I am UVS-29468

I am UVS-29468. I wasn't always known as a number. I had a name - Cheryl. But I didn't get the vaccine. I was a survivor. And they came for me.

My mind played it all back to me as I lay paralyzed on the floor drifting away.

The virus came. It took its toll. Heavily. It had no mercy and showed no discrimination. It was all over the news. It was terrifying.

And then we realized. People went to the hospital sick. They got the vaccine and then they died. How sad the Officials said. If only they had come in sooner. But the truth is, no matter how quickly people got there, they never left alive.

The green light in the night sky would come. The winds would blow and a creepy mist fell until the green light was gone. Climate change they said. All I know is every time it came, people got sick. Since the fear was in them they went quickly to hospitals for treatment. Going for the cure they said. Had so much to live for they said. But they died anyway.

Me and Marty noticed these things and kept notes. We made a pact. No hospitals and no vaccine. And we would hide from the green lights and not get caught in the mist.

You see, we had this theory that it was the reason the sickness came. We believed there was a special helicopter totally silent but its blades still made wind. And it was equipped with a green night vision spotlight. It worked just like night vision goggles, we thought, to let them see where people were. Then they sprayed the toxic mist to distribute the virus. And then they waited for people to get sick. From our notes, me and Marty deduced they were spreading a virus variant each time and they were checking the timing to see how long it took to affect us. The time frame seemed to get shorter every time. And the sickness slightly more severe with more symptoms. So by keeping our notes, me and Marty were able to figure out that each round of green lights seemed to be worse than the one before.

They told us endlessly in every media outlet how horrible dying with the virus was if we didn't come in for the vaccine. It's an antidote they said. But it wasn't. Me and Marty weren't fooled. They didn't truly have an antidote for the virus. They were experimenting to find one. They were experimenting making an extinction level virus and experimenting on the vaccine to see if they could cure it.

Me and Marty were determined not to become their lab rats. We avoided the green light and mist for a long time. Our neighborhood had been hit over and over again. So many people lost. With only a sparse population left, the green lights and mist stopped.

We thought it was over. But it was just a lull to get our guard down. It got us. We were out in late afternoon no where near dark. The wind came up and then a large white cloud drifted in casting a shadow from the sky. For a brief instant through the swirls of the cloud we saw it. We were right! It was an oddly silent helicopter. The green light was not as intense at that time of day but it was on everyone. There was no time to run. We were all sprayed with the mist. This light and mist was no climate change. It was a direct act of assault by our Officials.

Marty and I had hoarded plant remedies. Lots of them for every purpose. Everyone had laughed at us through the years for our enthusiasm. Allopathic medicine had a firm hold on them. It wasn't that we had a total disbelief in Allopathic medicine but we were seeing trends we didn't like. For instance the opiate crisis. It seemed planned to us. Gross irresponsibility at best. We wanted to heal ourselves holistically with plant based derivatives as much as possible. We were watching the news and getting so distrustful. Everything was pitting us against one another. People were killing each other. Maybe we weren't killing ourselves fast enough so they started working on the virus. That was Marty's theory anyway.

Me, I was at a loss. I heard what they told us, but what I witnessed didn't add up. Our notes showed a darker set of facts. There must have been others catching on too. That's why they switched to a daytime assault. Because that's what it was...an assault. It wasn't just a theory anymore. It was confirmed as of right then.

We got sick. It was bad but our immunity systems were boosted from our self care protocols. We kept detailed notes on symptoms and what plant remedies we used. We recognized a combination of plant oils that made the virus symptoms go away after just 24 hours. We debated on whether to share our findings. Even with our stockpile, it wouldn't last long if news spread far and wide what we knew. But we couldn't just keep it a secret. I argued that it would make us as bad as the Officials if we let everyone die and we knew we could truly help save them. Marty pointed out the risks. That once we shared what we knew, the news would travel fast and it wouldn't care what ears it fell on. The Officials were bound to catch wind of us and our findings. We mulled over the pros and cons. In the end, Marty and I were in agreement. We had to share. We had to help people. And we did.

Marty and I saved thousands of people. We lost track and didn't have any idea how many, until the Officials came for us.

We should have noticed but we didn't. People that we helped were disappearing. Since we didn't know where they all came from, we didn't realize they didn't make it back. The Officials were snatching them. This time, no silent helicopters, or wind, green light or mist. Just operatives in black clothing kidnapping people in the dark. They took them through the sewer tunnels and popped up in a remote warehouse. I know this as fact because they took Marty and me. We never saw it coming.

They necked us down in single file before entering a large empty room. A person in a white bio-hazard suit snapped medical bracelets around our wrists. We were UVS - Unvaccinated Survivors. My number was UVS-29468. Marty was UVS-29469. For the first time we had an idea of how many people we had saved. But now here we all were in this big open warehouse. People huddled and crying. Old, young, middle aged, children and infants. They were all here. Some recognized us. We recognized some. But there were too many to remember them all.

A blinding white light suddenly blanketed us. Simultaneously, an excruciating sound blared. People screamed and cried. Some fell to their knees. Others curled in a ball. The children and babies were screaming but you couldn't hear them over the blaring sound.

The mist began spraying. Not a light mist. A heavy mist. And everywhere it touched it seared. I saw flesh redden and bubble. My own skin, too. I watched as Marty's eyes swelled shut. I hugged him. Burning in the throat made it difficult to breath. "I love you, Marty," I managed to rasp. I didn't know if I would ever get to say it again. He squeezed me harder and I felt the tears run down his face. "I love you, Cheryl." We both crumpled to the floor.

As I lay paralyzed on the floor, someone in a white bio-hazard suit took my hand and twisted my medical bracelet around for a clearer view. I heard a voice speak, "Female. Approximately thirty-four years old. UVS-29468. Threat neutralized."

My final realization. This was not an experiment. This was murder. We were survivors, and they couldn't have that. I now ceased to be Cheryl. I would forever be in their files as UVS-29468.