Emma+Vignette

Dystopia Creative Writing Assignment  I used to be able to ride my bike on the greenline. That was before 2050. That was before the floods that caused all of this mess. My downtown home was destroyed, along with everyone’s lives around it. Luckily my family and I moved into a house with our friends in Germantown, but our luck was short when the epidemic broke out. This is my story. Let me tell you how it started.

It was December 15, 2050, 10 days before the “new holiday” the government started. The government started this holiday to replace Christmas because they wanted everything equal, including everyone’s beliefs. The citizens who celebrated Christmas or talked about the government were sent to jail, including my father. I thought my father being taken away was the worst thing that could happen to me. I was very wrong.

The morning of the floods I was getting ready to go to Hutchison for school. I took the transportation tube to school and got there in 10 seconds, slower than normal. At school, everything was normal, until lunch. Lily, looking anxious, ran up to me.

“Tonks! Tonks!” she screamed. “Did you get an isight from James again?” I asked, wondering how boy crazy she could get. “Yes, but that’s not what I wanted to tell you about! There is something wrong with the Mississippi River! I have heard rumors that all of midtown and downtown are turning into lakes!”

I immediately thought of my loved ones; my mom, brother, grandparents, friends, and my beloved pet pygmy puff. Before I could think more about the situation, I see the hologram of our principal appear. “Attention students,” he says, “There has been problems with the Mississippi River overflowing because of global warming. Midtown and downtown are experiencing massive flooding. Will everyone please go to the emergency shelter and bring you isights to contact your parents.” All I could remember from that moment was a large amount of pushing, shoving, and screaming; but all I felt was worry. Four hours later we were released from the shelter. I looked outside; everything looked wet, but outside was not a lake. I was relieved, but then I saw my mother.

“Mom? Why are you here?” I said “Does this school tell you anything? Everywhere expect for Germantown and East Memphis are flooded” she said. “Please don’t tell me our house is flooded!” I could now feel the wetness of tears across my face. “I’m sorry, Tonks. Our neighborhood doesn’t exist anymore.”

Throughout 2051 we were rebuilding our lives, house, and emotions. Things were getting better. Then the epidemic broke out. It hit the poorest people first; the people who were living on small rafts in downtown. On the intervision, I heard reports of people developing rashes like scales across their body. Then they experienced massive headaches, loss of blood, and death. It was midtown who then got the disease. Soon the intervision news would not explain anything about the floods; mother said they were using propaganda to make the government seem better.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">One dark, cloudless night, bursting with stars a cloaked man came to our house. When the man lifted his cloaked; I recognized him immediately. It was the man I had been longing to see for over a year. It was my father.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">“We must leave. Now. Memphis is…” <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">“But Daddy! How did you escape from prison?” I interrupted. <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">“Don’t talk. It is very important that we leave immediately. Memphis is being quarantined because of the sickness. Soon there will be no way in or out; all transportation tubes will be shut down. We will be stuck here to die. I have arranged an old mean of transportation, an airplane, to take us to Brazil, where we will be safe. Don’t ask any questions; until we are out of America. They are watching.”

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">At 4:05 AM the plane arrived. Once my family and I got on the plane, I could hear sirens echoing behind us. The government was after us. This was our family’s worst nightmare.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Tomorrow morning would we be alive or dead?