One Life

2045

Also known as The Last Year to the survivors.

The USA was at war with three other countries, and we were losing to them. There wasn’t much we could do. Our supplies were low, and half of the nation refused to join the fight. They named their union, but the other half of the nation refused to call them by it. I knew it once, but I soon forgot it. We were at civil war, as well as a world war, and 2045 was the second year both wars had been raging.

I wasn’t there when it happened. I was with the half of the nation that was willing to fight.

And I had been chosen.

The monopoly had promised to be fair, saying only two - fifths of the people who entered the monopoly would go to the war, but it was obvious two - thirds of the people were actually sent to the war. I had a suitcase of all of my things ready, because I had expected to be picked. From there on, I was automatically boarded on the plane headed to military base Three (out of eight), in North Carolina. There was little to no talking during the plane ride. Everyone looked sad, scared, or had a mask on to cover up their faces. Some looked out the windows at the wailing outside. I was one of the only people who looked as if my emotions had disappeared.

I was there a mere three days until the infamous attack on Washington D.C. It wasn’t really an attack though. It was more of a massacre where an enormous laser swallowed Washington D.C. and military base Two whole. The training didn't pick up for a week.

Our first mission, a month later, was to rescue some people back near my hometown, or within twenty miles of it. I didn’t expect many people to be there, because I remember the evacuation signals wailing all throughout the state while I was on the airplane. That state was also on the border between our side and the other side. We had to land five miles away from it, because the other half didn’t allow them to land four and a half miles closer.

I will always remember that day clearly. I had just woken up an hour ago, having had coffee but no breakfast. I still knew no one there, because they said not to make close friends, and I just didn’t talk to anyone.

The mud instantly clung to our feet, so much so it was a waste to try and get it off. The swamped forest we walked through had barely any living animals in it, except for the mosquitos, who found their way into many people’s clothing. It was not very dense, and didn’t look balanced. The tilted trees and level ground gave an eerie look about the place. Ferns and swamp shrubs littered the ground making it impossible to avoid stepping on some. Poison ivy was abundant, yet none of the generals of the army camp gave us poison ivy cream.

The terrain stayed the same for the next five miles, until we reached the town.

The sounds they made could be heard from where we were dropped off, which didn’t surprise me. When I got there, I muted out the sounds of everyone, and only focused on the orders that were given. The only difference between the swamped forest and the town I had just set foot in, was that there were no trees in the town.

The first order was to shoot at any soldiers from the other side that were there. I ran in the back of the group, through everyone else’s footsteps. Gun fire and screams were heard from the front, as well as shouting and the falling of wood. I couldn’t see any of it through all of the fog that hazed the view. I lowered my gun as I ran, not preparing to use it.

Everyone heard the “CLEAR!” from the general, announcing to everyone that there were no more people from the other side in the town. Everyone ran back to where I was, because I was in the back. We all looked toward the general, as he assigned houses we had to check. I was assigned a far house, which meant I had to trek through thicker and deeper mud. The general stood there, waiting for something. Everyone was confused, even though it would have been out of line to show it. We stood there for another minute, until the general turned around and started speed walking toward the woods which covered the sky ahead. White noise crackled in the sky ahead. For once, it was almost silent. We heard yelling, and tried to make out what he was saying. Finally, we heard it.

“DOGFIGHT!”

Everyone knew the drill.

We ran into houses, cellars, ditches, or in a place where we could strike the planes. The white noise became a loud noise as a few bullets fired at the ground near the town. The two planes were flying close to each other. Too close. It wasn’t long. It was in fact, inevitable. They flew over, exploded a second later, and crashed somewhere to the west, fallingdown over the horizon.

Everyone got up. The General was about to order us to go look when another noise echoed to the east.

It wasn’t a war noise.

It wasn’t a terror noise.

It wasn’t a massacre noise.

It was all of the above-- violent shriek that hit our ears faster and became louder faster than any sane person could imagine.

A General from the same woods was yelling to forget about our positions and run.

There was too much yelling and screaming.

I was scared. Scared of the unknown. I don’t feel scared or frightened by what I know. No one does. I had a bigger threshold of what I found scary. This was outside of it.

I triggered the water boots and ran across the mud to the most stable house I saw. The most upright, at least. I didn’t look back. A tree fell next to me. Two trees. I kept my eyes on the house.

An explosion rocked me and made me almost trip into the house.

I grabbed open the door and shot myself inside.

I needed to get down.

I pulled a soggy carpet aside to reveal a trapdoor. The lock was already broken, and it looked fairly recent. Whatever it was, I pulled it open and jumped in, shutting the trapdoor behind me.

The surroundings were dark, but parts of my military suit provided all of the light I needed. It was a 10’ by 15’ room with walls and floor of stone and a ceiling of wet wood. There were a few crates, some more carpets, and a torn couch. It also had a very wet floor.

I accidentally activated SpaceFinder, and as I walked to the other side it blinked. I looked and saw there was another cellar within the cellar. And the entrance was under another carpet. There was one more thing, though. There were heat forms in there.

Confused, I ran to the cover and ripped the rug off of the wet floor.

Opening the trapdoor, I vaguely saw two people were inside who turned to me

I recognized who they were immediately and stood still opening the door.

“Cousin?” One of them asked.

A lab.

Somewhere in the fighting part of the U.S., not the other side.

In the early days of the war, they used a machine which looked awfully similar to a large clothing dryer to mix chemicals in one of the rooms.

Many chemicals were added there, and all of them were stacked up on the counters and shelves, leaking and making the room very hazardous, but still workable with the proper material.

This room was used for a good year until the many negative reports caused that room to shut down. They left it just the way it was, with the door to the machine open and all of the chemicals out.

Only a few days after they ditched the room, a large bomb struck a few miles from it, causing the entire laboratory to shake.

Most of the chemicals spilled, and many people got hurt, but in the room with the machine, it was different.

When the bomb struck, chemicals from the top shelf fell over, most crashing on the floor. Some fell at just the right angle and went into the machine. At the same time, huge boards detached themselves from the walls and hit the machine door closed, and turned it on.

The glass and chemicals from inside the machine started to mix and no one knew about it.

For a year.

In 2045, the lab was to be cleaned up for more space to work, and a scientist was sent to clean it up because of how few employees there were. The lights were turned on in the room before he even walked in it.

The man speed-walked into the room. His diet had now consisted mainly of coffee because of how much work he did, and since he now lived in the factory. The man looked around the room and started cleaning without even putting on a safety suit. He didn’t need to anyway, the air vents should have cleared out most to all of the airborne chemicals in the room.

The man scrubbed and washed, trying to get as much work done as possible. He wanted this war to end like everyone else did. All around the room, every inch, if there had been any chemicals, was replaced with clear surfaces, shelves and glass. Until the machine, the biggest observable thing in the room, was left for last.

The man, without a second thought, was going to open the machine up. He put his hand on the handle, and was going to to pull.

A light flickered above him. The man stopped and looked above him. How odd. A light going off in this establishment? He chuckled.

The man decided to look inside the machine to see if there were any chemicals the former workers here had accidentally left inside.

The glass was steamed, but the man could see what was inside there.

Nothing.

It looked washed and clean, just like it should have been.

The man shrugged, reaching his hand toward the machine door handle and opening the door to it. He watched it slowly open, and he picked up his brush to begin to clean the inside.

But before he could do so, he stopped in his tracks and started choking on the air.

Thick, purple smoke came out of the machine, making its way across the room and throughout it. The man bent over backward, trying his might to be released from this torture.

But as soon as he couldn’t try anymore, he gave in. Falling face-flat, he gasped for air, and rolled over, holding his chest and breathing hard.

As the purple smoke floated into his mouth, his body began to change due to it. Human genetics weren’t compatible with this new chemical. A mutation was occuring.

And occuring fast.

The smoke slowly spread to the rest of the laboratory through the door and the open vents connecting the rooms.

There was no stopping it.

“Sam!? Denise!?” their cousin shouted, “What the hell are you doing here!?”

“We had to leave Black River! They burnt it down!” Denise shouted up, “This was the only functioning town for miles! Well, until the other side came in - then we hid!”

“It’s great to see you Alexe! Alexe with two e’s!” Sam sarcastically shouted back up.

“SHUT UP SAM!” Alexe yelled back down, “This is serious! Something just happened on the ground that’s really a concern”

Before she could finish her sentence, the ground shook around them and a few floorboards above Alexe’s head fell. Screams were heard, more piercing than ever and groaning was abundant.

“This house isn’t stable!” Alexe directed down, “Whatever is above there could break through and get us! Stay quiet and don’t speak at al!!!”

“Do you think it’s zombies?” Denise guessed with a tear forming in her eye.

A faint shadow was seen from the outside to the floor of the first basement for a split second. Alexe turned toward the shadow and put her hand on her gun.

