1 What An Introduction!

I hid behind the humongous hunk of brick that could have stood like a wall for eternity if chaos hadn't struck the world, violently altering it forevermore. Bombs sounded in the distant pastier, alerting everyone in a 50-mile radius that danger was afoot.

...

My sincerest apologies. I hadn't greeted you yet! Oh geez, how do I do this...

Hi, I guess... I'm so sorry...

Wait- that is not how I should start the conversation. Anyhow, I'm going to assume that these aren't your ideal circumstances to be having a semi-normal conversation with someone, but here we are.

Greetings! [Note: Did humans say greetings in your time?] I'm Meg! I hope I sound enthusiastic enough. Welcome to the crisis/danger-spiral that is my life. I would explain the events taking place right now, but to be honest, I truly couldn't. It all happened so fast. One experiment (with a bunch of mini-experiments) went extremely catastrophic. I still don't get it. They had done too many trial runs and safety tests for it to go wrong.

It had gone wrong. Why. Had. It. Gone. Wrong... We were so close! So, so, so very close... but I guess we weren't as close as we thought we were seeing as how the final product turned out. Well, there's no going back now. It has already been done. I don't think that reflecting on the team's mistakes is the top priority right now, so let's focus on what really matters. Getting out of here. This is no time to be out in the open. Anything could happen to you out in the open. More importantly, anything could cause you to wind up dead.

I had learned this from the beginning in the worst way possible.

...

Oh, shoot! I wasn't supposed to tell you that because it hadn't happened yet. That's an important event in the story that will be revealed to you in the near future. It is extremely crucial to the storyline. But for now, pretend that I hadn't said any of that because that could get me in some trouble with the author if she had found out that I had spoiled the plot. It would not be pretty for any of us.

So changing the topic, I'm sure that you are wondering what is going on here. Well, I'll tell you all that I can so far. Let's backtrack! Shall we?

You see, I work-, or worked I should say, for the company that started this whole mess. Now I say worked because the building that I had occupied, Is probably destroyed in some way like everything else on the god-forsaken planet. The experiment that the company- Chev-tech, performed, malfunctioned a bit. Holy crap! I believe that that was the biggest understatement that I have ever made in my life!

I'd just like to clear something up a bit, I'm not trying to give my cowor-, or ex-coworkers a bad wrap. They did what they were told, tried to work to the best of their abilities, and made an accident. This is NOT their fault. I'm taking their mistake to such an extreme point because people were killed. I should know; I had seen it first hand.

     I heard crying after the explosion in Lab Room #002A. I had been heading towards the room with all of the action to help anyone with injuries, but someone had barricaded me from going through that set of industrial double doors. And I am so glad that he did.  

     I had discovered a moment later why he blocked me from the room. You see, he was the one I had heard, whose sobs echoed throughout the hallways. You could tell by his damp, tear-stained cheeks just below those eyes of his, which showed so much vulnerability and emotion. He had told me the exact reason why he felt all of those emotions when I had asked him why he was blocking me from the lab room. The man's name was Nico, and he had lost someone in there. Someone very valuable to him. This stupid experiment had cost a man their life! And another man, his happiness. Because there I was comforting him as the waterfalls protruded from his eyes. He kept saying that he was sorry and that this was his fault that he died. I felt so sorry for the man as he was grieving for the other person's demise.

    "H-he was s-s-such a good p-person" he tried to get out, his unnatural breathing patterns and tears making it a struggle to do so. "He was to young! H-his life w-was so wonderful! I l-l-lov-loved him so much!" My heart really broke when hearing that last sentence. This man must have been very important to Nico.

     As we are sitting on the ground next to the door of the lab where it all happened, Nico's breathing starts to regulate. I whisper words of encouragement as he attempts to calm himself. The tears raining from his eyes begin to slow to a slight trickle, eventually stopping completely. Finally, the man stands up. He begrudgingly hold his hand to his face, hastily wiping any loose tears that had escaped his eyes, due to them still being watery. He suddenly looks down at me, as I am still sitting on the floor and says something that makes me feel so solemnly for Nico.

