Sun Chasers Saga

Table of Contents: Chapter 1 The Beginning Chapter 2 It Rains Chapter 3 Absolute Fear Chapter 4 Resolve and Promise Chapter 5 Back to Civilization..? Chapter 6 The Aftermath Chapter 7 Chasers Chapter 8 Iron and Blood Chapter 9 Death’s Stare Chapter 10 Factions Chapter 11 A Glitter of Hope Chapter 12 Raid Chapter 13 Lurking Shadow Chapter 14 Global Resource Initiative Management. Chapter 15 Impending Disaster Chapter 16 Enigma Copyright © 2022 Eddie Abraham. All Rights Reserved. Chapter 1 The Beginning There was a loud noise.. and the ground shook.. smoke everywhere, and dirt raining down.. I tried to get up, but I could not bring myself to.. my legs feel like they’re broken, even moving them takes all I have, my left hand and my ribs feel like they were crushed, breathing was hard.. my right hand is the only thing I can move even though it almost feels broken and my ears are ringing. It took a few seconds for my head to stop spinning and for me to realise the loud noise from before was a c4 explosion which had sent me flying and made me feel like I just woke up from a crazy hangover, just ten times worse. As I layed on the ground, rain started drizzling.. NO, it is raining! It all comes back to me, the explosion just caused all the dirt around to fly up in the air and for a moment it was raining dirt instead of.. rain. I had just realised that the rain is what caused all of this, everything’s changed after the rain.. it is bad, so it’s obvious that I need to get out of here right now, but I just couldn’t move. So I stayed still.. I looked up into the sky, rain’s pouring down on me, the ringing in my ears started to clear up, and I started to hear screams, and loud roaring, almost as if there were a bunch of lions and other wild animals roaring and screeching around me. Strangely enough, it didn’t scare me nor did it phase me like it used to.. well, other than the fact that I am near my deathbed, it all feels very familiar, just like when this all started, in that summer camp I was so excited about. It was the summer of 2020, I was in my final year of high school, and I plan to enjoy every last moment before I go to college. I went to a school which is famous for its diversity. From what I learned thanks to the school orientation, we have more than forty different ethnicities, and a couple of thousand of students. We blend in very well though, despite all kinds of boundaries and limitations. The summer camp was just around the corner, and it was always fun every year. This year is supposed to be the most exciting yet. Other than the fact that this is our last year, which means this is our last summer camp, this year the students get to organise the whole camp. We chose Allegany State Park in New York for our campsite, we planned the whole summer camp activity, and trust me this year’s summer camp is gonna be unforgettable. Plus if it all goes well, I might have my chance to get close to Lizzie. Lizzie is one of my classmates, she is a sweet girl, born and raised in New York, with long blonde hair, thin slender body that looks like a model despite being only 5 ft 4. She has a beautiful voice, and she is really nice to everyone. I’ve known her since our freshmen’s year, but we rarely talk. I just thought that if I’d ever get close to her, this year’s got to be it. It’s the first day of our summer camp, we have just arrived at our campsite, the accommodation was sorted out, we got dorm rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. As we began to move our stuff from the school bus to the dorms I noticed Lizzie across our bus, beautiful figure and fair skin, her wavy blonde hair captivated me. She is going back and forth looking all confused beside the girls’ dorm room. I quickly looked around, and made sure her friends were not around. I was getting nervous and I was elated when I noticed no one was around her, and I thought to myself “this is my chance!”. I gulped and clenched my hand as I pushed myself forward towards her, and it took me all I have to ask her: “Hey, it’s been sometime since we last talked, you look great!” I awkwardly greeted her. “Hey, thanks for the compliment.. you look great too!” she paused for a moment.. “I take it you’re not here just to compliment me?” she replied, with the brightest and most beautiful smile I ever saw. “Yeah, no.. I just.. I just saw you walking back and forth looking all confused, so I thought you might need some help”, I said, trying not to be creepy. Lizzie giggled and said, “I was just looking for Miss Diana, she is supposed to supervise the girls and share the room with us, but I just couldn’t find her. I thought she was still in the bus, or that she might be helping the girls to get their stuff off of the bus, but it seems she is nowhere to be foun..”, ..right before she could finish what she was saying, Trevor and Danny snuck up and jumped behind me.. “BOOOO!!”. I jumped, my heart almost burst out of my chest. Lizzie giggled again, “It’s nice to see you, guys!” she greeted Trevor and Danny, “Go on, we have just finished catching up. I’ll be going, I still need to go look for Miss Diana, see you guys around”, she said as she headed to the dorm room. I responded immediately, “Do you need help? I don’t mind helping you to look for her!”