“Bella? Hey! Can you hear me?” The
clash of thunder overhead made my words sound like a cricket’s chirp in a
tornado. I called out to Bella through the empty house, running around each
room to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. We were running away, we didn’t
know where, but we had to. They were coming, and we couldn’t fight them. We
didn’t have the technology to fight them, the force, or the knowhow.
They were some sort of mutation from
the vaccine they were trying to make for HIV and AIDS. The test subjects seemed
fine for the first few weeks after the start of the trial, but then they
started to change. The virus they were trying to fight mutated with the drug
and became something else. The white blood cells not knowing what to attack
started to attack everything, and the red blood cells started to copy the
mutations only. It only took three in a half weeks for blood transfers to come
into the equation.
“Bella, kiddo, time to go! C’mon,” I
called up the stairs as I pat my hands over my pockets to make sure I had my
keys. I didn’t need them for the house, the house wasn’t important; I needed
them for the car. Once I was reassured by the hard form in my coat pocket, I
looked up the stairs and called her name again. My pulse started to hammer into
my ribcage, threatening to break free of its cell and run out on its own.
The thunder clashed again, for the
fourth time in the past five minutes, making me jump a few feet and start
upstairs. It was like a push in the direction I didn’t want to go. Every piece of
tissue in my body was screaming and clawing at me, trying to get me to get in
the car and get away. But I couldn’t. Everything I did was for her.
Bella’s mother, Tess, died four
years ago from AIDS. Bella got the disease from birth, and I didn’t care about
it because I loved them both. Besides, I was a scientist in the medical field.
I was so sure that I would be among the first to find a cure, or something.
Anything to fight it off and protect them. But I didn’t protect Tess. And now I
failed at protecting Bella.
As soon as I found out that we were
cleared for human trials I jumped at the chance to get Bella onto the test
group that got the drug. My friend Beth was in charge of the test groups and
she knew how much this meant to me. She tried to talk me out of it, but I
wouldn’t take no for an answer. God, how I wish I had taken that answer.
Creeping up the stairs I walked
along the hall to Bella’s room. Her door was slightly open and I could hear the
curtain rippling in the wind. She wouldn’t have left, she wouldn’t have. She
loved me as much as I loved her, she wouldn’t have left without me. Not my
little girl.
Slowly opening the door before
entering, I saw that the window had been broken from the outside. So I rushed
in and cried out Bella’s name. I didn’t see her, but I saw a smear of blood
running along the floor, up the wall, and following it, I looked to the ceiling.
Patient 32-D was grappling my baby in his arms with his head bent into her
neck. I screamed and fell back against the glass on the floor, cutting my
hands. He looked up at me from his sitting position on the ceiling and smiled.
My daughter’s blood smeared against his lips as he laughed. I could hear the
living room door being smashed open and a sort of growling coming from
downstairs as he dropped Bella to the floor. I heard her skull crack and my
stomach twisted.
As I kept backing away, I prayed
that God forgive me for what I had done. Prayed that Bella was still alive, and
prayed for salvation that never came.
We live in the dark now. Only those
who had the AIDS or HIV virus in their human life are able to walk into the
sun. Lucky them. Bella can be outside, she often leaves and brings me things
from there. I’m cooped up in my lab though, making more blood for the rising
population. Millions of humans died and were reborn into what we are now. Any
humans left alive are in a breeding and donor program, which I doubt will last
long.
Humans have always wanted to be the
ones in control, and look at what happened. We tried to control a disease only
to spread a new one. I’m sure, one day, that the humans will fight back and
they will be able to kill us all off. I just hope that day comes before we all
starve to death and wipe them out.
No comments:
Post a Comment