Operation Endure (title may change)

Chapter | 01

Chapter | 01

I remember the day the Earth died. My parents said that people had been warning about the coming "doomsday" for decades before. No one really believed it could happen...But then it did. While dormant supervolanoes became active, mass power stopped functioning. No one had electricity. People started to panic and millions died from the stampedes. I was quite young so I could hardly remember but my parents said that the chaos on the streets had some praying for their lives. It was absolutely terrifying. 

I remember the ash filling the air and people's lungs. That in inself killed many. If you went outside everything was covered in a light dusting of grey "snow". The air smelled like a never ending campfire. Bodies kept dropping so fast there wasn't time to bury them. Where I used to live I can still remember watching members of the community taking bodies out of the homes and driving them down the road into the country. At night if I looked out my window I could see a fire in the distance. At the time I didn't make the connection. But now looking back on it I know exactly what they were doing. 

Disease took most of the world. One specific virus took over and quickly became the worst disease mankind had ever seen. It made Ebola look like a simple cold. The doctors and scientists didn't even konw what to name it so they just called it Virus X. Such a cliche, right? It started with a cough, or a sneeze and 24 hours later...well obviously the dead 7 billion people know that part. Eight of my close friends and my older brother were taken by the virus. There wasn't even a funeral. They were just burned to bits like everybody else. Sometimes if I close my eyes I can still remember the day my brother died.

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“Bryna could you please go get your brother? Dinner is ready.” My mom smiled at me as she set the table. A pot of steaming spaghetti sat next to another pot full of pasta sauce, the meaty smell floating up and through the room. My favorite part - the bread and butter sat on a plate in the center.

“Eli! Eli come on!” I yelled from the base of the stairs. After waiting a moment and not hearing any movement from the upper level I groaned and began to climb the stairs. They were fairly steep and not carpeted so I was always careful. I pulled myself to the top and headed towards my brother’s room at the end of the hallway.

Ever since Eli got his new laptop he had stopped playing with me. He didn’t play dolls with me anymore and said no to my tea parties. Mom and Dad said that he was just turning into a typical “teenager.” I was so angry that I didn’t even smile at him during his 13th birthday party. And I smiled at everyone so that’s got to say something.

I reached his door and knocked on it loudly to get his attention. “Eli are you sleeping?” I called out. Again I didn’t hear an answer so I stood there for a few minutes, my eyes wandering over the door knob. He never let me in his room anymore so I didn’t know if I should open it up and go inside. If he woke up he’d be real mad at me. But I thought about how Mom wanted him to come down for dinner so I took a deep breath and opened the door.

He was lying on his bed with the covers up over his face like they normally are when he slept. “Eli you have to wake up mom says it’s suppertime.” I knew that he hadn’t been feeling good so I went over to feel his forehead like my Mom did when I felt yucky. I pulled back the covers and screamed.

His eyes and mouth were open. Foam lined his mouth and his eyes were bloodshot. When I stopped screaming I slowly inched forward, wanting to see purely out of a morbid curiosity. I didn’t even realize the tears were flowing down my face as I reached out to touch his face. Before I could the door burst in and my parents came to a skidding halt. My mother screamed like I had and dropped to her knees. My father gasped and ran to me, scooping me up. I struggled and tried to get away but my father held me tight. As the 3 of us ran from his room, I couldn’t stop screaming his name. “Eli...Eli! Eli please!”