A GIFT OF TIME

PROLOGUE

"Mom" I cried finding it hard to believe she was gone, no she couldn't be.

"Mom!" I screamed her name but she was still, motionless, She can't leave just yet, no she can't!

"Noo" I screamed hugging the lifeless body of my mother tight,

"Claire" my 27-year-old older brother called and I turned to face him with my tear laced eyes, he seemed to be taking it easier than I was, though he had tears in his hazel eyes, he was looking rather calm, his obvious resemblance with dad made me sob louder, he had dad's blonde hair and hazel eyes while mom and I are a redhead.

"Claire, we have to go she's gone" Charlie announced to me but there was no way I could accept it. October 2022, I lost my mother, the thought made my frenzy.

Mom had left that morning to get supplies since we had run out of it, she had instructed us to stay behind to protect us from the crazy air litters which were released into the atmosphere by the Aliens we called the 'Unknowns' who were hell-bent in wiping us out. She had come back looking pale and weak. We knew that instant she was infected. The air litters are simple microorganisms in the atmosphere that destroy the lungs in just 30 minutes, once inhaled, the countdown to our death started.

"I can't leave her here Charlie, I can't" I sobbed out loud.

"Claire, you have to stop crying or you'll attract the predators" Charlie cautioned in a whisper. The predators? That's what we call em', Not the aliens hunting us down, No, the predators are controlled by the unknowns, they are the wildlife, the dangerous animals that turned at us. We become their food. Somehow the unknowns managed to control them to hunt us down, they were their fourth waves. I sobbed silently recalling how everything started.

I am Claire Chadwick, from a family of four, dad was a bioengineer and my mom was a biochemist, I had been away from home for two years, completely engrossed in my studies trying to be just like my dad, a bioengineer, But I decided I was gonna go home for the new year. I arrived home in Missouri, Jefferson right in mid-December, celebrated the new year with my parents, we were having a picnic on January 3rd, 2022 when the clouds suddenly went dark. We could see from where we were the large body of ship forming in the sky, but, slowly the image faded and the sky cleared, we were relieved, but that was the beginning of the world chaos.

The Unknowns operate in the dark. Our research institute failed to identify them or their location, we knew very little of their existence. They attack from the shadows.

Their first attack was a general blackout in the entire world, they said it was some sort of electromagnetic waves that made everything go black, phones, cars, electricity stopped working, we thought that was it but unfortunately, It was the beginning.

The unknowns turned to our life sources, our water was poisoned. The water resources institute relayed that some type of toxins was released into the water. We go days without water, it was either we die drinking or die by thirst, we barely survived with the little rainfall, thousands especially children died of dehydration. Then they turned to our food, if we can't survive without water, how could plants?!

As each day passes our supplies of food run out, food became gold people killed for. Our plants were dying and so were we. Charles Darwin's law of natural selection prevails like he'd seen the day coming, thousands died of starvation, few strong ones managed to escape through, my family and I were among the few that managed to survive.

No food, no water, we hang on but my dad was among the first set we lost to the fifth wave. They had us completely trapped, our air was polluted, A basic need we couldn't do without, though it was the end until the UN government built a large plant house which was more like a camp to us.

We and other survivors stayed there for a while, my mother, my brother, and I, there was clean water, food, and disinfected air, we actually thought it was the safest place but it wasn't, not after the predators attacked, though there had been military keeping them out in the first place, We were attacked by hundreds of them and hundreds of survivors died, we barely managed to survive, we were left to protect ourselves from the other waves.

Our noses were always covered to protect our lungs, we depend solely on rainwater and feed on few surviving plants and small animals, we thought we'll be good, until my mom arrived sullen and pale, my hope to survive shattered that instant.

I miss my normal life as an ordinary college kid, I miss my dad. I thought as I stared at my mother's grave blankly, something we had managed to make in a short while, we possibly couldn't have our mom dragged behind us.

My brother moved to me, brought me into his chest in a warm hug, having him around ignited back my lost hope I don't get along with my brother right before everything started, we would always argue over this or that, I realized just how much he loved me after everything got messed up, as much as I missed being a regular kid, I cherish the moment we spent together fighting and trying to survive, It was precious. I truly knew my brother during this time.

