Chapter 1: The End of Days
It was a bright sunny summer day as an old yellow cab drove down the highway. The driver adjusted the rearview mirror in his car to look at the passenger who was sat in the backseat. It was a sixteen-year-old boy by the name of Daniel James Fenton or just Danny for short. Danny had black hair that was snowy at the back and icy blue eyes and had a large rucksack in the seat next to him. He was wearing a white T-shirt with a thin red collar, red cuffs, and a red oval in the middle, light blue jeans, and red-and-white sneakers, and a red winter coat.
"Well, I reckon you're one of those runaways." The driver suddenly said.
"Does it really matter?" Danny asked as he continued to stare out the window, watching the world go by.
"Nah, not much." He shrugged. "Y'know, I've been driving this cab for five years and I've driven hundreds of people around the county; many of them young teens much like yourself." He mused. "Usually is 'bout now I get the 'My parents are so horrible' or 'School is like prison' etc."
"And what do you say?"
"I say, 'Yep, I know it is'." He replied. "I don't really see what's so bad about Amity Park to make you live, it's a nice place to live."
"You're from Amity Park then?"
"Yep, but moved up to Atlanta in the seventies; always wanted to be a teacher, but never had the concentration to pass college; a real shame."
"I hear you dude, I've always dreamt of being an astronaut when I was a kid." He sighed as another police car sped past them in the same direction they were heading with its sirens on full.
"I remember when I was a teen I used to go to the Nasty Burger right in downtown with my pals, is it still there?"
"Sure is."
"Good." The driver smiled as more police cars drove passed them.
"Any of that seem important to you?" Danny asked.
"Pretty much all of it, but that's the problem with cities, there are all kinds of problems; sit in this seat and pay too much attention and you'll just end up driving yourself crazy." He responded. "You'll have to learn to stop worrying about things you can't control." He added. Danny looked down at his sneakers as the driver's words circled around his mind as he played the sleeve of his coat. The driver noticed his downtrodden look and immediately tried to change the subject.
"So, you live in Amity Park long?"
"My whole life."
"Did your parents grew up there too?" He smiled, but it dropped when he saw that Danny looked even more distressed as he turned his face away, looking out the window again as several more police cars pass by with their sirens on, along with a SWAT truck, all of them driving in the same direction. There as an awkward silence in the cab until they finally passed a large sign that said: 'Welcome to Dimsdale.'
"So, you ever get any creeps in here?" Danny suddenly asked.
"Aside from the occasional drunk and maybe an addict or two, not really; but if I ever did get any freakshows in this cab, I'm prepared." He smirked.
"How so?" Danny wondered and the driver opened his glove box to reveal a small handgun sitting comfortably inside.
"You wanna know how I see it?" The driver asked as he closed the glove box back up.
"Sure." He mumbled. The driver opened his mouth, about to speak, but then he noticed Danny was glaring at him, causing him to stay silent for a few moments, thinking of what to say.
"Regardless of what you or I might think, I can safely say that all parents, even if they don't always show it, love their children unconditionally and whatever you or your folks did to each other, running away isn't the answer." He explained. Danny opened his mouth to speak but decided not to, grunting dismissively as he returned to glaring out the window. A helicopter, two SWAT trucks, and several police cars passed by them. Not wanting it to go quiet again, the driver continued speaking.
"I was driving this girl once, s-she was the worst one, about your age; she wouldn't stop going on about how her folks didn't do anything for her; she's just wailing back there, says it wasn't fair, crying and snotting all over, right where you're sitting." He rambled on. "Then before long, she starts kicking the back of the seat, like a fucking baby; and I tell her she's gotta stop or I'll be forced to throw her out otherwise."
"So do you think her parents were that bad?"
"Bullshit!" He cried. "That bitch had designer clothes, big-ass jewelry and I swear those cupcakes weren't real and she's got the nerve to sit in my cab screaming bloody murder that her parents were the cruelest beings on the planet! I think she actually believed it herself." He sighed. "It goes to show, people shouldn't give their kids every little thing they want."
Danny could only shrug in some form of agreement.
"Oh, I got another good one for ya, this one's a little bit less depressing and a bit more hilarious if I do say so." The driver smiled. Danny turned to look at the man, only to freeze when he saw something green and... human? heading straight for them. He glanced at the driver, but the man had his eyes on him, not the road ahead of them. Danny wanted to scream out a warning, but it was too late. The cab crashed straight into the green person on the road, veering out of control, right through the guard rail, and rolled off down the edge of the cliff next to the highway.
