The Red Plague

The boy pressed his mask closer to his face with one hand while he pulled his sister with the other. She puffed as they ran at a pace the young girl could only just barely keep up with.

“Where... are we going Eric? Why did... we leave the shelter?” she asked breathlessly.

The boy, Eric continued to pull his sister behind them as they ran. As an athlete, this was nothing to him and was able to speak with ease compared to her. “We're finding a new shelter,” he answered. “The last shelter wasn't safe anymore. We'll find one soon, and then you can rest Angel”

Eric looked back for a moment to look at his sister. Being several years younger, she was much smaller than him. Her pearly skin shone where what little wasn't covered in heavy clothing. Thick, naturally glossy hair cascaded down her back to waist and fell slightly into her face. A mask covered most of her face, but clear blue eyes shone just above. They sparkled with intelligence beyond her age, though they were full of confusion over their sudden escape from the shelter. However, that confusion was replaced with understanding as his words reached her. Though she was young, she knew what he meant when he said the shelter was unsafe.

He remembered when it all started. At first, there was nothing suspicious. It looked like it was just a widespread cold was hitting the city. People coughed and sneezed, nothing out of the ordinary. Then something happened. People would suddenly start coughing violently. As they continued to hack, blood would spurt out of their mouths. Withing a day or two, blood would start pouring from their eyes, mouth, nose, and ears. In the final stages, they would start to hallucinate, believing creatures were swarming them, eating at their flesh. They would tear at their skin trying to get the invisible bugs off of them. Then the next day, they'd be dead.

They didn't understand what was happening at first, and when they finally realized, it was already too late. Within two weeks, half of the city was dead. They didn't know what was the cause, nor did they know how it spread. People scrambled to get masks and try to cover themselves up for protection. Despite that, people continued to drop dead. Bodies littered the ground, rotting away on the streets with no one to pick them up. People were too afraid to move them, instead choosing to try to stay as far away as possible. Even so, within a month, ninety percent of the population was dead.

The siblings were lucky though. They lived in a sparsely populated area of the city, so there was a smaller chance of catching the disease. By time it had reached them, it had already slowed down, having already killed a majority of its carriers within a few days. However, it only took a single person to kill a whole group of people.

It happened while they were gone. News of the disease hadn't yet reached them, so Eric had gone to a friend's house for the weekend and brought Angel along with to play with his friend's sister. However, when they returned to their house, they found it covered in blood. Both of their parents as well as their older sister had caught the disease just after they left. The three bodies lied in a tangled mess on the floor as if they had collapsed after a chaotic dance, drenched in a pool of their own blood.

Eric had quickly tried to turn his sister away and get as far away from the house as possible, but another atrocity met them when they turned the corner. The whole block was covered in mangled bodies. People who had struggled out of their houses as they were overcome with hallucinations were sprawled on the sidewalk. Some were still moving as they scratched at skin already torn to shreds.

Faced with such a scene, they had been unable to think clearly. The two ran, trying to find a place not yet hit with the disease. They tried to stop by their friend's house after staying there for the last several days. However, when they got there, they saw forms hunched over within as violent coughing racked their bodies. Eric's friend then stepped out of the house to greet them, a bloody smear across his face. They had immediately ran from that place, wondering if there was any safe place left.

It was around then that the city government finally took action. After fumbling around for several days in confusion, they started rounding up survivors and tried to get rid of those showing symptoms. However, despite their efforts, whole groups of people were decimated as people carrying the disease got in, having not yet started showing symptoms.

The siblings had finally found a place to take shelter in, a place where they could get food, albeit rationed. The two of them tried their best to stay away from everyone, trying their hardest not to catch the disease. By coincidence, a chemical was found that could identify when someone was sick by changing color in reaction to contaminated blood. However, there was still the chance that someone  wouldn't react if the disease hadn't yet managed to spread throughout the body, so they still had to be careful.  They lived there for about a week, but Eric soon noticed people starting to cough around then. He had quickly grabbed his sister and ran from the place, and were now running through the city to find a new shelter.

They ran through the abandoned streets of the once heavily populated city. They were alone as they ran, sharing a sidewalk with only dead bodies. They took care not to touch the pools of blood. Even now, no one quite knew what spread the disease. It could be the air from the coughing, through skin contact, or even from touching the contaminated blood. That's why they wore large masks and covered as much skin as they could. In this place, there was no such thing as being to cautious. One wrong move could cause your death.

Soon they reached the edge of the city. Since there weren't as many buildings in this area and so less people, it was more likely that a shelter would be located here. A place where not many bodies would be littering the area.

