Prologue

Enjoy.

            Dear Lord why does my head hurt so much?  I beg my savior before I groan and my eyes flutter open. But they don’t tell me anything. Only that I’m not in my room. Or anywhere I recognize.

            What in the world…? I wonder and lift my head. But the excruciating pain brings me back down to the floor.

            Lord what’s going on?

            I can’t help but feel scared. I don’t do well in strange places. Especially on the floor of a strange and unfamiliar place…

            Wait, why am I on the floor?

            This is enough for me to force my body to corporate with my demands and sit up. If my head hurt before, it’s killing me now. But I try to ignore it. It’s not easy though, it makes me want nothing more than to lie back down and never get up again. I squint and force my eyes to adjust to the light and focus on the scene unfolding before me.

            My heart skips a beat.

            Strangers.

            In lab coats.

Everywhere.

            Not all around me but in front of me. Walking past like I don’t even exist.

            What kind of hospital is this? I wonder, but as my eyes continue to adjust and clarify what I’m seeing, it makes me second guess myself.

            Am I in a cell…?

            Now I start to panic. I crawl frantically to the glass and put my hands against it. The scientists continue to ignore me.

            Dear Lord what is going on? I beg desperately. I’m so scared.

            I pound on the glass and try to say something, but all that comes out is a shallow breath. I’m shaking. I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared before in my life.

            I pound the glass again. This time sound comes out of my mouth. But the scientists continue to ignore me.

            Can someone at least tell me what’s going on and where I am? I plead within my own mind. I’m screaming now. But no one takes any notice of me. Is it because they can’t hear me or is it because they choose to ignore my cries?

            I start to hyperventilate. I’ve never hyperventilated before. Never in my life. I press my hand on my chest and try to regulate my breathing. But my heart is pounding, I’m in a strange place, I don’t know how, when, why, or where I am, I’m surrounded by strangers, and not a single one will even acknowledge me.

            Lord PLEASE! Where AM I?! Hot tears stream down my face. I try to stop them but I can’t. So I just let them flow and burry my face in my knees and weep.

            “Hey, relax. You’re going to be alright. Calm down, they’re not going to hurt you,”

            My head shoots up and my eyes dart from one end of the room to the other. I look out the glass to see if maybe one of the scientists stopped outside my cell and uttered those calm and steady words. But no one is there. They just continue to walk past me like I don’t exist. I’m completely alone. But then, where did that voice come from…?

            “You’re going to be OK. Everything’s going to fine,”

            I shriek and jump back and hit my head against the wall and start to hyperventilate again.

            “Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you and neither are they,”

            The voice had a slight echo to it. I look up and realize it’s coming from the vent. I start to relax a little at the realization that it’s probably someone in the cell next to mine.

            “W-Who are y-you? Where a-am I? W-W-What’s-s g-going on?” I plead in a shaking voice.

            “Slow down. Take a minute to relax. You need to calm down. Take a deep breath,”

            I do as the voice says and try to regulate my breathing. It helps, I’ve slowed my breathing, but my heart is still pounding. If I don’t get answers soon, I think I’m going explode.

            “P-Please. Where am I? What’s going on?”

            “Well since you’re still alive and here, I assume you were infected and somehow managed to survive the toxin,” the voice informs me. Though it only terrifies me more.

            “Infected?!” I scream in utter horror. What does he mean by “infected” and “surviving the toxin”?

            “Toxin! What do you mean by ‘toxin’?! And what do you mean ‘somehow managed to survive’?! What, was I not supposed to make it?!”

            “No,”

            I’m in shock. He said it so plainly, so casually. That I wasn’t supposed to survive the “toxin” as he calls it. I need to know more.

            I gulp. “Why am I here?” I whimper. I must sound pathetic. Like a little girl asking where her mommy is. But I can’t help it. I’m in a strange place filled with strange people and I have no idea where I am, how I got here or long I’ve been here, and nobody’s telling me a thing!

            “You’re here because you were infected and survived. And the disease you have is both very deadly and easily caught. They keep people like us in here because they don’t want us infecting everybody else,”

            I let myself go limp and slide down the wall and try to process this new information. My hand holds my forehead in an effort to support it from the overload it just received.

            I look back up at the vent. I’ve started shaking again. “H-How can y-you be s-s-so-o c-calm?”

            There is a brief pause. “I’ve been here for almost ten years, you get used to it,”

            I start to hyperventilate again. Ten years.

Will I be here for ten years? I wonder. Ugh, I hope not. I don’t think I could manage. Just the very thought of living in a place like this scared me out of my wits.

Oh, God help me…

Tears start to run down my face again.

“Have you been bitten by an animal recently?”

I couldn’t help but stare at the vent for a minute. Bitten by an animal? What has that got to do with anything?

“Bitten by an animal? What has that got to do with…?” It hit me. It hit me like a freight train running at a hundred miles an hour. The party, the bush, the snake, the kiss…

I remember everything.

Author's Note

Be honest, what do you think?