FAWLED

Chapter 2- Angelo

Angelo

Welcome. So considering you've already read Victoria's part in this, I'm assuming you know the end result. I, however, reacted differently. Smarter, one might say. (Don't slap me, it's true and you know it!). Anyway, let us get right into the story.

If you didn't know, driving on the highway is not a fun thing. Too many jerks. The highway gets less fun if you're on it during rush hour. Then rain suddenly starts pouring and the sun randomly decides to get about one-thousand times brighter. Almost immediately, everyone around me started to scream. They were clearly in pain, judging by the way the sound. Forget driving, I thought. I weaved throughout the traffic until I found a landing pad to park. I applied the brakes and took my emergency case from the glove compartment. I opened the case and grabbing a test tube, I collected some raindrops. Looking at the time glowing on the front of my wrist, I saw the time: 7:54. Using the old-fashioned method of transportation, I should be able to get there in ten minutes.

Grabbing a bicycle, I started towards the lab. While riding, I heard a high-pitched noise and a red light began blinking precisely every 3.5 seconds in my vision center. Glancing at the main building, I read the words The Purifier in crimson. Very peculiar, they wouldn't be posting a message now. No one would even glance in the direction... except, maybe, me.

Once I arrived at the laboratory, I examined the test tube's contents. I concluded that it was acidic rain. The sun was self-explanatory: stars always got bigger and bigger as they got older. We had estimated that it would happen in a few billion years. only two questions remained unanswered. Why did the sun just suddenly blow up? And the most puzzling of all that, which had been floating around in my head since everything happened: Why wasn't I affected by any of it?

I turned back to the test tube. As I studied the test tube under a microscope, I found traces of an unknown substance. It was slightly green and even looking at it down to the size of an atom, it shimmered and glowed. Then, as quickly as it was there it was gone. And appeared at another area. Strange, I thought, there is no atom that could do that. I watched it appear and disappear in different paces. If you think that's strange, I could only see the atom at certain points. When I looked at it from the atom's nucleus, it was gone. When I looked back at the atom, it was there. When I looked at a cell's nucleus, there was no sign of it. When I looked at a cell as a whole, it was shown subtly. When I looked at the raindrop as a whole, it was gone.

I looked at the thing with different sizes, angles, and even different microscopes. Eventually, I decided to call the thing matom, a combination of magic - how the thing acted - and the state I originally found it in, atom. I submerged myself in looking at the matom until the screams stopped.

I turned from the raindrop and walked outside the laboratory. As I looked around, everyone was dead. Either burned by the sun or the acid. The rain had stopped pouring and the sun was its normal size. This day just gets weirder and weirder. Shaking my head, I did what any normal person, at least in my opinion, would do. Write it down. Once I had finished, I walked outside with the paper to find out what the damage was. I had just counted the 208th when I heard an unfamiliar voice call out.

"Angelo," It said.

Male. French accent. I've always loved that accent. Adult, according to the deepness of it. Between 5 and 5.5 feet tall.

"I did not realize there were other survivors."

"Yes, there were not many others. Would you be so kind as to-"

"Put the knife down."

"Excuse me?"

"Put it down. Now."

Once I heard that he had put it down, I turned around. A short frenchman stood with a Puma Coyote Stag hunting knife at his feet. He had his hands spread wide. I assumed it was to show me he meant no harm. His smile, however, suggested otherwise.

"I apologize for that slight inconvenience. I had forgotten my etiquette in introductions. Perhaps a polished blade was not the best thing to wield within one's hand when first introducing oneself." the man said in a lilted French accent.

"You think?" I asked, incredulous, "Why are you here?"

"I shall explain while you follow me."

"I am not following you and that knife."

"Understood. You may take mine," he said giving it to me.

As I took it, I said "First, you took out a knife while I was turned around. Now, you want to lead me somewhere. Give me one one good reason I should not kill you right now."

"Well, you've never killed someone before and this world is not what it once was. The rules are completely different now."

As much as I had already hated him, he had a point. He said there were eleven others, but they could be miles away. He was my only chance.

As I was contemplating whether or not to follow him, he started walking in the direction he came. I didn't realize until he was already a few feet away from me.

"Wait," I said. "Slow down."

"Catch up," he said, keeping his pace.

As I followed him, he explained, "In my opinion, all the survivors should stay together in a base until we can figure out what happened. I got a vehicle and collected all the survivors."

"How did you know where to find them?"

"Well, with the vehicle, it was easy."

"What vehicle?" I was dying to know, but he just lapsed into sudden silence.

A little while later the man, who had introduced himself as Blake, suddenly stopped, putting out a hand to stop me. "We're here," He nodded to the vehicle in front of us.

Wow. It was a NASA X-43, a vehicle that could travel nearly ten times the speed of sound, meaning it would only take approximately 3.66 seconds to travel halfway around the world. No wonder he could find the others so easily.

"As I assume you know, this will be a short ride," Blake said while starting the engine.

Just as he had promised, about 3 seconds later, we landed. Looking at the geography, I knew right away that we were in Scotland. It was relatively flat area with large rocks jutting out here and there. In the distance, I could see forests.

"Come," I heard Blake's french accented voice say as I departed.

He took me to a nice building with white walls and a grey roof. As we went in, I found ten other men and women sitting in the living room, all about the same age, who greeted me by name.

"I thought you said there were eleven others," I said.

"Yes, I still have to get the last one. Meanwhile, my friends can fill you in on everything I didn't get a chance to," Blake said, nodding in farewell, then leaving.

"So, what has he told you?" A bronze skinned woman with blonde hair and grey eyes, whom I later learned was named Skylar asked.

I snorted, "Almost nothing."

"Well then. Shoot." A man with tan skin, dark blonde hair, and dark green eyes named Esaias said. Finally, my questions would be answered. And I had a shit ton of them.