Pyronexus

Sample of 1st Draft

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Prologue

10 years ago

Amber crawled behind her couch giggling. She knew all the best hiding spots and could stay hidden for a while before her dad finally found her. However, this time was different. Instead of the usually joking tone her father had, he sounded grave as he called out to Amber and told her to come out. Thinking he was just trying to get her to lose, she remained in her spot behind the couch until her father pulled the couch out from against the wall, and scooped her up. He sat her down on top of the couch while her mother came into the room. She was tall but lean and Amber had always thought that she was the prettiest mom ever because her features were soft, yet had an air of sharpness to them. Her mother sat on the couch next to her and began to smooth down Amber's hair, which was always in a tangled mess. She knew something was off because both of her parents were sitting down with her and not even cracking a single joke like they normally did.

"Amber, you might not understand this right now, but your Mommy and I...we have to go away for a little bit. We won't be coming back for a long time, but we need you to be brave for us." Her father said in a pained way, running his hands through his long, curly brown hair that was the same color as Amber's. He always did this when he was anxious about something.

Amber paused for a bit before she responded, thinking about what his words meant. Then she replied with a simple, "why?"

"Well, your mother and I might be getting sick, and we can't risk you or your brother getting sick too. So we are going away to a place where they can make us better."

The room filled with silence as she tried to comprehend what this meant. Sick? She wondered how they could be sick when they seemed perfectly fine to her right now. She remembered a similar thing happening to her best friend Emilie. That day at school, Emilie had cried on Amber shoulder as she told Amber what her parents had told her and how she was left all alone in her house. Amber of course, seeing her distress had invited her to stay with her family until Emilie's parents came back. Now with a sense of dread, Amber looked up at her parents with tears running down her face, realizing that the same was happening to her parents. They were sick too, just like Emilie's parents and they wouldn't be coming back. Amber felt that no child should have to shoulder this burden at such a young age but she was glad that her parents had told her.

"Will you come back?" She choked out.

"Of course we will, hon. Nothing could stand between us and our little girl and you know that. We have to leave now, but I have one favor to ask of you. I know it's a big responsibility, but take care of your brother, please," with this she heard the pain in his voice, "Once we are gone, you two have to stick together, because you will only have each other."

With that, her parents stood and after saying their tearful goodbyes, they walked out of her life forever. This would be the last time she ever saw them.

Chapter 1

Amber and her brother, James, had lived in Flint, Michigan their whole life, so it was sad to be locking up their house for the last time, pulling their bags behind them as they walked through their neighborhood, now nearly empty since most people had left already for one of the Salvioras, which was basically a place where the disease had not yet reached.

A year after the disease took a hold on us, about 37% of the world's population had been wiped out and there were very few Salvioras left. The disease was called Pyronexus although its scientific name was Pyriphlegethon Nectere, and it was the deadliest disease in all of human history. It caused hallucinations, delirium, lenticulae, raised welts, altered mental status, and failure of multiple organs. A truly horrible way to die.

Only two years after my parents had left to go to quarantine, I received word of their death. No funeral, no last glimpses of them, just a crisp sheet of paper that led to the destruction of my world. Then again, I probably would not have wanted to see them like that and they probably did not wish that upon me, but I wish I had at least had a chance to say goodbye to them. I never told James. I wanted him to at least have some sort of happiness in his life, so I continued to let him believe in the delusion that our parents were coming back. I don't think he fully believed me though because as he grew older he stopped asking about them and when they were coming back.

He always sat staring at the only thing we had left to remind ourselves of them, a small photo taken at the Great Lakes when we had gone there. James was just a baby so he didn't remember it but I could revisit catches of it, sand in my toes, my mother and father laughing as I built a sand castle with them, falling asleep in the car with my head full of sunshine and lapping waters.

I wish James had gotten to spend more time with our parents, he was only about three when they left and had not been able to savor any of his memories with them. I know he missed them terribly, when they first left he was always asking when they had gone and sometimes I could hear him crying in his room at night. But now, either he had gotten good at muffling his tears like I had, or had just locked them away in a box as I had tried to do, because I no longer heard him at night.

I pulled myself back into the present and ruffled James's hair. He had the same color hair as our mother, a dirty blond color, while I had my father's chestnut brown color that went down to my waist and was always tangled. I had been meaning to get it cut, but I didn't have enough money to be able to get it down professionally and I never had time to do it on my own so I just let it be.

Despite our parents' absence I had continued James's schooling while I had quit and worked a job so that I could support the both of us. My parents had left us some money, but it did not last very long. For a while, I did odd jobs, just trying to make some amount of money since I was not old enough to get a real job, but once I came of age I threw myself into the working world in order to be able to give my brother anything he asked for. He needed school supplies? I worked at the market overtime so that I could get some spare money to pay for it. He needed new clothes? Cleaning other people's houses on my days off was the routine. I wanted him to have as normal as a life as he could.

We walked down the street that was covered in leaves that crunched whenever we walked on them. The trees were a beautiful color and I had always loved this season. Too bad it would be the last time I saw Michigan at this time of year. As we headed towards Emilie's house, I saw a Pyro across the street screaming at a street sign. Pulling James closer to me, we ducked into an alley and crouched there until the Pyro, growing bored, stumbled away and out of sight. Once I was sure the man was gone James and I continued our walk to Emilie's house.

~

End of sample, I will probably put more on here but I just want to see what people think about it so far.