[Chapter 1] How It All Ends

How It All Ends

Chapter 1

Let me begin this story by telling you that I’m not a normal person, and my reactions to the events that have transpired in last couple of years are very different from those you would hear elsewhere. My name is Roland, and I was seven-teen when it happened, back then i was still a nice person, my heart had already been turned into stone to protect myself, but i was still polite and caring. Likewise i was also physically strong, i stood roughly six-foot and three inches tall, and i weighed around two hundred seventy pounds. I was a football player then, so i had a generous amount of muscle on my large frame. None of this is true as of now, everything has changed, with the scarcity of food and the many threats out there i've been forced to get meaner and tougher. With this introduction out of the way, let me tell you just how it had happened, how my world was torn apart.

When the lights went out for the last time, no one was expecting it. The day had started off rather boring, the school was uncomfortable as usual, and I as usual was tired to the point of exhaustion. The bland maroon, blue, and white paint on the walls had done nothing to keep me awake, the walls seemed to blend into one another, the lectures occurring in my classes weren’t much better, they were as dry as possible and over many pointless subjects. The first two hours of dreadful school were boring, but they passed slowly by until finally it was lunch time, first and second hour finally released their dreary hold on me. As I maneuvered to lunch I noticed just how boring our school was, the floor tiling spreading forth in a never ending track of white, and the walls a sky blue, only periodically broken by the occasional maroon door of a class room. I had been in a daze as I walked to lunch, and had received a rather hard hit, someone had run into me. As i snapped back to attention i began to hurry to lunch, i was ready for some time to sit and collect my thoughts.

As the day progressed, I had begun to contemplate how to win over a girl of whom I was rather fond of. I went about planning and occasionally day dreaming until I noticed a rather abrupt change in the atmosphere of the classroom. As I looked up from my most recent session of day dreaming, I realized that everyone was staring with an awestruck expression upon their faces. I was not too surprised by this, as most of the people in the class were rather easily amused. It wasn't until I saw my teacher with the same annoying expression showing so clearly on his face that I began to think something may be wrong.

My initial thought was that somehow this teacher who I had a great amount of disdain for, had somehow messed something up and probably caught something on fire. This would have been nothing, almost expected, as I had never liked the teacher all that much, and doubted his ability to teach. I had always viewed him as one who had somehow managed to get through college and obtain an agree on the basis of doing all the work, but not in a good way, his ability to teach was frighteningly limited, and he had a dry sense of humor of which I couldn't even begin to appreciate. Never the less, the one good thing about this teacher was his seriousness, as I glanced about I took notice of the TV being on, as I heard the news on the TV it was not fear that I experienced, but a slight interest that tugged at my conscience. The man on the news had reported “Terrorist cells may have nuclear bombs in major towns and cities” the thought of this intrigued me, I hadn't put much thought into what I would do if a situation such as this had happened. The thought crossed my mind that maybe I had heard this wrong, but upon seeing the looks of the frightened students in the classroom I was assured that this was indeed really happening.

Up until this time everyone had been speechless, but now as the news report took hold, all hell broke loose. The girls in the class room were panicking, and most of the guys were in a state of utter and complete shock, the teacher was on the phone trying to figure out what to do with us. I had decided it was time for me to leave, I had come to a rapid conclusion that a school was one of the places I didn't want to be. The possibility of terrorists attacking our small town was nearly non existent, however some sixth sense warned me to be cautious, if there was going to be an attack they would undoubtedly be aimed at the public to maximize shock, create chaos and disorientation among the masses. I had proceeded to get up, hell bent on getting out of the school regardless of the consequences, I didn't begin to think someone would attempt to hold me back, however they did.

“Roland! What do you think you're doing?!” Said Mr. Smith

Anger rapidly took over, my logical thought process was now terminated, to think this petty man believed he had power over me in such a situation?

“Go fuck yourself, I'm leaving with or without your permission” I said.

