Five Year Sentence

Chapter 1

The alarm clock sounded at 05:30 sharp as usual. The day was gray and the air seemed stale with sadness and depression. The daily routine was simple, wake up, shower, eat, and leave to school or a job. Well this wasn't what Chelsea foresaw today. Today she didn't get up with the alarm, didn't go through the motions, instead she stayed in bed until noon. Her parents having died the year before and school being shut down due to mold and a killer disease, the world seemed to fall out of routine, one soul at a time.

Jobs were the most important thing to worry about if school had been cancelled or shut down, but the busy morning rush wasn't even heard until 13:30, This was the most peculiar phenomena that had ever happened in history. Chelsea hadn't cared though she figured everyone could care less about what was happening to their jobs because everyone had the disease, which meant everyone was gonna die, which meant that everyone had nothing to really lose anymore, well other than their virginity Chelsea thought. Chelsea only being 16 hadn't given much thought about what was gonna happen the last few years of her life until now, because the disease takes 5 years to kill you, and from the people who only had a few days left to live said that the pain increased over the 5 years. Imagine the entire USA being wiped out in 5 years. Sounds like a long time right, well when it's the whole world, those 5 years seem to shrink into days, which turn into minutes then seconds. This was what people didn't plan for, hell the disease slipped under the radar, completely undetected until the first 100,000 people died all at once. An entire power plant shut down near instantly, leaving an entire state without power. The disease has an odd way of killing off people as well. Many people lived past the 5 year mark and were tested, though they were still positive for the disease they continued to live. No one, not even the doctors who had been working on a cure could figure out why'd gv they were fortunate enough to live.

After staying in bed Chelsea finally got to work for the first time in weeks. The office she worked for didn't care that she hadn't showed up, because she only had 2 years left in her, she was dying faster than anyone else, and everyone could tell. She had only been diagnosed with the disease a year ago after her 15th birthday. Since she had gone many times to the doctors and scientist to see how much time she had left. To their surprise she had the same immune qualities that the survivors had, but the disease reacted in a way that wasn't like anyone else that had passed through the labs. It was eating away at the inside of her body from the important to the least important. Which in this case was worse than what happened in every other person. Now usually this meant that her death wouldn't be as painful as every other carrier, but she was in more pain than everyone else had been, even in their last moments of life when the pain was the worst. As Chelsea began her daily routine at the office many of her coworkers came to her aid and gave her sympathy, but knowing that she was going to die she merely brushed it off her shoulder like a comment or insult. The only person that mattered to her was her close friend William, but as with all good things his time was too short and he died before his 15 birthday. This always hung in the thoughts of Chelsea, not having the chance to say goodbye to her best friend. This was a terrible way to live life and she knew it, but she didn't care because they both shared something that no one else they had encountered had, Hope, hope is what kept them going, what made the disease feel like a simple cold or mosquito bite. They both lost hope in the last days of his life though, and while they could have done anything with there life after the disease shut down everything about normal life, they didn't, they continued to live out the boring routine set before them until his last day with her.

William being 10 when he was diagnosed with the virus, and when it was located it had already moved into his brain and there was no way to stop the virus from killing off his brain first. But the virus had a way to work differently in everyone it affected and left his brain alone until his last breaths. William had a secret though, and he never told anyone about the secret until it was too late to change anything about it. He had a secret love of Chelsea and he had since they first met around his 7 birthday when school was still in session and the virus was unheard of and when life was still under the boring routine. It was in his second grade classroom with the teacher Mrs. Shafer, that he met Chelsea. To him she was the most beautiful person he had ever met, and he knew that they would be friends instantly. To his surprise they shared many of the same interests including video games and sports, even though neither of them played sports. 2 years later he found himself in a very bad situation with a bunch of older kids and the only friend he had was Chelsea, and though she could have helped him, she didn't and he was bullied constantly. Eventually he got tired of the constant bullying and lashed out during a, now weekly, rough up after school and broke one kids nose and the others arm. But he didn't feel right about what he had done and he never told anyone what he had done, except for Chelsea, who didn't do much anyway. The year after when the world was introduced to the super virus, William was going to tell her the way he felt but was too late. She had found an interest in some sport playing asshole and stopped talking to him. But this was also the time when the virus shut down an entire power plant, which his parents worked at. Parentless and school being out everyone was forced to find a job no matter your age. He ended up keeping inventory at a local grocery store. Then came his exam, which became mandatory and he was found positive, and for the first time in a year Chelsea talked with him after he was found positive, but being parentless they couldn't do much but hope that the virus did kill him or her off. The next 3 years consisted of continuous labor and a steady flow of cash, but Chelsea no matter how many times she went to get examined had no traces of the virus. This gave them both hope for a chance to correct everything that had been happening. When William finally had the courage to talk to her about the way he felt for her, she was nowhere to be found. This is when William had a year left of life and Chelsea had just been tested positive for the virus and fell into a deep depression and never left her house. During the final hours of Williams life she emerged from the house to talk with him but found him a mute from pain. But she knew then what William wanted to say for so long. She knew that she loved him and he loved her, but it was never to be and she sat by his side till his final, wheezy, agonizing breath was taken. She didn't leave his side though, she stayed and cried for days, not telling anyone who died or why she had been gone for so long.

