The Cardellian Chronicles Book One: Clinging to Reality

When she woke up, there was a paramedic standing over her, shining a light in her eyes and keeping their fingers pressed to her wrist to keep track of her pulse. She blinked open her dark brown eyes and looked around her surroundings. There were a bunch of reporters around the area and the red and blue lights from the ambulance were flashing, creating an almost strobe effect on the walls of the large house.

“Wha- what happened?” she asks.

“Miss, can you tell me your name?” the man asked.

“A-alfia May,” she answered.

“Good. Can you tell me what day it is?”

She furrowed her brow, “I-I don’t even know if I knew before I passed out. I-i-i’m not g-good with t-t-time.”

“Okay. That’s fine. Can you tell me what you were doing before you fainted?”

“I was in the morgue,” she said.

The paramedic checked her forehead for a fever, “What were you doing in the morgue?”

She pushed herself up on her elbows, “I-i was looking at the bodies of the people who had died. The-the thirty who went in thirty hours. How long was I out?”

“You’re friend carried you up here two hours ago. We’ve been keeping track of you that long.”

The lights from the ambulance and reporters faded and was replaced with the interior of the ambulance.

She frowned, “Are we in the ambulance?”

“Yes. The press outside were trying to get close to you and we couldn’t allow them to do that. How old are you, Alfia?” The paramedic asked.

“Eighteen,” she answered, “How old are you?”

The paramedic smiled, “I’m twenty-three. The mortician said you’re pre-med?”

She nodded, “Yeah.”

“What field are you going into?” he asked.

“CyberTech implants,” she told him, sitting up completely.

“Easy,” he put a hand on her arm, “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Where’s Benny?” she rubbed at her forehead.

“The guy who carried you out of the morgue? He’s outside somewhere. Can you tell me what happened downstairs? What made you pass out?” the paramedic asked. “Did you hit your head?”

She shook her head, “No, I had flashbacks. I need to find Benny.”

“Flashbacks to what?” he asked. Everytime he talked to her, it was in a calming, soothing voice that was supposed to make you trust the person taking care of you. It did the exact opposite for Alfia.

She jerked her wrist out of his hand, “I’m fine. Where’s Benny?”

“Alfia, I need you to calm down. What did you see in your flashbacks?” he asked again.

“Nothing,” she slid off the gurney he had her on and made for the door of the ambulance.

“Alfia, I need you to stay in here,” he made to grab her arm, but she spun around and slammed him to the metal floor, her hand at his throat, “Don’t. Touch. Me.” she said in a dangerously low and calm tone. “Where’s Benny?”

“Outside,” the paramedics’ eyes were wide.

“Stay here,” she ordered, “I don’t know what’s happening right now, and I don’t know what’s going to happen and I don’t want a civilian to get in the way of my trying to figure it out, okay?”

“I thought you were pre-med,” he asked in confusion.

“My dad was in the military. Now stay here and stay low,” she stood, “And if necessary, play dead.”

Alfia went to the door of the ambulance and slipped outside, feeling the paramedic’s eyes on her as she left. She realized she must have been a sight to behold. A girl dressed fairly nicely with oddly colored hair who had just woken up from unconsciousness and slammed the paramedic that had taken care of her onto the floor of the ambulance, walking out of said emergency vehicle as though nothing had happened and heading straight for a boy who was twice her size with a murderous glare. At least, that’s what the press said when they later showed the video of her marching right at him. Really, she was holding herself back from running at him and launching herself into his familiar embrace.

“Alfia, are you okay?” Benny asked when she finally reached him and Nate.

“I’m fine. I just-uh- I just had a moment,” she said, glancing back at the reporters, “We’re drawing too much attention. We need to get out of here.”

“Where do you suggest we go?” Benny asked.

“Home.”

Both Benny and Nate were pestering her with questions she didn’t know how to answer as they took the trolley back to their home. She snapped at them to shut up, which they did fairly quickly, leaving some silence that allowed her to think. There was something about the coding of the Virus that set her on edge, she just couldn’t put her finger on it. She thought about it for the majority of the trolley ride back to the City. Benny fell asleep with his head leaning against the window in the row behind where she had been sitting. Nate was sitting beside him, watching her. She was dimly aware that his eyes were on her, but she didn’t pay much attention to it. She was used to it by now. But Nate’s stares weren’t like everyone else’s. The majority of people stared at her and Benny because they simply couldn’t help themselves, even if they tried not to. Nate stared at her because he wanted to. She didn’t understand why anyone would want to stare at her just to stare, but she had learned not to ask him why he watched her so much. She had only made that mistake once. Nate had only gotten this cocky grin and asked her if she enjoyed it. She had made a face of disgust and quickly gone into the kitchen to get something to eat, but mostly to get away from the strange blonde A.I. He just didn’t seem to want to not stare at her and it was a curious thing to her, but it wasn’t something the balance of her existence balanced on. That position was already filled by the Virus.

The trolley slowed to a stop and Alfia looked back at Benny to see if he was going to get up. She sighed when it was obvious that he wouldn’t be and got up to get him. She slung one of his arms over her shoulders and dragged him off the trolley before adjusting him so that his entire torso was stretched across her shoulders and so that she was holding onto his leg and arm to carry him home.

Nate raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t know you could carry him.”

She grunted as she shifted Benny’s weight on her back to make it easier to carry him, “Believe it or not, there’s still a lot you don’t know about me.”

“That so?”

“Look, I’m trying to carry a guy who’s twice my size without falling over or passing out, so could we keep the conversation to a minimum?” she panted.

“Yeah, sorry.”

She didn’t answer, trying to keep her balance when Benny’s weight shifted. When they got back to the house, she slid him off her shoulders onto the couch and put a blanket over him before leaning against the wall, trying to catch her breath. She pulled her hair up into a sloppy bun and went up to her bedroom to get ready for bed, trying to figure out what was so familiar about the coding for the Virus. She changed into an old grey-blue t-shirt and a pair of loose grey sweatpants before sitting at her desk and starting to work out the coding of the Virus. She was at it for a few hours and when the sky started to get brighter, Nate finally told her to get to bed. She argued weakly for a second before her body gave in and she flopped onto her bed. She rolled onto her side and curled up a little. She was asleep before her eyes finished closing.