Plague World

[Dante Russo]

I've been writing something for a while. I don't know exactly where it's going, or if I'll ever finish it, but I thought my Hammel buddies might enjoy it. Critiques are totally welcome, if you have any.
Warning: if you're squeamish, there are some graphic depictions. It is a plague world, after all.

---
1 Before the Beginning

My name is Nathaniel.

I lived on the Plague World.

I was an army brat. My childhood was spent moving from one military base to the next. I had always felt a sort of animosity towards Earth Gov. I hated the constant relocating. In my young mind, it was Earth Gov's fault that I didn't have any friends. It was their fault that my mother had left. Of course, my Father's failed marriage wasn't the fault of the government. There were problems deeper than I could understand at the time, and I wasn't particularly interested in understanding.

When I was twelve, the military sent my father to an Earth colony on a planet called Aug Nulla. Even before we arrived, I had nightmares about it. Not just night terrors, but waking dreams. I could see them clear as day, and they took over my body and made me thrash and cry out. I saw the future of Aug Nulla. I saw the Earth colonies wither and die. I saw disease. Rotting flesh on living humans. Poverty so extreme that colonists were living in shacks made of garbage in the streets. I could smell the disease. I could feel the oozing sores on my skin. I could feel myself being eaten alive.

I had experienced visions before. My dreams had a habit of becoming reality, and I often dreamed while I was awake-- but these visions were violent and terrifying, and they only got worse once we were on the planet. Papa never believed in my visions, even when they came true. He said I had an overactive-imagination, and an uncanny intuition-- but I could see the fear behind his eyes when I had visions about Aug Nulla. The fear was there, even while he told me that I was only imagining these things because I didn't want to leave Earth. I think it was the severity of my visions that began to convince him. It was like having an epileptic seizure. I once concussed myself on the coffee table while I watched a woman crawl from one garbage shack to the next, begging for someone to take mercy and share their medicine with her.

She was dressed in dirty rags that were stained brown and yellow from the open, rotting sores on her skin. There was a rag tied around her eyes, and I could see clearly the dark, still-wet stains where her eyes used to be. Her legs were mostly bone. The virus had eaten through her muscles, rendering her incapable walking or standing. The woman dragged herself through the streets, which were slick with mud and waste, using only her arms. People disappeared into their shacks when they saw her coming. Anyone who had a door closed it. The woman began to cry out, shouting loudly with terrified, and desperate pleas. Through the doorway of a nearby shack somebody threw a used bedpan. It struck the begging woman on the shoulder and sent her face-down into the mud.

When we arrived at the base, I began to have another kind of vision. Not a premonition of things to come, but a look through the eyes of another person. These visions felt current, as though I were watching, through a secret camera, events that were unfolding now. I saw men wearing lab coats and military uniforms. I listened to their conversations, and though I couldn't understand their scientific jargon, I could feel the weight of it. I felt terror when I saw the scientists. I knew they were doing something terrible, and I couldn't keep myself from assuming that it had something to do with my other visions. The plague world.

I made the mistake of sharing those visions with my father. Papa was absolutely loyal to the military, and the only time I ever thought he was angry enough to hit me was when I told him that the military was planning on engaging in biological warfare. He still believed that the military was a morally upright organization, and my dislike for them was one of the predominant sources of tension in our relationship. This was just one step too far. Papa grabbed me by the back of my shirt and threw me into my bedroom, slamming the door shut behind me.

"I'm not making it up!" I hollered, angry that he still didn't believe me, "I saw it! I FUCKING saw it!"

Suddenly Papa burst through the door and towered over me like an angry troll. "You are NOT to old for a spanking, young man! I can still take you over my knee! And I WILL if I hear ONE MORE WORD about this-- and if I EVER hear you use the F-word again, you'll go to bed hungry for a month! Do I make myself clear?!"

"Yes, sir," I grumbled, bowing my head and scowling at the floor.

"What was that?"

