Hi. I am one of the only survivors of the plague that destroyed all humanity. Oh, I almost forgot my manners. My name is Cari. Yea, and as I said before, I'm the only one left of my kind: humans.
Okay, I can sense that you are confused so I'll start at the beginning. It all started about 5 years ago, when they first started invading our planet. The Shee. The Shee are parasites that live wrapped around a persons brain and control the persons thoughts, actions, and can see everything that the person feels. And the saddest part is that the person is fully aware of what is happening. Unable to scream, cry out for help. Unable to run, or just move by themselves. I would know. I have been there; and I survived to tell the tale.
I think I'll rewind a little. I had three close friends, Rachel, Jasmine, and Tanner. They were all part of a group of freedom fighters that were assembled to destroy the Shee. A war that cost millions of lives. I was part of that war. It was called the plague war, considering the fact that we lost. Both sides. I am all that's left. And so I write this story to tell you about what our world used to be like, and about our struggle to stay alive. But my time is running out, so you must live on to tell all other races of our fight, and find help to restore our once beautiful planet. As I said, it all started about 5 years ago-
~ Another report of a missing child has been submitted today. One of many that has swept the country with terrifying ease- ~
Tanner Hayden allowed her piercing crystal blue gaze to rest upon the face on the TV screen. It was her best friend, Cari Mitchell. Another one of the many missing children that had been disappearing all over the state.
~ This 15 year old girl is just another added to the 45 children reported missing over the past 3 weeks- ~ Tanner slammed her Teen magazine on the coffee table, her crystalline blue eyes narrowing into thin slits. "DON'T YOU HAVE ANY GOOD NEWS FOR ONCE?!?!" she screamed as the channel changer took it's forth flight of the day and hit the wall just next to her family photograph. Well, they weren't really a family anymore. Tanner's big brother Sven was also one of those kidnapped, and her mother, who had tried to protect him, was killed. The cops were still baffled. There were no wounds or bruises, but all of the bones in her body were broken. Not much of a family, huh?
Tanner sighed and flopped once more onto her designated couch spot. Grabbing her now majorly gouged channel changer and flipping to Cartoon Network, her memories floated back to all the missing children. She had heard rumors about killers and rapists stalking young children and dumping the bodies in the woods, but so far, no bodies were found.
But the bodies must be somewhere. Unless-
She didn't get a chance to finish her thought before her younger sister Rachel burst out of her room, with a small white piece of paper raised triumphantly above her chestnut brown locks. "Oh my GOD!! I am the LUCKIEST person in the world!!"
Tanner groaned. "Well, that makes one of us."
Rachel smiled warmly and sat down next to her sister. "Come on, Tanner. You can't just spend the rest of your life like this. I know you miss mom and dad-" Tanner's eyes once more narrowed as she quickly stood up. "No, you don't know, Rachel. You are always out with your friends, you're always on dates, or out at a party!" The blond girls eyes filled with tears as her head lowered. "All my friends are gone. Or if they're not, they won't talk to me." She grabbed a pillow which had haphazardly been thrown on the couch and squeezed it tightly. "What did I do??"
Rachel turned her head. She hated seeing her sister like this. But she was right. She was truly fortunate to have friends that weren't taken by this strange plague. She stood up and hugged her sister. "You're right Tanner, and I'm sorry. I promise to spend more time with you, okay?" She snapped her fingers. "How about we go to the mall tomorrow? Zac invited me to go shopping with him." She gave Tanner a sidelong glance and smiled. "Wanna come along?"
Tanner sighed. She knew that her sister was trying to cheer her up, but her heart honestly wasn't in it. She felt as though her very soul was snatched away from her. But maybe if I go, I'll make Rachel feel better. Plus I do need to buy a new outfit or two for-
"-so, you'll come along? Tanner? TANNER!!"
Tanner snapped from her thinking and nodded, trying to look as cheery as possible. "Sure, Rach. That would be nice."
Rachel smiled, knowing full well that Tanner was still thinking about not going. Suddenly, the mammoth of all ideas hit her. "Great! I'll call Zac and tell him that we're coming with them."
This caught Tanner off guard. She didn't remember Rachel mentioning anyone else coming.
"Who's them?" She asked, sounding a little more curios than she had intended to.
"Oh," Rachel was thinking fast. If this worked out right, then Tanner would be having the time of her life tomorrow, and all of those disappearances would be far out of mind. "-just Taylor. He's Zac's really, really, REALLY hot brother." She emphasized the really, making it sound as though Tay was some kind of male model.
This got Tanner's attention.
She tried to keep her voice steady, and not make it sound as though she was interested. "Oh, well tell them I'll be there." She turned to leave as Rachel called back to her.
"Make sure to wear something nice! You'll want to impress Taylor!" She giggled.
Tanner turned quickly, as not to give away the fact that she was blushing madly. "I'll be sure to do that, Rachel." She muttered softly. And with that, she walked downstairs to her basement room.
When Tanner reached her room, she headed immediately for her closet. As she flipped through her mini-skirts and tube tops, she found one that was especially appealing. It wasn't slutty, but showed off enough skin that would make any man drool. She threw the tops and skirt on her bed and flipped through some shoes and tights. After finding the lucky matches, she threw them on her bed as well and plopped onto her translucent blue inflatable chair to watch tv.
As she skipped through some channels, she saw on MTV a band that was especially interesting. She watched and found out that their group name was Hanson.
Hanson, huh?? Wow, that one in the middle's pretty cute. She cocked her head and smiled. Yup, definitely a cutie. She laughed. "Listen to me. I sound like a genuine teenybopper!" She leaned back and watched the show. It was a biography about how the band started and how they had gotten so far in music. "Hey! Maybe I'll get their cd tomorrow." She smiled. And a poster, and a t-shirt, and maybe a book or two-
"Tanner?"
Tanner turned to see her sister Jasmine smiling down at her from the doorway.
"Oh! Hi Jas. How was practice today?" She patted the chair next to her warmly, motioning for her sister to sit. She did.
"It was good. All of my clients are still intact-" As soon as she let those words out, she knew she had made a big mistake.
Tanner's eyes suddenly darkened as her memories of Cari flooded back in a painful wave.
"Oh my God," Jasmine grabbed her sister in a hug. "I'm so sorry, Tanner. I didn't mean to-"
Tanner nodded. "I know. It's just…well, Cari was reported missing today." Jasmine gasped softly. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, Tanner. If I knew.." "You didn't. So just don't worry about it. It's okay. I'll get over it." She let a thin smile creep onto her lips as Jasmine squeezed her tighter.
"Um, sweetheart, Tanny can't breath." Jasmine laughed. "Oops, sorry. Can't really control those raging bear hug hormones." She smiled and stood up. "Well, I'm headed to the shower and then I'm going to have dinner with Robbie. He says we have to 'talk'. I'm expecting the worst."
Tanner looked up at her and laughed. "You know, that boy has major problems. Getting dumped would probably be a blessing!"
Jasmine hit her with a pillow. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you planned this!" She looked down once more upon her now giggling hysterically sister and smiled.
"Well, I'd better get going. I don't wanna go to dinner all smelly."
She gave her sister another hug, (softer this time) and walked out.
"Have fun while I'm gone!" She called behind. Tanner's thoughts drifted back to the mall trip scheduled for the following day and grinned sweetly.
"Oh, I will."
