It was just a normal day.
So I thought.
You see, it's always been the four of us; me, Austin, Trish and Dez. We have been best friends since elementary school and rarely go a day without seeing each other.
Tonight was just like any other night.
Here we are walking me and Austin in the front, Dez and Trish behind us. Austin was being his usually goofy self, causing me to punch his arm as hard as I can; which meant he didn't even feel it.
We are walking on the railroad tracks like we always do on our way home from one of our favorite diners, 'Tony's.' It's dark outside, almost eight now but we are taking out sweet time. It's the first day of summer and we can finally stay out past our school curfews.
"Freshman year was so hard. Sophomore year will be unbearable." Dez mumbles.
I turn around to face him, walking backwards now, "Dez, come on." I say, rolling my eyes, "It wasn't that hard.
Dez isn't the smartest tool in the shed, but we love him anyway.
"Guys, do you hear that?" Austin asks, making us all stop.
Sure enough, we hear a train coming, the light just appearing around the corner behind us. Trish and I jump off the right side and Austin and Dez jump off to the other. We wait for it to go by, but instead it starts tilting a little and sparks are flying from the wheels. Trish and I start running away from the tracks to get away as the first car crashes onto its side and the rest catch up and hit each other. We roll down a nearby hill as we hear an explosion and that's when we see the flames.
I get onto my hands and knees before standing back up, sore from the bumpy hill, "Wow." I say.
"What the hell?" Trish says.
"Austin, Dez!" I yell. We wait but can't hear any response.
I look at Trish in horror and before I can think it over I am running towards the crash site. I go towards the side they are on and I can see Dez running towards us, his head bleeding. Trish runs up to him and hugs him, "Where's Austin?" I ask, waiting for him to appear but he doesn't.
"I-I don't know. I lost him." He says; his voice breaking.
I brush past him and towards the car that's on fire. "Austin!" I yell.
There is debris everyone and it's hard to see anything with all the smoke, but then I see some strange gray liquid oozing from one of the smaller box cars. I slowly walk up to it, and that's when I see Austin's lifeless body, right in the middle of the strange goo.
"Oh my god." I say, my body trembling as I run over to him. I pick him up, and wipe his face off with the sleeve of my shirt, "Austin?"
"It burns." He mumbles.
"What…?" I ask, and that's when my arms that are wrapped around his covered body start to burn. This gray stuff is burning.
"Ow!" I yell, lifting him up and bringing him with me.
Trish and Dez are running towards us and I shake my head, "Don't touch us or the liquid! IT burns!" I scream.
"Come on, the river!" Trish yells.
Austin uses my shoulders as support, both of us moaning from the horrid burning sensation. Finally we make it to the river, and we both fall in limp, watching the stuff wash away. But the burning still lingers. "What is this stuff?" Austin yells, coming back to life a bit more.
"Well nothing good." I mumble, taking off my flannel shirt so I'm just in my tank top.
"That was crazy." Dez says, looking in the distance at the crash site.
Suddenly, we see lights that look like headlights and they stop right at the scene. But they aren't rescue squads or fire trucks. They are all dark vehicles, and the people are wearing some sort of suits.
"This looks very official." I say.
"This doesn't seem right." Trish says.
"Hey!" Someone shouts. We look to our right and there are two men running towards us. Austin grabs on to me and we jump out of the river, joining Dez and Trish.
"What are you kids doing here?" One of the men asks. They are both dressed in black shirts and pants.
"We just went for a swim." Austin says.
"What's going on?" Trish asks.
"Nothing is." The other man says harshly, "And its best you get going and never speak of this." He says, eyeing the crash.
"What? Why?" Dez asks.
"If you know what's good for you, I'd leave."
"Guys let's go." I say.
That night we jogged the whole way home, dropping each other off at our houses one by one. I couldn't stop thinking about how strange everything was. Little did I know that my life was about to get much worse.