Chapter 17 - Origin Of The Plague

Nights were dark, so they slept early by 6 pm or so. By 7pm it started getting pitch dark.

Without the moon, and the planet so close to them, they don't get even a bit of light by nightfall.

All of them were huddled on a somewhat flat surface in between the rubble. Her mom was sleeping pretty close to Mr.Kooper and Mina and she were sleeping in a single blanket.

By midnight she got the uncontrollable urge to pee. Reya slowly moved Mina off of her body, but she threw a heavy hand on her stomach. This made her urge to pee even stronger.

'Shoot, I need to pee so badly,'

Reya moved her hands away from her and quickly stood up with her backpack. She started shuffling around until she felt the torch in her hand. "Ahha" she said pulling the little battery torch from inside.

She hopped and walked away from her sleeping spot, searching for a spot to pee. 'Where should I go~' she sang in her head as she illuminated her way through all the rubble.

Soon she found a small undamaged wall and walked towards it. 'Found my spot~' she sang and rushed towards it.

Reya stride over and fumbled with her jean button. "Darn this button," she cussed trying to get it off.

After a little struggle she got it to open. Swiftly she pulled her pants down and did her business. "Tissue, tissue," she mumbled searching her pant pockets. She found a small packet of them and used one to clean myself.

"Phew, job done," she whispered, pulling her pant up. she buttoned them with difficulty again. "I seriously should search for some sweat pants next time," she mumbled to myself.

Suddenly she heard a small crunching noise in the distance.

'Someone is here,'

Reya hid behind the wall and peeked out into the darkness. For a while, nothing was visible, but suddenly a beautiful golden light came from a nearby crossway.

'Someone is using fire torch,'

Reya thought as her vigilance increased.

The light got closer, but it was unlike what she expected.

It was a Deer that was glowing golden. Its huge antlers tall and mighty as it shimmered in the darkness. But it seemed to be limping around.

Reya watched it, eyes wide without even blinking.

******

Artemis was pissed. 'This is all because of that stupid Apollo' she thought as she limped along the winding road. 'I can't believe so many things happened in just five hours.' She thought, shaking the flies with her huge antlers.

Five hours ago:

"Art, Apollo, you guys coming with me to earth?" Aphrodite questioned, glancing at the siblings.

"I really don't want to go with her," Apollo pouted, holding her hands. He glared at his sibling and rolled his eyes.

"Why don't we just go by ourselves? We don't need that tag along," he said, pulling at Aphrodite's hands.

"Who said i want to go with you in the first place. You imbecile after what you did i should not even talk to you," Artemis shouted, knocking her arrow in her bow. Her weapon pointed towards her brother. She said, "You... you made so much of a mess and i have to clean all of it."

Aphrodite sighed and got in-between the siblings. "Enough guys, let's not fight. And Apollo, what art said is true. You should not have intervened,"

"The humans were going through too much in the first place, now you had to go mess with them by spreading a plague. You stupid imbecile," Artemis shouted, releasing an arrow at him.

He slightly moved to the sides and dodged the upcoming arrow. "Hey it was by mistake okay. I really wanted to kill off some selfish and self-serving humans. But i really didn't anticipate for it to spread so fast," he said, raising his hands in surrender.

"No amount of apology would work go fix what you messed up," Artemis chided, pulling at her brother's sleeve.

"Okay. Okay geez i will go take back that decease," he pouted pulling her hands away. "i was just trying to help the humans by eradicating few pests," he mumbled as he walked away from them.

"Stupid, you diminished their food source. Is that what you call helping?" Artemis raged, rushing after her silly brother.

Aphrodite pulled her back by her arms and whispered, "Calm down, Art. I believe he can fix the mess he created,"

"I hope so," Artemis mumbled, putting her bow and arrow away.

"Now get ready. We are going to earth," Aphrodite said with a cheerful smile.

"What! I never agreed to come along,"

"You are coming with me either way," Aphrodite cheerfully said, pulling her by force.

"No that place would be boring without anything to hunt," Artemis pouted along the way.

"There are always animals and bird you can shoot down," Aphrodite smiled, looking back at her pouting friend.

"No there are not. That stupid Apollo spread decease to my prey as well," she mumbled, pulling at her sash.

"Don't worry then. We can go heal them," she whispered and started dragging her friend through the pathway.

"hmmm, hmmm hmmm~" humming along Aphrodite walked with a hop in her step.

Giving a doubtful glance at her friend Artemis questioned, "Why are you so happy? Last time you went to earth you cursed them like crazy. Now you are even humming,"

"Nothing is special. I just heard Helios might be there to collect his sister," she said smiling back at her. She genuinely looked so happy to see him. But Artemis shook her head slightly at this.

"Do you think he would even want to talk to you? We shot down his sister after all," Artemis shrugged.

Aphrodite slowed down at this statement. "Do you think he will hate me?" she whispered, looking at the ground.

"Hate is a strong word. I would most probably say he would be indifferent to you," she said, patting her shoulders.

"Now cheer up. You will not know unless you try right," Artemis said, pulling her desolate friend.

They successfully descended from their planet to their believers' planet, earth.

"Wow, I didn't expect our arrival to cause this much destruction," Artemis whispered, glancing around the ruined city.

"It's all because of those selfish leaders. I did inform them this is going to happen and I also told them to spread the news of our arrival. But that selfish man saved only the people he called privileged and let the common people to die out," Aphrodite ground her teeth, looking at the ruined cities.

"Okay, are those the ones my brother spread the disease to?" Artemis whispered, giving her a curious glance.

"Yes, and for once I agreed with his spontaneous decisions," Aphrodite whispered walking ahead.