Who is Emily???

I felt helpless. A speck of dust amidst the wraths of the entire universe.I kicked my feet furiously in an attempt to stay afloat as my entire body began doing the exact opposite of what I so desperately needed it to do. There was no one here but myself.Time was running out and for a brief moment I began to accept it.Perhaps this was my fate. A not so great end to a not so great story of my life.It was perfect.

Bright lights,the smell of the ocean,the otherwise soothing sounds of birds cawing were things that I noticed as consciousness began creeping back in like the familiar face of an enemy in a world full of unknowns. Fear was the next emotion I felt.What did it mean that I was alive? Who was able to find, let alone save me in the middle of the ocean with no other islands in sight. And, the worst question. The only one i was painfully keeping back,did they save me because they knew what i had done?

I fumbled around the sand with my hands and reached for my pockets. The familiar lump was still there. I heaved a sigh of relief. I slowly pulled it out and began inspecting it for any signs of water damage. Completely dry. Immediately my suspicion rose and i reached for my other pocket. Inside was a folded up note.The only signs this note had ever been wet were shown in the sheen of the still wet ink from the gel pen this had been written in.The note read,

Dear Hannah, welcome to paradise on earth! We have a wide selection of things for you to do here. From kayaking to even ice skating at our own personal island mall! Although, im sure its safe to assume you might not enjoy kayaking due to your well, past experiences with water so i have already taken the liberty of cordoning that area off for you. You are welcome to stay at the grand Mellida,our islands one and only 5 star hotel with an all inclusive pass so you can enjoy everything you could possibly ask for here. Enough of telling you all this, I’m sure there is only one question going through your mind right now and I don’t blame you. How did a stranger find a random girl like me drowning in the middle of the ocean.The secret is, Hannah, that you are no random and ordinary old girl.

I’m sure that by now you would have found the Petri dish in your pocket. Don’t worry, i haven’t touched it. I wouldn’t even know where to begin! Anyways, i have arranged a meeting with the islands leader tomorrow at 10.30am in the exact area where you were dropped off. He does not appreciate tardiness so i expect you to manage your time well here.

For now,sit back and soak in the wonderful sunrays of mellida, buy some coconut shakes from the smoothie stand and try some shopping!

I touched my forehead and felt my sweat filled palms slide across rough warm skin. I pulled out the Petri dish from inside my pocket and began looking at it in wonderment. The specimen inside was growing larger by the minute and just looking at it made me queasy. I threw it into my back pocket and ran. I ran as far as i could for as long as i could go. I ran until my legs felt numb and my heart was beating so loudly against my chest I couldn’t even hear my own thoughts. I needed to escape. This place was not safe for me. I needed to be home.

“Hey” a shrill voice called out. A girl around my age,dressed in ripped clothes,tiresomely sewn back together with a needle and some thread walked out and called out to me. I stopped in the middle of my tracks and started panting. “My name is Emily. What’s yours?” She began. Whilst i was still questioning whether i should introduce myself to this strange girl, she grabbed my hand and began walking me towards a nearby hut. The walls were made of cheap looking straw and held together in place by what looked like sticks plucked out of a nearby tree.

She pulled me in to the inside of the hut where she took a large fish out from the fireplace where it had been roasting and served it to me. “Eat. You look hungry” she said. Questioning her was the last thing on my mind. I needed to fuel my body if i wanted to think about what to do next. I pulled my hands out to touch the odd looking meal with big eyes staring straight into my soul but the moment it touched my tongue, oh, i could almost squeal in delight. I devoured the rest of the fish as she stared at me with wide eyes that looked filled with aggressively hidden questions.Finally, deciding to put her curious mind at ease,i told her my story.