Danny could only watch in horror as his world spun around him like a merry-go-round ride thrown into overdrive.
He saw as his bag and whatever the driver had in the front fly around them. All of a sudden the cab jolted to a halt, causing Danny to slam into the side of the car, hitting his head against the door. Half-conscious, Danny could see what he thought was odd shapes and funny shadows moving outside the car's cracked windows and he swore he could hear terrified screams and animalistic growls before passing out...
When Danny did finally manage to regain his consciousness he immediately realized that some time had passed as the to was morning now, instead of late in the afternoon.
"Ugh... Oww...shit." Danny moaned in pain as he touched the purple bruise on the side of his head. "Ahh! Fuck, my leg!" He cried when he tried to sit up. He looked at his leg and saw the large, bloody cut on his upper leg. He looked out the back window and saw the driver lying facedown on the ground against a boulder with a large blood trail behind him.
"Hey! Hey sir! Are you alright?!" He called out but only silence answered him.
After looking at the driver again Danny came to the horrifying realization that it didn't look good. The driver must-have been ejected from the car and that he wasn't moving. As Danny looked for a way out he noticed the handgun a few feet away from the driver. Danny frowned, wondering why the man had his gun out, but shrugged it off, thinking that it had been thrown out of the car. He sighed in relief when he saw his rucksack next to the driver, seemingly undamaged.
Danny turned to the side window opposite of him and continually kicked it until it fell out of the car.
He quickly climbed out of the broken window, landing painfully on the ground; thankfully he didn't cut himself on the shards of glass. He stood up and walked around the edge of the car, reaching the area where the driver was. He knelt down to pick up the gun, just to be safe, but growled when he saw that it was empty. He didn't know if it was always empty or if the driver had shot at something while he was unconscious. As he put the handgun down, he stopped when he saw puddles of glowing green goo not too far away from the gun, just out of view of the car.
Very familiar glowing green goo.
Danny approached the motionless driver as fast as he could and grabbed his rucksack. Danny quickly opened it up to make sure that everything was still there. He sighed in relief when he pulled out a small framed photograph. The picture was undamaged, but the glass was badly cracked and the frame was broken. Danny tossed the frame away and folded the picture up in his pocket as he equipped his rucksack. Just then the driver started groaning faintly.
"Uh, sir...?"
Suddenly the man shot up and lunged for the teen, barely missing him. His skin was ash gray and his eyes glowed a toxic green as green goo trickled out of the corner of his mouth. Danny yelped and fell backward as the driver growled like a rabid dog and tried to grab at him.
"AHH! HOLY SHIT!" He screamed in panic as the man crawled after him.
"What in the hell?! What the fuck are you?! What happened?! WHAT HAPPENED?!" Danny cried in fear and desperately as continued to scoot backward. Something smooth and leathery pressed against his hand. He looked down and saw a sharp, green katana on the ground in a green puddle halfway in its scabbard. Danny grabbed the blade and held it up to defend himself. "Please, don't make me do this..." He pleaded, but the driver shot forward.
Danny brought the blade down, slicing through the man's body from his shoulder, through his chest, and to his hip.
As the driver's body fell it suddenly dissolved into another pile of green goo, cover Danny in the stuff. The teen gagged as he threw up on the forest ground. As Danny got to his feet he saw two figures standing further in the distance.
"HELP! Go get someone!" Danny called out to them and the figures ran away.
Just then shapeless blobs that vaguely resemble humans emerged from deeper in the forest followed by groaning, slow-moving zombie-like people, similarly to the driver he had just killed. The blobs had either pale blue or green skin, and emit a distinct white aura around their bodies. Danny tried desperately to run but ended up slipping in the goo and falling, dropping the blade. As soon as the blobs saw the katana they screamed and flew away as fast as they could get.
Unfortunately, the mindless humans that were following them continued with the slow chase.
He grabbed the scabbard and placed the katana inside as he got up and limped away as he was chased. Thankfully it wasn't long before he came up to a tall white fence. He quickly climbed over a fence to escape the monsters, crawling backward as the infected humans pound on the fence until his back was against a sturdy wall of some kind. Shots were suddenly fired somewhere in the distance, and the green-eyed people leave to chase the sound...
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