The Locket Cure

The Locket Cure

It ended quietly. No bombs were detonated. There was not a world war. It ended quickly, quietly; much like a deadly assassin, coming for you while you sleep. The only ones left just got lucky. I was born a few years after it happened. I am only seventeen now, but I feel like an adult. I certainly have the body of an adult! My mother used to tell me how things were before the virus, “Cara, you would have driven the boy’s crazy with a body like that”! But that would not apply anymore. Noone wants to get close to anyone else for fear of catching the virus. It started out harmless, much like the flu. But it quickly mutated. It mutated and spread so fast the world just could not keep up. Before they knew what they were dealing with it had already killed about three billion people. Everyone panicked and stayed inside and used special masks, but it was not enough. My father said around a million people were dying every week. I can only imagine how scared my parents were then. They have been my teachers, my friends. The only human contact I have ever had.

It has been a year since they died. Childhood memories cram my head as I stare down at their gravestones. I got in trouble a lot. Going places I should not be going. They also said the same thing. “Cara you’ll get sick!” “Cara, It’s too risky!” I have never been sick though. I had a few bacterial infections but never a virus. Incredible luck I must have. My parents were not so lucky, they went out for supplies one day and got contaminated. They died in just three days. I buried them myself. I was not ready for them to go! I do not like getting the supplies alone. The men at the markets stare at me through their masks. They would never touch me though, that is comforting at least.

I have lived in the same home my whole life. Everything still works, the lights, the internet, the water. We just burn our trash. We all know we should not but since no one drives anymore we figure it evens out the pollution. The people left alive manage to keep the necessities running. I Listened to the radio often. One host was such a pessimist he said it was only a matter of time before we were all extinct. I never agreed with that though. Someone must be trying to fix this. Some billionaire who had a lot of money before the apocalypse or maybe some remnant of a government trying to establish order again. There are not enough people alive to support an infrastructure like that now. I am glad my parents were smart people and taught me well. They taught me everything I know.

I headed back home from the gravesite. I feel so alone. I just want someone to walk with me, tell me about their day. I open the front door and leave it unlocked, who cares, right? I flip the light on to my bathroom and scrub my hands and face. In the mirror I stare at myself, longer than I should. The locket I found when exploring as a young girl, gleaming back at me. The words “Truth” engraved on it. It was not the whole locket though; the other half was missing. I loved it anyway because it was broken. I rubbed the strong-smelling sanitizer all over myself, and my locket. Why not, right? I could not wait to just crawl into bed and the day be over with. As my head hit the pillow, I remembered my parents tucking me in at night, kissing my forehead and telling me they loved me. I could not be strong anymore; I lost it and broke down sobbing. I cried into my pillow until I passed out from the stress of the day.

I woke up to the sounds of footsteps in my house. I thought I was just freaking myself out until I heard a voice say quietly, “Hello, is anyone in here?” It was a man’s voice. My eyes grew wide with fear, and I launched out from under my blanket. I launched a little too hard and fell right on to the floor and made a loud thud noise. I recovered quickly and started looking around for a weapon of some kind. The best I could come up with is a large flashlight. If nothing else, I could at least blind him with it. “Who’s there? I have a weapon!” “My name is John, John Casey, I’m a doctor, well more like a scientist now.” He said jokingly. “I mean you no harm, but I need to speak to you about this house, it is off the charts with virus activity, you need to leave here immediately!” I stepped out of the room and flicked on the flashlight. I blinded him pretty good! He was wearing a hazmat suit. It was covering him from head to toe. All I could see is his face. “What do you mean the virus is off the charts here? I’m fine!” I said, completely convinced that this man was lying, and that I would have to fight him. “Can you please turn off the flashlight! I cannot see anything! Look I have a device that lets me scan the concentration of the virus in the air and it’s really high in this area, especially here at this house so I came to warn anyone that might still be alive here.” I turned off the flashlight and flipped on the house lights. “Thank you,” he said relieved to have vision returned, “please listen to me very carefully, you have to evacuate this house, right now, or you will die.” “And just where do you expect me to go! I can’t just up and leave my home!” I could not contemplate leaving right now. “Come back to my lab, I can decontaminate you there and you can stay with me until you find another option, but if you stay here, you’re going to die.” His eyes told me he was telling the truth. I decided to see where this goes, better to test my fate with a stranger than to a virus I know will kill me.

