Underwater Mystery

It has been 10 years since the covid pandemic and once again here we are in the middle of another plague, the White Plague. Many people thought this plague was brought on by the covid vaccine and were waiting for people to return as zombies. But no-this plague is nothing like covid. People are disappearing, entering another universe itself and are unable to return. It’s been said that some people are getting caught in black holes trying to get back to their own universe. Over half the population is gone already. The government is obsolete, no one works anymore, the grocery stores have been depleted of all their stock and of course no one is working to stop people from stealing food or to restock or sell the groceries. This plague has taken hold of my mother, little sister, Grandpa George and many other cousins uncles and aunts. My father died just before the plague got worst in a car accident. It has just been me my younger brother Shawn and my old brother Brandon since then. How did this start you may ask; well, I have a theory? In my opinion the common denominator in those that disappeared is fish- I’ve done my research and they all ate fish from this one particular fish farming company. We have all heard about the fish farms, tilapia heck if you watched Seaspiracy you should know most of the fish people eat isn’t real or simply is unsafe to eat. Many people ignored the warnings of activists. I even warned my mother that now was not the time to become a pescatarian because of the fish shortage and risk of eating something far worst. She agreed with me but that didn’t stop her. Lucky for us my father made the choice for us to stop eating fish before he died. It could be a coincidence but that is my theory, either way people are still gone, and we have no idea how to get them back.

I lay in my bed staring at cobwebs in the ceiling starving, literally, there is no fish left in the ocean that we know of and hardly any meat. Many of the farmers are gone and those of us left are not agriculture specialists so we have to hunt for our food now. “I’m hungry” cried my little brother Shawn. I was already up awakened by the pain and grumble of my own hunger. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and mustered up strength to arise. “Me too, bud. Let’s see if we can find some deer for breakfast”. I got up and walked towards the door. From a distance I could see outside the window, the sky was still gray but hardly any rain ever fell. We’d be lucky if we found any animals alive. I passed my older brother Brandon on the way to the bathroom. He looked groggy and confused his afro matted to his head beard growing wild and eyes barely open. He held his stomach as if he had the same hunger pains I did. “Guess we’re going for a family hunt” I said trying to sound hopeful. “I can’t take the cramping anymore” my older brother Brandon said. He shot me a worried look. Trying to act brave for our younger brother I quickly changed the subject. Shawn finally stopped having nightmares about our mother and I didn’t want them to start up again. “Why don’t you go and get your lucky hunting shirt while I get ready for our hunt” I said to Shawn. Shifting my attention back to Brandon I got serious, “We have got to find a deer today, it’s been weeks since we’ve had one. We can’t survive like this much longer. Maybe it’s time to move around and find another hunting area.” Brandon looked at me puzzled and replied, “It’s definitely time to search for more food, but none of us have the energy to walk over a mile.” The words he spoke were so true but still sent chills down my spine. I wasn’t ready to die, nor was I ready to lose another loved one or watch them die for that matter. “The only option is death if we stay here. Let’s hope to catch something good today and if we do, we’ll eat what we need for strength and spare the rest as we search for a better place to find food.” Brandon agreed, I got dressed grabbed my knife, and shotgun and met everyone outside. It always felt weird walking outside, the air seemed harsher than usual. It was always hot and cloudy. The leaves on the trees had fallen and withered away and the grass even started to turn brown. Even the smell was far more putrid than the way it was before the white plague.

As we walked in silence in search of deer, I became angry as I recollected all that had happened. Nothing made sense anymore, why did people disappear just for eating fake fish? This is nothing like a basic apocalypse it’s something far worst. My mother and half my family are in another universe! How does any of this tie together? I thought. “Shh” Brandon said quietly as if he heard my thoughts. A tan baby deer with a white belly came walking between two tall leafless trees. The deer looked frail and weak but would still make a nice meal. I optimistically wondered if his mother was close by.

