Zed: Day 1:
Chapter 1
Felicia
Like all great tragedies throughout history, nothing seemed amiss; until it was too late to go back. To say it all started on this tranquil morning would be a lie. The events that shook the world on this day were set into motion years ahead of time. Some would say that our society had been headed in this direction for centuries, and that is was only a matter of time. But this isn’t a story about philosophical debate. This is a story about survival, and the near extinction of the human race. While ‘Z Day’, as survivors would eventually come to call it, seemed like any other day to most people when the sun rose in the sky, the viewpoints of the entire planet would be forever changed within the next twenty four hours.
Our story begins in Iowa, of all places. Cedar Rapids, Iowa to be exact, with a population of 250,000 since the last census. The slogan “City of the Five Seasons” could been seen while entering the city; with spring, summer, fall, winter, and the fifth season being the time to enjoy them. A quaint slogan for a laid back mid-western town. Although on this day, the fifth season was that of the Apocalypse.
It was seven o’clock on Wednesday October third, 2012. People all over the city were getting out of their showers in preparation for heading to work. The news on the television and radio were filled with their usual reports of violence, terrorist threats, and celebrity scandals. Most people paid it no mind, it was just business as always.
For a small group of people, the world came to a screeching halt close to the intersection of 49th Street and 7th Avenue with the squeal of a car’s braking tires. The dawn’s early light cast an eerie haze over the scene. Felicia Fontaine slammed on her brakes as the two vehicles in front of her came to a sudden stop for no explicable reason. Felicia's 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 lurched from the unexpected braking. The body of it groaned against the strain that matched her own weariness. She took another swig of coffee from her beaten up travel mug in hopes that the caffeine would kick in at any moment, but the sudden lurching seemed to jump start her heart rate more effectively than anything.
Her wardrobe screamed a stereotypical Goth, complete with plaid skirt, a Me Without You concert tee shirt, and a distinguishable purple streak in the bangs of her jet-black shoulder length hair. The only thing missing from this picture would be the dark eyeliner, which was only absent because she was too groggy from getting out of bed so early in the morning to put it on. In truth, she liked the clothes, the makeup, and even the music, but had a sunny smiling disposition that threw people off when they got a closer look at her. She didn't have any tattoos or piercings, not even in her ears, and she never drank or took drugs, despite having been to several parties during her 25 years of life.
Miraculously, none of the cars seemed to have collided with each other. She groaned in despair, but was actually thankful for the delay. She wasn’t exactly anxious to get to the old family home for an unpleasant reunion, but it needed to be taken care of nonetheless. Any delays were a welcome diversion. She stuck her head out the window to get a better look at what caused the impromptu traffic jam.
A beat up old station wagon with wood paneling suddenly brought traffic to a standstill for no reason right before the intersection near the Groves Hotel, as if the light had suddenly turned red. Fortunately, Felicia just pulled out of the hotel parking lot and hadn't built up enough speed to collide with the minivan in front of her. There were no obstacles blocking the vehicles path, and no sign of any people or animals darting in front of it. The driver simply slammed on the brakes, causing the several vehicles behind it to slam on their own. Nobody seemed hurt, but there was a lot of hostility being displayed.
The man in the white minivan directly between her and the station wagon ranted and raved out loud despite the fact that the driver of the station wagon seemed to be completely ignoring him. He rolled down his window and spewed a string of burlesque profanities, honking his horn repeatedly. He yelled, shaking his fist in the air, shouting “C’mon, green means go”.
Felicia could see him through the back window, as he turned to the woman in the passenger seat. He spoke to her with only a stare, and she immediately turned to the seat behind her to quiet whoever sat in the back seats. Felicia could only assume this to be their children. She glared at the man, knowing all too well what this meant. She had seen enough abusive and domineering relationships over the years to spot it right away. She despised men like this with a passion, and could feel the anger building up inside of her. This anger was replaced with curiosity when movement could finally be seen from the lead car.
The back seat of the station wagon kicked open on the curbside, and three children quickly exited; two boys and a girl, ranging in ages from 6 to 10. They scrambled to pull out each of their suitcases from the back amid groans, protests, and honking of horns from the vehicles behind them. The children were completely oblivious to the noise going on around them. The oldest of the three cried, obviously distraught. The driver of the station wagon never bothered to exit the vehicle and assist the children in removing their luggage, instead sitting patiently with her head down on the steering wheel, as if saying a prayer. When all three children were in position standing on the sidewalk by the street next to their luggage, the light finally turned green and the station wagon began to move forward.