I slumped my backpack to my back trailing behind my brother as he leads the way, we couldn't stay at a place, we move every day, it was our method of survival.

I heaved out a heavy sigh as I looked around, from the dying trees, the lonely path of the streets, to the improperly packed cars, how sad, it had been 7 months since the wave started, we don't know if there was any worse coming but we could only struggle to survive.

"Claire" Charlie called drawing me out of my reverie, I raised my head to meet his gaze with an assuring smile plastered on his face, I returned it warmly.

"You know, Dad used to say survival is-

"Based on strength, hope, and believe" I completed for him and he grinned.

"we'll survive Claire, I'm sure of it," he said smiling in assurance.

"Yeah, we will" I added.

"That's the spirit sis, believe" He winked fastening his backpack to his back. He was dressed in a navy jacket with a black vest obvious beneath it, the jacket was complimented with khaki pants and boots.

If it were normal circumstances, I would have teased him he dressed funny but that was the perfect dressing for the situation.

"Claire" my brother called my attention and I forcibly halted,

"Did you hear that?" he asked eyes dancing in nervousness,

"No what is it?" I asked listening hard for any possible sound which I later did hear,

"Run" my brother sharply commanded and in no time we were zooming past the dying leaves and trees, we got to the end of the street and ended on a bridge, we headed down the slope instead of taking the bridge where we would be exposed to any predators. The trees were our covers, under the bridge was a small stream, and next to it was an open space which was laid at the foot of the forest.

"What the hell was that?" I asked Charlie panting as we slumped our back behind the wall which was the foot of the bridge.

"I don't know, probably a predator nearby" He guessed still trying to catch his breath.

"Any clean water?" I asked after ransacking my bag pack for any water but all I got was an empty bottle.

"I have a little" he informed removing a bottle of water with little remnants in it.

"I'll manage," I said collecting the bottle the drain the last drop of clean water we had.

"We should get going, find a safe place to camp before nightfall, we can't have any predator sighting us," My brother instructed moving into the forest.

"I don't think the forest is a good idea," I told my brother trying to stable my steps as we walk through the Rocky path.

"We just have to walk through to the other path and into the city before nightfall, hey careful" My brother cautioned while I staggered,

"Phew," I exclaimed as I finally got my balance.

"Okay, I hope we make it to the other part of the forest before nightfall" I muttered

It was hard walking for hours without water, we had just a little food with us, we eat once a day but I was already hungry.

"Charlie, I think I'm hungry," I told my brother who arched an eyebrow at my complaint.

"I can't help it," I said abruptly stopping.

"Claire we have to go now, It's getting late" my brother pointed out forcing me to look up into the sky to see the setting sun.

"Now let's go" and Charlie urged and I sighed before I resumed walking but I couldn't help but mumble complaints under my breath as I was seriously starving.

"Claire!" my brother called loudly with a frown probably agitated,

"What?" I shot back, but I realized he was concerned about something else.

"We have to run," My brother said taking my hand, I didn't know why we had to but briefly turning back to see boars hot on our trail gave me the realization.

"Turn right" my brother ordered but I was too distracted and I ended up falling, my brother pulled me up almost immediately.

"Charlie my ankle" I complained as I felt an unfamiliar wave of pain arose from my ankle slowly spreading to every part of me while I limped after him.

"I can't" I breathlessly let out.

"Yes, you can Claire" My brother sharply replied to me, but with every passing second the pain becomes unbearable,

"Charlie!" I let out a sharp cry as I roughly slumped on the floor my hand slipping from his, Charlie briefly scanned the surroundings picking a long stick as the boar got closer.

"Charlie!" I screamed my brother's name as two boars bit his leg while he struggled to get another away from me, my heart thumped hard in my chest as a big wolf slowly emerged from the woods. He bared his canines and aimed for my brother, but the sudden gunshot saved my brother, the boar released my brother's caught limb and ran bloodshot to the set of humans, human, my brain registered as I moved to my brother while studying the new people who kept firing at the boar until they lay dead at their feet.

