The Outlier

The world, as we had known it, came to an end with the pandemic. Life was not life anymore. Billions had died, people were on a rampage killing and stealing for food, and families struggled to survive. The government called for calm as they sought to develop a vaccine. Once it was found, however, vaccinations began to cause a change in people. They began to behave like robots but remained human in their routines. Their emotions were controlled, because even as a child was struck by a car and lying in the street bleeding it caused no response. Vaccinated people kept walking with blank looks on their faces. The government was forcing more people to get vaccinated. People were being grabbed off of the street, forced into vans, and taken to vaccination sights. When they returned they were shells of the humans they once were. I'm tired of hiding, trying to stay two steps ahead of the insanity, but I have to find out what is causing the destruction of humanity...

Miriam was turning nine and was as beautiful as her mother; dark hair and eyes, and a smile that put the sun to shame. She seemed to sparkle like the stars in the sky. I searched everywhere for a necklace that would represent the love I had for her. I came across one that was shaped like a heart and had several small colored stones in the center. It glowed in the sunlight when I uncovered it in the store and I knew this was the perfect gift for the child of my heart. When she unwrapped the box, tears filled her eyes. She whispered," It's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." She hugged me around the neck and wouldn't let go. Miriam wore her necklace everywhere she went and friends always asked about and admired it. Her response was always the same," I am the heart of my family and loved by them."

The light in Miriam's eyes and smile seemed to fade as the pandemic increased. One moment she was running and laughing, and in the next, she was wrapped in a white sheet being transported to the morgue. I couldn't go with her because of the quarantine. I fought with them to let me go with her, but several soldiers with guns forced me back. When I tried to push them out of the way, one hit me in the back of the head with his gun. When I awoke, all that was left of my child was the necklace that was clutched in my hand. Tears fell like torrential rain without any sign of stopping.

For some unknown reason, the virus didn't affect me. I prayed for death since everything I lived for was dead. But my death wouldn't bring Miriam back. I was an Outlier, which the government coined those who were not infected by the virus. Yet they tried in desperation to vaccinate us anyway. Everybody held their phones to their faces to look and listen to the voice of the leader He Who Watches multiple times a day. The voice repeated the same message each time; "We are one people. No one is better than the other. We follow the government rules above all. We never question, we follow." And just like the voice, each person repeated the message in a cold and robotic way.

One day when this comatose society went about its roach-like activities, moving without movement, I followed one of the vans that vaccinated people and hid in the back. The van entered some sort of medical compound that had white tents and medical personal. Just outside the tents were large black crates that housed test tubes of liquid with the movement of something metallic inside each one. I crept secretively toward a tent to see what was transpiring. The metallic objects were nano-chips that controlled the thinking of people. Once injected into the body, the nano-chip would implant itself into the brain of the person and they would become controllable without emotions. There would be no war, no fighting, no love; only one people lead by the Leader. The world would know only peace. All of this at the expense of human love and emotion.

Such a society was not one that I wanted to be part of. A place without feeling and love was a place of emptiness. I removed Miriam's heart-shaped locket from my pocket and held it to my chest near my heart. He whispered to her," I'm coming home, the heart of my heart". With that said and tears in his eyes he took a deep breath and jumped out from where he was hiding as soldier's bullets fired, killing him but setting him free.