Opened Eyes

PLEASE REVIEW, this is the edited version of the first chapter. I found a lot of mistakes the first time through. If you find any mistakes please let me know and also let me know if you like! I would like to have a Beta Reader if anyone is interested. Without reviews, I probably won't post too many chapters.

Chapter 1

Opening her eyes, Aisha was blinded by the sun's rays coming through the window across her light skin. She heard a loud screaming in her ears, it wouldn't stop. She covered her ears and scrunched her face hoping that it would help drown the noise out. When she finally calmed down and came to her senses she realized that the phone was ringing. Her friend James thought it would be funny if he recorded his voice and set it as her ring tone.

She leaned over, her light messy brown hair hanging over her face, and grabbed the phone and with an extremely groggy voice she croaked out, "Hello."

An anxious voice sounded from the other end, "Aisha, are you ok? Why is your voice sounding so bad? Are you sick? What color is your skin? Are you bleeding? Where are you? I'll come right away…

Cutting her off Aisha replied a calm yet still groggy, "Yes, I'm ok, and hey my voice is beautiful shut up! I still have that sexy tan. No I'm not bleeding and I'm at home in bed."

Aisha's brain was slowly catching up to her, coming out of rest mode itself. She recognized it as her sister Melanie's voice.

"Sexy tan! Ha! Well, maybe one day, but you're still as white as a glow-in the-dark-cracker." She ended her sentence with a loud guffaw.

"Fine, you win. Now what do you want?"

"A bunch of us are going down to the night club tonight for a good time" Emphasizing the good a ridiculous amount.

"Ugh, really, I'm still hung over from last night, I don't know if I can take that kind of abuse from you"

Ignoring everything Aisha just said she ordered, "Tonight the Paladin be there or miss out" Then there was a click.

Damn that ring tone! She didn't think that's what James had meant when he recorded the ring tone. As she got out bed she slipped on her slippers and walked over to look out her window at the bustling streets of L.A. below, thinking about how best to get back at him.

Satisfied with slipping some powdered laxative in his beer that she knew he would drink that night she started her morning routine. Starting by going online, and like every other day skipped the annoying headlines, an action that Aisha would come to regret later she checked her email. She was surprised to find an email from James, asking her to come to some gathering that he was part of. James had always been involved with extremists from groups saying that the world would end in '99, '04, and '09. Naturally he was predicting it again. People had been getting sick, similar to the swine flu scare that had swept the nation a few years ago. The email went something like this:

Aisha,

'You are formally invited to the event of a lifetime. An event that will save your life from this rampant strand of Yellow Fever that has been temporarily dubbed Yellow Fever Plus due the lack of knowledge about this new disease and the intense yellow coloration that pollutes the skin….'

Not caring to read past that, she knew he always exaggerated events like this, and the world would have ended several times over if half of his predictions had been proven to be true. In the end, Michael was a good friend to have in times of need. There had been a terrible earthquake last year in 2013 in Southern California when Aisha had lived close to the San Andreas Fault line. That had truly taken everything away from her. But James was there with emergency supplies food and water. He had been with hundreds of people from different religions and other groups that helped rebuild the area. The short of it was that James had been there for Aisha several times and so she had subscribed to his newsletters.

Even though Aisha believed that James was exaggerating slightly, she knew that this disease was a real danger. Hundreds had contracted the disease and half of them were dead, the other half wishing that they were. Aisha didn't watch the news much, but last week the reports went something like this;

Named after Yellow Fever, this disease had similar symptoms. Internal and external bleeding were common, a high temperature of course, also a signature symptom is the quick retiring of blood cells. When the blood cells retire they go to the liver to be disposed of and the high quantity of blood cells can't be replaced so it gives a tinge of yellow to the skin.

She'd heard that people would oftentimes just continuously vomit blood until they died. Others would have their blood cells completely die off and end up like an extremely dry raisin. One famous report was that of a man named Mars whose symptoms included the killing of his pigments almost completely, which left a dead, gray shadow of a man behind.

"Stop it!" She'd yelled out to herself. It was time to end these depressing thoughts and have one hell of a good day! Of course, she'd have to go to work her dead end job that would hopefully raise enough money for college one day, but still a good day nonetheless. Smiling she took off her tank top and shorts, she headed off to the shower to get ready for the day.

She finally was able to push the last paper at work that day and rushed to her car where she had packed, getting ready for the night. Grabbing a cute yellow gym bag that she'd used to carry her things around in she ran off to the work bathroom and began to get ready. Like many girls that night she wanted to dress to impress so she got ready and took her time.

Just over an hour later she had her iconic makeup of a girl who wanted to shine applied, her red sleeveless sundress with a cardigan over her shoulders, the beautiful high heels that matched her dress, and Aisha's dark brown hair was put up in a French Twist.

It was dark as she approached the night club in her '09 red Civic and Aisha's excitement had been building all day for this. Melanie always knew how to throw a great party and Aisha knew that she would regret the drinks and partying once again in the morning, but for now she didn't care.

As she got out of her car her sister called out to her, "Aisha! Finally made it did ya?"

"I'm here"

"Come on in, I want you to meet some of the gang!" Always peppy her sister grabbed her arm and they skipped arm in arm into the night club.

Once inside Melanie led her to a group of five people.

