7 Days of Darkness

Chapter 1 - Mournstead

My father told me never to follow in my grandfather's footsteps. He told me to stay away from violence, to keep out of danger, and to be safe at all times. He said to never play with fire and to be home before nightfall. My father always kept me safe, to the point where he didn't let me out of the house at times. I understood why he did that to me though, I was the only thing he had left as family. My grandfather died from lung cancer after the war, and my mother was a drunk who was killed in a car accident.

I was always close with my grandfather. He used to tell me bedtime stories when my parents were fighting. When he died, he gave me his gun that he had used against the Germans in the war. That rifle had never left my shelf since he handed it to me the night before they took him to the hospital. The last thing he said before he was pulled from Earth was something I'll never forget.

He said: "Follow your dreams. Don't let anyone stand in your way. You have so much potential, if you use it for good, I will see you again. I am so proud of you Justin."

After that, I trained. I became an extraordinary marksman, and have helped my city by stopping crime. Just last week, I assisted the police in stopping a museum robbery, but in doing so, I had destroyed several irreplaceable artifacts and was charged over $10,000,000. I had no choice but to either live the rest of my life in debt, or run and hope the city never finds me.

On my travels I hopped from city to city, but they all found out what I had did. They would've charged me even more, so I kept running. I met a few people, but no one offered to help, and then there was John. I had helped John when he was being fired from his job in construction. Apparently he had a fight with another worker, and ended up putting him in a wheelchair for good. He was a good man, he was tall, strong, but he never really spoke. We ended up becoming friends and have been inseparable ever since. Then, when we stopped for fuel at a local gas station, We somehow wandered into an alley. I can't remember exactly what happened, but after we left, I found a strange slip of paper in my back pocket. I opened it up, and it was a map to a small town in the middle of nowhere. After asking several people if they had ever heard of the place, we drove to where it was marked on the map. It wasn't on any other map and we had to do a bit of off-roading to get there but when we did, it was like stepping into some kind of energy bubble. I've never felt anything so mysterious.

• • •

Day 1

"Welcome to Mournstead, stranger!" Welcomed a short, southern man, "The name's Travis Stewart." Travis held out his hand to greet mine as he spoke.

"Justin, and this is John." I replied shaking his hand firmly.

"Mornin' Justin, John. No last names?"

"Not to be spoken of, no." I let go of his hand and went to greet the other man standing next to him.

"Good to meet you Justin. Name's Austin Matthews." Austin was a taller man with an honest looking face who smiled as he shook my hand. Austin introduced me to the other people in the town; Charles and Cheryl.

Charles was a larger man with a black suit and bright red tie. He held his head high and refused to shake my hand saying that he didn't want to get his hands infected by the common folk.

Cheryl, on the other hand, was very small and skinny who never seemed to run out of energy. She ran around all the time moving things from place to place, and making sure everything was organized. She helped John and I move some of the things we had managed to fit in my small, two seat car. We were each gifted with our own two roomed houses where we could stay for however long we needed to. I moved my suitcase full of extra clothes and things I'll need, as well as my gun and my grandfather's rifle which I placed atop of the mantle in its glass case.

Soon after we finished moving into our new houses, a few more cars pulled up. The first was Chloe, who was a smaller woman with long blonde hair and dark clothes. She had bright blue eyes and a friendly smile. Chloe was accompanied by another man named Tanner who was apparently her older brother. Tanner had brown, scruffy hair and the same blue eyes that Chloe had. We greeted them and helped them into another house identical to mine and John's.

"So how'd you come by this place?" I asked Chloe trying to make conversation.

"Well," She answered shyly. "Tanner and I needed a break from the big city, so we went for a drive and ended up in Mournstead. What about you?"

"I was evicted from my home, met John at a construction site, we were both done with people so we came here. The hidden town of Mournstead." We talked for a while longer and hadn't noticed the other cars that had pulled up. We quickly met Rachel, a strange person who was slightly unnerving. Harry, who seemed very normal and had just stopped for gas at the nearest place. We also met Peter. Peter had recently escaped from a mental institution down the road, apparently he was good friends with Rachel who gave him a house far enough away that he didn't bother the others during the night.

After everyone moved in, we met in the town hall down the road and after an hour of eating and chatting, we saw lights out the window. Travis and I went to check it out and could barely see what was happening in the dark night. We found ourselves greeting four more people: Lois, Chi, Lily, and Victor. They all arrived around 9 o'clock in the evening.

"Welcome to Mournstead." Travis greeted. He held out his hand and Victor shook it.

"Name's Victor Samson." He said, smiling. They all seemed very friendly and we talked for a while after helping them into a house. There was only one left, so they all crammed into the small 2 roomed building. We then returned to the town hall and finished dinner. Soon after, people started heading to their rooms for a good night's sleep for tomorrow's journey onward. I had went to sleep late, around 11:30 and was just about to drift off into my thoughts when it happened.

BANG!!