"Yes sir!" I said again, lifting my head, straightening my shoulders and looking my father squarely in the eyes. He held my gaze for about ten seconds before leaving my room and slamming the door again.

"Go to bed!" he bellowed as he stomped down the hall.

I looked at the clock. It was only 7:00pm (or 1900 hours, if you like military time), and the sun was still up. On Aug Nulla during the summer, the second sun didn't set until around 10:30pm. It still looked like early evening outside, and I was too pissed off to sleep anyway. I snuck out of my bedroom window that evening and stalked around the base. That's when I met Davy.

I smelled the smoke before I saw him. He was sitting on the ground behind the library with a lit cigarette between his lips and a thick book in his lap. He raised his head at the sound of my footsteps, and he looked me up and down.

"Hey," he said, removing the cigarette from his lips.

"Hey," I repeated his greeting.

"Don't tell anyone." He raised his cigarette and flicked the ash from the end.

"Who would I tell? I don't even know who you are."

He smiled and closed his book. "I'm David Moore," he said, standing up and stepping toward me, "so don't tell anyone. Okay?"

I shrugged. "Okay." David was taller than me. He looked older than me too, but not old enough to be allowed to smoke.

"What's your name?" he asked, and casually began walking.

"Nathaniel," I answered, following him.

"You just move in?" he continued, flicking his cigarette butt ahead of us on the pavement, and not bothering to step on it as we walked past.

"Yeah. A few weeks ago."

"You been outside yet?" David nodded toward the gate at the entrance of the base, which we appeared to be headed toward.

I hesitated, "..No."

David paused and looked at me. "This your first time off the Homeworld?"

"Um, yeah," I admitted, bowing my head.

"Hey, don't worry about it," David said, clapping a hand on my shoulder and heading toward the gate again, "I'll show you around. I grew up here, it's not that bad. You ever see an alien before?"

"A couple times," I explained, "there aren't many aliens on Earth. Earth Gov isn't very friendly toward non-humans. The laws there make it pretty unlivable. I met a general once who had a Tarnassian maid. She didn't speak any English, and she slept in a room that was basically a closet with a bed."

"Eesh." David furrowed his brow.

"Yeah, I thought it was pretty awful."

David waved at the men guarding the gate as we passed them. "That's your first step on alien territory," he said to me, "How you doin'?"

"I'm alright," I said a little apprehensively. It didn't look terribly different from Earth. There was grass, and dirt, and trees, all in familiar colors. The only thing that was really different was the two suns heading for the horizon in front of us. I wasn't really sure about going into the city, though. Aliens sort of creeped me out.

David grinned. I think he could tell I was still nervous. "C'mon, I wanna' show you something." He grabbed me by the arm and we ran up a nearby hill. I gasped when we reached the top.

The city was below us, still full of people bustling around. We were just close enough for me to see that the population was a mix of humans and aliens-- all kinds of aliens, not just the species native to Aug Nulla. The city was beautiful, and full of color. I'd never seen alien architecture before. Some of the buildings seemed to defy physics. There was a building at the very center that was a giant sphere balanced on a single column, and around it there were three small satellite-buildings, orbiting.

"Have a seat," David said, sitting down on the grass himself and digging his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. I sat down next to him and he tossed the pack into my lap. "Check it out," he said with a cigarette in his mouth, "That's the Aug Nullian common language, Lath. Pretty, huh?" David paused to light his cigarette. "You want one? No, wait-- how old are you?"

"I'm twelve," I said, still studying the alien letters printed on the box.

"Mmm, maybe I shouldn't-- I dunno, I guess-- aw, fuck it. I was your age when I started. Have one if you want." David shrugged and tossed his lighter into my lap too.

I pulled a cigarette out of the pack and looked at it for a moment. I had never touched one before. My father didn't smoke, and he didn't tend to hang around people who did. I glanced sideways at David and he caught my gaze. With a quiet chuckle, he leaned over and showed me what to do. Soon, I could inhale smoke without choking, and I decided it was true what everyone said: smoking did make you feel cool.

