I always knew the disease was dangerous but I never thought it would spread so quickly.

My family and I are all sitting, all in black in front of my mother’s tomb with my younger sister, Taya is sobbing into my shoulder. Her eyes were a waterfall which made my shoulder feel like a cliff. On the other side of Taya is my older brother Gage, he is also trying to comfort Taya. It is almost impossible for me to hold back my tears at her funeral. It is a cloudy day, it almost felt like night. Everyone went up to the stand to say something nice about her. The funeral felt like the whole day, there were so many good things to say about her. Now it is our family’s turn. First, Gage said something super thoughtful and almost everyone fell into sadness. Now it is my turn. I rehearsed this about 100 times but when I heard Gage’s I almost completely forgot it. Thankfully, I remembered to bring a card that has my speech on it. As I walk up to the stand I give Taya’s head a little push towards Gage so I could stand up. Here I go, come on you can do this Cody, I told myself. I took a deep breath and said,”We all loved Ma.  She was sweet and nice, even if we made her mad. I loved her so much and I miss her so much. She was the best person I ever met.”

We were lucky to even get a spot in the funeral house, some families don’t get a spot in the graveyard since the disease is so contagious. As soon as Mom’s funeral ended we went back to the apartment.  As we got back to the apartment, Gage went to the kitchen and heated up some soup that we ate the night before. I started to think a lot about mom. The words I said at the funeral were the words I said right before she died. I always felt bad for mom. She didn’t deserve what’s she's been through. Like dad leaving us or her catching that disease.

By then, Gage came into the living room with three bowls of soup. He sat down in the middle of Taya and I and handed a bowl of soup to each of us.  Then  I started to think about Dad. It wasn't till recently when Dad left us. He was a scientist. He went upstate to find a cure for the Covert disease or so he calls it. It only affects people who stopped aging or reached the age of 1. Ever since the disease started, he was obsessed with finding the cure. I guess he was so obsessed that he chose the cure before us. He owned a lab in Acadia. At first, it was to study animals but now it is to find a cure in a remote place so the scientist doesn't get the disease. After my dream ended I realized that I finished my bowl of soup. All the sudden I start to think again. I went into my room to go change out of my clothes and went to the building across from us.
Gage yelled to me,”Hey, where are you going?”
I didn’t answer him.

I walked along the path that led to a small building. When I got to the building, there was a small sign that said, Lincoln City library. It was one of the only library's left. I walked into the small room and there was a tall old lady sitting at the desk. I asked her where were non-fiction section was and she pointed to the left. There were only 3 shelves. I looked in the C section but there were no books that started with a C. Then I looked in the D section and a found a book with a title,”Diseases by Stephen Newport”. I took it out of the dusty shelf and blew off the dust on the cover. I opened the book and it is in alphabetical order. I turn to the co-section and I was the first one. The Covet disease. As I read on it said,

There wasn’t that much information on it since most writers die before they could publish the book. I tried to look for any more books but that was the only one.

I thanked the Librarian, even though she didn’t talk, and went back home. When I was walking back to the apartment, I felt a big shake under my feet. I saw a building a block away collapse. I start sprinting towards the apartment building as fast as I could. Then I see Gage holding Taya’s hand, slamming the door against the wall that leads to the stairwell.
”There’s an attack,” Gage claimed
“Where?” I questioned.
“I don’t know, all I know is we got to go!” We ran outside and a bomb hits the building a block away from us. We start running.
Someone shouted,”Head to the fields!” Now everyone was running.

All the sudden winged beasts dropped from the sky. The body of a horse covered in feathers and a head of an eagle with the sharpest beak I have ever seen. Hippogriffs! The police come marching in shooting the hippogriffs down. The hippogriffs start to charge. We quickly run behind the police force. The hippogriffs tear the force apart and left them lying in the streets.
“We got to move, they aren’t going to hold them off much longer!” Gage proposed. We run for 10 blocks and finally reach the fertile soil. We try to hide in the long grass the flooded the field like a tsunami. Gage quickly picks Taya up into his arms because she wasn’t moving fast enough. I realize that we are leaving a trail behind us when cutting through the tall grass.
”We can’t hide here we are leaving a trail behind us,” I blurted to Gage.
“Ok. We should head to the forest,” Gage said.
“The forest!” I whimpered,”It’s dangerous there, we will be killed!”
“Trust me!” Gage promised.

