Contamination

The city is desolate. Ruined. I stand on a hill overlooking it, my hand straying up to shade my eyes.

The Contamination has wiped out all large bodies of civilization, leaving few survivors scrounging in the wilderness. The huge cityscapes are abandoned and emptied, with piles of deserted or contaminated belongings strewn through the streets.

This is life after the Contamination.

I reach up and finger the heart-shaped locket hanging from my neck, scanning the landscape before me. This necklace is the last link to my family; my mother gave it to me for my eighteenth birthday just weeks before the first wave struck.

The charm is barely large enough to fit the scrap of fabric from my mother’s uniform, and the braided thread ring Leo had given me. This locket was the only personal belonging I had on me when the fourth wave wiped through the world.

Tucking the locket under the collar of my shirt, I strike out towards the gloomy city, hiking my backpack higher on my shoulders. It’s difficult to find clean, uncontaminated things in the wreckage, so these essentials cannot be exposed.

I’m still not used to the haunting silence. When the contamination struck, at least the mass panic and chaos was initiated by beings. Human beings. Now, it’s rare to see another person, and if I do… I know to get away.

I never thought it would come to this. There’s so much I regret. But this is life now.

The huge empty skyscrapers soar up above me on either side, creating a sense of claustrophobia. How can something so empty feel so confining?

I happen upon a pharmacy store and walk through the broken, once-automatic doors into the almost-cleared building. I quickly head to the hygiene section and find a forgotten box of bandages. I don’t waste time looking for toilet paper; that was one of the first things to go in the first wave of the Contamination.

I grab a few more things and find a pack of mints on a dirty shelf. After securing it in my bag, I head out. Such luxuries like this are already near impossible to find.

I kick a piece of pavement out of my way, jumping as it clatters against a streetlight. I am on edge, feeling unseen eyes watching me from the shadows.

A shadow blocks the sun for a moment, and I instinctively duck under a store canopy. A distant roaring engine interrupts the suffocating silence, growing louder by the moment.

As it nears, I stuff my fingers in my ears, trying to shut out the traumatizing noise. In the third wave of the Contamination, those ships had been our lifeline. They would roar into camp, bringing supplies and essentials for the survivors.

Soon those ships became our only method of transport in and out of camp. I still remember the screams of the suffering as I boarded the ship with the other immunes and left camp. Left my family. Left Leo.

I cower back as the ship veers left and disappears behind the buildings for a moment, the engines still fuming. Before I work up the courage to leave my shelter, it comes swooping back, lower this time.

And this time, I think they spotted me.

As it banks left and comes back around, I know. I watch it grow nearer as it careens towards me.

I break into a sprint, heading for the next canopy overhang a few lampposts down, my bag thumping against my back.

Run.

Ever since the fourth and final wave of the Contamination, the government had been actively working to round up all immune survivors. Rumors have spread about the inhumane experiments performed on the immune.

After watching a few of my companions be killed in front of my eyes when they wouldn’t comply with government troopers who came to take them away, I knew the truth.

Trust no one. Keep my own survival solely in mind. Stay alone to stay alive.

And now it looks like my hard work is about to go out the window.

I hurdle a fallen streetlight and hunker down behind an abandoned car. The ship rumbles over my head, engines flaring as it makes another low sweep. I squint up at it, shading my eyes against the dust and light and coughing as I inhale dirt.

The hatch on the ship screeches open, revealing two armored troopers inside the ship.

I don’t waste time and roll underneath the old, rusty car, then scramble out and bolt down the street, back the way I had come.

There. Just a few hundred feet away is a parking garage. I just need to get to cover.

I put on another burst of speed, a stitch forming in my abdomen. I suck in a sharp breath, trying to focus on the goal.

The whirring roar grows louder, and the shadow blocks the light above me, forcing me to duck and cover my head as the powerful wind from the ship blades blasts around me. I try to make a run for it, but a tangle of webs drops down on me, tripping me.

I scramble to get out of the net, tearing at the tangled ropes. A cold metal claw closes around my midriff and tightens so I can’t escape.

It retracts toward the ship, taking me with it. Hissing at the constricting claw around my torso, I flounder in the air, trying to dislodge the net to no avail.

With a groaning creak, the line jerks to a stop, slamming me against the open hatch of the ship. Gloved hands remove the claw, grab my arms, and throw me to the bottom of the ship. I crash against the metal floor and smack my head against a crate.

“Alpha 07, this is Beta 4,” a staticky voice crackles over a speaker as someone removes the net. “We’ve secured the target.”

I scramble away, panting heavily and rubbing my bruised ribs. Kicking my captor’s knee, I curse as he barely moves. The inflatable armor these people are wearing makes it nearly impossible to land a blow.

Their full ensemble includes a full-face respirator– which means they’re not contaminated. This also means they’re not immune. I know the truth, but it still sparks panic inside me.

These are government troopers. This is a government ship. And I’m about to become a government experiment.

One trooper crouches and grabs the chain around my neck, snapping it off with a quick jerk. I scream in rage and lunge at him, but the other trooper holds me back.

I watch in horror as the trooper drops my locket on the floor and crushes it with the heel of his boot, denting the thin metal.

A shudder runs down my spine as they clamp cold electrical cuffs around my wrists and secure me with a harness in a seat. They exit the room as the ship thrusts forward, throwing me back in my seat.

I stare at my ruined locket, tears forming in my eyes as it slides to the back of the ship. I’ve lost it. I’ve lost it all.

I rest my head against the metal headrest, ignoring the pain in my body. I’ve tried so hard to stay alive. So hard to keep going.

And now, like my locket, all hope is crushed.