     "I'm so sorry"

     I quickly stand up from my place on the tile and ask him why.

     "Everyone here is sad about the accident. There are others who need to be comforted probably more than me." I look at him in disbelief. I just couldn't believe that he thought he was being a burden."Go. You probably have much more important things to do, rather than comforting a lonely janitor all night. I don't want to dump my problems on you. You're probably just as distraught as anyone else would be about the-" he pauses for a moment. Trying to find the right word to label what happened. "-th-the events in the lab."

     I stare at him, and then I do something unexpected. I hug him. I snake my hands around his figure and pull him close.

     "Never think that you are a burden just because you are not the only one feeling a certain way. Your feelings are valid."

     He glances at my face and sees that I'm giving him a reassuring grin. He starts to tear up, sends a smile in my direction, and tightens the embrace.

     I returned the hug. What I had not known then, was that this "safe and tested" experiment had not only taken away one man's life, but thousands of people had been sacrificed for this test... for science! It's so stupid! Like how the hell-

...

Sorry... I just needed a second to cool down. I just feel passionate about this topic. (Maybe a bit too passionate...)

Well, here we are changing the topic back for the thousandth time. I'm sorry if this is boring for you. You have the option to leave if you desire to do so. I know that when I talk I have the habit of being too in touch with my feelings. It normally leads to me getting off-topic. I promise I will tell you everything though. It just takes time.

After discovering how badly the experiment had affected the lab (and eventually the world) I fled out of the lab, trying to find a safe spot to stop and call a friend to pick me up. Of course, this was after assuring Nico that we would meet again and get through this together.

The ringing sounds off of my phone as my foot impatiently taps on the ground waiting for them to pick up. In case you are wondering why I didn't just go to my car instead of calling for my friend's scar, it's because my Toyota Camry doesn't exist anymore. Stupid parking ticket.

Of course, my house is about an hour away from the lab, so convenient. Now I'm gonna need a ride out of here to get to a safe place. The funny thing is that getting a ride out of there wasn't even going to be the hard part of all this. The thing was, with your house being an hour away from the lab, everyone that you know and have contact with lives in that area. So... they also live an hour away from the lab. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem and I could just wait for the ride to get her. But, in the situation that the lab had put the world in, People were crowding the streets trying to get survival supplies because our experiment not only killed people, but it had also killed the power throughout the whole city. Of course, this was drastic for life in the technical world and caused plenty of pandemonium. (Haha! See what I did there? Ya know, alliteration?.... Nevermind) This caused people to become hectic, they started to stay in their homes way more often, not going outside due to the conditions mixed with what the news was saying.

SIDE NOTE: Because this is me actually getting off track from explaining the main plot of the story, I thought I'd make it a separate part. (You don't have to read this if you don't want to. It's just me ranting about how I wrote "people staying in their homes due to what the news was saying."): I find it funny that we trust people talking through little, electric boxes more than we trust the environment and even each other sometimes. Like, do people really need to know that there is a tornado outside if it is a couple of yards away from them? They can see it coming for them! Someone telling them that it is coming isn't going to save their house from getting wrecked by the storm or anything. It's pointless!

So basically, while people were trying to buy as much non-permeable food as they could carry in their pitiable hands, (I would make some big bucks as a cashier.) I had been keeping an eye out for my way out of this city. I was focused on scouting for the navy blue SUV that would be my designated getaway when I was caught off guard by someone tapping my shoulder. I whipped around to see Mr. Callostein, The head scientist at Chev-tech, and my boss. Well, this is awkward, I thought. 'Just wonderful. Because it's the perfect time for your genius, role-model, rich, modest, boss to see you when you're looking like a lost puppy.' He grabs me by the shoulder and flips me around so that I am facing him.

"Ms. Gunderson, you must keep calm in situations like these." 'Ok. Not even a "Hello"? And if he wants me to "keep calm", then he should tell me how to do so!'

"It's only going to get worse as it progresses. I'd find a ride home as fast as you can. It's a long way from here to Saylorville."

