The Awakened: Infection(Scrapped)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

December 31st 2015

Richard Hauber was your avarage Joe. He worked for a call center that helped people fix technical issues with their personally owned websites. He was pretty good at his job too, though he never bragged about it.

It was New Year's Eve, and Richard was still in his office, working through some coding bugs on various web pages the company powered. He wouldn't be going home till after all the partying outside had died down. Some people would wonder why anyone would be working on such a big day. Well, as it turns out, Richard was an orphan. As far as he knew, he'd been one his whole life. All he remembered from his early life was being passed from family to family. Anyone would get sick of living like that, so, at the age of 16, Richard got himself emancpated. He'd been serviving on his own since that time, living with a friend from the orphanage.

This friend was named Howard Obner, and was the only thing that had manged to remain constant in Richard's life. Even though Howard was older than Richard, the two had, according to the lady that ran the orphanage, been 'thick as theives' from the very start.

Howard worked at an automotive company at the time Richard moved into the tiny one bedroom apartment. While Howard had the bedroom, Richard used the living room as his personal living space. His first three weeks living there were filled with chores, cooking and job hunting. He got lucky in the job respect, having landed a job at a local market after he'd helped an older fellow out who'd just so happened to own the store. Richard worked there for two years, scraping and saving, eventually getting his GED and moving out of Howard's tiny home.

Eventually, the elder man died and his store closed. Richard was now 20 years old, and again in need of a job. He found one fairly easily, with his years of good repor with the little shop. And now, at age 23, Richard was living in his own one bedroom apartement, driving a used car and working even on Holidays.

His buddy Howard hadn't been as lucky. Howard managed to get himself into some trouble with a gang, after finding stashed goods in a car he'd been working on and reporting it to the cops. He'd managed to into witness protection, but because of that, the two rarely spoke now. They used pen names, and Howard never used the same name or address twice.

Which brings us back around to today. December 31st, New Years Eve. The day that would be known as the start of the end. The man didn't leave until 4am of the new year, his things packed up and his station shut off. Richard didn't know it yet, but waiting for him at home was the very thing that would start that change in the way things were.