Chapter 4

   I woke the next day to the sound of Alexander working away outside. I realized I had overslept and hurried outside to help Alexander. He seemed a bit tense when I got outside.
   "Good morning," he said.
   "Thank you for letting me sleep, Alexander. How long have you been working out here on your own?" I asked.
   "I think it's been about half an hour. I figured you would come out here soon enough." He smiled and he seemed comfortable again. That reassured me, but Melinda drifted back into my mind.
   'Stop!' I told myself. 'If you keep thinking of Melinda, you'll drive yourself crazy. There's no point in worrying. Everything will resolve itself.' My words of wisdom did little to console me, though.
   We worked the rest of the day, and we went to Alexander's house afterwards rather than mine. The change was nice.
   He lived with his family in a medium sized home. His room was in the basement and had its own entry in the back of the house. His two sisters, one older and one younger, frequently came in to the house through his room just to irk him, though. That was why I wasn't surprised his sisters were sitting on his sofa when we came in his door.
   "Welcome in, Alexander," Linda, his older sister, said regally as we approached them. His younger sister, Diana, just smiled. She didn't usually say much. She just loved the idea of being with someone older and, in Diana's opinion, cooler.
   "Get out," Alexander said flatly.
   "We just wanted to say hi," Linda said with a smirk. They got up and left.
   "They don't usually leave that easily," I said.
   "I'm sure they did something," Alexander said. He suddenly seemed very tired. There didn't seem to be very much in between emotions or feelings with Alexander. He was either very tired, full of energy, ecstatic, or joyless.He never seemed to feel neutral.
   We said good bye and I went home. I was glad he hadn't mentioned Melinda at all that day, although I did enough worrying about her to make up for it. I started hoping she wasn't actually a problem. That was before the big incident that would change my life as I knew it, though.

Chapter 3 part 2

Alexander looked at me once again. "What is on your mind?" he asked.
   "Well..." I started hesitantly. "I was wondering... if you are seeing someone."
   He smiled. "I'm seeing you right now," he said jokingly. I forced a smile.
  "No, I mean, like, dating."
   "I'm dating you, silly goose," he said. Again, I forced a smile. He could tell I wasn't enjoying this experience now. "Why are you wondering?" Alexander said, and this time he was the one searching my face for clues.
    I didn't want to answer. I wished I had never even brought the subject up. I should have left well enough alone. I said, "The other day, you called me Melinda. You had been particularly... I don't know how to put it. You just hadn't been yourself that day. And you didn't really go back to being yourself. And that made me worried. Because I love you. And I need you." By then I was in tears. He had his arms wrapped around me.
   "Don't worry, dear Hazel. I am not seeing Melinda. We were working on a project together. You know she has a way with carving wood. I just wanted some help making you this figurine."
   He pulled a little sheep out from behind his back. It looked exactly as my father had described it and as I had described it to Alexander. I looked up at his face and smiled, but saw his eyes darting around nervously. I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't already been on the lookout, but something told me he wasn't telling me the whole truth about Melinda.
   I took the sheep and put it on the counter. "Thank you," I said.
   He went to his house to sleep that night, leaving me to my own devices to endlessly worry about Melinda. I needed to find out what was going on.

Chapter 3 part 1

  The next day while we toiled outside, I didn't ask him what was going on with Melinda. I could only hope they had just become friends, not anything more, but I couldn't help straying back to the thought that Alexander might be cheating on me. And of all people, with Melinda. And to think, in just under a month, Alexander and I would be matched, and that's when cheating is a punishable offense. The day went by slowly, and to my surprise, we didn't have nearly as many bodies dropped by through the day.
   When we walked into my house and I set the tea pot on the stove, I said, "Seems as though the epidemic is going away slowly." I studied his face, searching for answers about Melinda, even though I hadn't mentioned her.
   "Yeah, good thing. Our town was pretty much dwindling as fast a rabbit's town at the beginning of hunting season." He looked at me to respond, but I was too busy fretting about Melinda to notice.
   "Everything okay...?" Alexander asked cautiously.
   My mind drifted back to the present. "What did you say?" Again I searched his face.
   "I... never mind." He got up in response to my odd behavior and stood next to me leaning against the counter. "Are you sure everything is okay?"
   "Uh, I was just wond-" I was cut off by the tea pot whistling, thankful I didn't have to ask the dreaded question. I took the tea pot off the stove and poured two mugs of tea. I sipped my tea silently and prayed Alexander wouldn't ask me about the question I didn't get to ask.

