"The Memory Remains"By Mel
It was a cool morning. Babs rolled over feeling pain course through her body. She tried to breath and found it was almost impossible. It was like nothing she had ever experienced before. She tried to turn but felt herself frozen in place. Opening her eyes she looked around the room. There were pictures and posters on the wall, but something was wrong. Something wasn’t right. She didn’t know where she was...
Linz shifted uncomfortably in her chair, her throat tightening. She picked up her phone and dialed Mel’s number, hoping she would be home still. "Ryan?" a worried voice asked. Immediately Ryan recognized the voice. It was Colin. "Yeah... yeah, I’m here. What is it?" Ryan asked, fighting the urge to go back to sleep while still holding the phone in his hand. "You haven’t checked your e-mail yet have you?" Colin questioned, sounding serious. Ryan shook his head, knowing full well Colin couldn’t see him. "No I haven’t. What’s wrong? Why do you sound so panicked?" Ryan demanded, perking up a bit. "We could all very well be infected with some sort of disease that causes us to get very sick and lose our memories," Colin told him, still not believing it himself. 'Why the hell couldn’t this damn thing have batteries instead of using a cable wire?' she thought angrily to herself and she tried yet again to get into her e-mail account. Finally it worked. But Nikki_Lynn wasn’t prepared for the e-mail she received... "Mel? You’re still there?" the other voice cried. "Yes Linz! I, uh... I’m here..." she trailed off. "What’s the matter? Are you still there?" Linz demanded. Mel glanced down at her hands and was disgusted to see what was there: blisters. There was a huge blister in the middle of her hand, a couple on her fingers, one on each thumb, and some were starting to form on her wrist. They seemed to sit there, purple and bulging, but still small. "My hands. They’re covered in blisters. But none like I’ve ever seen before..." Mel said, trailing off again. "Mel! Have you checked your e-mail recently? Like this morning?" Linz asked firmly, wondering if the blisters... "No, not today. Why? What’s the matter? Why did you call me?" she answered, not entirely sure she wanted to hear the answer. Linz explained as quickly as she could. After hearing about the e-mail from Holly, Mel was glad she hadn’t eaten much breakfast. If she had, she might have brought it right back up. "What the?. . .Why?. . .How. . .?" Brad croaked out as his face focused on Wayne’s worried expression. He tried to sit up but for some reason his body felt like it weighed a ton. Brad closed his eyes again, trying to shut out the lights that hurt his eyes and burned into his head. "It’s me, Wayne," he explained. Wayne sat down on Brad’s bed and tried to help him sit up, "Your landlord let me in." "Can you turn off those damn lights please?" Brad pleaded still with closed eyes and desperate for the darkness that would stop his increasing headache. Wayne got him sitting up before getting up and turning off the lights. "Thank you," Brad muttered irritably and then groaned. "God, my derriere really hurts and I have no idea why. Actually, so do my underarms and gonads if we really want to get graphic." "Yeah..." Wayne started quietly, ignoring his second comments, "Look, Brad, we’ve got to get going. We’re getting together with Colin, Greg and Ryan." He stood up and tried to get Brad to stand up. "Wait a second! Where are we going? *Why* are we going?" Brad demanded, his body feeling like a pile of bricks. "We may have been infected with some kind of disease. It’s hard to know right now. But we have to get going. Come on Brad," Wayne cautioned. Wayne struggled to get Brad standing. After fighting Brad’s stone dead legs Wayne finally gave up, letting him fall back on the bed. "I can barely move. You’re gonna have to carry me," Brad told him. "What?!?" Wayne cried out in shock. "I can’t carry you Brad! You’re nearly twice as big as me...." Brad eyed Wayne and he knew that there was no way out of it. Wayne moaned as he struggled to lift Brad’s weight and drag him out of the apartment. Despite the awkwardness of the situation, Brad couldn’t help laugh... "Uh, hi," she croaked. Babs looked at the person in front of her, but didn’t recognize her at all. "Who are you?" she asked innocently. Holly felt tears come to her eyes but she pushed them aside. She handed a picture to Babs. Babs took the chipped wooden frame in her hands and stared intently at the picture inside. It appeared to be a younger version of her and the girl sitting by her bed. She looked around 6 years old while the other girl looked around 13 years old. They were wearing dresses but they were covered head to toe with mud and they were both grinning wickedly. As hard as she tried, Babs couldn’t figure out if this girl was her sister or her cousin or her best friend. "It’s a nice picture," Babs told her. "But I don’t