Chaos

Chapter 1

Zack woke up with a sickening pain in his head. He clutched the bed stand as he tried to rise and stand on his feet. That is, if you can call the thing he was sleeping on a bed. After all, a few large pieces of wood nailed together and some hay, also used to feed the cattle, put on top to serve as a mattress, hardly qualify as a bed. The place which for now served the purpose of Zack’s bedroom was actually a dilapidated and now useless shed. The same shed, which not more than a year ago used to house Mr. Sanders’ cattle. However the heavy thunderstorm that ensued almost for the entire November last year ensured that part of the roof caved in, after which the cattle refused to stay inside, especially during the rains.

And thus, the shed now was passed on to the next ranked creature in Mr. Sanders’ life, as far his priorities and sympathies were concerned, namely, Zack.

Zack, a tall, fair and slightly malnourished boy of eighteen, with a shock of beautiful red hair on his head, managed to get up and went out into the fields. (Mr. Sanders ensured that the ‘slightly’ malnourished state remained, coz if he got too weak, he’ll be practically useless to him) The fields were actually huge acres of agricultural land which stretched as far as the eyes could see. Mr. Sanders was a wealthy man. He had acres of land which he could rent out to farmers, and later not just demand the excessively high rent but also a share of their harvest. And of course, there were the cattle. The dairy farming business never slowed and churned out plenty of money.  

And as Zack stretched and started getting ready for his morning duties (feeding the cattle, milking the cows), Mr. Sanders slept peacefully inside his four bedroom villa, more precisely, inside his plush bedroom on his lavish king sized bed. Alone.

Although Zack was not aware of it (he probably wouldn’t remember even if he knew, because of the mind numbing headaches), he had turned eighteen last week. Another strange fact that he was not aware of, was that the headaches had started the day, in fact the second, he turned eighteen. And had been troubling him ever since. The pain was excruciating. It often robbed him of his senses and was hindering his capability to work for his master. This worried Zack. He was not concerned for his own health, but rather, wished the pain would stop so that he can continue working as ably as he used to till a few days back.

Even Mr. Sanders had noticed the change. Zack even had two now healing bruises on his forehead as a testimony to that.

As the days passed, Zack’s concern was now slowly turning to fear.