Her Wake

The beginning of it

I look up from my laptop and stare at the clock on the wall, 4:34 pm, I get a sudden chill down my spine as if someone ran their index finger down my back. The only thing behind me is the window, maybe a sudden drift from it grazed my back. I shift my stare to the threshold of where the kitchen and dinning room meet, as if I was waiting for someone to walk in at that exact moment. I look back at the large wooden polished table on which my laptop sits and look at the white lit screen of my laptop and continue typing at the top left corner of the word document I have open,
Date: September 18, 2045
Name: Faith Winsely
How to Manifest the Future

Why was I writing about this again?
I stop thinking and stare at the clock on the wall, which I remember my mother picked out specifically because she loved the design of the old antique mechanical clock, it shows 4:45. I slump back against my wooden chair and think, has it really been eleven minutes?, I get up and walk around the house. I check my older sister's room on the second floor, she's usually in there listening to music and reading a book. I find her room empty and in a mess, I check the bathroom, nothing. I walk the short distance to my younger brother's room it's also on the second floor, he's usually playing video games with his headset on and talking to his friends, again in a mess like my sisters but also nothing. I go back down stairs to my parents room in a bit of a hurry, I open the door and don't see them. My chest feels tight all of a sudden and I run all around the house yelling for them. "Sasha!", "Matthew!", "Mom!", "Dad!" I yell and yell for them endlessly and hear nothing in turn. I can feel myself start to panic and sweat, I sit down on the large L shaped couch in the living room. I check my phone, percentage is at 24 I have enough to call them I call my older sister first, no answer, I call my younger brother next, also no answer, I then call my mom and dad, they both didn't answer, this is very strange and very concerning. I glance to my right to see the tv remote, I turn on the tv and hear a loud high pitched sound come from it, I stare at the tv and see a emergency warning screen on. It reads:
                   EMERGENCY BROADCAST
***NATIONAL ALERT***
THIS IS NOT A TEST
RADIOLOGICAL HAZARD
THE EAS HAS ISSUED A
RADIOLOGICAL HAZARD
FOR THE NATION
OF THE UNITED STATES
***EFFECTIVE UNTIL***
***FURTHER NOTICE***

My face drains of all blood and I feel myself turn pale. I rush to my room on the bottom floor at the end of the hall from the living room and put on my old high top converse. I hurry to the back patio white doors, I run through the dinning room and the kitchen to get to them, the doors each have ten window panes, I stare out at the orange dyed air. I think back and remember the tv said radiological hazard, that's a chemical hazard, the air is orange my best guess is there's some lethal chemical in the air. I think of what to do momentarily and decide to go the laundry room which is to my left and search for a thin but durable towel. I find my favorite coral colored hair towel and grab the kitchen scissors which I usually use to open the plastic bags of food, and cut a piece of the towel to fit over my nose and under my chin to block my air ways from the chemicals. I walk quickly to my room and grab a backpack that I used for school and put important items in it. Some things I pack are an extra towel mask, a large water bottle filled, an empty small water bottle, my blue switchblade that my parents got for me on my sixteenth birthday, a spare pair of tennis shoes, and my favorite family picture. I change from my house clothes and put on my wrangler slim fit pants and my favorite black belt with a black t-shirt, I also think of a jacket but that's as far as I get on that. I then put on my analog clock watch, along with my necklace that says "Faith", it was a gift from my grandparents how could I leave without it.