A/N: Just a little something I wrote a while back. It was supposed to be an original fiction but then I got it into my head that I wanted to make it a fan-fic as well so yeah, here it is. I hope you enjoy it even though the chapters are not going be longer than a thousand words at most. But it's already finished so the updates will be regular. ;)
It's night now. Almost everyone has gone off to bed, yet I'm still awake, rendered unable to sleep, plagued by insomnia. But it's not such a big surprise, really, considering the amount of medication I am on just to continue on with this pathetic little existence of mine. I would be more surprised if I actually did fall asleep.
No one is really sure what year, month or even what day it is anymore. The sky is always a murky shade of gray, smog having blocked out the sunlight long before I was even born. The plants have all died, leaving the earth naked and barren. The water is contaminated and undrinkable, polluted and a dirty brown thanks to all the toxins that have destroyed all forms of life outside of these protective shelters we live in.
I pause in typing out on my personal palmtop for a brief moment to gaze outside my window. It has started to rain. The acidic droplets crash against the windowpane, causing the shield protecting this building to hiss and sputter as it gets eroded away little by little. Whenever the weather grows dry, people have to head outside to reinforce the shield generators so that it may hold out against the next rainfall.
I look over to my right to see my younger siblings sleeping together, huddled into one another to stay warm in the cold of the night. The temperature inside the building is always kept low to stave off decay and prohibit the growth of bacteria. We can't afford bacterial contamination on top of the inorganic one we've got going right outside the shields. I reach out with one hand and play with their messy hair for a while, feeling the coarse dirt-matted locks between the pads of my forefinger and my thumb. Tomoyo grumbles something in her sleep before turning her back to me and I turn my attention back to the small computer lying in my lap.
I begin to retype, trying to ignore the chill creeping into my bones. I can't feel my feet anymore. I don't think the medicine is working anymore. I try to wiggle my toes but I can't really see if they're moving or not in the dark room 'cause I sure as hell can't feel them. I know I don't have a lot of days left now. I wonder what Eriol will say in the morning when I'll refuse to get out of bed. Probably go running for old man Clow, the caretaker in-charge of this building's invalids. Eriol hates it when I use that term, but even so… that is all that I am now. Clow is not actually the care-taker for the invalids. He is actually in-charge of the entire building but he set up one floor of the building as a medical bay and set up an entire series of rooms dedicated especially to the invalids. Since no one really wants to get infected by the ones staying there- even though there's vaccinations to prevent people from getting infected by the invalids- Clow took it upon himself to take care of them. Of course me and his grandson helped out quite a lot. And then there were Tomoyo and Eriol, young and un-experienced but they insisted on joining us in this ward whenever we had a patient there.
The thunder rumbles across the sky and I feel my rickety old bed vibrate. Unbidden, a shudder crawls up my spine and I feel something like a bug-larva slither across my leg. For a fraction of a second, I wish I could climb into the same bed as Eriol and Tomoyo and snuggle up to them for comfort. But I run the risk of contaminating them at such close proximity. Even now, just to sleep in the same room as me, they have to take about a dozen different vaccinations.
And to think, it all began because I was too stupid to listen to Clow and went out looking for the legendary cure supposedly growing out in the wastelands so that we could help get rid of the invalidity in a contaminated person.
If only… if only I had not gone down in that pit… then maybe… I would not have damaged my suit against the protruding remains of that crumbling building, and maybe… maybe I would not have been contaminated by those toxins. I can't believe it has only been two days and I'm already so sick that I can't even get out of bed without some sort of support. I gaze out of my window again and see a faint, golden glow across the horizon. And in that glow, I see shadows moving. I shake my head and look away. Hallucinations are not supposed to set in until much later… there is no way any living creature can survive in an environment this hostile. But… I bite my lip as my gaze automatically strays to the window… I was sure I saw him outside.