Why do we fight when the world would always win? Everyday we break our backs but the world always comes up, takes up all our hard work and trample us, flattening us out like old used rugs.
I was fine, very much fine. Ma and I were alright. There was absolutely nothing to worry about, then suddenly the world looked at us, laughed at us and spat at us.
"Life sucks!!!" I screamed out my window. I was far from caring.
"If you keep screaming it, you might actually feel much better"
Carlo said, strolling casually into my room with a plastic can of water in his hand.
"Do you care for water"
He asked, stretching the can towards me.
"No. I'm fine"
I mumbled
He rolled his eyes and literally forced it into my hand.
I opened the cap and took a little sip from the full bottle of water.
I was so used to not drinking water at all that I couldn't care less if I had water or not.
"No one has told me how you guys manage to get good water to drink" I said as I took another sip.
"Years of storage" He simply replied
I looked up at him, he was staring so intensely at me. His dark curly mass of hair was covered with a hoodie today, I was tempted to tell him to open it. I really loved looking at his hair, it was a very nice contrast with his light skin.
His blue eyes were still watching me.
"Why are your eyes blue and your parent's eyes are not?"
I asked just noticing it.
He looked away, walked towards my bed and sat down.
I sat down next to him.
We sat in silence for a while then he said
"Maybe, because they are not really my parents"
I looked up at him saying nothing. I kept quiet hoping my silence would propel him to keep talking, which thankfully it did.
"When the explosion happened, I was in school. No one knew what was happening only that we heard a loud sound of explosion"
He paused to look at me.
The explosion, the beginning of everything. That was how the gas evaporated into the ionosphere, through the fumes. The ionosphere is an upper part of the earth's atmosphere that deals with electronically charged particles. The ionosphere can also be called space, because it houses most of the earth's satellites.
When the poison gas particles got trapped in the ionosphere, it started multiplying and spreading. Anyone who took in air got traces of the poison into their system, which feeds on their DNA altering their genes and giving them supernatural powers and psychic abilities.
"...after school, we looked up and saw the dark smoke still rising into the air. I was asthmatic then, thankfully I would say, because I always walked around with a nose mask"
He paused again
"I got home excited to have lunch...my parents were sprawled on the ground struggling, their skin was a very deep shade of blue...I got so scared. I didn't know what was going on"
His hands were shaking, so I placed mine on his to steady it.
"It's okay, you don't have to tell me..."
"No. I want to..."
His voice sounded so strained.
"It took a week before everything went back to normal, but they were different. They could do things that were originally, insanely impossible. My Mum no longer cooked with her hands. She could be reading a book and things will be floating in the air, stirring the pot, chopping the vegetables, that kind of insane stuff. I actually thought, they were in a cult or something"
He laughed softly, but it didn't quite reach his eyes.
"After a while, the news came on, asking everyone to stay inside that a strange gas was in the air, it was just like a pandemic. That was when I knew my parents were already infected"
He looked into my eyes, then he looked away.
"A month later, strange people broke into the house and took my parents away, I never saw them again. So now I assume they are dead..."
"You don't know that..."
I started
"That's what they do. That take the Mutants, they use them as lab rats and then they kill them"
His voice was hard. His hands had balled into fists.
" I looked for them, I went to odd places at odd times, hoping I would see them. I somehow ended up coming here, that was how I met John and Stacey. They've been amazing"
"I just wish everything will go back to normal again"
I whispered
"That's never going to happen. The world was never normal, even before this happened"
"But there are innocent people out there that don't deserve to be wiped out by this... poison"
"I know I'm dying, but before I die, I want to somehow find a cure..."
I added softly...
He gripped my hands tightly
"You are not going to die. We're going to find a cure"
"What if before we find the antidote, it's already too late"
Tears streamed down my face.
I was not sad or scared, I was angry, angry at the stupid scientist that thought it was a good idea to produce the gas in the first place.
Carlos pulled me into a comforting hug and I relaxed against his chest.
I could hear his heartbeat. I closed my eyes and relaxed to the rhythm.
Everything will be fine.
I kept on saying to myself, willing myself to believe it.
But I knew it was a lie.
==========
It still felt surreal. He knew where my daughter was, all this time. I should be happy, I should be overjoyed, but I wasn't feeling any of those emotions.
I was feeling hurt, angry.
Anger that I can't go out to see her, because I'm being watched twenty four hours by the witch and her minions. One wrong move and I could get killed, and so would the antidote.
Hurt that she got infected, infected so badly that she is about to lose her life for something I signed up for, years ago.
I have to make that antidote, if not for anything, for my daughter.
"Ma'am are you alright? You haven't said a word since the call with the Doctor"
"Cathy, we need to find those documents"
Maria's voice was filled with determination and it showed in her eyes.
"Ma?"
Cathy's eyes were wide open.
"I said, we must find those documents. They will tell me the exact chemicals she mixed. That will enable me make the antidote"
I said looking at her contorted face.
"Ma, that is going to be risky..."
I held her shoulders and shook her
"My daughter is dying Cathy, she inhaled a large amount of the poison"
I dropped my hand and started weeping uncontrollably
"This is all my fault. If I never signed those documents..."
I said in between sobs.
It was Cathy's turn to shake me
"Ma, you didn't know what they were planning. It is not your fault that all these happened"
She dropped her hands and started pacing
" This is going to be risky, but we must try. We will find that document not matter what"
She said looking at me.
I angrily wiped my tears and looked her in the eyes
"We must find that document no matter what"
I said and we both nodded, determination shining in our eyes.