FAWLED

Chapter 1- Victoria

Victoria

June 17, 3141 06:30 A.M.

Where should we start? Oh right, death. I heard screams all around me half an hour before I usually wake up for school. Looking out of my window, death was the first thing I saw. Rain was pouring from a clear blue sky. Even though it looked normal and harmless, the people who were soaked in it, screaming told a different story. The people who were under umbrellas, ledges, or in houses were being burned by the sun. What a nice way to wake up.

Through the screams, I heard my mom calling me. Rushing to the kitchen, I found her on the floor, burning like the people outside. As I stood there in shock, my mom said "Victoria... I love you... and I'm sor...ry." And she turned to ash.

A high-pitched sound pierced the air. A red light began blinking in my vision center - who would write an announcement at a time like this? The house felt hot due to the spreading fire. I needed some air.

As I ran outside, I found out that the systems were hacked. The town's main tower had colossal words printed in blood-red: The Purifier.

As logic swam back into my head, I realized that, in the midst of my confusion, I had run into the middle of the sidewalk. And I was not dying like the people around me.

"Help... me," a man came up to me and fell to his knees. Even I could tell he didn't have much time left. Gasping and panting, he lie down in the rain until he went still.

One after another, people fell to the ground, dead. Once the last person fell (who I recognized as the town butcher), the rain stopped, and the sun dimmed. Acting surprisingly calm, I found a towel nearby and dried the mixture of sweat and rain on my body. Then, I started running through the town, looking for any other survivors. Meanwhile, memories of my mother flooded my mind. I remembered the time she taught me how to ride a bike for the first time. She was kind and was patient through it all, even when I fell multiple times and complained i didn't want to learn. I remembered the time we got into a giant fight because of miscommunication. I remembered when she walked in on me when I was singing and doing a funny dance to my favorite song in my room. I remembered all of the good, bad, embarrassing, prideful, happy, and sad memories we shared. I remembered my friends, how scared and confused they must have

felt. But most of all, the memory that kept popping in my head was my mother's last moment. "I love you." and "I'm sorry." kept replaying in my head like a playlist on repeat. 'Oh mom,' I thought, 'you don't have to be sorry. You have nothing to be sorry about.' Before I knew it, my cheeks were wet with continuously flowing tears. Leaning on a nearby building, I fell to the ground, sobbing. In my mind's eye, I saw everyone dying. those I knew, those I didn't, those I could've known. All gone. Wiped off this earth as if they never existed at all. All the people who can never and will never come back.