HELLFIRE Lilah Lehner 7th Grade • Bell School
Beep! Beep! Beep! Sophie Evanten groaned and smacked her alarm. It was centuries old, and it made the loudest noise Sophie had ever heard. She rolled out of bed, blearily standing up. Staggering to her window, she yanked open the curtains. Smoke. She sighed and flopped back down on her bed. It hadn’t always been like this. Death. Smoke. Fire. It had started when a mystery illness came to a remote part of the US. At first, people hadn’t been worried. They thought the illness was harmless, that they would find a cure quickly and the whole thing would be over in a few weeks. But it wasn’t. The illness spread like wildfire — literally. Some of the symptoms were smoke coming out of your ears, coughing up blood, and listlessness. But that wasn’t the half of it. At the end, just when it seemed like you might recover...You burst into flames. And burned to death. People called it Hellfire, and it had swept over nearly the entire world. Scientists were working tirelessly to find a cure, but so far nothing had been found. If one of your close family members had it, you most likely did too. The illness spread by human interaction, so the president had ordered everyone to stay inside. People were still getting sick every day, though. Sophie was fed up with quarantine, but most of all, she was terrified for her family members and for herself. She definitely
299
