𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐧

Chapter 10: Alan

Humming quietly, I came back into the hideout. I was in a good, or better mood today. I had spotted one of my favourite birds outside. It was called a Magpie, but I called it 'Maggie'. It was one of my first words, according to my father. Maggie would fly over to me from her nest every time I went down to the riverbank.

Birds were rare in this world. After the Great Extinction, many of the older species of animals and plants were wiped out due to the Great Warming. That was about the time of my great-grandparents and stories had been passed to our parents. I remember asking my father about all of the birds.

Now, only the hardy birds remained. Like Maggie. She was a wry little thing, avoiding everyone except for me. She sat on my arm as I stroked her feathers.

On the way back, I felt a bit dizzy. Pulling up my mask, I struggled to breathe. How could we get used to this? I tried to keep pushing it away as if it were an annoying thing in my head, but it kept coming back. I desperately hoped that I wasn't getting sick. A few people gave me some stares and gave me a wide berth. Their behaviour made me realise that anyone that seemed sick would be avoided. It would just be like that, as long as the Virus was around.

It reminded me of the school I went to, when we used to be able to afford it. I never understood it, but some people were always avoided. I wasn't, because everyone always liked me. Now I understood what it felt like.

I took my mask off, glad to breathe again. As I walked into our hideout, Violet looked up. "How was the walk, Alan?"

Behind her act of cheerfulness, I could sense that all was not well with her. But if she wasn't going to tell me what was wrong, then so be it. I'd wait until she decided to tell me. "All good," I replied. "I saw Maggie."

My sister cheered up. "Ooh, Maggie! I want to go see her." She started skipping outside.

I realised something. "Wait!" I held out a hand to stop her.

Violet turned around. "What is it?"

"I just remembered. When I went out, I saw Guards at every street. They--"

"Every street?!" My sister exclaimed.

I nodded in affirmation. "Yes. And they were very strict. Whenever they saw anyone that didn't have a mask on, they escorted them home. They called them 'dangers'. You must make sure that you do wear your mask when you go outside, otherwise you could get into trouble. Okay? We have to stay safe."

"Okay," my sister said. She went back outside, this time with her mask.

When she left, I sighed. The Guards that I saw surfaced to my mind. They never guarded every street in the West Quarter, not even when the crime rate was at its highest. They usually only guarded the Upper Quarter. It was so strange to see them all around the West Quarter, especially armed with stun guns.

It made me look over at the box that was on the table. The box seemed to draw me in, making me walk towards it to have a look inside. I counted the amount of masks inside. Eighteen in total. One of them had been used by me, and the other one had been used for Violet. We had a lot of spares. I wondered what would happen once all of them were used up. Would we last that long? I quickly dismissed the ominous thought from my mind. I didn't want to think about what would happen. We would survive. We had to.

I'd almost turned away when a small corner of a piece of paper caught my eye. It was peeking out at me, from underneath one of the masks. I hadn't noticed it before. I pulled it out of the mask, examining it. My heart skipped a beat as I saw what it said. 

You're being tracked. 

It was printed in script, dark black ink contrasting against the white paper. Paper was so expensive these days.

I didn't like it. Not one bit. I quickly tucked the piece of paper back into the mask that I found it in, as if I had never found it in the first place. I quickly checked if Violet had seen, but she was distracted by something else. I wouldn't tell her about it. She would be very scared and I didn't need to worry her about it.

I tried to convince myself that the piece of paper was wrong.