Chapter 1 - The Beginning

                                      Chapter 1 - The Beginning

I do not know what I am doing.  I am in a car and driving.  I do not know how I know this, yet I do.  My name is Wayne.  Noticing my hands on the steering wheel,  I have a feeling that the car is not normal.  I realize that most cars have more than just a steering wheel and gas pedal like this one has.  I cannot hear the usual purr of an engine.  Only silence, so thick that I wonder if this is reality at all.  Might I be dead, in a coma, or hallucinating from drugs?  I do not have a clue.  The empty landscape around the road whips by quickly, as I do not want to let up on the gas pedal.  I feel that if I do, something bad will happen.  As I drive, I glance around at my surroundings, and the first thing I notice is that all of the green, overhead signs are all blank.   

I notice an exit off the road, and I take it.  It is extremely long.  I feel as if I have been driving for days down this road before it stops.  My arms feel like lead, and I doubt I could pick up my foot if I wanted to. The road does not go anywhere, just suddenly stops.  I can see this from hundreds of yards away, but the car has no brake pedal.  I can feel the car picking up speed, and I am not sure what to do.  The g forces push me back farther into my seat.  This is bad. I think to myself.

The car stops immediately at the end of the road.  I cannot get out of the car because it has no handle, but I am suddenly standing outside of it anyway.  I start walking west.  I am not sure how I know that this direction is west either, however I can see skyscrapers in the distance.  That city is my destination.  I am walking on concrete, and I have yet to see any plants or animals.  Something tells me that this is not normal. 

The sky has changed.  No longer the musty orange color that it was when I was driving.  It has turned dark gray.  I never could see a sun or anything that provided daylight, but there is light nonetheless.  I wonder if it is going to rain, but it seems as if no clouds have formed, only the sky turned gray itself. 

I am in the city now.  It is dark, and I cannot really tell where I am going.  Most of the buildings are run-down or falling down.  A skyscraper fell only minutes after I walked by.  I am starting to wonder whether there are any humans left.  I am tired and hungry, so I am looking for a place to at least spend the night.  Food will have to wait until tomorrow.  A small apartment building on the corner of a block looks fairly stable and less run-down than most buildings.  I think I will stay there for the night.

I walk over and try to open the door.  It is locked.  I pick a large piece of metal piping off the dirt caked ground and simply smash the handle off.  The door slowly creaks open, and I take a step inside.  I give my eyes a minute to adjust to the light, even though my vision does not get much better.  I stumble into a room and bump into what I think is a desk.  I am hoping to find candles and some matches, possibly even a flashlight.  I feel drawers and start to yank them open at random.  As I feel around the contents in the drawers, I hear the click of an automatic pistol being cocked and feel a shiver of pure terror for the first time.