In Search of Fresh Fruit

Ella swallowed hard, begging her body to keep down the contents of her lunch. Even though the smell alone was enough to make her want to immediately vomit, she knew that she needed to savor this meal. The last time she ate was Tuesday morning. Today was Friday.

Eating was not just becoming infrequent, but the size of the meals were dwindling, too. It only took her three bites to clear her plate. Ella’s stomach gurgled and churned as the acid rose into her throat, but she forced it back down. She was not going to waste food, especially when so many others were nearly starving. Looking around, she saw parents scoop their food onto their children’s plates and watched as they scarfed down the few bites of brown meat they had, licking the plates clean, desperately searching for any morsel they may have missed with their forks. Ella’s eyes stung from the water pooling in them.

For as long as she had been alive, 18 years, she had only known this compound: these metal walls enclosed by a concrete barricade. Never before had she seen the compound struggle like this. Five years ago, the elders had warned that this day would come, but no one thought it would come this quickly. Her memories of that day slowly came into focus.

Ella, and the rest of the other thirteen year olds, were summoned to the cafeteria by the elders. She searched the room, found Drew sitting alone, and hurried to his table. It was a surprise the two did not come together considering they were basically joined at the hip.

Then, the elders entered.

The kids stood up, bowing as the five men and five women passed by them, expressing their reverence and respect for the leaders who govern their compound. The president rose his arms, signaling for the children to take their seats, and cleared his throat before telling them why they were called here today.

“Over a century ago, there was a virus that nearly eradicated the human race. It took almost three billion deaths and five years to develop a vaccine for adults. It took three more years to create a vaccine for all people under 16. This kept driving the virus out of human bodies, threatening its existence. But the virus got smart. It started to take on parasitic qualities and instead of killing its host nearly immediately, it took it over. These hosts became known as the Unvaxxed. Sometimes it would take weeks or even months for the symptoms to surface, but once they started, there was no way to control them. It would begin as hunger. People could still live their lives—go to work, take their children to school—they would just need a few more snacks to get them through the day. Soon, they would become insatiable. Food—the smell, the thought, the sight of it—would consume every part of their mind and life until eventually this insatiability could only be quenched by one thing: human flesh.”

The Unvaxxed first surfaced an ocean away from where Ella’s town is located. This gave the townspeople a chance to watch the chaos unfold, to learn about the Unvaxxed, and to prepare for survival. Her great grandparents were part of the founding families, the original ones who built the compound. It took a few decades for the Unvaxxed to devastate their town and drive these people to live in the compound almost full time, but even then, they could still safely venture into neighboring cities to gather supplies when they were running low. It was not until Ella’s mother became pregnant with her that venturing outside of the concrete barrier became forbidden.

The Unvaxxed had established their own communities in this region and were becoming more of a threat. But, the compound still needed supplies. They needed scavengers. As the years had gone on, the missions were becoming more dangerous, with fewer and fewer scavengers returning home. Scavengers were in short supply and so was food.

“When you come of age, at 18, our compound will look to you to contribute to our livelihood. Most of you sitting here will become scavengers, but a few will stay behind to tend to the compound’s needs. We have sheets of paper, each with a single job written on them, in this bucket. One at a time, you will reach in, allowing the universe and the ones who have come before you to guide your hand, and select your role.”

The six children stood toe-to-toe with the elders, in a straight line, and each took a random sheet of paper from the bucket. They waited until the last person held their fate in their hands then opened them all at the same time.

Ella read and re-read the word in her hands then looked over at Drew’s paper and read his word in her head. He reached over and held her hand in his.

“Are you ready, L?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

Drew took their empty plates and tossed them into the dirty bin. As they made their way to the end of the hallway—where the president was waiting—Drew took Ella’s hand in his. She didn’t have to say anything, he just knew that she needed to be reassured, that she needed to know that they would be okay. They had always been like that, even as kids. They could sense when something was wrong with the other and knew exactly how to be there for them. She was how he got through his mother’s death and he was how she made it through every day, especially days like today. Days of scavenging.

She loved him for that and he loved her for so many reasons, but they would never say it out loud. This way they could keep their love entirely to and for themselves. In a world where they were often left at the mercy of those in charge, having this thing that belonged to just them made them feel like they had, at least, some control of something.

