Chapter I: St: Louis
What did you think would follow from such a disastrous plan? World peace? Maybe prosperity? No... you would be wrong if you thought any of those were true. You're plan has destroyed the economy, government, and all possibilities of a prosperous, working, and peaceful nation. What you've done is unforgivable and irreversible.
Mark was lost in his thoughts when he was awakened by a barrage of gunshots coming from the outside.
"How?" Mark thought to himself, "How could the repealing of net neutrality lead to the collapse of capitalism itself?"
After Mark's thought was done, a stray bullet smashed the window of the apartment he was hiding in.
Before you're lost in confusion, allow me to explain myself.
After the net neutrality rules were ended, American economy took a massive crash. Large companies started getting large profits, followed by smaller companies going under. These losses of minor corporations led to anger and riots in the streets of the United States. Large corporation buildings were stormed and destroyed, buildings were broken, windows were shattered, people were robbed, and many corporate leaders were publically tortured and executed. Because of the large amounts of people that terrorized the nation with their reckless habits, the United State Army had to step in and douse the fire. Little did they know, they were dousing the fire with gasoline. While soldiers marched the streets, they were ambushed by the riots of angry civilians. These ambushes caused the army to slowly lose power and funding. Before we knew it, the United States Army along with the major government officials of this country were all dismantled and killed. the government collapsed, and an anarchy formed. If you don't know, an anarchy is the least effective form of government that exists. With no rules or guidance, the remaining survivors formed their own governments and small nations. These nations were lightly populated, unorganized, and as ruthless as rabid rottweilers (excuse the alliteration). Now that the streets of America are littered with looters and survivors, there is no longer any peace, just constant violence, war, and paranoia.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get back to Mark and his story.
Mark was only 17 years old when a gang ambushed and murdered his parents right in front of him. After being traumatized and scarred, Mark escaped and swore his life to the vengeance of his parents.
Mark took a quick glance out of the window of the room in the 5th story of the apartment complex in St. Louis, Missouri where he was hiding. He noticed a group of masked shooters in the middle of a parking structure, while there was another group of masked shooters that were hiding behind a tipped over semi truck.
The two groups were fighting in the middle of the street in the darkness of night.
Mark quickly moved away from the window when he noticed one of the shooters glanced at him.
"Hey! They've got a sniper in the apartment!" one of the shooters shouted, thinking that Mark was a sniper.
"Shit!" Mark started panicking, "I gotta get out of here!"
Mark went to the other side of the room and used his shotgun to break the window. He crawled out and made a jump for the scaffolding on the side of the apartment. Mark climbed up on top of the roof and ran with all of his remaining energy. Mark was never very good at free-running, but he was definitely willing and abled for making jumps and climbing tall walls.
Mark ran across ventilation units and chimneys while jumping from roof to roof in an attempt to escape the ruthless shooters.
The shooter from before saw Mark and started taking pot-shots with a pistol.
Mark saw that the line of rooftops was getting smaller and smaller until he got to the last building on the street. The shooter was reloading which gave Mark a few seconds to think about a plan.
Mark saw a ladder laying on the roof. He grabbed it and swung it down to the ground. Mark started climbing down, but the shooter had finished reloading and started taking shots again. Mark was climbing down as fast as he could until he hit the ground. Mark made a run for the alleyway on the other side of the street, but the shooter got a lucky shot and hit Mark in the ankle. Mark immediately fell on his arm in pain. He shouted loud enough for both of the groups to notice him. The group behind the semi got distracted and the other group took this chance to take out the semi. One of the shooters in the parking structure threw a Molotov at one of the gas tanks on the truck. The gas tank immediately caught on fire and caused the truck to explode like a firework. The explosion took out the rest of the group behind the semi.
"There's still one more," the shooter said, "their sniper is still out there! If he gets away he'll alarm the rest of the group!"
