourselves, not others. But a lot of us are empathetic. Veridonia's experiment destroyed empathy.
So, my final word today —don't lose empathy, don't lose love. Putting power over love caused the tragedy of Veridonia, and believe in the truth. Always.
Thank you very much for listening to me. I won't keep you much longer on this fine afternoon. I need to get some ice cream with my friends anyway but buy 'The World's End' —available in all bookstores and online from tomorrow!
Thank you.
𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳 𝙲𝙾𝚄𝙽𝚃: 𝟿𝟷𝟶 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂
𝚃𝙾𝚃𝙰𝙻 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳 𝙲𝙾𝚄𝙽𝚃: 𝟹𝟾𝟸𝟿𝟶 𝚆𝙾𝚁𝙳𝚂
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