Drew dropped Ella’s hand so they could scoop up their satchels. Ella took the assortment of weapons from the president—all three of them knew she was a better shot than Drew—while he was handed the map. She began to secure the weapons in her waistband, while the president gave them the update.

“The pear tree is at the top of the hill to the west of our compound. It’s under one mile away, so you should be back within the hour.”

“Any Unvaxxed sightings in the area?”

“Yes. There are four regulars. They are usually spotted on the south side of the tree. But the lookouts have never seen them out this close to dusk.”

They knew they couldn’t carry enough pears back to feed everyone for very long, but this mission was about more than that. Drew and Ella were the only two remaining scavengers. The twenty others had all died over the last six weeks on their various missions to gather resources. If they made it back, it meant that maybe future teams could leave and safely return. But if they met the same fate as those before them, then all hope for returning from the outside world would be lost and the compound’s doors would be closed forever.

Drew and Ella faced forward, watching in silence as the compound’s doors unlocked and slid open. The pair stepped onto the small patch of grass that was between these door and the concrete barricade and turned back to see the president standing safely within the walls of the compound.

“Safe travel. Safe return.”

“Until we see you again,” Drew and Ella replied in unison.

With that, the doors slammed shut. Drew and Ella turned to face the 20 foot tall concrete wall. There was a door off to the side that could only be unlocked by an elder’s or a scavenger’s hand print. Ella lifted her hand to the biometric scanner, unlocked the door, and stepped through it. Drew, with map in hand, broke into a sprint and Ella followed closely behind, weaving through a maze of trees.

8 minutes later, they were standing at the bottom of an enormous pear tree. Ella had never seen anything like it before. She watched as its leaves swayed gently in the breeze, mesmerized by its branches as they twisted and stretched towards the sky. She could not help but envy its wild freedom.

“Ella. Climb!”

Drew’s words cut through her trance and she hurriedly climbed up the tree, knocking fruit to the ground for Drew to gather. She picked and stuffed as many pears as she could reach into her satchel. Once full, she climbed back down and helped Drew grab whatever was still in reach. He snapped his satchel close and the pair took off running back towards the compound. Drew kept up his quick pace, but as they rounded the bend, Ella started to slow down. They were only a few yards from the concrete barricade, but the weight of the pears were just too much for her to carry.

Suddenly, a body came leaping through the air and another one emerged from the grass line. Ella let out a blood curdling scream, causing Drew to turn in his tracks. That’s when he saw two Unvaxxed running towards her. He knew he could make it to the concrete barricade before the Unvaxxed reached him, but he could not bring himself to move. At least not forward.

He gripped his satchel in one hand and ran towards Ella. He shoved the straps of his bag into her open hand.

“Run!”

She summoned all of the energy she had left and ran towards the wall while Drew tried to fight off the two Unvaxxed. She unlocked the barricade’s door and threw the bags of pears onto the in-between patch of grass. She turned back around and fired her gun at the two Unvaxxed, who were now on top of Drew. She hit them both, causing them to stumble to the ground.

Bullets could not kill the Unvaxxed, but could at least incapacitate them for a few minutes, long enough for most people run. They knew it would not be long before other Unvaxxed headed towards the sound of the gun shots. If they were going to make it to safety, they needed to go. Now.

Drew tried to get to his feet, but collapsed. He looked down and saw his tibia protruding from his leg. Ella ran back to him and tried to drag him towards the compound.

“No! Ella, go!”

“But, Drew.”

“Ella. It’s too far and there is not enough time. They won’t be down long enough for us both to make it into the compound. But you can make it. You have to go.”

“Drew.”

“You are their last hope, the last scavenger. You are what stands between imminent death and some chance of survival. I need you to live.”

“But I can’t live without you.”

The Unvaxxed started to wake.

“Go! Now!”

Ella wiped the tears from her eyes, turned, and ran towards the barricade without looking back. Once in the between space, the compound’s door opened, but she refused to move. She slid her back down the concrete wall and sat in the grass listening to Drew’s screams as the Unvaxxed tore his limbs apart.

She should be the one dying right now. Screaming in agony. Feeling their teeth penetrate her skin and tear her flesh from the bone. Not him. He did not deserve to die like this.

And it was all her fault.

She knew that his blood was on her hands. And while torturing herself was not going to save him, she was hoping it would at least absolve her of some of this guilt.

But she would never forgive herself for this—for his death.

All in search of fresh fruit.