Remembering this brought a tear to her eyes, and she wept for him once more at the crappy office she had to call a job. She didn't want to be filing papers for some asshole who didn't pay well or care about the well being of his employees. So that day she left the office and never returned, packed up her car with all the things that mattered to her self and never looked back. Travelling from New York to Massachusetts, looking for a slight ray of sunshine in the dull life she had been living by herself. The journey to Massachusetts took a matter of 3 days due to weather conditions and traffic and other environmental problems of the 3 days. She listened to her favorite radio stations and didn't care what people thought of her, and for the first time in a year, she felt normal again. But all that changed when she suddenly lost all feeling in her left leg and then her right arm. Though she could move them, she couldn't feel them moving or feel pain in them whenever she pinched the skin on her arm or leg. She stopped at a Super 8 and stayed until late the second day of her journey, trying to figure out why her arm and leg had suddenly lost all feeling and no matter what she tried, couldn't regain feeling. This was when she realized that parts of her brain were shutting down and that her time might be shorter than predicted and all the expectations she had for Boston and the rest of her road trip wouldn't be as fulfilling. After getting back on the road she immediately went to the nearest medical center to see what was happening. To her surprise her expected time of life had changed from 2 years to 3 because of her pain centers in her brain shutting down, this is because her body had grown use to the level of pain that had been greater than what was being experienced. If this continued she might be the rare case of someone who lived through the 5 years. But at the same time she would never feel her arm and leg again. This could prove to be problematic with one of the many experiences she wished to have before her death, which is hiking in the rocky mountains. Once she arrived in Boston she immediately went to one of the many markets that were open, and she enjoyed spending some of her well earned cash on things that didn't matter to anyone else. While she was at the market she encountered a man, a man with many of the same qualities that William had, but he was older and looked like he had been living with the virus most of his life, but he also seemed happy, like he could have cared less if he died tomorrow or today. He had a seemingly flawless face and a slight British accent, with a small stubbly beard. His name is Mordecai, and he was from Wales. Now Chelsea didn't expect to find someone at this market that she found interest in. She approached Mortdecai with caution and curiosity. He looked a little like William, which couldn't be possible, she had watched him die. This frightened her, but she couldn't look away, like she was looking at a angel. He spoke first, he had a deep, soothing voice, with a very slight but noticeable accent. " Can I help you with something love" he said. After hearing his voice she was instantly calm and she felt like melting. But then she was sad because this is the way that William made her feel. " Yeah actually. I'm headed west soon and I need directions and a possible travel buddy" she said. Her voice though raspy and hoarse from the disease was sweet and full of love and compassion, and Mordecai felt like he was talking to someone he knew long before the epidemic began. He smiled at her, and she saw that he had a perfect smile. She became shy and her face turned a bright pink around her cheeks and the tops of her ears. He felt like he was a mile high and and seemed to be floating. Her body was near perfect, she had the "hour glass" figure with long light brown hair and fair skin. Her eyes were a deep blue with hints of hazel and gold speckled throughout her iris. She was a good 5'4". He had dark brown hair and was he was very tan for being from Britain, he wasn't quite ripped but he was slim and 6'2". "Well" he said after a long pause " I wasn't planning on leaving but if you're looking to go west I would be happy to tag along, I'm tired of this hell hole". To her surprise she was ecstatic that he was the one that was going to go with her on this adventure out west. But she also felt like there was something more than that feeling of not having to travel alone to a place she knew close to nothing about. She felt a little in love with this man she had just met, and he felt the same way, but only time could tell for the two of them.