My name is Justin Attric. I am 12 years old, and attend 7th grade at J. Getter Middle School. I am a single child and I live in a small apartment in Newtownville, Florida. Let me start this at the beginning: October 5, 2013.
“Hey guys! What’s up?” I shouted to my friends as I noticed them walking to the bus stop.
“Hey!” they yelled back as I caught up to them, my somewhat long brown hair bouncing along the sides of my face. When I got to them, we started to talk about how school was going to be this year. Summer vacation had just ended, and we we’re not looking forward to school. Yeah, it’s fun hanging out with friends, but I was never good with all that schoolwork. The only subject I did well in was math. Math was one of my specialties. I had always adored it.
“Have you been practicing football lately, Justin? You need to get in shape if you want to get onto the team,” questioned Jeremy, one of my best friends.
“What do you think?” I said sarcastically. “I’ve been running every day, lifting 100 pounds, and doing 3 reps of 50 pushups.” Getting onto the team meant the world to me. If I didn’t get onto the team, I would be a loser. Every boy plays football in middle school.
“The bus is pretty late, isn’t it? It is already 8:30. Isn’t it supposed to get here at 8:25?” complained Billy, the oldest kid at our stop. I never really have liked him because he is a bully to the younger 6th graders. I had been bullied when I was younger, and I’ve grown to hate it. Just then, the bus arrived. We all piled into the smelly bus, and squished into seats. The ride was short because I live only 5 minutes away from J. Getter Middle School. Newtownville was a pretty small town. It’s population was only about 3,000, and everybody went to the same school. My first class was science. It had to be the worst class of my day. If I made it through science, the rest of the day would be okay.
Just as I expected, school went by pretty slow. Teachers’ giving us lectures on how school is a lot harder this year, teachers telling us all the rules, you know what I’m saying. I wish school didn’t always have to do with listening to teachers talk. Couldn’t WE do something for a change?
On the bus ride home, I was thinking about everything that had happened at school. All in all, it had been a pretty boring day. I had talked to all my friends from last year. I met a new kid that was probably going to be on the football team. His name was Ben. I remembered our conversation. He told me that he was new to the school. He seemed really nervous, like all new kids are. I had seen him at a few of the practices for football. He was really good, always seeming to juke everybody out. He was really fast, too. For some reason, he just somewhat stood out to me. It wasn’t his physical appearance, which happened to be very handsome, according to the girls. I just don’t know why. That reminds me, I forgot to tell you the weird thing about me. You may think I am a weirdo, but here it is: I have never been sick in my life. I know that may sound somewhat normal to you, but it isn’t. I have never had a cold, stomach virus, the Flu, or anything. Nobody really notices. Sometimes, I may act like I am sick to stop suspicions about me, but I am really not. I don’t think it is totally scary. I think it is cool. Just imagine never having to not go to practice because you’re sick, never having to not play outside because you’re sick; it’s just great. Illnesses never get in my way. Only my parents know this about me.
Okay, now I need to focus on school. I have to go to football from 5:00 to 8:00. That gives me just barely enough time to do my homework.
When I got home, I got my stuff ready and got in the car for football. Practice was long and hard, just like always. It has to be, though. It was getting me ready for tryouts.
I was up until 10:00 working on homework, chewing on my candy bar, and thinking about school. The chocolate was getting all over my homework papers. I tried to wipe it off with my hands, but it just made it worse. Well, why do teachers pile so much homework on the first day of school? I plopped onto my bed, recollecting the day. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.
I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock. I slapped the snooze button and saw what time it was: 8:00. Oh man, I need to hurry up and get ready. I only have 20 minutes. I jumped out of bed, threw on some clothes, and then headed downstairs to eat breakfast.
“Good morning, Justin,” greeted my Mom from the stove.
“Hey, Mom,” I replied.
“Oh, look at the time. You need to hurry. Don’t want to be late. Here are some eggs,” my Mom said as she handed me my breakfast. I guzzled down the eggs, which were kind of undercooked and tasted somewhat like cabbage. I then went to say bye to my dad. I heard the faint sound of the TV in the living room.
“Bye, Dad! See you later!” I called to him.
“Justin, wait! Come look at this. Look at what’s on the news. This is kind of weird,” he yelled back.
I went over to the living room. “What’s up, dad? I’m going to be late.”
“Just look.”
The news reporter, in her monotone voice, said, “We have many reports of deaths in West Asia and Europe. The cause of the deaths is currently unknown, but is seemed to be caused by an undiscovered disease. So far, there have been a total of 5,000 reported deaths caused from this disease alone.”
“Oh, it’s probably nothing. It happens all the time. Anyways, I’ve got to go to school,” I told my dad.
“All right, I guess you’re right. Bye, Justin!”
I ran out the door. I got to the bus stop right when the bus got there. I was so relieved I had made it. When I got to school, I found Ben again. We talked about football and school, but I could tell something was really bothering him. “What’s bothering you? It looks like something’s wrong,” I asked him.
“Oh, nothing. Just something I saw on the news. Didn’t you hear about that disease that’s killing a ton of people?” he asked me.
“Yeah, I saw that on the news. I don’t think it is that big of a deal. It’s just some disease.” I told him.
“It scares me a lot, though. Think about the Bubonic Plague, Smallpox, and the Yellow Fever. Some people thought they were just ‘some disease’. They all ended up altering history, killing many people.”
“Ben, I think you have been reading too many history books. Don’t worry about it. What happens will happen.” I told Ben.
The bell rang then, and I headed to my first period class. I was not looking forward to another day of school.
When I was sitting on the bus on the way home from school, I thought about what Ben told me about the disease. I don’t know what he was so worried about it. I had heard a little bit of talk about it in school, but no one seemed to care much. I think he is just paranoid. When the bus got to my stop, I was still thinking about the news report.
I had football practice again today. We did many running drills, practiced QB sneaks, and did some sprints. It was a pretty fun, not really difficult practice, for once. We hadn’t had a practice like that for a while.
When I got home from practice, I started to work my boatload of homework. I was getting more and more of it every day. After about 10 minutes, my parents yelled for me to come downstairs.

