Second Souls, Rise to New Life

Chapter One

I looked at them for the longest time.

I couldn't speak. Not that I lacked the words. My vocabulary was pretty good. I knew every curse word that Eun had heard or knew.

That, was a lot.

I had just woken up from not a very good dream. It was strange. My throat was dry and ragged and so I used that as an excuse not to say anything.

The kids in the room included a half a dozen girls dressed in some sort of uniform, skirts, and blouses, staring at me as if I had two heads; the others were a boy with two different colored eyes, peeling dry skin off his palm and Eun Jung - my guardian.

Eun, a five-foot 6-inch girl with long dark hair, hazel eyes, and quiet demeanor, stood by the window where something of significant interest was keeping her attention the past few minutes. She wasn't one to waste her words, where as I spewed it out as if I'd burst if I didn't. Well, at least that was what I was told most of my life.

She had stayed in the room for the two weeks that I was here - ever since we had been found and whisked away. She insisted at not being separated from me.

Thank you, Eun. I had to smile at that. No one, says no to her.

The six girls directly in front of the bubble looked to be a few years younger than me, as best I could tell close to 4 and half years. Hmm, that would probably be eleven to twelve years here.

They were staring right back at me. I was getting really annoyed by this.

I wasn't happy to begin with.

I was inside a bubble in a room with the rising sun just barely peeking through the windows, and already the air in the bubble was getting warm. Apparently, they were trying to save on whatever electrical power they still had and only ran the air through here every 20 minutes.

The walls of the bubble were a thick polymer, transparent and soft, seamless except for two edges - both of which were near the two chamber entryway. It seemed like I could walk through that now without any problem. But I didn't want to scare anyone.

I knew if they talked I could hear them, but none of them said a word. It was as if they were trying to use telepathy on me as intense as their stares were and it wasn't working.

I was sitting on the edge of the bed, having been awoken from the commotion in the room, which quickly stopped when they saw me awake.

The room was probably larger than most and certainly more space than I ever occupied by myself. I was told it's in a bio-containment ward, one used for infectious diseases and bioterrorism attacks. When I arrived, they decided this was the best place for me. Not that I was sick or infected, but because they didn't really know what to do with me.

The floor was of a bright white tile, the room had a bathroom with a toilet and shower. The nurses drew blood from me every day, washed their hands a half a dozen times at the sinks between this room and the next. An empty room today from what I saw through the glass.

I haven't seen any nurses, or the doctor for that matter, since yesterday.

Like some parts of home, this room had negative air pressure. There were vents in the ceiling and vents near the floor. I was amazed there was a window, but I also think this was quickly put together over the past few months and weeks.

The room's only bed was in the eight-foot-tall bubble I was in. The doctor had told me this place was one of four similar sites in the country. The floor I was on wasn't created with me in mind - or, anyone like me. It was designed for outbreaks like Ebola and Coronavirus. Neither of which ever materialized as a real bad pandemic.

The pandemic that killed most of Earth's population had preceded me by 13 months and came out of Iowa. It was the same pandemic that killed most of the people I knew, including my family. It was continued industrialized farming and use of antibiotics in animals that facilitated the epidemic - or, it could have been the mutated strain of influenza that came through farmworkers moving up out of South America.

It was only conjecture that I heard from the nurses.

Whatever it was, found its way to my home as well.

I stopped, looked down and composed myself, not wanting to cry in front of my visitors.

It had been a very long journey to have gotten here. I couldn't have done it without Eun and...

Enough. There was a lot I still had to do and it seemed I didn't have much time.

There were no adults in the room. That had to be a bad sign. Very bad.

I was about to get the show on the road when the door flung open and a girl burst into the room, This one was closer to my age, with pink hair, brilliant blue eyes, a right arm covered with a dozen small band-aids, and wearing a pink dress with work boots.

She skidded to a halt in front of me, ignoring everyone else and shrieked, "Hi Dev!"

She dropped to the floor, apparently exhausted, but smiled up at me.

I had no idea who she was.

I got off the bed and approached the clear wall.

She took a few seconds to catch her breath.

"You know you're going to have to tell me about Mars," she said, and rushed on shaking her head, "when we're in a safer place." Her head nodded up and down as if confirming that thought.

"But," she continued, "for right now, we gotta get the hell outta here."

She jumped up with a new burst of energy, ripped open the bubble entryway and reached in for me.