Disease and Disasters


BAM! The sound of the an other head hitting the coffee table. Probably because of an overdose on drugs. Matthew and his best friend Brad are throwing the best new years party in L.A. that has seemed to escalated into chaos. They wouldn't be having this problem if it wasn't for the president. They say that the new president is going to do new things in 4 8, starting with finanse. The president has legalized drugs because they are trading more with Russia to bring in more profit, and drugs are one of the biggest product traded in Russia. Ever since they had run into a depression because of the loss of job and increase of drug addicts, Russia trades anything they can find.
“I don’t think this is right Matt.” said Brad.
“W hat's the problem Brad?” asked by Matthew.
“ I don't think that everyone should be doing all these drugs at this party, you know how I feel about drugs.”
Brad has never liked drugs, ever since they had killed his mom when the new trading system with russia had came to be.
“Oh lighten up Brad, its a party, have a little fun for once in awhile.” said Matthew while handing him some drugs.
He slaps the drugs out of his hands.
“NO!” said Brad.
”Do you not understand? I don't like drugs and I never will!”.
“ It’s ok, it’s only a little bit.” said Matt.
“ No its not ok” as he stands on top of coffee table he yells “ Everybody out!” Everyone can hear the terror in his voice and they all dash out the house frightened. Brad sits back down with Matthew and says.
”Drugs have become a big problem for me Matt and you know it, and i' m tired of hearing the 15% increase of deaths on the local news everyday, so i think i'm going to start a campaign to make drugs illegal starting tomorrow.” Matthew looks at him like he is crazy
“Why would you ever want to do that? Were both 20 and don't have much time to have fun so we need to get it out now.” says Matthew

“ 5 minutes of getting high isn't worth losing the rest of your life.” said Brad.
“ I'm going to the store tomorrow to pick up some supplies to make some signs, if want to come you can.” But Matthew refuses.



Its been 2 weeks since the night of the party and Matthew is at home watching the news talking about the new president and how he has ended their financial issue because of the new trading.

He starts to think about Brad and how he is devoted to change the legalization of drugs.


The phone goes off and its Brad.
”Hey Mat, I was just wondering if you wanted to come protesting with me downtown?”asks Brad.
”No I have something to do” said Matt knowing that he had nothing planned for himself for the rest of the week.
”Oh ok ,well maybe next time” says Brad. Matthew hangs up.

Its been a week and Matthew has been called by brad 8 times and he hasn't answered, he knew it had something to do with protesting. Matthew feels guilty about not answering his friend so he puts himself to sleep with some medicated drugs.

When Matthew wakes up he feels the need to call Brad back because he feels so bad that he has been ignoring him.

“Hey Brad, it Matthew.”says Matthew.
"Hey, watsup." said Brad.
" I have decided to go on a protest with you." said Matthew
" Really?"asked Brad.
" Yeah, really"said Matthew.
" Then meet me tonight, downtown."said Brad.


Matthew had went protesting with Brad later on that day. It was everything he suspected. People where looking at them like they didn't belong, and some people even told them to leave after the people realized what they were doing.

“ Are you with him?”asked by the young lady beside her.
” Yeah thats my best friend Brad” said Matthew.
“ Why do you want to make drug illegal?” Asked the lady.
” I don't, its just my friend, I really don't care if it is or not, I'm just happy that where out of the recession.” said Matthew.
“ Yeah me too, but i'm young and I like to have fun, I've tried drugs and i enjoyed it, and i still do them when I want to have alittle fun.” said the lady.
“Yeah, but my friends mom past because of drugs, thats the main reason why hes doing this.”said Matthew.
“But the truth is that nobody wants to change, they like the drugs and the don't want them to go away, but truthfully i don't want them to go.” said the lady.
“Good point, my names Matthew Rivers but you can call me Matt”said Matthew.
“My name is Samantha Barnes but you can call me Sam.”
“Hey since you like to party so much, you should come over my house sometime when i'm having a party.”said Matthew.
“Sure my number is.......” said Sam.



"Well that was terrible."said Matt.
"Believe me, I've had worse."said Brad.

When Matthew had came home he was exhausted from holding up posters and listening to Brad yell through a bullhorn saying
“No more drugs, getting high isn't worth to die .”



But Matthew noticed that about 5 people had stopped to listen to him for a little bit and drifted off a little curious about drugs as if there facial expression showed, is drugs necessary. Matthew’s thoughts on drugs was on and off. He has tried drugs and didn't really care them, he was just happy that a merica's financial crisis was over.
Its a new day and Matthew turns on the TV, watching the weather for this week, when breaking news comes up on the screen. He saw Brad on the screen and it said, local citizen has been shot for protesting against drugs at his home last night.
"What?"said Matthew
The news reporter says
"The 20 year old Bradley Scott had been shot 3 times in his chest last night, no one knows who did it and no one knows why they did it, please, if you know any information about this man, contact us at 1-800-NEWS or...” Matthew turns the television off and rushes out the door to the hospital to see Brad.
When Matthew gets to the hospital, he runs towards the front desk and ask for Brad Scott's room number.
“He's in critical condition right now, can you come back another time?” asked the women at the desk.
“ No, thats my best friend in there and i have to see him now to make sure that he is ok.” said Matt
“ I'm very sorry sir, but if I let you in my boss will kill me, if you could just wait for a little while i could schedule you an appointment.” said the desk lady.
“When can I see him?” asked Matthew
“ I can't answer that, the doctors only know when he is ready for visitors. When I find out, I while notify you as soon as possible.” said the desk lady”
Matthew takes a seat in the waiting room. He sits there for about an hour and a half even though for Matthew it feels like its been 2 days. Finally the lady at the desk calls him up and says.
“ The doctors have called you to his room.”

