Welcome to the End

Chapter 1- Sofi

Chapter 1

Sofi

 

The three of us sat on the bench just outside of a calm Barnes N' Nobles on a warm, summer day. I layed with my legs crossed over, my shorts pulling up as I tie my dirty worn out vans. The sun sits just above us, baking our backs and arms.

"My parents aren't home," said Lucas,  "we can go to my house." It was a Friday, right after school had just ended for the day.

"Ok then, it's settled," replied Jason "We're going to your house." By we, he meant Lucas, who we called "Lukey" and was the wide receiver for the football team at our school, Jason, the oldest of our high school clique (president of the newspaper club, and Captain of the Water Polo Team) , and me, captain of the girls' varsity soccer team.

"Ugh, did you do that Wilman essay?" I ask. Jason laughs, sticking his hands in his jeans. Lukey sits across from us, reading a book that was assigned for homework a week ago.

Four people walked up to us, Emma, Brooklyn, Quinn, and Nico. They just came back from the movies.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Replies a blonde cheerleader named Emma, Lukey's girlfriend. Her cheerleading outfit was perfectly ironed, never dirty or worn out. Always walked with perfect confidence. Come on, who wouldn't be jealous?

"Um nothing really," I reply "We're just trying to look for a place to hang out, we just came out of the movie theater."

"Cool," replied Brooklyn, a tall muscular kid with a quarterback build. He had toned arms and legs, just the right tan and just the right posture.   "Anyways if you guys want to hang out with us feel free to, we were just going to buy some food and then hang at my house right after," replied Lukey.

"Sounds good," Quinn says, also a cheerleader and practically inseparable from Emma.

The seven of us split into two groups.

"I'll go with Emma and Brooklyn," I said, as we began to split up into separate groups. I walk up to Nico, and pull up his sagging jeans.

"Dude, not cool," I said "I don't want people judging my little brother's stupidity and his sense of fashion." I spit angrily.

He pushes me away from him, sticks his tongue out at me, and walks away. Moron. Quinn and the other boys in another car started heading over to Lukey's place. What we didn't know was that our lives were going to change real soon.

Emma, Brooklyn, and I decided to go over to Fresh Brothers, a fantastic pizza place next to the movie theater to pick up a couple of pizzas. "Wait in the car" said Emma "I'll go with Sofi inside."

"Ya that's fine, just remember to get some drinks and candy." said Brooklyn.

We walked inside, the aroma of pizza wafting the room. No one was inside surprisingly, especially on a friday afternoon. Most of the high schoolers got together after school to hang out there.

It took us about ten minutes for the us to get the pizzas, the cashier looking a bit hesitant, but soon we were off and on our way to Lukey's house.

"Um guys, could someone get my phone from my backpack and go on google maps, there's gotta be something going on with all this traffic," said Brooklyn as he drove down the street. " That's weird."

"I don't know, but I'm guessing there must be something going on, whether it be a road closed or an accident," I replied. " Honestly, I have no idea."

When we arrived at the house, we realized that the boy's car wasn't there yet.

" I'll call Lukey, but in the mean time lets go and kill some time while we wait for them." said Brooklyn.

"Shouldn't they be here already?" asked Emma.

"Who knows, maybe they went to pick something up." I replied.

"Alright, where do you guys want to go then in the meantime?" she asked.

"There's a small park up the street. We can go and stay there for a bit, and we'll come back to the house when they get here." I suggested. Emma and Brooklyn agreed , so we began to walk the few short blocks to the park. When we got there, we noticed immediately that we were alone. You would normally expect to find a lot of kids playing around on a hot summer day like this. The swings didn't move like they did in movies when no one was on them, but there was certainly something different about it.

"Hang on, I left my phone in the car." said Emma. " I'll go back and get it she said.

"Ya ok," said Brooklyn. "We'll stay here."

Emma left us to go back to the car. Alone, we sat on the swings, slowing swinging back and forth. Our feet dragging on the grainy sand while it tried to squeeze between the crevices of our shoes.

" So do you know what you're going to do this summer?" asked Brooklyn.

" I don't know yet, I'm thinking about going ..." As I talk, my phone begins to vibrate. It's my mom.

"Hello?" I say nonchalantly. " What's up mom?"

"Where are you... where's your brother,  is he with you?" She asks, with a little tension to her voice. "Have you seen the news?  The Woodland Hills streets are flooded with people trying to get to the hospital or the police station, it's crazy. I want you and your brother to be careful, ok?  I'll still be at work, but I'll try get out as soon as possible."

"The streets here are empty. There's usually a lot of people here on a summer day like this." I said.

"I know," She replied hastily. " Just be careful." Those were the last words my mother said before she hung up.

"What'd she say." asked Brooklyn.

"Nothing, just that the there's some problems down in Woodland Hills area. I don't think it's very serious though, because we would have heard about it." I say. Just then we heard a cracking noise in the bushes. We both turn around, but see nothing.

"Huh," I say. " Let's go back. I think they made it."

"Ya, sounds cool," says Brooklyn.

We begin to walk back to the house, in hopes that our friends are already there. When we make it around the block, we spot the car, and Jason and Quinn unloading bags of chips and candy.

" Where'd you guys go?" Quinn asks. "The rest of them are inside trying to fix the t.v. I think the power went out or something," she says.

" Man, there were a lot of cop cars on our way back from the beach, ambulances too... Nico took a pic," says Jason. As Nico began to take out his phone, Lukey and Emma come out of the house arguing. " I thought you said you were gonna come with me," says Lukey angrily. " We were supposed to go to Dave and Busters together."

"I said... that I was staying with my family for the weekend," replied Emma. Lukey replied with a grunt, obviously disappointed. We began to make our way into the house we were so familiar with, as we hung out there a lot during the summer.

"Um, there's no service here," says Quinn.

"There should be," replied Lukey.

"Ya, I can't get any service here either," Jason agrees, looking down at his phone.

"Whatever, it's no big deal. Maybe it's down or something." says Lukey casually. As we all sit down on the sofa, the t.v turns on, and we all stare at it, our mouths hanging open.