Journal: Prologue

I’m not sure exactly what day this whole thing started. I never watched the news. I was a kid doing my own thing. I didn’t care what was happening around me as long as I could spend time with my friends. I remember my dad saying how sad it was that a mother of three small children had died from the flu. Then someone else died, then someone else and then quarantine. Life fell apart after that.

The local authorities told us to stay in our homes. Stay away from other people. Don’t go out in the streets. Doctors were working on a cure. People panicked; they left town to get help from other hospitals. This was a mistake. Almost instantly, the news reported stories about epidemics, people dying by the hundreds, then the thousands.

My dad was a part of the homeland security team. He was working with the town government trying to keep things under control. Unfortunately, his efforts and the efforts of others didn’t help. The virus continued to spread. The death toll continued to rise and soon bodies began to pile up on the streets. It was awful. Our entire town smelled like death.

My mother died first. My heart hurt so badly. I wanted to die. My father was already sick. I could tell his heart was broken too. He died a couple of days later. I lay on my bed and cried hoping death would take me too. The only thing that took hold of me was hunger.

Millions of families were destroyed. Parents died leaving their children to survive on their own. Death preyed on the smallest survivors. Babies died in their cribs. Toddlers starved to death because they couldn’t get out of their homes. The survivors, the so-called lucky ones, began to group together and form gangs. The Bears formed when a dozen people moved into the Bear Country High School on Lafayette Blvd. We survived but life wasn’t easy.

I have always wanted to be a writer. I think my dad bought me my first journal when I was in the 1st grade. I have kept a journal ever since. This is my story. The following journal entries are a brief view of my life.

Madie