Felicia didn't know why the children were suddenly dumped off, and didn't have long to think about it. As the station wagon pulled away, the younger boy tried to go after it, crying out, but the girl firmly held him back. Just as the station wagon entered the intersection the girl clenched her eyes shut, placing her hands over the little boy’s eyes.
Felicia's gaze fixated on the older boy who looked on in wide-eyed wonder as the station wagon crumpled under the weight of a jet black Hummer that flew through the intersection, plowing directly into the station wagon's driver side door. The sickening crash of metal on metal jolted Felicia with a gasp, like being jerked awake from a nightmare. The impact was so intense that the SUV pushed the station wagon an additional 20 feet along its side before finally coming to a stop.
Felecia, along with everyone else in the line of cars, slammed on the brakes for a second time. This time there were no disgruntled complaints or cursing, as every single person was struck with awe at the violence of the accident that just unfolded before their eyes. Although all of the vehicles just started moving, they had less control from the shock of what they witnessed, that they all collided with each other.
As the people slowly started to get out of their vehicles, the murmur of shock and awe filled the air. Felicia was still dumbfounded by the sheer brutality of the crash. The three children still stood with their luggage, frozen in place at the side of the road. If they were injured, she couldn't tell as they clung to each other for dear life.
She felt an immediate kinship towards them, since she lost close members of her family when they were killed right in front of her as a teenager. The out-pour of emotion that suddenly swelled inside her made it difficult to stand as her limbs shook, let alone walk. Any inclination she had to walk over to them was momentarily suspended by the chirping of a siren as a police cruiser pulled up on the scene. The patrol car must have been a few blocks away when it heard the initial screeching of brakes, and arrived just as everyone got out of their vehicles.
There was still no movement from within the Hummer. The deployed airbags on the obscenely large vehicle were visible. As grim as the situation looked, Felicia didn't expect to see any movement from the station wagon, as it looked like a clump of vehicle shaped tin foil had been wrapped around the front of the Hummer. With the fog being created by the Hummer’s burst radiator it was even more difficult to see where one vehicle began and the other ended.
The patrol car pulled around and parked in front of the van. A lone officer got out and instructed people to stay back. The small crowd of people were still in a daze, beginning to realize that they had just witnessed seeing someone get killed, but refusing to believe it; clinging to some hope that whoever drove the station wagon still had a chance to survive. What floored Felicia most of all, and why she chose to live a solitary life, was the fact that nobody went to either of the cars in the crash to check on the drivers. Everyone just stood back and watched. She couldn't be angry at them, that would make her a hypocrite. She wasn't making any motion to help either. Everything in her mind screamed to run over to the cars and see if she could be of assistance, but her feet froze in place as if permanently bolted to the pavement.
Seeing that nobody was listening, the officer told everyone to get in their vehicles. The woman in the van immediately complied, instructing the children with her thick Slovakian accent to sit patiently in their seats while she distracted them from the carnage outside. Nobody else budged, still speechless by it all. The officer's dangerously low level of tolerance burst forth in a display of rage as he pulled out his pistol and waving it directly at the driver of the van and everyone else.
“Get in your fucking vehicles!!!” he yelled with such force of volume that it nearly left him winded. As he yelled, spittle flew out of his mouth with a glob of it dangling from his chin. He continued to glare, seemingly oblivious of how insane he looked. Every single one of them, wide eyed and terrified, leaped back into their vehicles.
The officer grabbed the handset to the police radio on his shoulder and made an announcement in it. Not bothering to hang it back up, he left the handset dangling behind him. With his pistol still in hand he stormed towards the scene of the accident, clearly muttering and ranting to himself.
Felecia fumbled for her cell phone, trying to dial 911. The police officer at the scene gave her an unpleasant, sinking feeling that something was terribly wrong with him. Perhaps because he was so quick to point a gun directly at her face without causing any sort of infraction, but it was more than that and she knew it. It was the expression on his face as he did it. She saw that expression before, the first time in her life that someone pointed a gun at her. For a brief moment she questioned whether it was all in her imagination, but only for a moment. There was something terribly wrong here, she could feel it, and she learned above all to trust in her instincts. They never failed her, and kept her alive in even the harshest of circumstances.
