The fall

“Time to take your medication Jeanne.” Rosa my nurse says in a tender voice which held such gentility . I turn to the clock to see it’s four o’clock and I release a deep sigh.

“Right on time like always dear, it amazes me how you are always punctual back, in my day I was the laziest creature on earth. You could never get me out of bed even if you bribed me.” I laugh at the thought of how I was then and how so much has changed.

“ I wouldn’t believe that even if an angel descended and told me that, Jean you hardly sleep even on medication.” She responds with a smile to lighten the harsh truth.

It’s true there was a time when I had no care in the world, had it all but still felt emptier than Nancy’s cookie jar. That woman loves her cookies. The question is how does she eat them with just two teeth left on the front? Well that’s one mystery no one will ever know. 

 Gone are those days and gone is the terrible life our history holds.

“Drink up now, wouldn’t want your B.P level rising now wouldn’t we.” Rosa says once more, I drink the horrendous pills down with her still watching me. Can’t blame her though, before that I used to hide them under my tongue and spit them out the moment the door closed.

I open my mouth to show her that it’s all gone and her smile grows. She comes and kisses me on the forehead before saying. “That wasn’t so bad was it now dear sister ? I’ll come back after work so we can finish our telenovela. I still can’t believe Martha cheated on Lorenzo again , what a b..”

I give her the warning eye which cuts her off mid sentence saving her from a mouth cleansing appointment with soapy water. One thing my mother taught me that my small family adapted to was no profanities. “ Big female dog” Rosa finishes before swiftly moving out of the room screaming “I love you.”

I laugh at her silliness something she got from me definitely not our mother ….. My laugh dies down and I look once more to the clock. Which without failure takes me back everyday to the year twenty forty-six. The year of regeneration.

I was five when the government announced the news that everyone above the age of thirteen had to answer to the need of keeping our species from extinction and start having children, as many as they want granted that they can take care of them without fail. It had been years after what the government calls  “The Fall” humanity had survived the pandemic of the infamous coronavirus which my mother and her team developed a cure she called ‘boast’ numbers were lost thus needed regeneration. ‘Boast’ was a red pill which like the name gave a boast to the immune system to help it fight against the virus. It not only worked for the virus but for other multiple diseases that the world had deemed incurable.

What my mother, Tanya Stock did not expect was that the pill would also improve people’s immune system in a way that made them immortal. 

People stopped dieing. 

My mom had been working on the immortality potion since way before I was born, she was obsessed with giving humanity internal life. Something she probably should have left to the gods. 

When people stopped dieing, number started growing. Children were being born at a tremendous rate. I remember hearing one prophet on YouTube during the pandemic saying that “humanity can withstand all, humanity never stops fighting till it’s conjured all, humanity will leave itself no enemy except humanity alone.’ He was right but no one listened at the time; food shortages began, water sources slowly started becoming fewer and the few contaminated. To make space for the populations so many trees were cut down and oxygen also became a problem people had to grow small trees indoors and even with all that the worst hadn’t come.

My mother once praised for her great discovery became hated blamed for the cause of all the struggles. She stopped being my mother in twenty twenty-five as she spend her days in her lab in the basement of our house trying to look for a way to reverse the ‘boast' effect of internal life. What boast did was to slow aging not completely stop it but strengthened the immune system that even when the body no longer functioned one would still be alive. Good thing no one turned to zombies that would have been the cherry to the disastrous cake.

The government started a project which they never disclosed to the public even when people started dropping like flies. Turns out they had developed a virus to reduce the populations, at first it was only those that had visited hospitals or clinic that suddenly died. The only people who went there were pregnant and their families. It was explained in the news to be long term side effects of boast that only affected pregnant women that was the first of many lies.

The problem got serious when the virus became air born and “the fall” began. Within a matter of two years there was an estimation of five hundred thousand people left on the planet.

In fear of getting the virus no one went outside, the few that were left found ways to filter the air inside their homes, grow crops indoors and stay indoors. We would watch news to get information of what had changed in the virus and prepare for it but eventually we all stopped when we realised the truth behind the virus and the many deaths.

One of the days when I was sixteen, my mother went outside in her protective suit. She disappeared for a year straight no calls no nothing. Just when I was beginning to think she was not coming back she did and with a little girl. She never told me were the child came from or who it was but our undoubtable similarities told me the story. She called the baby Rosaline.