Chapter 2

  I heard the sheets next to me shift, and slowly opened my eyes. At first I was worried one of the dead bodies deposited outside last night had turned and made it into my house, but when I saw it was only Alexander getting up, I remembered we had broken the rules last night.
   "I'm sorry I woke you," he said when he saw me looking at him.
   "It's no problem, I said quietly. Soon we would have to go outside and begin digging again, but I was feeling particularly lethargic. "Did someone find out?" I asked vaguely, knowing he would know what I was talking about.
   "Not that I know of..." he said slowly, the words hesitant to come out of his mouth and into the air.
   "Alright..." I said, unnerved by his hesitance. We got up, put on our work clothes, and went outside. The fresh air made Alexander's cheeks turn pink, and made my feet instantly cold, and I started longing for an animal called "sheep" my father had told me about when I was young, back in the days before we had to have tunnels and fences.
    "They are white as snow, and they have wool, which is like fur, except when you line your boots, socks, and mits with it, you are very warm," I remembered him saying to me while sitting on his lap in front of the fire.
   As the day wore on, I realized we didn't have to move as fast. "Do you think the virus is dying out?" I asked hopefully, ready for Alexander to look on the bright side of things.
    "Maybe. We can never be sure." Something about his tone made me feel unnerved again, just like this morning, and just like it had been all day. I felt he usually told me things when the time was right, so I just waited patiently for him to finally tell me what had been bothering him.
    Bodies stopped arriving around sunset, so that was when Alexander and I went back inside my house.
    "What was bothering you all day?" I asked while we sipped tea, finally thinking he had kept it inside long enough.
    "Nothing, Melinda, I mean Hazel," Alexander stammered. Who was Melinda? Was there a Melinda in town? What did she mean to Alexander? Why was he thinking about Melinda? All of these questions went unanswered that night, as they stayed inside my head, scraping at the inside of my scull like imprisoned people who had turned early did on the walls of their jail cells.
   He left at curfew, and I went to sleep in mental agony. I couldn't figure out who Melinda was until right before I fell asleep. A desperate girl the same age as Alexander and me who always flirted with every man she met, hoping she would finally have someone to be matched with.

Chapter 1

    I lifted my head off my pillow and sniffed the air around me. All I could smell were the dead bodies laying outside my window waiting to be buried before they turned. I didn't enjoy my job, burying the dead, but it was my duty to my town. I couldn't let all of the bodies turn and wipe everyone out. I did what I had to do for humans and for my town.
   I got up and put my robe on. I looked out my open window and saw the farmers already at their plots, ready to start the day. I also saw people dragging the dead out of their houses and putting them on the already large pile. I would have a lot of work that day.
    "Hazel!" someone yelled from below. I looked down and saw Alexander waiting for me to come out. "We need to start working if we want to finish on time today," he said.
    I went back into my room, got dress in my work clothes of denim overalls, knee high rubber boots, canvas gloves, and straw hat. I hurried down the stairs, dumped a but of food into my cat's dish, and ran outside. I pulled my shovel off the hook outside my door and ran out to Alexander.
    We exchanged a friendly hug and started digging the trenched at the edge of the fence. We had to be careful not to dig where we had already buried people, but we also had to be careful not to dig where we had tunnels under the forest. If we collapsed the tunnels, our town was sure to die within hours. The tunnels were our only connection to beyond the forest.
    Once our trenches were fifteen feet by five feet and six inches, we started loading the bodies into the trenches. Some of the bodies already smelled of the bodies that were left to turn, back before the caretakers were trained. These we placed at the bottom of the trench so there was no way they would ever get out if they had actually already turned.
    After a long, tedious day of work, Alexander and I went to my cottage, where we always went after work. In about a month, I was to move in with him, finally declaring us matched. The matching process was long, but usually worth it.
   What the Council Members do is they take into consideration all the twenty year olds in the town, and match them according to these guidelines.
-If they were friends as kids (yes)
-If they are related (no)
-If their families are friends (yes)
-If their older siblings are matched to each other (no)
-If they love each other (yes)
-If they hate each other (no)
   Alexander and I were friends as kids, we love each other, and our families are friends. I felt very lucky to be matched with Alexander, but I couldn't really have been matched with anyone else. Most other people my age are either my cousins, or hate me.
     "What did you think of work today?" Alexander asked me from across my kitchen table, steam from tea making him look a bit ghost-like.
    "I just wish people would find a cure to this epidemic," I said. "A week is long enough with all the doctors in our town."
   "I agree, but at least we are getting payed more," he said. Alexander was always one to look on the bright side of things, even if it means we have to think of being payed more because people are dying as the bright side.
    We chatted a while longer, and when it was time for all visitors to leave the houses they were in, Alexander surprised me. "What if I stayed here tonight, Hazel?" he asked as the five minute bell rang.
     "What do you mean...? Like... sleep here? Not leave like the rules say?" If you asked anyone, they would say I studied the rule book religiously. That was one reason almost anyone who wasn't related to me hated me.
    "Yeah. Let's forget about the rules for tonight. I love you, you love me, and there is only one month left until we are officially matched."
    "Well... I don't have any guest beds," I said, trying to think of excuses for him to leave and follow the rules as much as I loved him.
    "Hazel, you don't understand. Let's throw the rulebook to the wind. I'm sleeping here in your house. Upstairs in your bed. Next to you." Alexander didn't usually act like this, but when he did, I couldn't do anything but follow along with his ridiculous plan.
    We went upstairs, changed into our pajamas, and fell asleep in my bed looking into each others eyes as if they contained the secret to life, the universe, and everything.

Just An Introduction

This is an introduction to a new project I'm planning on starting. As of right now, I'm working alone on this story, but I might get more contributors later. All I'm going to do is write a story. I will not ask people to read my story, but if people stumble upon it, I would be happy for them to read it. I will write a few sections as a time, not one post with the entire story. I'm not very good at writing fiction, so I'm hoping as this project goes along I'll get better. I still don't know what the story will be. I won't plan any of this story, just write what comes to mind while me fingers are resting on the keys of my laptop. I hope whoever finds this blog enjoys it. Here goes my first attempt at a story online.