Dark Colors

Chapter One: The Mourning

Chapter One

 

“Petra Einhartt?” the doctor stood and glanced around the gloomy room.  I stood and shuffled through the crowd.  I began to follow the doctor but glanced back quickly at my dad as the doctor flipped through some papers on his clipboard.  I can tell that my dad thinks that I’m nervous.  He thought right.  He flashed me a quick thumbs up.  I tried to smile back, proving to him that I wasn’t nervous.  It didn’t work.  

“Alright, follow me,” the doctor said cheerfully.  I could tell that he was in a good mood because today was the last day of The Mourning, a five day event where all the doctors tested everybody for a bunch of diseases and illnesses.  By the time The Mourning was over, the doctors usually had lots of work to do, but most of it was just giving a five-year old kid a cough drop or giving a kid a pill.  There are always those families that get hit hard though.  That’s why it’s called The Mourning.

 Even though I’m eighteen and haven’t gotten sick once due to the advanced technology of 2024, I always imagine what it would be like to find out that I had some disease like cancer, something the doctors still couldn’t cure.  It just wasn’t something I could shake out of my head.

I gripped the sleeve of my long sleeve shirt as I followed the doctor down the gauntlet of hallways.  “My name is Dr. Fergusonn,” the doctor says as he walks.  “If you have any questions, I’m the one to ask.  I’ll be your doctor for this Mourning.”  Dr. Fergusonn stopped at a door and unlocked it.  As it swung open, he walked in silently.  I followed suit.

“So,” Dr. Fergusonn said.  The room we had entered was large with white, concrete walls and floors and a ceiling where bright white lights hung.  In the center of the room is a cylindrical machine.  Wires and computers are attached to it.  There is a slidable door on the front.  “I’m going to have to ask you to get on in to this bad boy here,” Dr. Fergusonn patted the machine.  “Once you get in, it will give you some shots, okay?”  I nodded.  “Alright, go on in.”  I climbed into the machine.  Dr. Fergusonn slid the door shut, and then darkness envelopes me.  I close my eyes and wait for the pinching and poking to start.

I feel one shot go in my side, one in my forearm, one on my leg, and then the last one goes right under my chin.  I felt it dig a little bit deeper.  My vision blurred.  All of the sudden I was dizzy.  Yellow and green blots appeared in the darkness.  A tube slid up my nose.  I inhaled.  My vision blurred more.  The yellow and green blots turned into blood red and purple.  I heard a creaking noise. What was going on?  Everything was different than from last years Mourning.  Before I could open my heavy eyelids to find out where it was coming from, I blacked out.