I Am Immune

Chapter 1: Life as it is

Okay, now that the morbid part is over with, let’s get onto some cheery news. I’m Alyssa, just turned 15 and I have sickle cell anemia, meaning that I am a surviver. My parents are both carriers of the disease and I am infected. You see, when both parents are carriers, there is a 50% chance of their child being affected and a 50% chance of their child being a carrier. Me, being “lucky”, was born affected. People who are affected or carriers survived since the malaria don’t like the sickle shaped red blood cells, so my parents and my little brother Aiden, along with some families around Boston, like the Maki’s, the Roper’s, the Alexander’s survived.

We aren’t sure how many others survived outside of our city, since the TV’s have no news crew to film the news channels. The phones don’t work too. And being human, we have to adapt to this issue. Dad just left to go to the supermarket to restock our food supplies. He’s the leader of the survivors in Boston, rationing out all of the food and attempting to start a farm in the Boston Common, which I should be helping with right about now. 

I slip on my black converse and grab my bike parked beside my house. I love riding my bike, even though my joints constantly ache due to sickle cell. My hair flowing in the wind and the sun gleaming down on me. For a moment, everything seems to be back to normal. I can picture the little kids chasing each other around the swings at the school 4 doors down from my house. I see the neighborhood dog, Porky, a bulky giant brown and white St. Bernard licking the faces of the bummed out kids who missed the ice cream truck. I can see my best friend Kylie riding her purple and pink spotted bike beside me, laughing and her blue eyes glittering. 

But I snap back to reality as I approach the Common. Dad, Aiden and 1 other bulky man is there, pointing and arguing over something in the plowed fields. Dad has a bag at his feet, which is probably our food for the next week or 2. He’s bright red, arguing with Matt, the leader of the Alexander household. 

“The asparagus aren’t growing and we shouldn’t waste this land for something that isn’t going to grow!” shouted Matt. 

Dad shook his head and retorted, “It will grow! These take time to grow. They won’t be as quick as spinach, but they will grow.” Matt just rolled his eyes and walked away grunting something about beans growing the fastest. Aiden, my 4 year old brother sat beside Dad, playing on the grass with smears of dirt all over his face. Dad shook his head and said under his breath, “That man must have like a shrine to beans in his house...” I laughed. Matt was always so eager to eat and always objected to anything being grown in the Common other than beans.

I pulled a tissue out my hoodie pocket and bent down to wipe the dirt off of Aiden’s cheeks. The dirt refused to come off and resulted in me carrying him on my hip and bringing him to a nearby water bucket to clean his face. After, I wipe his face cleaning using the tissue and he’s all clean.

I walked back to Dad, with Aiden now playing with my hair, still on my hip. Dad let out an exhausted sigh and looked at Aiden and me. His gray hairs were starting to grow and bags were under his eyes from staying up all night to plan out who was working where, when and how we were going to get past the cold winter that was coming in just 3 months.

“Has Professor Ranft come up with a good solution for the winter?” I asked. Professor Ranft was the brother of Mr. Ranft, who co-discovered Life. He lived in Boston, helping us with his research and ideas on improving our lives. But he was always locked up in his lab, and only came up to eat and share ideas. 

“He proposed that we build a greenhouse and have our vegetables be grown in there. We all think its a good idea, but that would require everybody moving to one neighborhood and everybody is too stubborn to decide on whose neighborhood we’re moving in.” He said and then sigh loudly. 

“My house! My house!” squealed Aiden. It would make sense, though. Our house is almost 3 blocks from the Common, and bordering our neighborhood was a forest, which could provide us firewood for the winter. Dad rubbed the stubbles on his chin and looked off into the distance. 

The skyscrapers and tall buildings are empty and lifeless, like the rest of the city. The once busy and bustling roads now empty, only filled with abandoned cars and bodies. Dad told me not to go towards the other half of the city. The families had managed to “clean up” this half portion of the city, but left the rest untouched for now. All we needed was right here, in the areas that were cleaned. We had debated whether or not to go look for other survivors, but crushed that idea after the Collin’s left to go search and never came back. Who knows what the malaria x could’ve done to all the other creatures of our planet? All we knew was that here was safe for now, and thats all the reassurance we need.

But due to the danger of mutated creatures, everybody was required to always carry a weapon, except little Aiden. Dad had a semi-automatic pistol on his hip, Matt had a machete at his hip and I had a combat knife strapped to my upper arm. 

The sun was high in the sky, basking us in its warmth. Aiden clapped his hands and giggled while Dad and I just stood there, deep in thought. Dad was the first one to break the trance. “Well, I guess I’ll take Aiden and head home. You’ve got water duty today.” He said while picking up the bag and taking Aiden off my hip.

“Mmkay Dad. See you in a couple hours at the house.” I spoke. I spun on my heels and turned to the water bucket, picking it up and searching for the watering can. Dad had taken his motorcycle today and I heard the rumble of the engine as they drove away. I found the teal watering can and filled it up to the brim, then lugging it to the beginning of the row. I held it up and walked at an even pace, so it tipped over and gave each thirsty plant, a good enough drink. Each row was about 8 yards long and there are 4 rows. I had to refill the watering can once more and water the sprouting tomato pants, the potatoes and the peppers. An hour or two passed and I was done. I had taken a gardening shovel to fix some vegetable plants and to make sure it was healthy and strong.