A monster burst through the floor, unlike any other Alexe had ever seen. The monster was deep and light purple, with purple crystals coming out of it in abnormal places. The skin was lumpy and pussing, and there were ripping clothes still on it. It made no effort to cover up it’s genitals, and from one look, it was clear it was a male. It got up and looked at Alexe with one eye. One black eye. The other was closed up by its skin. Long strands of hair came up from random places, even its mouth. It opened its mouth. Several teeth were missing, and it didn’t have a tongue.

Before it could hoarse another word, Alexe shot it in the head and in the heart in less than a second. The creature fell over, face flat, and moved one of its arms forward before being completely still.

“They’re not zombies!” Alexe shouted down, “They can die. But I suggest you don’t look at them!”

Denise huddled near Sam, and Sam let her. He was starting to get scared as well. They had enough food in the second basement for another year of two, but he wanted to survive it, not hide.

“Stay down and close the door until I say you can come up!” Alexe shouted.

She closed the door below her, and we were in almost complete blackness again. The only light was from the cracks in the trapdoor, which was enough for Sam and Denise.

A fews seconds later, it sounded as if the floor of the first floor in the house, (or the ceiling to the first basement) collapsed, and there was a lot of gunfire from Alexe above. The ceiling to the second basement was cement, so the cousins didn’t have to worry about the ceiling collapsing.

There were explosions, and someone who wasn’t Alexe shouted far off, which was followed by another explosion and the ground shaking. We couldn’t hear Alexe shouting anymore, but there was still gunfire above us, and the monsters kept groaning as they kept getting shot.

More and more gunfire and explosions rattled the ground next to them, and the gunfire persisted. A sound I didn’t recognize happened overheard, and there were footsteps.

After another 20 minutes, there was not a sound nearby we could hear other than the groaning of some monsters and the gunfire and explosions of far-off.

It was odd. After another 30 minutes, there was no sound of war we could hear other than the groaning of some monsters.

They were confused and scared. Sam was going to open the door, but Denise pushed him back.

“She said not to open the door until she said we could!” Denise explained.

“Alright,” Sam said. He slumped back against the wall, waiting for Alexe to come. Sam didn’t want to disagree with Denise. He didn’t want her to yell at him. He never liked it when she yelled at him.

Sam and Denise were siblings, but not twins. Sam was 12, while Denise was 11, and they had always stuck together through thick and thin. They hated each other one day and stood up for each other the next. They always dressed similar too, but not today.

The two had clothes from a week or two ago, when they were forced to leave home due to a bombing raid from the other side. The two had been fine up until then. It was mostly because the fight had never reached them. But they had been trained to use guns in case the fight ever reached them. Of course, they were never allowed to keep the guns, so they were unprotected.

Sam stood up.

“If Alexe doesn’t come back in 2 weeks, we leave here,” Sam enforced.

“Why 2 weeks?” Denise asked.

“Because that’s probably how much food there is in here,” Sam explained.

Denise didn’t acknowledge him. She didn’t want to argue with her brother when he set his mind to something. She knew better than to do that. She usually didn’t argue with him about what he decided was best for them. He was usually right.

And they continued.

The nights were cold, but they had some old carpets that were on top of the food the were going to eat. The howling was at random times in the night or day. And it was a blood curdling howl, one that could be heard for miles. We heard no recognizable words, meaning either the people above them were being very quiet or weren’t there at all. In the middle of the stack of food, they found a flashlight so they could see in the dark. They didn’t really use it though. They didn’t want to bring attention to themselves.

They only spoke in whispers too.

After 14 days, Denise shook Sam awake.

Sam unwillingly woke up, loudly complaining before he realized he had to be quiet.

“What is it?” Sam asked

“It’s been fourteen days!” Denise answered

“You’ve been counting?”

“Of course I’m counting, I’m sick of this place!”

“I should have made it three weeks,” Sam complained.

But Denise started to gather food to put in a carpet for the road. But she put the flashlight her pocket, because she didn’t want it to get crushed in the carpet.

“Welp - I’m ready. Are you?” Denise turned around to ask Sam.

Sam looked around, bent down, and picked up a single can of beans. He shrugged.

“Yup,” he responded.

The two continued to get up to the hatch on the ceiling. Because there was no ladder, Denise had to climb onto Sam, and he had to lift her up to push open the hatch on top.

Denise continued to crawl her way onto the old, wood floor above, and found a ladder she could hand down to Sam.

She did so, and they both got up to the floor above them. They stopped to look at what happened above them. The ceiling to the floor above them was completely gone. In fact, there was no roof to the top of the house either. All that was left was the frame of a wall and some furniture. There were claw marks on the remaining wall, and grass and dirt on the edges. The sky wasn’t clear blue, but it wasn’t stormy either. It was overcast.

 Denise felt a little more sad. She had positive thoughts in mind, trying to be ok with Alexe not coming back, but this disappointed her. She didn’t really think of what the world was going to look like before she came out, so her expectations had started out high. This lowered them.

Sam looked over at her and saw the saddened look on her face. He didn’t want to say “I told you so” or anything that could comfort her, really. He remained quiet and started climbing to the grass that was just above them. The dirt was a good hand hold.

Denise followed suit, helping him up to get on top. As soon as he got up, he was almost knocked down by the wind. It wasn’t that strong, but it was cold, and froze him where he stood.

And two more things froze him too--The first being the semi-muddy ground he was standing on.

The second was the world he was seeing around them. He had only seen the sky a few seconds earlier, but now he could see the whole view.

All of the houses were ripped down. Bloodstains and pieces of armour were scattered everywhere, along with purple crystals in the ground and in armour. The places in the ground where the crystals had struck had turned brown, and the grass nearest to them was completely dead. The trees where they had first heard the noise come from when Alexe came was gone. Ripped away. All that was there was rotting wood and more purple crystals. In fact, He couldn’t see trees anywhere in sight. It looked like they had been completely run over and torn out. The scariest part of all was that it was dead silent. Not a single gunshot could be heard, person could be seen, or home to be found.

“Sam?” Denise asked him from below.

Sam shuddered. She wouldn’t want to see this. But he didn’t really have a choice. She was his sister.

Sam slowly hoisted his sister up the ledge. But before she got up Sam told her, you’re not going to like it.”

Denise got up and looked around.

They stood there for a minute, not saying a word but instead looking around.

Sam sighed.

He picked up his can and started walking. Denise did the same. Their life had only just begun.

--:♥:--

The world

Engulfed by a virus

It was unimaginable how fast the virus adapted to the earth and started reproducing. It was very adaptive, so it changed its color from a bright magenta to a cool purple, and only had spikes where it needed them. It had settled into cities, small towns, and farms, living off the land.

And not far from where Sam and Denise had just taken off, there was a family of this virus who had just given birth to 3 more. Details are spared for obvious reasons.

The mother and the father had made a nest in the middle of some of the woods that were still standing, where they kept their babies. It had been a little less than a week, so they looked like their mother and father, just smaller.

Well, except for one.

A small, deformed virus had been born in the nest, struggling to get back up when it fell down. The mother always had to nudge the baby back up. It also had some blue spots on it at random places, making it the odd one out.

It also didn’t get much bigger than two days after it was born. It had stayed roughly two feet tall.

While the babies stayed at home all day and learned how play with each other, the father and the mother went to go get any food they could find. Anything that was still alive.

The babies scrounged around for anything they could play with on the ground, like grass, branches, and animal corpses.

The babies grew up fairly quickly, all of them maturing in a little over a week. They all started to hunt for themselves and bring it back for the nest. All of them, except for the odd one out. Because he was still the smallest and had remained the same;  he couldn't do much.

All of his siblings pushed and knocked him over, because he couldn't get back up easily. But he was getting better. The mother usually stopped this so they wouldn’t go so far as to kill the smallest one.

Four weeks after the smallest one’s birth, he had grown to be as high as a three feet, which he was proud of. His brothers and sisters, however, had grown to six feet and were hunting for themselves, but still part of the nest. They had stopped bullying the smallest one, but still poked fun at him behind his back.

Even though this was only the first four weeks of the smallest one’s life, that was the same as the first 5 years of life for a human. It already had built up instincts and emotions from those dramatic experiences. And because his mom didn’t really do much other than feed him and stop his brothers from bullying him, his mother was the closest thing to a family member. But the smallest one still always felt alone. There was no one else of his kind he knew about in the woods, so he couldn’t make a new friend. He didn’t feel like things were going to change either, but he didn’t want to be alone.

That night, they all went to bed as they did any other night. Out in the open in the woods. The smallest one was always a few feet away from them because he didn’t want to be kicked by them while they were dreaming. The smallest one started dozing off and went to sleep. He usually dreamt of nothing except for the few dreams where he dreamt of his family protecting him from monsters. But this new dream was different.

