CHAPTER 1 – Party at the Longhouse
As the sun started to descend on another summer evening in southern Washington, four siblings were playing video games, vandalizing billboards, and chasing after said vandalizing sibling. Delsin Rowe was a 23 year old 'artist' that often tried to express his artistic inclinations in, less than legal manners. On this particular occasion, Delsin was improving the billboard congratulating brother Reggie on becoming the local sheriff. Reggie, as always, was hot on Delsin's tail as he made his escape through the fish cannery, and along the beach and cliffs of the bay.
Reggie, 25, was the eldest of the four. He spent much of his time stopping Delsin and his misdemeanor vandalism attempts. He knew Delsin would attempt to establish an alibi at the longhouse party as soon as he could, so he went to cut him off.
Nearby, in one of the houses situated on the bay, 19 year old Abigail, or Fetch, as she was better known, was playing a heated death match against 18 year old Eugene, in their favourite online game, Heaven's Hellfire. Eugene had gotten Fetch hooked about a year ago, and now they played almost every day. Eugene, as was the case two thirds of the time, had gained the upper hand on Fetch, and ultimately won the match 17 kills to 12.
Taking off her headset and chucking it onto her keyboard, she got up and asked Eugene if he wanted to go to the party at the longhouse, after the reluctant congratulations, of course. Eugene politely declined the invitation, preferring instead to keep playing death matches.
Fetch pulled on a hoodie and left the house, turning left off the path and onto the footpath next to the main road to Seattle. Walking towards the longhouse, the billboard came into view and she chuckled at Delsin's handiwork. 'That guy certainly can tag' she thought to herself. Pulling out her phone, she saw Delsin hurriedly duck into a bush to hide from the baleful glare of Reggie. Reggie soon moved inside the longhouse, and Fetch rounded the corner just as Delsin tried to open the door and was ambushed by Reggie.
"Delsin! Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is for me to keep arresting my own brother over and over and over again?" Reggie interrogated Delsin.
"Then maybe you should stop arresting me over and over and over again!" Delsin replied, before seeing Fetch and her raised eyebrows staring at him. "Hey, Fetch." Delsin said.
Pulling out her earphones, Fetch smiled and said "Hey Delsin. Hey Reggie."
"Hey Fetch. What's up?" Reggie asked.
"I think I'm interrupting something?" Fetch said.
"Yeah, it's…" Reggie couldn't finish before Delsin mumbled, "Holy shit."
Reggie and Fetch both turned in time to see a huge Humvee overturn just up the road. Two male figures ran away from the wreck as they watched.
"Fuck me…" Reggie said, shocked, and continued, "Delsin, Fetch, try and see if there are any others in that crash. I'll go after those two!"
Delsin and Fetch sprinted up to the crash site, avoiding the flames dancing around the truck. Fetch saw four unconscious, or dead, she couldn't tell which, soldiers in the cabin, and Delsin found a man underneath the back door.
"Thanks, man, I thought I was gonna die there!" The man said.
"Are you okay?" Delsin asked
"Yeah, I'm… I gotta go!" The man said, before Reggie arrived. The man punched Delsin in the gut and held him to his body, threatening to shoot him with a blast of whatever was in his hands.
Fetch realised this guy was one of those bio-terrorists. Her eyes, Delsin's eyes, and Reggie's eyes all went wide as this guy absorbed smoke from the ruins of the truck and fired a blast at Reggie. It missed, and before he could fire another, Delsin grabbed his arm, and suddenly a massive shockwave exploded out of them both. Fetch was blown back and hit her head on the light pole behind her, and Reggie was thrown onto his back.
Delsin and this guy were writhing about on the ground, and soon enough, Delsin and the man broke apart and collapsed. Fetch felt the back of her head and groaned as she touched it. Looking at her hand, there was a large pool of blood which suggested a very deep wound.
She tried to shake it off, got up, and went, somewhat dizzily, over to Delsin. She shook him a little and sighed in relief as he woke up. The bio-terrorist was already long gone, and Fetch tried to make Delsin stand up. Eventually, he did, and, after seeing the damage to Fetch's head, gave her his jacket to stem the flow a bit.
The two of them slowly staggered along towards where Reggie went, arms supporting each other, before Delsin tried going a little faster, and they both got the shock of their lives. Delsin disintegrated into smoke and cinders and reformed a few metres away. Fetch collapsed onto the ground without Delsin supporting her, and could only hear Delsin's panicked shouts as the blackness started to engulf her. Desperately, she tried getting up, but only fell down again as her weak brain finally lost consciousness. The last thing she heard was Delsin's panicky and worried voice call out desperately for Reggie.
Moments later, Eugene, deciding to go to the longhouse after all, because of a particularly bad deathmatch which he lost 24-9. Walking along, he saw a destroyed car, and he picked up a jog, seeing more carnage, more destruction, a crashed military truck and, as he investigated the scene, a lifeless Fetch lying in a pool of blood fifty odd metres away. 'Oh, no. No. No, no, no!' He thought, rushing to her side. He picked up Delsin's bloodstained jacket and desperately tried to stem the blood flow, but knew it was hopeless. He rushed inside the longhouse, desperate to find the doctor, a man called Jeremy Andrews, and saw that the party had already ended, most likely due to the commotion outside. Three beds had already been set up as a makeshift ward, and Eugene wondered what on earth had happened. Doctor Andrews was tending to a patient with weird shards in his legs, and looked up as Eugene ran over to him.
"Doctor! I need your h-help! Fetch has… She's been hurt really badly!" Eugene got out in between breaths.
"Calm down, son. What happened? Is it the concrete?" Dr Andrews asked.
"No. She hit her head or something, she's bleeding really badly. I don't even know if she's still alive." Eugene gasped.
"Okay, show me where she is!"
The two of them bolted out and towards Fetch. Doctor Andrews confirmed she was alive, as she was taking very shallow breaths. They carried her by the shoulders and ankles, pressing a towel to her head, and finally laid her on a bed. Doctor Andrews applied a thick bandage and tended to her wound, and told Eugene not to leave.
"Whoever did this, is still doing it. Reggie just brought in two more cases of the concrete shard things, and unless you want those in your legs too, then don't go out of here." The doctor finished tending to Fetch and told Eugene that she would be fine in a week or so.
Roughly 45 minutes later, Reggie carried Delsin in to the ward and placed him on the bed opposite to Fetch.
"This is bad, Eugene. She's doing it to everyone! The whole longhouse is going to have to be converted into a hospital just to house everyone. Are you okay?" Reggie said all of this in an uncharacteristically worried voice.
Eugene sniffed and looked at Fetch's barely moving body, and said, "Physically, yeah."
"It'll be okay. Fetch and Delsin, they'll both be fine. Everyone will." Reggie comforted Eugene.
Eugene nodded and got up to sit at the end of Fetch's bed. He pulled out his phone and Reggie said he had to go back to work, damage control and all of that stuff.
Eugene nodded again and began to do a bit of research on what the term 'bio-terrorist' actually means.