Virus

Prologue

Everything had been normal until I got in the Durango and sat behind the stirring wheel. Well, okay, that's not entirely true. I woke up to a tiny kitten in my bed, curled up right on top of my boobies, which I haven't woken up to in several years since my cat was banished to the laundry room inside the basement since she's been pissing left and right after the obviously botched surgery to remove her kitten-making-organs. Of course, that's neither here or there... So, I sat in the SUV with my seatbelt on as I adjusted all my mirrors until I could clearly see them because my little sister hadn't put them back after she vacated the vehicle. It was hot, odd for a late October day, so I turned on the AC and the radio to pass the time until my dad finished in the bathroom. At the time, I was sixteen and this was probably my hundredth or so driving lesson though Dad had taken to calling them driving practise because I more or less knew what I was doing. If my memory is correct, I was waiting for about ten minutes and listening to my favourite rock station- after I changed it from that gods awful Christian station that my beloved baby sister loves so much.

I'm sure that everything I've told you so far seems normal, like I said my day had been up to that point in time. The thing is, while I was awaiting my urinating father, the sky had turned a purplish colour. In all of my life, I've only seen the sky be six colours: Blue during the day, pink at dusk, black at nyght, red at dawn, and grey when it's wynter or raining. Naturally, I was confused but shrugged and returned my attention to the placement of my hands on the wheel as well as my right foot on the brake pedal. I've always had a "runaway imagination," which is exactly what I chalked the odd sky colour up to be.

Eventually, Dad came out and he had an empty ranch jar in his hand. Well, empty of the dip anyway. It held various sleeves of coins that he was planning to cash in at the local bank near Wal*Mart, which was his most hated shop of all. I'm personally okay with it, especially when they have the Yu-Gi-Oh! cards out, but only if they're from the original series. Don't judge me, okay? I've been trying to rebuild my Harpie Lady deck since my bratling of a sibling poured her maroon nail polish all over them for some trivial thing I did, something that neither of us can remember. Anyway, I waited for Dad to finish his Anti Wal*Mart tirade while he buckled up and rolled the brown eyes that I inherited. Also like my father, I was a short person. Come to think of it, the only things that I got from my mum are different mental illnesses that she denies having. Rolling my eyes, I shoved all thoughts of my eternally working mother aside and shifted the gear into drive as I checked my mirrors again and pulled out of the parking space.

"You're supposed to check your driver side mirror only," Dad informed me.

"I feel safer checking all of the mirrors before I do anything," I mumbled, but nodded.

We were all good up to the stop sign at the end of the block. It was a four way stop and I'm almost positive that nobody else was there because Dad corrected me and told me to make the right turn more sharply next time, again to which I nodded. I had learned a long time ago that all I need to do when he corrects me is to nod and/or say "Yes, Dad," to appease him. Even if he yelled at me, I was always expected to be blindly obedient instead of annoyingly overcautious. There was another stop sign a few metres away from the last one and Dad was telling me not to drive so slowly past it, so I pushed harder on the gas pedal. It always scared the shit out of me when I heard all eight cylinders in that V8 engine roar, and roar they did.

"Don't go so fast," he sighed, rubbing his temples.

I slowed down, partially because he told me to do so and partially because there was yet another stop sign. Now, this is where my life became the Hell that my family thinks my soul is heading to because I don't pray to a Jewish zombie. There was a small white sports car infront of us and it had a right turn signal, much like we usually do when we come this way. However, Dad told me to go left so I turned on the left turn signal. Easy, right? Out of habit, I started going right. When I realised what I had done, and Dad also pointed it out, I tried to correct my mistake. All that I can remember is Dad screaming at me to stop and then me looking out his window to see another white vehicle coming towards us. By that time, I was panicking and Dad kept screaming at me to brake. But, I accidentally hit the gas instead in my frightened frenzy. Driving over the sidewalk terrified me, but not nearly as much as zooming back into the street and turning hard right to narrowly avoid hitting someone's house. The neighbour's mailbox was dead, though. It even put a large dunk in our red hood, but my driving escapade did not stop there. I ended up putting a rut or two in the guy's yard before swerving back into the road before I finally hit the brake.

Luckily, we were in the firehouse's parking pad and not in the middle of the street at that time because I could already tell that I had fucked up the Dodge...

"Get out," was all Dad said as I continuously cried.

Constantly, I asked if he was okay. Constantly, he refused to answer. He inspected the damage as I inspected him and tried to calm the shaking of my hands. People who had heard the tires screeching and Dad's screams filed out to see what was wrong. They had me sit on somebody's steps and they crowded around me while a few went to see if they could help my irate father. One of the people surrounding me was wearing a chief hat, a little green one and not a giant white one, and asked if he could get me anything to drink. To be honest, I was tempted to say arsenic. Shaking my head, I kindly refused his polite offer and a woman that I had known growing up reminded me that things could've been worse- that I could've hit someone, but that I only hit a mailbox.

And that's when I found out why the sky was a funky colour as a ginormous rock fell from the sky and landed right atop the vehicle that I had just totalled.