He dreamt of himself waking up to a clear blue sky with sunlight touching every seeable spot he could see. Above the trees, there were what looked to be streams of smoke coming up from places into the sun. There was also a white noise which filled the scene he was dreaming of. The smallest one looked to the left to see his whole family start exploding with light and being lifted up to the skies. The smallest one’s eyes widened and heard a voice above him. He looked up to see a human, female angel descend from the skies, arms open, smiling. The angel seemed to be saying something so joyfully, The smallest one smiled, even though he didn’t know what she was saying. The smallest one reached out and started walking toward the angel, smiling as well. The sky seemed to light up just behind the angel, making an aura behind just her. She descended further, seeming more overjoyed as she got closer. The smallest one reached out to touch her. His hand, as if it was in slow motion, touched hers. Flashing light.

The smallest one woke up from his dream. He looked around. It was still night. And silent.

The smallest one got up from where he was sleeping and walked away. This sudden dream of an angel coming to him had made him lose his fear of the unknown. He kept walking and didn’t stop. Not for a while, actually.

After walking for a half an hour, his legs grew very tired and he leaned up against a tree, facing where he had come from. He was just about to go to sleep when he heard a howl from his nest.

The smallest one could only move his eyes because of how tired he was, so he saw what was happening in the distance.

Another rouge Virus, had found the smallest one’s family and was starting to attack for dominance. The smallest one’s father and the mother started attacking the rouge virus, but could only hold it off. But another rouge virus came to aid the first one, and another, and another. After a minute, six viruses were attacking his five family members, and were losing. The first to die was the first rogue Virus, then the smallest one’s brother, and then the father, and the mother, and another brother.

After ten minutes, the smallest one’s entire family was dead, and only he was spared.

He rested his eyes.

--:♡:--

Denise opened her eyes. Looks like she was the first one up this time. It was usually Sam.

She got up and started going over to make breakfast. Crackers and beans. It wasn’t even a breakfast. They had that at every meal. They both had made sure to pick a spot in the woods where the smoke wouldn’t make the trees catch on fire, so she could look up and see the sunlight.

Who was she kidding. There was no sunlight. The gray sky just got lighter and darker as the day went on. She was so sick of it. Even after two weeks of hoping for a blue sky, it never came. She started eating.

Sam woke up around a half an hour after she did.

“You’re late,” Denise told him.

“Sorry about that. Couldn’t sleep,” He replied.

“Bad ground?”

“No, the noises.”

“Noises?”

“Yeah, at around 12:00 a.m. last night. You didn’t hear them?”

“I think I might have heard it in my dream. Wait - how do you know the time?”

He pulled out a silver watch with no straps for the wrists from his pocket. “Remember this?”

She sure did. It was the watch their grandpa had given Sam in his last will and testament. Sam kept it as a gift and always brought it with him, not just because he wanted to remember his grandpa, but so he could feel responsible for something. Denise had figured this out easily because Sam easily lost precious things every time he had it in his hands, and he was angry about it, so he decided to always keep this watch in a pouch that made sure it didn’t get cracked or lost. And neither of those things had happened in the time he had it either. She was proud of him for that.

Sam came over to join Denise for breakfast.

They both also had guns from the remaining soldiers that had died, in case anything tried to attack them. They both hadn’t seen a single bit of life other than some animals, which was concerning. If it was just them, they could probably live freely without any fear of dying. And they didn’t right at the moment. But they still had guns next to them in their sleep.

Guns were pretty easy to find. You could probably find them on the ground from fallen soldiers, which were surprisingly fully loaded, or from shelters people used to live in. It was also quite sad to see there was nothing left. No rules, but at the same time, no violence. It was just them.

They finished their breakfast and decided to head off and see what other deserted towns they could find.

Just past the forest they had set camp in was a slightly swampy marshland. There were rocks poking out of the ground, though, so they could walk on the rocks so they could preserve their shoes from dirt as much as possible.

A mile or two after that was a highway that had some restaurants off an exit on the other side. As was everything else, it was completely deserted. The highway had a lot of dust on it, and you could even see a few empty cars further down the highway. They had been here a few times before, so they went along their merry way.

They decided to follow the road down to where all the stores were. And because it had only been four weeks since humanity had disappeared, the food there, except for the meat, was still relatively fresh.

They walked along the street packed with restaurants, stores, and advertisements. Deserted. You could stick a few tumbleweeds on the streets, and it would look the same.

They skipped the McDonalds because it wasn’t a good source of food and kept walking for another few blocks to the Costco. They had gone there yesterday and found some stuff they needed. They had never actually been to a Costco in their lives before then, but they found it a reliable source.

When in there, it had looked the same as it did yesterday-- ransacked. The shelves were tipped over and boxes were all over the place. There were purple crystals stuck in the ground and shelves, which looked like they turned whatever they touched to black. It was probably a shadow but it was so hard to tell because of how dark it was.

They went to the back of the of the store to get what they needed. Some crackers and other supplies that wouldn’t go stale. They also looked around for some more stuff they didn’t see yesterday.

The two didn’t stay there long. They made sure to get in and out of there quickly so no one, no thing, came in and saw them. If there was anyone they could trust, it was themselves.

In and out. They walked together back to the forest from which they had come. They even used the plastic bins they found there to carry everything they needed. When it came to the end of the world, you could never have too much of anything.

They didn’t say anything either. There wasn’t really much to talk about. Instead they helped each other carry what they had. Which wasn’t much . But they got stuff they needed, and some other toys they could play with while they weren't wroking. Just because it was the end of the world didn’t mean they couldn’t have any fun.

When they finally got through the swamp and back in the woods, it was nearing noon, so they set everything down on the ground to could rifle through what they had taken to help them. They then got four other boxes with lids to sort what they had.

It took a few minutes, but they eventually finished.

“Phew,” Denise exhausted, laid down on the grass beside her bed. Sam was still sorting out the last of the items in the bins.

“Denise?” Sam called.

“Yeah?” she responded.

“What are these plastic toys?”

She got up from her spot and crawled over. Sam was holding some toys Denise got from the baby isle, which were some brightly-colored, plastic cubes that you could break apart and put back together, a clear plastic ball with some brightly-colored balls in it that make noise when you roll the ball around, and a few Beanie Boos, one of which was a Dalmation.

“Just some stuff to keep myself company…” Denise responded shamefully.

“Did you get any yesterday?”

“Only one or two…”

“Ok, well please keep it to a minimum. Space is limited,” Sam replied. Denise knew this tone of voice. It was his polite way of saying he didn’t genuinely like what she was doing but didn’t want to say that in a mean way to her, because that would be mean. She understood, and was grateful he said it that way instead of other ways.

Denise grabbed another bin that was there and put her time-wasters in it. If she was going to do this all day, she was bound to get bored.

“I’m going to bring home some walls tomorrow,” Sam announced, “Just so we have another line of defence and so no creatures come in and get us while sleep.” Denise nodded that she was ok with this, but she then realized something.

“Won’t that make us more findable?” Denise wondered aloud.

Sam stopped and thought for a second. “We’ll use it to make traps, then,” he replied.

Denise half-smiled. She wanted things back the way they were. Where it was certain you were safe, instead of being in this lonely world with countless uncertainties. Not to mention no adult supervision.

She crawled back over to her bed and started to lay down.

“Going to sleep already?” Sam asked.

Denise turned around. “Yeah. I’m kinda lazy, and I’ve got nothing better to do.”

Sam shrugged. “See you in the morning, then!”

Denise nodded and looked up to the sky. All she could think of was herself alone. She was with her brother, but it wasn’t the same feeling as a friend or… a …

She closed her eyes as she watched the gray of the sky turn to the black of night.

“Denise!” Someone called out

She felt warm, and it was so blurry, but somehow she could make it out

“Denise!!” The someone shouted louder.

But then bullets. She felt like she was being shot with cold. Cold feelings. Sadness. And it started getting more and more cold as more and more bullets kept hitting her.

“Denise!!! WAKE UP!” The someone was screaming.

She felt as if she was being pulled and stretched from her reality. It got more blurry. She felt like she was being pulled into a dream. Or out of one.

Bang.

Someone hit her head against the ground, and she woke up.

She looked at the sky. It seemed so clear for a second, but then suddenly got blurry again.

Sam was above her. Shouting to her and shaking her.

A raindrop hit her head. It was cold and piercing against her skin.

She said something to tell Sam she was awake.

He understood, and he stood up as she got up in bed. It was later in the day. Probably around six in the evening. She got out of her sleeping bag and started to feel very uncomfortable. Her sleeping bag was damp because of the rain she was sleeping through for the past few minutes. She was reluctant, but got up, because it sounded like what her brother was getting her up for was urgent.

As soon as she stood, he yanked her from where she stood and started to jog. Denise, dazed by this, also started to jog, but cautiously. She didn’t want to trip over anything that would make her faceplant. Sam ran her under a tree, and it got darker, so she became unsure where her brother was.

“What...What is it??” Denise sleepily muttered. She had became annoyed at this sudden awakening. She was having a good dream. She didn’t know what the dream was about, but she remembered feeling good until a point…

“Someone’s here,” was all he said.

“Who?”

“I heard someone - something - moaning in the woods,” he explained.

“What kind of moaning?”

