The End Is Now
Prologue
The Beginning of the End
Spring 2013
~~~Jeremy~~~
"Hey Dalton! Hurry up, we're going to be late!" I shouted out the window of my car. Dalton always took forever before school, I could never figure out what he was doing.
"Hold up one second!" I heard him call out as his garage door started opening.
"Hey Jeremy, just leave already, we're going to be late again." Someone added in the back. I turned around to see Killian looking impatient.
Killian was not the kind of person you wanted mad at you. He was a big guy, about 6'2" and 235 pounds, he was a boxer and occasionally a rich prick. Killian wore glasses atop his rounded baby face that covered his green eyes, occasionally he would have to brush his brown bangs out from his lenses. His features make him look years younger than he is, but you could never mistake his maturity because of his build.
"Dude, calm down we will be fine." I reassured him.
"Dalton! Hurry the fuck up!" I shouted.
"Hold on I'm coming!" He yelled back, ducking under his closing garage door.
Dalton was the opposite of Killian. He was still tall 6'1, but lanky weighing about 150 at the most. He had short, spiked blonde hair, blue eyes, and a constant smug look on his narrow face. Unlike Killian, he was always thought of to be older than he actually is.
"I told you we'd be fine." I said to Killian, glancing in my review mirror.
"Whatever man, we got two months left of school, I don't want to spend every afternoon of those days in detention." Killian said as Dalton opened the passenger side door and sat down, throwing his bag into the back seat.
"Hey watch it man!" Killian called out as the bag almost hit him.
"Sorry bro, I'll watch out next time." Dalton laughed.
"You say that every day." Killian said crossing his arms.
"Well I mean it this time." Dalton replied as I backed out of his driveway.
"Whatever man." Killian said looking out the window.
"Hey can you guys stop fighting? At least until we get to school?" I asked them.
"Sure." They both said in unison. I had known Dalton and Killian since I was three, our Mom's had been friends since we moved to to Chicago 15 years ago. Now we were all 18 and almost done with high school. It was going to suck once we all left for college because we were all going to different schools.
"You ready to leave this city man?" Dalton asked reclining his chair, bumping Killian's knee in the process.
"Fuck off!" Killian exclaimed.
"Chill, both of you." I said. "Yeah, I mean this place is alright, but I've never really been anywhere other than Illinois."
"I feel ya." Dalton said raising his seat back up.
"Really?" Killian asked surprised.
"Yeah, never really travelled anywhere with my Mom." I told him.
"Wow, well once we're done here, we all got to go somewhere together." Killian suggested.
"Yeah, but where?" Dalton asked.
"I don't know, maybe like Florida or something, I remember liking it a lot there." Killian said smiling.
"I'm sure you did." I added. Something caught my eye as I was driving, I slammed on the breaks as someone stepped out into the street.
"Watch it!" Dalton said as our bodies lurched forward.
"Sorry, some idiot jumped out in front of me!" I told him. The person didn't get out of the road though, they slowly turned toward the car and stared at it, their body twitching.
"Um, that guy doesn't look right." Dalton said worriedly.
"Oh shit!" I yelled as the man started sprinting towards my car. I shifted into reverse, but not before he slammed into the windshield of my car. His face was pressed against the glass, something wasn't right about him. Spit dripped from his mouth and his skin was extremely pale and was covered with bumps, one of the bumps had a sprout of something poking out of it.
"Fuck! Get us out of here man!" Killian yelled.
"I am!" I yelled shifting back to drive and driving forward, causing the man to slide off the side of my windshield.
"Oh man, what the fuck was that?" Killian said panicking behind me.
"Yeah man what the fuck happened!?" Dalton yelled.
"Hey calm down! If we start panicking it will only make it worse." I said to them.
"Yeah. Yeah you're right. Hey turn on the radio, let's see if anyone else has seen this." Dalton suggested.
"I think it was just the one person, let's just go to the police or something." I reassured him. Dalton switched on the radio anyway.
"Recently, there have been several reported incidents of violent assaults, with as many as three ending in the death of the victim." The radio played.
"Some assailants were killed by responding police forces, while others have still not been found. The dead assailants all seem to suffer from a related unknown cause. Preliminary tests run by the Chicago Police Department forensic analysis team have shown that the assailants all suffer from an unknown pathogen. Federal and state officials are recommending that citizens stay inside and do not let anyone inside your home without them first giving proper authorization." The radio droned on.
"What the fuck?" Dalton said.
"That doesn't sound good." Killian said.
"This sounds like something out of a mov-." I started, but got cut of as we got hit by a car going through an intersection.
