21st Century Meltdown

Chapter One

The ear piercing sound of the howling wind all around us was a gruesome reminder of where we were, and what the world had come to. Cars lay askew all over the roadways as if some toddler had thrown around his model cars the poor mother had, to no avail, attempted to please him with. It was once again another long restless night in the back of some random box of a truck. There were five of us, until we woke up one day and we found no trace of Jake. Now there were four, Jessica, Justin, Alex, and myself, Brian. We were all around the same age, fifteen or sixteen as we were all in the same classes up until a few weeks ago when the world just kind of... fell apart.

Jessica was a tall girl, about five feet eight inches with the nicest body you could probably imagine, under the circumstances that is. She had always been an athlete and her body was definitely a testament of that. Justin was a big guy, and I mean big. He was so muscular he could probably lift a car without breaking a sweat! He was also tall, just over six foot. Unlike me, who was just under six foot. We had always been a close friend of mine and we would protect each other to our last dying breath. Alex and myself on the other hand, we were the small guys in the group. Both just around the same height and build, just your average guy's who never really hit the gym. We were the academic type, who would stay as far away from sports as we could.

It was a cool morning, generally was in June. It was like mother nature was teasing us with an hour, at best, of cool weather before the afternoon sun cooked us like eggs. Edmonton was once a lively city with plenty to do and tons of activity, until the crash. The economy has been doing poorly, stock markets crashed which led to civil unrest which, eventually lead to countries crippling onto themselves one by one. Crime skyrocketed and now, there are factions, fighting over land, resources and overall superiority. There were some rumors that a government of some kind had begun rebuilding in the east but that was likely just propaganda, the usual. Now, the four of us scavenged, either we would find a faction willing to take us in or we would fight other's off and build our own.

"Hey, Brian!" Jessica was calling from across the street "Take a look at this" I rushed over and immediately saw what she was talking about. Just a few blocks down there was a faction of some thirty or forty people, all armed coming our way.

"Alex, Justin! Come here quick! Get your shit sorted and be ready to move!" I was practically screaming at them now as I ran towards the truck we had all been trying to sleep in minutes before.

"Brian, what is it man?" Alex was looking at me petrified, as if he had seen some ghost.

"I don't know man, there are some thirty guys walking down that road over there, with guns. We need to get moving. NOW!" I was frantically packing my small share of things into my bag, desperately hoping this would not be my last day.

"Yo, Brian, do you think maybe they would let us in?" It was Justin this time, jumping off the truck with his Sig Sauer in hand. I sure hope he is ready to use that thing in a minute.

"I don't know but if they try to do anything, light 'em up. That goes for all of us" I ran to the side of another significantly taller building adjacent to the road, my M-15 aimed right at them.

"Alex, go across the road to the building directly across from us. Jessica, you stay here and cover me. Justin, take your sniper and give me cover from the truck. I will try to make a deal with them, kill as many of them as possible if something happens." As soon as I finished talking everyone split, as if we were some kind of synchronized swim team.

I walked out into the middle of the road, with my weapon lazily slung across my shoulders, we were some one hundred and fifty meters away from one another. They instantly froze and began taking cover, as if I was some suicide bomber running at them.

"I'm a friend, I mean no harm. I'd like to negotiate!" I was yelling at them in desperation.
It has been days since we had something somewhat nutritional to eat and we were down to our last two bottles of water. Suddenly one of them rose up and walked towards me, stowing their rifle. They looked ex-military. The way he walked, with purpose and tremendous posture, he was straight as a board and his kit was wonderfully organized.
He stuck out his hand to me so we could shake hands. "Hi" he looked back at his group and then back at me, starring straight into my eyes as if he was somehow searching my brain for some kind of significant information. "I'm Keaton, behind me, is my faction"