“Like a trap for someone to fall in,” Sam insisted as he got his gun ready.

Denise started to become as scared as he was as she walked by his side, getting her gun out as well. The woods seemed to grow darker even though it wasn't growing night yet. Maybe it was her eyes.

Sam stopped and stopped her as well. She looked up at him.

“It's right here,” Sam informed her, “it should be. Shoot anything that moves.”

Denise nodded. She continued to walk around, looking for the right side for Sam while he took the left. Where they were had a bunch of shrubs with a dirt path that they walked on between it. As if if had been laid out. The clouds started to rumble up above as the sizzle seeped down through the trees. Denise went from annoyed to scared for her life.

They kept going. A few feet at a time. No noise was heard. Maybe Sam was going crazy. She hoped not.

Denise was skimming along, and while darting her eyes to the front, caught a glimpse of a shining purple for a split second.

She's was about to look back when a loud screeching noise came from where that was.

Sam, wet with rain and sweat, turned around to face the trimmed bushes and slowly walked with his gun facing toward it. Denise  behind him, shaking, inched toward it with him.

Sam reached out his hand to push the bush aside. One hand on the gun and it's trigger, ready to fire.

Sam forcefully pushed open the bush, and even before looking, fired a shot.

Denise jerked back.

Sam looked and saw he had missed. What he had missed was a small purple creature, with blue spots and crystals which reflected the light. It looked like it was curled up in a ball. It looked so alone and disfigured.

Sam, taken aback, lifted his gun up again.

Denise, with all her might, knocked the gun out of his hands, making a snap noise on the ground.

Sam turned around to ask her why she just threw his gun until he saw her face.

It was tear streaked, and sad.

“Don't shoot it, please!” She begged.

“That's the very thing that killed off the entire human population!”

“That alone? It looks like a victim! A child without his mother!”

Sam stopped. He realized he had made Denise too angry.

The rain poured harder.

“Then let's go,” Sam suggested as he started to walk away.

“No!” Denise exasperated, “It’s mother left it here!”

“Denise! Think! It could infect us - !”

But as soon as he turned around to stop her from touching it, Denise had already taken a foldable plastic container out of her bag and was scooping it into the container using a stick. She then covered the container with her jacket. Sam looked at her with solemn disappointment.

“You could get hypothermia,” Sam disclosed.

“At least it’ll be warmer than me,” Denise replied.

They stood there facing each other while the white noise that was the rain came down on them. Denise finished putting her jacket on the container and looked up to meet Sam’s eyes. Both of their eyes were green, but noticeably had started turning brown as they aged. Apart from being brother and sister, that’s one of the one similarities that people used to connect them.

“Let’s go to the house,” Denise instructed.

Out of the forest they went, with the cascading rain soaking their pants as they shielded their upper bodies from the rain, running toward one of the last houses that was still standing in the area.

The house was originally the Town Hall of the town, but as the war raged on the citizens built it into a bunker if any nuclear bombs were to hit a more than 100 or so miles away. They had been in the house once before, and as all the other houses, the top of the house was completely demolished. The bunker still stood though. The trapdoor to it was hard to get open when it rained around a week ago, but they managed to get it open. And they got it open again.

They both crawled inside, dripping and cold from the rain. There was a towel there that was there the first time they had come there, so they used it again to dry themselves off. Denise hung up her jacket, which was also soaking wet, and hung Sam's jacket up too.

She went over to a few bags of sand and lay the creature down in it. The small thing was shaking, by a little bit, and making small noises too.

Sam didn't react. He didn’t know how to. His sister always put countless helpless beings before hers when she saw one. But this one being was a parasite. The one she had saved. The parasite that destroyed the planet and will destroy all of the animals and plants is the one she wants to live.

Sam looked away from her and started to get blankets to sleep. He then remembered the sleeping blankets he left out in the rain and sighed. They could get new ones tomorrow, but they should be more careful. There was only a limited supply.

Denise curled up with the virus she had saved a few feet away from her. She wanted to be cautious and not get infected like it did. But then she thought of something. Something she forgot the name to. Maybe Sam would remember.

“Sam,” Denise called.

Sam turned around to face her. “Yeah?”

“What’s that thing called with a certain amount of area but an infinite...border?”

“Gabriel's cake?”

“No no no, the 2D one,”

“Oh. The Mandelbrot fractal,”

“Mandel…,” Denise said to herself. She rolled over to face the virus she just saved. “Mandel. How do you like that name? Mand for short,” Denise suggested.

The small creature opened it eyes to hear who it was talking to. It saw the face of the angel. The angel? The one in it’s dream? But it did like the name Mandel. He did like the name Mandel. He had just started his life in this crazy world with people who cared for him. It started in a new place.

Mandel closes his eyes again and went to sleep.

Meanwhile, Sam stayed up. Now Denise had named it. Now she would get attached. It wasn’t even his fault she helped him give it a name. She would have found one eventually without his help. But frankly, he didn’t care. He persuaded himself that it was nice to have company. It was nice to have Denise care about something to keep her happy.

San check the watch. It was almost 8pm. And still no scratches on the watch. He smiled. And then dosed off to sleep with the rest.

“SAAAAAMMMMMM!"

“HEY SAM!”

Sam woke up, unsurprisingly.

He got up off the uncomfortable bags of sand he had been sleeping on and looked around. The shelter looked about the same as last night, with the sandbags, stone walls, and chests with assorted necessities, except it felt brighter, and lighter, and more humid too. Was this just a dream?

Sam proceeded to stand up, only to find that Denise wasn’t in the room with him. Had she gone outside? And what time was it? Sam checked his watch and saw it was around 10:30am. He had slept in. Maybe it was all the stress from last night. It had seemed such a blur. One that was stressful, but weirdly warm feeling too.

Sam went up the steep stairs to the ladder and punched the hatch door open. He climbed up to see the morning that had broken, and what he saw surprised him.

The morning smelled of petrichor, which was the first impression of it. Then there was how bright it was. The clouds were still over head, but it was bright, and a lot of the rain had dried up. Because there were clouds, it was also really humid and Sam instantly felt a drop of sweat form as he looked around. From his field ofview, he could only see some rotting houses, but as he turned around he saw Denise and Mandel playing with each other.

Denise didn't see him at first, so he got out and walked toward her.

She turned around a few seconds later to see him.

“Sam!” She ran toward him as fast as she could and leaped up onto him, almost knocking him over.

“I just woke up,” was all he stammered.

“Oh! Sorry!” She got off of him. And smiled.

Sam brushed himself off. “You were playing with Mandel?” Sam asked.

“Yes! We - Wait - you remember his name!”

“Oh, I - Of course I do. That’s why you asked what a Mandelbrot was last night…,”

“Great! We were passing around the ball I got the day before yesterday! Mandel almost popped it a few times too!” She laughed.

“Can… Can I join?” Sam offered.

“Absolutely!” Denise replied.

She threw it to him with all her might, which almost knocked him over again. He threw it back to her, and she threw that over to Mandel. They kept passing the ball to each other in a circle for a half of an hour, until Denise suggested they stop.

“That was quite fun!” Sam expressed.

“Come on little guy!” Denise asked in a playful tone. Mandel came running toward her as fast as his little legs could carry him and jumped into Denise's arms.

“Denise!” Sam cried out, “What - ”

“It's ok Sam,” Denise reassured, “When I woke up, he was on me and shaking me to get up, and I was fine. Good thing their infection doesn't spread by touch!”

“Yeah, good thing,” Sam replied in a calm tone.

He began to walk back over to the woods. “I’m going to improve the traps I started setting up yesterday. I’ll be back with lunch!”

“Sweet! Thanks!” Denise replied.

And so the day went. It stayed humid for the rest of the day, and eventually they had to go wash themselves because of how sweaty they were. But they had lunch and played with Mandel for the afternoon. That day, Denise seemed happier than she ever had. It was the end of the world, and she was playing with what had caused it.

Mandel saw it the same way Denise did. His family was dead, but this was the new family he had always dreamed of. One that didn’t make fun of him because of how small he was, taunt his imperfections, do the minimum of caring for a being such as him. With this new family, he was accepted, and even though they weren’t even his kind, they saw past that he was the lowest of low of his kind and saw him for what he was. He didn’t want to be a virus. He wanted to be loved.

Because it was still mildly wet outside when it turned night, they slept in the same place as last night.

It was still warm.

Around a week or two had gone by since Denise had met Mandel, and it was still a fun time. They had explored the forests, swamps and fields, as well as the highways and abandoned buildings next to them. They played claiming it as “their territory” and that they’d have to protect it. While Denise and Mandel were joking, Sam saw this as a chance to build traps to trigger at different places, and show where the traps were triggered by looking at a map laid down near where they were. They also got a few tents while venturing out farther past the highway to find camping stores. They fused these tents into a huge tent where they could live inside, but at the same time feel like they were sleeping outside.

