Post

Chapter 1: Spes

"You don't understand how valuable she is! Society depends on her!" The nurse tells Mama."Come on, Pat, I know she's your daughter and all, but-"

"She's my daughter! I'm not letting you anywhere near her, and that's that."

"We could find a cure because of her, Pat. That's all we want. Isn't that what you want?"

I sit there, twiddling my thumbs, trying to take deep breaths.

No, I'm not the daughter Nurse Helen and Mama are arguing over. They're talking about my sister, Vanessa.

"Tell me. How many of your family members were lost to the virus? How many were bitten? Did you get to say goodbye? Do you even know where half of them are?" I hear Nurse Helen's voice crack a bit.

"Helen-"

"If we find a cure thanks to Vanessa, we'll be able to go back out and live freely. We could kill the Things and not have to worry about being bitten, because even if we were bitten, we'd have a cure! A CURE!" Nurse Helen chuckles. "And you could find the rest of your family, and make sure they're safe."

"You're insane." Mama tells Nurse Helen. "She's my baby girl, Helen."

"I know what it's like, Pat. How do you think I felt when Tommy got bit? He didn't have any chance of survival! Because once you're bit, that's it, you're out, you're gonna die! I just want others to have a chance to live. I want them to be able to stay with their families and not be so cruelly taken from the world. And finding a cure could help us, it could fix that, it could grant us that wish, Pat!" Nurse Helen's voice trembles.

Flashbacks of Tommy, Nurse Helen's fifteen year old son, dying because of a bite to the neck cross my mind. I shiver.

"I KNOW. But she's my daughter, and she deserves to live, she deserves a chance of survival, too! She's a human being trying to survive just like the rest of us. Don't take that away from her. She deserves to live just as much as anyone else."

"This is our extinction, Pat. This is how we're gonna die out. But we can stop that, we can outsmart God and-"

"NO! I said no! What don't you people understand?!"

The doors to the nurse's office burst open and my mother rushes out, her face red and soaked with tears. She motions for me to get up.

"Come on, Sarah. We're leaving." She says.

I listen to my mother and quickly stand up. I follow her out the doors. 

"You'll regret this one day, Pat. You'll regret this." Nurse Helen says. I look behind me at her, then quickly turn back around.

Nurse Helen and the other doctors and scientists want my sister for testing. She's unique and unlike anyone else in Spes.

When Spes was still fairly new, and only about seven years old, the Scavengers, who go out into the Danger Zone to find other survivors, went out and came back with a bite victim. My mother was a nurse, and she was tending to the bite victim, hoping to keep the man alive as long as possible. My sister came into the room when she wasn't supposed to, and my mother's back was turned. The man had already died from the bite wound and came back as one of the Things. He bit my sister's arm. My sister screamed out in pain, and my mother grabbed the lamp next to her and beat the man with it until he was dead a second time.

My sister was expected to die at only five years old, because of the bite. But she lived another day, which was unheard of. And then another day passed, and there were no signs of her turning. More days passed and she was considered "immortal". 

Something in her blood kept her immune to the virus. Doctors wanted to test on her, to find out what the virus was and how to cure it. But in order to do that, they would have to kill her, because the stuff they needed was located in her brain.

My mother didn't want that, and still doesn't want that. And she quit her job and became a teacher.

The scar from the bite remains on my sister's arm, and every time I look at it, I am reminded of the incident. I try not to think about it, though.

"Society today is so broken...Those idiots, what don't they understand when I say I don't want them testing on my daughter?!" My mother says, turning left.

"Ma-"

"It makes me so angry! She's my DAUGHTER, my-"

"MAMA!" I yell. Silence. "Mama, please. I know you're mad, and so am I, but... Please. Don't yell."

"I'm sorry..." She says. "I'm sorry."

"It's all right, Mama." 

The rest of the ride back home is spent in silence. 

Mama quickly heads for the door, and Vanessa opens it for us just as Mama is about to unlock it. Mama storms in and I slowly follow her.

"Mama..." Vanessa sobs. She collapses in Mama's arms, and her and Mama cry together. 

I awkwardly stand there, unsure of what to do.

"I won't let them hurt you, Vanessa." Mama sobs in Vanessa's hair.

"No. I need to do this, you know that. I've waited for this, for years. I gotta do this."

"What?" Mama cries.

"Sarah, you agree with me, don't you?" Vanessa introduces me to the conversation. Great.

"What?" I stupidly ask.

"You with me, right? I gotta do this, don't I? I gotta do this to save others. I wanna save the world, this could be saving the world, this could be a cure, the solution to our problems!" Vanessa sobs.

"I-I-" I stutter. "I don't know about this, Nessa." 

"But Sarah, you know it's right, don't you? You got that look in your eye. You know what's best."

"Mama and I need you." The words come out shaky and my body trembles.

"Baby, baby, you don't gotta do this." Mama says. She wipes the tears from Vanessa's cheek.

"I know, I know. But I want to, Mama."