The North

1: Unleashed

I always thought my town was boring.
The same routine repeating day after day.

The key here is past tense.

Yeah, I don't think that anymore. Not after today.

-9:56 a.m-

I'm used to an empty house. Ever since my brother moved out it's just been me. Yes, I do have parents, but they travel a lot. They work in the city if they're not out of state. You'd think I'd throw parties and do whatever I wanted, but that's pretty much the exact opposite. On the weekends I'm either sitting in my room or walking to the river. Small town stuff. Today is Saturday. It's raining. Guess where I am?

I pulled my blanket over my shoulder and adjusted my position. I scrolled through my feed until I found a title that peaked my interest. I woke up about half an hour ago ready to go on a walk only to look out my window and see dark clouds and puddles. Extremely disappointing. I resorted to my alternative option: phone.

Eventually I gain consciousness once again and check the time. 11:02 a.m. Not bad.

I sat up a little too fast and my vision began to fade. Probably time to eat. I swung my legs over the bed and landed my feet on the white rug. While making my way downstairs I stretch and yawn, cracking my back. The upside to being home alone is nobody will talk to me. Fun fact: that's also the downside.

I think it's a waste of money to have an entire house and not use it. But I'm not the one paying so who am I to talk.

I scan through the fridge for breakfast. As you could probably infer, there's not much here. I lazily shut the door and head straight for the pantry. Oatmeal it is.

After my depressing meal I head back upstairs. I plopped myself back down onto my bed and unlocked my phone. I lay stretched out on my stomach, occasionally switching to my side. Drops of rain thudding onto the glass caught my attention. Good thing I stayed home.

I swiped out of my current app and tapped on another. A notification appeared at the top of the screen.

National Emergency

That got my attention. I quickly tapped on the words which brought me to a loading screen. After waiting for over a minute I quickly hopped out of bed and ran downstairs. My breathing began to pick up. This has to be a prank right? It's probably not that big of a deal anyway.

After arriving at the living room, I snatched the remote off the coffee table and tapped the power button. I could feel fear spread throughout my body. What if it's real? An infomercial blasted through the speakers. My body jolted in response to the noise. Who used this last?? Dad.

I began retracing my memory in search of the news channel. I tried my phone once again but I wasn't getting any signal. That made me worry. A memory made its way the to front of my mind. My dad would joke with my brother about channel nine being extremely politically biased. I flashed through
cartoons and action movies, finally landing on channel nine. I braced myself. Little did I know, it was far worse than I imagined.

"Nevada citizens are dropping dead after what seems to be a chemical leak. Local authorities are shutting down access to the state in order to stop the spread. W-what's that?" The lady reporter looked off-screen for a moment. "I've just received word that it's spread to Arizona. Police are investigating the cause of the leakage-" A message interrupted the broadcast, bold letters spread across the screen.