It all started one beautiful evening. The air was crisp, the temperature perfect. But bad things always seemed to happen when one was unsuspecting.
Jem and Will had been hanging out at Jem's uncle, Elias's, house for the weekend. They'd been playing COD on Xbox, and Will had been grinning ferociously when he saw he was winning, and by quite a long way. That was the reason why he was so disappointed when the TV suddenly turned off, the screen going blank without any warning whatsoever. He and Jem exchanged a look, Jem's expression slightly relieved, and Will's frustrated.
"Maybe it disconnected?" Jem suggested, his black hair disappearing behind the TV as he went to check the cords.
"I don't know, but we better not have to start all over again," Will groaned with an annoyed scowl.
Jem didn't reply to this, and kept fiddling with the cords and the power point. "It all seems fine to me, I don't understand what happened." Will could hear the bewilderment in Jem's voice, so he got up off the couch to have a look.
That's when Jem noticed the usual digital time on the oven had disappeared, and the fridge light had gone out. He pointed this out to Will. "I have a bad feeling about this," Jem said, rubbing his arm as if he had goose bumps.
Will agreed, rushing around to try the cooking equipment. Nothing worked, and he realised the kitchen light wouldn't turn on either. "The power must be out," he concluded.
"There's a power box outside," Jem said, finding a solar powered torch and heading outside. Will followed, and they both jumped when they heard a scream pierce the silence. It was coming from outside on the street. Before Will could stop him, Jem raced outside with the torch, and Will ran after him.
What they found stopped them cold. The street was eerily dark, with not a light on in sight. The houses and street lights were pitch black, and the sight made Will shiver with apprehension. People started running around the street in shock. Some asking questions, while others shouting – rather unhelpfully - that the power was out.
"We're not going to solve anything standing out here," Jem pointed out after spending some time unsuccessfully fiddling with the power box. "Maybe we should just get some sleep and see if it's fixed in the morning."
Will couldn't fault Jem's logic and agreed, although he wasn't sure how much sleep he'd actually get.
As they lay in the two guest beds, Will listened to the outraged voices outside, and wondered what surprises the morning would bring.
Jem spoke the words Will had been thinking all night and morning. "Something's definitely wrong."
They had tried everything when they got up, but like before, nothing was working. Will had never thought about it before, but the world really did revolve around electricity. Cars were the main form of transportation, phones the main mean of communication, and stoves and ovens the best equipment for cooking. He didn't know how people would even be able to live without it, they used it so much.
As Will pondered this, they trudged towards the main street, on Jem's suggestion. At least there they might find out what was going on, and get some help.
However, when they arrived it was chaos, like the period where people rushed to get everything together before a tornado was about to hit. Everyone ran around yelling and breaking into the shops that lined the main street.
As Will and Jem watched on, a man threw bricks at a pharmacy, and he and his friends jumped in through the cracks in the window. People streamed out of the supermarket, carrying armfuls of groceries, like chipmunks gathering their stores of nuts before the winter hit. A homeless man sat on the ground with a sign stating cheerful things, such as; "the end of the world is near," and that "the time of judgement has come."
Will turned to Jem, his heart still thudding painfully in shock. "We should get some food too."
Jem protested at the idea of stealing just as Will knew he would. "We can't be like them. Soon all the food will be gone, and people that haven't come will have nothing. They'll starve!"
Will's eyes hardened. "Well, that won't be us. We need food to survive, Jem. No one's going to give it to us, so we'll have to take it. It's survival of the fittest in this world." Oh how true his words were. Soon they'd be the mantra that he repeated every day when he woke up in the morning.
Will grabbed Jem's arm and pulled him towards the grocery store before he could argue. Will was jostled and elbowed by the hungry mob as he fought his way towards the entrance. The good thing about being younger was that they could duck between people.
Inside was just as much of a battlefield. Wide eyed adults grabbed anything they could find and carry, while kids shrieked from between their legs. Prices meant nothing anymore, and there were no staff in sight anyway. Will saw two men both clutching a large bag of chips, neither one wanting to let go.
"We need to get things with a long expiry date, and which we can use more than once," Jem advised from behind him. Will nodded, and continued to lead him towards the tinned food section.
"These last a while," Will said as he grabbed some baked beans and other assorted cans and stuffed them in his bag. Jem followed suit, and they soon had a large amount of tins. Next they got some bottled water and anything else that could come in handy, such as a pocket knife, some first aid supplies and a tin opener.
When Will felt like they had enough, they ran back towards the doors to get outside. At the entrance, a line was forming, since not everyone could fit through the doorway at once.
A man stopped Jem in his tracks, and grabbed a hold of his bag. "I'll take that," he drawled with a smirk. "Thanks for packing it for me."
Jem looked taken aback, so Will stepped forward and grabbed hold of the other end, tugging on the bag. "Give it back, we got these. You get your own."
The man snarled about kids and how ungrateful they were, and he punched Will in the cheek. Will's face was thrust to the side, and he held his stinging cheek in shock. The pain was nothing compared to his anger, however, as the man turned away in triumph, holding the bag up like a trophy.
Will's fists clenched, and he flipped open his pocket knife, swiping at the man's arm hard enough to draw blood. The man's eyes opened in surprise, and he instinctively dropped the bag as a reaction to the sudden pain. Will swooped down, grabbed it, and ran, checking to make sure Jem was following.
As they found a corner to hide behind, Will drew in a few ragged breaths. "That was a close one."
"Will, are you crazy?" Jem whispered. "He could have killed you. He was twice your size."
Will waved Jem's concerns away. "I did what I had to do. It's fine. We're fine."
He expected Jem to scold him more, but he saw Jem's eyes light up with an idea instead. "There's something else at my uncle's house that I have a feeling we may need in the future."
Back at the house, Jem led Will to a display on the wall. It held two golden swords with a single-edged blade, which glittered when the sun shone on them.
"These are dao, or Chinese swords. They were passed down from my mother's side of the family," Jem explained, his voice soft and respectful.
Will knew that Jem's parents had died in a car accident when he'd been younger, so he could understand the sentimental value that these swords – dao - must hold. Will took one off the shelf, and fit his hand in the grip, testing the weight. He was surprised to find his hand fit quite well, and he practised slashing the air, feeling the breeze whoosh past him. "It feels good."
Jem took the other one off the wall, and said, "Normally swordcraft would take many years to master. Unfortunately we are just going to have to make do. Although I'm hoping we'll never need to use these."
Will tucked his into a makeshift belt he'd made for it. "As you said, I have a feeling we will need to use these, sooner rather than later."
A/N: So I hoped you enjoyed the prologue. The next chapters will skip forward into the future, so please keep reading because it will continue to get better!
~ SilverJem5