"Hey, look," David nudged me, then nodded toward the city, "the first sun is setting."

I looked at the horizon. The first sun was a red giant, and when it dipped below the horizon the whole sky glowed red and purple. I stared at the sky. It was the first time I'd watched either of the suns set. Until now, I had been trying to ignore the fact that I was on a different planet; I couldn't miss Earth if I didn't acknowledge that I was away from it. But this.. this was breathtaking. I never imagined that Aug Nulla could be so beautiful.

"Wow," I breathed.

We watched in silence. My cigarette was starting to make me dizzy, but I didn't stop smoking. The colors in the sky began to pulse and swell like waves. I thought, for a moment, that this was just something that happened on Aug Nulla. It wasn't until my vision dimmed and I felt myself falling that I realized what was really happening.

It was another plague vision, this time from the point of view of a man having his leg amputated. The virus had started in his right foot and was rapidly spreading up his leg. I could feel the constant burn of the open wounds. The biting sting deep in my muscles. Every time I moved my leg it was like being eaten by thousands of fire ants. The doctor was saying that the spread of the infection could only be stopped by amputation. Part of me, the part that was still Nathaniel, knew that it wasn't true. The infection would just pop up somewhere else. I had seen it. I knew how it worked. But I agreed with the doctor, and I let him strap me down. He put a rag in my mouth and told me to bite down. My heart began to race as I watched the doctor pick up a bone saw, and I screamed at the top of my lungs when he started cutting. I fell unconscious from the pain, and when I came back it was David's face I saw.

He was straddling me, his knees pressed into my shoulders, pinning me firmly to the ground. He had his hand on my jaw, probably trying to keep me from biting off my own tongue or something. I could see in the corner of my vision that he had both of our cigarettes in his other hand, still burning. I felt sick, and I raised both hands to push him away. As soon as I could move I was on my hands and knees, throwing up on the grass.

I sat back, wiping my mouth and crying. I felt David wrap his arms around me, and I leaned into him. I could still feel the pain in my leg. The deep cutting pain of someone sawing through my bone. The burning fire of the virus eating my flesh. I was hysterical. Sobbing so hard that I couldn't breathe.

"Sh-sh-sh-sh. It's okay. You're okay," David murmured and rocked me back and forth. I could feel his nose and lips pressed against the side of my face, and he spoke soothing words to me until I calmed down.

He continued holding me even after I stopped crying, and many moments of silence passed between us before he asked, "what just happened?"

I held my breath. What just happened? I just saw the future, is what happened, but Papa made sure to train me not to talk about that. Saying that I had visions and that I believed I could see into the future was… well it was just one of those things. The kind of thing that would "get around" as my father said. He didn't want people to talk, but I really wanted to talk. My life was overtaken by nightmares, and I was conflicted between the desire to share my pain with someone, and the fear that people would think I was mentally ill.

"I, uh," my voice shook, and I kept my eyes on the horizon. The first sun was still setting, and the sky was still glowing red and purple. "It's… No, you're gonna' think I'm insane."

"Try me," David said, leaning back on his hands to look at me. I glanced at him, then looked down, feeling flustered. I could tell he was curious (and a little confused), but I couldn't discern if the nature of his fascination was malevolent. I learned very young that people often pried for information just so they could mock you with it later. "Come on, you can't shock me. I am unshockable-- and I won't laugh. I can promise you that. I will not laugh at you."

I trusted him immediately, but I still wasn't sure. I had a bad habit of assuming that people were honest, and it had burned me more than once. And I was under no illusions that David's advanced age made him more trustworthy than the children I had to interact with on a daily basis. I watched the older kids at school come up with more elaborate pranks and methods of backstabbing.

This, really, was the reason I had no friends. It wasn't that we moved around too much, it was that no matter where we went, the other children were crewel. I could take having my feelings hurt. I could even take harmful pranks and public humiliation. I just couldn't stand being around people who did that sort of thing to their so-called friends. To be honest, I didn't know if any of the children in my age group here liked me, because I decided before I even got here that I didn't like them.