One day Mandel had gone missing for a few minutes, and had come back to the campsite with an infected dead squirrel in his mouth. Denise had almost screamed, but decided to compliment Mandel on his achievement. Sam saw that the squirrel was still warm and that Mandel must have just killed it and infected it with the virus with his jaws. But it turned out the squirrel wasn’t dead, because it bounced up and ran away while Sam was laying it on the ground. They decided to stay away from Mandel’s bite.

There came a day around two weeks after they met Mandel when they had to go get jackets because it was getting too cold to keep going in long sleeve shirts and pants. This worried Sam and Denise, because that meant winter was coming and they’d have to live in the shelter under the former town hall for a few months. As well as getting enough food to survive that long. So they went down and got the jackets they needed. They then, over a period of two days, carried up all of the materials and food they needed to store, including all of the tents they set up. Mandel even helped.

The winter was long, but that didn't stop them from having fun. They brought stories to read, hand games to play, and balls to toss around. At first, the smoke from the fire suffocated the room and almost made Sam and Denise - not Mandel - suffocate. Luckily, they had the outdoors for a reliable source of oxygen. After looking, they found there was a downstairs to the cellar, and that there was a firepit (or something similar looking) and a chimney to cook food on. The entrance to the fire room was a hidden door on the wall, on the opposite side from the cellar door. It was a stairway down, but a safe one at that. This led to a huge, stone carved room, which was completely empty except for the huge firepit in the center. They used it for the rest of the winter.

Winter was long, but it made them only use what they had to use. They held off on snacks, and had only two meals a day instead of three. It was rough, but it kept the food storage from getting too low. As always, playing with Mandel was fun for all of them, and they even made a board game that had him as the theme. Mandel also didn’t eat much, but he seemed fine. He only ate every two to three days, but that was all he needed. Sam also timed each day, and marked down each one when it passed, so he wouldn’t lose track of time. They did lose one time by over sleeping one time though, but that didn’t change much. Sam timed it so they could leave in March, or mid-March, but they would check how the weather was a few times before then. The cold out there made you snowblind.

But winter passed as quickly as it had come. In around February, they checked outside and found that all the snow had melted. So they went out early. What they couldn't figure out is if they were off by a day or not, because there was no perfect time to reference it off of.

When they went back to the wood where they once dwelled, they set up all of their belongings and tents, trying the best they could to set it up like how it was set-up in the fall. It wasn't quite the same, because of how damp the trees were from the snow, but it was home enough. Sam made sure all of the traps hadn’t gotten  damaged, and almost got caught in one of them and been hurt. Meanwhile, Denise and Mandel found some games while looking through the store and brought them home. One of them was soccer, which Mandel was skilled at. But Denise provided a worthy opponent for Mandel, and they played many close matches together.

The happy spring didn’t last forever though…

Sam was busy getting lunch ready in the cellar as he usually did for the weekend. He was cooking some sausages along with some pancakes and other food they found in the store near them. They were going to save half of it for dinner, which they ate early, in order to save food and fuel for the fire.

It was very quiet down there. Just him and the fire.

But even under all of that, he faintly heard a scream. Denise’s scream.

He dropped what he was doing and ran upstairs as fast as his legs could go. A million thoughts rushed through his mind as he tried to save Denise from whatever was hurting her.

He narrowed down the options. It was either that the viruses had invaded their camp as he thought they would, or that something had happened with Mandel. Denise would yell  “viruses” and know what to do if there were any viruses in the camp, but if that wasn't the case, then Mandel had either done something to her or done something like the squirrel incident again. He hoped it was something like the squirrel incident.

Sam finished climbing up the stairs, turned the corner, ran across the room they slept in for the winter, and climbed up the ladder to the surface. He poked his head out and swerved around to the see where his sister was. She was nowhere to be seen, which meant she was in the forest.

Sam climbed out and hurled himself across the field of grass which led into the forest. He ran to the forest, right to where the tent was, where he expected Denise would be. Sure enough, she was in front if the tent. But she was holding Mandel in a weird way…

Then he saw it.

Mandel had bitten Denise.

For that second, he had emotionally sunk lower than he ever had before. His hopes were gone, and with that, his last human friend.

He sprinted over to her and saw what had happened. Denise was feeding random stuff to Mandel, because Mandel was like a goat and could eat anything, and she blindfolded him so he didn't know what he was eating. While they were doing that, Denise must have done something for Mandel to accidentally bite her on the arm. That's what it was. She must have sneezed because of her pollen allergies.

Mandel was still on her arm when he came ove to  help until he let go at the last minute, as he saw that Sam was coming over.

Denise was still kneeling there, shaking, trying not to scream again, and only saw Sam was over when he comforted her, and that startled her for a second. She turned around and hugged him, but he caught her and examined the bite. This was really it. He could almost feel her skin turn hard and purple.

“Sam…” Denise stuttered.

“No!” Sam replied, also stuttering, “It's going to be ok!”

The bite was fairly shallow, and eight teeth marks were visible on her arm. It was bleeding enough to get more than just a bandaid..

Sam quickly ran into the tent next to him and fished for the bandages that were there. He ran back outside with them and saw Denise petting Mandel in her fragile state.

“Denise!” he called out. She turned to face Sam, her eyes semi filled with tears.

Sam unrolled the  the bandage and proceeded to wrap it around the bite, shaking.

There was nothing else he could do. Denise looked like she was going to pass out.

Sam saw this and told her to lay down. She did, reluctantly. She wanted to stay strong, and he knew it.

Sam then carefully dragged her into the tent and he laid down on one of the makeshift beds.

Sam turned around to see Mandel walk into the tent, confused.

Sam just stared at Mandel and couldn’t manage to speak to him. This wasn’t quite his fault, but who else could he blame it on if his sister got the virus?

Mandel shrunk down and now looked sad and guilty, like a guilty-looking dog. He quickly ran out of the tent.

“No…” Denise stuttered, reaching her hand out toward the opening of the tent where Mandel had left.

Sam quickly kneeled over to where Denise lay and comforted her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make him leave. Please, just stay with me for now. I’ll go get him if you want to see him.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll see him again,” Denise told him. Sam gave a small gasp.

“I’ll see you both at dinner when I feel better too,” she informed him.

Sam stopped. “You’re going to be ok?”

Denise turned over to him. “Yeah, don’t worry about me. It's just a bite, and I was startled and tired…”

Then she realized and sat up.

“Oh my gosh! You thought I was going to die from his bite! I'm so sorry I made you think that!”

“Oh, thanks. I'm glad you -”

Denise turned around, and hugged Sam tight.

Sam hugged back.

Later that night, Sam was checking the traps once again. He went before it got dark, so he could get back and not have to stumble through the woods in the dark. Sam usually checked the traps every few days just to see if they broke from anything that might have happened. But he forgot to go this afternoon because Mandel had bitten Denise’s arm.

Sam trudged through the roots of the trees and over to one of the first traps he had set up, around a quarter mile from where the tent was. Ever since winter, most the traps had broken down, so he had spent most of the spring trying to put them back up.

He took out his watch and looked at the time. It was 5:43pm. Just enough time before dark.

Sam looked and saw a faded yellow trail marking on a tree side that was facing the tent. He was close to it.

He looked up and saw a few feet above and away from him, a huge slice of metal, and the sharpened side was facing toward the ground. He then looked and saw if all the ropes were tightened and not sagging, but it was hard to see, because it was getting dark.

They looked good enough, so Sam moved on to some other traps to the left of him and continued checking to see if they were secure.

Ten minutes went by, but he had checked more than 50 traps he had set up while they had been there. He felt proud of himself.

He decided to head back.

But as he turned around, he heard the faint sound of something. Something behind him.

His eyes widened and he swiveled around to face the first outside his traps.

He looked for a solid minute. He didn’t want to get scared any more today.

He was about to turn back around, when he heard the noise from the forest again. It was something he had already heard today.

Denise’s scream.

Sam, as quietly and quickly as he could, shifted his way behind the nearest tree and poked out to see what was in the woods.

And something came.

Only a few hundred feet ahead of him were two viruses. Other than Mandel, the first he had ever seen. They were seven feet tall, with a dark shade of purple making up their skin and gems poking out of them. Their skin looked like a huge purple bruise that had gotten bruised on top of that. Their anatomy was completely off, so they looked like a cross between mutant creatures and zombies. But what really scared Sam was their hands and teeth. The fingers looked like they were crystals instead of claws, sharpened like Freddy Krueger claws. The teeth were the same.

And one of the viruses faintly, but eerily screamed like Denise had done that day. It was as if it was playing it back back from a recording.

The viruses stood there for a few minutes, just standing there and making faint noises.

Sam was shaking to the bone. It was getting too dark. Any more, and he wouldn’t be able to find his way back. The realization hit him after a few minutes, that Denise was going to call to him, wondering where he was, which would bring the viruses toward the tent, because they now knew where they lived. It didn't matter if they walked in the traps and died, there would be others later who would see their dead kind and try to find out why. He prayed she was occupied with something else.

He stood there, still, as five, ten, twenty minutes went by.

