Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
┏━━━━━ CHAPTER NINE ━━━━━┓ ★゜・。。・゜゜・what we fear most ──── Chicago Rhee
▌│█║▌║▌ ║▌║▌║█│▌
❝ And you'll find loss And you'll fear what you found When the weather comes, oh Tearing down ❞ — oats in the water, ben howard
▌│█║▌║▌ ║▌║▌║█│▌
SICKNESS, I HAD SEEN IT BEFORE. The hopelessness of watching the candle burn out in someone's eyes. The desire to do more than simply be a bystander as the infection ravaged someone's entire being. The once lively pigment of flesh was now dulled and carrying a grayish tone, a symbol of complete shutdown. Sickness was vile in the way it made you think you had the power to control the faceless monsters, only to find every action you tried to piece together in a moment of desperate determination would only prolong the inevitable. Unfortunately, some people's bodies could not withstand the way a sickness picked apart their bodies, doing unseen damage at first before everything caused a butterfly effect. The more the walls crumbled the faster the whole process consumed you until you were covered by the debris of the destruction.
The feeling of dread was so achingly familiar that it burned a hole in my stomach due to the anxiety that swelled inside. I thanked every bit of air that entered and left my lungs, for I had no idea when the next inhale or exhale would come up empty. I remained haunted by the devastation that plagued cell block D, the ghostly screams of the fallen ones were snarling in my ears. Begging for a better end. I did not like to imagine the excruciating pain that they had left this world with, but my thoughts froze on the beat of that time. Tick tock went the clock and yet time had not continued. Would I remain in every tragedy? A soul desperate to cling to the cliff's edge but unable to heave themselves the rest of the way.
And after that unfortunate morning, I got a glimpse of how the highest group members reacted to a massacre such as the one that had transpired. After careful calculation, they had decided that the cause of everything was an awful sickness. Oh, how that chilled my bones. I hated to think that was the case. That the very thing that changed the trajectory of my life before had now come for its sloppy seconds. And Glenn and I had both walked straight into the heart of it. What would become of us?
The council, as I had learned the name and existence of, went immediately into the best solution suited for protecting the youngest and the most vulnerable of the group. Kids and elderly alike were ushered away from the surface and into the depths of the prison, where they would spend their time quarantined. Hopefully, the fire had not yet charred their flesh. Let their beings remain intact, not scarred by the unseen enemy that slipped through the cracks.