Mr. Smith was without a doubt stupefied by my outburst, I had always been the relatively quiet kid, minding my own business. With Mr. Smith stunned by my violent outburst, I took advantage of the situation and walked out of the classroom, leaving my books and other belongings as I had no use for them. As I made my way towards the main doors I was once again told to stop, by this time I had recovered from my violent outburst and all of my senses were on full alert, one goal in mind, to escape. The principal had decided to make an attempt to keep all of us who were leaving in the school. I was rather surprised by the sheer amount of rebelling students. There were many of us, not just a couple, but at least twenty or more, and quite a few who hadn't reached the lobby of the school yet. As I approached the main lobby doors I heard what the principal was shouting

“Calm down and go back to class, everything will be ok!” said Principal Hawthorne. Principal Hawthorne was not a small man, but neither was he a big man, he was of medium build and in his later forties or early fifties, no one in the school feared or really respected him. Dut to his attempt to stop many of the students from leaving, he was promptly pushed out of the way and nearly pummeled by some of the students who were fed up with him. As he was distracted I was once again on my way out of the school, I broke out into a run in an attempt to just get away from the school before anything else could be done to hinder my escape to my car. As I was sprinting I was scarcely aware of the sirens off in the distance, I was panting rather hard as I was not one to be seen running, I was a bigger boy, about six foot and three inches tall, and roughly two hundred seventy pounds. As i was running, i took in the surroundings, the sky a cold gray color, the pavement as black as charcoal, and the mass of cars like some sort of maze. As i made it closer to my car, my mind started racing, what would i do, or better yet, what could i do? I pondered if the police would be an issue, I feared that they may be locking down the town for our safety, or so they believed would keep us safe. It was a short distance before I had gotten to my car, and as i approached it, the car was shining it's dark blue, speckled with mud from driving during the rain. It's sleek looks were a welcome sight, the car had always been reliable for me, the car either ran or it didn't, there was no in between. As I started my car the familiar sound of the engine starting up was comforting, the revving of the engine was there to greet me, it was like an old friend who I knew would not betray me.

I pushed the pedal gently down as I began my trip home. I had decided to not panic and risk getting into a crash, attracting attention from the police, or others who would be attempting to keep me from my objective. The car rolled forward, slowly gaining speed as I shifted gears, I took the side streets. Those streets of which were usually buzzing with the laughter of children not yet in school, and the sounds of men and women mowing their lawns was disturbingly quiet. It was if something had teleported everyone to another planet, there wasn't a single soul on the road, and this had a chilling effect on me. As I drove down those deserted roads, i took in the look of the surrounding homes and trees, the homes looked blurry, almost as if they were fake, and the trees strangely looked as though they were without color. I had managed to elude any of the authorities as i progressed slowly from town out onto those country roads i knew so well. I hadn't the slightest fear of being stopped now, i was safely outside of city limits by this point in time. Due the to nature of the road I had to keep the car rolling at a slow pace of forty miles per hour, anything more would allow the risk of the car losing control on the deep gravel, after all, sports cars aren't meant to be on gravel roads in the middle of no where. As I progressed at this slow pace I looked at my cell phone frequently, hoping that my mother or one of my relatives would call me. I soon became aware that I had no signal whats so ever, I decided to turn the phone off for the moment, and allow it to retain the slight battery charge of which it still possessed. I was approaching my home when the radio cut out, I had been listening to “the wall” by Pink Floyd, the music had been soothing me, so much so that the drive was rather pleasurable. You wouldn't have suspected anything was wrong aside from the lack of others driving. By this time I had crossed the final highway barring me from my home, as I approached my house I noticed with a slight tinge of uncertainty that there was no vehicles at any of the homes, I was hoping that my mother or my step father would be home, or anyone for that matter. It had been shockingly quiet and lonely on the road to my home, and I was yearning for information of what was happening, the radio hadn't had a commercial the entire way and from what I heard it seemed that it was set on it's recording, playing music without any breaks. I pulled into my driveway and immediately noticed the heavy tread marks, something had been through here, and whatever it was, was big. I pulled cautiously into my driveway, turning the car around in case I had to leave in a rush, I refrained from shutting the car off, noting that I may need it to be ready incase things turned sour.

This is all i have for the moment, if you see any typos or sentences that don't make sense, please let me know, as i wrote all of this while i was extremely tired.

Revised some of it, will be editing the rest later. 3/23/12

Finished Revising the majority of the current story, will be proceeding with writing tomorrow. 3/24/12