After around twenty minutes , he heard some rustling and saw they were walking away, back to the forest from where they had come.

Sam looked again to see if they had gone off, and only saw the faint shadows of the trees as the forest continued to descend into blackness.

Once they were off, Sam carefully ran as fast as he could all the way back to the tents, making sure not to make a noise or trip over anything as he went along. Sam had never been so scared in his life.

Sweating and panting, he ran for a minute or two until he reached a path. The one that led to their tent.

Sam turned and ran down the path to the tent. Sure enough, Denise had just poked her head out of the side and was looking around for him.

“Denise! I’m here!” Sam told her.

Denise looked around to face him and got out of the tent. Her dried blood was still on her arm from the bite. She didn’t seem to care.

“I was almost going to get you from the woods.  Where’d you go for so long? And why were you running?” Denise asked all at once.

“I’m - I’m so glad you didn’t call for me. I know that sounds weird, but I’ll tell you why,”

“You saw viruses, didn’t you?” Denise whispered, “You went out that far?”

“They came to me,”

Denise’s eyes widened and looked surprised.

“Tell me everything,” Denise ordered.

They proceeded to go into the tent.

The very next day, it was bright and shining. The clouds were still in the way, as they had been since the virus went out, but they had gotten used to the glare, and saw it was a nice day instead of a cloudy one.

Sam was in the tent examining the phone he had found on the highway earlier that day. It was an iPhone, and was cracked along the top and the side, but other than that, it worked fine. Sam had found other phones after the virus had spread, but all of them had eventually died because all the power died, and there was nowhere to charge them because there was no power grid. This phone, however, was different. All of the other phones he had found had passwords on them, that he had not bothered trying, along with selfies of the owner and their friends as the lock screen background. But this new phone not only had a default background, but no password either.

Sam turned on the phone and saw the time on it. “12:00, Jan 1st, 1970” He chuckled at that. Sam swiped up to see all the apps on the home screen. They were all the default apps, and the only ones the owner had bought were the Facebook app and one of those word games that had alot of ads stuffed into it. Sam opened the photos and saw pictures of the eiffel tower on a nice sunny day, along with other pictures of France. Sam looked at the power and saw it was was at 30% Sam threw it in one of the containers where he kept electronic junk.

Sam walked out and checked the time on the watch. It was around 3:00 pm. The watch was still silver and clean, just like alot of the things in his grandpa’s house. Sam sighed and put away the watch.

He walked outside looked to the left of him. There he saw Denise and Mandel racing each other to see who was faster. They had done this at the end of last year, but Denise said she had improved since then, and was trying to beat Mandel.

Thinking of Mandel reminded him of the other viruses he saw last night. They looked nothing like Sam had expected them to look like. Sam had shaped his opinion of what the other viruses look like, because Mandel was either a baby or had short genetics. But the ones he saw last night looked like zombie night walkers than clumsy monsters around the size he was. If even five were to attack their tent - and to go through the traps he had set up - they wouldn’t make it. No wonder he was left out to die. His family must have ran away without him because they didn’t want to carry around something that couldn’t care for itself if it was put out in the wild. That thought made him sad.

Sam decided to walk to the field where Denise and Mandel were playing. He didn’t have to do anything until around 4:30, when he had to get dinner ready with Denise.

When he got there, he was greeted with a hug and a smile from Denise, as usual, and a hug at his leg from Mandel. Sam smiled.

He decided to race with them and see if he was faster than both of them. But as it turned out, Mandel was almost as fast as him, and he almost lost a few races against him. Denise, on the other hand, was still sadly the slowest out of all of them. Sam told them to head back they they didn’t get tired anymore and waste alot of the bottled water they had. They both agreed and decided to tell stories to each other.

Sam walked away sweating and went back to the tent. He walked inside and and had a long sip of water from one of the water bottles. That felt good.

Sam’s vision was growing distorted, and the bed was looking mighty comfy.

Sam knelt down and laid over. He slowly closed his eyes…

Sam spontaneously woke up and darted his eyes around.

He took a deep breath.

That nap sure did feel good.

He got up and yawned as his vision cleared. It looked dark out.

Sam was nervous. What time was it?

Sam took out his watch from his pocket as he walked outside to go see if Denise and Mandel were ok.

He exited the tent as he looked at the time.

5:15 pm

Oh no! Sam though, Denise must be pretty confused -

He suddenly felt a jolt from behind him and felt two little hands grab his shoulders, along with two arms hugging him around his waist.

Denise and Mandel.

But then he looked in front of him.

Crrack

No.

The hug had jolted the watch out of his hands and as if in slow motion, fallen to the ground.

Smashed.

The watch’s glass was cracked and some had shattered, along with the dented silver and bent clock hands.

The hands weren’t moving.

They had all heard it smash and not one had spoken a word.

Denise released her hands off of Sam and took Mandel off his shoulder.

The three stood there, frozen. Denise, in awe of what he had done, and Sam, the same. And whose was it blame? Denise didn’t see the Sam looking at the time as she was coming back from the fields and hugged him, and Sam couldn’t have seen Denise and Madel because he was facing the opposite way.

After saying nothing for a few minutes, Sam dropped down on his knees. It looked like he was going to cry.

“That was it,” Sam finally spoke, “That was all I had left.”

He stood up and turned around to face them.

“All of this was replaced except for ourselves, and the only thing I had left was the only thing I could keep and not have to replace. I guess I do now.”

Sam walked past Denise toward the field to go cook the food.

Denise stood there facing the way she was facing before. Mandel saw the watch was still on the ground where it was dropped.

He felt something wet touch his head, and he looked up to see Denise was crying. She had done the one thing to make her brother devastated. Ans by doing that, she had become devastated too.

She turned around to see Sam in the distance, going toward the field and in the hatch to the cellar. She then looked at the tent and thought for a minute.

Mandel was lowered as Denise put him of the ground and turned around to run to the cellar as well.

Mandel watched her run off into the distance. They had left him.

Mandel had thought about what he had done the previous day, biting Denise. Accidentally, of course. He didn’t see that her arm was in the way, and was in shock that he had bit her, but didn’t turn her into a virus. He didn’t want that. He wanted her to stay the way she was. Happy, kind, and caring for others. Of course, he couldn’t talk, so he couldn’t tell any of them he didn’t turn her into a virus. But he saw that Sam was in shock and sad for Denise that day, so he hoped they would understand. But how would they resolve this incident? Sam had lost the thing he had had with him the entire time Mandel had seen him.

Mandel heard yelling from the hatch, even though it was closed. Sam and Denise were arguing about the watch.

Who was responsible? Mandel sure felt responsible. He had heard Sam talking about seeing the Viruses in the forest just last night, and felt how scared he was. He was one of those monsters. If he stayed, he would only cause more problems, right? Nothing lasts forever. But then he thought about Denise. What would she think if he left? He was the light of her life. But so was Sam. If he stayed, the same thing that happened to his other family would happen to the one he has now. He didn’t want to be responsible for that.

Mandel turned away from the field where the two were fighting. Denise would understand why he left.

Mandel proceeded to leave the campsite and past the traps.

To the nearest town.

It was morning when Mandel arrived to the nearest town. He didn’t know what it was called, because the sign was ripped down, but he saw there were alot of viruses in it. Maybe they had changed the last time he saw them. Maybe Sam was exaggerating.

Mandel went and walked in the town, without a fear in the world.

But there was much to be feared.

A few minutes after walking into the town, two viruses ran past him and hit him on the side, causing Mandel to get knocked to the side of the road.

Mandel took a second to get up. He was hurt on his side, but it didn’t really matter. He could heal.

Mandel continued to walk into the town. As he walked he saw more of the town and what the viruses had done to it. Most of the buildings were demolished or broken, but some were intact and stood standing for unknown reasons. Alot of the viruses were on the streets, fighting, racing, eating, or doing other various things.

Mandel had no idea what to do here. There were so many viruses and so little he knew.

He continued walking around, hoping he wouldn’t get hurt anymore. As he kept walking, he saw even more savagery occurring around him. Torn limbs, blood, and bodies of viruses.

Was this really what he was born into to? He had felt so sheltered before from Denise, and was astonished that this was the way everyone - everything else acted. These weren’t humans he was dealing with.

Mandel didn’t want to die here. He was about as old as everything else here, but he felt so young because he was with Denise for the past 4 - 6 months. Would he be this aggressive if Deinse hadn’t found him? Before Denise found him, he was planning to leave the forest and go in the direction of this city.

Mandel looked to the right of him, and saw there was an alley between two broken buildings that he could hide in.

Mandel rushed into the alley and crouched down to make himself small, so the other, taller viruses couldn’t see him and wouldn’t attack him.

He hid there for a little while until he realized he was hungry. He looked around for a can of beans. But none were to be found.

Mandel then remembered he could eat almost anything. Although he didn’t really like to, he didn’t have a choice.

He looked around him and saw only stone and metal, which he didn’t like to eat.

