The Parasite

1: The start

I wish I had known that something so simple and mundane as spending a few days with family could go so wrong. It didn't make sense how something so fun and innocent could lead to so much lost.
It wasn't the fact that it destroyed life as I knew it, it was just that it didn't seem like what you would expect for the end of the world. There was no nuclear blast, no hoards of zombies clamoring over each other; it wasn't anything like what you'd see in every B rate apocalypse movie. I can almost say I wish it was like how Hollywood portrayed it. There was something more clean-cut about it. You knew who were the zombies that wanted to eat your brain from the nice people you had on your team. The Us vs them concept just seemed so concise and desirable to me.
It was nothing like that.

I almost wonder what it would be like if I could see ahead, to know what was coming so I would at least have to time to breathe in, breath out, and then accept what was on its way. But knowing the future wasn't really something that was in my skill set, nor do I wish it was.

Because the future was ugly.

Maybe it's for the best no one can predict what will happen, it saves their innocence. I only wish I had been able to keep mine. Maybe I should stop here and start from the beginning. That's where you're supposed to begin something anyway, back when everything was in order. Though, the start doesn't really fit it; it was more like the beginning of the end, the edge of the cliff. Not good, but definitely a better place to begin than the part where you're falling.
Maybe I'll start where I stood with my toes peeking over the edge, when I still wasn't expecting the hard shove in the back that would send me and very one else plummeting.   It may not be a great beginning, but it's the honest truth.
Well, to put it simply: it began with water.
------

"Oh my gosh that's cold!!" A high pitched screech rang out and split through the warm   air, making my ears ring.
I smiled at the squeaks and yelps of my little sister as she stood waist-deep in the crystal blue waters of the spring. Her face was beet-red with the shock of the chilly water, auburn eyes alight with joy. Her hair was an absolute mess, thrown about in wild curls and dripping wet from her dive into the spring.
"C'mon Blue, come with me-" she giggled, waving her arm at me, beckoning me to leave the comfort of the shade of the oak tree I lay under. Yeah right.
We had decided to go to Georgia in celebration of my brother's 11th birthday; a quick trip from our North Carolina home in the mountains to go into the warm November swamps of the Okeefenokee. I had been several times before with my father to kayak the winding swamp, and explore the pure crystalline springs hidden in the farther reaches of the Cypress.
But this time we were simply spending a day or two in our small trailer to swim and explore.
Either way, I loved being out in the wooded swamp, away from people and crowded cities.

I glanced back down to see my sister splashing herself and wading up to her chest in the freezing spring-fed pool of deep blue colored water. She lowered herself in so only her eyes were above the surface, cruising around pretending to be an alligator, her favorite animal. She had been absolutely delighted to be able to see wild alligators out in the swamp when we rented a canoe. She nearly climbed out to meet them, much to the dismay of my mother.
She popped up out of the water again and gave me a puppy-eyed look. "C'mon please, sis?" She whined. "Just for a little while."
Her large auburn eyes met mine, the most pleading look in them.
I gave in, standing up and dusting the dirt off my legs and swim trunks that were over my one -piece. "Just for a few minutes, Alex" I said sternly, before padding down to the edge of the water. There was a chunk of land that hung over the deeper part of the spring.
The wet tiny pebbles crunched under my bare feet as I stretched my leg down and tested the water with my toe.
Absolutely freezing.
Alex giggled at me, watching my very timid approach to the ice cold water below. "It's better to just dive in and not think about it," she offered. I raised an eyebrow at her "this is going to be an awful feeling," I breathed in defeat.
Just imagining the freezing water closing up around my body made me shiver. My muscles were coiled, waiting for me to jump.  "One...two..." I said shakily, before plugging  my nose and preparing to do the unthinkable. "Three-" I launched myself away from the edge of the spring and plunged feet first into six feet of arctic water. I internally screamed, still holding my breath despite the shock making me want to gasp. I clawed my way to the surface as every fibre of my being was prickling at the drastic change in temperature. I burst through the surface and gasped in lung fills of air, turning to Alex with the same expression of a drowned cat.
"You could have warned me I would be jumping into the freaking Arctic Ocean!" I yelled, kicking to stay afloat. My body was adjusting to the cold now, and it felt rather nice. But it was still the shock of my life.
Alex laughed so hard she had to hold her sides as she stood in the more shallow end. The seven year old was a sneak, I'd give her that.
Properly adjusted to the water now,  I pinched my nose again and dove down to the rocky, sand-dusted bottom, looking up through the crystal clear water to see Alex's kicking legs. I smirked, before kicking off from the bottom and snatching her ankle. She screeched, and glared at me when I resurfaced.
"Why'd you do that!"
"It was revenge. And anyway, could've been an alligator," I chuckled. She just splashed water in my face, making me cough, before she couldn't help herself and a smile took the place of her mock-scowl. I smiled widely and turned to face the campsite, where my brother-  the grand birthday boy - sat in a lawn chair with his face in his gameboy. "Hey Carter!" I called. He set his game down and stared at me "what do you want?"
I smiled wickedly "why don't you show us you're not a sissy and join us!"
He playfully glared at me, before resuming his gaming "I'm not a sissy and I'm definitely  not a fool. You can't get me to touch that water," he shot back. I shook my head in defeat. There went my plan of dunking Carter in his coming-of age baptism of ice-cold water.