Interitus

5

No one ever told me about how the war started.   Whenever I'll ask one of my brothers they'll act oblivious or tell me to go away, even my parents played the uncertainty game.
I knew they were lying to me.
I made frequent trips to the library up the road to find old newspapers or documents, but apparently they were all burnt to dust in The Night of the Flames.
I often avoided searching it on the internet in fear I'll get an alarm as it is such a global sensitive subject matter.

One day while Dad was painting the hallway and mum was out with some of my brothers shopping, I made the brave decision to search the answer on the laptop.
I plonked myself in the centre of my single bed, creasing up the newly washed, crispy bedsheets.
I shared a room with my closest brother Rid.
It wasn't a very spacious room, and it more wetted Rid's decorative appetite than mine. The walls were painted sky blue, and due to it being located in the attic, there was only one large window which sat in the centre of side wall, which connected the ceiling to the floor.
Mine and Rid's beds sat slightly opposite each other, with his more located near the door. I always had an irrational fear of sleeping near the door, scared that a monster would suddenly creep behind me and yank me to a dark domain.

I flipped open the screen of the laptop and typed in the password.
I heard voices from downstairs, I could pick up Rid and Dad mumbling in the hallway.
Without hesitation, I leaped to my feet and closed the bedroom door.
I jumped back onto my bed and typed in the search box 'The Potazium War'. Again no one explained to me what Potazium meant, another question added to my long list.
Many tabs came up and luckily no alarm launched onto the screen yelling access denied.
I took a large intake of breath and clicked on the first tab.
Alarmingly a news page sprung onto the screen partnered with dozens of gruesome pictures of dead bodies with deep puncture wounds, all with black eyes.

I continued to analyse the page when the bedroom door flung open and a figure barged in,
"Zane", Rid called.
I slammed the laptop shut unsubtly, and answered, "Yep".
Rid frowned at me, "what you doing?", his hand was still clasped tight on the door handle.
"I...was", I emphasised every word, "looking at clothes".
"Yeah right like you would slam the laptop shut if you were only looking at clothes." Rid laughed.
He suddenly bolted to the laptop and snatched it from my bed. I automatically gripped onto it, and we tugged it back and forth. Rid made one strong whip and my hands freed themselves.
He opened the laptop and looked at the screen, "Zane really, can't you just let it go", he sighed disappointedly.
"No Rid I really want to know what happened, why won't you guys just tell me!"
"Because it's horrible and cruel, and you're too young to understand", he screamed.
I lowered my head downheartedly, and twiddled with my thumbs.
"You really want to know don't you?" Rid said sympathetically.

He threw the laptop on my bed and perched himself next to my knees.
"Ok I'll tell you, but if you tell mum and dad I'll kick you so hard in your jewels that you'll feel it in your throat ok!", he threatened, it was convincing enough that I jolted up and nodded my head frantically.
He began.

The story, as far as I could remember went like this.
The rapid growth of the population over the last century sparkled a longing fear of many inevitable problems, such as loss of land, food, and possibly in the distant future a decrease in oxygen.
The government wanted to avoid these problems by any means necessary, and made a hideous decree that there should be harsher medication and help on those seriously ill; in other words leaving people to die.
This decree caused the government to split into two; one for the decree and one against.
Those against felt that those decree imposers were tyrants and need to be eliminated.
Through secret meetings with expert scientists and researchers, they composed a formula where they can change the other half's personalities and opinions by force. As a result, the decree can never be imposed.

One night in the bleak winter, the governors for the decree were kidnapped from their homes in the shadows.
Collectively, the formula was implanted in their necks and their unconscious bodies were abandoned in the streets.
However, the outcome was not as was expected.
The governors turned insane and selfish, rather than transformed for the greater good.
They spread the formula by the transfusion of their blood to other beings, and their mindset turned dark and evil.
Each victim possessed distinctive black eyes which also stained the veins around their sockets, and hence their nickname the Veins.
After an examination of one of the captured Veins, it was discovered that their life span had shortened, and that they could die after only a couple of months.

After so long, the Veins turned murderous. Instead of spreading their infectious disease, they relentlessly killed people they embarked upon.
They did so to those who refused to join them, so people were going to die either way.
This mass execution of people sparked a plague of fear across the world, and caused people to hide in the darkest of places for safety.

Many months had past and the numbers of Veins and victims increased turbulently.
During that time the government managed to develop a serum that drained the drug out of the Veins system.
However, once it was applied it was too late. The drug of the Veins had already caused intolerable damage to their body; the immune system had diminished, red blood cells dissolved, and multiple carcinomas around the internal organs.
Therefore, all victims died whether they were vaccinated or not.
The government proposed that the Veins could of survived if the vaccination was implemented earlier, but due to the extensive research for the serum it wouldn't have been possible.

I sat on the bed, back crooked forward and mouth wide open.
"Wow, that's...", I struggled to speak with my mouth so dry.
"And that's only the brief of it, it's way more complicated than that." Rid emphasized as he ran my bedsheets through his fingers.
"Even that though, like shit", I laughed.
As I anticipated, questions started to flood my mind.
"So they had no idea that the drug was going to do that, like turn people like that?" I asked excitedly.
"Apparently not, there have been conspiracies though that the antagonists of the decree knew exactly what was going to happen, but I think nah." I felt the chill run through Rid as he said it.

We sat there both in silence for a unknown period of time, stunned.
"Right I better help Dad with the painting", Rid pushed himself off the bed and paced steadily to the door.
He he stopped in the doorway and turned back,  "Zane, don't tell anyone anything ok, and that you didn't hear it from me".
"No no I won't", I smiled.
I knew it was a promise I couldn't keep.