Prelude
A man was running in the cover of darkness, rustling through a forest. He paused to look back, and seeing the glow of purple, he started dashing, faster this time. He knew it was only a matter of time before they caught him, but he wasn’t going down easy. After clearing another mile or so, he stopped to catch his breath, and looked back again. This time he saw no glow. Breathing a sigh of relief, he started up a tree and went as far up as he felt comfortable. Setting up a sleeping bag on a sturdy branch, he tied on the bag to the tree so it wouldn’t fall off. He climbed into the bag and, hoping that he could get a night's doze at least, he began to sleep.
The next morning the man got up and looked down. No one, and nothing was there. He got out of the sleeping bag and put it in his pack, which he tied on a different branch last night. He got down from the tree with some difficulty and pulled a candy bar out of his pack. He had blonde hair in a wave, a short, scratchy beard, and electric blue eyes, which were screening the land. The woods were static, not a sound other then the wind blowing. It was like all of nature was holding its breath. The sun was barely over the horizon, and if he wanted to get any daylight hours in the travel, then he would have to get moving. This man was travelling east to Rhode Island. He didn’t exactly know where he was but he had the general idea, and armed with a compass, he could navigate easily enough. walking briskly, wanting to get there as fast as possible but to save his energy in the time of sudden escape. He was a Epidemiologist, and no, he couldn't pronounce it either; his studies made him a very important man, who could help multitudes, and, to sound dramatic, the world. He was hopefully going to reach Rhode Island and help bring an end to what people are calling "The Dawn of Destruction".
He muttered to himself, "How could it have gone this way?"
It all started about 3 years ago, when it happened. something of incredible power made an explosion so huge that ripped a hole in the sky. The meteorologists and astronomers were caught off guard and the governments of the world fell apart trying to calm down panicking nations. Riots occurred so often, it seemed the earth herself was revolting against itself. What happened would of been enough to panic a type III civilization.
The explosion was bigger than 15 nuclear bombs, but it gave no light nor heat nor sound, entirely a pitch black shadow. They called it "The Harbinger of Night". Following the shadow, something happened that no one could of dreamt of. Coming out of a giant rip through space, was a giant light with little beams falling out of it. These beams of light had several colors and for one moment, the world saw the calm before the storm, and it was beautiful. The lights enveloped the world, bracing it for the next blow.
After the terror of the shadow came the light. But nothing lasts forever, and this beautiful light lasted only seconds. Soon came what many scientists called "the extinction event of mankind". It can't be described in detail. It was so unearthly, so strange and alien, it can only really be described if you have seen it. It was a huge purple orb that had a giant furry thing that crawled all over the orb, less of a limb and more of a parasite. inside of it there was a flickering kind of like a fire. Soon after its appearance it began to spread rapidly, corrupting and, like all teen belief, began a sort of Zombie apocalypse. It could take over and warp the mind of others into its own will, becoming a sort of fungal network. 27 hours later the hole in space closed, leaving earth in shambles. This is what the people call "The Dawn of Destruction".
The man walked past a sign that said, "Welcome to Illinois", sweaty and sunburned. He started walking in Texas where he hitched a ride to Arkansas and made his way from there. It been almost a week since he started. He hoped to make it in less then a month. The hope of the world was dwindling, and he had to restore it.
This man's name was Jim Halland.
