Chapter 1 Of all things?

Of all things to be playing on a T.V. the one show that just so happened to be on when I walked through the living room was one of my all time favorite shows, 'Supernatural'. As much as I really wanted to stop and just finish the episode I had somewhere I was needing to be. There was this sickness hitting places all over the world. It was an odd sickness, unlike anything we had seen before. It gave off the feel of a common cold. Sweating, high fever, coughing, running nose, you know the normal stuff. Anyways the world renowned ZFC declared a worldwide health diagnosis. Basically everyone and their grandmother has to show up at a designated location. There, as I've heard, you signed your initials beside your name. You were then seated until it was your turn, and it being your turn wasn't very much a good thing. See once you were called back there are two different directions this would go. If they found any symptom towards the sickness, may it be high fever, coughing, whatever it may be you didn't come back out. If nothing was found you were vaccinated and sent home.

...

      I reach into my pocket removing my phone from it. iPhone 6s, a going away gift from my mother.  I check the time which read 11:45 am. Being up this early on a Sunday morning was never my intention, but when the world demands you to get vaccinated you can't exactly avoid it. Thankfully people were getting called back left and right, I guess they really wanna try and contain this. I give a shrug as though I was speaking to someone other than myself and quickly returned to my phone. After a few minutes of mindless scrolling through Facebook, my name rings throughout the football field sized tent. "Zoey Calluhand?" Calls a nurse who looks as though she dreaded ever taking this job, but I mean shit. If it was me in her position I'd have the same expression written across my face. With a sigh and a stretch of my limbs I grab my purse and return my phone to my pocket as I pull myself to my feet.

...

I could hear the nurse going over her routine list. Date of birth, Name, insurance or not, and ect. Unconsciously I answered her questions even though my mind was elsewhere worrying about my mother and father. Shit I'm even worrying about my best-friend Tekashi. Dudes a neat freak and a germaphobe, I swear to god if he calls me later on tonight to tell me he's sick I'm gonna send him an expidited overnight shipment of a good ole can of whoop-ass. For as long as I can remember I can't recall ever se- "Miss Calluhand. Miss Calluhand!" I look up at the Nurse and give her an apologetic smile. "Oh I'm so sorry Nurse.. " I quickly glance at her name tag resting peacefully on her breast. Nurse Janet huh? Typical Nurse name of course. With a silent giggle to myself I continue on. "Janet, my mind has been all over the place. Worried about my family, ya know?" She nods as though to silently tell me she was worried as well. "I understand Miss Calluhand.. " She pauses for a brief moment to look around and see if anyone was eavesdropping on our conversation before continuing in a tone that I had to strain to hear. "My daughter and husband are currently at home sick. I would've brought them in to get vaccinated, but I've seen what they do to the sick. I don't want that for my family, so after hours I'm gonna snag a couple vaccinations." The Nurse rose from her swivel chair and made her way to a plastic see through door. She peeled it back revealing a snow white corridor with similar plastic looking doors on either side of the hall. Numbers lined the tops of the doors, giving each room its own identification. Nurse Janet held the door open as she turned to face me. "Now if you'd be so kind, I'd like to get this over with as soon as possible. We'll be in room 10. All the way at the end."

...

     "Alright Miss Calluhand, you're gonna feel a slight pinch." Nurse Janet said dreadfully as she pushed the needle into my arm. I close my eyes and lay my head back against the head rest. My arm begins to feel as though it was pricked by needles all the way up to my shoulder. With a groan and a slight twitch of my arm my eyes shoot open and I watch as the bright green fluid is compressed into my lifeline. All of a sudden my eyes began to feel heavy, I tried my hardest to keep them open, but no matter how hard I tried they continued to fall closed. I could hear the nurse yelling at me in a very concerned tone. I could feel her hands on my shoulders, shaking me trying to keep me awake, but no matter either of our efforts my world turned to black and I fell into a deep slumber.