There was something about David, though. So far, he seemed like an honest person. He hadn't mocked me for being nervous about going off base, and he'd trusted me not to snitch on him. David didn't feel like other people, but I couldn't tell if I really believed that, or if I just needed somebody to talk to. It didn't matter, though.

I deeply needed somebody to talk to.

"I have visions," I said, my voice barely above a whisper, like I thought someone else might hear.

"Visions?" David sounded interested, and he leaned forward a little.

"Yeah," I glanced at him again, then decided to keep watching the sky. "I, um. I see things. It's like dreaming, except sometimes it happens when I'm awake."

"Do you always… convulse like that?"

"Um, no. Well," I thought for a moment, "No. It's not always like that. But lately," I chewed the inside of my lip, "it's been like that more often than not."

"So," David paused as though he were about to ask something he wasn't sure if he should ask, "what did you see? I mean, if you don't mind talking about it."

"It was," I started, then trailed off. Thinking. "I call it the Plague World," I said, "It's this planet. Aug Nulla. That city right there," I pointed to the city that lay below us now. "I've seen it before, but not like this. There's a virus, or something. Some sort of flesh eating disease, and there's just sick people everywhere, living in the streets, and everything's filthy, and everything reeks like… sick, and rotting flesh, and shit." I played with my hair while I talked. A nervous habit. I had to do something with my hands.

I described my recent vision to David, what I could remember anyway. Like dreams, my visions were often difficult to remember clearly a few minutes after they happened. A few hours after the fact, details would come back to me, but I didn't try too hard to remember the plague visions. They were traumatizing enough the first time.

"So, you actually experienced that? Just now? Being amputated?" David sounded amazed, and concerned.

"Yeah," I laughed anxiously, feeling my eyes sting with tears again, "it really hurt." I lowered my head. David's arms were around me again, and I started crying. Again.

"Hey. Hey, look," David pointed at the sunset. The first sun was about to dip completely below the horizon. I had to squint to look at it. The horizon was a sharp line of white light. The sun made a blinding flare at the center of the line, also appearing as white light.

"Don't stare too long," David said after a moment, "that shit'll burn your retinas right off." I looked away, blinking. The after image drifted around behind my eyelids when I closed them. "Something about the density of the atmosphere, or particles, or waves, or some shit," David scratched his head, "They taught us why it does that in school, but I think I was reading something else at the time," David laughed, but he soon fell quiet again. I stole a few more glances at the blazing skyline.

"So, hey," David spoke up again, "not to, like.. keep poking sensitive subjects with a stick or anything, but.. do you know anything else about the plague? Like, when it's coming, or.. how it happens?" David laid down on the grass, head propped up in one hand. He looked up at me, and I thought he looked nervous.

"Um, well.. I don't know when, but I think.." I glanced sideways, again like I thought someone might hear. "I've started having another kind of vision…" and I told David about the scientists. He seemed more disturbed by this than he had by the amputation story. Well, maybe not more disturbed, but disturbed in a different way. He wasn't quick to ask questions when I was done. He just laid on the grass, thinking. Brow knit. Jaw set.

"Do you ever see their faces?" he asked somberly.

"What?"

David sat up and fished his wallet out of his back pocket. He rooted around inside of it frantically for a minute then held up a small photograph. It looked like a wedding photo. I assumed they were relatives of David.

"Do you recognize this guy?" David pointed to the man in the photo. I leaned in close. It was hard to see because the photograph was so small.

"I don't know," I said finally. David sighed and stuffed the picture back into his wallet.

"My dad's a scientist," he said, "Mom was too, but she died last year. Accident in the lab." David cocked an eyebrow and glanced up at me. "She had to be quarantined. No visitors, so I didn't get to see her."

"What happened?" I asked, my heart pounding.

