Project Meyburn

1

Amber

It was the spring day of Thursday, March 12, 2020. I was supposed to have school, but the governor closed all schools in Michigan for the rest of the week. My parents wouldn't answer any of my questions no matter how persistent I was—and according to them I can be pretty damn persistent. Apparently they didn't know much either. They quite creepily sat together in the living room, my mom on the couch and my dad on the lazy-boy, staring at the TV.

My mom's brown eyes were foggy, or you could say glazed over, and my dad's hair was flying all over his scalp. They looked perplexed, yet somehow held it together. It made me nervous. I tried to think of every possible solution to the worry that seemed to have overcome them.

The TV flashed with numerous news headlines. I sat down next to my dad on the armrest of the chair and tried to listen.

"...taking necessary precautions...many schools in the U.S. are being shut down...still waiting on more information...tests are already in progress...all college students will be sent home immediately...stay at home...virus is highly contagious..."

They called it the Meyburn virus. Apparently there had been a conflict within the government that ended up dividing it in two. As a result one of the sides went rogue and created the virus as revenge. As far as we knew, it was a resolvable argument that shouldn't have involved the U.S. citizens. That was before our own government unleashed a lethal virus and our country went on lockdown. Now it was our turn to deal with it. So for now, the United States was in quarantine.

Thinking about it sent a shiver down my back. I grabbed my phone and leaped up the stairs to my room. Quickly, I scrolled through all of my recent texts, and selected the groupchat with my best friends, Megan and Evie. We don't hear a lot from Evie these days, but I figured this was of enough importance to get a response from her.

Megan: Are you guys seeing this?! Omg this is fucking insane...

Amber: I know, this is so crazy. I'm kinda scared.

Megan: KINDA?! There isn't a news channel in the country that isn't broadcasting this.

Amber: They're probably just exaggerating because it's a new story. But it's all freaking me out.

Megan: I don't know, this just seems different. I mean, we've built nuclear weapons and bombed Iraq but this is still getting more hype than that. I don't like it.

Something in the way Megan responded gave me the creeps. I waited a couple minutes for Evie to say something, but she didn't. I could only hope that the reasoning behind her absence was personal and not due to whatever was going on in the country. I told them to stay in touch, and to say something every once in a while... just in case. I heard a car door slam outside and looked out my window to see a man in army fatigues walking to the front door. My eyes immediately locked onto the gun strapped tightly into its holster.

What the fuck is happening?

My heart began to pound. The man's brown beard was tangled up, and patches of scars covered some of his neck and arms.Yet there was something in the way he walked, the way he seemed to carry an air of authority that let you know just who exactly was in charge, that made my neck hairs stand straight up. I pulled away from the window and raced back down to the kitchen, where I found my parents doing the exact same thing.

"Mom, Dad, are one of you going to tell me what the hell is going on?! Why is there a soldier walking to our door!" I screamed at them.

I hadn't realized it then, but the second I saw that crisp, clean uniform should have been my first clue that this was different, like Megan had said. People get sick all the time. Hundreds of new viruses are discovered every day. What made this one so bad? My dad looked up at me, his loving eyes staring into my soul.