     My world swirled with an abundance of unique and extraordinary colors. Some colors I had never once seen. I wanted to stay here in this colorful madness, but like all wonderful dreams it had to come to a heartbreaking halt. Voices, Mechanical sounds, the true world was coming back to me. In a very noisy and busy sounding way, but it was. I open my eyes slowly only to be greeted by a milky white tiled ceiling. Even though everything was so crystal clear in my eyes I couldn't help but feel as though it wasn't real. I couldn't help but feel as though I was still in the wonderful world of dreams.

     The click of the door being open snapped me back into the real world. With a sigh and a groan I look over to see who it was. "Hey Sweetie, how you feeling?" Instantly a smile carved it's way onto my face. That familiar high pitched squeaking of a voice and the ever so lovely smell of Autumn filled the room. "Mommy!!" I haven't seen my mother in over 3 months I almost ripped my I.V. out trying to launch off the bed to embrace her. Both of us having our own lives to live make it hard to visit each other. Hanna Trinity Calluhand, my mother, is a sex therapist and a really good one at that. We may live in the same state, but we don't live nowhere close to each other. I live in Littleton Colorado while she's located in Durango Colorado. So now you understand why seeing her is like seeing snow for the first time, you never forget that beautiful blinding blanket that covers everything, making our world seem something from another planet. "I heard the vaccination hit you hard, are you feeling ok sweetie?" My mother's words cut through my thoughts like a red hot butter knife cutting through butter. "I'm ok. Hey, do you know how long I've been here?" I give her my classic reassuring smile as I press the big red button on my TV remote to page the nurse. "They say you've been out cold for almost 2 hours." My mother opened her mouth to continue only to be cut off by a distorted voice coming from the remote. "I see you're awake Miss Calluhand, how are you feeling?"

"A lot better, thank you for asking. I'm ready to check out now, could you send someone to unhook me from these machines?"

"Certainly Ma'am, a nurse is on her way. You have a good day!" Even with the distortion in her voice I could still make out a little hint of sincerity. "You too." I reply softly as my attention turns back to my mother who has been sitting in the chair next to my bed lost in the digital world of her phone.

...

Beautiful day today, the suns out, the scent of fresh cut grass dances lightly over the smell of exhaust and fast food. I stare idly out the passenger window of my mother's car. The streets seem to be bustling with activity. In the past 5 minutes I've seen at least 8 to 10 police cruisers racing in different directions with their sirens blaring and their lights flahing everything in their paths. "So where are we going?" I ask as I tear my gaze away from busy world outside our little world. "Out to eat, I was thinking Aunt Patty's Diner?" Hanna responds not looking away from the traffic infront of her. Aunt Patty's Diner is a 80's themed resteraunt located a little ways outside of Littleton. It's my mother and I's favorite place to meet, as well as our usual meet up spot. Their peanut butter cup pies, are the best. On that thought like a timer going off my stomach growls in agreement. "Sounds like a yes to me!" Hanna's voice squeaked with exciment. Sometimes I feel like she gets more enjoyment out of that place than me, and I would die for one of those pies. I can't help but chuckle at my mother. She may be 43 but she's still a child, and that warms my heart.