"Don't know. It's classified." David gave a mirthless laugh as he lit another cigarette.

"…do you think--"

"I don't know what I think," David answered before I finished my question, "but it's certainly possible."

"Well," I didn't know what to say, "I'm sorry. About your mom."

"Yeah," David replied, "me too."

[Dante Russo]

2 New Things

I was only fourteen years old, but I knew. I could tell.

I was in love with Davy.

I didn't know how he felt about it, though. I hadn't told him, and I didn't know if I was too young for him. Davy was seventeen, and three years felt like an awfully long time to me.

We were sitting on the hill overlooking the city. We liked this spot, because it was far enough away from the road and the military base that we could smoke or drink without getting caught.

We'd been sitting for a while. I was thinking. Davy was reading a book.

I tasted iron, and realized that I'd been chewing on my lip for a while now. I pressed my tongue against the tiny cut on the inside of my mouth and sucked on my lip. I contemplated the taste for several minutes before I remembered that I'd been in the middle of deciding something very important.

"Hey, Davy," I said. David looked up from his book and 'hmm'ed in response. I looked at him, and chewed on my lip. "Nevermind," I mumbled and looked out at the city again. I heard David sigh and shut his book.

"You're acting really weird today. Did something happen?" I didn't look at him, but I could tell he was giving me the "concerned face".

"You mean weirder than usual? Huh."

"C'mon, Nathan," David pressed, "we tell each other everything. Did you see something?"

"No. Not today, thank god," I scratched my head and looked at him. "It's just," I huffed. Quick thinking wasn't something I did well, and I searched around for something to say (ANYTHING to say) aside from what I was actually thinking about.

"I think,"

Oh my god, running out of time! Last chance!

"I,"

Holy shit, man, pull something out of your ass! Now!

"Like you."

David blinked at me. He had a pretty awesome poker face, so it was hard to tell what he was thinking. "Well, I should hope so. Because otherwise you spend a lot of time with some dude you don't like."

I rolled my eyes. "Idiot," I breathed, looking away.

"No, wait, Nathan. I'm sorry," David chuckled and crawled closer to me. He put his arm around my shoulder. "I get snarky when I'm startled. I knew what you meant, and," he paused for half a second, and I stopped breathing, "I like you too."

I smiled. I couldn't help it. My face lit up, and I felt warm. I bowed my head, and looked at David out of the corner of my eye.

"Yeah?" I sort of squeaked. David laughed.

"Yeah," he said through his own stupid grin. I chewed on my lip, feeling nervous, and excited, and relieved all at the same time.

"So..." I wasn't sure what was supposed to happen after this part. I hadn't really thought that far ahead. David pulled me a little closer.

"So does that mean I can kiss you now?" he asked, and I quietly had a small heart-attack.

I'm sure my eyes were like saucers. I just looked at him, pressing my lips together because I really wanted to laugh. It was so hard not to, and in the end I lost that battle. I bowed my head, then buried my face in Davy's shoulder. Face red. Eyes watering. Laughing hysterically. It felt like I'd just been dosed with a nice cocktail of stimulants. My thoughts were racing, and I couldn't follow any of them.

I took a deep breath and pulled my face away from David's shoulder, still trying to get the laughing under control. "Yes! Yes. I'm sorry, ha-- really. Really! You can--" David saved me from babbling by grabbing me by the face and pressing his lips firmly against mine.

I stopped laughing.

My eyes closed.

Davy tasted like cigarettes.

"You taste like booze," David murmured. I grinned.

"I've been sneaking my dad's bourbon," I said.

"Naughty boy," Davy growled. He grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me toward him, leaning backward and falling down onto the grass. I laid on top of him, and he wrapped his arms around me.

I felt aroused, and self-conscious. David touched my face and kissed me again. I felt awkward, but also like I was on fire. In a good way. Then his tongue was in my mouth, and I could feel myself throbbing against him. Startled, my instinct was to pull away, but Davy caught me and held me close.