Just then the deer looked up as if it heard something, another deer walked up behind the baby, it must have been the mother! She too looked frail with white spots on her tan fur I could see her bones without trying but her meat would still satisfy us. We crouched down low as Brandon took the lead signaling that he would shoot the mom and I would shoot the baby. I nodded at him quietly in agreement. As I got my sights in on the baby’s head and switched my gun from safety I choked up. This never happened to me before even before the white plague I hunted with my dad as a young girl. The baby deer and I locked eyes. Can he see me? I asked myself. We maintained eye contact and suddenly I saw my mother. My mother had been stuck in another universe for over 4 whole months why was this happening now when I’m desperate for food?! “Find the necklace!” she screamed to me with a frightened look on her face. She had the same button up orange blouse and khaki pants on that she wore to work the day she went missing. Her locks were still neatly done up into a bun as if she just got it styled. She was in some all-black space suspended in the air. I didn’t know if I had a vision or really saw my mother. What necklace was she talking about she didn’t own a necklace. I must have taken too long to shoot as I tried to process what I was seeing because suddenly, I heard BANG! “Shayla why didn’t you shoot the deer?” Brandon screamed at me as he walked toward his kill preparing to gut it. The deer fell immediately to the ground and the baby ran swiftly into the words. Brandon shot the deer clean between the eyes and I let my deer get away. Still in shock I whispered, “I saw Mom” “Shayla what the hell is your problem man we needed that deer!” Brandon’s shouts got louder as he became angrier. “I saw Mom!” I finally shouted back with tears in my eyes. “What?” Brandon responded in disbelief and frustration. “Yes, I saw her she was wearing exactly what she had on the day she went missing, her hair was still intact and everything she looked exactly the same” I explained. Brandon was still more focused on the food “Dammit Shayla we needed that deer! We don’t have time for you to start hallucinating now especially if we have to go searching for new hunting grounds” “I was not hallucinating!” I said in self-defense. “I really saw her she told me to… to find the---the necklace” I said frantically as I began to look around in the dirt. I dug and dug and threw dead leaves and twigs around until finally I saw it. A silver heart shaped locket with a spiral pattern on the front. I opened the locket and there engraved on the inside were numbers 21061. “Look Brandon” I motioned for him to come over. Brandon was ready to start skinning the deer and taking out the inners when he paused with his knife in hand and walked over. “What is?” he asked. I replied “it’s the necklace-- she told me to find a necklace, maybe this is it. What do you think this could be? Mom never wore jewelry”. I scooped up the necklace and started to examine it. Brandon was not buying into anything I said “Shayla” he said, “put that trash down and help me with this damn deer we don’t have time for this”. Shawn caught wind of what we were talking about, he had been standing back out of the way as we hunted since he still didn’t know how to use a gun, yet he was only 7. “Did you say you say Mom Shayla? Where is she? Is she coming home?” I almost forgot Shawn was in listening distance and felt bad I reacted so loudly. Brandon was about to really lose it now. “See what you done did now Shayla!”. Consolingly Brandon turned to our brother, “No Shawn Shayla is just hungry man she couldn’t get a good shot at the deer because she’s too weak. That’s why next time you have to take a shot. Next go round you’ll take a couple shots at the deer, so this won’t happen again.” Brandon cut his eyes at me hoping that his lie would work on Shawn. Shawn was much too good of a listener for that instead he replied “I’ll shoot the deer next time… but I thought Shayla said she saw Mom. What’s in your hand Shayla?” Shawn began to walk toward me drawn to the shiny necklace. “It’s nothing Shawn I just found this necklace while we were hunting, and it made me think of Mom.” Shawn looked crossly at me and then back at Brandon. He wasn’t going to argue this time, but this topic would certainly come up again. Brandon was relieved and said, “All right ya’ll help me with this deer so we can go home and eat!” trying to change the subject. We were all too hungry to ignore our empty stomachs any longer and food could change all our minds in a heartbeat. Brandon threw the deer over his tall shoulders.

We walked back towards the house passing the dying trees and dirt roads. We made it back to the main road where I saw the old convenience store that we loved to get candy from. I was deep in thought the whole walk back. I knew I saw Mom and the necklace was nothing short of a coincidence. I couldn’t stop peering down at the necklace as I walked trying to understand what the symbol and numbers on the inside meant. I ran my fingers across the engravings as I pondered. As I began to cross the street I suddenly tripped. It felt like there was something there that made me trip but when I looked down nothing was there, but the black road and a ripped-up magazine called the Scientific American. There was a picture of the galaxy on the front of the magazine. I picked it up and held it up next to the locket. It was the exact same picture, was this a clue??