Chapter I

METEOR FALL

I

The children cast their gazes upon the sky. The bottoms of the clouds were pitch-black, and the rest of the clouds were dull shades of crimson red, which casted a ghastly red hue on the pallor of the children. There was not much for the children to do, besides scavenge for food and supplies, nor was there anyone new to talk to besides each other. Previous excursions proved the extermination of every man, woman, dog, and cat besides the small group that thrived in what once was bustling New York City. The children took refuge in a dilapidated theater, made worse by the incident. The children had learned to adapt to the ever worsening environment, learning where The Great Poison had infected the water, and where the best places to get food were.

The children had plans to head out west, to see if people still even breathed. Yet this plan wouldn't work for two reasons: One, none of them knew how to drive, and two, most of the bridges and roadways exiting the city were completely gridlocked with cars containing remains of human beings, so they were all afraid of getting near the bodies. The city itself was devoid of cars, but every road leading out of it was packed. The children quickly abandoned that thought, anyways, and were now focused on surviving by themselves. After the Great Poison had infected all of New York, and possibly the world, things started to erode and decay exceedingly slow. By now, half of New York had sunken into the ground, creating a huge cliff that split New York straight down the middle.

Jason Greene hopped down from the stage, causing the particles that were more than likely made from asbestos, to dance in the sunlight that filtered through some holes in the roof. He put a hand on the right side of his chin and twisted his head, and a few pops sounded from his neck. He did the same for the other side, and then started to pace back and forth in between the first row of seats, and the stage. He walked over to a small cooler, in which they kept perishable foods inside. Most of the electricity was knocked out, but they had found a 7-11 with a freezer outside with bags of ice inside it, so they made frequent 'ice runs'. When Jason opened it, he found that they were running low on food. He shut it slowly and turned around.

"Well," He started, looking at the rest of the children. "We're gonna have to go for food." He said. The rest of the children just stared at him with blank stares. It seemed to Jason that sometimes he was just talking to a bunch of empty sacks of flesh and water. Wastes of space. Finally, one of the kids snapped out of it, a girl that went by the name of Sarah Bellaruse. She shook her head and stood up, her blonde hair slightly glistening as she stepped through the beams of light.

"I'll go with you." Her azure eyes gazed at him. Jason nodded his head in approval.

"Well, we'll need one more person with us." He looked at the faces of the children looking at him, expecting him to choose instead of volunteering themselves. Since he made no move to choose anyone, a boy named Lucas Connor stood up from a seat and walked towards the two.

"I'll go as well." He stated.

"Perfect!" Jason said. "Well, we better get going." He said, and walked over to the stage and he lifted a trapdoor and disappeared from view. He returned with a bunch of guns and handed them out to everyone. He also gave everyone radios so they could communicate. "Let's go." He said to the other two, and they left the solace and comfort that was the theater.

They walked to the end of the street. "Alright… From this point on, we have to be careful. We're still not sure where or what the Great Poison had affected. We haven't been able to explore this area of the city yet…" Jason concluded. "Lucas, you watch the left, Sarah the right. I'm on point." He finished, sounding like a commander leading troops into a stealth mission. The reason why the children carried guns and weapons was that a couple of weeks ago, they had to go down the same path that they were on. A kid named Chris was with them, and he was wandering off. Suddenly, a hairless, sickly looking dog jumped from the shadows, rending Chris's flesh from his bones. The terrible sight was almost imprinted in their eyelids and every time they had closed their eyes, the blood pouring from Chris's torn skin still played like a movie in their eyes.

And Jason felt like it was his fault, the reason for him being on point. If he found the dog again, he would exact his revenge on it. Jason scowled and said, "It's too quiet… I don't like this one bit. We should have had someone else with us. If only Chris was…" He choked up and couldn't finish his sentence. He shook his head as his eyes started getting blurry and watery. "Let's go." He said, and they started walking again. After a few moments, they found a nice little convenience store. Upon further inspection, the three children found that the door was smashed open and hanging on only one hinge. Jason looked at the other two, and the three had apparent look of worry and sacredness on their faces. Jason motioned with his hand, and the three crouched down and began walking into the store.

It was just like the horror movies that the children used to watch as a kid. The woman would be trapped in her house, running for her life as the killer with the hockey mask and chainsaw or axe was after her. She'd try the front door-only to find it typically locked. The lady would then run into the kitchen, grabbing a knife. She would get set-steel her mind and prepare to stab the killer right in the chest. She walked to the doorway, standing on one side. She would hear his footsteps padding across the floor, heavy breathing almost infecting the air with rage and insanity. She turns around, and plunges the knife into his chest, or so she thinks. She misses, and her killer looks at her with undeniable rage, the loss of sanity clear in the eyes that were behind the mask. She would scream, and run. Eventually, the killer is nowhere to be found. She knew of one last door that she didn't try- the basement door. It was her only hope, and she ran down the steps two at a time. She could hear him walking around on the floor above her. She would run to the door, finding it much like the rest of the doors; locked. She would realize that conveniently, she had a key. But, Oh no! The key wouldn't go in! She would struggle for a few moments with the key and out of her terror, drop it. She would pick it up and look up the stairs. The dark silhouette of the killer was in the doorway. A close up on the stairs, and a heavy boot thuds onto the first step. The woman is crying by now-sobbing like a maniac. The killer reaches the bottom of the steps. He's only a few feet from her now. The killer can already taste the blood. She screams, a glint of the knife is seen… and the screen goes black and the credits roll.

The children could hear something. A faint tinkling noise, like glass jars hitting against each other. Jason moved into the store a little more, and the noise stopped. The three crouched there, lifeless for a few moments until the noise started up again. Jason tilted his head toward the noise and mouthed the words "Flank 'em." Meaning that Jason would continue going straight ahead and Sarah and Lucas would go around the sides, trapping whatever it was that was down there. About halfway towards the noise, they heard a loud crashing of glass, and a disgusting slurping sound. Whatever was down there, it was eating. The three got to the ends of their respective aisles. Jason yelled "NOW!" and all three of them turned the corner, aiming their guns wildly. They saw nothing except for jars of jelly that were lying on the ground, the grape and strawberry jellies were smeared all over the floor. They saw what looked like 'lick marks' from whatever was eating. They also saw something in the jelly. It looked like a hand or paw, but it was too disfigured to tell what it was. Lucas heard something from behind him. He turned slowly and yelled something that Jason and Sarah couldn't make out.