Radioactive

Chapter 1

I woke up to the soft buzz of my phone ringing. I groaned, the clock read 6:00 am. I picked it up my phone bedside table. It read Dad. I hadn't spoken to him, and he hasn't bothered to call, in the last two years. Why now? I picked it up the phone but didn't say a word. "Raven!" He said as if I was his "lost" child he had just found. "Hey, I know you're there, so I was going to ask you and your sister if you would do me a favor and come to my wedding. I will send out information soon." That made my insides cringe. "Absolutely not!" I shouted. "You left mom for another woman, why would I come to your wedding? I hate you! How could you do that to our family?" My father stayed silent. "I don't want to come to your stupid wedding and I never want to see
you again!"
I then hung up. I hated my father.
The next morning I got another call from my dad, but this time I didn't pick up. I continued to get calls from him all day. I didn't care how important his wedding was, I was not attending. I shook my head, trying to clear the angry thoughts out of my brain. I ran out of my room, and went downstairs. Today was the stupid science field trip, but since my mom was a scientist, evidently I had to go. She said that the scientists were going to demonstrate many "unbelievable" chemical reactions and take a mind numbing tour of the facility. I've been there so many times I knew every word of every "tour guides" speech. The nerdiest scientist takes us into the hallways, talks continuously for at least thirty minutes about how being a scientist is the best thing in the world, then we walk in a circle every time and we see the same room. The Lab Room. 40 eyes of all ages would stare up at the glass windows and imagine what life you would test on, watching the scientists demonstrate chemical reactions. Then they talk about elements and the periodic table. I had learned that in about first grade, the first time I got to go to work with her.

We boarded the bus and made our way to the science lab. Through every speed bump, it seemed to interrupt my peaceful thoughts with thoughts of my dad. All twenty of us shuffled out of the bus, all wearing a different face, mine was completely uninterested. The nuclear power plant was really not too big, the ceilings were semi-tall and the fountain stole the whole foyer space, I knew this lobby like the back of my hand. The man took us down the first corridor. His voice turned into pure white noise ten seconds in. Suddenly, the room began to shake. We all struggled to keep our balance, the tour guide trying desperately to hide his nervous expression. Everyone brushed themselves off and got back up on two legs. It was usual for the California ground to shake, but it began to rumble again. The tour guide pushed his voice to scream over the loud burp of the ground, after a while, his mouth was just spitting consents. I began to worry, the ground doesn't often shake quite this often. The mixing and churning of the floor rapidly sped up. The prehistoric pictures and diagrams among the walls fell with crashes and painful sounds of glass shattering. My legs couldn't hold their ground any longer. No one was able to balance on the constantly groaning earth. Before I knew it, the screaming erupted, gas and glass shot through the air, students ran in all directions, but there was nowhere to go. The gases thickened in the air. I ran to the nearest door with no windows. The chemical storage. I swung it open hastily, ran into the room, and slammed the door shut hoping for the best. The screaming had stopped. My head was spinning. I felt my face burn up and my chest began to ache, fluids seemed to flood my head. I felt uneasy and unable to stand, I fell to the floor in a puddle of agony.
I woke in a daze, the pain was excruciating. I held my head, dabs of blood shown on my fingertips. I looked at my arms, they were glowing, the glowing spread to my body then my legs. This extravagant green color filled me with question. I opened the door and crawled over what looked like cadavers on the floor. I couldn't focus on anything, my vision blurring. I stared at the rubble in horror. I was here on a field trip with my classmates, my best friends. All now lying amongst the cinder. Then I remembered, my mom was in the lab room today, where the explosion happened. I had to go and find out what the elements were that caused the reaction and find my mom. I tried to walk but my legs collapsed beneath me. I crawled to the room and shoved open the door. Clouds of gas sprayed in my face and I fell over again. I forced myself to get back up onto my knees. I got a slight glimpse of the room. The only things not ruined were the test tubes that contained the elements. I crawled over to the broken table and snatched the vial. No remains of the elements were there. I turned over the tube, hoping for a label, the test tube read Francium. What did this mean? I crawled along the wall slabs, hearing hoarse coughing. I limped towards it. A man lay under a heavy slab of cement. He gasped for air, I tried my hardest but couldn't lift the wall remains. It was too late, he couldn't be saved. He gasped," The radiation gas is in you...." His voice trailed off and his face blanked. Blood dripped from his mouth and onto his pure white lab coat.
"The radiation is in you", I kept repeating in my brain. What did he mean? How come everyone else is lying on this floor dead, except for me. Why did I have to be the one to live? I looked away and to my shock, there lay my mother her eyes open wide, her beautiful green eyes. She looked so peaceful. She looked so lifeless so distant. I folded her hands onto her chest, holding them harder, wishing she would come back to me. After a while, I broke my grasp and got up, wiping a tear from my cheek. I was sucked back into reality, Lacey needed to know.
I stumbled, burning reaching every section of my body. By the time I made it home, my arms and legs were black and my skin was charred. "Lacey!" I called out. She wasn't responding. I limped into the house, calling again. "Lacey!" I couldn't bother with it now. I was exhausted and burned to a crisp. Hopping into the bathroom, I turned on the faucet, sending the knob all the way to freezing. I pulled myself over the bath side, letting the refreshing water wash away the terrors I had seen. Within twenty minutes, I finished, got dressed, and still felt like a dying flower. Roaming into the kitchen I poured myself a nice glass of iced tea, I put exactly three ice cubes in. I went and sat in mom's chair on the porch and soaked up her smell. There, to my surprise in the green lawn sat my sister. She sat there frozen with terror, her eyes glued on something ahead of her. I walked over to her and sat down. She immediately turned and hugged me, tears went streaming down her face. Between her tears she said, "Mom is gone isn't she? I saw the explosion."
We sat there in the front lawn sobbing until our eyes were dry and our throats burned. People passed by and gave looks of confusion and many disgust. We ended up stumbling inside and falling asleep on the floor next to our mother's bed. I stroked Lacey's hair as she cried softly. 
Three days had passed. My sister and I sat inside and talked about good times until we built up enough strength to get up and do something productive. I got in the car and Lacy climbed into the back. On our way to the store I almost hit three parked cars because of my burning arms and legs. Lacey just sat there silently the entire time. She didn't look scared anymore, she just had no expression on her face. Just sat there staring out the window.
I was getting worried. Lacy normally asked for blasted music, sang, or spoke about her new toys. The entire ride the air was tense and I was tied up in thoughts about the explosion.