know who you are. I’m sorry. Are we sisters?" Holly found it hard to speak and so she just nodded. It was then that Babs cried out in pain and a few doctors ran into the room. Holly left them sadly as her sister slipped into a coma and wandered aimlessly in the halls, hoping to hear from someone soon... There was a sound from behind them and in came Wayne, dragging Brad with him. Brad was leaning on Wayne’s back with his arms around Wayne’s neck. Wayne looked positively sore and it was obvious he was very tired out. "You need some help?" Greg and Ryan asked, their voices ringing in harmony. The three of them hurried over to Brad and Wayne. Colin and Ryan lifted Brad off of Wayne’s back and Greg helped the tiring Wayne sit down. When everyone was settled Colin glanced around. Ryan looked okay. Greg seemed a bit worn out, but recently he’d always seemed like that. Wayne appeared to be quite weak and he coughed at the odd time. But Brad was most definitely the worst of the group. "We have a problem guys. It’s obvious that something is wrong. I haven’t been able to talk to any of the Brady Bunch yet, but I think that we need to get to them," Colin started, "However, I don’t know what kind of position everyone is in and it might not be a good idea for everyone to meet. Especially if the rest of the Brady Bunch is in bad condition. So I think that everyone should meet up with one member of the Brady Bunch." He stopped and looked around, visibly noting the reactions of everyone. They all seemed to agree with the idea even though no one voiced it. "I’ll go to Linz," Brad called from his resting position a few feet away. "I can meet up with Nikki_Lynn," Ryan offered. "I’ll go to Mel," Wayne told them. "I’ll go see Holly and Babs. Who wants to come with me?" Greg asked. "I’ll go with you," Colin offered. "What about Jessie and Mon?" Wayne asked suddenly. Colin turned towards Ryan. "You think you can call Lionel just in case we need him later? I think they’ll be okay for now, but we should have Lionel around in case someone needs to get to them." Ryan nodded, pulled out his cell phone and started to dial his brother. "Do you think it’s possible to get a Guinness World Record for the most times a group of people were in grave danger?" Greg wondered, trying to consider the situation lightly. Wayne grinned and Brad laughed, his back to the other four. "Okay, well we’re set then. Are you sure you’re going to be okay Brad?" Colin questioned, concerned about his obviously deteriorating condition. "Yeah... sure. I’ll be fine. Just someone please find me some prozac and maybe a wheelchair," he called out, rolling over. Ryan couldn’t help but overhear the conversation slightly as he was waiting for Lionel to answer and decided that Brad was the most kinky person he’d ever met. "Since when do you take prozac?" Wayne asked, a small smile creeping up on his face. "Since I met Wax," Brad answered jokingly. He rolled over more, trying to get on the edge of the couch he was on but instead... managed to fall off it. Babs walked to the water’s edge and let the cold water wash over her feet. She bent down and picked up a shellfish, wondering how she got to this beach in the middle of nowhere. Walking a few feet, she found a light spongy pumice rock and exchanged it for the shellfish. All she could see when she stared out into the ocean was nothing but water and waves. Amidst all the calmness Babs heard a sound. She turned suddenly, trying to find where the noise had come from. It was then she saw a vision. A girl with flowing brown hair walked towards her holding a rose. She was pretty, but her expression was one of anger, fear and forboding danger. Babs tried to back up, but found that something was preventing her from moving. The girl walked up to Babs and stood within a few feet of her, her brown hair flowing across her shoulders and her body glowing with white light. The girl glanced down at her rose and in an instant, she reached down and touched a thistle gently. She held up her slender finger for Babs to see, and a single drop of blood dripped down her finger, coating her pale skin. Babs blinked and the girl disappeared. When she looked back at the sea, she felt her knees buckle. The water had turned a deep red, the colour of blood, and was as thick as gravy. And out in the blue sky, was the vision of the girl, standing in a pool of blood with a harpoon dug deep into the sand, terrified but still holding the single red rose. Babs looked down then, watching the bloody water lap at her feet... burning her. 'Where was I?' her mind cried out. 'Why did I have that vision? What’s going on?' She looked desperately around her trying to find someone but realizing she was in a hospital bed. Babs called out for someone, but the only sound that returned her cry was the steady beep of the heart monitor sitting inert beside her bed.
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