Prologue

400 years ago, I was eight years old. Eight. Exactly eight. Not eight and a half, or eight and a quarter. Just, eight. It was my eighth birthday, September 5, 2020. It was a very warm, sunny California day, and all was well.

I woke to pull the green overalls and a white t-shirt I owned at the time, as such was uniform, and prepared to set out to work. Girls my age were to harvest the strawberries during the first twelve hours of the day, side by side with our mothers, the other twelve were spent at home, sewing. (With the obvious four allowed hours of sleep.)  Men were ordered to serve in the military, and so- my father was often never home.

I trotted my tiny legs to the door to slip on my brown work boots and slipped out to the strawberry fields. My mother was hunched over a bush, her blonde hair pulled back into a tight bun above her neck. My hair was shorter then, so I didn't need to heed to the tied hair rule. I slipped beside her and began working my tiny fingers to pluck ripe red berries from their thorny vines.

¨Happy birthday, my sweet love.¨ Came my mother´s honey-like voice, one hand popping a ripe strawberry into my mouth. The strawberry juice tasted delicious, compared to the rations we were served normally, and I gave my mom a red-stained smile.

¨ Thanks, mommy! You´re the best.¨ I gave her my best smile, before taking the leaves of the strawberry from my mouth and placing it down by the roots of the bushes. I much preferred the strawberries to the almonds we had to pluck the year before and was grateful to have such a sweet fruit at our hands.

¨You’re eight today, Candy. Nearly a grown woman.” Said my mother sweetly as she returned to the task of ripping the berries off the branches and placing them into the wicker basket between us. A long sigh came from her lips, and I watched as she held her hand up to examine a large patch of hives along her arm.

While I was in love with strawberries, my mother had a severe allergy to the fruit, and just touching it made her skin explode in a fury of hives.

¨Mommy- stop. I'll pick the strawberries for both of us today.¨ I begged, and leaned over to her side to drag the berries from the bush. She grabbed my pale wrists and pulled them away.

¨Candy, dear, I'll be fine. Don´t get into trouble now.¨ She said simply, as a shout was heard across the yard.

¨Birds! Everywhere! Everyone! Birds! Run!¨ Called a terrified, and almost angry sounding man.

I didn’t understand. What was the big deal of birds flying over? It happened all the time. But my mother seemed a bit scared as well, her hands still holding tight to my wrists.

¨Mommy, what's wrong?” I asked, feeling a bit frightened myself.

My mother didn’t answer, instead, my response was a loud humming. The sound of a fan spinning, now amplified.

I turned my head toward my mother’s whose mouth was agape. I imitated her, to watch flocks of the metal birds swarm over the field.

And then it happened. One dropped a large egg through the air and settled into the ground. Upon impact the egg exploded, fire roaring into the air, throwing my mother and I into the sky. She collapsed atop of me, my eyes watering with the heat I felt, incapable of hearing.

My mother struggled to stand, her rashy arms wrapped around me. She ran, and I watched people around us fall, run, and many lay still.

“Run!!” I remember trying to shriek with no sound. They seemed incapable of hearing as well, as they lay still in their  strawberry juice.

More eggs fell from the sky as my mom ran, the birds content with nesting there. She stroked my hair, strawberry juice sticky on her forehead, flooding down her nose. I wiped at the red, noticing the big boo-boo on her head.

“Mommy! We need band-aids!” I said with no sound once again. She didn’t hear me either, just nodded and ran down into the bunker tunnel.

A doctor greeted us, his lab coat hanging low above his ankles as he talked on and on. He gestured to me, asking me to climb from my mother’s arms. I didn’t want to go- didn’t want to be released from the warmth my mother exuded, but, she released me all the same.

I stood on my legs, though a bit wobbly, and looked up at the tall lab-coated man.

“..andy?” His voice was new to me, and I cringed at the ringing I heard with it.

“Miss Candy? Come with me. Your mommy will be all right, but we need to get her fixed up. You were quite lucky, that blast should’ve annihilated you, but your mother protected you.” He explained.

I could only nod, struggling to deal with the loud ringing around me.

“We need to run some tests on you darling. Come along.” He took my hand, and walked me along to a room with an examination table. It was brightly lit, and the lamp on the ceiling swung to and fro with the shuddering blasts above ground.

“Will the mean birds go away soon?” I asked, my voice shaky with the ringing.

He looked at me, a bit confused, before chuckling, “The mean birds should leave soon.” He nodded and lifted me up onto the examination table. He turned away while I swung my legs, and returned to face me and wipe a cold cloth across my arm.

