8 Days

The Breakout

Chapter 2

THE BREAKOUT

DAY -38:

It was October 25th, 2027 in New York, Rochester. I was checking my laptop for any emails related to my job and discarding the ones about online subscriptions and gift cards. I worked every day treating my patients. My specialty was in the medical degree of phycology, neurology, and neurosurgery. I was known as Dr. Marcus Miller. After I finished organizing my inbox full of emails, I gravitated to Twitter to check the news, and obviously, some memes. As I scrolled down, I saw the usual; another SpaceX launch to replenish the moon's colony 'Rimor' with supplies, the increase of greenhouse gases, the total extinction of ecosystems, and another temperature record that broke the one last year and obviously, possible conflicts between countries.

Through this gloom and glory, I saw a couple of rumors of people with superhuman strength and speed seen throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Western Asia. These 'people' were sighted more and more in different countries. Could this be real? It could be, there are many different angles and videos of these people. Maybe it can be some kind of joke, someone with good enough editing skills and a crew of cameras could easily make this on Photoshop, it was a hoax, I thought.

I closed my laptop and got up from the desk chair. I turned to my right and appreciated my works, my discoveries, my diplomas, and my family. I was an only child, never had a brother or sister; even so, we were a happy family. Sadly, my parents died a few years ago in a car accident. My father was on the wheel, so at the moment of the crash he passed away immediately. My mother was taken to the hospital, under the same roof I worked in. I had run out of my office to the ER to see my mother on the blue bed being carried to the room she would fade her last light. I was walking beside her, next to her bed, when she said something. Her last breath. She said almost whispering, struggling for air.

—I love you...— she said weakly.

—I love you too, mom, stay with me please, stay. —

—Marcus...— a whisper of my name I could barely hear. —Take care of yourself, as life just comes once. — Then she took a big breath. —You must fight for it, for me, for all of us...—. Her last words just before her hand stopped holding mine, and I shed a tear.

I snapped back to my house where I was looking at a picture of me and both of my parents visiting London, in front of Big Ben. While I got out of my study room, I kept thinking of those last words, —fight for all of us—. How could I fight for everyone? By still working as a doctor? Discovering something new for humanity?

I kept thinking that humanity was going somewhere we didn't like. The United States was in rising rivalry with Russia and its increasing technological advancements and invasions on neighboring countries. Also, we have to mention the decreasing supply of petroleum around the globe, therefore some countries are forced to change their infrastructure on renewable and available energies, although some make it with minimal damage, the majority of the countries with this plan fall into an economic crisis that,—in most cases,—leads to a civil war.

I was walking down the hallway of my house when I stopped and turned to my left to face the door that leads to my room. I opened the door and the lights turned on and it illuminated the darkness. The ceiling fan stood still, unmoving under my roof. While the light from it shined in my bedroom, I could see my bed was a mess. The gray sheets that were supposed to be on the mattress were all over my floor and bed. I entered my room with a slumber, passing my shelf and the pictures of friends and family on them. I reached the far side of my comfortable and unorganized bed. I stood still between my night table and the window, and through the glass wall, I admired the world. The world we were exhausting. The world that didn't deserve us. The world we weren't prepared for.