Death and All His Friends

Pandemic

Key Nine: Pandemic:

-Max-

I remember that it all started back in summer of 2022. That was the summer that the stranger first appeared. There had been comments about him here and there. He didn't mean much to us. Looking back, I should've taken his presence as an omen.

Did he cause this pandemic that is still choking the world to this day? Some think he did. I don't. I think... no, I know that it followed him here. To tell this story properly, I have to go back a little bit.

Linda and I were in our sophomore year of high school that year. There had been a pandemic going around in Asia and Europe at the time. It had just hit Africa by the time it invaded the news. Our town wasn't worried about it. I mean, it was so far away. Why would be worried about something like that? That was their problem, not ours. How naïve we were back then. Not our mother.

"Don't ever think like that," she told us. "If we don't act, the world's problems will become our problems." Linda and I understood too well. Still, there were other things on our minds at the time. I think it was around this time that Linda got a boyfriend.

Oh, look at me. I'm getting off-topic here. I should talk about the stranger and the pandemic that is killing the world.

Within eighteen months, everything turned upside down. It started with the forest going quiet. Linda stopped walking as she frowned. I pulled my bike to a stop and looked over my shoulder.

"What's the matter?" I asked. Linda looked up at the trees.

"Do you hear that?" she asked. I took a moment to listen. I frowned confused.

"No," I said.

"Exactly!" Linda said. I frowned.

"Are you saying something is wrong?" I asked. She shared the same worried look I did. I read somewhere that animals are the ones who know when something is wrong. I remember that fact at that moment.

The days leading up to the end are hazy. Sometimes, I had to talk to Linda to get the rest out.

"I didn't want to show this," she said. Linda handed me a small journal. My jaw dropped.

"Where did you get this?" I asked. My sister looked away from me.

"He gave it to me," she said. I stared at her stunned.

"You can't be serious," I said. She wouldn't look at me.

"Linda!" I shouted.

"He told me to keep it safe," she said. "He said that you were going to need to remember what happened to our mother."

"I know what happened to her," I said.

"How much do you remember?" Linda asked. I froze. I started to say something but closed my mouth. Linda pushed the book into my hand. I couldn't bring myself to speak.

We weren't the only ones to feel the pandemic.

The following is a record from the best of my memories and the notes in the journal Linda gave me. I think some of the details will either be missing or mixed up. It's a good thing that I have Linda to fill in the blanks.

Anyway, here is what happened.

1.

I think we were in the middle of summer when the stranger first appeared. It would take months for him to come to our neck of the woods. But we heard whispers of him wandering around town. Not many people wanted to approach him. With his appearance, it was easy to see why. His appearance alone was enough to scare little children.