Chapter 1: The nightmares begin
The day when the world plunged into darkness. It all happened so fast as well. Without even a warning of the nightmare that would befall our world. My name is Sean, and I am currently in the middle of what is supposedly a vacation to Myrtle Beach with my family. Things were doing good until we saw the first of many nightmares that would haunt me for days to come.
My dad hits the breaks, and the entire vehicle comes to a screeching halt, swerves to the left, and continues on course. My dad screams" is everyone alright?" knowing that some of us were asleep and might have banged our heads off the back seats. My brother says "Ow man glad that I have a hard head." He says this in his very groggy voice because of not only suddenly waking up from his slumber but because he was the one who nailed the back of my mom's seat. "What happened up there I say way in the back of the van we rented?" My dad responds with "Someone from that parked car behind us tried to jump out in front of our vehicle. Considering I was going over 60mph that would have been a fatal mistake if I did not hit my brakes and swerve around them.
What on earth would possess them to do that? I thought to myself. My mom finally awoken by all the commotion says to my dad. "You always find a way to make it hard to sleep while you're driving," she says playfully. He retorts, "I will have you know that I am an amazing driver." Things go back to a semblance of normalcy until the roads started to back up.
I know it is the dead of summer, but this number of vehicles stopped on the road is crazy. My dad says annoyed, "what is this craziness? They must go on for miles. People have even left their vehicles up ahead and are just walking around or standing by their vehicles. I think to myself "Why would they do that? It's the dead of summer? It would be so much cooler and more comfortable in a vehicle than out there. This day can not get any weirder." I of course was wrong about that assumption.
My dad annoyed curses under his breath. My mom rolls down the window, lights up a smoke, and says to him" if we didn't have bad luck, we wouldn't have any luck at all." Hearing one of mom's signature lines makes the entire family chuckle. The laughing died down when one of the strangers up ahead started our way. Weirdly enough this man in his late 30s begins to start running in our direction.
The man closed the distance fast and dove straight at the windshield. With a loud thud, he was on our rented van clawing and biting to get inside. My dad now furious steps out of the van and I decide to go and help him just in case this gets nasty. I open the back of the van and hop out making my way to the front where I see my dad fall to the ground with the man. My dad howls in pain and is slow to his feet. The other man though is quick to attack again. Crawling madly towards my dad.
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I think to myself "What is going on? Why is he randomly attacking us? Regardless I have to help my dad." I run to my dads' side and assist him upwards. We start to back away from the man crawling his way towards us. Dad! I have an idea that might just work. By this time, the man has started returning to his feet sensing its prey escaping. Run him around the van back to the driver's side door I whisper to my dad and I will knock him out with the door.
My dad replies with a simple nod and yells at the man whose eyes still have not left him. Hey lunatic, since you wanted to fight well now you got one. The man sprints towards my dad playing right into our hands. He leads him around the front of the vehicle. "Perfect timing Sean you can do this," I think to myself. Dad runs past me in a burst of speed I never knew he had. My turn!
I open the door as fast and as hard as possible to the man's surprise. He crashed face-first into the door. The impact alone felt like he almost took it off. I shut the door and took a long look at the man I had just smashed in the face with the door. His nose had to be completely shattered and he lied in a pool of his blood convulsing madly on the ground. He finally stopped moving and I continued to stare. "Did I just kill someone!?" I screamed to myself in my mind as I collapsed in a fit of fear. Rage, and sadness. The world has been grayed out around me. I am stuck in my mental torment as I process what I had just done. After what seemed like weeks but only turned out to be seconds, I see my dad on his knee in front of me. He places his hand on my shoulder and says something. What is he saying to me? I think to myself. As soon as my dad realized that I was not going to be moving on my own accord he calls my brother Nathan out of the van to help. Nathan gets out on my side to easily try to help me and he sees the urgency in our situation.
Twenty maybe thirty people are sprinting this way. Climbing over cars and knocking each other over to make it to us. Both Nathan and dad grab my arms and lift me into the van. Dad hollers at mom to get in the driver's seat and Nathan to get in the van. Mom seemingly does this, and Nathan is not so sure but his worry for his brother wills him inside the van. He leaves the door open for dad thinking he will quickly jump inside as well but dad looks at us boys and said, "protect your mother and I am proud of both of you." All I remember from the incident is the smile my father gave us as he closed the door.
He gave mom one last kiss and told her he would make sure they could escape, and we do not have time to argue about this Riley. You must go now but do not worry I have my cell phone to call you if I turn out to be okay and need another kiss. I love you all so much. Now go! He said and mom put the van in reverse with tears in her eyes and turned around, so she did not have to see whatever was going to happen to her husband but holding onto the belief he'd call and she would see him soon. As we drove, I found myself shaking, still horrified, and unaware of what just happened. Still lost in my thoughts, trying to come to terms with what I had done, the last thought I had before I passed out from this nightmare was some vacation this is becoming.