The Apocolypse of South Park.

Part One

Kyle flicked through the radio channels. All but one was coming up static. The one station that was working was the last news edition ever broadcasted. It included the end of the world message which had been programmed to keep looping and looping until it was manually shut off at the White House.

He sighed and stood up, the ratty couch creaking as his weight shifted. The dirty hut that he and his two friends stayed in was in disrepair. They didn't have the materials to keep fixing it. Looking at his watch, Kyle stated the date and time, which was really the only thing keeping him sane. 21st April 2028. It had been- what? 2 years since self-sufficient AI had been released to the world? It was hard to keep track. The apocalypse was quick and bloody. Billions of people were slaughtered all over the world, with only a few remaining in each country.

Kyle, Stan and Kenny were among the few from their High School to survive, although they had to fight their friends for their own survival. Kenny had been left with a broken arm and multiple scars, and Stan with a black eye and broken ribs. Each with severe trauma. They don't talk about it now. The rush of the minute the robots breaking into the school. The confusion. The screaming. Kyle felt chills down his spine even thinking about it.

After the original massacre, the robots began hunting down the remaining humans, and those who survived had to go into hiding. He remembered when Stan would have nightmares every night. Kenny had gone almost completely mute after that, only talking when it was absolutely needed. Kyle sighed. It was time to scavenge for food. Picking up his cloak and slipping his arms through the loose sleeves, he called out to his friends to tell them where he was going. He didn't really need to do that's since they had both said that, but Kyle did it anyway.

When the usual response didn't come, he investigated, thinking that Kenny and Stan just didn't hear him. The shortest of the boys, Stan, was laying on the ground with a rag over his eyes and a blanket covering him. Kyle noticed that he was sweating profusely and let out whimpers of pain whenever he moved. Kenny was sitting next to him, panic quite evident on his face. He had a bucket of water next to him. There was a red tinge to the water.

"He went out last night without telling us." Kenny's hoarse voice sounded urgent. Sad. Stan had been badly injured, his arms had extremely deep wounds, which could only have been caused by the laser blasters of the Androids. On his chest was a deep cut that was clean and precise. A blade wound. Kyle had seen it before.

"Why didn't you stop him?!" His tone was a mixture of frustration and concern. Running his fingers through his curly red hair, he tried to think of what he could do for the younger boy.

"I tried dude! He didn't listen to me!" At this point, Kenny had stood up. He wasn't that much taller than Stan, although he still had some height. A large scar sliced through his left cheek to below his right eye- an injury he sustained on the first day. Hurt was familiar to them all. "He was just trying to protect us." It took a minute for the last sentence to hit Kyle.

"Protect us?"

"Mhm, we were asleep," Kenny gestured towards the insulation on the walls, which was surprisingly sound-proof. "He only woke me up after he had killed the last of them, and then passed out."

"And not me?" Making a face of disdain, Kyle crossed his arms and looked to Stan again.

"He didn't want you to worry."

"It's too late for that."

"I know." Kenny rolled up the sleeves of his dusty orange hoodie, grabbed a cloth and started cleaning Stan's injuries. The touch of the rag elicited pained grunts. Whenever a noise was made, the tending boy would mutter an apology. It pained Kyle to see his friends like that, but he felt helpless just standing there, watching. With a final glance, he turned and walked out of the house, slinging his cloak over his shoulder and grabbing his Morgenstern. The glorified baseball bat was stained, both with blood and... whatever the fluid was that came out of the heads of the Androids. The nails that were hammered through it were dented and rusty, bound to give anyone a bad time if they were to frighten Kyle.

About 30 minutes away from their makeshift home was the abandoned town of South Park, Colorado, where the Androids originally attacked. As he walked past his old high school, flashbacks flooded back to him in a gruesome manner. He could remember the initial confusion; how time seemed to have stopped before they realised what was going on; how the first blood spilt was the blood of his friends; how many people died. The ground was clean now of everything except trash and bloodstains. They must have finally swept up the bodies, he realised with a grimace.

Kyle made his way towards the centre of the town, his eyes searching for the familiar path to lead him to where he kept supplies. He had not gotten 10 steps before he heard a clattering sound nearby. Diving behind a ruined wall, he drew his hood over his head and tried to identify where it came from. His answer was a figure a couple of meters away, who had dropped what looked like some kind of laser rifle. They hurried to pick it up, glancing around. Kyle couldn't see the front half of whoever- or whatever- was standing the short distance away. It was unlikely an Android, due to the figure's height, or lack of thereof. The figure turned around and started walking towards the vague area Kyle was. Their face was covered by a gas mask and cloak, but as they sensed it was safe from dust or anything harmful, they removed the mask.

"Craig?!" Kyle gasped. He clasped his hand over his mouth and threw himself back out of view. He heard the whirring of Craig's energy gun powering up in response, ready to blast through everything in its way.