Two years have passed since that awful war had ended, but all it did was bring sadness. We lost a lot of loved ones in that war. I lost my parents and brothers and sisters. I was fifteen when the war ended, now I'm seventeen and I'm already dealing with another problem that has fallen upon this planet.
After the war had ended another thing happened. People call it geostigma. Mainly children have caught it, it pains me to see children go through it. A painful virus that can never be cured. They all have to deal with the fate of dying from it.
"Well Marlene, how does it look?" I slowly opened my eyes and I saw Marlene looking at Denzel's head. He has the geostigma. "Hey what are you two up to?" I asked in a sleepy voice. I had been up all night cause Denzel has been getting worse. So I stayed by his side all night just keeping an eye on him. There's nothing I can do to make it go away, but at least I can give him as much comfort as I can, after all, I was like a much older sister to him.
I sat up on the couch that I had been sleeping on and let out a yawn. I had only had a few hours of sleep, but yet I always manage to work with that. Once I'm awake I can't go back to sleep for a while.
"We're just talking. Did we wake you up?" Marlene asked. She's such a sweet kid. I'm glad Tifa and Cloud had brought her in from the streets. I was sorta like her once, she begged for food and even stole where if I hadn't found Tifa I probably would have been killed by Sephiroth. Cloud and Tifa have saved me more than once from him. Somehow I always had managed to get in his way. But sometimes I think Sephiroth just lets me get away.
"No you two didn't wake me. How are you doing Denzel?" I asked as I rose from the couch and walked over to his bed. I placed my hand on his head. He was burning up. "I'm okay, just a little cold that's all." Denzel said while trying to give me a weak smile. "Your running a high fever. Let me go see if Tifa has anything that can calm it down some." I said and walked out of Denzel's room. I shut the door behind me and let out a sad sigh.
'Why is this happening to him? He's just a little kid! He doesn't deserve to die like this!' I thought angrily as I walked down the steps to the bar.
I pushed open the door and I saw Tifa washing some of the glasses that had been used today. I realized that today was my day to work at the bar and I forgot.
"Oh, so you finally show up to do your work?" Tifa jokingly asked while she washed some more glasses. "Tifa, sorry, I totally forgot. Denzel is running a fever and I was wondering if there was anything we could give him that might calm it down?" I said while I started drying the glasses and then putting them up. Just then the phone started ringing. Tifa just ignored it, like she always does anymore. "He's not here anymore." Tifa muttered as the phone rang for the forth time. I looked down sadly because I knew who she was talking about and she was right. Cloud wasn't here anymore and I doubt he'll ever come back.
Tifa finally let out a sigh and went up the stairs to answer the phone, while I stayed downstairs and finished washing and drying the glasses. I started humming a little wordless tune and finished up cleaning the bar.
Tifa finally came back about ten minutes later. "Who called?" I asked, while I finished sweeping the floor. "Oh it was just Reno. You remember Reno, right?" Tifa asked as she leaned on the wall.
"Yeah I remember him. So how is the nut doing now a days?" I asked causing a small laugh to come from Tifa. "He's doing okay. He told me to tell you that he said hey." Tifa said. "That's like Reno always has somebody else tell me that he said hey, but he can't tell me in person. So what did he want, besides to tell me hi?" I asked. I walked I over to the broom closet and put the broom and dustpan up.
"Just that he has a job for Cloud. Which reminds me I need to call Cloud." Tifa said and she was about to walk back up the stairs when I stopped her. "Hey Tifa do we have anything for Denzel's fever?" I asked. It's odd when I had to ask twice before she does something that I ask. "No we don't have anything. Ummm...there's some money in the drawer under the shelf. Can you go to the store and get him something?" Tifa asked and I nodded my head. I let out a small sigh while I watched her walk back up the stairs. She turned around and "Well Kira it's not like the medicine is just going to pop up any second. Better get going."
I walked over to the place Tifa said the money was at. I grabbed some money. The I turned around to Tifa, "Sorry I forgot." Tifa just smiled, "It's ok, you were up with Denzel all night." Then I walked out of the bar and into the street. I made sure that the scars from my battles weren't visible. I have one on my hand and one huge scar on my right arm. Which wasn't to bad since I could hide the scars on my hand with fingerless gloves and for the scars on my arm I just wore a shirt with sleeves. After making sure it was hidden I started walking down the street.