Matthew can barely walk straight because of the stress and thought of his best friend in the world dieing. But the thing is that Matthew know who shot him but he knows why. It was because Brad had started to Protest about drugs and people just weren't ready for the change so they had to get rid of him, one way or the other.

When Matthew finds his way to Brads room, he goes to reach for the doorknob when he hears a voice in the background.

“ Wait, are you Matthew?” asked the doctor.

“ Yes, Who are you?” asked Matthew.

“My name is d octor Smith, I just performed surgery on ur friend here.” said doctor Smith.

“ Well is he ok?” asked Matthew.

“Thats what I wanted to talk to you about, your friend couldn't make it throughout his surgery. I'm sorry but your friend has passed away.” said doctor Smith.

Matthew doesn't know how to react so he stares at doctor Smith with absolutely no facial expression.



“ I can't believe this, how could this happen?” Asked Matthew

“Well, we were able to remove the bullets, but he couldn't live with all the blood lose that had occurred.”

Matthew walks into Brads room and sees him on the hospital bed as the doctor follows behind him but Matthew asks him to leave. Montage sits down on the chair next to Brads bed and says

“ I'm going to fix this Brad. Drugs are not good and ill find a way to get rid of all the drugs in this town, I promise.”

Matthew leaves the hospital and he has Brads funeral arranged. He is so emotional, he decides that he won't even go to his funeral, he didn't want to be put through the pain of watching him be paid. He tried his best not to cry through the process of actually believing that Brad had died.

All night Matthew had thought of how he was going to finish what Brad started. He first began by never again doing drugs for the rest of his life. He thought long and hard all night and he still had not come up with an idea. He tried as hard as he could, but he just couldn't do it because whenever he thought about drugs he thought of Brad and he didn't want to think about him because it brought him to much pain.




It had b 2 d ays and Matthew has barely got over Brad's death, not to mention that he still hasnt come up with an idea. He thought of doing what Brad did and protest locally, then he realized that it would get shot as Brad did and he wasn't ready to die. Then he started to think globally, like the governor or somthing, then he thought what a terrible job he would do, but then he realized that he could really change something globally, something more than the governor or mayor, maybe even the president. Then it hit him, he had made up his mind that he was going to run for president.



“Hello?”asked Matthew .

“Hi, is this Matthew?”asked Sam.

“Yes, is this Sam?”asked Matthew.

“Yeah, how are you Matthew?”asked Sam.

“Pretty bad. The man that was protesting the day I met you was my best friend and he had been shot for protesting by a random person”said Matthew.

“Oh, i'm sorry. Do you have any clue who shot him?asked Sam.

“ No, but i know it was someone who didn't drugs to be legalized. I still can't believe that he had been shot over change. Are people that afraid of change?”asked Matthew.

“ It appears that way to me, like i told the day i met you, people are afraid of change and they will do anything to keep things the same.”said Sam.



“But i have decided to finish what he started and run for president to illigalize drugs.”said Matthew.

“Wow, thats a big step, are you sure that ready for this? Do you think that you can handle all the pressure on you? What if you're a bad president and we get into a depression? I know that you mean good, but we can't go through another depression, i mean drugs are the best income we have right now, what are we going to do if the money stops coming in?”asked Sam.

“ We will just have to find out because I feel that i have to do something for Brad, I have to illegalized drugs because it sees like the right thing to do for Brad, and becoming the president is the only way that i will be able to change that. If I let it go on, nothing but pain for me will come.”said Matthew.


Matthew has already entered for the election and he is positive that nothing is going to get in his way of winning this election. He's even started handing out flyers and hanging posters that say Matthew for president. He has good campagne ideas but whenever he mentions getting rid of drugs, people walk away or throw his flyers away. One time spoke to a citizen and mentioned the illegalization of drugs, and the person balled up the flyer, threw it in his face, and kicked his poster. All Matthew could think was that this was going to be a hard election to win, he really had to touch and reach out to the people. He got it. He was going to do a rally of some sort downtown just like Brad did. Being shot came to brads mind but it didn't bother him at all this time. By now he would do anything to win this election.


“Vote for Matthew, vote for Matthew, vote for Matthew”said Matthew trying to persuade the people surrounding him.

“Get rid of the drugs, they are no good.”said Matthew, but when he said that more than half of the listeners left.