Mandel went deeper into the alley and saw… some limbs. Some arms to be exact. He was disgusted by this, but they looked like no one had taken then yet, and at least it was some meat.

Mandel dragged one of the arms to where he was before and started to bite into one of them. The skin was as hard as rock and tasted bitter, while the inner meat was slimy green and tasted even more bitter than the skin. The bone was the only real source of food. It was hard, but it didn’t taste bad. But at the same time, it didn’t taste that good.

Once he finished as much as he could handle, he curled back up into a ball again. He didn’t know what to think.

He started to hear some growling down the alley and turned to see what was going on.

Slowly, he saw shadows appear and grow as the growling got louder. Mandel then saw four seven foot viruses walking toward him, with an angry look on their face.

Mandel shrunk down even more. They must be angry at him. But surely there was a good reason for it. Or was it just out of pure hate, like how those other viruses killed his entire family.

The biggest virus stepped on the arm that he was finished eating and gave a growl. Mandel realized that must have been it’s food, not his.

The virus raised his huge claws, just like Sam had said they had. The virus was going to strike him for such a petty offense, but to them, his body was going to be made up for them wasting their time trying to find the other arm.

Mandel closed his eyes. He realized this must be it.

But just when Mandel thought the virus was going to attack, he heard the sound of barking, growling, and howling all around him. No claw to his face came.

Mandel opened his eyes to see hundreds of viruses go by to the center of the city, in large packs, howling with what looked like excitement.

Mandel looked above him just in time to see a few viruses jump from the rooftops into the alley next to him, and start running toward the street.

They almost trampled him, but Mandel ran to the streets as well, only to be struck with the wave of all of the viruses. He didn’t have a choice, he couldn’t escape the flow of all of them, running to something they all liked. He couldn’t imagine what.

But as the road dipped down, he saw for a second what they were all chasing towards.

Humans.

There were four humans on top of a building across the town. Two were male, the other two female, but all trying to fight for their life.

What were these four humans even doing here? They should have left the town and went to less populated areas, where the viruses wouldn’t be lurking. That is, unless they had been in the building the entire time, and had just been found and were trying to make it out alive. Mandel was getting worried and sad for them.

He was getting pulled toward the center, where all the viruses were collecting, trying to throw stuff to reach and hit them. Meanwhile, other viruses were trying to climb up the building and up through it.

Mandel didn’t have a choice but to go to the center, where they were all throwing crystals, bricks, and even themselves at the humans. The humans were doing a good job trying to protect themselves, but it wasn’t going to last long.

Mandel reached the center of the city, and almost got stepped on five times while trying to stand up and walk around through all the comotion. He was simply too small.

But then he felt one of the viruses pick him up. He was lifted up above all of the viruses, and saw what it looked like. A sea of chaotic purple.

Just as he was getting a view, he was thrown at the people on the buildings, faster than he ever had before. His mind sloshed around in his head, and started to feel nauseous. He felt like passing out.

He heard a gunshot fly by him only a few inches away.

As he flew by, he twirled around to face who he was being thrown towards, and realized he was going to hit her. He was going so fast, he didn’t have a choice to move out of the way.

Mandel abruptly stopped as he hit the woman’s chest, sending he flying backward. Off the building. He felt his spikes puncture her chest, making blood drip down and onto him.

He had killed someone. Someone who had friends, family, a life to live. And he didn’t have a choice to not kill her.

At that moment, he snapped out of whatever he was thinking before. He realized that Denise must be devastated that he had left. She was his friend, his family, one of the only ones that loved him, and he had traded that for believing that he was going to do something wrong. But he had control of his life then. He could have helped Denise and Sam, make them happy. But in his severe emotion and low expectations about what he could do, he had left them. He wasn’t going to leave them there.

The woman Mandel had killed fell backward into a crowd of viruses, but before she fell into them, Mandel jumped off her chest and onto a building behind the one the people were on.

He managed to fly through one of the windows and land in the building.

Mandel then proceeded to run down the stairs, toward the the street. He was going to circle around the entire crowd, so he wouldn’t get caught in it, and then run back to the forest and the tent.

Mandel got onto the street and ran through the streets, making sure he wasn’t stepped on by anything.

It took him around 20 minutes to get around the crowd and the city. He was back on the route to find his friends.

He soon neared the road he had walked on while coming to the city. The one he had gotten ran into on. It was completely deserted.

Mandel smiled. No more were negative emotions and thoughts going to control what he did. He didn’t want to lose anyone else again. He had let go of Denise. He had let go of Sam. He was going to keep them, and know that because of them, there was something to live for! Something to -

And he was shot in the back of the head.

As everything went back.

--:🟓:--

Denise didn’t understand.

She loved him.

She cared for him.

And he left.

It was the day after Sam’s watch broke, but that wasn’t what was important now.

Last night, Denise had walked back to the tent after arguing with Sam for a few hours. She was so sorry for what she had done, and tried to tell Sam that too. Sam had refused an apology, saying it wouldn’t make up for the fact it was broken. Denise, then persuaded him that the watch was gone, but not the memory of grandpa, which would live forever even if the watch was gone. All he had to do was remember him, everyday, and the memory wouldn’t go away. Sam reluctantly agreed. He promised Denise he would get a new watch from the Costco nearby and sync it so they could keep time again.

So they went back to the tent to tell Mandel that everything was ok now.

And that’s when Denise broke.

When Sam lost one of the things he loved, she had lost one of the ones she loved.

So she ran into the woods. Far into them so she could not be disturbed by anyone else.

Alone with her thoughts.

Sam was also affected. He didn’t feel as lively, as happy, as...full. He felt as if not only one part, but two parts were missing from him. The first part, being Mandel, and the second part being Denise.

He couldn’t possibly help her, or say anything to cheer up. He could say “He might be back,” but if he didn’t come back in the next week, Sam was going to feel foolish.

He made dinner for two. One was for himself, the other for Denise, in the cooking room in the cellar, so it would stay warm.

He walked out to the tent and stood in front of it, looking around for her. But she was nowhere to be found.

“Denise!” Sam called out to the woods, making sure to be loud, but only hearable for the woods close, “Your dinner in in the cellar cooking room. I won’t try to get you and talk with you there. I’ll be in the tent.”

No response. Sam didn’t expect any.

He walked in the tent and proceeded to eat. He had gotten his watch from last night, and even though it was broken, it was still a tolkien to him. And because it was broken, no one would try to break it again. There was no reason to. Sam didn’t know why he thought of that, but it made him feel good.

He got up and decided to check the traps, even though it was late. He could still check them before dark.

He walked out and went into the woods, to the opposite side he had gone to two nights previously. He assumed Denise wouldn’t be where he was checking.

He got to the first trap on the edge and looked it up and down. It looked stable enough and in working condition.

He moved to the next one and saw that it was not. Some of rope had snapped and almost made the trap fall. Sam got the two broken ropes and tied them together in a double knot so they wouldn’t come untied for a while.

He moved on to the next, and then the next, and then the next.

Sam checked his new watch that he had gotten and synced to the right time. It had been twenty minutes. Sam decided he should head back. As long as they didn’t disturb the world outside of the tent, the world outside wouldn’t disturb them.

San was going to walk until he saw there were bright and visible shadows on the ground from the trees. Sam looked and was surprised by what he saw.

There were no clouds in the sky covering the moon. It was bright and shining.

Sam smiled and took it as a marked it as a good sign, even though the mood wasn’t so good currently.

Sam continued walking back to the tent, emotionless as before, but with a weird, sad feeling. For some reason, he treasured it.

To his right, he noticed a spot in the woods that was empty. A clearing. There was also a rock in the clearing, reflecting the light of the moon.

But then sam remembered coming by that clearing a few other times before, and he didn’t remember a rock there.

Sam walked toward the clearing, slowly, until he saw it.

It was Denise.

Curled up in a ball. She was sleeping, and had gone to sleep crying. She looked so precious, so beautiful. In the glow of the moon and the stars, in the clearing so perfectly placed, she looked like an angel. Not a fallen angel, but a failed one. One that had tried their best, and even though they pushed to do everything they could, had lost. Had failed. It was a feeling only those who had experienced it could feel. It almost made you think that what you were best in wasn’t enough. Sam thought he could see wings coming from her in the moonlight.

He let her be.

--:✧:--

Mandel couldn’t feel anything. His entire body was numb. He couldn’t move it, and it didn’t feel like it was his own

But slowly, parts of his body came back. First his head, then his body, then his arms, his legs, and his fingers and toes

He opened his eyes, slowly.

In front of him, he saw space, the vast void which encircled all. It made him feel calm.

Mandel then realized he was sitting in a chair.

He looked down to see the chair, and then around, and saw he wasn’t in space.

He was in a long hallway, which stretched endlessly to the left and right of him, the chair wa facing to the clearest window he was ever seen, which was blocking them from the endless abyss of space. Everything was also white, like marble, but much more polished, glowing, and fuzzy to the eye. Or maybe the fuzziness was just him.

