Tonight The World Dies

Chapter 9: Avery

"Hey." A voice called, pulling me out from my thoughts. I turned around to locate the owner of the voice; they had a Californian accent. It was a beautiful accent; it wasn't from around where I'd come from, but it was close by. If I was to take a guess, I'd say Orange County.

Standing behind me, stood the owner of the voice. He was a young man, probably no older than twenty. They'd crept up on me amongst the crowd of people. I was currently in someone's apartment on my floor - I think he said his name was Terry - he'd gathered all these people here since we'd all been dumped into this camp full of 'metal heads'. Less than twenty-four hours ago, a law had been instated that anyone with the capability of murder (or basically, anyone with an alternative lifestyle) were to be put into camps away from normal society. And sure enough, within hours, police and soldiers were knocking on peoples' doors and taking them away to their new life.

And now I was here, in a camp somewhere in California, with a bunch of people whom I barely knew.

"Hey." I greeted my new stranger. I looked them over, taking in their features. He had a defined jawline, and sharp cheekbones that complimented his small mouth well. His nose was small, but button-like and his eyes were the darkest brown that you'd have ever seen. There was a small patch of facial hair underneath his chin that was just as dark as his scraggly dark brown hair that sat in a messy mop on top of his head...come to think about it, he looked quite familiar.

"Sorry, but you looked a little lost." The man said, a nervous smile spreading across his face.

"Aren't we all?" I said jokingly. The man chuckled, his laugh rumbling out from deep within his chest.

"We certainly are." He answered. "The name's Brian." He said, introducing himself to me. He held out his hand, and I noticed that they were tattooed. I couldn't quite make out the letters, but I was pretty sure I saw an 'O' and an 'R'.

"Avery." I answered, taking Brian's hand in mine. We exchanged a small, but awkwardly cute smile between us before our moment was ruined by the sound of another voice calling Brian's name.

The pair of us turned around to try and locate the owner of the voice, but I couldn't see anyone. Eventually, a short kid appeared from amongst the crowd. He was around 5ft '6, and looked about seventeen/eighteen years old.

"Johnny?" Brian said, looking rather relieved to see (I guessed) a familiar face amongst a crowd of strangers. The smaller kid came over and hugged Brian. "Man, I never thought I'd say this, but it's good to see you."

"You too." Johnny replied. "Hey, have you seen Jimmy or Matt or Zacky around?" Johnny asked.

Jimmy...I furrowed my eyebrows together; I knew that name. A horrid feeling began to settle deep in my stomach, almost to the point that I began to feel nauseous. I had to get out of here, because I knew if I didn't then something bad was going to happen.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Brian asked, turning around and placing a hand on my arm.

"Ye...yeah." I said uneasily. "It's just...do you ever get a feeling that something bad is going to happen? But you're not sure what?" I asked, hoping that I wasn't going insane.

"It's Jimmy, isn't it?" Brian said, his eyebrows furrowing together with sympathy. "He's going to die, in about ten years - I've seen it. And it's our fault he's dead...well, more yours."

"No." I said, shaking my head, tears instantly stinging at my eyes.

"You know it is, Avery." Johnny added in.