In the days that followed everything went down hill, my mother would be twenty-four hours in her lab which she never allowed me to enter and I never did. Until the day she left the door open which she never did. I would have never gone in if my mother had come out but she never did and she never left her door open.

I still remember the fear that consumed me when I saw my mother on a chair in her lab and upon turning the chair found her dead an injection next to her, poison. There was also a tube that had a boy no man in it who looked around my age. The deafening scream would have alarmed even the firefighters if they were still any. So many secrets popped up and the only one who could answer them was no more. I was half crazy before the thought of opening it came to mind.

“No! Rosa, I’m not letting that strange man out. What if he hurts us or worse kills us ? I’ve survived way too much to be killed by an alien.” Yep if you haven’t guessed I was talking to a two months baby. And as usual Rosa replied with baby noises and before you get any ideas I don’t speak baby language she is the only person I can talk to.

I smack myself on the head, “I can’t believe it’s gotten to this, I’m talking to a baby. When I thought of losing my mind I never imagined it would be in this way!”

“ Now you are talking to yourself brilliant.”

“Okay Rosa I don’t care how old you are, I can’t make this decision on my own, seriously I’m one person very tremendously good at making bad decisions!” I say dramatically while making hand gestures to add emphasis.

This time Rosa responds by taking her leg into her mouth and sucking on it. I glare at her which doesn’t phase her at all and she continues sucking her tasty toes. “Nice talk.”

She took my fingers and stated sucking me buttering me up “Okay that doesn’t sound right.”  

I keep walking until I’m in the basement looking at the man. It had been a five days after my mother's death. I burried her in the back yard next to the flowers she loved so much, white roses. I had thought multiple times of what I was to do with the man in the tube but everything I came up with sounded like a bad idea, because all I thought about was letting him out.

Not because he was attractive and had a nice body which only made me more curious to explore…..

I turn to see Rosa looking at me as if she read my mind. “ I did not mean in that context. I meant explore as in find out why he has muscles when he has been in that tube the whole time . Shish have some faith in me.” With that she goes back to sucking, this time her teddy bear.

I look around to see how I can open the tube but like everything else my mother made, wasn’t easy to deal with. I find a big red button with an ‘X’ on it. “Everyone knows not to press the big red button.” I mumble trying to convince myself against the inevitable.

I look at Rosa then pick her up and stretch out her little hand. “No one will blame a baby for blowing up the world, take one for the team baby sister.”

I close my eyes and press Rosa’s little hand on the forbidden button. I close my eyes waiting to explode but nothing happens. I slowly open my eye and the first thing I notice is that the tube is empty.

“Ooo oh!” I hold Rosa in a protective manner, shielding her head with my hand. My heart beat accelerating to the point were I could hear and. Just to add on Rosa picked that moment to start crying. I got even more terrified I wanted to cry too.

“Its okay, it’s okay baby we are fine.” I patted Rosa’s back in comfort. I don’t know whether I was assuring her on me. My eyes never stopped roaming around analysing any changes to give me a hind of where he could have gone. I saw a knife at my mother’s desk and immediately crabbed it while still holding Rosa with one hand .

I rushed upstairs then closed the door and locked with such haste even the flash would have never seen my movement. 

I searched everywhere even my mother’s old room which was empty , it always gave me a turn of emotions going in there I always expected to find her and all this being a nightmare.

“I’m losing my mind.” 

“crash” I gasp turning to the sound and in all his glory there he was.

Then, I black out.

“She doesn’t like strangers”

“Stranger” he muttered. I could have fainted again if my head wasn’t killing me but I learned the first time I took my head on a dive. 

“He can talk?” I don’t know why that was my first statement and why it was directed to me when he was standing in front of me.

“He” he mimicked, the word coming out a little strange.

“ Yes ‘he’ you” I said only to have him repeat my statement.

“ ‘He’ you.” Even though he had no clue what gender was, I was still offended. I couldn’t look that bad right.

“ No! ‘he’ you me Jean.”

“No! ‘he’ you.”