“What do you need? I’m trying to do my homework,” I asked my parents, heading down the stairs.

As I walked into the living room, my dad pointed at the TV screen, panic in his voice. “Look, Justin. It’s gotten out of control.”

I looked at the news on the screen. It was about the disease thing again. This time, it was much worse.

“There have now been many more deaths, a reported 50,000,000 at the time. There have been reports of it being in the United States, too. Scientists say that anybody is a target, young, or old. They do not know where it came from, or how many people will get infected.”

Ben was right, I thought to myself. I should have listened to him. This could be very bad. “What do we do?” I asked my parents, the only thing I could.

My dad answered, “You can’t go to school tomorrow. There is too much of a chance that you will get sick with the disease. We will all stay home, and wait the disease out. Maybe they will find a vaccine. Who knows?”

That’s when it hit me. Maybe I am immune to this disease. Since I have never gotten sick before, shouldn’t I be able to not get sick now? This could be true, but I may never know. I need to listen to my parents, and keep them safe. They have been sick before, so they can get this disease. I need to worry about them.

After I discussed this with my parents, they agreed that I should go see if any signs of the disease have been noticed in Newtownville. They were going to stay at home, and wait until I get back. Before I went, though, I watched the news again. I found out that the disease, now called Black Demon, had two parts to it. The first part of the disease causes minor headaches and nausea. Then, your skin will start to turn red. After this, death is imminent. You will die very soon after this happens, from a range of a minute to an hour. This didn’t make me feel good.

I headed out the door, and went straight to the town’s hospital. The hospital was only a 10 minute walk from my home. As I walked in the hospital, I smelled something weird. There was a faint smell of decaying flesh. I’m probably just paranoid. I walked up to the nice receptionist lady. “Have there been any cases of Black Demon here? You know the disease that is killing many people.”

The receptionist sighed, “Sadly, a lot. No one is safe. Over 100 people have died from Black Demon in this hospital alone. You should go home, kid. Stay safe.”

This was not good, not good at all. If this many people had died in the hospital, that means many have caught the disease at home, too. I had to get home, fast! I ran home as fast as I could, barged into my house door, and ran into the living room, where my parents were. My mom was laying on the couch, with my dad over her.

“What’s wrong? It’s only 8:00. How can you be so tired?” I asked my mom.

My dad answered, with grief in his voice, “I’m afraid she has caught Black Demon. She has a bad headache, and her skin is darkening.”

What, no! This could not be happening. This could not be happening, I told myself. “Maybe she just has a bad headache. It could be nothing,” I said frantically, terror in my voice.

“I’m sorry, Justin. It’s over. I never thought this would end this way, but it is what it is. I need to tell you something. You………” and with that, my mom went limp, and fell back, dead.

“Mom, no! Don’t do this.” But it was already over. Tears were streaming down my face. No, not my mom! And there was nothing I could do about it. I recovered myself, knowing that we had to move on. “Dad, we need to do something. Mom is gone, and we need to make sure you are safe from getting Black Demon. I am sure that I am immune to it. I don’t know why, but I just am. I always have been.”


“Son, right now we need to plan for the future. Black Demon is highly contagious, which means I will probably be infected soon.” He then paused for a minute. “The first signs are already coming,” my dad told me. Then his face turned pale. “Oh, no. I don’t feel so good,” my dad said as he ran to the bathroom. I heard the sounds of his retching all the way into the living room. “I am catching the disease. I do not want you to see me die, like your mom. Leave me, and go find someone who can help you,” my dad yelled to me, with a somber, but leading, tone in his voice.