. Lizzie started running, and shouted whilst looking back.. “it’s okay! I’ll look for her myself, you guys have fun!”. I turned to Trevor and Danny, and punched their stomach out of frustration and said.. “DO YOU GUYS REALLY NEED TO DO THAT?? Didn’t you see that I was talking to Lizzie?? That was a chance of a lifetime!”. Trevor started chuckling, brushing my punch as if it was nothing. I did hold back a little, but I was quite confident that would at least knock him back a little. Danny reacted way too much.. He was holding his stomach and his face turns red. I didn’t punch him a little too hard.. right..? I always treated them the same, and I often forget Danny is not as strong and as muscular as Trevor. But I’m sure Danny will forgive me for punching his stomach, they started this, that was a rare chance to talk to Lizzie! Besides, Danny is one of my best friends, we’ve known each other ever since elementary school. Danny is a really nice guy, he was born and raised here, just like me. He didn’t have a big posture. Even though he was only 5 ft 6, he weighs around 95 kg. He needs a little exercise I know, but Danny’s got a big heart. Plus, he’s a redhead. And then there’s Trevor, the Captain of the Basketball Team, he’s African American, we’ve been best buddies way before we met Danny. Trevor has been very athletic ever since he was a kid, I was pretty sure I’m taller than him when we first met, but Trevor grew up to be surprisingly big. He’s 6 ft 6, his body looks like a rock wall and muscular, and he’s very good with sports. He’s very popular in school, and he’s actually nice. Trevor notices Danny’s face gone a little too red and quickly helps him up, putting Danny’s arms around his shoulder, which makes them look like a chair with a broken leg, rocking back and forth because Trevor is way too tall for Danny. Looking at them like that, I burst out laughing, and they started to burst out laughing too. I was mad at them, but they are my best friends, that’s what best friends do, we annoy each other. We brushed it off, and then headed to the dorm room together. We have just finished unpacking our stuff in the dorms, and we were asked to head out to the lake right by our campsite. It was afternoon, and it was time for lunch. The school has arranged the students’ meals with the campsite, and so our lunch was served. I looked around and hoped that I might catch a glimpse of Lizzie apart from the crowd. I went back and forth in the middle of the crowd for a good five minutes before I finally spotted Lizzie on a bench with the other top students a few feets away. Before I noticed, Trevor and Danny snuck up on me again, but carefully this time.. as they do not want to mess with my fist again, or to accidentally make me spill my food. “Hey we’ve been following you around for like ten minutes, you sure look like an idiot.” Danny whispers. “Ouch”, I was surprised. “Why didn’t any of you call out to me if you’ve been following me, anyway?” I asked. Trevor pulled out his hand around my ear to whisper “We’ve been meaning to, but it seemed like our friend here is lost in love!” Trevor snickered and then laughed uncontrollably. I shouted in my whisper, “You might as well say that out loud bud! Everybody can hear you”. I said, knowing that a lot of girls have been following Trevor around since he’s so popular. Trevor continued laughing and Danny joined in. I"m even more embarrassed now. We finally found an empty bench, we sat down, and started digging through our meals. We were sitting facing the lake, and I would be lying if I say I didn’t enjoy the view. It was a sunny afternoon, the weather’s nice, it’s not too hot, it’s warm, it’s a little windy and the air is a little chilly. The view was magnificent, our dorms are facing one of the two lakes in the campsite. The campground is in the middle between the dorms and a lake, filled with fresh-cut grass and a whole lot of benches that surprisingly fit over two hundred students. The campground was about the size of three basketball courts, with a huge round empty space in the middle without grass, which I assumed is where we would gather woods and make fire. The lake I was facing spread over a few football fields, with mountains full of trees. Trevor, Danny and I were chatting, we were already on our to do lists for the summer. As we were chatting, we could hear some students talking about rumors that had been going around about a mysterious disease that had recently made the headline. Apparently, there was some footage that spread across social media. The footage shows people presumably infected with the disease developed strange behaviours. They would be standing still for a few minutes before collapsing while crossing the road, some suffered from sudden loss of thought before fainting, others coughing blood, or experienced nosebleeds. The symptoms are very similar to normal flu before it develops further. No one, not even the WHO (World Health Organisation) has any idea. The problem is, the mysterious disease that first started in one of the cities in China, has now spread over other nearby countries. This of course took the internet by storm and caused a lot of rumours going around. The news here aren’t really sure on how to respond to these rumours, the best they can do was to advise parents to watch over their children, both for their health and from the rumours.