Prologue
Mickeyla Saunders - Age 6 - 3051
“Momma, Poppa?” Mickeyla asked as she rubbed her eyes still half asleep. Only silence greeted her call. 'That’s strange, Momma and Poppa always respond.' She thought to herself. Mickeyla decided to go looking where her parents were. 'Maybe they fell asleep.' She thought.
“Momma, Poppa, where are you?” she asked while walking through the house. At first, she didn’t notice the crooked portraits on the walls, nor the broken picture frames on the display table at the end of the hall, not even the splinters of broken luminescent shards as she went down the stairs, to the dimly lit living room and kitchen. Silence followed her the whole way. Rubbing her eyes once more she became more alert, finally seeing the carnage in the open plan kitchen.
“Momma, Pop-” she stopped mid-sentence as her heart began to beat an erratic rhythm. Beyond the kitchen table, almost in the living room, lay the still shapes of her parents. She paused for a brief second then ran as fast as she could to the still shapes on the floor. She didn’t even register the pool of blood seeping from the bodies.
“MOMMA! POPPA!!” she screamed at them, but of course, they didn’t move. Their eyes betrayed that their living essence was no longer there. Mickeyla sobbed frantically into her mother’s shirt. Her whole body was shaking and her breath came in short painful gasps. 'Momma and Poppa are just sleeping.' She thought to herself. But their pale skin with the vivid red veins standing out told her another story. One she didn’t quite understand. It scared her.
“Momma?!” She pleaded again, her tiny frame shuddering with sobs, she shook the lifeless body of her mother. “Momma, please, I’m scared. Wake up! Poppa, please, wake up!” She couldn’t understand why they were acting this way.
A scuffling noise behind her sent her heartbeat into a frenzy and she spun around. The door! There was someone at the door.
“Help, they won’t wake up. Help!” she screamed as loud as she could. The house intelligence registered the distress call and unlocked the front door. The handle turned and the door hinged open to reveal the silhouette of a man.
“Please help!” Mickeyla called again.
The man peered into the house then crossed the threshold. He then slowly and meaningfully closed the door. He found Mickeyla in the middle of a pool of blood clinging to the shirt of a female next to her. 'That would be her mother, Anastasia.' He thought.
“Don’t panic little one, I am here to help.” the man stood in front of her with his hands held up, trying not to frighten her.
“Who- Who’re you?” Mickeyla asked through tears as she tried to calm her frantic heartbeat.
“I am a doctor, I received a distress signal a few minutes ago. I came as soon as I could.” The man’s eyes took in the bodies on the floor, and then her, sitting between them. “But it seems I am too late.” He said with a sad frown on his face. “I am so sorry little one, do you understand what is going on?” The doctor asked her in a gentle tone.
“No, Momma and Poppa won’t wake up, why won’t they wake up?” She asked through new tears to the Doctor.
“Do you know what death is, little one?” The doctor asked, curiously looking at her.
Mickeyla shook her tiny head. “Momma and Poppa tried telling me once. I didn’t understand. I thought Death was a person, but Momma and Poppa know what Death is. Can you wake them up? Then they can tell us.” She asked still clutching her mother’s tear-soaked shirt in an unusually tight grip.
The doctor smiled a sad smile at her. “Little one, I am afraid that they won’t wake up.” The Doctor tried to explain. “You see, they are dead, Death came to take them away.”
“But- But they will come back right? Death will bring them back?” Mickeyla frowned, still not understanding.
The Doctor sighed. “You are unique, young Mickeyla, It is good that you see the world differently,” He said in a strange tone. “No, Death is not a person, death is what happens to people when they reach the end of their lives. They are gone forever. That is what death means.”
Mickeyla felt cold disbelief creep into her veins. “NO! They have to come back! I miss them. Make them come back!” She screamed at the Doctor, with a wave of fresh tears cascading down her face. “They can’t be gone! Not Momma and Poppa!”
The doctor pitied her, but he was not there to show her pity. He had another job. “Mickeyla, you need to be brave now, okay? Do you think you can do that? For your Momma and Poppa?” The doctor asked using her wording.
Mickeyla seemed to think for a while, turned to her father, and kissed his cheek “goodbye Poppa” She said. She then did the same with her mother “goodbye Momma, I’ll try and be brave, okay?”
She was trying to be brave, but couldn’t seem to let go of her mother’s blouse. In the distance, sirens sprang to life. Flashes of vivid blue and red light poured in rapid succession through the artificially dimmed windows.
The Doctor spun around and stared hard at the door. He looked at the time on his wrist circlet and cursed under his breath. 'They cut my time short.' He thought to himself. “Little one, this will only hurt a bit.” He said as he took an injection pen out of his coat pocket and stuck it in her arm. The clear window on the pen revealed a murky white liquid being injected into the girl’s arm, and into her bloodstream.
Mickeyla was so shocked at the sudden action she almost didn’t register the needle prick. Panic spread like wildfire through her as the contents worked their way through her bloodstream. Within seconds she felt her eyes beginning to droop despite her frantic heartbeat. She was still clutching her mother’s shirt as the Doctor picked her up and pried her away from their bodies. The world around her began to dim and sway uncomfortably.
Silent tears fell from her face she stared over the doctor’s shoulder at the disappearing forms of her parents. They were the last thing she saw as her world swam into a cloud of nothingness.