I listened to my dad, now yet aware of how infectious this disease was. If I could find people who hadn’t got it yet, there could be a chance for their survival. I threw together some things into a backpack, and headed out the door. This was not good, not good at all. My parents, the people I had relied on all my life, were gone forever. Now I had to take matters into my own hands. Since his family lived only 3 minutes away, I headed to Ben’s house. Maybe they were okay. I am pretty sure I do not spread the disease. So I ran up to his door, and pounded on it. A person I guessed to be his mom answered. She said in a shy voice, “Hello, how may I help you?”

She had no idea what was happening. I informed her about my parents dying, and how the disease was spreading across the whole town, and more importantly, the whole world. She let me in the door, and went to tell her family. In a few moments, Ben came over to me.

“I told you this was going to happen, Justin,” he told me in an I-told-you-so tone.

I replied back, “I know you told me, but now we need to worry about survival. Basically the whole planet has been infected with Black Demon. I don’t know what we can do.”

Just then, Ben put his hands around my ear, and whispered in a very quiet voice, “I have a secret I need to tell you. I will not catch this sickness. The reason why is because I cannot get sick. I have never been sick in my life.”

I thought he was kidding. Or maybe I didn’t hear him right. All I know is that he did NOT just say he has never been sick.

“I know you think I am kidding, but I am not. It doesn’t make me a freak or anything, it’s just who I am. I never thought I would have to tell anybody this, but here I am, in the middle of an epidemic that is probably going to kill 99.99% of the human race.”

Okay, so he wasn’t kidding. “I know this is going to sound weird, but I have never been sick, either. I thought no one else was like me,” I told him, as his eyes widened in shock.

“Oh my gosh! I think this isn’t just a coincidence. I think we are meant to do something,” Ben told me.

I was still overcoming the shock from finding out that someone else is like me, when I said, “Well, what do we do? First, we need to tell this to your parents. Your mom and dad know that you are immune to all sicknesses, right?”

“Ummm……. not really. They have never noticed. They are pretty slow.”

This was going to make it difficult. “Okay. But they need to know now, because it is very important.” I told Ben.

