EPTChapter One - Life
The cold winter always felt depressing, all alone in its comfort whereas other seasons have some kind of warmth to the human heart. The streets were littered with soda cans and ripped papers once clean and readable. A man, early in his twenties, wearing a long fur coat walked out of a tall metropolitan building. He stared up at the faded darken skies. His breath could be seen as he exhaled. He carried a black briefcase, which shimmered in the pale street-light. There were not many people outside late at night, not at 1:00AM anyway.
He walked across the street to his Porsche, a brand new Carrera in fact. His hand slid into his pocket and grasped those golden keys.
"Mister Honnesin," a stubby man yelled across the street, he ran after the young man. "You forgot these." The man wore a brown beard, slightly gray in areas. His gloved hands passed over three folders to the owner of the Porsche.
"Thank you, Johnneston. And good night."
With that, he opened the backdoor of his car and threw the suitcase with the folders there onto the back. The folders opened and files flew out, yet, he did not care.
He sat in the car, exhausted, and turned the ignition on. Ice had covered over his windshield, which meant he would have to sit there waiting for the heater to melt it. Honnesin turned on the radio; classical music played, that was all there was nowadays. The modern age of music exist no more, public media were vanquished. The government was in control of everything.
What was once divided into many nations, many countries, was now simply known as the UED: United Earth Directorate. Honnesin, a twenty-four year old male, lives in a shady apartment with his girlfriend of four years. He is a reporter and works for the Government, promoting military gains to recruit young, strong men.
He does not know much of the front lines, only gory, blurred details of men dying. He was lucky however, to be on Earth, while far beyond the edges of space, other planets were not so... safe.
He listened to the classical beats, and had just begun to nod off until his cell phone rang. He twitched awaked and answered.
"Hello?"
"Coming home yet?"
It was his girlfriend, Melanie Carmick, a brunette and slender female of twenty-two. Her voice hardened.
"I'm going to sleep, your food’s in the microwave."
Funny how the most primitive of electronics still exist today, even when warp drives for spacecraft engines existed and surpassed all other technologies the humans have. Humans, once again, we evolved to a new high... only to crash to a new low.
"Mel..."
"I'm tired, tired of you working, day in and day out. David, do you know what you are doing to me? This relationship is as stressful as it is. Ugh..." she sighed, he found it cute. "Are you coming home yet?"
"Yeah, I'm sorry. There's just a lot of shit going on alright? I'm coming home right now."
"Alright, I love you."
He replied with the same term of endearment then began to drive home.
The roads were slick and icy even though there was no snow or rain and there was a thick cloud of fog forming.
David drove steadily down from 50MPH to 35, then 25, then 10 until he could not see where he was heading. The fog was dense, not even his fog lights could penetrate ten feet ahead. He grabbed his phone and called Melanie.
It rang once, twice, then a third time.
No answer.
He hung up and carried on driving through the dense fog. Carefully he drove through the cloud when suddenly the fog disappeared right in front of his eyes. Just as suddenly, he hit another patch. He looked behind to see the passing clouds, and then looked ahead once again.
He read the street signs, the stop signs, the shops, the roads, even the traffic lights until it all vanished. The fog lights once again grew dimmer and dimmer as the fog enveloped him in. He did not drive this time; he grabbed his phone and tried to call Melanie again. David could not get a decent signal.
"God damnit, why fail me now," he cursed.
The radio -- static.
In front of his fog lights, a glowing red orb, no, a pair. They stared dead at him, not at his fancy car, not at the blazing fog lights, only at him. David Honnesin stared in shock; he could not see anything but a beastly figure. Those red orbs entrapped him, he felt like he was prey. Its mouth opened unlike any animal he has seen, serrated teeth profuse with dried blood growled at him.
The gun, he remembered, a semi-automatic pistol, hidden beneath his car seat. But he was in shock; he could do no such thing as finding his gun. The beast, shrouded in darkness, only revealed its tremendous size and glowing eyes, only to fade into the fog. Another batch of dense cloud passed.
It was a silent night; the air was still chilled down to the very core. He tried to call his girlfriend again. Signal. He sighed in relief. As the fog vanished forever, the street signs, the stop signs, the shops, the roads, even the traffic lights, all were reappeared.
No answer again.
Tonight was odd for him, he's seen wolves before, but that was no wolf, too slender for a bear, and that inhumane growl. It wasn't an animal, David thought to himself.
He put his hands on the steering wheel and closed his eyes for a few seconds. Then he put his right foot to the gas pedal and drove home, just like any other night.
He parked his car across the street from his apartment, there were no spaces left. He yawned, he was exhausted from work. David looked outside of his chilled rear window.
His front door was open. Unlocked? he thought to himself.
He turned off the lights, and the car, opened the door and sped out. He dashed up the stairs to the third floor and quickly analyzed the door. No signs of forced entry. Nothing, no dirty foot tracks, no water from the melted snow on the hardwood floor. He ran inside.
"Melanie?" He shouted, no answer, just the echoes of his voice coming back. "Hm." "Mel," he went to one room to another, "Mel," she was nowhere to be found.
There were no such things as house phones, even though cellular phones still existed. He went back to his car, he had forgotten to close the door and the night air had chilled the inside. He grabbed his phone and started the engine and went back inside.
He called her cell and heard a ringing coming from the apartment. Her phone was still in the house. He disconnected the call.
There were no such thing as police, there were no laws, yet everyone behaved accordingly. A society where criminals were killed in public, no one dared to misbehave.
David went upstairs to his apartment, locked the door and tried to figure out what happened. He was not a thinker, not at all, he relied more on reason and action than logic alone. He took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, his breath clouded the air. The winter chill had entered the house. He called Melanie's phone again, the ringing led him to his bedroom.
"Where is it?" the signal was becoming faded. He redialed and the phone rang again. He suddenly noticed a small trail of blood coming from under the bed. He had not seen this before. He had assumed, when he entered the bedroom earlier and had called out her name, that she would answer. When she did not, she was not there. The blood was cold and almost dry. David slowly looked under the bed only to discover the body of his girlfriend. Blood had poured from her mouth and nose and her eyes were open and bloodshot.
He dragged her lifeless body out from under the bed. It looked as though something had entered her mouth, her jaw looked dislocated and her arms were twisted, even her fingertips bled. As he carried Melanie's lifeless body downstairs, there were still some small hints of life such as her smell, her warmth, her weight.
He huffed as he finally brought her body downstairs, carrying her over his shoulder out into the street.David opened the door and put her body in his car. The chilled air breezed through his clothes and onto his body; he could feel his sweat starting to freeze. He closed the door.
He opened the driver's side door and got in. Quickly shutting the door again to keep the heat in, the car had been running for thirty minutes or more.
Exhaustion had taken its toll, he continuously yawned. His nose was running, making him sniff. David looked back at his girlfriend; her corpse. He drove to the clinic. He checked the time; it was already past 3:00a.m. He drove and yawned, watery eyes clouding his vision.
Blood covered the backseat of his car. He can smell it, the stench.
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Please mind the little grammar here and there and enjoy! Chapter Two coming soon.