"Brian get them to the car" the guy with the incessant shooting shouted, and a ginger-haired guy moved over to us. Hold on a second, did they say car? I subconsciously asked myself.

"Here let me help you?" the ginger-haired, which guy called Brian offered to gesture a hand to me, then to my brother.

"Follow me" he beckoned, with my brother's hand-thrown over my shoulder we followed him, to the car, It was a car. My brother and I exchanged curious glances as we stared at the once-familiar object which had suddenly become strange to us.

"Get in," Brian said head beckoned towards the direction of the jeep.

"How is this working?" I asked moving inside the jeep by first helping my brother in.

"Here put this on," Brian said offering us some kind of nose mask after slumping into the driver's seat ignoring my question.

"We call them air filters, protect you from the litters" Brian explained as I reluctantly collect the strange-looking mask and wear it before helping Charlie with his.

"Charlie" I called worriedly as Charlie let out a painful groan.

"Let me come help" Brian offered to leave the driver's seat to the passengers seat after carrying the first aid from the car's cabinet.

"He's bleeding" Brian pointed out the obvious bending to dress my brother's wound. The chatters of our other saviors took my attention, they were laughing and giggling, I noticed for the first time they all had the strange-looking masked fastened to cover their nose.

"All done" and Brian announced standing up.

"We kind of need a hand here Brian" one of the guys that had helped us informed and Brian after returning the first aid moved over to them in haste, I watched from the car as they carry the dead boars to the car boot. It was rather shocking. Other's move to the second car which was parked behind the jeep but the ocean green eyes guy who seem to be their instructor joined us in the jeep.

"How is he?" the new guy asked.

"he'll live " Brian relayed slumping back into the driver's seat ready to leave.

"Who are you, people?" I found myself asking.

"We are the survivors, our camp is down Lebanon, you'll like it there, by the way, I'm Nicholas, people call me Nick" he introduced gesturing to me a warm handshake which I gladly took, I realized his eyes were sparkling, I smiled briefly meeting his eyes before retracting my hand.

"Are you sure it's safe there, We've tried out a camp before, it all ended in a disaster," I asked arching an eyebrow as the car roared to life and made its movement?

"Wait till you get there first" Nick grinned.

"Hold on a second, why is your car working?" I asked the question that had to bloat since we met the new people.

"You'll get to find out" Nick merely replied earning a frustrated sigh from me in response.

"But hold on a second, I've you been wandering without any means of protecting yourself, no guns?" I Nick asked furrowing his brows.

"Yeah" I simply replied.

"How do even manage to survive?" Nick asked disbelief evident in his voice.

"We run, all the time" I simply shrugged.

"And you could have been killed for food-

"Hunting for food?" I cut Brian off.

"Yeah," Nick answered.

"the wild might be our predators but in regards to scarcity we can't have them wasted, once they attack, we kill em' and eat em'" Nick said and I had to scrunch my nose up in disgust.

"How could you manage to eat those things?" I asked with a frown and both boys giggled.

"We'll rather settle for those than going hungry" Brian finally answered and I sighed.

"By the way, Thank you for saving my brother and me," I said in gratitude looking over to Charlie who was already asleep, the exhaustion was evident on his face marring his perfect feature, I smiled and lay my head on his shoulder. I was glad we were safe.

"It's our pleasure" I heard Nick replied but the stress of the day had finally taken its toll, my body weakened and I fell into a deep slumber.

The sun rays seem to be disturbing, as my eyes slowly slid open.

"Seems the sleeping beauty is finally awake," Nick said checking me through the rearview mirror and I felt myself flushed in embarrassment on realizing I had drooled on my brother's shoulders, slightly hid my face such that my unkempt red hair was covering most of it, I cleaned the corner of my mouth which some dry drool was, I was doing just that when I realized my brother was awake giving me a questioning look. He was making me more embarrassed with the look, I frowned and turned away from him doing that made me realize Nick was the one at the wheels. They must have switched, Brian was dejectedly dozing next to Nick.

"And we are here" Nick announced climbing down the car.

