Real Illusions (Captainsparklez)

Chapter 20

The more we walked, the higher the buildings were and the less houses there were. There were buses in this town but walking would be faster. The tallest buildings in this town were at most 10 stories high.

When the disease was spreading, there were riots all around the world. Orburn was the first to be infected and it spread to other countries in less than a month.

The infection rate was moderate but the death rate was very high. Once you got infected with it...

1) Your brain slowly rots

2) Your sanity deteriorates, you start seeing Jordan in your mind.

3) You either die by brain death or... you kill yourself because of the insanity. 98% of all the infected go for the second option.

Fans of Jordan Maron were mostly unaffected, but there were the very few cases of them becoming crazy. (like the girls in the asylum) The thing for the infected few is that their brains do rot too and go crazy, but the illusions are not there.

Since they have already found the cure for the infected, the infection rate has gotten lower. The thing is that the cure just wipes away that particular virus, not de-rot your head. Whatever part of your brain that has rotted, cannot be cured. Most of the time they identify the disease really early so there's no problem and the fact that the infected NEVER has the host virus, just the fans.

That's why we need the cure for the hosts too, to stop all this madness once and for all. The scientists had already found the cure, according to Ms Lena, they just need to do small modifications and measurements and...that's it. The end of this stupid dark tunnel for the world.

Five days. Five days until they start shipping the cure and.... I can't say it.

It's already Day 1 today, so that leaves us with less than five days.

Tick tock, goes the clock.

Tick tock, it's counting down.

Tick Tock.

"Look, there's the visitors centre," Katy pointed to a small building, holding a map in one hand. Litter was everywhere and I could only see a few people in this quiet street. Most of the shops were boarded up, except for the supermarket at the side.

This used to be a busy and clean street,there would be people shopping, visitors touring and the place would look so alive. I know because I used to come here a lot with my family during those small vacations when we wanted to take a short break from busy life and see nature and do some sightseeing.

As we entered the visitors centre, I noticed it was really empty. Who dares to go on a vacation these days anyway? Even though there's the cure, everyone is still scared of the crazy people wandering in the streets, afraid they would hurt them.

Surprisingly, the centre was still open for some reason even though there were a severe lack of visitors. However, the air-con was off, brochures and leaflets scattered all over the marble floor. There was no one behind the counter either. Thankfully the lights were still on.

Daniel helped Carol down on a dusty leather couch. (not before wiping the dust away first)

"Do you want a cold drink? We're going to buy some things." Katy asked her softly. She nodded.

Katy dug out her wallet out if her bag and dumped her bag beside the couch.

"Take care my bag, okay?" She asked, already heading out, Hazel following behind. By the time anyone could answer, the glass door had already closed.

"Are you okay?" I sat beside Carol, unable to comfort her. I just don't know how to. Another nod from her. Daniel and Hazel were doing a good job and I think it will be better if I let them do this.

I picked up a brochure from the floor and flipped through it quietly.

"Werty welcomes you!" It said. At the bottom was a picture of some colourful flowers. "Part of Vervia's rich history since 1890!" Werty is a town in Vervia (a country) and it's really close to the Orburn border so we would be taking a train there. Illegally.

A few minutes later Katy and Hazel came back with a plastic bag full of things. She dumped the contents in the plastic on the other end of the couch. There were a few snacks, canned food and a bottle of chocolate milk. It was actually paid with Bob's money, he gave us quite an amount, but we had to save it.

She pass the bottle to Carol, "Your favorite."

She answered croakily, "Thanks."

Hazel passed the snacks around, one for each for us, "Here, we didn't have a good breakfast." then she passed the canned food, "Each of you carry some." A portion of canned food and snacks were left for her.

I kept the cans in my bag and ripped open the small packet of sugar peanuts. I stared at the numerous leaflets on the floor as we ate in silence.

"We have an hour left," Daniel reminded us. More silence.

I picked up a map from the ground and checked it. Bob's inn should be somewhere in this map. Autumn Street. I knew because I went there many many before the disease spread.

Ah, here comes another flashback.

Bob's inn wasn't called Bob's inn back then, it was actually a hotel.

What was the name? It's... The Garden Hotel. It was a small hotel but it had a beautiful garden that surrounded the hotel which was protected by walls. Roses. Morning glories. Jasmines. There were many, many different kinds of flowers. I used to stay in that hotel so often.

The garden had a secret enclosure at the back of the hotel, like the book, "The Secret Garden". The door to the enclosure was always locked. Always.

"Daddy, what's in there?" I asked, pointing to the locked door. I was quite young then.

My dad had laughed, "I'm not sure sweetheart. I haven't been in there before. It reminds me of 'The Secret Garden'."

"The... Secret Garden?"

"It's a book. A really nice book. A timeless classic," he said. As a nine year old I would have no interests in classics even though I read books often. It wasn't until 3 years later did I read it and understood what he meant.

"That's a nice name." It sounded cool in my nine-year-old ears, "Dad, can we call it 'The Secret Garden'?"

"Of course! You can call it anything you like!" After that we would eat pancakes with ice cream in the country-themed dining room.

And that was it. Another memory that I forced myself to forget was now remembered.

I looked inside the packet. There were no more peanuts left. Bored, I picked up more leaflets and pamphlets from the floor and read them, collecting more and more memories from my childhood.

Some time later, Daniel looked at his Track@, "It's time."

1173 words

AN: Sugar peanuts are nice. "The Secret Garden" is too. Don't forget chocolate milk!