Sarah Tries to Save the World (15 page)
Chapter 9
I wake up feeling oddly refreshed, but when I open my eyes, I totally freak out.
I’m in an enclosed chamber. I can’t move because of this strange liquid surrounding me.
My eyes widen. The entire chamber is filled with liquid. I am going to drown. Worst possible death ever, except for maybe being burned alive or being suffocated.
Everything outside of the chamber is a blur because of the weird liquid, which is kind of a gel and kind of a solid but still remarkably like a liquid. (That probably makes no sense. If you try to look through it, it’s almost solid. You can move through it like it’s liquid. It’s sort of jelly feeling when you move through it, though).
I prepare myself to suffocate, taking one last deep breath- wait. I can breathe through this stuff. What the heck is happening?
Through the gel-liquid-solid (Geliqid? Guidsol? Gequilid? What do you call it?) I can faintly see people.
There’s a nurse, Ben, and the rest of my group (except for Penelope). Huh. Where is she? Must be working on the antidote some more.
Everyone is crying, except for maybe Arcya. I can’t really tell through this stuff. Ben is studying my face, like he’s trying to capture it in his memory. He’s just about to turn away when I force myself to carefully move my hand through the weird material and wave.
He starts to smile, and when I press my hand against the edge of the chamber, his smile broadens. He puts his hand against the edge of the chamber, too, saying something that is so oddly distorted I can’t really understand it. (Before you ask, I’m not going to try to translate, because it sounds like ‘mgahi ireasp blabaih’, it’s that muffled and weird).
I cup my hand around my ear, shaking my head. His eyes open wide in understanding, and he vigorously nods before turning and saying something to the nurse.
The nurse quickly turns, taps a few buttons on a box, and the gel slowly begins to drain from the chamber, replaced with fresh, cool air. I take a deep breath of it, savoring it while I wait for my release from the.. thingamabob.
She taps a few more buttons and the chamber spits me out on the ground.
“Hi,” I say, and Lily looks at me tearfully. “Uhhhh. I’m alive?”
“No duh,” says Arcya, punching my arm lightly after helping me stand up. “Seaweed brain, giving us such a scare like that.”
Aria walks into the room with a blotchy red nose and, at the sight of me, literally attacks me with a hug and begins crying.
“You.. total.. idiot!” she exclaims, even as she’s bawling.
“Yup, that’s me. Sarah Sindile, the total idiot, who just saved the world!”
“We helped too,” says Matthew, and Arcya looks at him admiringly.
Hmm. I’ll have to watch THAT ‘friendship’.
Suddenly, everyone (including Arcya!) is swarmed around me, hugging me.
That’s when Ben, who had been watching quietly in the corner, comes up to me. “Hey,” he says.
“Hey,” I reply awkwardly. “Uhm, so how have you been doi-”
He stops me by kissing me, and I completely forget that there are people watching, I probably look like a total mess, and I’m most likely still covered in that gooey stuff.
All the people in the world could’ve watched and it wouldn't have mattered to me. The only one I was paying attention to was him.
He breaks away after a while, smiling.
“Wait, they’re finally together?” says Aria.
“Yeah, and it’s about time, too,” mumbles Lily under her breath.
“So Ben
did
actually kiss her before?”
“Uhh, I think it’s time to go,” says Ben as he picks me up and begins sprinting out of the room.
Everyone chases us (except for the nurse, of course) around the hallways till we all run out of breath.
“Where’s Penelope?” I ask after the general hilarity has died down.
“In a coma,” replies Matthew grimly. “She was knocked out pretty hard. You were both in a medically induced coma to help speed up the healing process.”
I nod mutely. Another thought strikes me.
“The antidote to the plague?”
“Dies with her if she dies,” says Aria softly.
“Then it’s very, very lucky for you that she’s not dead,” says Penelope, striding into the room and looking as good as new.
“Penelope!” I say. “You’re alive!”
“Oh, a very nice morning to you too,” she says.
“You’re alive!” Ben says in a falsetto, attempting to mimic me.
“Hey, technically, you should be dead, too,” says Penelope to me. “But yes, I’m alive. I’ve been awake for a day or so now, but figured I should wait to appear until she’s been brought out of her coma, too. That way everything good happens on one day.”
“You did a good job hiding from us,” replies Ben.
“I was working on the antidote to the plague and I think I’ve found it,” she replies.
I gasp before grinning. “Of course you did.”
The future suddenly looked a whole lot brighter.
“What’s next, replacing the NutriDispensers filled with serum with the antidote to the plague instead?” asks Ben.
“No,” says Penelope.
I look at her, mystified.
She continues, “That already happened. My spies? Well, as soon as I developed it, they took their planes and started to change it out. There are only a few left.”
I grin more broadly.
“And Tieryl City?” asks Ben.
“Exploded after all of our troops left,” replies Arcya with a smile. “My explosives did the job.”
“So what now?” I ask, hardly believing this has all happened.
“We rebuild the world,” replies Penelope.
“Oh, naturally. We wouldn’t do something totally crazy and probably impossible,” I joke.
“Oh wait, we already have!”
“With help of other countries and a whole lot of hard work, it can happen.”
“Yes, I’m sure it will,” I reply.
Epilogue
-Eight years later-
Before you ask, we did rebuild the world after about three years.
The zombies that were still alive? They became perfectly human and helped us rebuild it. For getting the population back up, all the people in Arcya’s village willingly relocated and, as is apt to happen, married and had many children.
As for Arcya herself, she hasn’t changed a bit, still being as stubborn as ever. She is happily married to Matthew and has one mischievous little girl whom she named Sarah, after me, and an adorable baby boy, Brad. Elder Manoiv, now aging, lives with them and helps to keep their children under control (although he does alternate between spoiling the kids and being too stern with them).
Lily is thriving as a scientist, helping Penelope to discover more medical cures. She also has a boyfriend, Liam, who was a volunteer from what was formerly known as Australia to help rebuild Murlyn. I think the wedding bells will come soon, and am crossing my fingers for that.
Aria got married, too, to a man named Joseph. He was one of the superhumans from Tieryl City and he’s absolutely perfect for her. They have three little girls (Maddie, Rebecca, and Theresa) and two little boys (Thomas and Walter). All of them are sweet, sassy, and of course (it goes without saying!) cute.
Penelope never remarried and is working with Lily to come up with a bunch of cures for diseases. She also runs a home for orphans and has plenty of orphans to deal with, which she loves.
As for me?
I had my happily ever after and married Ben (who is still handsome, funny, helpful, and makes time for me, despite our seven kids). My oldest, Mariella, is sweet and takes after me in that she loves writing. My next oldest, Jacob, is a regular prankster and makes me lose my wits with all his jokes- but he makes up for it with his kindness and generosity towards his siblings. Kylee and Kara are twins, adorable as all get out, never leave each other’s sides, and get along great (most of the time). The babies of the family, Camden and Christopher, are a boy-and-girl set of twins. They’re just babies, so they don’t have too much personality, but they’re very happy babies.
All in all? Life is pretty good.
You’d never tell what had happened with the disasters and the apocalypse if you saw Murlyn now. The greenery is grown back, the buildings patched, and life goes on as normal.
I finish my third and final journal with a sense of satisfaction and a thirst to make a difference.
Maybe something else big will happen in the future. I don’t know.
But I will live life to the fullest, and I know this rollercoaster of a life is definitely worth riding.
All the best wishes to you, reader.
Sarah Sindile
If you’ve enjoyed this book, please leave a review for others!
Find more books by Noah Porter:
