Light at the End of the Tunnel

I remember mom waking me up early in the morning in a hurry. She seemed in panic and stress. Both my parents happened to be scientists and ecologists. I could see the stress on my parents face as I woke up, though I didn’t understand why. I got dressed and saw my dad in the living room watching the news.

It said that a new deadly virus had started spreading by rainfall, killing everyone who got in touch with it and people were seeking refugee. My parents knew that this day was going to arrive. They consoled me and my younger brother and hugged us saying that everything was going to be all right.

We needed to hurry up before it started raining. We packed our luggage and all the essential items we would need and bid goodbye to our home forever.

We made haste and dad started driving way too fast. It took us an hour to reach a secluded area in the forest. Dad suggested that we better run before it starts raining. All four of us started to run and finally reached a place with a bunker.

He opens the bunker with his fingerprints and we move inside.

He instructed us that we would be infected if we go outside the bunker and warned us to stay inside. As soon as we entered the bunker it started to rain.

The rains felt normal, but through the windows, we could see the animals in the forest dying in an instant. I could see the birds falling from the sky and the squirrels struggling to breathe and then finally die.

My younger brother started crying, we felt helpless and gave him some food to eat.

I had never seen a bunker-like this before, the way it was constructed, it was way ahead in the future, quite futuristic.

There were four bedrooms, a kitchen and also a room filled with weapons and gadgets.

There were guns and grenades and lots of gadgets which I was told not to touch.

My parents gave both of us a walkie talkie and left outside in search of other survivors.

The rain finally stopped and my parents left both us all alone in the bunker and said they would be back in no time.

I started using the walkie talkie to see if I could connect with people in other bunkers. I could see on the computer the exact location of those bunkers.

They were at a distance of 20 km each spread out in the forest.

I happened to get a signal but it was very weak. I could hear someone ask for help, a man, but couldn’t understand what he was saying. I finally got a stronger signal when I reached the window and asked for his contact number. I decided to send him our location as he needed supplies. In the meantime, I decided to check with the news and see what's happening all around the world.

To my shock, people all over the world were dying because of the deadly rainfall. It was not just my country, but countries all over the world were suffering. I thought I should do some research on the situation.

Soon I could hear my parents approaching the bunker, so I opened the entrance so that they could come in. As I opened the entrance, I saw a man with a knife around my mom’s throat threatening to kill her if we didn’t give him any supplies. I immediately rushed inside and gave him the food we had.

As I got back I saw my mom and dad, dead, lying in their blood.

My brother screamed at the sight of my dead parents and I couldn’t believe my eyes. This was the same man who I was talking to over the walkie talkie.

This was my fault and I couldn’t forgive myself. I wish I took my dad’s advice and didn’t touch anything in the bunker.

It started raining again and in no time I could see my parent's body dissolve into the soil.

I made this my mission to find a solution to this deadly rainfall. I went to the library and started researching to see if I could find anything. I began going through all the books and see if I could find anything related to rainfall.

Finally, I found a very old dusty book back from the 18th century. I wonder how this book ended up in this library.

All of a sudden the floor started shaking and I could hear helicopters. From the window, I saw the army approaching our bunker. As I opened the entrance of the bunker, the army was surprised to see me and my brother inside. I guess they didn’t expect kids to be inside the bunker with no parents around. I told them everything about our situation, about my parents and the guy who killed. They were shocked to hear all I had to say and asked us to pack our bags as we had to be moved to a much safer location with the other survivors. I immediately packed me and my little brother’s bag along with the book I had found in the library. It was our only ray of hope.

We got inside the helicopters and found two more kids whose parents had also died because of the rain. They looked scared, so I offered them a blanket. That made them feel cosy and they soon fell asleep. It took us an hour to reach our destination. I could see an entire troop of an army waiting for us with suits on which would protect them from the rain.

As I entered the area I could see other families with their kids, which made me miss my parents even more.

We were assigned our rooms, after which I and my brother took a nap. As we woke up, a nurse was called to get us checked. The nurse checked our blood pressure, our heartbeat and also took our blood for testing.

They also got us some food and fruits for us, after which I felt much better.

I immediately started reading the book and to my surprise, there was a lot written about the rainfall by our ancestors.

Back in the days, our ancestors had predicted that something like this would happen in the future. I wonder how!!

I took the book to the lab to the scientists who had been researching the same. They were surprised to see that the book had all the solutions which would rescue all of us from this deadly situation. But we had to go a long way.

It would take months to prepare the vaccine so that everybody could be safe.

The scientists started preparing for the vaccine according to the book.

They patiently waited for the rains, took some sample and began working.

I just happened to check the news and over 70 million people worldwide had died due to the rainfall.

The main cause for this was ecological degradation, rising temperatures, extreme weather events, rise in pollution and ozone layer depletion.

I could see more survivors coming inside the refugee area, crying for help. There were counsellors assigned who made sure everyone was calm.

The virus happened to enter the respiratory system and then eat the red blood cells which made whoever in contact with the rain dissolve in a matter of seconds

I was being optimistic because I knew the scientists would come up with a solution. After months and months of research and experiments, they finally came up with the vaccine and began to test on people.

The vaccine not just increased the immunity but also upgraded the white blood cells on a much higher level to fight the virus, on a level were people wouldn’t die.

Everyone was patiently waiting for their turn to come and get the vaccine.

But I was scared that what if the vaccine doesn’t work and we die. When the needle was injected in me I fainted and got fewer. The doctor said that it was normal and that had happened in many cases. Same happened with my brother.

An army officer happened to take his vaccine and was planning to go out in the rain to check whether the vaccine was successful or not.

We waited for the rains, but there was no sign for at least a week. Finally, it rained and the army officer stepped outside to check. To our surprise, nothing happened to him and he didn’t die. Everyone jumped with happiness and couldn’t believe their eyes. All happened to go out in the rain and scream with joy. The rain did not affect anybody and the god had finally answered our prayers.

It was time to go back home now. They made sure everyone was safely dropped to their homes. On the way back home, I could see everything was lifeless like their soul was taken away from them. There was still a little light left at the end of the tunnel and future ahead for me and my brother.

We reached home, which made me howl - WHAT NEXT………!!!!!