Clay Nicolai March 15th 2042

I sighed. There goes another one to the virus. The virus had taken way more people than expected since the big outbreak in January. And now there's a corpse in the middle of the street.

You're probably wondering what in the world I’m talking about.

Well, the short answer is, a super deadly virus (yeah, coronavirus got worse) got created and ever since 2033, half of the population is dead or dying from the virus. The long answer is… complicated. Fortunately or unfortunately, (you decide) I’ve survived since the beginning of this crap so I get to put up with the decaying, corrupt, noxious version of Earth. The only thing that can even remotely be called a plus is almost everyone has superpowers now. Yay. 

There are many types of powers. Some people have more than one power and some people work in teams and they can create combos. But, without the superpowers, we wouldn't have the virus. Scientists were using fragments of different viruses to try and make genetic modifications so that we have superpowers and one of the failed attempts escaped and mutated into a deadly virus with no obtainable cure. That was back in 2033, it's been 9 years since then, and nothing has gotten better. In fact, things have gotten worse, more people dead, fewer supplies, and more of the feeling that I'm in the middle of an apocalypse.  

Ok, back to the dead person. I searched the pockets and found nothing, so I had my hellflame (powers) consume  then got up, hopped on my bike, and kept going.

What? Is it that I practically cremated someone at 4 AM? Or is it that I searched a dead person?

Ok listen, I have a good reason, I'm running low on supplies and I have a cat to feed so I kinda needed to. Also, if we didn’t get rid of the dead somehow, the streets would be filled with rotting bodies and that would be 1) gross and 2) impractical. I mean, imagine trying to go to your local Walmart, but the roads were covered with dead people.

Yeah, not easy.

I was in for a long ride, I'd exhausted all the stores within 3 towns of my base (a random house I'd “adopted” once the owners died) and as I said, I was almost out of food and clean water.

Why was I leaving at 4 AM? That's when the captors would least expect me to because that's when all the mutants would be awake and running rampant. The captors try to take anyone who doesn't ‘participate in the community’, aka, they would brainwash anyone with individual thought. The world has evolved into a wonderful thing, hasn't it? 

My cat, Morgan, meowed, which meant that I should probably get going or get killed by a mutant. He can detect mutants nearby, seeing as he is one. A kind one, but still a mutant. 

Morgan hopped out of the basket I had zip-tied to the front of my bike and started scratching my arm. “Okay! Okay!” I yelped, “I'll get going!”.

As I sped along the hundreds of abandoned cars on the freeway, I couldn't help but remember how I found Morgan, or rather, how he found me.  

I’d been 8 at the time before I had my current base, and before my town had run out of food. My powers hadn’t been activated yet, so the only weapon I had was a small knife.