1_Pain

Ma wasn't coming back. I knew it. I felt it.

Eleven years ago, as she held my hands and pulled me through the streets, I watched her brown hair flying in the wind, she looked stressed. Her smile was gone, she felt empty and lost.

If I knew then that she was trying to protect me, I would have said

"Screw it, we'll fight together"

But I didn't know and now, she's gone and I'm all alone.

I could clearly see the white car pull up in front of us, I could feel Ma's hand on my shoulders as she knelt down before me and asked me to run.

"Run Keturah, Never look back. I'll be fine"

She said to my face.

The two men in gas mask and black thick coveralls were close to us now.

"Runnnnn!!!"

She screamed as they held her hands and dragged her towards the waiting car.

She kept struggling to be free but she got pushed into the car and the car zoomed off leaving a cloud of dust behind.

Why did I run?

Why didn't they come after me?

I should have stood my ground. Maybe they would've taken me too and I'ld be with Ma.

Eleven years in this jungle and I was already going mad.

I could clearly converse with the animals in the jungle. I was already part of the mutants.

The night I felt the heart wrenching pain in my guts and I saw the blue lines through my skin, I knew I'ld need the cure more than I ever imagined.

The raccoon was back again, I heard her scratch at the door of my small cabin.

"What do we have here?" I asked smiling as she dropped a small pouch into my hands.

"I had to go a long mile to find this food. I almost lost my head" she whined

"You said exactly the same thing yesterday"

I said pouring out the grapes from the sack.

The trees around here were mostly dead. The rivers around here we're boiling hot, nothing to drink. I mostly depend on the fruit Racky, (I had to name her), had gotten me every morning for the past five years.

I'm glad I have this power and I met her, I would have starved to death by now.

"That stupid Monkey is back again? Should we tell him the bananas are never growing back?" Racky asked sitting on her hind legs, a piece of grape in her mouth.

Laughing softly, I tied up my long brown hair, my dark skin dry and scaly.

I need a bath.

"What's your deal with that monkey any way? He's a survivor like us"

I stood up slowly. Picking up my bucket.

To take a bath, I fetch the boiling water from the river and allow it to cool by putting it inside a dark hole I dug behind the cabin. The hole is always cool.

But I'm afraid of drinking the water.

As I walked towards the river, Racky was beside me chattering away about everything and nothing.

I'm always grateful for her, she is the reason I'm not insane in this hell hole called earth.

The world has really gone mad.

Ma always said

"This world is not your home, there is a life beyond here that everybody is too occupied to see"

As a well known scientist, she was always busy, finding cures for diseases, viruses. But in everything, always made out time to reflect and meditate. She never let it consume her.

A day before the gas got hold of everyone, she was at her desk working on something. That was the first day I saw her occupied for an entire day.

It seems she knew what was coming and was finding ways to prevent it. But the deed was already done.

"Sweetie, don't ever settle for less. Always fight"

She had said staring deep into my eyes.

I should have known she was preparing me for something catastrophic.

I felt a soft paw on feet. I looked down staring into Racky's misty eyes.

"You'll find your Mum someday, I promise you that"

"I'm sorry I zoned out. But what if she's dead?"

"And what if she is not?"

I shook my head and went ahead to fetch the water.

With a big bucket of very hot water, I headed back towards the cabin.

I knew something was wrong even before I heard the gun shot.

The birds were scattered high in the sky, creating a thick blanket in the sky, blocking the sun rays.

"They are coming..."

I heard them say repeatedly over and over again.

"Who is coming?" Racky asked, she looked terrified.

I ran to the cabin.

Throwing everything I own into a big bag, I made up my mind to leave before they get here. I was still packing when I paused...

Ma's words where clear in my head again

".....you must fight. The world owes you nothing"

"Why do I have to leave here for intruders? I have to fight and defend myself"

"What? What are you going to do?"

Racky was shaking.

"I'm going to fight"

I walked towards my top shelf and pulled out the long rifle that lay there.

"We don't know who they are. What if they are nice people?" Racky said still following me.

"Nice people won't shot a gun in a peaceful forest"

"What if..."

"Enough Racky, You can stay here if you want"

I rushed out the door.

Someone might die tonight, and it definitely won't be me. I'll make sure of that.

ΠΠΠΠΠ

The small stark white room was filled with men and women in stark white lab coat, a disappointed and terrified look on their faces.

The test failed again.

It failed the first time, the second time...., the twentieth time...the hundredth and now the hundred and fifth time.

They've tried to come up with the perfect cure for the ruins, the perfect cure for the Mutants, the cure to bring stability to the world again, but it failed each time.

Maria stood on top of the large stage watching the mutant before her struggling for his life, his once vibrant eyes were bloodshot.

All they've done is kill them, turn them into monsters, but none ever got cured.

Having powers is cool, very cool, but not when it eats up your insides and turns you to dust the next minute. It will only take a number of years before this happens and everybody disappears from the face of the earth.

The cure needed to be made as soon as possible.

"Maria, you've failed us yet again" Mrs Katherine said walking towards her.

Maria stood still, the rage in her boiling, about to erupt

"I never asked for this, I was fine with my daughter, I never asked to be brought here to develop an antidote for something you all caused"

"Enough with your daughter talk, who knows, she might even be one of them by now" Mrs Katherine said, looking her straight in the eye.

"I've protected you from this plague, I'ld have done the same for your daughter but she ran off. You owe me gratitude not contempt"

She thought about the anti-venom that have been given to her since she got here eleven years ago, it has been keeping her genes from mutating.

She should be grateful, but she was not, because they created and released the gas that started this whole drama in the very first place.

So no, she will never be grateful.

"Thank you very much Ma'am, I'm very grateful" She said instead making sure her sarcasm was felt.

The mutant was dead by now.

She walked away.

"Someone should clean this mess"

She heard Katherine demand

As she walked away, one thought kept playing in her mind...

She has to leave this place as soon as possible.

She walked into her room feeling miserable, as she always felt after each failed experiment.

Someone walked in after her. She didn't have to turn to know who it was.

"What do you want?"

"Why are you holding out?" Katherine asked stepping closer to her.

"Holding out on what?"

She turned to see her looking murderously at her. Her blonde hair perfectly framing her oval face, her fair skin red with stress.

"I know you can make that antidote, that's why I brought you here"

She laughed hard, so hard that her ribs ached

"Listen to yourself. You think you want everything to be back to normal more than I do? Why would I hold back when I want to leave this prison and be with my daughter again?"

"You have to try harder then, everybody is counting on you"

"Do they know why you made that very dangerous gas?"

"No, and you will tell no one"

She was very close to my face now

"If I were you, I'll do as I'm told. Just one injection to your brain and you're gone forever"

She looked at me for a while smiled and walked away.

" I need to leave this place"

I kept on muttering to myself as a mantra.

❤❤❤❤