Chapter 1:
Behind on time
It's a warm Friday afternoon and I'm off to Nonten's house so we can hit the road for the big camping trip. The air feels cool when it runs through my hair as I ride down the street. I'm nearing his house and I notice that my motorcycle is getting pretty low on gas but, I really don't think anything of it because I know I'll be able to get some on the way home, or so I thought.
I arrive at Nonten's and I see the camper sitting in his driveway. I pull up and park my bike. I take my hat that was strapped to my waist and put it back on my head. I walk up to his door and knock.
"It's open!" I hear come from inside the house."Alright," I say as I open the door. Nonten has all of his bags sitting on the stairs of his house. I take my guitar off of my back and sit on the stairs and wait for him to come downstairs. I sit for about 5 minutes before I begin to get angry."Nonten, what the heck is taking you so long? We still have to go pick up everyone else and get on the road before sundown." I say and wait but no response. I shift some of his bags over and go up the stairs into the first door on the right. "Dude?" I say as I walk into the room. "I'm over here, I need to find my lucky coin before I can leave... I've never traveled without it." He says nervously. "Well, where did you last have it?" I say. "Um... Maybe yesterday or was it Wednesday... I have no clue. I just need to find it, it's really important to me." He says. "Yeah... I understand it's like me and my Franklin Badge." I reply trying to calm him.
We search the room for a good fifteen minutes before I feel a buzz in my pocket. I stand up off the floor and take my phone out of my pocket. I read what the text says: WHERE THE HECK ARE YOU GUYS?! I consider responding but instead I continue searching because I don't want to make Nonten more on edge.
We search for another 15 minutes before I hear Nonten begin to yell, "Wait, wait, wait! What do we have here!" I walk over to him and see that he has tore apart all of his drawers. He reaches into the pocket of a pair of green shorts. "Aha!" He exclaims. "It was in my pocket the whole entire time!" I just laugh and walk into the hallway and take my phone out my pocket. Since the last I look I got about 13 more texts from everyone who's coming on this trip with us. Before I can respond Nonten is behind me. "Come on Jay we have to hurry due to that setback..." He says. I just walk behind him as he picks up all of his bags from the stairs. I strap my guitar to my back again and hold the front door so he can get out. "Thanks..." He murmurs under his breath because the weight of his bags is so heavy. "We need to go get everyone now." I say. "Yeah, but we should probably get Jeffrey first because he is closest to us." He replies. Jeffrey is my Siberian Husky that was at the Vet overnight to get some shots so he would be okay to come with us on the trip. We load up the camper's undercarriage with our bags and walk towards the front of the camper. "Nonten, where are the keys?" I ask. He doesn't respond, he runs inside and I hear the door slam. Before I know it he comes back with the keys and a bag of waters and snacks. "Here," he says as he throws the keys at me and I catch them. He jumps into the passenger side of the camper and I start the engine.
Within 20 minutes we're at the Vet checking out Jeffrey. "He's all set. Shots taken care of and he has no fleas." The secretary at the front desk says. "Okay, how much do I owe you?" I ask. "Let's see, that's 500 for the shots, 100 for the overnight stay, and 200 for the flea check. So it comes to $800 in total." She says as I hand her a credit card. "Ok, have a nice evening." She says as we walk out the door. I put Jeffrey in the camper and we take off.
Driving to Jack's house I feel my phone buzz again and so does Nonten's but he's distracted and doesn't notice. I assume it's just another one of our friends telling us to hurry up so I ignore it. As we are driving along we see cars passing frantically, a bunch police cars rushing by too. We got to Jack's house and I knocked on his door. No answer. "Jack? Are you home?" I called. I thought to myself that there's no way he would have left for somewhere else, so I got the spare key from under the mat and unlocked the door. His house was a mess. Pots and pans on the floors. Towels and food scraps sitting around. Clothes thrown all over. "Nonten, you have to come see this..." I said as he walked up to the house. "What the hell?" He says. We both walked in to see this huge disaster. I walked down the hallway and looked into a bedroom, no one. I looked into another room, nothing but a mess of clothes and various items. Nonten and I meet back in the kitchen of the house. "Dude, he like disappeared off of the planet... And why is the house such a mess?" Nonten asks. "I don't know but I'm worried..." I reply. Seconds later we hear a bang from outside the house. "What was that!?" Nonten asks sheepishly. "We should go check it out," I say. He nods. "Let's get some weapons just in case." He says. I think it's a bit ridiculous by I agree and grab a steak knife. Nonten grabs a pan.
We walk out the back door to his yard. We hear another bang. It comes from the bulkhead doors that lead to his basement. I look at Nonten and he is standing behind me with his pan up. "Okay, I guess I'll lead..." I say as I begin to walk to the doors. Slowly we walk and try to stay as quiet as possible. We get to the doors and I signal him to get on the other side and to open the door on my queue. I hold up 3 fingers, then 2 fingers, the when I hold up one finger and we open the doors and hold our weapons. A mysterious figure jumps out and tries to grab us but it is restrained by a chain. "Holy shit!" Nonten screams. "What the hell is that thing!?" I yell. It is groaning and trying to grab us with its decaying hands. Nonten stands there frozen and I decide to take matters into my own hands. I slowly crouch towards it. I get a bit too close and it grabs my right arm and I drop the knife. I panic and kick it in the face. It stumbles down the stairs and I slam the doors shut. I start to breathe heavily and sit on the ground just staring out into space. Nonten walks over to me. "Jay, what the heck was that thing?" He says looking at me with a concerned look.