Faded Dreams and Distant Memories

Chapter 1

Apocalypse. We've all heard that word before. It meant zombies. Lots of them. Eating people. Causing damage. Making sure nothing survives. But the story I'm about to tell you isn't your regular apocalypse story. I should give you a little background first...

It was July 17, the summer before my junior year at high school. I was at the new premier of the movie Zombies: The End Of Man with my best friend Zac, and his current girlfriend, Aryanna. The reason I say "current" is because Zac hasn't been able to keep a girl for more than two weeks. It's kinda sad, really.

We were halfway into the beginning of the movie, when Zac, who was sitting next to me, whispered to me, "Hey, I really hope that this isn't a regular zombie movie that is so predicable."

I looked at him, curious. "How do you mean?"

Then he leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head. "You know, one that starts in New York of all places in the whole frickin world. I mean, come on. Can't it start in ANY other place except the U.S.?" Aryanna shushed him.

"And also, there's always a twisted love plot where two people love each other and try to make babies in the midst of the apocalypse. Or a crazy dude that tries to find a cure for the stupid virus because his wife or something turned early on, but then he fails, and then he has to sacrifice his life because he does fail." He was yelling at this point.

"I mean, COME ON! CAN'T YOU THINK OF ANY OTHER INTERESTING PLOT OR WAY THE STORY TURNS OUT?!?!!? I MEAN, I LOVE ZOMBIES AS MUCH AS THE NEXT GUY, BUT DOES EVERY SINGLE STORY HAVE TO END IN A FU-"

That's when Aryanna dumped him, and we got kicked out of the theatre.

I looked at him with annoyance. "You should learn to fanboy quieter sometime."

He gave me the look of death. "Oh come on Lyle. That's like asking you to stop playing The Gathering."

Oh, by the way, my name is Lyle Wilson, and I love the card game The Gathering of Magic (This is in no way affiliated with the popular card game of Magic: The Gathering. If it is mistaken for such, it is completely coincidental). I'm 6'2'' and am fairly tanned and dark brown hair and eyes. I'm not as fit as I'd like to be, but I'm not exactly an earthshatterer. Zac is about 5'7'', about the same physique as me, except he's more athletic than me. He always gets the girls. But, unfortunately, he can't keep them long.

"Yeah, whatever." I said, rolling my eyes. "Let's see if we can find Chris." Chris was our other best friend. He was a little shorter than Zac, about 5'5'', and he had a physique between mine and Zac's, and he had light brown hair and blue eyes.

"I bet he's at his house watching that stupid show, North Park." North Park is an offensive show that features several first grade cartoon characters. I can't think of anything that show hasn't made fun of (This is in no way affiliated with the popular show of South Park. If it is mistaken as such, it is completely coincidental).

We got into Zac's car, an old, beat up '97 Chevy Malibu that is more rust than metal and two of the four windows don't work. The windshield is cracked on the passenger side, and there's duct tape patching up the cracks on the dashboard. I don't think I remember the air conditioning ever working.

We drove over to Chris' house, and we didn't even bother knocking. Chris told us that we could just come in. Sure enough, he was lying on the couch stuffing his face with pizza, and watching North Park. Zac put his finger to his lips, and he crept up behind Chris. Chris, as always, was totally oblivious to what was about to happen. Zac took out an air horn, which for some reason, he always carried around with him, along with a pocket knife and his house key. He pushed the button on the air horn, and the loudest, most obnoxious sound flew straight into Chris' ear.

Chris jumped up, screaming as a half eaten slice of pizza landed on his white shirt, his hands going immediately to his ears. Zac about died laughing.

"AAAHHHH!!! Why'd you do that?" asked Chris.

"The question is, why not?" I said, snickering.

"Okay, well thanks to you, I missed the punchline." Chris said, looking longingly at the television.

"Okay, hold on a sec," said Zac. "Why do you even like that show? It's not even funny, it's just offensive. I'm surprised that the creators haven't been arrested yet."

Chris looked at us, still holding his ears, and said "I'm an offensive person."

I answered in a straight face "Yes you are."

Zac suddenly said, "Hey guys, breaking news."

The TV showed a breaking news report from XYZ News (This is in no way affiliated with ABC News. If it is taken as such, it is completely coincidental).

"We bring you this special news report from Spain. There seems to be a sort of virus that has been widespread across the country."

Chris grabbed the remote to turn up the volume. The TV showed people having what looked like seizures. "As you can see, the populace is having what looks like seizures for about a little less than a minute. But then, afterward, they lay still, as if in a coma."

Then a female news reporter popped up on the screen standing next to a man seeming to be in a coma in a hospital room. Doctors and bright lights filled the room. "As you can see, this person is lying still, and does show signs of breathing, and the doctors are trying to figure out what's wrong with this patient." One of the doctors put his head next to the man's chest, listening for a heartbeat. Then all of a sudden, the man lashed his arms around, scratching the nearby doctor, and the doctor held his face and screamed, falling onto the floor, and immediately had a seizure, scratching the news reporter on the ankles. The reporter fell on to her knees, and started shaking as well. But at the last second, she looked up at the camera, and that moment is a moment I will never forget. Her eyes, were not normal. They were fine a second ago, but now... they were bloodshot and looked like an animal's. But not just any animal. A hungry animal.

The screen went black.