Chapter 5

Hecate looked intensely at me. I had her undivided attention as she waited for me to tell her how the disease came to be. I turned my head to face the wall opposite where we were sitting.

About fifty years ago, a scientist by the name Dr. Andrew Wexner was experimenting to see if there was a way to come up with vaccines for diseases, like the flu, before them mutating. He decided to see if he could create the vaccines from native plants. His original recipe consisted of 5 Curly Dock leaves, the juice from 10 wild raspberries, and a few Queen Anne’s Lace flowers. Unfortunately, while Doctor Wexner was preparing his concoction, he wasn’t paying attention. Due to his color-blindness, he accidentally grabbed the Jack-In-The-Pulpit berries instead of the raspberries. Then, Dr. Wexner combined the mixture with the already existing flu vaccine. When the vaccine was complete, he took out a squirrel and injected it with the substance. He continued to monitor the vaccinated animal for a few days and recorded his findings.

However, one day after the doctor fell asleep while recording his findings, the squirrel escaped through an open window. Thus, the beginning of a pandemic that almost ended the human race. The disease would mutate when it came in contact with an already existing illness, which would worsen the disease’s symptoms, as well as having its victims experience its symptoms. People were experiencing severe fevers, blistering, coughing, vomiting, and several other symptoms. The world was in a panic, and so, they decided to see how it affects the youth.

And that leads us into the present day. Children continue to be tested on, and the world is supposedly under quarantine still. The roads are dead silent, aside from essential workers. The entire country looks like a ghost town, completely deserted and not a soul in sight. Some of the buildings are even falling apart as nature takes over.

“Sophrona?” Hecate said quietly.

“Yes?” I reply.

“How can you remember certain things, and I can’t?” I gave her a small smile and said, “Let me tell you another story.”

It was three years ago, on the same day that arrived at this facility. My brother and I had just come, and we were freaking out so much that the adults that greeted us didn’t know how to calm us down. One of those adults was Dabria. We were screaming and crying to an ear-popping level of volume.

In an attempt to calm us down, she explained everything to us. She told us that we were there to be part of an experiment to come up with a cure for the diseases that were rapidly mutating. She said that we would be genetically modified to fight the viruses and would have a set schedule for when we would spend time in the labs. She also told us that these schedules would always be the same unless we had some sort of injury that would affect the process. The two of us stood there looking up at her in utter confusion.

“Why us?” I asked her, innocently, “Did we do something wrong?”

“No, child,” she replied, giving us a comforting smile, “You were chosen because you are special and important to ensure the survival of the human race.” She then reached out and guided us to our rooms.

“Unfortunately,” she continued, “The two of you can’t share a room. Today will probably be the last time you see each other for a very long time.”

“Why?” Cahal squeaked as he walked beside us.

“Because you could contaminate each other,” Dabria explained, “Consider it a safety precaution. There is always a likelihood that one of you are immune to a disease, whereas the other might not be.” The two of us nod and remain silent for the rest of the journey.

After a few minutes, we come to a halt in front of one of the isolation rooms. Only we didn’t know that’s what they were at the time, even if I was thirteen, and Cahal was fifteen.

“This is Cahal’s room,” Dabria said, “It’s time to say your goodbyes.” Cahal and I looked at each other before Cahal pulled me into his warm embrace.

“It’ll be okay,” he said reassuringly, “We’ll see each other again, and when we do, it’s going to be epic.”

“You think?” I ask as tears weld up in my eyes.

“I don’t think,” he said with a warm smile, “I know it will be.” And with that, he gave me a loving kiss on the head before walking into the room. And that’s all it took before I started crying. Through my tears, I saw Dabria punch in some sort of pin before guiding me to my room. We made a few left and right turns before arriving at my room.

“Here is your new home,” Dabria said before opening the door to let me inside. I mooched into the room as I continued to cry. I didn’t understand what was going on aside from the fact that we were there as genetic experiments that had a set schedule. After closing the door, I heard Dabria punch in the same pin that she did for Cahal. After all of the numbers were hit, I felt some sort of wave come over me. I didn’t know what it was at first until our first time in the courtyard.

As I wandered around the beautiful place, I spotted Cahal and ran over to him to hug him. But then he did something I would have never anticipated; he rejected me. I was heartbroken. How could my brother, the one I had spent so much time with, forget that I ever existed?

“I’m your sister, Sophrona,” I told him, but all he told me was that he remembered my name, but had no recollection of ever being related to me. I raced out of the courtyard and back to my room, and that’s when I figured out that punching in that pin would somehow wipe every test subject’s memory, well every test subject except for me.

“So, you still don’t know why you didn’t lose your memory that day?” Hecate asked.

I shrugged and said, “I guess I’m somehow immune to it, but my brother wasn’t so lucky.

“That’s so sad,” Hecate said quietly, “I can’t imagine the pain you must have gone through.”

“It was hard,” I said, “But I managed. I just saw my brother yesterday, and surprisingly he remembered me.”

“Why do you think that is?” She asked.

“I’m not sure,” I said, “But I intend to find out.”