Paranoia

17

The sun was up high in it's position, it's rays peeking through the soft, white clouds that were scattered across the blue sky. 

We got in the car and drove again. Justin and Jenny remained silent for the couple of hours we drive. 

Madison sleeps, and Tyler and I make small talk. 

I clutch Mom's planner tightly in my hand. 

After a few short minutes, Tyler points to the planner in my hand. "Have you read all of this yet?" 

"What? No way. There's tons of pages in here. There's no way I would be able to read all of this." I sigh. 

"Do you mind if I take a look at it?" Tyler extends his hand. 

"Not at all. You might be able to decipher it more than  I could, anyway." I smile and hand it over to him. 

Tyler takes the planner, and flips to the very beginning, and starts reading. 

With nothing else to do, I take out my old drawing journal and a pen. I begin drawing what I remember of life before the sickness. Sometimes I draw bonfires from when we used to have in Justin and Jenny's backyard in the summer. Sometime I draw cakes and pies that Mom, Dad, Nolan and I used to make. It helps me calm down. 

But today, I draw flowers and butterflies that used to grow in Miss Violet's garden. For Miss Violet. In the direct center of the page, I draw a Violet flower. They were Miss Violet's favorite. 

An hour later, Tyler looks over at my drawing and smiles. "Is that for Miss Violet?"

I nod. 

"It's pretty." 

"It's not that good. I've only had a couple of art classes." I smile. 

"More than I've had. I stink at art." Tyler shakes his hand, and continues to read in Mom's planner. 

After another hour or so, Tyler lightly pushes my shoulder, and nods towards the journal. "Hey, I think that you need to read this." Tyler hands me the journal and points to the paragraph he wants me to read. 

March 12th:  I just received a call from a secret organization working with the government. They told me that they would hire me to complete a special task for them. If I told anyone, I would be thrown in jail for it. I'm not aloud to say what I'm doing, but if we pull this off, I'll be given loads of money and safety for me and my family. I can't say much more. Hopefully I don't mess this up. 

"What the heck?" I whisper. "She was working with an organization?" 

"I know as much as you." Tyler whispers back. 

"Keep reading. There has to be more of this." 

"I will. But it sounds secretive. Maybe she didn't want to risk writing it all down." Tyler says. 

"My mother cannot keep a secret. Whatever she was doing, it's got to be in the journal somewhere." I say softly, as Justin peers at me through the mirror. 

Tyler nods, and continues to read in the journal. 

The day goes by slowly. Madison wakes up, and I sleep. I wake up, Madison and I play 'I Spy.' 

Tyler reads the journal until he's just about done with it. We munch on some crackers and some old beans in a can. 

Jenny sits up after falling asleep. "I wonder what's on the radio." 

"You know what it's going to be. Nothing." Justin replies, shaking his head. 

"You don't know that." Jenny flips on the car radio and begins skimming through the channels. 

Most were silent, or complete static, until she flipped onto one station that wasn't silent, nor static. 

Instead, it sounded like a warning that someone had put out. It was the same, monotone voice, repeating itself over and over again. 

"If any remaining citizens are still left alive, please seek shelter in Leeside. We have rooms, food, and water. We need to band together." 

"What the..." Justin listens to the message. 

"Does that mean that there are more people out there?" Jenny smiles and claps. 

"We have to go there!!!" Madison squeals. 

"We can't get ahead of ourselves. First, we need to stop and refuel the cars. Then we can discuss with the others if we really want to travel to Leeside or not." Justin says, and we nod in agreement. 

After finding a place to pull over and refuel the cars, we all get out and stretch our legs. 

Justin and Mr. Baker work to put gas in the cars, while the rest of us wander around in search of something to do. Tyler walks over to me, with the planner in his hand. 

"Did you find anything more about this organization?" I ask. 

Tyler lets out a sigh. "Not another word." 

I take a deep breath and sit down. "Are you kidding me? My mom must have lived double lives. I'm assuming no one in my family even knew." 

Tyler sits down next to me. "This is probably super weird, and I'm so sorry you are just now learning all of this." 

"There's no need to be sorry. It's not like you were the one who merged those cells together to create this awful virus." I pause for a moment, the wheels in my brain begging to turn. "Wait a second. My mom was fired, and then she killed herself. That was three months before this outbreak even started." 

"Yeah, so?" Tyler says. 

"So, if the CDC was so carful about not letting this virus escape, then how did it? They couldn't find a cure, but they could keep it hidden. Keep it locked up. So how did it get out?" 

"The bodies." 

"I'm sorry?" I question. 

"The bodies in the CDC weren't like the other virus victims. Most of the workers were there, in the CDC." Tyler points out. 

"Like someone had gone in there with the intent to kill all of them." 

"Exactly. But why else would they do that unless there was something in there that they wanted?" Tyler speaks calming, but slowly starts to realize more. 

"Someone, or some people, went in there to steal the virus my mother had created." 

"And how else would they know about that?" 

"Because my mother was hired by them." Suddenly, a sinking feeling begins to bubble in my chest, all of this new information being given to me at once. 

I take a deep breath, and try to calm myself down, and I feel Tyler slowly slide his arm around me.