Zydrate Cure

Chapter One

Ember Bianchi was dying. She knew it. She hadn't eaten anything in days. The only water she had to drink was from filthy puddles on the street. She slept in decaying garbage, which kept her frail body warm. Today she didn't even have the energy to move. She had collapsed into some garbage in an unfamiliar alley early that morning and hadn't moved an inch. 'A perfectly miserable end to a horrific existence,' she thought.

Suddenly, there were people everywhere. Many scattered and ran out of the alley. Quite a few women remained, scantily clad and seeming to wait for something. Maybe, like her, they waited for Death. The thought of not dying alone brought tears to Ember's eyes.

A few moments later, the girls were in a frenzy. Apparently Death had arrived. Ember's tears fell more frequently. She didn't want to die. Hearing boots making crunching noises on gravel, leaves, and garbage sent Ember into hysterics. "I don't want to die!" she sobbed. As the boots stopped next to her, she shouted, "Please! I want to live! Don't take me away!"

A face appeared above hers. Ghostly white with black lips, dark eyes, and long hair, 'Death is strangely beautiful,' Ember thought through her sobs. "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to go with him, after all.'

Through the haze of starvation, dehydration, and desperation, Ember heard him speak, his voice a beautiful baritone. "Can you hear me, little girl?"

"Yes," she croaked. "I never knew Death would be so handsome."

He chuckled. "Why thank you for the compliment. But I'm not Death. Sorry to burst your bubble. What's your name, little girl?"

"I'm Ember," she managed to say. "And... I'm not... little."

Her comment earned another chuckle. "Well, Ember, you look little to me."

"I'm... 19... just short..." She was quickly running out of energy. "Please, help me."

"Why are you here, Ember? What's wrong?" He looked at her with indifference.

"No home. No food. Sick. Going to die..." A tear trickled down her dirty cheek. "I don't want to die."

"Fighting spirit. I like it." He started fiddling with something out of view. There was the sound of a cap being screwed off of something, and the mysterious man lifted her head. "Here, drink this. Should delay the dying for a little while."

Water. Clean water. It was heaven. She tried to gulp it down, but it was pulled away. She felt a little sick.

"Too much water when dehydrated isn't good, little girl. I will give you more in a little while. I have some business to conduct, then we will get you out of here. Sit tight." His face disappeared.

Ember was terrified. "Wait! Don't leave me!"

His face popped back into view. "Calm down, Ember. I'm not leaving you. You're in my alley. I won't leave you here." He gave her a smile and disappeared again.

Knowing she had no choice but to trust this stranger, Ember tried her best to relax. She listened to the man talk to the women and heard a hiss she rarely got to know: a Zydrate gun. The man must be a Zydrate dealer. He could be dangerous. But, Ember knew she had no choice but to trust him now. She would die either way, potentially.

Eventually, the hiss of the gun stopped, and she heard the man's crunching steps approach. His face came into view again. "Time to get up, buttercup," he said.

"I can't," Ember said, voice a little stronger from the water. "I can barely move."

"Oh. Right. OK, hold on." He crouched down next to her.

She felt his hands and arms underneath her. Then she was in the air, nestled up against the stranger's body. She gasped in pain, her joints stiff from inactivity.