' How did he even know I lived there...?' I pondered. But as I registered what he had said, a question arose in my mind and I immediately panicked.

"Wait! What is going to get-"    I looked for him, and he had disappeared "-worse" I spotted him a few moments later sprinting to the left going down the street to find his car in the parking lot. I immediately turned behind me to find out what he was running from and saw what the scientist was so hurriedly scurrying from. For, as I looked behind me, I had witnessed the blue and yellow smoke arising through the gaping holes of the Chev-Tech main building, which were formed from the explosion. You know, you couldn't really see it in the building itself, but the explosion did make a big impact on the building. There were a lot of holes that you didn't pay attention to until there was a colorful smoke seeping through them, making it very noticeable that there were gaps on the walls and ceiling of the building. 'Well, I think I know what's going to get worse now.'

I was about to start running away from it like everyone around me had started to but then I stopped 'Wait, why am I running from the smoke. I don't even know if it's dangerous. I mean, nothing's happened to anyone so fa-' The thought came to an abrupt stop when I saw someone who was probably having the same thought like me, not being scared of the smoke, and hastily sprinting into it. I observed from my position far away from the colored fog. They ran in and immediately screeched.

"My eyes!" I just about made out what they had said because it had been paired with the shakiness of their voice and a scream, making their articulation hard to decipher. They kept screaming until a couple of seconds later when it suddenly halted. They had walked out of the smoky vapor. But the thing was, you could barely make out that it was the same person, due to their new appearance. Their eyes were bagged, Their skin was blistered. In a word, they looked horrifying. All of the bystanders just stood there, staring at them with their eyes wide and their mouths gaping. It was silent for a moment.

.... Not a sound was uttered by anything or anyone.

And then the silence was broken by the creature-like human running at one of the people staring. Oh, did I mention that your personality and mind were also altered in this mysterious form? The person who was staring at the creature screamed as the person-thing forcefully opened the fully human's mouth, letting there be an easy way to get the gas emitting from the creature's arm, into the human. After the gas was forcefully consumed by the person, they started twitching, and blistering, and blinking. And more blinking. There was a lot of blinking. We all stared in horror as the person slowly transformed into the extraterrestrial version of itself. Eyes getting a special kind of emotion-filled glint in them that could only be described as one feeling, and one feeling alone. Hunger. Now, this wasn't your average, 'Oh I'm hungry, let's make a sandwich.' Heck, this wasn't even close. This was the hunger to kill. To devour. And to conquer. The worst thing about it all was that I was ready to do anything for them that would get them to achieve those goals so that I wouldn't lose my life that day. And I did. Everyone else had too. Which meant that I had no one on the outside to break me out of doing so.

Now I know what you're thinking (even though you probably weren't thinking this), 'Where was that getaway driver that Meg was going on about?'. I'll tell you. Nowhere to be found. He had flaked on me after hearing a newscast reporting the city smoke. See what I was talking about? Everyone trusts the news and puts their faith in it. And if the news says not to go into the city (even if it's to save your friend that you have known for a whopping 15 years), then no one goes into the city. No questions asked. No second thoughts about what the people in the city are going through and how much you care if they get out of there alive and safe. I didn't hear from that friend for a while after that. They had probably blocked me on their phone from how much I was trying to contact them to come and pick me up from that hell hole. It was literally life or death depending on if they picked up the phone or not. So, I sold my life away to work for these strange, unfamiliar creatures.

I know that this is a lot of info to take in, so I'm gonna stop here for now. This probably doesn't make a bunch of sense right now, but just bear with me. All will be revealed in time. It will hopefully make a lot more sense when you have heard the full story.

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Hi! This is the author speaking now. I just wanted to say that because this is my first Wattpad story, feedback would be appreciated. Feel free to point out mistakes and I will do my best to fix them as soon as possible. Interact with the story however you like. Thank you to the people who have read to the end of this chapter and tolerated my writing skill... which isn't great as you can tell. I promise the story will move faster after all of the background info is given to you. I hope you enjoyed this first chapter, and let's hope that there are many more to come. Thanks for reading!

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