A Place for Tomorrow

It all started in the year 2020...My mother used to tell me tales of how the world use to be before the world got overran with the virus, how people use to be nice before, she said well most of them. She told me that where we live now was called the United States and that it was once run by a government of people with a president.  People were free to run around without fear of getting sick unless it was the flu or common cold, and they had doctors everywhere for your convenience. Medicine was not scarce like it is now, and they had schools to teach people all kinds of things, and you started going to school when you were young. My mom told me the useless items we would find in abandoned houses were called TVs, phones, and they had the internet to run everything. She said that something called google was a way to find out anything you wanted at your fingertips. They could travel the world by bus, train, sailboats, cruise ships, airplanes, and vehicles if they wanted. Gas had to be paid for but it was worth it to see the many sites in the world before they were overrun with nature or crumbled because of age. She told me how when the virus first came out that the president said not to worry because it was in another country. The CDC which is a company that helped keep disease away from us was taking precautions. Everyone went on with their daily lives, keeping up with the news. It started with a cruise ship that was kept quarantined with some Americans on it, and they were able to come home after they were deemed safe. Then the other states would pop up with cases that have traveled from other places that were infected. The checkpoints at the airports that were scanning for the virus missed most of them. When the president of the united states saw that China, Europe, and a few other countries had no hope of survival, and we had no cure in sight, he shut down all travel from the countries. The rich were fleeing to private islands, leaving the poor to defend themselves. Mask, glove, and medicine distributors started price gouging while they were in demand, leaving many not able to afford protection from the virus. After a few hundred deaths started in the U.S. despite all the CDC efforts, they shut down schools, stopped any public gatherings, and people started staying at home. At that point the virus was spreading quickly, businesses started shutting down, people were only eating canned foods, and then looting started which caused useless deaths. The world was scared and was trying everything to survive, even if that meant killing their neighbor to get what they had stocked up in their houses. It was very simple to catch the virus, all it took was someone that had it to cough near you, touch something after coughing or wiping their nose, and half the time they wouldn't know they had it right away. They discovered it was not airborne but it was spreading faster than the flu and had similar symptoms, which started with a headache, runny nose, or flu-like symptoms. They finally came out letting the world know that the virus would not die off on objects like normal viruses, it would last on that object for fourteen days after being touched. My father gathered up my mother, his guns, and as many supplies as they could put in the vehicles and went to his hunting cabin in the swamps in Louisiana. He would go out and loot himself, bringing back more ammunition, food, clothes, and medicine, he never told my mother what happened while he was out. Two years after the virus started, they still had many survivors out there, but the world was no longer the way it used to be. There was no internet, electricity, or even human decency left... that was the year I was born. When I was six years old I knew how to shoot a g*n, gut a deer, wield a knife, cook. I even helped my mother with sewing, washing clothes by hand, disinfect all the dishes, and help with the supply list.  My little brother was born when I was seven, and a few years later they had my little sister. I helped my father with looting, gathering supplies, and taught my younger brother everything my father taught me. I just turned nineteen when the thing we feared the most happened... we have been found by strangers. We had an escape plan just in case we were ever found out here. I would lead my brother and sister to one of our hidden underground hunting posts which were filled with all the guns, ammunition, and other supplies that weren't in the house. My father would fend them off and my mother would help. So here we were in the hidden area, trying to keep my ears and eyes glued to the house to find out how many, what kind of weapons they were carrying, and when to make our move despite my father's warning.