Right in front of us was a huge container enough for a large castle to fit in, but no entrance whatsoever, I saw Nick move over to a lever that looked like a dead growing tree and pulled it to have an underground gate open, he moved back into the car and slowly drive the car underground, we went down the slope to be parked among some rows of cars, Nick climbed down again and pulled another lever closing up the gate which was at that point right on top of us, slowly the sunlight creeping in was ceased, and we slowly got down.

"Found new survivors?" a black guy with braided hair came asking as his eyes met mine.

"Yeah, a girl and a guy" Nick answered giving him the car keys before turning back to help us.

"Easy" he cautioned as he slowly leads us away from the garage. We climbed up some stairs to appear in an open area.

"Wow," I muttered getting into the middle of the area. Right at the end of the large container were fewer containers built like a dorm, the one opposite us was a workshop. They were people, I couldn't believe it, people working, some were building, soldering, Everyone seems busy.

Nicholas led us to the end of the huge container and into a smaller container. It contained two-decker beds, a welded locker, a wooden chair, and a small table.

"You'll be sharing space with Nicole and Hailey" Nick directed to me and I smiled.

"I'll get your brother settled, Have some rest, dinner is at 7, at the cafeteria" Nick smiled.

That was how we were saved, My brother and I stayed at the survivor's camp for two months, learning from them, how they had managed to survive. Every single detail was jotted down in my journal which I gained after I joined them. I was happy helping out in cooking and engineering, I finally learned how they managed to generate electricity. It was fun learning new things every day but this was abruptly halted when we were attacked.

"What's wrong?" Nick had asked Tony, the black dude. He was a tech guy and keep the place in check.

"We are under attack" and Tony relayed and we grab our guns, Yeah, I had learned how to shoot during my little stay with them.

"I don't think the g*n can handle this" Tony sadly relayed.

"The sensors picked-" Tony was saying when the ground shook Slowly, our protective barrier broke down, Nick went around barking commands as thousands of predators rushed in. We fired and fired, It was no use, so we did the only thing we could, Run. We kept running until Charlie and I got to the end of a cliff. So we fired as the predators move up close then Charlie and I ran out of bullets, right in front of us were three huge lions.

"Claire!" my brother screamed moving right in between before a lion jumped at me. I saw my brother scream as the lion clawed his guts out. He yelled and screamed in pain, right in front of me my brother was torn into pieces, I stood motionless and in total disbelief.

"Claire" Nick came running to me, he was bloodstained, his shirt was drenched in blood as he furiously shoots, but more predators came, he was soon surrounded, he sighed firing nonstop.

"I'm sorry Claire, I love you if we ever get to meet again" he managed to say as he kept shooting till he ran out of bullets in the process getting bombarded with predators who clawed and torn him to shreds. The hungry-looking animal turned at me. I moved closer to the end of the cliff, backing away as the predators got ready to pounce.

My voice trailed as I yelled while falling up from the 100ft cliff, I hate to admit, what I regretted the most was blindly ignoring Nick feelings even if he had made it so obvious in the couple of months I had stayed with them, I should have cherished our moments together if I had known my life was going to end that way, I thought closing my eyes as I made the jump that I was certain ended my life, But-

"Claire, Claire!" a voice which I recognized to be my mom's echoed in my ears, and my eyes slowly adjusted to the light making out the blurry image of my mom bent over to me in the hospital, it wasn't right or could I be in heaven? I asked myself subconsciously, blinking my eyes, but my mom was there staring worriedly at me, I couldn't believe I get to meet her again, I shot up the bed wrapping my hands around her happy to meet see her again.

"I'm so glad you're awake, I was so worried, I told you not to try riding the bicycle without your training wheels, you could have been seriously injured," my mom said patting my head softly, that was weird, I wonder what she meant, I thought releasing her.

"And you should be studying for your SATs right now, your exam's tomorrow" my dad voiced, waring a frown and making his presence conspicuous, He was also here, I felt a familiar warmth rose my chest at that, but hold on a sec, my SATs, thinking of it, I had injured myself a day to my SATs, could everything be a dream? I frowned in confusion briefly scanning the hospital.

"Honey are you okay?" my mom worriedly asked as my confusion suddenly pale me up. What was going on? I asked myself but it was a question that I had to find answers to.

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