“It was December 12,2004 in singapore. I had just finished my rounds in the research lab for infectious diseases but there was still something that had happened that day that just was not sitting right with me. Whilst i was cleaning up the mess of some of the chemicals i had spilled, i began to notice a faint outline at the side of my table. As i ran my fingers through it, i realised that it was an engraving of something so i took out my phone and shone the flash at it. I realised it was a handwritten procedure to a cure for something called the mellida virus. I couldn’t help but notice that all the things needed to carry it out and place it on a Petri dish for observation was right on my table. So, that night, after everyone had gone home, i diligently sat down and began preparing the specimen. It took twelve maybe thirteen hours, when I’m working i usually don’t notice the time go by but by the time the sun had risen and covered every inch of my table, i was ready. I heard the clicking of the door as it opened and one of my fellow scientists had walked in. I quickly shoved the specimen into my back pocket and greeted him with enough enthusiasm to mask the dark circles under my eyes from burning the midnight oil. Screaming as i briskly walked across the cold pale hallway i told him that i was taking a sick day today and to not contact me until further notice. I needed time to see what this thing was and what it was meant to do. What was mellida? Was the virus still present? Who was impacted by it? Was it one of the people in the lab? Immediately i took to my office issued computer for past viruses named mellida.Nothing. I tried seeing if it was perhaps a type of animal. Nothing. Finally having almost given up all hope,i searched up mellida on google maps. There was an island, smaller than the size of a pea with the name Shing in bold letters atop it. When i began to zoom in, i noticed that the whole island had been cordoned off three years ago. My curiosity rose to a dangerous level. Have you ever heard the saying, curiosity killed the cat? Well being a scientist who was extremely passionate about her job I’ve always known i was going to be that cat someday but it never really scared me. There were some answers that this world just needs to know. Mind still lingering on the idea of the island, i looked back to see the specimen. There was something different about it. The usual green gooey substance had expanded ever so slightly. That was when i knew i needed answers and fast. I called up my boss and said that there was something i needed to talk to him about. Urgently. He agreed to schedule a meeting together that Thursday and that was where i went. At the meeting i told him everything i had discovered and how the procedure to make the specimen was found at my desk and how preparing it had caused something that was growing by the day. I looked back at the Petri dish in my hand. The specimen had expanded by two centimetres since i saw it last. My boss looked at the direction of my gaze and sighed. Does the name of the disease happen to be mellida? He asked i was completely thrown back bat i felt the adrenaline in my body start pumping harder. He knew what this was about. Finally i was going to get some answers i thought. I could not have been more wrong. He calls for some coffee for the both of us to sit down and have a long conversation with and after taking one sip of it I immediately began to feel drowsy. Next thing i knew, i was in the middle of the ocean sinking with no one and nothing around to save me. Just cold, cold water surrounding every inch of my body and suffocating me from the inside. Just when I thought my life was over, someone from ur island rescued me. Reading the letter, and seeing the name mellida, sank my heart. This was the place.

So, now that i have answered any question you could possibly have about me, i have just one to ask you. What is the mellida disease?”

Her eyes remained wide and lips parted ever so slightly and shut immediately almost as if to hide any whisper of a word that may have come out of her mouth. She gestured to a dark corner of the hut which was surrounded by flowers to make a makeshift curtain. ‘’The people are everywhere and they hear everything’’ she said whilst frantically looking around. Safety tucked away behind the curtain, she finally heaved a sigh of relief. She lifted up her arm to show me a patch of red covering the entire length of it, almost like a strategically placed tattoo. Lifting up that layer of skin, she showed what i could only describe as maggots feasting on row bone.I gasped. Looking me straight in the eyes, she began telling me her story.

“Four years ago, all of us here on this island lived in different parts of the world. For me, i was living in Dubai. My family was very wealthy and my mother a businesswomen and was not much of an explorer but my father, he loved going to remote places,throwing himself into dangerous unknown territory and trying to make it through. It was one of the many qualities about him that i greatly admired. Anyways, one day he was in the middle of the jungle and discovered something truly horrifying. The animals that he found were all dead and had maggots feasting all over them. Behind the jungle was a government plant where they were doing experiments in the dead of the night. As he moved over to sneak a closer look he saw that there were animals in cages and a single drop of liquid was being dropped on they’re tounges. He saw it being done to a tiger which then bit a puppy and they both began to contract the same red mark on they’re skin and soon, it started decomposing at a rapid rate and both animals began dying. He saw the scientists referring to a certain piece of paper as they were making the serum and swiped one of them when they weren’t looking. He quickly realised that the scientists were making a serum in order to eliminate the entire animal population in the jungle in order to build an island there. It was meant to be a tourist trap in order to get more people to visit they’re foreign country. After a few minutes of reading the note, he noticed two of the scientists whispering to each other and tiptoeing away from the lab. That was when he saw it. There was a bright red mark on the scientists hand and he was seen peeling it away to show the effects of the serum to the other scientist. They were speaking in hushed voices and he had to step closer to be able to hear what they were saying. ‘’It’s working on humans too and its much worse, i had never been bitten by any one of these animals, only touched.These animals, they are shipped off to all parts of the world after they’re dead Rod, what if someone touches them.This infection, its going to eliminate the entire human population. You must tell the leaders. Tell them quick before it starts spreading.’’ He said as he winced and gripped his own hand tightly. My dad had heard this entire conversation and he ran back out to tell the others before they discovered him. What he did not realise in his rush was that he had previously touched one of the animals in order to examine it. The rash had already begun developing and by the time he reached our house and finished telling us the story, we had all already contracted the virus. When we went to the doctors to get it checked out, they told us it was a mild infection and gave us a pill to take. The next thing we knew, we were all placed right here in this hut and informed that in order to stay alive, we had to do what the leader of this island said and they cordoned off this island and supposedly asked every medical professional to send over people showing signs of having mellida disease to this island. They had turned this tourist trap into they’re own personal jail so as to prevent any of us from escaping and telling the world the truth. That the disease they had created to save money and kill off animals in this jungle for they’re own economic profit had gone wrong and begun to kill humans instead. Everyday we are given a singular blue pill. We have no idea what it does but we take it anyways. We don’t know what happens to the people who don’t but, for an hour every day the wound caused by the disease begins to heal a little. Not completely, just enough to keep us all alive for another day. But the people have heard rumours of a woman with a cure .You can cure us all. Don’t meet the leaders here. None of them actually want us to be cured. Our illness is the only reason all of us are still here. Once we get cured, they’re secret is out and they wont be able to do anything about it. Please you are our only hope.’’