Out of the corner of his eye, Eric saw a large fence in the distance. Soon after the government took action, the fence was built to keep the diseased from escaping into the outside world. Since then, they had all been cut off from everyone else. They didn't even know whether the disease had affected anywhere else. For all they know, the world could be dying along with them, but it could also be that they were unaffected by the events here. If that was the case, they probably didn't even know about them. The people outside of the city could be happily eating and laughing while everyone here slowly died. To them, this city probably didn't even exist anymore.

However, the disease wasn't their only problem. In addition to the death caused by the disease, there were people starving to death. The fence didn't only stop the diseased from leaving, it trapped the healthy within. It also prevented anything from coming in, including supplies like food and water. The food they had within the city was all they had. They had been abandoned by the outside world.

Ragged breath behind Eric brought him out of his thoughts. He looked back at Angel. Her face was red and her skin wet with perspiration. Feeling bad for pushing her so hard, he slowed their pace to a walk, allowing her to catch her breath.

“How much... longer?” Angel said between gasps of air.

Eric looked around. “We should be close. The person I overheard said that there was supposed to be a shelter around here.”

Angel's stomach grumbled furiously. “I hope there's food.”

Eric's stomach made noises as well, as if in agreement. They hadn't eaten since the night before, as they had left early in the morning before the rations were given and had been running ever since.

“I wish I could have some meat,” he said. Since meat expired quickly, they hadn't been able to eat any since the disaster first brought them into shelters.
“I want fruits. Even vegetables would do,” Angel sighed. Those were also foods they could no longer get their hands on.

They were so absorbed in their thoughts of food, they didn't notice a form quickly approaching them. Hands suddenly grabbed onto Eric's arm as Angel screamed from the sight of him. The man was obviously in the later stages of the disease and didn't have much longer to live.

“Please help me. Save me from these creatures. They won't go away. Help me!” Crazed eyes glinted from underneath a mop of dirty hair. Blood covered his face and hands.

Eric quickly pulled out a knife he had picked off of the ground before they came to the shelter. He'd never thought he'd actually need it though. Though fear shone in the man's eyes from the sight of the knife, the fear from the hallucinations were stronger.

“Please save me. Don't leave me to... Ack!” the man suddenly began to spasm as a cough racked his battered body. Blood flew from his mouth and landed on Eric's face. He quickly wiped his face as he kicked the man away from them. The man's body thrashed around on the ground for several seconds and then stilled.

“Let's hurry out of here,” Eric said to Angel as he grabbed her hand and began to run again. Who knows how many others were around here, waiting for people to save them? They had to hurry to the shelter.

Only when the two of them reached a large building with people moving boxes inside, did Eric let go of his breath. He pulled his sister over to the people, hope rising in his chest that they'd found a place to go.

“Um, excuse me,” Eric called, grabbing their attention. “Would this be a shelter?”
“There's no more room,” one of the men said tiredly. Eric's hope crashed.
A woman standing nearby looked over and came towards them. “Why, they're just children. We can't just turn them away.”

The man huffed. “Children. Adult. It doesn't matter what your age is in this place. We only have so much food and water. We can't go allowing everybody in.”

Eric searched his thoughts for some kind of solution. He looked at Angel standing innocently next to him. She watched them talk, knowing it was better for her not to interrupt.

“I understand you don't have any room, but could you at least let her in? She doesn't eat much,” Eric said, gesturing towards Angel.

“Eric!” Angel said, astonished.

The woman looked at her sadly. She turned to the man. “We could fit in someone as small as her. No one will notice the difference.”

“...” The man didn't say anything as he stood there in silence.

“I'll take care of her so she won't get into any trouble,” the woman tried again.

The man still didn't say anything, but he moved away to start working again. The woman smiled, knowing that it meant she had won.

“Come little one,” she said, reaching down to take Angel's hand.

“Eric...” Angel said quietly, her voice failing her.

“Don't worry, I'll find somewhere else,” he said, trying his best to force a reassuring smile.

“Then I'll come with you!” she replied, despite knowing it was useless.

The woman, sensing the trouble with the sibling's parting, began to tug on her arm towards the shelter.

“No...” Angel said weakly, still trying to ignore what she already knew.

Eric could only wave at her as she was pulled away to the building. Eventually, she stopped trying to struggle out of the woman's hands and instead focused on watching Eric before she had to turn away when they reached the shelter. There, he could just barely see her being tested for the disease before being led into the building by the woman.

Eric watched for another moment before turning away. She'd be happier there where she would have food, water, and someone more responsible than him to watch over her. Although he knew she'd never forgive him for abandoning her there, he knew she'd be better off there where she's safe than wondering around with him. Still, it made him feel pretty lonely since from the moment the disaster had hit them, they hadn't been separated once.

Resolutely, he began walking away from the building and back towards the city. As far as he knew, there weren't any more shelters in this area. He'd just have to keep walking until he found a place.

Eric coughed as he continued to walk farther and farther away. Warm liquid splattered onto his hand as the coughing subsided.