Oasis in Ohio

Chapter One

"Big Bro, when can I have something like Poptarts again?" My little sister Bella asked.

I looked down at my 7 year old sister Bella. With her long brown hair that got lighter at the tips. She looked up at me with her tried green eyes as the mid day sun shines on her light brown skin.

She was almost a picture perfect match to me, well expect for that I'm a boy as well as some minor details. I had the same colored, short hair but I had dyed mine blue, and I had dark brown eyes- so dark that they were almost black.

She was hugging her brown stuffed dog, the same one she's had since she was a baby, against her dirty flower patterned dress.I

"Tomorrow I'll go out and try to find you some flavorful food." I promised her.

"Thank you Xavy!" She said, hugging me with one arm, the other still tightly gripping her dog.

Xavy was her nickname for me, Xavier was too hard for her to always say so she switched between saying big bro and Xavy.

For the rest of the day I played with her, using the last of her dolls we were able to grab, before we climbed into the space we slept in.

The space was a hole, just barely able to fit me when stretched out, covered in old furniture and broken pieces of wall, all of them having lost their color ages ago like everything else. I had pulled a twin bed mattress into the hole for us to slept on.

I pulled my backpack that had a small pillow and blanket into the hole with us, putting the pillow down for Bella and covering her with the blanket as she curled up around her stuffed dog.

Once I knew she was settled and asleep I crawled out of the hole and made sure the door to the apartment was locked, the escape route- through a window and down a vine, was ready for us, and every weak spot was properly boarded before crawling into bed with Bella.

I zipped up my hockey sweater and laid down, using my backpack as a pillow.

I looked through the small opening in the little space and through a small window at the broken moon. It was still hard to believe what had happened. First with the war, then the riots, then the whole world falling apart, and I was only 13 when it happened.

Then I started thinking about when our parents got sick. It was close to my 14th birthday. First is was my dad. It started with a terrible cough, then it was a running nose so bad it was like it was a waterfall. At first it just seemed like a terrible cold, that's when he started coughing up blood as well as blood being in the toilet after using the bathroom.

Bella, being only 4, didn't know the signs- she barely even knew he was sick. But I knew. I knew the signs, and I knew the chance of surviving the disease- 1/10,000.

Sense she was taking care of him my mom soon got sick. They tried making my 12th birthday special for me but I knew they were in pain. It hurt to sit, to walk, to do anything.

A day after my 12th birthday, Bella and I were sent off to stay with our aunts for a few days. My parents had checked themselves into a hospital, to be taken care of for four days.

We were sent back after four days but, our parents weren't there. Bella thought nothing of it, thinking it was just a game but I knew they weren't coming back.

That's when the plants started taking over cities and towns, meaning Bella and I had to go. Our house was almost destroyed y them. We grabbed what we could and ran. We didn't stop until I found this run down apartment building.

The same one we were in now. Bella had turned 7 here and I taught her to read and talk with one of the three books we grabbed.

She was starting to forget our house, thinking of this as her home. I didn't fully think of it as home, and to me it never would be home.

I curled my body around Bella's, protecting her, and listened to her soft snores.

I loved her more than anything.

I will never stop protecting you. I silently promised. Never.

~Thanks for reading!
I hope you enjoy Oasis in Ohio!
For anyone who's read The Coven Traitor it's sequel will be after this book is finished.
Enjoy the story :)~