Savage (The End 1)

“It just means we have to do what Mom and Dad say and wait for them to come back, okay?”

Lucy nodded. Sasha wouldn’t cry, at least not in front of Lucy. When she was alone and her parents were back safe then she’d break down. Until then she had to be strong.

And just as that fear started to creep up and threaten to take her down, the sound of a car pulling into the driveway had everything in her relaxing. Her parents were home. She rushed toward the front door and pulled it open, watching as her mother and father climbed out of the car, bags already in hand, their expression frightened. They didn’t say anything to her as they rushed in.

After three trips to and from the house and car, throwing stuff in the back of it, her father shut the door and locked it, leaning against it and resting his head back. He closed his eyes and breathed in and out harshly. Sasha didn’t know how long they stood there, no one speaking, the tension in the room so thick a knife could’ve cut through it.

“What’s going on out there?” Sasha asked, staring at first her mother and then her father. “I heard on the radio, watched some of the news. Is what they’re saying true? A virus is wiping out everybody?”

Her father opened his eyes and looked at her, the concern and worry a tangible feeling that moved over Sasha.

“You guys were gone a long time,” Lucy said, breaking up the sudden thickness that surrounded them.

Her mother rushed over and pulled Lucy into a tight hug, kissing the top of her head. Sasha could tell her mother tried to hold back the tears but failed, as big fat droplets slid down her cheeks. Sasha knew better than to ask anything else in front of Lucy. The last thing they needed was the ten-year-old knowing the grizzly details, which Sasha was sure would come. It had been that look her father gave her that told her as much. He didn’t have to tell her any of this was true. She knew it was, felt it.

“Are we going somewhere?” Lucy asked and their mother straightened, shaking her head.

“No, sweetheart. We’re going to stay in here, but we won’t let anyone in. Not your friends, not the neighbors, no one. Do you understand?” Sasha could hear the frantic rise of pitch in her mother’s voice as she spoke to Lucy.

“Everything will be fine,” their father said, but Sasha could hear in his voice that he wasn’t sure about that.

Nobody was sure about anything anymore.

Several days later

“The coughing is getting worse,” Lucy said softly beside Sasha.

She looked over at her younger sister and wrapped an arm around her, pulling her in close. They were in Sasha’s bedroom, the door shut but the sound of their parents wheezing and coughing coming through like a hammer on wood, threatening to break it down.

Their mother and father had been like this for the last few days, and Sasha knew what that meant.

She knew the end was coming.

After the countless news broadcasts, listening to the radio, and putting everything together it was clear what had happened.

Her parents were infected.

“Everything will be okay,” she said, remembering those words her father had spoken just days ago. Sasha had wanted to believe them, had wanted to trust that everything would be fine, that things would work out on their own, but now it was just a waiting game.

There was no medicine to help her family, no cure that would make them better. They would die, without a doubt, and the very real possibility that they were going to be alone sooner rather than later scared the hell out of Sasha.

Or maybe they’d get infected as well and none of this would even matter.

“Nothing will ever be okay again,” Lucy said softly and Sasha closed her eyes.

It was true. Everything had changed. The world was ending, this plague sweeping through and destroying everything in its path. It was only a matter time before Sasha and her sister succumbed to it as well.

The coughing sounded more violent, fluid-filled. “I’m gonna go check on them,” Sasha said. Lucy looked frightened but nodded, pushing herself back on the bed so she was now sitting in the corner. “We have to be strong, okay?” Sasha reached out and pushed a strand of hair away from Lucy’s face. “We have to be strong for each other.” Lucy nodded and gave a smile but it looked forced.

She left the bedroom, shutting the door behind her and making her way down the hallway. Glancing at the front door, Sasha still saw the bags packed and ready to go at a moment’s notice. She faced her parents’ closed bedroom door again and brought her arm up, bringing her knuckles down on the wood.