"Listen to my voice. You are now in great pain. Excruciating pain. Pain. A universe of it, your world is nothing but pain."
- Darth Vader torturing Princess Leia, A Star Wars Radio Drama, NPR

"Demand to See Life's Manager, Make life rue the day it gave Cave Johnson Lemons."
- Cave Johnson, Portal 2, Valve

.o0O0o.

I remember the end so well, it could've happened yesterday. The entire world went topsy turvy and we had no one to protect us. No one to save us, but ourselves. We went from the top of the food chain to the bottom of the endangered species list. And when all was said and done, when we wanted nothing but to be left alone, those who fought and killed us thought it was their right to help us. When we didn't want help, they forced it onto us. We just wanted it to end, for our suffering to cease, but they kept the wound open, and let it fester. Our destruction was inevitable, but that for a later time.

Please, allow me to take you back, to the time of man, to a time, of peace...……

.o0O0o.

October 26th, 2025
130 hours
20 miles from Dallas, Texas
Nikolai Yorbeska

"...….ma look, I know she said I was vaping in the house, but you know Aunt Christy. She gets those notions in her head and she believes them to be true. Let the film on my windshield stand against my character. I'm gonna lay down at a nearby rest stop, if I can't convince her, I'll drive home in the morning...……….yes all the way back to Ohio...……….no you and dad don't have to come down, I can make it on my own. Look its late. Tell Jackson and Chris hey for me. I'll call you in the morning." I finished the call and sighed as I set my phone back into it's clip holder, managing to keep the tears out of my eyes long enough to get to a rest stop.

I had just had my life ruined. In a span of two weeks, I managed to go from employed man with little money and a vacation ahead of him to a man fired for visiting a hospital, and evicted for vaping when he hadn't done so in his uncle's house for years. It was honestly the worst moment in my life at the time, but as I sat low in my car and let the tears fall for a bit in a cold parking lot outside a glorified restroom, I couldn't help thinking to myself one stupid and idiotic thought.

'At least things cannot get any worse'

And how mistaken I'd be.

.o0O0o.

October 26th, 2025
834 hours
22 miles from Dallas, Texas
Nikolai Yorbeska

I woke with a start, as if I had been riding on a roller coaster and suddenly hit a brick wall. My phone had died overnight and other than that, nothing had changed. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes as I looked around. The parking lot was empty, which was strange. Usually you'd see a couple vehicles parked around, but nothing today. I scratched my head gently and looked out the back of my old Chrysler 300 and saw that some bozo had written "Suck a Dick Fatty" across the filth on my back windshield.

"Welcome to America...…" I sighed heavily as I looked over to the highway itself. That's when I got really confused. The whole Texas Turnpike was empty, not a single car, truck or even a motorcycle seemed to be out today. "What happened while I was asleep? The fucking Rapture?" I muttered gently as I got out of my car and walked over to the restroom. I grabbed a simple plain Green Monster. I took a quick shit and walked back to my car within 20 minutes. Highway was still barren and devoid of life.

I didn't focus on it too long. I needed to charge my phone so I started my car and started down the road with only a general direction in mind, North. As I waited for my crappy old iPhone 6 to charge, I lost focus just driving and occasionally looking over to my huge CD holder I got in the early 2010s and filled with my personal mixtapes and old CDs. I Finally decided on the Harry Potter Audiobooks and just started to listen to the Sorcerers stone when my phone finally awoke from the dead.

"Fucking finally, I have to call.....come on, 40 missed calls this morning ma?" I asked as I put the CD on hold and called up my mother. The phone proceeded to beep loudly and the call never went through. I look away from the road to star at my phone. "N-no signal? What the actual hell?" I was beyond confused, and I proceeded to begin scrolling through my messages. The only one I got other than the missed calls was from my dad.

'Niko, stay safe. Don't trust them, don't look at them Try to avoid them if you can read this. They are lying. Try to get home soon. We will be at the UT Safe zone. Gonna head to Canada if we can. We love you. Stay alive'

"Ok dad, What creepy shit are you telling me now? We got a crackhead zombie population or something? Did the crazies from Detroit and Monroe decide for world domination?" I said to myself as I looked up and nearly crashed as I stomped hard on the breaks and curse as I came across a huge fucking pile up of stomped and seemingly trampled cars. It looked like a stampede had rolled through and crushed every vehicle. They were on the sides and left a decently clear path down the middle, but the carnage was heavy.

"Holy shit...…..fucking hell." I whispered as I killed the engine and pocketed my keys. Human Curiosity was flowing, and maybe I could help someone, even though the landscape was eerie and quiet. I shivered in a non-existent breeze as I got out of my vehicle and began to walk up the slew of cars, occasionally peeking in at a few cars newly cramped interiors.

About 50 cars down, I was beginning to think maybe everyone got to safety, when I spotted a pale hand poking out of a flattened F-150. "Jesus Christ are you ok?!" I shouted as I rand over and grabbed the hand. My blood chilled to a temperature colder than the served limb that I was holding, and the Monster that had been in my stomach launched out my mouth as I drooped it. I fell to the ground, heaving and spewing bile all over.

Upon regaining my senses, I cursed and began to back away from the cars and over to mine, I wasn't having this shit and things were going from bad to batshit insane. "What the hell had happened while I was asleep?" was what I kept asking myself as I walked over to my car, not wanting to look at them anymore. I got back in and buckled up as I began to drive gingerly down the path, my car sounding louder now more than ever, hoping and praying that whatever was out there wouldn't come back for me.

"Alright, maybe the world did go to shit. I'm only a couple miles from Texarkana, I'll stop there for some gas and maybe find out what happened. God willing I can find a payphone and I'll make a call to UT, dad works there and he said there was a safezone there. Perhaps I can call them." I say to calm myself down as I continued to drive and listened to Jim Dale's sultry voice. What I'd Find in little old Texarkana would completely change everything, though I had yet to know that yet.

Author's Note

Basically a first draft of the first chapter. Definately want to work on this some more but im gonna focus on more chapters before I revisit the first.