"Don't be shy," he breathed with a smile, "it's okay. That's supposed to happen."

I blushed. I knew it was supposed to happen. I payed attention in sex-ed, and I was well aware of most of my bodily functions. What they didn't teach me in school was how I was supposed to go about sharing said bodily functions with other people. I knew all about sex as a biological function. I didn't know anything about it as a social function.

"Relax," David said, "everything's chill. See how chill I am?" He chuckled, and tucked my hair behind my ear. "You're hair is getting long," he continued, and I knew he was intentionally changing the subject to put me at ease.

"Yeah," I said, settling in and resting my head on his shoulder, "Pop hates it."

"Eh. He's an officer, what does he know?" David combed his fingers into my hair and scratched my head. "Fuck the man, and all that."

I laughed. David was an Anarchist. At least that's what he told people. He thought it was a good idea in theory, but that theory also assumed that the general population was smart enough to handle their shit (and David didn't have a very high opinion of the general population).

David rubbed his thumb across my ear, and I closed my eyes. I felt him lift his head, and I lifted mine as well. David pulled me a little closer and caught my ear in his mouth. I inhaled. Tingling. Gently his teeth scraped across my skin, and I could feel myself throbbing again. When I didn't pull away, David wrapped his arms around me and rolled over. He straddled my hips and bent over to kiss my neck.

I stared at the sky, arms outstretched on the grass, taking in the sensations. I could hear David breathing heavier. The sound of his breathing made me vibrate as much as anything else he was doing. I felt his teeth on my neck for a moment, then he stopped.

"Marks?"

"Wh-what?" I panted. I hadn't realized I was out of breath until I tried to talk.

"Will your dad flip if you come home with a hickey?"

"I don't know," I breathed, "I don't care. Do whatever."

David bit my neck. Hard. I was surprised by how hard he bit me, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. I didn't generally enjoy pain, but apparently context played a large role in these things. I whimpered, and I couldn't breathe. At the same time, David slipped his hand under my shirt and flicked his finger back and forth across my nipple. My back arched and I gasped for breath.

I was amazed by how similar pleasure was to pain. My heart was racing, my body writhing, breathing hard, moaning. These were all reactions I had experienced before, but not like this. My visions made me used to extreme sensations, but they were never good sensations. I didn't know anything could feel so good.

Mastrubating didn't count. It wasn't anything like this. Good, yes, but not remotely on the same level.

David's teeth scraped hard across my skin when he pulled away from my neck. He blew on the mark he'd just left, soothing my now-irritated flesh.

"You wanna' breath a minute?" He asked, sitting up and grinning down at me.

"Yes. No. I don't know."

David chuckled.

[Dante Russo]

3 Run Home

Nathaniel: 16
David: 19

David and I were really high. We did that sometimes. As it turns out, almost every planet (habitable by humans) has a native plant species that is functionally the same as the marijuana plant on Earth. Right down to the molecular structure and chemical reactions that occur when you smoke it. Sometimes I'm still amazed by Aug Nulla. Not by how different it is from Earth, but how similar. For example, lower-middle class Aug Nullians make and eat meatloaf (with about as much enthusiasm as humans do, which is to say, not much).

We were in the city marketplace. I'd lived on Aug Nulla for several years, but I still liked looking at all of the alien stuff-- and there was a lot of stuff in the marketplace.

High on Aug Nullian weed, everything looked bright and sparkly, and sometimes David had to keep me from touching things that looked pretty, but that I probably didn't want to touch.

"But it looks fuzzy."

"Dude, trust me, it's not fuzzy."

David tugged on my sleeve to pull me away from the carnivorous plant I'd been speaking with. I laughed and spun around to follow him. My vision fuzzed a little, and I ignored it. My hearing went dull, like my ears were stuffed with cotton. I grabbed David by the shirt and pulled him close.

"Davy," I murmured, "I think I'm…"

My vision hazed over. I could hear the alarms. There were flashing lights. Scientists were running around frantically, shouting at each other.