“Oh hey there bud,” Someone to his right said.

Mandel whipped around to the right to see a ghost in the shape of a male teenager in street clothes, a backwards hat, and cool jacket.

“What’s your name?” The guy asked.

Mandel didn’t respond because he couldn’t talk.

Mandel wondered why he was with a ghost, until he looked at himself, and saw that he was a ghost too. Mandel tried to stay sane.

“Too bad it doesn’t have a collar,” Someone to his left commented, “Looks like a deformed pet.”

Mandel looked to his left to see the ghost of a girl with slick hair and an inappropriate t-shirt on.

“Hey!” the boy to his right announced, “That wasn’t very nice Tiff, say sorry.”

Tiff let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry little guy,” she lazily apologized, and went back to back to crossing her arms.

“Sorry about her, she’s a little bratty sometimes,” the boy commented, “By the way, my name’s Clyde, nice to meet you.” Clyde stuck out his hand for Mandel to shake it.

Mandel shook it and smiled. At least there was someone nice in….where ever he was.

Mandel looked around a gestured his hands to point to the entire, endless room, and then looked back at Clyde.

Clyde looked at him and thought for a moment. Then he realized.

“You want to know where you are, don’t you?”

Mandel nodded his head.

“Well right now we’re about to get judged, to go to either heaven or hell. Now I know that might seem extreme, and it is. Saying ‘about to’ is very extreme of me to say. We’ve actually been waiting here for a very long time. How long? I don’t know. The only items we woke up with our clothes, so we don’t have any watches, phones, or clocks to tell the time. Not to mention we don’t have any weapons or vehicles either. We aren’t even allowed to get up from these chairs and stand! Well technically, you can stand, just not on the floor. I tried standing on the chairs - I think - a few days ago, and it worked! But yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

Mandel nodded. He actually had several questions, but he obviously couldn’t talk, so he couldn’t ask Clyde.

Mandel heard some noise from Tiff, and looked over to see she was talking with the ghost next to him.

Tiff turned around to face Clyde, with a smug look on her face.

“So Clyde, who are you going to haunt if you get turned into a ghost?”

Clyde rolled his eyes. “Tiff, none of us are going to get turned into ghosts. That rarely happens, and only to the ones that are a true split between good and evil.”

Mandel look confused. Clyde saw this and cleared him up.

“Oh right, forgot to tell you that we’re currently souls, not ghosts.

Mandel acknowledged him by nodding.

Tiff looked disappointed. “Well? Pass it on to the next guy in line.”

Clyde sighed. “Fine.”

He went and told the person to the other side of Mandel.

Mandel stayed where he was for a few hours. He didn’t even know if he should be sleeping or awake, because there was no sense of time. The endless hallway was lit up constantly.

But after those few hours, he heard some noise to his right. It was cheering. Mandel tried to get a closer look and saw what exactly the people all the way in the distance were cheering for.

A huge white building was coming down the hallway, taking up the height and width of it. It seemed to be moving down toward them, at a slow rate. There was a door in the middle of it, and a hole near the wall so it would go by the chairs and not bump into any of them.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Clyde relieved, “They’re finally here.”

Mandel looked confused.

“You know, God and Satan, to judge us.”

Mandel didn’t feel ready, but he didn’t have a choice whether he wanted to go to heaven or hell. His actions would decide. And Mandel wasn’t that confident in his previous actions.

One by one, the building moved to each soul, stopping for a minute or two, and then moving to the next, signalling the next soul should to walk in.

At last, it stopped in front of Clyde.

“Wish me luck guys!” Clyde offered.

“Good luck!” Tiff responded, as Mandel make a thumbs up to Clyde.

Clyde smiled and went inside, closing the door behind him.

Two long and anxious minutes went by. Mandel didn’t know how to act or even think, he was paralyzed. But was reminded of Denise, and what she would tell him to do if she was here. So he took a deep breath. In and out. He felt better, and less anxious.

The building eventually pulled up to his seat.

Mandel got off the chair and realized he was too small to open the door. But as soon as he got close, the door opened for him.

Mandel walked inside.

A blinding white and red came through, which made him unable to see for a second. But the light was dimmed and he saw who was standing high above him.

To the left, a brilliant white figure with a beard was standing at a huge podium looking down at Mandel, smiling while wearing white robes. To the right was a demonic figure, one with horns and red skin and glowing handcuffs around his hands. Mandel guessed that the figure to the right was Satan and the one to the right was God.

“It seems the being we are judging today is a small creature named Mandel, who is mute, but shows his love in different ways. Very nice to meet you Mandel,” God welcomed.

Mandel nodded shakily and sat down on the chair in the middle of the room.

God looked over to Satan and started the trial.

“It seems Mandel’s positive and heaven - worthy qualities are being the light of two beings’ live, Denise and Mandel. They cared for him, and he made them stay happy and alive for the next 5 to 6 months. Is there any evidence Mandel should not go to heaven?”

“Why yes, there is,” Satan spoke, in a shrill and evil tone, “Mandel was born into a family of savage viruses, destined to kill and rip each other apart. He himself did not kill anyone for quite a while, though, until a few minutes before he died. I believe killing someone breaks the sixth commandment.

“That it does,” God responded, “But Mandel was brought into killing someone, and had no choice in the matter. It was either he would die or someone else would. And I recall we had alot of those a year ago.”

“That we did,” Satan responded, “Those were hard decisions, but we ultimately decided that the ones who killed without a choice and ended up wanting to were sent to my haven, while the ones who didn’t want to kill and didn’t want to die were sent to yours.”

“Yes, and after seeing this one carefully, I have seen Mandel had no intention of killing anyone, even though he did. In the end, he was running back to Denise and Mandel, only to die while doing so.”

“Yes, about that. Mandel willingly left the ones he loved for a better future, and made them sad beyond belief. He was selfish in his his actions, and died because of them. Am I mistaken?” The devil made an evil smile toward God, sure that he had won.

“Yes, but you fail to see that he did these actions out of love for Sam and Denise. He left because he thought he was a back luck tolkien to them, that he was going to cause more harm than love. Of course, he was sadly mistaken, and died because of it.

“I see what you are saying, however, Mandel also assumed Denise and Sam would understand why he left, which they didn’t. Because Mandel could not talk, he could not signal them he wanted to leave. Because of this ignorance, I believe I have won this soul.”

“Not just yet. You see, when Mandel accidentally bit Denise, he did not turn her into a virus like himself, but instead kept her the way she was, proving he is capable of love and heaven.”

“Oh please. The only reason Mandel didn’t turn the girl into a virus was because he thought he was going to bite a food, and didn’t want to turn the food into a virus. That is a puny excuse.”

Now that Mandel thought about it, that probably was why Denise didn’t become a virus.

“I see your reasoning, Satan, but I truly believe this being was good and did exactly that. He helped Sam learn to love what he didn’t understand, and Denise to find the happiness in life. Mandel only left out of fear and love for them, and even though he could not communicate that, he died after thinking he would save them from danger, but not after realizing he was wrong. He gave Denise the courage to fight for him, even after he died.”

The devil thought for a minute.

“My reason still stands,” the Devil told God.

God sighed.

Another anxious minute went by. Mandel was on the edge of his seat.

“What time is it?” God asked. He pulled out a similar silver watch to the one Sam had.

“It’s been six minutes,” God realized, “That’s quite a while.”

“It is,” Satan agreed.

God turned toward Mandel.

“It seems we have reached a point with no conclusion. The time limit was surpassed while making a decision, so you are to be let go as a ghost, to roam the universe as pleased and with no harmful effects forever unless this case is reopened.”

Mandel was astonished. He was a ghost.

The setting around him started to glow around him and disappear.

There was a loud noise, and he was suddenly in space.

He looked around.

Behind him was a weirdly shaped asteroid. The rest around him was blank space.

But then it clicked. He knew the way to Earth. He knew the way to Sam and Denise.

Overjoyed, Mandel flew in a B-line to earth, stars rushing past him, sights flying by.

Mandel slowed down to find he had reached Earth. Most of it was cloudy, but there was an opening. One small opening where the sun shone through to the ground below. That was them.

Mandel slowly came down. The earth looking bigger and bigger as he went closer to it.

But in the forest, he saw the tent, and he saw Denise talking to Sam. Denise looked up at the sun because it was finally sunny, and saw Mandel, as a smile spread across her face. She told Sam and Sam looked up too, seeing Mandel coming down to earth, as a ghost.

Mandel then landed down and reached out Denise, just like he had all those months ago, except he was the one coming down get Denise.

Denise started to cry and and jump to get Mandel.

They touched.

Denise hugged the ghost of Mandel tightly, tears pouring down her face. Mandel could see Sam was behind her, and he saw Sam start crying as well. Sam had not cried in while.

At that moment, Mandel knew he was wrong earlier. The one thing that lasts forever is love. The love for others and the love of others loving you. Mandel started to cry as well as he hugged Denise. Sam came in to hug them too.

Mandel was back.