He led me outside to a big white van. “What about my clothes and things?” I waved back, motioning towards my house. “Leave it. It is all contaminated. Please get in the back, I need to get you to the decontamination room as soon as possible.” He opened the back of the van. The back was separated from the front by a cage of sorts. All kinds of equipment were whirring and buzzing. He held my hand as I stepped in. The rubber on his suit was thick. He closed the door and ran up to the driver seat. I have never been in a moving car before; I have played inside a lot of cars but there was never any gas in any of them. “How far away is the lab?” I asked. “Maybe fifteen minutes or so, hard to tell with all this rush hour traffic.” He laughed. He could see my expression in the rear-view mirror, and I was clearly not amused. “Sorry, I’m just trying to lighten the mood. So, what’s your name?” “Cara.” “Just Cara? What’s your last name?” “I don’t have a last name, my parents never told it to me.”

We arrived at the lab. The neighborhood was really run down, and overgrown with foliage, but then again tall grass was a part of every yard. Only fake lawns looked like they were maintained. He rushed me inside and took me to a very brightly lit room. “Okay this room is going to get hot, quick, and it will cover you with steam and some chemicals, but I promise it is safe. I built this room myself. You ready?” I nodded, staring at his rubber hand on a switch on the wall. He pushed it and this cloud just enveloped us. It was over before I knew it. We stepped through into his lab. I saw another man inside, looking into a microscope. “John I’m glad you’re back I really think we might be on to something…” His voice trailed off as he noticed me. “Well, who is this lovely young lady?” “Her name is Cara; we need to get her tested right now to see if she has any trace of the virus inside if her.” John took off the helmet of his suit and I could hear a popping noise as the air rushed in.

The young man had black hair and piercing blue eyes. “My name is Caleb, it’s nice to meet you. Have a seat right there and let me draw some blood from you alright?” As I sat down, I looked at John, he was completely out of his suit now. John was older, but attractive. He had a necklace on, but his shirt covered it. “So, what are you guys working on here?” Caleb looked at John, almost as if asking him for permission to tell me. “A cure.” John said. He walked straight towards the microscope Caleb was using and looked in it. The needle stuck a bit as he drew the blood. It felt weird, but not unpleasant. So many new experiences, all at once, was beginning to overwhelm me. Caleb handed John my blood sample as he patched me up. John went about his work while Caleb led me to what looked like a waiting room. “Wait in here, it shouldn’t take long to get the results. If you need anything let us know.”

I ended up nodding off in the chair. I woke up to screaming and yelling. The two guys were fighting over something. I peeked through the door and listened. “This is huge John, this is huge!” Caleb was pacing back and forth with his hands on his head. “Don’t get carried away Caleb, we need to run more tests to be sure.” “I can’t believe this! We’re going to be rich!” Caleb was laughing and making a fool of himself. “We aren’t doing this for the money! We are doing this to save our planet, to stop humanity from dying, how can you think of money?” John said with a disapproving look on his face. “She’s immune John!” Caleb pounded his fist on the lab table, making glasses clink together. “She’s immune, and we created the cure with her sequenced DNA, I’m tired of living like this, I’m going to be rich!” As he stormed off, I approached John. “Is what he said true?! You created a cure, and I’m immune to the virus?” “At first testing yes, it completely eliminated all traces of the virus.” He holds up the finished sample, looking at it curiously. “But it needs more testing. Right now, we need to get this out and…” BANG! He did not get to finish his sentence. John fell to the floor, the sample rolled out of his hand. It was Caleb, he had a gun pointing it at me now. He ran over and snatched the sample, “This is all I need now, have a nice life!” He ran out of the lab. John gasped and it startled me so much it knocked me back. He was alive! He made a face of pure relief as he reached into his shirt. He pulled out a heart shaped locket, that was now holding a bullet, but it was only half of a locket. I was so shocked I could not talk. “Curious, isn’t it? That this would save me, a broken locket.” “What did it say on it? I have a broken locket just like it, and mine says Truth.” He turned it around in his fingers, examining the bullet. “It said, Love.”

End