Pair of Hearts

Pair of Hearts

DATA ENTRY 8-8-38 8:18 AM

Happy birthday Cassandra! Make a wish on the locket, keep it in your pocket, I know it was chocolate. *laughter* This year it stings a little different. Sure, other birthdays have been less than joyful but with the accounts of this last week I wonder if there is even… no, sorry, I must not finish that thought.

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DATA ENTRY 8-8-38 8:38 AM

Okay Cassandra, I am sorry. I know we promised to be strong for one another… here we go. Happy Birthday! I cannot believe you are missing this once in a lifetime chance to be in Disneyland! I have the whole park to myself! *giggling* Of course, I probably have all of California to myself. I remember those years summer vacationing here with you and sometimes after I close my eyes and imagine for a minute, I swear I can even smell the churros.

Now the only smell is that of rotting corpse. Did people just say, “well if I’m going to die let it be in the happiest place on earth?” The only ride you can still recognize is the Ferris Wheel with the rusty Mickey Mouse face. Everything else looks nothing like we remember. Of course, there is a chance that you have already been here in search of me… and there is a chance you will never hear this…

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DATA ENTRY 8-8-38 8:38 PM

Cassandra it’s me again, I can’t simply not talk to you even if you are no longer someone who *gulp* could hear me. I am alone! I also simply can NOT stop every time the weight of the world gets too heavy. I am going start saying it straight. If for some reason you do listen to this – HECK IF ANYONE LISTENS TO THIS! *giggle* Hello stranger in the future listening. Or hello alien who is trying to figure out what happened to this dreadful planet I’ll lay it out for you.

Where to begin? I guess the start was in 2020, yes, the global pandemic. So, everyone knows about COVID-19 that plagued the world from 2020 to 2021. Over 8 million people died due to the extremely deadly and contagious COVID-19 virus. The whole world shut down for almost a year and everyone lived in fear.

Cassandra and I were new nurses at the start of the pandemic. Young and naively thinking that we could save the world. Do you remember that Cassandra? Do you remember that high feeling we had, fresh with a degree and license? Thinking there’s no way this COVID stands a chance against us. *laughter* But we saw so, so many deaths, that hope was soon extinguished. Eventually, people started following guidelines such as: washing hands, staying at home, wearing facemasks and cases began to decline. However, us nurses still endured heavy patient assignments. Then a vaccine was released!

I was a part of that as well. Spending time at the hospital and time at the vaccine clinic; double fighting the virus. By the end of 2021, death rates were lower, not gone, but much lower. We had no idea that “peace” would only last a few years. *LOW BATTERY…LOW BATTERY WARNING* I’ll have to charge and pick up where I’ve left off. But one last time, Happy Birthday Cassandra. Make a wish on the locket, keep it in your pocket, I know it was chocolate.

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DATA ENTRY 8-9-38 09:00 AM

Good morning Cassandra! I am feeling slightly better after getting some rest, fuel, and having a purpose. Where did I leave off? Yes, we had no idea peace would only last a few years. Cassandra, you got married! I had little Carina and Marina with Jake. We were all planning a trip to Disneyland for 2025 when the first warnings came out. “Global Warming warning! Remain inside at all costs!” We thought “What a joke the media’s playing. Global Warming is not THAT big of an issue yet.”

Well, for us during that week, thankfully we lived in Arizona and the heat was just as hot as we were used to. That week, however, reports of deaths all over the world started flooding in, people dying outside at the exact same time. A week later, it was released that due to the increase in pollution, radiation was being trapped in our atmosphere causing internal injuries. Now those deaths, those people were walking outside fine as ever and then BOOM dead on the concrete.

But not everyone. It wasn’t for a couple months that Dr. Zoe connected the link between those who had received COVID vaccines and survivors. What a crazy freakin’ world we live in! A vaccine saved us from the COVID-19 virus and started to slightly cause a gene alteration in those that were vaccinated and those born to vaccinated parents! That gene mutation making them less likely to be susceptible to the harsh radiation that was emitted randomly.

Also, to note, not everyone who had received a vaccine had the gene mutation. Only a fraction of those receiving the Pfizer vaccine and a fraction of their children had the mutation. Little Carina and Marina had the mutation and I remember never being so grateful in my life to have twins run in the family.

But radiation levels continued to increase, deaths reached over 10 million. The world needed help being saved. I was chosen to go to D.C and help with the research. Leaving Casandra behind… Casandra I am so sorry! I should’ve demanded if not all of us, then none of us go. But there was so little time for arguing. I took Jake and the girls and headed off to D.C and I haven’t seen you since.

There weren’t very many children left in the world. Those who agreed to participate in working on the research project demanded that their children be guarded carefully while they worked. Those men were hand selected from what was left of the military, such brave men. On just any Tuesday when all the parents were of course in the lab, two of the guards turned against the 5 remaining guards in hopes to kidnap the children. I’d imagine that they would get a large reward for having 8 gene children. 5 good men versus 2 bad men, shots were fired. A bullet bounced to a light fixture sending it crashing down on two of the children. The two kidnappers managed to kill three guard and severely injured a fourth. I have seen this footage and the last man, Sargent Miles fought with his last dying breath. Then the six remaining children disappeared. Leaving Jake and I childless. Hold on…

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DATA ENTRY 8-9-38 12:00 PM

Sorry retelling that… well, it’s hard to say the least. So, as you can imagine, after the many researchers’ “futures” were kidnapped or killed, the group fell apart. Jake and I set out to find anyone in our family and have been scavenging for the last year.

Jake… Jake’s gone too. He went foraging for supplies while I was sick a couple of weeks ago and did not return. When I went looking for him, I found his shirt bloody and torn. My best guess is that a pack of scavengers attacked him. I searched for a few days longer and found no other trace of him.

So, I carried on, we were on our way here, to Disneyland. We thought if there was anywhere in the world you would be it would be here, especially for this birthday… *sigh* but you’re NOT here and now he is NOT here and it’s all so hard! I can only stay here one more night and then I will need to move on.. there are just no supplies.

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DATA ENTRY 8-10-38 09:00 AM

Cassandra, I have built this large tribute with dolls and rusty mementos in case you are still alive and return here. I am going to Seattle, maybe I can still find some of Jake’s family. I love you and I will leave a note at the Ferris Wheel in Seattle as well. I keep my wedding rings close, and my twin locket closer. Mom had no idea how important it would be to have the heart-shaped gold locket. I imagine it symbolizing your heart is always with me, I hope you wear my heart around your neck as well. I’m sure you do; we are twins after all. Make a wish on the locket… put it in your pocket… I know- what is that?

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DATA ENTRY 8-12-38 09:00 AM

Hello Cassandra, future stranger, or alien! I was signing off last thinking I would never see my twin sister again. Just as I thought hope was lost, a caravan of cars came honking and people shouting. They were all shouting “Carina” that’s me.

It turns out, that the people who “took” Jake, had found him injured from a battle with a mad dog. They rescued him and brought him to their camp where of course, Cassandra was the nurse. She bandaged him up and once he became conscious, he told her of my plans. I am not alone anymore! Sometimes, life looks bleak but sometimes, wishes on lockets do come true!

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