literature

2075: The Prologue

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Literature Text

Prologue
                               
                     Three skinny figures walked across a barren landscape. They had been told he was here. Here, in the middle of the baking desert once filled with life. I suppose we ought to have left him, under the circumstances, but if there are any survivors, we have to find them. Susan walks in front, her knife in her pocket with her hand. Her dark African-American skin glitters with sweat in the blinding sunlight, her fuzzy hair sticks out of her ponytails at odd angles. She is fifteen. I am in the middle, with my long brown hair tied back in a long braid. My pocketknife is in  my satchel that I carry around my shoulders, because I trust that Susan will protect me, not to mention I’m still in training, I’m ‘just twelve’. I swear, the moment she turned fifteen, she knew everything.  Bringing up the rear is Juan, with his shifty brown eyes seeming to look everywhere at once, his crossbow drawn and his Hispanic skin glistening with nervous sweat. He is sixteen. As far as we know, we are they only survivors of the year 2074.
                 
                          The end of the world began on, what else? A Wednesday. Everybody hates Wednesdays.  The cure for lung cancer had just been found, the trouble was, it made everybody without an O positive blood type go strange, even if they had just inhaled it, not taken it. They didn’t know this until it was too late. The drug had been mass produced, and shipped out all across the world, before the first case had developed. The doctor who had given me the drug started to sprout hair, all over his body, and long wispy whiskers sprouted all over his face. His nose and mouth elongated into a long snout, like a wolf, and his hands and feet sprouted claws, long and gnarly claws. He was no longer human. He clawed at the walls of his office where a frightened secretary had locked him in. Everyone who was not an O positive blood type was eventually somehow infected, and the ones who weren’t suffered a worse fate. These…. Beasts are carnivorous, and they travel in packs. All three of us had lost our families. My older sister, Juan’s twin brother, Susan’s little sister…… Susan had her whole life ahead of her, going to Harvard, early decision, going to be a lawyer. Juan had just gotten into the best high school in his area in Columbia.  I was a gifted straight A student learning Russian and Spanish.
                     
                   Now, all our hard academic work meant nothing. Juan had grown up on the streets of Columbia, scrounging off of the kindness of strangers for food. He usually went hungry. He had gotten into high school on a scholarship. Him and his twin brother Julio were orphans.  He had contracted the cancer from asbestos outside on the school lawn. His brother worked nine jobs to pay the medical bills. When he was cured, he thought that was the happiest day of his life. Until his doctor went into a spasm, and turned into a beast, killing his brother. He had been able to master the power immediately, turning into a lion, and scaring off the beast. His brother had died in his arms.
                       
                    Susan had lived a life of privilege, her father was friends with the president, she had gone to school with the presidents daughters. She lived in her home in the Hamptons, her grades were somehow better than mine, but that didn’t help her. She contracted the cancer from the roof of her old house, and her old life disappeared. The world turned gray. When she was cured, she was able to have three blissful days back with her family, before her parents dropped to the floor shaking………. Her older brother and younger sister locked themselves in the room so that Susan could get away.
                         Susan panted, “There it is!” I strained my eyes to see it. It was another five minutes before I saw the city. The sandy landscape had not allowed for many landmarks along the way, but there was no mistaking the outskirts of the American capital city. Washington DC.
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C-A-Harland's avatar
Very cool concept and you've obviously put quite a bit of thought into it. My only recommendation would be to hold off on the back stories a little and drip feed them to the reader during the chapters, rather than all at once, as it will keep your reader hooked for longer. The suspense build up in the prologue is great as it definitely makes it interesting but perhaps you could even expand on it a little by showing them having a close encounter with a "beast" or something similar.