The Disease (A Liam Payne Fanfic)

Chapter one:

I clung to the side of my sister with the sweat infected blanket slightly off of my shoulders. I know I'm not supposed to be awake, honestly I haven't even slept yet. I've been up all night trying to figure out who I'll be paired with. Usually the Capitol picks out people from two different sectors that have things in common. I'm from the west side sector, which probably means I'll be paired with someone from the south side. The capitol makes sure we have never even heard about each other. He personally looks though our files and clips to be precise. Everyone is finally paired with their partner when they turn eighteen.

After our economy fell down, Obama was released and everyone was free. America as we knew it had gone mad, and everyone else fell with it. Of course I don't remember this, considering my mother had not even been pregnant with me when Obama left. The economy was eventually put back together, but in a different way. Everyone was okay with it, until Clinton, our new President, made the pairing rules. No one agrees with it. We're no longer a democracy though, so we don't have a say. It's hell on earth.

Since then, it's still been hard, but things have gotten better. I try to ignore our society, its the one thing I stay as far away from as possible. I don't let it get to me.

I flipped out of my bed and slowly walked downstairs. The cold wood floors smacked against my feet every time I walked, making me even more dizzy than I already was. The house was deserted, other than my little sister and I. My mother was forced to go work at the clinic, and my father is always gone. He works for Clinton, so we never know what he is doing. He was sworn to secrecy.

I walked towards my couch and flipped on my TV. The channels are full of different classes; math, science, language arts, ect. Public schooling is unapproved by Clinton. Apparently it is full of germs, hate, and different types of drugs. We all know it's because he is afraid we will fall in love with someone he didn't pair with us.

"Miranda," my little sister, Alex, groggily walked her way down the stairs and plopped onto our leather couch.

"I will order breakfast from the buffet, Max will bring it up for us." I sighed and grabbed the home phone and called downstairs to the office. Since my father is gone, my mother gets half of his salary. We live in a huge lux apartment right over San Francisco. It's gorgeous, but it's too big for just me and my sister, considering we're the only ones ever home.

I told Max to bring me and my sister pancakes and eggs. That's honestly the only way I could ever get food. Alex and I get all of our meals from the apartments kitchen when my mother isn't home. Our food came and Alex dug into it like a maniac. I completely forgot I had my procedure today, and I'm not supposed to eat before it happens, or I'll vomit during surgery. I needed to be perfect. You have to have certain qualifications to even be chosen; I was one of the lucky ones. Not everyone has the procedure, and they have to live everyday with their lungs infected. We breathe in love everyday, and no one realizes that it's slowly killing us all.

I walked through the white hallways with questions flooding my mind. What if I get

disqualified? What if they don't like me? What if they mess up? Deep down I knew most of these worries were invalid, but they were all I could think about. I walked down the never ending hallway that had thousands of pictures of pale and crusty doctors.

I could picture my older sister, Alice, walking through these halls, frightened. Alice was due to get her procedure, until she went crazy. She told me she saw what they did to us, and she ran. She got at least to the South West, until they found her. She said the voices were getting her, and she was running from them. She committed suicide under the watch of the police. They didn't stop her; it wasn't their problem.

I used to stay up late at night trying to figure out what Alice meant. She's all I could think about. My dad joined Clintons army after all this happened, hoping to find out what she meant. My mother was silent. She continued working and acting normal. She didn't want to believe Alice was gone, she still doesn't. No one dares to talk about her around my mother.

I reached a room with yellow walls and white sofas. I sat down on the sofa, and waited. It felt like hours until someone finally walked in.

"Hello," she paused and flipped a paper over, "Miranda."

"Hello." I responded sheepishly. She handed an orange semi see through medical dress and turned around as I changed.

She smiled slightly and motioned for me to lay on the X-Ray table. I listened to what she said, and a few nurses walked in. One nurse had blood smeared on her gloves. My stomach was churning.

"Okay Miranda, we're going to get your X-Ray on your chest area, and we will go on with your procedure."

I nodded quickly. My blood was racing and my head was starting to pound. They turned off the light and everything went silent. They left into they obituary, a glass room where they observe patients from, and I was left alone like normal. I tried to keep myself distracted by thinking of stupid little things. It would have to work, I was so nervous I could barely function. I glanced over at the doctors who were talking about my health. One doctor, with short brown hair, smiled at me and continued writing. I counted my breathing as I tried to calm myself down.

"Okay Miranda, we're going to get your procedure started," a tall dark featured man appeared in the room. I nodded quickly.

"We'll be back," they all paused, "we'll leave Dr. Friese with you." The doors closed as the group of doctors left.

"Miranda," Dr. Friese quietly whispered as if someone was watching us.

"You're more powerful than you know." Dr. Friese grabbed my hand and whispered in my ear, " run, get out of here."