Journal of the Survivors

Entry #3

June 13th 2022              

Entry #3

Life has meaning. During our brief duration on Earth we’re meant to live, love, and laugh or so the old saying goes. It’s hard to live when you’re constantly surrounded by death. It’s hard to love when all you feel is fear. It’s hard to laugh when all you want to do is cry.

            After Sarah “died” the medical staff was so distraught and confused they forgot about the video feed. The hospital/observation residence in which the patients were staying didn’t have a morgue and the scientists wanted Sarah to where she was so they could try to figure out what went wrong. They cleared the traumatized people out of the rooms and sent them to other floors of the building. Two doctors gently and carefully placed Sarah’s corpse on a bed with clean white sheets. I watched as the blood on her clothes stained the snow white blankets beneath her, their blossoms standing out like a poppy among daisies. One of the men, the older one with a beard the same colour as the covers, wiped her final red tear away. He placed his hand on the side of her face and softly shut her empty eyes.

            I’d like to say that I cried for the loss of such a young life, a girl I felt like I personally knew from watching her every day, but I didn’t. I was frozen, numb, and scared more than words could possibly describe. I stared at the screen, lost in utter disbelief. Bas put his hand on my shoulder and turned me away, pulling me into a hug.

            Cari and Sebastian, my greatest friends. Throughout this journal you will most definitely hear stories about them, and so I see it only fitting that you know who they were. Cari and Sebastian were my anchors, they held me in reality. Throughout everything they always stood by me and looked out for me. I don’t know where or who I’d have been without them.

            Car and I had been best friends since junior kindergarten when we both wore the same flower print dress on the first day of school. We just kind of bonded after that. We both liked, ponies and puppies and glitter. It was like a friendship made in the heavens to our childish brains. And when I met Sebastian, her brother who was in grade one at the time, she gained about twenty thousand awesome points. The Sanders family all had the same hair and eye colours, Sebastian though he just stood out from the rest. He was so handsome and outgoing, he was always himself and never seemed to worry about what others thought of him. Not that he had to worry, everybody loved him. Whenever Cari invited me over to her house, from six to sixteen, I’d find some excuse to chat with Sebastian or even talk him into joining us in whatever it was we were doing. He’d never become annoyed or angry with my constant bugging.

            One day, before The Collapse, Car and I were in her basement blaring music while running around dancing and singing like the maniacs we are. We were so into it that we didn’t even notice the door at the top of the stairs opening, didn’t see the shaft of light, didn’t hear the descending footsteps...or at least I didn’t. We were whipping our hair around crazily and when I flipped my head backwards I finally saw him. He leaned casually in the doorway, calmly observing me making a fool out of myself while wearing the tiniest, most adorable smile in the history of ever. I could feel my face instantly redden and I quickly turned away in an attempt to avoid further embarrassment.

            Sebastian Sanders has always been the most gorgeous guy I’ve ever known. His emerald green eyes were so piercing and deep you could lose yourself in them. As he got older he started to shave his blond head which just emphasized his strong jaw line. Yea, I know I sound like a sap, but shut it. This is my story, I’ll tell it however I want.

            “Mom needs to talk with you upstairs, Car. I’ll wait down here with Kyra,” he said. I remember feeling as if my heart stopped whenever he said my name.