Diseased

Chapter 1- At Risk

Even though I could feel the terror running through my veins, I continued to walk at a steady pace. As I got closer I could see the city’s big library surrounded by people, I gave my little sisters hand a squeeze. It had taken them two months to bring the testing to the area I lived in. Two months of the disease spreading, of hearing cruel rumors of what was happening, of not knowing if the person next to you was a monster.

Before you ask what this disease is, I’m going to tell you that no one really knows, they only knew the vague description the government gave us two months ago when it first broke out. That you needed something rare in your blood to have a chance of getting it, that when you got it you were no longer human, you were a blood thirsty monster, capable of doing the extreme, and that if someone got it, the best thing to do would be to kill them.

We all believed this and lived in constant fear of death. Now after two months of living with the disease that has invaded the world, the people in my city were being tested to see who was at risk of getting it.

We slowly climbed up the steps of the library, fearing what answers would lay at the top. Sapphire – my younger sister – let go of my hand and clung to my waist. Sapphire was six years old and looked almost nothing like me. She had tan skin, was short for her age, had dark eyes, and had short golden blonde hair. Apposed to me at my height of 5’8, my always pail skin, my brown curly hair that reached my belly button, and my lightning blue eyes. I got my looks from our dad, and she looked like my mom- who were both walking nervously behind us, hand in hand.

“I’m scawed Jay.” Sapphire mispronounced her ‘r’ and could never say my name, so she called me Jay.

“It’ll be ok Saph, we’re gonna be tested quickly then go home, I can even make you cookies when we get there.”

She grinned widely. “White-chocolate chip!?” She asked.

I smiled down at her fondly. “Any kind you want.”

Just then two armed men dressed in all black rushed past us. In-between them was an old man- probably in his eighty’s –that had a very obvious limp.  

“Grand-daddy!” A little boy with curly brown hair called out before his mother stopped him.

“Grand-daddy is at risk Jimmy, he’s not grand-daddy or my daddy anymore.” The woman told him coldly.

The old man looked like he was going to cry. All around us little kids looked confused, people over the age of ten all glared at him- except me. I looked at him with sorrow, he wasn’t infected yet, just at risk, he was still human, but unfortunately when you’re at risk even your family turns on you- hates you.

He looked around sadly but when he saw my expression he gave me a soft smile. I returned it until my mother elbowed me angrily. “Keep walking!” She hissed.

Sighing, I looked down and continued up the steps. Once in the library you could see how crowded it was. We came late so we would be the very last ones to be tested.

Over the hours of waiting I only saw ten or twenty infected people being dragged off- the stuff you needed in your blood had to be very rare if in a city population of 79,000 people, only twenty or so people had it.

Once when we were half way through the line a man at risk vanished into thin air, turned invisible; he had already been infected. After a moment of listening, one of the army men fired his gun, and suddenly the man had reappeared dead.

So you could say I was scared out of my mind, and the hours of waiting didn’t help. So at the end of the day when we finally were at the front of the now nonexistent line and the machine loomed over me, well I was frozen.

“I’ll go first.” My dad announced before stretching his arm out for the scientist.

She quickly pricked him with a needle and put the drop of blood on a cotton swab. She put the cotton swab in a little pocket on the side of the machine. After a minute of waiting she looked at the data on a screen that was attached to the machine. The stuff on screen looked like an alien language to me, but apparently it wasn’t because after looking at it she said, “You’re clean.”

Next my sister went; obviously she was in a rush for those cookies. After the lady repeated the process she handed Sapphire a sugar-free lolly-pop and again said, “You’re clean.”

Next my mother pushed ahead of me only to reveal that she too was not at risk.

And now here I am watching anxiously as the lady looked at the screen. My family seemed relaxed, they probably thought scene they were fine, I would be too.  

They were wrong.

“You are at risk.”

“What!?” I asked my eyes meeting the lady’s cold ones.

Suddenly she grabbed my arm in a stone-like grip and pressed a red button on the side of the screen.

And then I was surrounded by the arm men who wore only black. They started grabbing me, pushing me away from my family, my life. I struggled, kicked, and punched, trying to get back to my family.

“Jay! Jay! Jay come back, please! Jay you’ew my sistew!” I heard Sapphire scream.

I looked over at her. My parents were holding her back, their eyes were on me and they were cold, they sent a message which I understood clearly. They would no longer consider me their daughter, they no longer loved me. But when I looked at Sapphire I knew she would. I stopped struggling and gave her a small smile. “Bye Saph, I love you.” I said before I was dragged away and could no longer see her- I had a feeling it would be my last time I ever saw her.

When we got out side it was my turn to get those cold and confused stares that the old man from earlier got. I was shoved roughly into the back of a van. When they threw me in I hit my head- hard too. The world around me quickly became black as I escaped to one place that would always be peaceful- my dreams.

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A/N- So comment and tell me if you like it. I won’t be able to update until sometime next week because I’m going on vacationJ

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