Mark had crawled into an alley during the commotion and picked himself back up. He started limping across the alley until he made it out on the other side. Mark saw a gas station on the other side of the street. He ran as much as he could without hurting his foot. The parking structure exit was on the same street that Mark was now on. The shooters ran out of the exit and immediately saw Mark. Mark hid inside the gas station where he saw several dead bodies and an assault rifle with one clip left on it. Mark picked up the rifle and started aiming at the shooters from behind the counter of the gas station. Mark shot about two shooters before the clip ran out. The surviving shooters hid behind the gas pumps. Mark looked around for something to use in defense. Mark saw the liquor cabinet and the lighters on the counter. This gave him the idea to make a Molotov. Mark smashed the liquor cabinet and opened a bottle of vodka. Mark then grabbed a lighter off the countertop, but he still needed a cloth to set on fire. Mark looked at one of the corpses on the floor. He saw that one of them had a bandana on. Mark reached over and grabbed the bandana off the man and shoved it into the bottle of vodka which he then sent on fire and then chucked at one of the gas pumps. The bottle shattered and ignited the pump on fire. The whole pump ignited in the blink of an eye with a large cloud of fire. The cloud of fire set the rest of the pumps on fire and exploded the whole front of the gas station. Mark ran out of the back entrance of the gas station and ran around the back of the street. Mark looked at the inferno that he created, but as he was distracted he noticed one of the shooters running at him with a knife. The man tackled him and tried to stab him. Mark used the last of his energy to resist the man's knife. Mark's life flashed before his eyes. He thought that this would be the day that he would die. When the man made his final push, the shot of a gun rang for miles. Mark snapped back to reality and noticed the shooter was dead and had a hole that went clear through his head. Mark's immediate thought was that there was a sniper somewhere, but when he got up to run he saw a man walk from around the corner of an alley across the street.
"Hey!" the man shouted, "Are you alright?"
"Don't shoot," Mark shouted, "I'm not in any gangs or anything like that."
"Okay, good," the man replied.
The man walked slowly towards Mark until he got up to him.
"So what did that guy want with you?" the man asked.
"He thought I was a sniper for another gang, but I was just hiding," Mark responded.
"They must've got you really good," the man said as he looked at Mark's ankle.
"Yeah, the fuckers shot me for no reason," Mark exhausted, "By the way, what's your name?"
"My name is Vincent," the man answered.
"I'm Mark," Mark said after coughing a few times.
"I was scavenging a few blocks down the road, but I heard gunshots. When I looked down the road, there was a massive cloud of fire coming from the gas station," Vincent explained.
"Yeah, there was a dozen of those guys, but they were stupid enough to hide behind gas pumps," Mark replied.
Mark started stumbling a bit, which caused him to fall.
"Shit, are you alright?" Vincent asked.
"I hope," Mark replied.
Mark removed his shoe and rolled up his pants to look and the wound. The bullet skimmed across his ankle and left a small hole inside of him.
"The bullet skimmed right past, so at least I don't have a bullet stuck in me," Mark sighed in pain.
Mark put his shoe back on and picked himself up off the ground.
"Do you need to be anywhere?" Vincent asked, "I found a working car a block back and it still has some gas left in it."
"I don't have anywhere to be," Mark responded, "I'm just a scavenger."
"Same here," Vincent laughed, "But still if you need a ride, you're more than welcome to come with me."
"Well, do you have any plans on where to go yourself?" Mark asked.
"Actually, I do," Vincent responded, "I heard rumors of flourishing groups down near the border and I wanted to check and see if it was legitimate."
"Sounds good to me," Mark said, "Besides, anything beats being in this dump for another day."
"Alright, sounds like a plan," Vincent said, "Let's get to it."
Mark and Vincent walked down the block until they got to the car Vincent was talking about. They got in and immediately realized that there were no keys.
"Do you know how to hotwire a car?" Vincent asked Mark.
"I've never done it, but I'm pretty sure I know how," Mark responded.
Mark kicked out the panel underneath the steering wheel and pulled out the wires. He pulled out a knife from his pocket, cut the wires, and rearranged them accordingly.
The car started making sounds and revving. Before they knew it, the dashboard lit up and the engine started.
"Only a half tank left," Vincent mentioned.
"I'm sure we'll find some gas along the road," Mark replied.
Vincent reversed the car out of the wreckage of cars in the streets and got it back onto the road. After some twists and turns, Vincent made it onto Route 66. The long but promising journey had just begun.