Project Meyburn

2

Megan

"Okay, so we got the butter, the milk, bacon, and juice, what am I forgetting?" I muttered under my breath as I pushed the grocery cart along the dairy isle.

"Ice cream," My mother replied from behind me, grinning as she looked up from her phone.

I smiled back at her and picked up my pace as I steered the cart towards the ice cream isle. Of course, ice cream, just the most important food ever to be created. I turned the corner to the aisle lined with freezers packed with the delicious treat. Sighing with content, I walked over to one of the freezers and pulled out three gallons of our favorite flavors. Three half-gallons should last us about two weeks, right? Maybe I should get four just to be safe...

I'm Megan, as you probably know by now. I love ice cream... because who doesn't? I was sixteen years old—soon to be seventeen in May— and I attended Winter Creek High. Until they shut down schools all across Michigan for whatever reason. We hadn't heard much yet, but it had started to get kinda weird.

People were buying as much toilet paper and other paper products as humanly possible, and acting like the world was going to end any day now. I thought it was just a tad ridiculous. I mean, I get it, toilet paper was a necessity—sort of— but if the world was going to end, I would not want to be spending the last of my hard-earned money on fucking toilet paper. Seriously, when you die nobody is going to care how well you wiped your ass when the world turned to shit.

I tried to distract myself by texting with Amber, but texting and shopping is no easy feat.

Ever since I was ten years old, I had been attached at the hip to my best friend Amber. We had always been close, and when we met Evie in sixth grade, she became another of our closest friends. But neither of us had talked to Evie in months. There was the occasional text here and there, but she seemed distant. Amber and I were still as close as ever, thankfully. We had been friends for years, and we had certainly encountered quite a bit of weirdness in our time together. But I think this whole crappy situation might just be the weirdest so far. I told her as much in our recently exchanged messages.

"ATTENTION ALL CUSTOMERS AND STAFF. PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE FRONT OF THE STORE IMMEDIATELY."

Well, speaking of weird. I guessed that the loud monotone voice that had just summoned all of us to the front of the building wasn't God, so it probably had something to do with all of the closings lately and not my final judgement.

My mom and I exchanged suspicious glances and began making our way to the front of the store like the authoritative voice had instructed us. I made sure to bring the cart—and the ice cream—with us too.

By the time we arrived at the front of the store, there was already a large swarm of people surrounding a few men who appeared to be from the army. One of them was standing on top of a wooden crate; I supposed by the way he looked down at us like we were of absolutely no importance to him, that that guy was in charge. Everyone was whispering to one another, and I could clearly see the worry-lines on everyone's faces. Well, they are all going to have wrinkles when they're in their seventies. The head yahoo—the one who refused to get off his high horse that I mentioned earlier—raised his hand to ask for silence and suddenly the crowd was as quiet as the grave. Unease crept into my stomach, and my heart rate began to accelerate. Some ancient instinct inside me knew, just knew that something terrible was coming. And although I might not have been the smartest person alive, I knew to listen to that little voice that was practically screaming RUN.

Someone grabbed my hand from beside me, scarring the living hell out of me in the process. I looked over and immediately calmed when I realized it was just my mom. She gave me a reassuring smile and my heart slowed a bit. I looked back to the front and waited to hear whatever bad news this man was going to announce.

"I am under orders to inform you that over the past few months the government and scientists have been studying a new virus that has been unleashed into the U.S. As of right now, we are trying to do everything possible to stop the spread of this sickness until a vaccine can be distributed and people can build up their immunity. Studies have shown that children under the age of eighteen have the highest natural immunity, but everyone is at risk of unknowingly carrying this virus," The man scanned the room, he appeared to be looking for something. His eyes met with mine for a split second and a ghost of a smirk appeared on his harsh face.

"Now, experts have named this disease the Meyburn virus, and right now our priority is to quarantine all children under the age of eighteen for their safety until we can come up with a solution. Now, the idea with this is to isolate the children so that their immunity does not drop from being more and more exposed to the virus in those around them. We know that this may be very concerning to all of you, especially parents, but know that the United States government is doing everything in its power to find a cure for this virus. Now, I want all of you to remain calm while my associate, Lieutenant Davis, explains our next course of action," The man stepped down from the crate and went over to converse with some of the other people in army uniforms.

The man, Lieutenant Davis, walked up onto the crate and took a deep breath and looked around the room before starting to speak.

"Now, are there any children here who are under the age of eighteen?" He scanned the room with kinder eyes than the man who had spoken earlier, but I still hesitated to raise my hand. My mom gave me a light nudge with her elbow, and I put my hand in full view of the lieutenant.

There were maybe eight other hands that went up, and Lieutenant Davis nodded as he looked each of us in the eye. I suddenly wished I had not raised my hand.

"Excellent. You are all going to be paired up with one of my fellow army personnel to be escorted back to your homes. You will pack a bag with everything you may need, and then all of you will be escorted to Rushmore Army Medical Center. For everyone else here, you may finish your shopping as quickly as you can and then please head back to your homes and only leave if absolutely necessary. Soon the government will issue a statement with details regarding what to expect in the months to come. Thank you for your cooperation, and please remain calm." Apparently Lieutenant Davis was not on quite as high a horse as the first dude who spoke to us.

"Mom...I don't want to go," I looked up at my mother, and saw the fear in her eyes, the pale green eyes that we shared. Saw how she tried to hide it from me. It wasn't working very well.

"I know, Megan. I don't want you to go either, but it's for your safety. You can trust these guys. Just do what they say, be good, and try to keep from snapping at them, will you?" My mom looked me in the eye and smiled a little as she finished speaking. She knew just as well as I did that keeping my mouth shut might be near impossible.

I laughed a bit as I replied, "Sure, Mom. But you have to keep from swearing at them when they take me, and I think that will be a little harder." She started to laugh, and I looked at my mother's face, happy and smiling, and I told myself that no matter what would happen, this was how I knew my mother, how I wanted to remember her. I gave her one last hug, and she buried her face in my hair. I pulled away and she kissed me on my cheek and I kissed hers. Then one of those damn army people cleared their throat behind me, ruining a perfectly good moment.

"Yes?" I tried to contain the growl in my voice but I still heard it. And by the way the man's face hardened, he did too.

" Please come with me, Miss. We are going to be leaving for your home soon,"

Good Lord, why do I get stuck with the boring one?

I nodded my agreement and looked back at my mom one last time, saying a quick I love you and then I walked away with the man.

I heard as my mom said, "I love you too, Meg!" I could hear the smile in her voice, but I didn't look back to check. I kept walking with the man, and before I knew what was happening, I was in the passenger seat of one of those weird army vehicles you always see in movies, and we were driving away to visit my home one last time. Well, there's no going back now. Bye Mom, I love you, but I think I'll have to give these idiots a piece of my mind before this is over.