The rest of the ride blows by fast, we talk about anything and everything that's happened to us these past couple months. Catching up with her is always a delight. Even though she's supposed to keep patient details to herself she always tells me everything, and all the juicy details. I can't lie though, I love it. With a scream of the breaks we come to halt. Bright Rocket Red glistened a reddish orange from the setting sun. Rustic silver linned horizontally across the rocket red. Aunt Patty's Diner, we were here. I unfasten my seatbelt and slid out the door, Hanna following behind after killing the engine. Not many cars in the parking lot, that's kinda usual though. It's a Tuesday afternoon so everybody is either at work, getting off work and heading home, or on their way to work. I push through the steel framed glass door cluttered with random advertisements to be greeted with that wonderful smell of eggs, bacon, and a slight hint of freshly made peanut butter pie. My stomach growled it's acceptance. "Welcome to Aunt Patty's Diner I'll be with you guys in just a moment, go ahead and get seated." Calls John who was pouring coffe into one of the few customers mug. John is Patty's 62 year old widower. Poor Patty died of elbow cancer at 42, if I'm not mistaken the day she died is coming up in a few days. Poor guy I hope he's doing ok, ever since he died it's just been him and their 26 year old daughter Ava. I wave at John before walking to the nearest open booth grabbing a menu on my way. My mother heads in the opposite direction towards John. "How you been John?" I hear Hanna squeak as she approached the tall toothpick man. Their conversation fades out of existance as my eyes lock on this dark haired sickly looking woman sitting with a young dirty blonde haired boy, maybe 5 or 6 years of age. While the boy looked happy and content I couldn't say the same for his mother. She sat there staring blankly into a cup of coffee resting uppon the table before her. I'm pretty sure I seen her eyes roll into the back of her head a couple times, but before I could confirm that thought Hanna's sun kissed face accompanied by dark red curlets that danced atop her shoulders plops into my view. "20 years still isn't long enough for that poor man." My mother pouts as she opens her menu. "Mom how many years is good enough for anyone?" I say following my mothers actions. Breakfast or burgers? Always the question I ask myself, but today wasn't that day. Today I knew exactly what it was my stomach and I craved for, peanut butter cup pie and a big steamy juicy sweet chili siracha burger. My stomach growls it's acceptance. "You're right you're right. Truly no amount of years could heal the hole that is left when a loved one is lost." Hanna waves John over with one hand as her other hand closes the menu. I close mine as well. John approaches and gives us both a plastic smile. "How may I serve you lady's today?" He asks pulling out a pen and notepad from the apron drapped across his chest that didn't reach no further than waist. I always forget how tall this man is, he's a tower! Hanna tells him her order and I stare past her to the woman, who was now face first in her cup of coffee. The boy was poking her before slowly turning to panic filled shaking. I tug loosely on John's apron, eyes still locked on the event unraveling before me. "John do you see that? Is that woman OK?"

"Miss. Miss. Hello? Are you OK?" John is shaking the woman and now everyone's eyes are on the two. "I'm calling the 911, dad you just continue to try and wake her up." Ava chimes from the kitchen. John nods to her but before he could continue his efforts to wake the woman she begins convulsing and slamming her face into the cup which shatters and stabs into her face. The whole diner is silent, so silent you could hear the buzz of the busy 911 line. My heart is in my throat beating harder than a factory press machine. 2 minutes pass and nobody has moved or said a thing. The woman's seizure had come to vicious halt and not a soul knows what to do, we all stare blankly at the woman covered in blood, everyone besides John. John was now ushering the little boy to climb over the table as he felt the woman's throat for a pulse. The boy climbed over the table and John turned toward Ava and opened his mouth to speak but instead he let out a scream of pain and terror as the once dead woman now rose and broke her neck turning her head to face his arm. She tore into John's slender arm, blood spurting out drenching her already bloodied face. John punched the woman over and over screaming and yelling "LET ME GO!" Immediately at the sound of John's voice everyone, including my mother and I, snapped back into reality causing terror to erupt inside the diner. I hopped up out of the booth grabbing my fork in the process. My mother is screaming at me that we have to leave, but I ignore her and rush to John's aid. I'm about five steps away when she let's go and launches at her son. Even though John was in shock from being bit he managed to grab a fistfull of the deranged woman's hair. Stopping her just inches away from the boy's face. I yank the child away from the horrifying sight in front of him and push him towards the door. "Run!" I scream at the boy as I look back, which I shouldn't have. The woman was now on top of John tearing into his throat. Blood shoots out of his wound and paints the silver walls red. I feel my stomach begin to toss and turn. Disgusting. Turning my head I rush after the boy and my mother to the safety of the outside world, or so I thought..