I cringed at the cold, and I knew a shot was to follow. Unsurprisingly, he produced a long needle and poked it into my arm.

A sharp cry escaped my lips and my eyes burned with tears, “Ow!”

He didn’t heed my pain, just injected the necessary stuff into my arm, which would no doubt happen to everyone else in a uniform fashion.

“Now we just have one more thing to do Miss Candy.” He explained and ushered me out of the examination room to the next one filled with rectangular things.

“Are those fridges?” I questioned, and pointed at one, the ringing fading as I spoke.

No answer. The man opened the door to one, and there sat a seat inside. He pointed to it and I sat in the chair. 

“How old are you?”

“Eight! I just turned that today!” I explained proudly.

He scribbled something down, “September fifth…”

“All right Miss Candy. I’m shutting this door, and opening the slide so you can see out.” He started, “It’s to keep any germs off of you.” He  explained.

With that, he shut the door and opened the window. He said something I couldn’t hear as I started feeling cold.

I was scared, and it became colder and colder, I hugged my knees to my chest, shivering.

“Mama…” I uttered as my eyes shut.

~~~

I was cold, freezing even when I opened my eyes. The freezing feeling left me quickly as I looked through the window in my little pod. Everything was dark, and I could barely make out the faint outline of people clustered around a pod.

“This one’s dead too…” Came a boy-ish voice, and then a snort.

“Guys! I’m telling you! One of them is alive! I can hear them!” Protested a different boy.

“Why are all these bodies here?” Asked a high, sweet voice. Definitely girly.

One figure shrugged, and I shook a bit. Those were people, looking to find live people. A survivor rescue? Was my mom with them?

“Hey! Help! I’m in here!” I said, with no voice.

 

I pounded my fists against the glass, desperately trying to get their attention. The figures turned and all went silent.

Fear went through my veins, and I looked down at my hands. What would my mother want me to do? These could be total strangers!

She would want me to get out.

I beat my fists against the window harder, making me cringe in pain. “Help!”

My voice was a squeak, but they seemed to get the message.

“See! I told you!” Said a boy proudly, and the figures slowly approached.

“It’s a girl…” Mumbled a girlish voice, and the other whispered something I couldn’t hear.

“Are you trapped?” Asked the boy voice I’d heard first.

I nodded.

“Light it up Silence.”

The device I sat in became somewhat warmer, and suddenly surged in heat, burns running over my hands. I screamed, tears flooding from my blue eyes.

“Silence! Stop! You’re hurting her!” The first girl’s voice shrieked, and the heat disappeared, the burns running along my hands and on my thighs.

The door had melted away, and I was facing the group of saviors, and somewhat mild burning people.

“Silhouette, look at her burns..” A red haired girl said to a brunette boy that stood in the front.

“They’re...healing?” A chocolate-skinned girl asked, her black hair cascading over her left eye. A black haired boy stood next to her, tall for his age asking,

“What? Really? I can’t see so-”

A blonde boy in the back huffed, as if to say Whatever.

I was confused, and looked down at my burns- wherever they were. A red splotch on my hand slowly turned back to my pale caucasian skin.

“You have a talent..” Silhouette mumbled, before asking, “How were you stuck in there? You go to Diana’s School?”

My voice felt itchy, but I spoke fairly well, “No...my mama. She- she...told me to go with the doctor...Is- Is she with you?”

A silence befell the group, and they turned from me, whispering back and forth.

Their words were inaudible and I watched as Silhouette turned to face me, ¨What´s your name?¨

¨Candy Sarah Dance.¨ I said slowly, and watched his eyes go soft, and he knelt on the floor, his brown eyes glittering with remorse.

¨Candy..You're the only survivor. Your mommy didn't make it..¨ He said quietly, but his words filled me with an anger.

¨You’re lying! You´re a liar! All of you!¨ Tears burned in my eyes, and I hit him in the chest. He didn´t even flinch. ¨I want my mommy! Where is she?! Wh-What happened! Please! No!¨ My rage turned into a deep sadness, and I began sobbing, crumbling to the ground.

Silhouette silently wrapped his long arms around me, and everything was quiet, despite my sobs. ¨Shh...¨ He soothed me, rubbing my back.

¨Wh-What’s gonna happen to me?¨ I asked, my sobs racking my body.

 

¨Nothing, because I´ll be right here.¨ Silhouette promised, despite having just met me. “Like, a brother or something…”