Children of Tomorrow

Chapter 1 - Skyler

I open my eyes, awakening from a deep sleep. I immediately know that something is horribly wrong. I'm on the ground. It's cold, wet, and muddy. There's a heavy weight on top of me, and a foul stench in the air. With the two of those things combined, I find myself fighting to take even the smallest breath. I try to push the weight off, but it feels like the coldness in the air has frozen my joints and muscles in place. Eventually, after a long struggle, I manage to push the weight off from on top of me, and I scramble to my feet. I hesitate before looking down at what was on top of me just moments before, and as soon as I see it, I shriek loudly. It was a person. A dead person, to be exact. I reach my hand up and clasp it over my mouth, to keep myself from screaming again, but I pull my hand away from my face as soon as I do this, because I feel something warm, wet and sticky covering my face. Looking down at my hand, I see the unmistakable crimson colour of human blood dripping off of it.

"This has to be a nightmare!"  I think to myself, tears now falling from my eyes and cascading down my cheeks. I squeeze my eyes shut, wanting nothing but to wake up and find myself in the safety of my home, with the smell of bacon and eggs wafting up to my room from the kitchen. After a while, I decide to give up on trying to cure my fear by giving myself false hope. I know that this is all too real to be a nightmare. I am not ready to explore my surroundings yet, as I have now identified the horrible smell that refused to leave my nose. It's the smell of death. This is all so much to take in. The world is going to end. Everyone I know is probably dead, or worse. And I can't help feeling that I'm going to have the same horrible fate as them. After a long time, I finally manage to stop the seemingly endless flow of tears running out of my eyes, and I toughen up a bit. I slowly crouch down and turn over the body that was on top of me when I woke up. I realize that the body was that of a young man, not much older than myself. I see a gun holster strapped to his leg, with a small handgun inside of it. I hesitate before grabbing the gun, and checking his body for anything else that might be useful. Other a small canteen with some questionable liquid inside of it and a small compass, I don't find anything that will be of use to me.

After sitting there for a while, simply just thinking about a plan, I hear voices. I would be scared no matter what, but these voices terrify me. They're so close to me, I can make out every word they're saying.

"Run! Go! Go or they'll catch you!" I don't know who the voice belongs to, but it sounds like a young man. A terrified young man. There's the sound of footsteps, too. I find myself on my feet in less than a second, and I am running in the opposite direction of the voices, as fast as my long legs can carry me. Suddenly there's a noise that sends chills down my spine. A scream of pain, silence for a few seconds, then laughter. Not the lighthearted, friendly kind of laughter that a family would share after someone told a joke. It's the kind of laughter I have only ever heard on a television show. Almost like.. a hyena. The laughter definitely belongs to someone that would be in a creepy mental hospital is some kind of horror movie.

"Is that a Hullu!? How'd it get in front of us!?" I hear the voice of a young girl. Maybe my age? No, she is definitely younger. I'm not sure if she was referring to me or not, but it's honestly the least of my worries. My heart is racing, and I begin to feel nauseous. A wave of fear washes over my entire body, flooding my head with nothing but complete panic. My throat begins to close up, choking on the screams that never made it out of my mouth, because I kept them in. I feel like I'm going to pass out, but I just keep running, knowing that my life depends on it. Eventually, I begin to see black dots dance across my field of vision and I know what's coming next. I have experienced this too many times before. I collapse to the ground in the middle of the forest, my lungs burning. I throw up the last bit of food I have left in stomach, the bile feeling like its burning a hole in my throat, and my vision begins to fade into black. However, I still hear the voices of the unknown people that were yelling and running just behind me.

"I think we lost 'em." That's the same voice I heard at the beginning of the chase. The noise comes from somewhere off to the side. The other kids can't see me where I am, and I can't decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

"I don't think the person in front of us was a Hullu, guys. They looked pretty young. Maybe they're like us!" That voice belongs to the young girl I heard before. I have no idea what a Hullu is, but I don't really care. Not now, as the last bit of my consciousness is fading. Am I clinging to the last bit of my life, or am I just going to pass out and wake up later? I have no idea. But it really feels like I'm dying. I hear the conversation continue between the young people, but their words all jumble together, sounding like nothing but fuzzy voices talking over each other. I attempt to call for help in my last moments of consciousness, but nothing but more bile comes out of my throat. I feel it burn, as if my entire throat is on fire. Then my vision goes completely black, and the voices go quiet.