Chapter 1 – Road

The road was almost empty as we approached the halfway point in our trip. I could only see a few cars on the opposite lane every minute. At the time I was too distracted to note anything odd about this, and, as would eventually become a common occurrence, I would come to regret it.

~We repeat. Please stay indoors at all times for the foreseeable future. We will give regular upd-~

“News… Really? Change the channel man.” The speaker was sitting in the passenger seat of our five-seater sedan. He was an athletic young man with long arms and legs, relatively good looking, and had short black hair.

“Kal. Shut up would you? They’re saying something weird.” This time it was the driver that spoke. He was the oldest out of the four of us and so, naturally, was the most responsible. He was average height and build, his most notable feature was his curly orange hair.

Kal gave him a smug look and started playing his music, cutting off the news broadcast. I still think to this date, that if he simply had bad taste in music, we would have been able to avoid- No… I get ahead of myself.

Greg looked away from the road for a moment and gave Kal a hard stare. Then he started to sing along with what we all knew was his favorite song.

Kal turned around with a wry grin. “Watch and learn guys, road trips are all about messing with the driver.”

“Don’t ‘mess’ with him too much. I want to get there alive.” This time it was the boy next to me who spoke. He was short and had a strong, stocky build. With just a glance you could tell that he worked out regularly. Considering he boxed, it would be a valid assumption.

Kal turned to me next. “Are you going to do that the whole trip? What’s so interesting out there anyway?”

As was usual for me, I was looking solemnly out of my window, watching the scenery go by. At the sounds of Mav and Kal, I turned around with a grin. “You know me,” I said, “I have to practice being quiet somewhere.”

They laughed at that and we were silent for a few moments, enjoying the music and the pleasant atmosphere. The four of us were on a small road trip to attend a concert in Toronto.

Another reason we didn’t put that news broadcast back on, I suppose, was that we all had similar taste and passion in music.

It had been a couple of hours since we had left Windsor, and after only stopping ‘shortly’ for breakfast, we were well on our way.

I looked ahead through the windshield. “You know, aren’t there usually more trucks on the road? Last time I came here they were constantly on both lanes.”

“I know what you mean, once, my dad had to honk at a truck for an entire minute before it finally moved back to the right lane.” Mav agreed with me readily.

Kal gave a short grunt. “Let’s just take it as a blessing and speed up. I haven’t seen any cops around.”

The three of us looked expectedly at Greg, who shook his head slowly. “You’re right, it is weird. But no, I’m not going to speed up. You guys all know how I drive.”

That much was true. Greg had a reputation among us as the “safest” driver. Personally I didn’t see how constantly staying at a few kilometers above the speed limit at all times was safe, but I didn’t complain. Much.

Mav, on the other hand, had no such restraint. “C’mon man, we know how you drive, but we were already late in heading out thanks to someone.” He gave me a pointed look as he finished.

“Hey! How was I supposed to know my alarm wouldn’t wake me up?” I replied indignantly. In truth I had simply turned the alarm off and continued sleeping, as I was up late the previous night. I wasn’t going to tell them that though.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Kal ended up doing it for me. “Yeah suuuuure. You do realize that we know when you check your messages, right?”

I had accidentally checked my messages on my phone before actually sleeping, so I decided to play nonchalant and ignored the conversation.

Greg thankfully changed the topic. “Guys… I think something weird is happening. I’ve never seen so few cars at noon.”

At his words I looked around and realized he was right. Rather than a few cars going by now and then, the entire highway was completely empty on both sides. While this was rare, it wasn’t exactly impossible, so I looked to the sky without worry.

“Well, we still have jets,” I said while looking at three airplanes high in the sky.

“Jets, where?” asked Mav. Considering he was a plane freak, it was obvious he would be interested.

I pointed them out to him and he frowned. “Don’t look like any jets I’ve seen, look more like birds to me.”

At his words both Kal and Greg looked up. I also gave the planes another look. Squinting, I said, “Birds aren’t that big Mav, you know that.”

Kal, as laid-back as usual, said, “They probably painted the jets for some event. I mean, when do you see three of them so close anyway?”

Greg continued. “Yeah, remember when they painted that one airplane as a movie promotion? Probably same thing here.”

Satisfied with our conclusions, I put my head back and tried to catch some sleep. I spared a quick glance at Mav, and saw him staring at the planes as they disappeared into the clouds.

He looked worried.

* * * *

“Are people starting to burn their schoolwork already?” I woke up to an exclamation by Greg.

“Wha-?” I asked sleepily.

“Look ahead man, there’s this giant bonfire ahead of us.” Kal told me excitedly.

“Bonfire? What?” I hurriedly woke up and looked around. Mav still looked worried, which I didn’t care for, considering he was always quick to worry. Ahead of us, near London if I timed our trip right, was indeed a large bonfire. It gave an eerie light to the sky above it, but the longer I looked, the more I realized that the size of this bonfire was simply too large. If we could see it so clearly from this far back, then it had to be gigantic.

“Guys, isn’t that fire a little too big?” I asked with a hint of worry in my voice. Mav’s face started to pale at my words.

Moments after I spoke, the fire died down to a more normal level.

“They probably threw a bunch of booze in as well.” Greg didn’t look worried anymore.

“Crazy kids.” Kal nodded his agreement.

I wasn’t convinced just yet though.

As we approached London, we started to make out more and more bonfires. At this point, all of us started to worry.

“Maybe it’s a holiday thing here? You know how they always get the most snow,” Kal spoke. “Maybe they want to have the most heat as well.”

“…”

The three of us gave him a blank look, and he replied back hurriedly. “Well, what else could it be?”

We continued to drive in silence on the empty highway, all of us were nervous. This wasn’t a normal occurrence.

As we entered London, Greg slowed down the car considerably.

There were no bonfires. The city was burning.