The End Of Nothing And The Beginning Of It All

Chapter Nine: Hope

I quickly jumped to my feet, for a small amount of time forgetting how sore they were, and ran excitedly towards the gap in the steel wall as I started to hear the grumbling noises getting closer. These people had listened and saved me. As I entered I looked around in amazement. I heard the steel door bang close behind me. How was this here? It seemed like a whole community, there were so many people here. There were groups of children smiling and laughing as it looked like they were being schooled. People rushing around proactively helping each other with whatever the were doing. However I had very little time to continue looking around before I was confronted with the metallic armour clad guard that had kindly let me in.
"You must now be taken into quarantine. Do not touch anything. Please follow me" he said in a stern deep voice. I had no clue what was happening. Why was I being quarantined? All I know is that I didn't fancy the idea of arguing with this guy and he had saved my life after all. I started to follow him but before I knew it a young child, about 5 years old, ran up to me, hugged me and exclaimed "Mummy!"
"Stand back from the child" the guard said suddenly rasing his gun at me. I held my hands in the air to surrender.
"You know this child?" he asked.
"No I have never seen this child in my life" I replied truthfully. I had no idea why this child thought I was his mum.
I saw the guard crouch down and ask the child whether I was his mum to which the child nodded.
"You lied to us. This boy is your child" he said.
"Please he isn't. I swear, I don't have any children. I'm not even old enough to have had a child his age. Look at me " I pleaded, unsure what would happen next. Why would they believe a child? At that age you can't even decide whether you want to wear blue pants or green pants in the morning, let alone this?
"You have touched the child so he is now infected. He must also be quarantined" the guard announced.
"I'm not infected don't worry" I replied still holding my hands up in the surrender position.
"We don't know that. We must take all precautions. Now follow me immediately" he continued. I lowered my hands and followed him warily unsure what this all meant. He directed me inside to a prison-like cell.
"It takes 2 days for symptoms to develop so you will stay in here for that time. You will have no contact with anyone. Do you understand?" he explained to me. He also directed the child to a separate cage next to me.
"Ok I guess but you can't possibly shut him in there on his own. He isn't even old enough to feed himself properly is he? At least I can look after him in here" I exclaimed.
"You touched him so he must be quarantined also" the guard replied.
"But surely if I am infected, which I'm not by the way, then I would theoretically have already infected him so if we share a cell it wouldn't matter?" I argued back. The guard went away to discuss with the other guards before coming back and agreeing with my request.
"Fair enough. You shall share a cell but you must be responsible for this child if you are offering to be his carer" he replied.
"I mean I wasn't offering that. I just didn't think he could physically survive on his own at that age" I started to explain my case before slowly petering my arguing as I saw the expression on the guards face. He couldn't care less so I guess I was stuck with this child now whether I liked it or not. Me and the little boy entered the same cell before the guards locked the door and walked away.