Ben called for his parents. When they got into the room, Ben informed his parents about him never getting sick. When he told them this, their faces lit up.
“Oh, I always thought you got sick very little. I guess I never noticed that until now,” his mom said, an understanding look in her eyes. Boy, they are very slow. I then told his parents that I also was immune to getting sick. This shocked them. It looked like we were all thinking the same thing.
“We think this could help save people. We don’t know how, though,” Ben said. Everyone was thinking. My face lit up, and I shouted, “What if we have the answer to the cure to Black Demon?”
“Yeah, maybe! There could be a way to save everybody from the virus,” Ben’s dad said. “I have a friend, Dr. Stockwell, who studies stuff like that for a living. Maybe he could get some of your DNA or take blood samples, and could make a cure for Black Demon!”
This could be the break that we needed. I would do anything to save other people. I don’t care if it involves blood samples, x-rays, anything. There was only one problem, though. What if this guy already died from Black Demon? I dought it, though. He’s a scientist.
“Let’s turn on the news,” I said, and flicked on the TV. What I saw was not good. It was the same news reporter. “Black Demon has spread very fast. Over ¼ of the population has been killed from this disease.” I flicked off the TV. We had to act fast, very fast.
“Okay, that is not good at all. We need to go to Dr. Stockwell’s lab quickly. Let’s hope he can do something,” Ben’s mom told us. We found Dr. Stockwell’s address, and headed to it. Luckily, it wasn’t that far, only like 10 minutes away. Just to be safe, Ben’s parents wore paper masks they found in their First-Aid kit. When we got to the laboratory, which happened to be his home, too, we rang the doorbell. No one was coming to the door. Our faces were very gloom. Our only chance, failed. We started to walk back to the car. Just then, someone opened the door a crack. We turned around.
“Hello. What do you want?” The man at the door said.
Ben’s dad answered, “We think we may have a way to stop this disease.” That made Dr. Stockwell open the door and let us in. He asked us to tell him more. We told him all about how we never get sick, and the whole time he looked like he was in shock.
“Yes, finally! This might work. First, I need to do some blood tests. Come over here.” We walked into a small room with medical equipment all over it. Dr. Stockwell then got a needle and a tube out of a cabinet. He drew blood from Ben and I, making me wince. I had never been a fan of shots. “Now I need to take a small DNA sample. It won’t hurt at all.” He pulled a hair from each of us. “Okay, now I will test these to see if anything about you guys can help me find a cure.” He then went to work, taking out tools from the cabinets, weighing weird looking liquids, and many other things that I didn’t have a clue of. It felt like forever waiting for him. I just wanted some news. After what seemed like 3 hours, Dr. Stockwell turned to us. His face was grim.
“I cannot do anything with it. Everything is exactly the same as normal people. There is nothing that distinguishes that you are both immune to getting sick.”
I had a feeling this would happen. There was nothing we could do now. “Well, is there any way that people can be saved from Black Demon?” I asked him.
“No, there is nothing we can do. From my calculations, the whole world will have caught Black Demon and have died in less than a day.” The room was silent. I felt worse for Ben than anybody else. He was going to lose his parents, just like me. We all walked out of Dr. Stockwell’s house, and started to drive back home. I didn’t think things could get any worse. I was wrong.
Already, I could see Ben’s mom’s face getting paler. I couldn’t tell if it was just from shock, or if she was catching the sickness. When we got back to Ben’s house, we ran inside quickly. We flicked the television on once more. All we saw was static. We flipped through all the channels, and noticed that all the channels were down.
Finally, Ben broke the silence. “There is nothing to do. Let’s just hope that Dr. Stockwell was wrong. Maybe not everyone will die.” I doubted this. My doubts were confirmed when Ben’s mother, who was looking worse by the second, puked on the couch.
“Oh, no! Dr. Stockwell was right!” Ben shouted out loud. Things had gotten worse. His mom had caught Black Demon, and that meant that death would occur soon. I wish Ben didn’t have to go through what I had to go through with my parents. One thing was for certain, if Ben’s mom is sick, that means his dad will get infected soon, too.
We started to soothe Ben’s mother. I could tell she was very sad, and trying to share her last few minutes with her family, so I went away. I decided it would help to go to the local hospital to see if anybody could help us. I predicted that pretty soon it will be just Ben and I. No one really acknowledged me as I left. Since Ben’s house was pretty far from the hospital, I grabbed his bike from out in the garage. It was a nice bike, a speedy looking red Mongoose mountain bike with gears. I figured I didn’t have to hurry, so I headed to the hospital slowly. As I was biking, I noticed that no one was outside. There was no one playing sports, driving, or anything. It was like a ghost town. Hopefully this was not a bad sign. Maybe everyone is just inside, trying to keep away from the outside world.
It took me almost an hour to get to the hospital. For some weird reason, the lights were off inside. The sliding automatic doors did not open, so I pried them open with my hands. I could barely see in the dark of the hospital. There was no one anywhere. There was a very bad smell, though. It was the same smell I smelled at the hospital before, just this time it was overpowering. Where was everybody? As I searched through the hospital, I started to notice them. The dead bodies. There were dead bodies everywhere. In the hallways, doorways, on operating tables, everywhere. They were all a deep shade of red, meaning that Black Demon had caused their death. They were all fresh bodies, with their eyes glazed over. Scared and shocked expressions filled their faces. There were nurses, patients, doctors, and even the receptionist. They were all dead, no one alive in the whole hospital.
I left the horrifying sight of all the bodies, and headed back to Ben’s house. I had to tell everyone this, fast. I got back to Ben’s house very quickly, and threw the bike into the garage. I threw open the door, and ran into the living room. Ben and his dad were in there.
“Where’s your mom?” I asked Ben, knowing right away it was the wrong thing to say.
Ben’s face frowned, and I could tell he had been crying. “Black Demon took her. She is dead.”
I had known this was going to happen, but I hadn’t thought about how it would affect Ben. It was going to get worse, and I knew that.
“Are you ready for more bad news? This whole town is dead from the disease. The hospital was filled with bodies. No one was alive.”
“So basically, you are telling me that everyone has been killed by the disease, including my mom?” he asked me.
“Basically, but you still have your dad.”

Ben’s dad nodded his head, and he sat down on the couch. He too, was not looking so good. He said, “I am getting a headache, and feel a little nauseous. I am catching Black Demon.”

“No dad! You can’t die like mom. What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know. You are going to have to figure it out yourself. I cannot think right now.” With that, his dad lay down on the couch. Ben looked at me with a fear like I had never seen before.


“I’m sorry to break it to you, Ben, but your dad is going to die soon. That leaves us alone.” I told Ben, with a sorry look on my face.

We sat there for a long time, just talking with his dad. After what felt like five minutes, Ben’s dad went limp. He was dead. Even though Ben saw this coming, he started to bawl. I felt so bad for him. I knew how it felt. He cried, and cried, and once he got all his tears out, he looked at me.

“I don’t know what to do either.” I said with a confused look. “It’s just me and you. No one else.”

It was just Ben and I for the rest of our lives.

3 years later

We had been living on the Earth for long after the Black Demon apocalypse. All the food ran out five days ago. We were starved, and could do nothing about it. I never thought it would end like this, I thought to myself. I took my last breath, and looked up to the sky. Goodbye, world.