Collection of Stories

Katali

Sometimes, I wonder if I'm the only normal human being left on this ball of rock we call a planet.

By normal, of course, I mean what the majority of people were like about a decade ago.

Now the goal posts have moved.

Either you got something that makes you, Uh, different, to say the least, be it an ability that helps you survive or stops others from surviving...

Or you're dead.

It's a miracle I'm not the latter.

I also say human being because some people aren't quite what you'd call 'people'.

It's a polite term. 

Best not to offend the guy that can eat you.

Yeah, a lot has changed in 10 years.

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Snapshots.

That's all I have left of most of my earlier memories.

This is the earliest I can remember

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I was with my family.

My parents were there.

I don't remember their faces or their names, but I somehow know it was them.

There were other people too there that I knew at the time, but I cannot tell who they were at all. 

Except for one.

My older brother, Aleks.

I was almost 5 and he was 13.

We were on holiday, overseas for a short stay.

We only intended to stay for 3 weeks.

Today, we were going to a park.

Me and Aleks went one way, our parents went the other, to get food, I think.

It wasn't the same as other parks I had been to.

There weren't very many trees or flowers and very many buildings.

A lot of them had strange trains or long lines or both.

There was a lot of yelling, running and shouting.

The happy kind.

People would scream especially loud on the trains, which didn't really go anywhere.

When they finished using the train they would run happily to another train or the same one, which nearly always had a line of people wanting a ride.

Aleks kept telling me people did it for fun, but I still didn't understand.

But then something happened.

I don't know what it was, but people now refer to it as 'The Flash'.

The happy screaming changed.

It was now the scared kind.

People were running everywhere.

Aleks grabbed me, leading me through the stampeding crowd.

I heard them calling, just once, the only clear memory I have of them.

My Parents.

"Aleks! Katali!"

But the crowd was like a river, and we were swept away.

Aleks lifted me onto his shoulders and I looked behind me.

The trains were burning.

Eveything was burning.

There were so many people yelling and crying.

Some calls were for help, many were other people's names.

Some people futher behind were not running.

They were lying down on the ground.

Some people were running against the crowd, trying to get to the people left behind.

Some fell down and did not get back up.

Those that did make it through knelt down next to the bodies.

I didn't see anymore.

Aleks must have turned a corner.

I don't know.

That is all I remember from that day.

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The Flash is what happened 10 years ago.

There are other names for the event, but I cannot remember all of them.

I've been told it didn't happen in that one park.

It happened all over the country, and in other countries too.

Some at the exact same time.

Some a few days, weeks or months later.

No matter where or when it happened, people changed as soon as it happened.

Some in greater ways than others.

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