Elizabeth awoke suddenly to the sound of shrill screams filling the air. She knows this is not normal; something terrible must be happening. Cautiously, she creeps towards her bedroom door and opens it slowly. The screech of the rusty hinges is almost a perfect replica of the screams filling the morning. As she walks down the stairs into her mother's apothecary shop, she stops in her tracks. People of all sorts are filing in the door, and they all look very frightened. She goes up to Mrs. Walker from down the street to see if she knows the source of this madness. Apparently, some mystery illness is swiftly sweeping through the population of the small town. "Liz!" calls her mother very impatiently. "Please take some of these medications and go help me treat some of these people!" Elizabeth can sense the urgency in her mother's voice. She brushes past all of the people lining up to the counter as she runs out of the shop, but they don't even seem to notice.
Running down the main street of her town, she sees more and more people bursting out of their houses. What kind of illness is this? How can it affect so many people so quickly? Surely, this is nothing we have seen before. Many people have, in their haste to get to the apothecary, even left the doors to their homes wide open. "Apothecary!" she calls loudly. "Is anyone in need of help?" About five people run out of their houses. Wow, so many! She thinks jokingly. Everyone else in the world is at my mother's shop! But when she walks within five feet of the first home that she is going to, her joking manner vanishes. The stench hits her hard. It smells like a combination of rotting eggs and old seafood. Not exactly something one likes to smell within five minutes of waking up. Elizabeth wonders what could possibly be making this ungodly smell. And, as if the stench wasn't enough, when she walks into the room she sees something that she will never forget. The most disgusting sight in her entire life. Something that wants to make her run away screaming just like all the other people had done. It was a person.
This person was not like anything she had ever seen. She knew it was a person though. It was the same shape, but its skin overall looked purple and red. Dark bruises covered all of the skin wherever there were not oozing blisters and boils. A lot of hair was lying on the ground; much more than was still attached to the person's head. The face was still recognizable as a face, but all of the features were, like the rest of the body, very bruised. "Oh my goodness," she says quietly. It seems as if all of the blood has drained out of her body. She walks over to the person, feeling faint, and can see that they are shaking softly. What pain they must be in! Her mother has never taught her to deal with anything like this. She does not know what to do. She takes out some of the medications from her bag and starts spreading some cream onto parts of the person's skin. She can feel all of the wounds and blood underneath her fingers. She keeps her eyes partly closed and tries not to think about it. The person does not seem to be affected by the cream, so at least it is not stinging him or anything. Elizabeth does not even know if this cream will even work, but in a situation like this, anything is worth a try. She quickly tries a few different creams, and quietly assures the woman who has been waiting patiently in the corner that she will be back to check on him later. On a last thought, she hands the women some pain medicine for the person just incase anything changes.
She runs from house to house, and sees the same thing in each of them. Each person she treats does not look like anyone that she knows, thank goodness. Maybe this disease will be cured in these people and we will all be safe. As she reaches the last house on the street, the stench hits her again. I will never get used to that. Suddenly, she realizes with horror that this is her best friend Lisa's house. No! I hope it is not her little brother Matthew! He is too young to have to go through anything like this! But when she sees the body lying on the couch, it is one that she had not even considered. A thought that she had just blocked from her mind. It is Lisa that is lying on the couch. She can not really tell by the face, but it is definitely her. Elizabeth is so shocked that she can not even move for a moment. When she somewhat recovers, she walks over to the couch and kneels down. "Lise?" she calls out softly. No response. Elizabeth treats her with the same cream that she has given to all of the other patients. She gives Lisa's mother some extra cream and some pain medicine, and then heads out the door.
Elizabeth runs home to her bed, trying to escape from all of this madness that has overtaken the town today. Tired from a day of working to heal all of the townspeople, she falls immediately to sleep. But the dreams that she has are not pleasant, not unlike what she has seen in the town today. Throughout her dreams, she sees visions of all people with the plague dying slowly, and with each person that dies, another person becomes infected. Elizabeth awakens sweating, knowing that she needs to do something to save these people. But when she looks down at her own skin, she sees with horror that there is a faint trace of purple and red creeping across her skin. She knows that she is finished.
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