She tried to dial emergency services, but her cell phone only replied with an unhelpful beepbeepbeep. She took a closer look at her phone and saw that there were no bars showing cellular tower reception. That didn’t make any sense. She had reception when she woke up in the hotel, and now she was outdoors in the middle of the city. There should have been crystal clear reception. In fact, she could see the tip of a cellular tower poking up over a building just down the street with its ominous blinking red light on top. She closed her phone and opened it again, only to be greeted with the same results. There was no signal whatsoever.
Just then another patrol car came up from behind and parked right behind the first one. The first officer ignored it and continued to head to the drivers side of the Hummer where he disappeared from view. The female officer got out of the squad car. Felicia could barely make out the name tag on her chest 'Jamison'. She clearly wasn’t the only person in the car. There was a man handcuffed in back, and a disheveled man in the passengers seat who seemed to be staring off into space, completely unaware of anything going on around him. Much to her surprise, a beagle popped its head up from the disheveled man's lap to look out the window. It immediately started barking frantically in the direction of the wreckage and the man needed to calm it.
Officer Jamison paused to say something to the passengers in her car before leaving the vehicle. She looked around, puzzled. It took a moment before Felicia realized that all of the bystanders were still in their vehicles. She turned to look behind her and saw nobody in the car. The couple who was there before must have been cowered behind their dashboard for fear of being shot. Not only were people cowering down, but there were three children on the side of the road with luggage at their feet like they were waiting for the bus, but clinging to each other for dear life.
That was when the gunshots broke out. Three distinct gunshots from the direction of the Hummer broke the silence of the street. The city was so silent that the shots echoed through the street, making it sound like multiple pops from a fireworks show. Officer Jamison immediately withdrew her pistol and rushed behind the crash scene out of view.
Felicia could make out indistinguishable yelling going on back and forth behind the Hummer. The heated argument was accentuated by another gunshot. This time she did duck down for cover.
The screaming escalated further until another shot rang out, a pause, and another shot that seemed to come from a different source than the one just before, immediately followed up by two consecutive bursts. The sounds of the gunshots was deafening, far more so than the unexpected metallic crunch that ended a persons life moments before.
After what seemed like an eternity, Felicia looked up. Everyone else in their cars were still ducking down to avoid gunfire except for the prisoner in the back of the squad car. He maneuvered his handcuffed wrists underneath his backside so that they were now in front of him. No more shots rang out, and no movement was visible from behind the Hummer. Finally, Officer Jamison came out from behind the Hummer with her pistol in hand, smoke still emanating from the barrel, all of the color drained from her face.
In the distance a god-awful grinding and screeching sound echoed throughout the street. It grew steadily louder, accompanied by the roar of a powerful engine. Felicia looked every which way to try and find where it came from. Up 49th street, a beat up black1969 Dodge Charger came barreling down the street at top speed. The driver seemed completely unaware that there was already an accident at the intersection, but that became quickly apparent when he rounded the corner onto 7th Avenue headed towards the direction of the hotel, and his pathway was blocked by the small traffic jam of cars.
Upon sight of the Charger it was obvious why it was making such a despicable noise. All four tires were completely flat, but that didn’t deter the driver from gunning the engine, pushing it to the limits. The tread on at least one of the tires was completely shredded down to the rim and sparks shot out as the rim gouged a continuous gash into the concrete. Other tires were getting more shredded as it progressed, leaving bits of rubber in its wake. The driver must have been having a hell of a time maintaining control of the vehicle, but was handling it surprisingly well.
Officer Jamison dove back behind the other police cruiser, narrowly avoiding being hit. Barely able to veer out of the way in time, the driver swerved in between the front of the first squad car and the back of the wrecked Hummer. Up onto the curb the car vaulted, like an oily smoke spewing death machine, directly towards the three kids clutching each other on the side of the road.
Just as the car was about to collide with the unfortunate children, the Charger unexpectedly lurched towards the road up on two wheels, as if one side of the vehicle had hit a ramp that launched it into the air. The speeding charger veered back towards the road, narrowly missing the three children who didn’t even flinch when the car passed them by. The children were narrowly spared as the steel death machine turned markedly away from them. Unfortunately for Felicia, this put her directly in the Charger's path.