"You already know James and Michael" She gave hugs to these two as they were both very good friends, however when she hugged James she managed to slip into his drink a very special powder she had brought especially for him. James was a short Hispanic an inch or two taller than her, with short dark black hair and a coffee shaded skin tone. While Michael was white, but with a very nice tan, he was around half a foot taller than her, with dark brown hair done up in inch long spiked hair. She had gone to school with Michael for a long time and, just starting at UCLA, they were in class together once again. He was so cute that made her pulse throb and her skin tingle.

Melanie continued, "These other three are Hank, Lila, and Veronica." Hank was about her height, with skin that was a slightly darker shade than James', and dark brown hair that was long and hung around his head. Veronica was a tall, African American who had long black hair that was straightened to almost her waist. Lila was a short red head, with a lighter skin tone and hair was pulled back in a tight pony tail. After saying hi to everyone they went onto the dance floor and began to dance the night away.

However, after an hour or so of introducing herself to different guys and browsing the selection of men, she gave up. Aisha decided to get herself a shot of tequila at the bar. Sitting down she realized how tired she was, and wouldn't admit to anyone but slightly sweaty. As she started her drink she rationalized why she wouldn't flirt with Michael. Just nerves she supposed. She turned away from the bar on her swiveling stool. Next thing she knew is that the bar tender was yelling at her, no he was screaming at her. When she swiveled back she was sprayed with some wine and she laughed for a while, thinking some crazy rave had started. She realized that no one was laughing with her and the bartender was gone so she bashfully turned back to the dancing crowds, totally perplexed at what was happening around her.

Out of nowhere people started tackling other people, and bloodcurdling screams filled the air. To her left she saw one person tackle and break the knees inward of a young man who let out a silent scream, having no breath to make a sound. Screaming, Aisha got up and turning toward the exit, Out of the corner of her eye she saw the bartender pulling himself up with the bar and when she saw his face she couldn't stifle another scream. His face was missing; there was no nose and only half of an eye socket on his left side. Teeth marks surrounded the missing pieces. She screamed and swung her purse, knocking him back to the ground. All hell broke loose around her as people yelled and crammed themselves toward the main entrance only to find that the attackers seemed to be coming from outside the entrance double doors. People began to fight back, however as more and more blood puddled to the floor; it was clear who was winning. Suddenly something grabbed her arm forcefully, she reacted once again by swinging her purse at the assailant and hit Michael right in his face.

"Ow! What the…"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"We have to go!" Hank yelled this time from Michael's right.

"This way!" It was Lila who spoke this time from the other side of Michael.

They ran to the stage and as something ran toward Michael, he grabbed one of the DJ's microphone stands and beat the thing off the stage. Aisha stumbled, apparently going into some kind of shock. Lila grabbed her hand and yanked her forward. They went behind some curtains on the side of the stage and Aisha realized that they were heading toward a back door. She then picked her pace up and Lila didn't need to drag her any longer. She had a new found hope that she might get out of this butchers keep in one piece. When they finally got outside they found themselves in an alleyway and ran toward what looked like a main street at the end of it. Almost reaching the end of the alley someone ran into their path and rapidly looked around, when he or she saw the group the figure sprinted at them.

"Help!" 'At least they knew it was an actual person' Aisha thought. Out of nowhere the person had a shadow directly behind them, running even faster. Hank and Michael ran toward the person to hopefully help him. Michael still had the microphone stand in his hand, but Hank seemed to be hoping for some fist action, Aisha guessed. Michael got to the man first and wacked the following terror backwards with the pole part of the stand. Once it was on the ground it didn't move. The group gathered around the fallen man and we began noticing something familiar thing about the creature, yellow skin.

"Where are the others, where's my sister?" Aisha desperately asked interrupting the solemn feel.

"We don't know they were on the other side of the club" Michael replied.

"We need to focus, ok?" Hank was commanding in his voice and continued, "we are in one hell of a mess and need to concentrate!" Another moment of silence and he continued, "Now from what I understand James is part of a group that was prepared for something on the virus, is that correct?"

Aisha was able to force the words out of her trembling mouth, "yes, h-he wa-was with a group that pla-anned to have enough food and water for hundreds of people in case of a crisis like this." She barely got through the sentence and began to sob afterward on her knees.

Lila knelt next to her and gave her a hug, calming her and shushing.

"We can't stay here. We need to go now!" Hank yelled at them.

He yelled it a little too loudly and the sound attracted a few passing creatures. From the main street the creatures looked there direction and seemed to be sniffing toward them. Then without any more hesitation they raced toward the group of survivors. Lila pulled Aisha to her feet as the growls from the bleeding corpses began to gain on them. The three pursuers were faster and never seemed to run out of breath, even though their breathing was hard, coarse, and seemed to be gulping in air. As one approached the newcomer of their group he pulled out what looked like a large kitchen knife and struck back at the beast, putting a large gash in its chest. The creature stumbled and slowed as it let loose a scream that made your skin want to tear off of your muscle and crawl away. The other two creatures also were gaining although not as close as the first. Michael, who was the farthest ahead in the group, suddenly dove to the ground and with the stand that he still had in his hand, found a way to pry open a manhole cover with the pole end of his weapon.

"Get in!" One by one they jumped in without question. Michael was the last to jump in and after whacking one of the followers in its knees, sending it tumbling to the ground he also jumped in. He pulled the top closed and they were in utter darkness.