“Why should we?” a random person in the crowd yelled.

“Because drugs had done nothing but cause trouble and pain”said Matthew.

“But if we get rid of drugs where will we get all of our money from?”said someone in the crowd.

That someone was president Gregory Williams.

“Drugs is the biggest income we have right now. What are we going to do when we have no more? The poverty rate will be up again, job opportunities will decrease, and the crime rate will begin to increase as well.” said the president.

“Well Mr. President, I have decided to base our society on education . You see, the more people in school will bring the crime rate down because more people are in school than on the streets, also we will have more job opportunities because the people who went to school will have more job options because of the education they gained, also because of the jobs we can replace the drug money with the education because more americans having more jobs mean that the economy is bringing in a decent amount of currency.”said Matthew.

“Indeed.”said the president with a suspicious grin on his face as he walks off into his black limo.

Matthew also walks away with a certain amount of confidence. As he walks off he notices that it is getting a little too dark and as he looks around he sees a group of 4 young men running towards him and he feels threatened. As he turns the other way he feels an object hit the back of his head. BANG, it was a big pipe that hit him from one of the men 4 men. Matthew falls to the ground crying

“Help, please help”

But no one can hear him.



“Mr.Rivers, are you ok?”asked a local citizen

Matthew wakes up with a terrible pain in the back of his head. He could barely stand up for a few seconds, but then he pulled himself together and stood straight up but a little wobbly.

“Yes I'm fine thank you, who are you?”said Matthew.
“My name is Bob, I know you from the rally last night and i would like to say that i totally agree with you.”said Bob.
“Thank you for waking me up, I had gotten jumped last night by these 4 young men on my way home. I believe they were not in favor of my campaign.”said Matthew.
“Yeah a lot has changed over the years, now you only have 2 weeks to get everybody to support you then the voting begins, but I can assure you that you can count on my vote.”said Bob.
“Thank you sir, I could really use it” said Matthew
“You're welcome, and by the way you might want to step up your game because I checked the poles and you a far from the league, I find it funny how people aren't ready for change.”said Bob.
“You don't know how many times i've heard that lately.”said Matthew.

Its been a week and there has been breaking news about a new disease that has been diagnosed. The new disease is called cancer cubed cc for short. It appears that cc has been caused by the proportion of drugs in on mans body, the doctors say all the drugs that were taken had produced too many toxins and their bodies aren't able to fight the disease off and the disease eventually leads to death. When Matthew hears about the news he rushes to the doctors to get tested as fast as he can, thankfully since he stopped doing drugs ever since Brad died his test results showed as negative. But when he got back home he called Sam and asked,

“Did you get tested yet?”
“Yes I did, and the results say positive, the doctors say that i have about 2 months before the disease takes over my whole body .”said Sam.
“I'm so sorry, is there anything i can do for you?”asked Matthew.
“You can win this election for everyone who suffers the disease.”said Sam.

Now Matthew has a feeling that he has a chance to win, the votes are in and they are going to announce the next president in the next 30 seconds on channel 2 news.
“And the new president is, Matthew Rivers!” said the the channel 2 news person.
Matthew jumps in excitement and screams,
“I won! I won! It had to be the new disease when everyone started to vote for me, now they want a president that can make a change.”

Now that Matthews in office, he has finally fulfilled his goal to illegalized drugs. Now the state is now running on education. Now 2 months later Sam has passed and he has vowed to find a cure for this disease but he just can't find anything but now he has to go to speak on this problem publicly. He feels nervous because he had gotten multiple letters that claimed that he would be killed on the day that he spoke and that day is today.
When he gets there he looks around good to make sure that there were guns near. BAM, BAM ,BAM, 2 bullets hit the window, and one hits one of his body guards that stand around him in a turtle like formation.
When he gets back to his office he is scared out of his mind and he can't take any more of the notes or the gunshots or the pressure from the state, they have drove Matthew crazy.
“How can the state hate me then want me to be their president and then want to kill me? Its crazy, I can't take it anymore i have to get out of this crazy world.” said Matthew.
Matthew pulls out a gun from his bottom drawer a points it to his head. As he is about to pull the trigger , he thinks about Brad and the purpose of becoming the president, then he remembers Sam and how she had died because of the new cancer. He drops the gun and slaps himself once as a way to tell him to pull it together, and he calls for a meeting in the office.
He gathers the states best ranking scientist and doctors viewed in medical study and they try and come up with a plan and they figure it out.
“Well since its cancer times 3, why don't we just do three times the medication and treatment?”Asked Matthew.
“Hmm..that actually might work, we will run some test and give you the details ASAP.”said the head doctor.

When the doctors come back with the results, the come with excitement and joy.
“Mr. President we have found a cure, millions of lives will be saved because of you.”said the doctor.
“Thank God”said Matthew.
Its amazing how the joy of doing something good can bring. Its also amazing how life works, people may hate you then need you more than ever and then they want you dead, but then their so thankful for your help. But the biggest thing is that how people are afraid of change even though everybody else might not see it, it only takes one to make a change.