Then, all the sudden wizards start to teleport into the fields throwing sphere bombs at everyone. As they hit the poor innocent people, the bomb realized some sort of ray and fell to the ground. One of the wizards anxiously starts charging at us.
“Gage, one of them spots us!” Gage took a kitchen knife out of his pocket and throws it at him. It hit him dead on. Another wizard came sprinting and through a sphere bomb at me. I acted quickly and caught the sphere bomb and throw it back to the wizard. Unluckily the wizard caught in but found another woman hiding in the grass and attached it to her and ran the other way. I couldn’t even bother looking at her. Taya started to cry again. I felt bad, we couldn’t help her because we had to get away. So we kept on running.

That night we heard all kinds of screams. Then I started to get tired.
“Are we far enough yet. I’m so tired! We have been running for miles.” I said
“We can walk, but not stop. They are still after us.” Gage said.
By the time it was dark, we were halfway through the field.
Gage finally said,”We can stop now.”
“Finally,” I said. By that time, I had realized that Gage was wearing a backpack.
I asked,“What do you have in there?”
“Oh, it is just a few things I put together last minute.” In the field, we found some dried out crops and Gage  found a spot where there was no grass. He got two small rocks and worked on the fire. On the side, Taya was playing with her doll that she somehow had. Gage got some sparks going and eventually got a fire. Good thing I had that bowl of soup before we left. I would be starving if I didn’t. I found a nice patch of grass that was fluffy enough to be a pillow.
“Get up” Gage yelled as he was shaking me. I felt the sunshine right into my eyes.
“Oww!”
Taya asked,”When are we going home?”
I said to her,”I have no idea.” Gage flicked me in the head.
He said,”Don’t worry, we will be home soon.” Then, I got up and we started to head to the forest. We took a few breaks. The sun was on us beating us hard. Taya got too tired so Gage is carrying her now.

By midday we made it. There was a small wooden sign covered with moss and dirt. I used my hand to wipe off the dirt and the sign said,”Acadia National Park”.
“Look Gage! We made it!” I said
Taya tried to sound it out,”Ahcadea Nashinol Pahrk.”
Gage said,”Nice try.” As soon we stepped into the forest, I felt cold. It was so spooky. The ground was covered in moss and when it wasn’t, it was watery mud. Taya was enjoying herself by using the small spots of moss as hopscotch pieces. I tried to act as manly as I could, but it didn’t work. Every second I took a step deeper into the forest, it made me feel weaker and weaker. Soon dark fell over me.

As I wake up, I see white. I have never seen a white sky. I was lying on the green grass and our old house behind me. I see mom and dad holding hands standing on the porch. All the sudden a green car pulls up and dad runs to the car pulling mom with him. When they got to the car, mom was talking to him and his happy face turned sad. She let go of his hand and went back into the house. Dad was just standing there all depressed. He hops into the green car and looks at mom like he wishes she was with him.

All the sudden I feel water going down my cheek. I start to feel a pain in my chest. I wake up, lying on a cot with deerskin as my blanket. I look around and there is a weird person standing the corner. I try to get up to sneak out of the weird place. All the sudden, I feel a like there is a hole in my chest. I make a loud grunt and the person in the corner walks over to me and pushes me back into the cot.
“Lay down,” She said,”You have been out for a long time.” I give her a questioning look when my freckles go up and I widen my dark brown eyes.
“How long? Who are you?” I asked her.
“Settle down child,” She said
“Where are Taya and Gage?” I start to yell. “Taya! Gage! Help!” I scream.
“Shhh,” she said putting her finger to her lips. “Go back to sleep.” She went over to the counter and made me drank this serum. All the sudden, I blacked out.