I was about to blow my top when I realised he was omitting some words to turn what I said around meaning he understood me. I was just about to give him a piece of my mind and kick him in the no go zone , once I got back on my feet that is when a laugh broke out. The sound was melodic and genuine, I couldn’t help but smile a little inwardly of course. Only I hadn’t heard a laugh in a long time.

“ You should see your face when you are confused.” He said as his laugh dried down. “I can talk little Peach. The moment you talked I could understand.” He finished now in a serious tone.

“ Are you a robot” the question sounded better in my mind before I said it out loud now that it was out and said I wanted to bury myself.

He raised his brow as if in deep thought then once more started laughing. “ You cook up a lot in that little mind of yours don’t you little Peach?”

“ My name is Jean not little Peach and that .. that.. just answer the damn question.”

I couldn’t deny his good looks but I also couldn’t deny he was a bug to me. I don’t know much about hate but he was close to receiving mine.

“ And my name is B.e.h.i not he.” He said in a mocking tone. 

“Look here buster ..”

“B.e.h.i” he interrupts.

“ I don’t care this is my house and your annoying behind is not welcome! Wait what on earth does B.e.h.i stand for anyway that can’t possibly be a name.”

“ Shouldn’t scientist be smart or something like that, it stands for Biologically Engineered Human Intelligence .” again the mockery. If I don’t kill him today there is hope for humanity after all.

“ What kind of strange name is that.” I counter.

“Stranger than someone named after clothing? I bet not.” If glares could kill this demon would be wiped from both earth and the after life if there is one.

I decide to ignore the devil’s minion and attend to my sister. So I snatch Rosa from his hands and go straight to the kitchen without another word. Rosa was fast asleep when I decided to go look for him. I would love to say I was hoping he left but honestly I didn’t, quite the opposite actually.

I looked everywhere but he was gone. Vanished. I sat down in the living room looking down until I heard a crashing sound coming from the basement. 

“The basement!” I yelled running as fast as my little feet could carry me. 

“Bel.. Bel.” I called when I got into the basement and found it empty. My mood became sour again.

“Who is Bel..?” I yelp in surprise jumping a few feet up.

“Son of a biscuit, you don’t scare people like that!” I place my hand on my chest trying to calm my rapid heartbeat.

“ Who is Bel…?” he asks as if I hadn’t said anything at all. 

“Good to know we are still were we started.” I breath out. “ Why are you here anyway.”

“ None of your business little Peach.” He never seized to shock me especially how something so despicable such as he lasted this long on earth. Oh yah in a tube.

He sighs before saying something I never out heard. “ I was made as a test subject for the experiments Doctor Stock and her team performed.” He swallowed a lump before continuing. The look he had when he mentioned the word experiment was pure agony.

 I couldn’t help asking “ Did it hurt?”

 He turned the other way and took a deep breath before saying. “Most did.”

“ Anyway, before Doctor Stock died she injected a vapor in my tube. At first I thought it was poison but clearly it was not. I was wondering what it was until I remembered something. The last I saw Doctor Stock she said ‘Its over I can rest’. I came to do some digging and I found something.

“ Read this I found it on her workspace in a secret compartment. The code is my name. She wanted me to find it.” He gave me a flash drive which had a recording of it all.

It made sense, why she killed herself. It made  sense even before everything my mother always put herself first ‘ me before you, me before anyone else. That’s how you make history baby Jean’ she would say. 

When the government realised the virus it not only reversed the effects of ‘boast’ but created a cancer that killed people at such a speed that being infected meant goodbye. My mother caught the virus the day she left home she was working on the cure and wanted a herb found only in Brazil, she took a lot of medicine to help her add days to her but it was eventually catching up with her and once she had achieved the cure she took her life at her own will at the time she wanted. Rose ‘s father was a workmate who accompanied her but died as he gave her his oxygen tank. If he hadn’t they both would have died. He saved her and the rest of us and so did she.

She left instructions on how I could replicate the cure for the virus and all we had to do was spray the vapor into the air it would do the rest.

The clock strikes five and I come back to reality in a world now full of joy, freedom and people once more.

“When are you going to leave history were it belongs Peach.” My husband Bel hugs me and whispers in my ear. I turn and give him a kiss. I don’t know how we ended in each other’s arms with a family, but we did and it couldn’t be more perfect.

“ Where would we be without history?”