"My Scientific Best" | The Trio

.0 [Prologue]

• "Don't worry, dear Pamela...
I'll do my scientific best, to command your fleet."

*   *   *

 
   Zak had been getting these... "Night terrors," for a while now.
   They always had to include the "Untimely-End-Of-The-Earth" vibe for some stupid reason. In one, his good friend Vincent had encouraged him to climb to the top of a skyscraper. Why did he do it, you might ask? Dream persuasion magic.
   Well, while conveniently on the top of a New York City skyscraper, Vincent jumped, because it was also the end of the world. He couldn't see anything wrong, but it was a gut feeling, you know? Haha. his dreams always made perfect sense.
Oh, and he jumped as well. He died.
In another, his buddy Darryl had convinced Zak to follow him to sort of afterlife? Nothing Earth threatening was happening, but his friend was pressuring him beyond his limits, it was horrifying. He had to walk down this forest trail, and kill himself to... "Be with your friends again." He almost cried when he woke up that early morning, and that was saying something. He never cried over even these nightmares. He knew that they were just false visions that his mind had made up, but god.
   Oh, and just to quicken that one up, he died. Again. And these sorts of dreams had been present for the past seven years. He didn't want to talk to some sort of therapist, he would usually get over whatever his brain had come up within the first few minutes of being awake. That's what he would like to think, at least.
   But there was something about his life being cut so short that scared him. Was he scared of death? No, it's inevitable. But not getting the chance to live out your dreams? To do everything you can in the short time you're allowed to walk the Earth? The chance to earn your legacy? Not getting the time to complete those dreams really got to him. It was weird.
   And he hadn't gotten any less disturbed by them in the past seven years that they'd been present.

   So when he had awoken to the sound of sirens in a Floridan apartment with his two closest friends, it sorta set him off. Zak squeezed his eyes shut, a deep wave of terror engulfing him.