Again, I feel water go down my cheek. Instead of waking up to the weird lady, Gage and Taya were standing next to me.
“Look he is waking up” Taya yelled,”Hey Cody. Are you ok?”
“Yea. I’m fine. Where are we?” I asked.
“Were at Ms.Penhallow’s house?” she told me.
“ Who is Ms.Penhallow,” I asked.
“I am,” Ms.Penhallow said.
”How did we get here?” I asked, “Where is Gage?” Ms.Penhallow and Taya looked at each other.
“Well… um. It’s a long story.”Ms.Penhallow sighed.
“You were knocked out.”Ms.Penhallow said, “A wizard tracked you down and when he found you, he through a sphere bomb at you. Luckily, he barely hit you so you didn’t die. That’s why you have that burn.” She explained
“I don’t get it,” I said, “Why would I pass out if he just throws a sphere bomb at me?” I asked.
“You fell down and hit your head on a rock,” Ms.Penhallow explained. I stretched my arm out to touch the back of my head. There's a huge bruise.
“Then where is Gage,” I said worriedly.
“You may have survived the sphere bomb but Gage didn’t” Ms.Penhallow said sadly.
“He was hit in the heart,” She said, “I couldn’t save him. There wasn’t enough time.
“How long was I out?” I asked.
“About a week,” She said.
“A week! What happened between then and now!” I exclaimed.
“ Ms.Penhallow, who you screamed at before, saved us. She is a healing wizard.” Taya explained. “She is the one who healed your head and your stomach.” She revealed. Now I felt really bad since I screamed at her. She was the one who saved me.
Ms.Penhallow continued on,”I cast a spell on the wizard and he disappeared.”
“So … was I asleep that whole time? How did I get here?” I asked.
“I had to carry you,” Ms.Penhallow said.
“Oh. Okay.” I said. I still was so confused. What was that dream I had? Was it real? Everything got all mixed up in my head. What was the green car? Why did it take me so long to recover? I got way too tired to think about this so I fell asleep on the cot.

I am lying on a patch of moss. I was dark out and there were trees surrounding me. All I see is a big round concrete building in front of me. All the sudden a small green car zoomed past me. It was the same one that my dad was in. I followed it. When the car got to the building there were no doors so how were they going to get in. All the sudden, a man in a tan jacket pulls out some sort of keypad out of his pocket. I saw the numbers he pressed 0, then 4, after that it was  3, then 0 again, 2, next was 1, then 8, and finally 2 again. I thought about those numbers for a second, and then it hit me. It was me and Gage’s birthday except for the year, that was Gage´s birth year. Gage and I had the same birthday. This must be when Taya wasn’t born yet. That’s probably why I don’t remember it. Oh, I think I remember what Gage told me what he remembered a few years back. I think mom realized that she was pregnant with Taya after Dad left.

After the man entered those numbers in, a door opened and a huge ray of light burst out of the door. He put the keypad in his bag and but dropped it. They all walk into that huge ray of light and the door closes behind them. I tip-toe up to the keypad and quickly grab it off of the floor.
I entered Gage’s and I´s birth date. The huge door opened and the light hurt my eyes. Right next to the door I dug up a whole and put the keypad in, just in case if I come back, then I put the pile of dirt on top of it. I couldn't see so I held onto the wall just in case. As you walk in more the light starts to dim more and more. Then I got to this hallway. There were all types of animals in these glass cages. I felt bad for them, they looked like they were starving to death. I kept on walking down the hallway until I got to this lab. There were test tubes and all sorts of stuff that scientist use. Eventually, I got to a bigger lab. That’s where I found my dad. He had a white coat on with a name tag that said,”Dr.Lepper.” He looks just like Gage with blue eyes and light brown hair which is an inch long. He was mixing some sort of blue liquid into another red liquid and it didn’t do anything. All it did was turn purple. He looked really frustrated. Then he mixed the purple liquid into the orange liquid. First, it started to bubble, then the liquids started to swirl. Then all the sudden the liquid shot up in the air spilling all over my dad. The liquid started to overflow the whole lab. By the time the liquid reached my knees, that? when I passed out.

I wake up my heart beating in the middle of the night my heart beating so fast that it felt like it wanted to burst out of my chest. I felt like I  just came out of the pool dripping wet. I wiped my face  with a cloth next to the night table next to me. I was way too tried to get me another glass of milk, so I laid down face first on my pillow and went back to sleep thinking what was I going to do now since Gage is gone.

The next morning, my chest was almost completely healed, thanks to Ms.Penhallow. We thanked the wizard and went back home. Before we left she whispered to me.
”Remember the dream,” She said.  I had no idea what that was supposed to mean. When we walked away from her hut we waved goodbye to he and we were on our way. I had no idea where we were going but I kept walking. Finally, I got to a dark side of the forest. It was so dark that I could barely see. All the sudden a bright light in the far distance appears. I hold Taya’s hand and walk toward it. Finally, I got to a big concrete building. The one I had in my dream.
“Where are we?” Taya asked
“We are at Dad’s lab,” I answer. All the sudden the door shuts. I run over to the right side of the door and there is a pile of dirt. I start to dig. Dig as fast as I could. And there I found it. The keypad in my dream.