Survivor (ON HOLD)

Prologue

~Somewhere in the United States~

A scream shattered the silence of the night. Everyone jumped, then turned back to find a small figure pulling on her own leg. "Bailey," Brittany smiled, looking back, "be careful." Little Bailey, her dress too big and her hair like rags, yanked her foot from the pile of garbage they called "Stink Holes" and stumbled after her family.

You know, there was so much garbage covering the Earth that you could slip and fall into a trench of banana peels, old tires, and plastic bottles out of nowhere. Some may even say that that the world had been taken over by trash. It started with humans' pollution. Then it got so bad that even the upperclassmen got diseases from it because there was nowhere to put the trash. It got so bad that people moved every day. The air got harder to breathe in, causing even more diseases to spread. Gas masks became mandatory, and those who could not afford it or those without the skills or guts to steal died. When scientists attempted to cure these diseases all at once, they blindly implanted a new disease, far more deadly than any cancer, in their patient, who spread it. This disease was an army that slew most of the humankind like the Black Death. Except this one took a lot longer to end. It went on for what felt like an eternity, possibly just many centuries. Nobody kept track anymore. Jobs were abandoned, so the buildings and cities decayed. The plague died out years before Little Bailey's great-grandmother, Gamma Hailey, was even born, but people were still lost and disorganized. Almost every inch of Earth was covered in trash and dead bodies. Homes were demolished in mudslides. Buildings as tall as skyscrapers torn apart from tsunamis in places where tsunamis shouldn't even be able to occur. Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, avalanches happening every second. People became needy, greedy, and angry. At first, it was only burglaries. No one was hurt. Then people began to kill and raid. Because no one cared for each other anymore, mothers and fathers abandoned their own children, they left them to die because there were too many mouths to feed and too many people to worry about. Because there was no food, some parents even killed their toddlers and ate them. People would kill you for anything in your pockets, whether it be string or gold. Some people even thought that there was no such thing as family anymore. No such thing as friends. And maybe they were right.

"I don't see why we have to leave again," Brandon complained, rolling his eyes. "I thought we were good where we were."

"Our river has become polluted. Dangerously polluted," Brittany smiled at her son, stroking his face. "And our air is getting harder to breathe in. We have to move far away." As soon as she finished, a series of coughs and gags drew their attention away from each other. "Mom!" Brooke called from several feet away. She dropped to her knees and punched at her chest as she tried to breathe, black smoke circling around her.

"Brookie!" Little Bailey yelled, rushing to save her sister, only to be pulled back by her mother. A mask was strapped to her face. She turned around and looked at her family though she could not see too well through the dirty glass of the mask and tried to pout. It hung off her tiny face as her mom strapped it tighter. "Bryant! Go get your daughter!" Brittany scolded as she tossed him a mask. Bryant grumbled under his breath as he caught it and silently ran to help Brooke, doubled over and coughing.

She strapped it even tighter as it slipped off Bailey's face, causing blood to run from her mouth. She then turned to her son, who's mask was already strapped across the back of his head. "Alright. Let's go," Brittany said, worry in her voice.

***

That night, they slept in an abandoned motel, half of the roof ripped off by Mother Nature. It was cold and dark, but it was better than the time they slept in nothing but a pile of sticks as it hailed.

As the wind blew violently outside, Little Bailey sat up from her short sleep on an old mattress placed lazily on the floor. She licked her lips and rubbed her eyes as everything came into focus. She let her eyes adjust to the darkness and listened carefully for what had awoken her.

She jumped as a glass shattered somewhere close. She looked over at Brandon, sleeping soundly on the mattress beside her. Being as clueless and fearless as a kid could be, she wobbled over the debris and rubble of the motel lobby until she reached a smaller room, an outline of a person sitting on a circle painted on the door. Words were written under it, but to Bailey, it only looked like meaningless squiggles. "Oh, it's my fault?" a deep voice growled. "Mine?!?" "Dad, please calm down!" a weaker voice whined. "Shut up, Brooke!" the voice replied, and Bailey gasped. "She did nothing! Leave her out of this! Please! Just drop the knife and let her go..."

"SHUT UP!" Bryant screamed. She backed up, letting the words muffle. She looked around to see if Brandon had woken up, then gathered enough courage to listen again. She pressed her tiny ear against the door and felt the cold wood against her skin. "You wanna know what I think? What I think? Ha! I think you turned me in. And Brookie came along with you and you're both covering it up! You want to kill me! After all these years? This is how you repay me after I've loved you and stuck with you for years?"

"Bryant," Brittany's voice became as hard as stone, "what if you turned us in? And you're feeling guilty so you're starting this whole thing, huh? I'm leaving. And I'm taking my kids. I hope you're happy with what you've done!" Another glass shattered, and Little Bailey fell backward. "YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" Bryant bellowed. "YOU AREN'T GOING TO TURN ME IN!"

A scream, louder than a nuclear bomb, shattered Bailey's ear drums. She didn't know whether it came from Brooke or Brittany or even Bryant, but she was too scared to care. The door swung open, and Bailey gazed upon her mother, laying lifeless with a knife lying in her head. "MOMMY!" Little Bailey screamed, not caring if her dad heard her anymore. Rivers of tears rushed down her cherry red face. Every bit of innocence Little Bailey had was discarded of at that very moment.

The door tried to close, but the body of Brittany laid in the way, laying in a pool of her own blood. She looked through the door and saw Bryant pinning Brooke to a wall, Brooke screaming in terror. She heard someone screaming at her, but she didn't care. "DADDY! LET HER GO!" Little Bailey screamed, ripping the knife from Brittany's skull and digging it into Bryant's thigh. He yelped in pain and turned, throwing Bailey into a wall. Brooke collapsed on the ground after being choked and tried not to fall unconscious.

Without thinking, Bailey stood and ran at Bryant, only to run into a wall again. He picked up Brooke and banged her head on something metal. Bailey watched her sister fall limply to the floor again, and this time she didn't wake up. Her chest shot up then fell down several times before it stopped and her eyes shut forever.

Little Bailey fell to her knees and didn't move when a knife was thrown, inches away from her head. Bryant appeared in front of her, fire in his eyes. He yanked the knife from the wall and lifted it above his head, but Little Bailey didn't move.

Neither did Bryant.

The knife clattered to the ground. Seconds later, Bryant fell over, face planting into the ground. His face was completely blank as his eyes fogged over and all life in him vanished.

Little Bailey looked up, her eyes wide, as she peered through the glass shard in her father's neck. Brandon stood, with a heaving chest, shattered glass scattered at his feet, blood dripping from his palms.

He approached Bailey, holding out his less bloody hand.

"We have to go."