Chapter One: 5 Months Later
Ever since the blackout incident where Joseph and Carlos had gotten severely injured at their job in a laboratory in Mount Pleasant, New York, and had to stay for nearly a month in the hospital, they both quit their jobs. At some point after the blackout incident, Michael resigned from his job as an engineer. Meanwhile, Dr. Adam Cambridge had kept his job as Head of Science. Joseph moved out of his rental house and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana where he became the assistant manager of a Walmart Supercenter. Carlos sold his house and moved back to his childhood town of Albuquerque, New Mexico and became a security guard at a hospital, and Michael moved back to his hometown of Portland, Maine where became an auto mechanic. The pay was low, but at least they weren't on the brink of life and death working at the laboratory.
Adam, meanwhile, had nowhere to go but up. He rose up the ranks, eventually becoming a high ranking and respected scientist within Laminax, rubbing elbows with high ranking executives, scientists and workers from countries across the world. He travelled the world, from Alaska to Indonesia, visiting laboratories, research stations and power stations in other countries and going to many meetings, trying to convince a countries government to have Laminax build laboratories in their country. "It'll be great for your economy, environment and economy, we only have the very best of workers here." So far it had been unsuccessful. He had come close to having the Hungarian Government build two laboratories and power stations outside the cities of Budapest and Debrecen but had been unsuccessful in doing so.
DATE: Late June
The sun slowly rose over the city of Indianapolis, and Joseph started to get ready for work. He ambled his way out of his bed, and made his way to the fridge, opening it and pulling out a plate with scrambled eggs, a piece of toast and a sausage which he had made last night. After he had finished eating, he made his way to the bathroom to take a shower. He got out and inspected himself in the mirror. He had looked exactly the same 5 months ago; expect for the moustache that he had grown over time. His stubble remained the same.
He then looked down at his chest, seeing that the claw marks that the panther had given him were still there. His doctor said that the scars were permanent, but he shouldn't worry since they didn't pose any serious medical risks or get in the way of his everyday life. He put on his uniform and walked outside his house, double checking that his door was indeed locked. As he headed down the cracked concrete path that led down to his car.
Joseph, after some effort, unlocked his Subaru Legacy and climbed inside it, driving towards the Walmart Supercenter. He changed radio stations until it came onto the news. A slight static came from the radio for a moment, before stopping. A man's voice came from the radio, saying "In other news, after a successful meeting in Vienna, Laminax's negotiated multi-million dollar deal, was given the green light by the Austrian Government for Laminax to build laboratories in Austria. Present at the meeting was Laminax CEO Pete Henderson, along with ten high ranking Laminax scientists, Jeremiah Mayweather, Kevin Banks, Ryan Cunningham, Casper Simunovic, Giovanni Weber-Gauthier, Park Tae-Hyun, Benjamin Rynsburger, Tangaroa Kobayashi-Peters and Adam Cambridge. Mark Schwartz, the Head of International Relations, was unable to attend the meeting as he was in Dubai for a business trip. Laminax has been allowed to build three laboratories near the cities of Vienna, Salzburg and Innsbruck. While being interviewed by reporters in Vienna, Dr. Adam Henry Cambridge had this to say: "Despite the multi-million dollar price tag that comes with this deal, this is another significant milestone for Laminax. Our power generation is 100% eco-friendly, and it doesn't hurt the environment in any way. This deal is also a great way to improve our relations with both our Austrian and European counterparts. We plan to meet again in Zürich, Switzerland in about a weeks time for another conference to further explain the importance of this deal-" Joseph turned off the radio, abruptly cutting off Adam's voice.
Once he had arrived, he parked his car near the entrance and exited it, walking towards the store. Joseph walked across the parking lot and entered the store, trying to mentally prepare himself for the long day ahead. As the hours went by, there were a few angry customers Joseph had to deal with, somebody attempted to steal a pair of headphones, an old lady refused to believe that her Walmart coupon was expired, until she put on her glasses and saw that she was reading the date wrong because her vision was blurred, and just before closing time, a drunken man vomited in electronics aisle.
Joseph walked through the exit and into the vast parking lot. At night, the carpark reminded him of the support cave in the laboratory where he used to work. Silent, devoid of people and how every little sound seemed to echo around the place.
He slowed down his pace as he approached his car, attempting to unlock his car but failed. It was a 2007 Subaru Legacy, which barley functioned. He had bought it for a very cheap price when he first arrived in New York three years ago, and when he moved to Indianapolis two months ago Joseph bought the car with him, and now he was wishing he had just bought another car instead of sticking with the same crappy one. He attempted to unlock it a few more times until it finally opened. Sliding into the drivers seat, he opened the cars compartment and pulled out a cigarette packet and a BIC lighter from it. What started out as a way to deal with stress every once in a while, became a regular part of his routine. He put a cigarette in his mouth, and then cupped his hand around the lighter. At one point during his time in Indianapolis, he switched from cigarettes to an electric cigarette, but switched again three weeks later because he found that the electric cigarette was not as satisfying as a regular one. As he inhaled the smoke and exhaled, he glanced at the clock on the dashboard. It read 8:13 PM. He still had to drive home, take a shower, eat, and get some rest before he had to go back to work the next day. As he took another drag, he had a coughing fit, then he started to smoke again. As he looked into the distance and took another drag, he saw something in the distance. A pair of yellow glowing eyes. Exactly matching the panthers eyes. The panthers that had nearly killed him, five months ago.
Joseph felt frozen in place. His cigarette fell out of his mouth and onto the ground, where the flame at the end of it was extinguished instantly. The eyes seemed to get closer to him every time he blinked. Joseph broke out of his statue-like state, and got into the driver's seat and desperately tried to start the engine but was unsuccessful in doing so. Looking outside his window, he saw a group of panthers had appeared, and was slowly walking towards him, with their claws gleaming in the moonlight.
Panicking, Joseph opened his glove compartment and reached into it, pulling out a M1911. He exited out the car and shakily aimed his pistol at where the panthers were. But the panthers were gone. Joseph sighed and thought to himself It's just a vision, you gotta remember that. He put the gun and the lighter back into the glove compartment, and closed the cars door, starting the engine. Once he had arrived home, he parked his car in the driveway, getting out. He slammed the side of his car in frustration. Looking at the other side of the road, he noticed that the house across the street was having a party, rainbow lights emitting from the house and reaching the front lawn of the party house. Joseph sighed and thought to himself Great, just what I need for a long relaxing sleep. Walking inside his house and into his kitchen, getting out a cup of instant ramen from his pantry. He looked at the flavour of it. It was chicken. Boiling some water, he poured the water into the cup, waited for a few minutes and then ate it. He took a shower, and soon found himself lying in his bed, hearing a muffled version of Eat It by Weird Al Yankovic playing from the party house. He rolled over and read the time on the digital clock next to him. It was 9:04 p.m. Pulling out his phone, he aimlessly scrolled through social media and looked through old messages. Turning off his phone, Joseph sighed and rolled to the other side of his bed, closing his eyes.