We lived about six blocks from the pharmacy. So I had a little ways to go. I passed by many kids just playing around and I could tell that most of them had the geostigma. That just kept reminding me about Denzel. I prayed silently that Denzel would get better as I walked down the street and around a corner. I couldn't bare losing him. He's like a little brother to me, just like Marlene is a little sister to me, every one was a family. Denzel and Marlene looked up to Tifa, Cloud and I, but now they just look up to Tifa and I since Cloud isn't here.
After about twenty minutes of walking I finally came up to the pharmacy. I pushed the door and I walked in. I looked around me and saw that the place was pretty much dead. There was nobody in the store. "Hello?" I called out, but nobody answered me. I took caution as I slowly walked to the back of the store where the counter was. "Hello?" I called out again and like before only silence answered me. I grabbed one of my guns that I have hooked to my sides. I checked to make sure I had plenty of bullets, then I made my way around the counter only to find a man laying there. I put my gun back on my side and I sat down on my knees. I reached my hand out to see if he had a pulse, but sadly he didn't. Just as I was seeing if he was alive or not I heard a crash in the back of the store. I stood up quickly and pulled both of my guns this time and ran to the back of the store.
I heard somebody say something so I leaned on the wall and waited for them to come out. Not long after I leaned on the wall I heard footsteps coming towards the front. "Mother's not here." I heard some guy say and it sounded like he was close to crying.
'Okay this is really freaky. What is going on and who is he talking to?' I thought. I didn't put much thought into it cause the guy came walking out from the back and he just walked right by me like he didn't even see me. As fast as lightning I pressed my gun to his head.
"Who are you and why are you here?" I asked between gritted teeth. "Let me call you back. I have to deal with something." The guy said and that's when I realized he was holding a cell phone up to his ear. The guy looked oddly familiar, but where I've seen him. I couldn't remember. He had really short silver hair that was spiked in the back, that's mainly all I could see since I was behind him.
He hung up his cell and placed it in his pocket and then he did something I didn't expect. He swung his arm around and hit me in the stomach. But that wasn't the odd part when he hit me it felt like I had been hit my lightning or something really close to it. I went flying backwards and through the wall that had been behind me. I landed on the ground and let out a grunt when I did.
'Ow! Man I'm going to have a big bruise on my back in the morning. Oh gotta get up!' I thought.
I jumped up onto my feet and smirked at the guy. "Is that the best you've got? Ha! The training I went through was worse than that!" I said and started shooting at the guy. The guy let out a disgusted sigh and dodged all the bullets. Then the next thing I know he's gone! He just disappeared right in front of my eyes.
I looked around trying to figure out where he went, but he was nowhere to be found. "Ugh! He just had to run didn't he?! And it was getting to the fun part." I said in a whiny voice. Just then my cell started ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket and answered it.
"Hello?" I said in a annoyed tone. I was still mad about the guy running off. "Kira, where are you?" Some guy said. "Who is this?" I asked trying to figure out whom the heck was calling my cell. "Its Reno." "Reno?! Hey haven't talk to you in a while!" I said with a big smile on my face. I had completely forgotten the fact that I was pissed about the guy running off.
"Yeah I know, but look I don't have a lot of time to talk. Where are you at?" Reno asked. "I'm at the pharmacy or well what's left of it any ways." I said while looking around me. The place was a mess! Most of the back wall was gone because of me being thrown through it and also there was stuff laying all over the floor from me shooting at the guy.
"What do you mean 'what's left of it'?" Reno asked. "I mean I got attacked by some guy with short silver hair and well we sort of destroyed the place fighting." I said with a nervous laugh. "Oh man, are you all right?!" Reno said in a rush. "Yeah I'm fine. I might wake up in the morning with a backache, but besides that I feel fine." Just as I said that a jolt of pain came from my back. I bit my tongue so I wouldn't scream. "Okay, look I'm coming to get you out of there. Don't go anywhere." Reno said and right after he hung up.
"Well bye to you too." I said while I looked at the phone. I closed it and put it back in my pocket. I then pushed on to my back. I saw some pain medicine and grabbed some. After awhile the pain went away, but I knew it would be coming back soon.