"It's happening," I said. Cold dread settled into my stomach as I watched. "It's happening."

"Right now?" David's voice broke into my vision.

"Right the hell now! We have to get home! They're going to lock down the base!"

"Can you see?" I could hear the anxiety in Davy's voice.

"Not even a little!" I wasn't trying to keep the fear out of my voice. I'd been waiting for this day. Waiting, and hoping that it would never come.

"Ok, we're gonna' run, Nathan. Alright?" David grabbed me firmly by the wrist. "Let's go!"

We started running. I could hear David shouting at people in Lath to get out of our way. I tripped a couple of times, but David never let go of me. He pulled me to my feet, and we kept running. My eyesight returned as we neared the edge of the market place.

"Hey," I panted, stopping and pulling my wrist out of David's grip, "I.. I can see.. again." I bent over with my hands on my knees, breathing hard. I looked into the street. "Is that a cab!?" David looked toward the street, then jogged to the curb. Arm raised. Hollering.
--
We leapt out of the cab and raced to the gate. We could hear the sirens blaring, and a voice over the PA system that was unintelligible from the outside. The gate closed behind us, and the alarms went silent. David and I leaned on each other, panting. Trying not to get trampled in the confusion. The whole base was on alert, and there were people scrambling to get to their posts.

Everything felt surreal to me. I had visions for so long, it was hard to believe that it was really happening now. I held Davy's hand and stared straight ahead through the chaos. Tears streaked down my face, and after a few minutes Davy pulled on my hand.

He led me to my house, and made me tea. My father wasn't home. He was out dealing with the code-whatever protocols. My job was to stay out of the way until everything was settled. David called his house and left a message for his dad, telling him where he was.

"Maybe it's not the plague thing," I said from the living room couch, "maybe I'm wrong. Maybe.. maybe I misunderstood what I was seeing. Maybe I'm just a crazy person!"

"Baby," David sighed from the doorway. He had fresh mugs of warm tea in his hands. "You said the base was going into lock down, and we get here right before they close the gate. I think 'crazy person' is out of the question now." David joined me on the couch and set the mugs in front of us on the coffee table. I watched the steam rise from my tea.

"Ok, but it still might not be the plague thing," I said.

David didn't respond. We waited for several hours for my father to come home. I was on my feet the second I heard the door.

"Papa, what's happening? Did they tell you?" I stood in the middle of the living room, alert with anticipation. He just looked at me and sighed before hanging up his jacket and crouching down to take off his boots. I looked over my shoulder at David and he shrugged.

"Papa," I said again, "if you can't talk about it--"

"You were right."

"What?" I blinked, unwilling to believe what I just heard.

"You were right. About the plague. Everything."

I stared at my father in utter disbelief. I couldn't breathe. Couldn't move. Couldn't think.

"They told us there was a security breach in the lab..."

I felt my legs begin to tremble. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I felt my chest start to shudder.

"…which resulted in the release of a genetically engineered super virus…"

A sob forced it's way through, and I covered my mouth. The tears shot down my face. Papa was still talking, but I couldn't hear him. My knees buckled and I curled up on the floor with my hands on my head.

I cried and screamed into the carpet, pounding the floor with my fists. I stood up again, brushing my hair away from my face and glancing wildly around the room.

"I told you," I said, "I told you. I told you! I FUCKING TOLD YOU!" Suddenly there was a mug in my hand, and I was chucking it at my father's head. I missed, and it shattered against the wall behind him. I was still sobbing and shouting at Papa. The man made no attempt to stop me. "We shouldn't have FUCKING COME HERE!! YOU NEVER LISTEN TO ME!!!"

"Nathan--"

"Don't! Don't say a fucking word to me! There's nothing you can say that'll make this ANY better! You have NO idea how BAD this is going to be! You should be shitting yourself right now! Because the hunan race (and your precious military) just FUCKED! UP!"