My jaw dropped. This whole island was full of people who were suffering. I knew i needed to do something about it but i had one last question to ask. ‘’ if they didn’t want me to have the cure so bad, why would they send me to this island with it and allow me the chance to help you all?’’ Her questioning expression told me that this was one she did not have answers to. Peering out the makeshift curtain, i saw sunlight begin to pour in. We had talked through the night and it was time for me to meet the leader this morning. With a fierce determination, i got up to leave but the girl pulled me back down. Where are you going? She asked. I knew she wouldn’t like the answer so i told her i was going to take a walk around the city to look around.

Walking outside, i saw a beautiful landscape. This truly could have been paradise on earth if it wasn’t for all the people that were secretly trapped here. I ran back in the same direction that i came from hoping that i was right about where to meet the leader. Emily told me they were everywhere anyways so I decided that it wouldn’t matter where i went anyways, he would be able to find me regardless. Sure enough, after having walked about aimlessly for a long time,i saw a broad muscular man. His beard reached down to his chest and was extremely dense. He was dressed in a suit and looked so excited to see me that i jumped a little. He smiled widely to show off his fake veneers. Don’t worry darling all i need is for you to explain something for me. Okay? He asked. I hesitantly nodded. ‘’You see, a few years ago one of our scientists had been infected by this disease. He was smart tho, incredibly. So smart that whilst being infected with it,he managed to reverse the effects of the poison and cure himself. After doing so, he and his friend fled the country and we have never heard from them since. It was only after you talked to my fellow leader over here that we discovered that our little scientist had actually foolishly left behind the cure on your desk. ‘’ he said. I saw my boss walk out and show himself.’’ Now, we don’t actually know how to use the cure but our scientist had left it on your table for a reason. You seem to be the only one who should know how to use this cure and we are not going to let you out until you show us how to use it.’’ He said as he placed handcuffs on my hand. That was when I saw it. His arm was fully red and so was my bosses. They were trying to get me to find the cure so i could cure only the leaders. That was they’re plan all along I realised.

I tried to fight and pull off the handcuffs to no avail. I was fully stuck on this island with no means of helping anyone. I felt just as helpless as when i was drowning. Looking around for a last glimmer of hope, i saw a faint shadow in the distance and suddenly all the leaders fell to the ground. I tried to focus my eyes to see what could have caused that fall and I couldn’t find anything but a dying tree beside me. ‘’Hey!’’ I heard the familiar shrill voice of the girl. Emily! I shouted out and felt her hand brush past my shoulder. You did all this? I asked her and she simply shook her head. I was very confused. All the leaders were knocked unconscious. There was no way that just wind could have done that. She pulled me away towards the big lab that was right beside us and told me to get to work. Deciding what to do with the specimen. I tried recalling the story she told me and how they were just dropping the original serum on a persons skin. I tried to do it on her. It didn’t work. I knew that i needed to conserve the cure so everyone was able to get it so i had to think smart. Racking my brain for ideas was not the best thing to do when i was running on no sleep. I tried feeding it to her. No avail. I could hear the locks of the doors clicking i was running out of time. The thought came like the sudden sound of a loud thunderclap. The disease caused peoples bodies to decompose. What if the serum had to be put into the persons body. Closing my eyes, i pushed aside the skin and dripped some of the serum on her. Now all she had to do was cure the rest of the people by touching them. The wound was healing and life was coming back to her body.when the doctors came in she began fighting them one by one and i was amazed at how her little body could take down such full grown men. My dad taught me a few moves, she said. I smiled at her and we left to save the rest of mellida.

Right before we left, my boss said something that never failed to sink my heart to the depths of my stomach. ‘’ Who is Emily?’’